Archaeozoological Research in Ephesos

Aims of the project

The extensive prehistoric and historic comprehensible settlement histories in the region of Ephesos offer an extraordinary possibility for the comparative study of the usage of natural resources and strategies of animal breeding over a long chronological period. Because the diet of the inhabitants was always closely connected with the ecological preconditions of the environment, the region around Ephesos contains the potential to carry out research on the ecological conditions by reference to biological markers, from the later Neolithic period onwards.

The sustenance of the inhabitants of Ephesos, the Metropolis Asiae, with animal protein is of particular interest. The diet of the inhabitants of a major city necessarily requires a well organised system of provision and an adequate infrastructure. The question which remains to be answered is, to what extent and where in the environs of the city of Ephesos the keeping and breeding of the most important domestic animals took place. The geographically central location of Ephesos on the west coast of the Aegean also allows conclusions to be drawn regarding regional and supraregional trends in stockbreeding, in comparison to ancient coastal sites located further to the south and north, as well as to Aegean sites in the Greek region.

Associations of waste of animal foodstuffs are often conditioned by differing processes based on time of deposit, and later taphonomic processes. Analyses related to context, as for example have been undertaken for the differing residences in Terrace House 2, reveal differences in diet which could be connected to socio-cultural diversification of the inhabitants.

Methods

Archaeozoology unites zoological, anatomical and archaeological areas of knowledge. Ephesos, as a city located near the sea, not only provides a rich variety of remains of the most important terrestrial domestic and wild animals, but also offers numerous finds of marine and coastal creatures which were exploited in large numbers. These range from saltwater and freshwater fish, to land snails, up to rich ensembles of sea molluscs such as squid, mussels and snails.

The majority of the scientific research is carried out by morphological articulation of the evidence on site, whereby in addition to classifying the remains to a specific organ (bone, tooth, mussel shell, or snail shell), the type of animal is identified as precisely as possible. The quantification is based, in principle, on a numerical and a weight-proportional compilation of the biogenic finds. Additional parameters, just as important in describing the livestock, are the age at slaughter or death, the form, and the size of organs and bodies. These qualitative and metric characteristics provide information regarding strategies of breeding and usage, as well as regarding the size and form of the livestock.

Since the finds from animals are generally more or less fragmented, the osteological comparative collection, which has been built up over years of cooperation between the OeAI and the Institute for Anatomy of the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, represents an indispensable element of the analytical research. The collection contains, in addition to a multitude of mammal bones and skeletons of birds, also a large number of skeletons of fish, most of which are local.

Çukuriçi Höyük

The excavations at Çukuriçi Höyük brought to light extremely early evidence for the settlement history around Ephesos. The sea, which in these early millennia was much closer to the settlement hill, was extensively exploited as a source for nutrition: numerous types of snails and shellfish were collected. Intensive fishing of both small and large fish is attested for the Early Bronze Age. Notable in this context is the discovery of a large barb from a stingray. Clearly, large ecological transformations occurred from the Late Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age. While, during the Late Neolithic-Early Chalcolithic periods, the usage of typical domesticated animals was emphasised, in the Early Bronze Age the associations of finds are dominated by the remains of mussels, and the composition of the mussel fauna also altered. In the Late Neolithic period the types which lived on hard ground, such as the spondylus or the Noah’s Ark mussel, constituted a considerable percentage. In the Early Bronze Age, in contrast, the edible cockle which buried itself in the sediment of shallow water dominated the findings. The exploitation of the important domesticated animals also reveals a transformation in the Early Bronze Age: while in the Late Neolithic period cows, pigs and small domestic ruminants are represented in almost equal shares, in the Early Bronze Age the breeding of goats and sheep dominated. The spectrum of wild animals also appears to have undergone a transformation in its composition: in the Late Neolithic period, large quantities of forest-dwelling animals such as wild boar or red deer are present. The Early Bronze Age finds, on the other hand, are characterised by a dominance of fallow deer which prefer open land. All these changes might indicate the result of ecological transformations. Evidently after the Late Neolithic period a reduction in forest area and a period of increased aridity occurred; the resulting greater sedimentation altered the coastline around the settlement hill and thus might have created new habitats for the edible cockles.

Terrace House 2, Residential Unit 7

The analysis of the animal remains from residential unit 7 afford and extend the insight into the eating habits of the inhabitants of Terrace House 2 in comparison to the information already obtained from Residential Units 1 and 2 and the results from Residential Units 3, 5 and 6 which are in the process of completion. The spectrum of edible remains from the diverse residences comprises numerous types of molluscs as well as freshwater- and marine fish. The intensity of usage of the most important domesticated animals – cows, pigs, and small domestic ruminants – evidently underwent an alteration from the late Hellenistic to the Roman imperial period, as pork became noticeably more important in the nutritional spectrum. The relatively high percentage of piglets points to the consumption of very tender and costly meat. Clearly the finds from the residential units reflect the tendency of the inhabitants to achieve an ›Italian-Roman‹ lifestyle.

Magnesian Gate

The deposits near the Magnesian Gate also produced animal remains, covering a time period from the late Hellenistic to the Early Byzantine period. Deposit areas of this kind represent important reference data for the special finds in Terrace House 2, in order to be able to evaluate general tendencies of probable alterations in diet and nutrition compared to alterations which only affected specific social groups. In general, the deposits are similar in their composition of molluscs and the most significant domesticated animals. In the early imperial period, a greater use of pork meat is evident. The only fishbone from the Roman imperial deposits originates from an African predatory catfish (Clarias sp.). The remains of this exotic fish have also been attested in other finds from Ephesos. The bones have been interpreted as evidence for fish traded and preserved from the Levantine area.

Harbour Necropolis

The find situation at the Harbour Necropolis rendered a variety of deposit milieus, such as waste layers, levelling layers, collapsed layers, and naturally flood layers. Edible cockles and oysters constitute the majority of the finds. The most important domestic animals – cows, small domestic ruminants, and pigs – are equally present as are dogs, horses, red deer and wild boar. The percentage of pig bones amongst the domestic animals is noticeably small. Numerous animal bones are preserved in their entirety and preserve evidence of butchering marks and dog bites. Sediment probes from a waste layer and a flood layer contained a vast number of remains of sea urchins. Notably, in a natural debris layer and a flood layer, isolated shells of Balanidae could be identified, which originally were based on structured subsoil. The combination of animal bones preserved in their entirety, edible cockles and oysters, as well as the extensive absence of other sea molluscs probably point to anthropogenic influence. The finds could have been carried from rubbish deposits near the tomb buildings to the region of the canal by flooding.

In-filling of the Channel in the Great Theatre

The in-filling of the channel in the Great Theatre was reviewed as a promising group of finds. The levels contained the usual typical domestic animals, such as cows and sheep/goats. The domestic pig, with only one bone, on the other hand was relatively under-represented. Molluscs are represented in these finds by a few edible cockles, purple murexes, and oysters. Birds are represented most frequently by chickens, in addition to a few geese, pigeons, and rock partridges. A few remains indicate the presence of sparrowhawks or hawks. The remaining domestic animals are represented by a relatively large number of dogs, a few horses, a donkey and some cat bones. Added to this unusual combination of domestic animals, an equally unusual association of wild animals is also present, with hare, porcupine, fox, golden jackal, badger and wild boar. This association of fauna was evidently brought about by a number of insertion processes. One part of the animal find materials was certainly associated with the imperial to Late Antique finds and thus reflects domestic refuse. Many of the wild animals do not fall under the nutritional spectrum of the inhabitants.

Contact

Alfred Galik und Gerhard Forstenpointner

Institute for Anatomy
Department for Pathobiology
University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna
Veterinärplatz 1
A-1210 Vienna