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Livestock and people in a Middle Chalcolithic settlement: a micromorphological investigation from Tel Tsaf, Israel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 November 2010

Emily M. Hubbard
Emily M. Hubbard*
Affiliation:
*Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 2S2, Canada (Email: e.court@utoronto.ca)
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Abstract

Round and rectangular buildings with grain silos at a Copper Age site in Israel suggested social stratification to the excavators. Using micromorphology, the author demonstrates that while the rectangular building was occupied by people, the round ones had contained animals, perhaps as providers of milk, and dung for fuel. While this removes the direct indication of social variance, it strengthens the argument that animals, as well as grain, formed the basis for the creation of surplus.

Keywords

LevantChalcolithicanimal pensmicromorphologysocial structuresurplus
Type
Method
Information
Antiquity , Volume 84 , Issue 326 , December 2010 , pp. 1123 - 1134
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2010

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