Animal Use at Tel Miqne-Ekron in the Bronze Age and Iron Age

Abstract

Several shifts in the animal production systems that supported Tel Miqne-Ekron mark the transition between the Bronze Age occupations and the period of Philistine influence that signals the onset of the Iron Age. Pigs and cattle became more important in the economy at the expense of sheep and, in particular, goats. The pattern of change is in the direction of greater emphasis on intensively herded stock and a de-emphasis on extensive forms of management. The species selected reflect less interaction with hill country pastoral production. The animal bone statistics that suggest these conclusions were based on samples dated by ceramic context, an approach that produces sharper definition of patterns of change than stratigraphic position.