A spatial and chronological examination of butchering skill in the Levantine Early Bronze Age: analysis of the butchery marks from Tel Arad, Israel.
| dc.contributor.author | Cheney, Trent | |
| dc.contributor.examiningcommittee | Fowler, Kent (Anthropology) | en_US |
| dc.contributor.examiningcommittee | MacKinnon, Michael (University of Winnipeg) | en_US |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Greenfield, Haskel (Anthropology) | en_US |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2020-09-01T20:14:16Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2020-09-01T20:14:16Z | |
| dc.date.copyright | 2020-08-27 | |
| dc.date.issued | 2020 | en_US |
| dc.date.submitted | 2020-08-27T15:54:29Z | en_US |
| dc.degree.discipline | Anthropology | en_US |
| dc.degree.level | Master of Arts (M.A.) | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | Productive specialization is a component of all models for the evolution of complex and urban societies. However, it is difficult to measure this in terms of food provisioning. In any settlement or society, food provisioning is essential. In this thesis, I test the assumption that food provisioning will become more and more specialized as a society becomes more complex and consumers become more and more divorced from growing their own crops and raising their own animals. One aspect of food provisioning is animal butchering, and whether skilled or unskilled individuals are butchering animals. In a situation where there is household butchering, it is expected that the butchers will be unskilled. In contrast, where butchering is taking place on a large and regular scale, it is expected that the butchers will become more and more skilled. This thesis uses Butchering Incidences to quantify the nature of the butchered specimens and Butchering Mark Frequency as a weighted measure of butchering efficiency and skill. The faunal remains from the Early Bronze Age site of Tel Arad, Israel are used to test whether butchering skills change as the site evolves from an open-air settlement to a walled regional urban centre. The results indicate that all butchery activities for sheep and goats were conducted by relatively unskilled individuals over time at the site. There was not difference across the site as well. In contrast, the low Butchering Mark Frequency values for cattle disarticulation possibly suggest that they were butchered by individuals with higher skill levels. In general, however, most of the other cattle butchery activities were also conducted by lower skilled individuals. In general, the results from the site do not support a model of increasing specialization in food production as the site evolved into an early urban centre. | en_US |
| dc.description.note | October 2020 | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1993/34932 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | en_US |
| dc.rights | open access | en_US |
| dc.subject | Butchering | en_US |
| dc.subject | Skill | en_US |
| dc.subject | Butchering Mark Frequency | en_US |
| dc.subject | Early Bronze Age | en_US |
| dc.title | A spatial and chronological examination of butchering skill in the Levantine Early Bronze Age: analysis of the butchery marks from Tel Arad, Israel. | en_US |
| dc.type | master thesis | en_US |