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Aurochs bone deposits at Kfar HaHoresh and the southern Levant across the agricultural transition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 December 2017

Jacqueline S. Meier ,
A. Nigel Goring-Morris  and
Natalie D. Munro
Jacqueline S. Meier*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, 354 Mansfield Road, Storrs, CT 06269, USA
A. Nigel Goring-Morris
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel
Natalie D. Munro
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, 354 Mansfield Road, Storrs, CT 06269, USA
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: jacqueline.meier@uconn.edu)
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Abstract

Aurochs played a prominent role in mortuary and feasting practices during the Neolithic transition in south-west Asia, although evidence of these practices is diverse and regionally varied. This article considers a new concentration of aurochs bones from the southern Levantine Pre-Pottery Neolithic site of Kfar HaHoresh, situating it in a regional context through a survey of aurochs remains from other sites. Analysis shows a change in the regional pattern once animal domestication began from an emphasis on feasting to small-scale practices. These results reveal a widely shared practice of symbolic cattle use that persisted over a long period, but shifted with the beginning of animal management across the region.

Keywords

LevantKfar HaHoreshPre-Pottery Neolithicagricultural transitioncattlefeasting
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 91 , Issue 360 , December 2017 , pp. 1469 - 1483
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2017 

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