Nate Obrigkeit
Pronouns: He/Him
Research Mentor(s): Kara Larson
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Anthropology; Museum of Anthropological Archaeology / LSA
Program:
Authors: Nate Obrigkeit, Kara Larson, Alicia Ventresca-Miller
Session: Session 4: 1:40 pm – 2:30 pm
Poster: 44
Abstract
During the Iron Age IIA, very few periphery archaeological sites have been excavated and analyzed to investigate the siphoning of regional resources, such as food products, for developing secondary states. Recent excavations at Khirbet Summeily, a one-acre site located in the Greater Hesi region dating to the Iron Age IIA, have revealed a large structure with material evidence suggestive of an administrative-type outpost. The corpus of animal bones recovered from the site allows for a unique investigation into resource allegation of food products, particularly meat, through an outpost site. To address the potential of meat resources being siphoned through a political outpost site, this project questions if Khirbet Summeily pulled in a multitude of herds from across the broader region to be redistributed to the center of a developing secondary state. The use of bioapatite isotopic analyses is highly informative on herd management practices by reconstructing animal live histories through sequential sampling along tooth enamel. This project positions that carbon and oxygen from enamel bioapatite, when modeled together, can reveal consumption and seasonal patterns that can be used to parse out animals originating from different herds. This project conducts bioapatite isotopic analyses on recovered sheep, goat, and cattle molars (n=20) from Khirbet Summeily to model and test if multiple herds from across the Greater Hesi region were brought into Khirbet Summeily. Carbon and oxygen results suggest that multiple different herds were brought to the site for likely redistribution to an emergent secondary state during the Iron Age IIA.
