The Development of Pig Husbandry and Taboo in the Southern Levantine Classical Period: An Integrated Zooarchaeological, Isotopic, and Genetics Approach

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The goal of this project is to examine pig husbandry in the Classical period (c.333 BC- AD 636) in the Levant (modern-day Israel, Palestine, and Jordan). The Classical period was a millennium defined by Greco-Roman imperialism, culture contact, environmental change, and the increased polarization of pig husbandry and consumption among Jewish and non-Jewish populations. This had the effect of galvanizing sentiments surrounding the pig taboo. The Levant was a culturally heterogeneous region, where Greek/Roman colonists and soldiers mixed with members of various local populations, including Jews who observed the Biblical taboos on pork and those who were more willing to adopt elements of the dominant Greco-Roman culture. While previous research has documented an increase in pig consumption at many sites during this time, it remains unclear how pigs were raised and what strategies pig breeders deployed in livestock production. We will use light stable isotopic analysis, biometric analysis, age-at-death analysis, and aDNA analysis of pathogens trapped in dental calculus to examine the spatial and temporal variability in pig husbandry practices. Applying these methods to various archaeological sites located in Israel, we will test hypotheses relating to different management practices among different ethnic groups, including Greek/Roman colonists and soldiers, "Hellenized" Jews, and non-Jewish Levantine populations. Because pig husbandry can take on many different forms, it provides a unique window into human-environmental interaction and cultural processes. The issues we will examine in our research articulate with fundamental questions in the humanities and social sciences, such as those pertaining to the development of world religions, ethnicity in imperial contexts, and the ecological conditions under which different types of agricultural practice take place.