Study of faunal assemblages in Greece has primarily focused on the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods, while published zooarchaeological reports from later periods are for the most part associated with ritual contexts and faunal reports for the Byzantine and later periods are particularly rare. The present study of the Early Byzantine urban assemblage from Messene and the Late Byzantine rural assemblage from a suspected farmstead in the Thouria theatre area, both located in the Messenia region of southwest Greece, contributes to filling this chronological gap. In addition, study of feasting debris from the Hellenistic Asklepieion of Thouria provides evidence for the cult of Asclepius for which no other faunal reports are available. The three different chronological periods represented and the varying nature of the assemblages allow for comparisons both diachronically and between sacred, urban domestic and rural domestic contexts.
Taphonomic analysis concluded that partial retrieval affected the anatomical representation of the assemblages substantially, but affected taxonomic representation only modestly. Post-discard attrition, mainly by scavenging dogs, did not have a decisive impact on assemblage composition and thus carcass processing procedures, especially for the extraction of within-bone nutrients, were largely responsible for fragmentation patterns. The anatomical distribution of butchery marks on the skeleton indicates that the four main livestock taxa (cattle, sheep, goats and pigs), the best represented species in every assemblage, were intensively butchered at all three sites to divide the carcasses into small parcels of meat. The extensive use of cleavers at the Hellenistic Asklepieion of Thouria hints at the employment of professional butchers during large events, while butchers were also likely active at Early Byzantine Messene although to a lesser degree. Management regimes differ between sites. The Thouria Hellenistic Asklepieion of Thouria, exclusively a consumption site, was characterised by purposefully selected young adults nearing their maximum meat weight, while dominance of males recalls the tendency of ancient Greeks to match the sex of the victims to that of the worshipped god. At the Early Byzantine nucleated settlement of Messene, sheep were reared for wool prior to slaughter for meat while pigs and goats were raised for meat. Moreover, the use of cows as draught animals implies small-scale land tenure. Finally, the zooarchaeological data offer some support for the view that the Thouria theatre site was the centre of a Late Byzantine elite rural estate rather than a simple farmstead. The discovery of a wine press, implying large-scale cultivation of vines, and the indications that the building included a second storey, favour the elite alternative, although this interpretation must be tentative pending full study of the site’s portable material culture. The relative scarcity of cattle in this assemblage, perhaps due to the sale of these large animals (especially mature individuals) to nearby nucleated settlements, is compatible with either interpretation, but hints of the use of oxen rather than (or as well as) cows as draught animals, implying cultivation of large expanses of arable land, favour the elite estate interpretation. Finally, the slaughter of a relatively large percentage of young individuals of cattle, sheep, goats and pigs, that is of animals that a small productive farmstead might have been expected to sell in a local or regional market, again favours a rural estate with elite consumers.
While faunal insights into some of the issues discussed are provisional (given ongoing excavation and post-excavation study at both Messene and Thouria), they show the importance of zooarchaeological research and highlight its potential to enhance understanding of the economic, religious and social fabric of societies previously viewed overwhelmingly through the lens of written sources.
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)