The Animal Subsistence System of Old Kingdom of Egypt

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Animal Bones to Human Behavior" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Excavations in various functional areas of the Workers’ Town and other settlement sites at Giza, Egypt, have provided a nuanced understanding of the distribution of animal taxa and body parts to dependents of the king. The residents of most of the areas excavated consumed sheep, goat, cattle, various birds, and fish. Young cattle and Nile perch were consumed by the higher ranked individuals while sheep-goats and Nile catfish were the diet of the lower ranking individuals. But, curiously, even in areas of the site occupied by low ranking individuals (e.g., the barracks) cattle bones are found. The cattle elements in the barracks are all distal foot elements; metapodials, podials, and phalanges. These foot elements were used to make a stew, known in Egypt today as *shorbet kawara, that is high in calories and nutritionally perfect for supporting intensive labor. Symmetry and limb biases have also been identified that suggest offerings were primarily forelimbs and from the right side. Together, these patterns suggest a centrally organized, highly efficient distributive system that extended to the organization of production and transport.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Animal Bones to Human Behavior   •
• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32393