Animal dung from arid environments and archaeobotanical methodologies for its analysis: An example from animal burials of the Predynastic elite cemetery HK6 at Hierakonpolis, Egypt

Environmental Archaeology

Volumn 18, Issue 1, 2013, Pages 58-71

  Marinova, Elena ^a   Ryan, Philippa ^b   Van Neer, Wim ^a,c   Friedman, Renée ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LEUVEN   (Belgium)

^b BRITISH MUSEUM   (United Kingdom)

^c ROYAL BELGIAN INSTITUTE OF NATURAL SCIENCES   (Belgium)

Author keywords

Animal feeding; Bioarchaeology; Fodder; Phytoliths; Plant macrofossils; Predynastic Egypt

Indexed keywords

EID: 84877112631     PISSN: 14614103     EISSN: 17496314     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1179/1461410313Z.00000000020     Document Type: Article

References (57)

1. Adams, B. 1995. Ancient Nekhen: Garstang in the City of Nekhen (ESA No. 3). Whitstable: SIA Publishing.
2. Adams, B. 2000. Excavations in the Locality 6 Cemetery at Hierakonpolis 1979-1985 (British Archaeological Reports International Series 903). Oxford: Archaeopress.
3. Baba, M. 2011. Up against the walls at HK11C. Nekhen News 23, 22-4.
4. Belal, A., Briggs, J., Sharp, J. and Springuel, I. 2009. Bedouins by the Lake: Environment, Change and Sustainability in Southern Egypt. Cairo: The American University of Cairo Press.
5. Bottema, S. 1992. Prehistoric cereal gathering and farming in the Near East: the pollen evidence. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 73(1-4), 21-33.
6. Bryant, V. M. and Dean, G. W. 2006. Archaeological coprolite science: the legacy of Eric O. Callen (1912-1970). Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 237, 51-66.
7. Cambertlin, P. 2009. Nile Basin climates, pp. 307-34.
8. Dumont, H. (ed.), The Nile. Origin, Environments, Limnology and Human Use (Monographiae Biologicae 89). Berlin: Springer.
9. Cappers, R. T. G. 2006. The reconstruction of agricultural practices in Ancient Egypt: an ethnoarchaeological approach. Paleohistoria 47/48, 429-46.
10. Clapham, A. J. and Rowley-Conwy, P. A. 2007. New discoveries at Qasr Ibrim, Lower Nubia, pp. 157-64.
11. Cappers, R. (ed.), Fields of Change-Progress in African Archaeobotany (Groningen Archaeological Studies 5). Groningen: Barkhuis.
12. Delhon, C., Martin, L., Argant, J. and Thiébault, S. 2008. Shepherds and plants in the Alps: Multi-proxy archaeobotanical analysis of neolithic dung from "La Grande Rivoire" (Isère, France). Journal of Archaeological Science 35, 2937-52.
13. di Lernia, S. 2001. Dismantling dung: delayed use of food resources among early Holocene foragers of the Libyan Sahara. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 20, 408-41.
14. Droux, X. 2011.Where's the beef ? The surprise of Tomb 49. Nekhen News 23, 16-7.
15. Fahmy, A. G. 2001. Plant remains in gut contents of Ancient Egyptian Predynastic mummies (3750-3300 BC). OnLine Journal of Biological Sciences 1, 772-4.
16. Clapham, A. J. and Rowley-Conwy, P. A. 2007. New discoveries at Qasr Ibrim, Lower Nubia, pp. 157-64
17. Fahmy, A. G. 2003. Palaeo-ethnobotanical studies of the Egyptian Predynastic cemeteries: new dimensions and contributions, pp. 95-106 in Neumann, K., Butler, A. and Kahlheber, S. (eds.), Food, Fuel and Fields: Progress in African Archaeobotany (Africa Praehistorica 15). Köln: Heinrich-Barth- Institut.
18. Fahmy, A. G., Friedman, R. F. and Fadl, M. 2008a. Archaeobotanical studies at Hierakonpolis Locality HK6: The Pre and Early Dynastic elite cemetery. Archeo-Nil 18, 169-83.
19. Fahmy, A. G., Khodary, S., Fadl, M. and El-Garf, I. 2008b. Plant macroremains from an Elite cemetery at Predynastic Hierakonpolis, Upper Egypt. International Journal of Botany 42, 205-12.
20. Fahmy, A. G., Friedman, R. F. and Fadl, M. 2012. Economy and ecology of Predynastic Hierakonpolis, Egypt: archaeobotanical evidence from a trash mound at HK11 C, pp. 91-118.
21. Fahmy, A. G., Kahlheber, S. and D'Andrea, A. C. (eds.), Windows on the African Past. Current Approaches to African Archaeobotany (Reports in African Archaeology vol. 3). Frankfurt am Main: Africa Magna Verlag.
22. Flores, D. V. 2003. Funerary Sacrifice of Animals in the Egyptian Predynastic Period (British Archaeological Reports International Series 1153). Oxford: Archaeopress.
23. Flores, D. V. 2004. Funerary sacrifice of animals in the Egyptian Predynastic Period, pp. 731-64. in Hendrickx, S., Friedman, R. F., Cialowicz, K. M. and Chlodnicki, M. (eds.), Egypt at its Origins I. Studies in Memory of Barbara Adams. Leuven: Peeters Publishers.
24. Friedman, R. F. 2004. Elephants at Hierakonpolis, pp. 131-68 in Hendrickx, S., Friedman, R. F., Cialowicz, K. M. and Chlodnicki, M. (eds.), Egypt at its Origins I. Studies in Memory of Barbara Adams. Leuven: Peeters Publishers.
25. Friedman, R. F. 2008. The cemeteries of Hierakonpolis. Archéo-Nil 18, 8-29.
26. Friedman, R. F. 2011. 'Hierakonpolis', pp. 33-44. in Teeter, E. (ed.), Before the Pyramids. The Origins of Egyptian Civilization. Chicago: Oriental Institute Publications.
27. Friedman, R. F., Van Neer, W. and Linseele, V. 2011. The elite Predynastic cemetery at Hierakonpolis: 2009-2010 update, pp. 157-97.
28. Friedman, R. F. and Fiske, P. E. (eds.), Egypt at Its Origins III. Leuven: Peeters Publishers.
29. Ghosh, R., Gupta, S., Bera, S., Jiang, H.-E., Li, X. and Li, C.-S. 2008. Ovi-caprid dung as an indicator of paleovegetation and paleoclimate in northwestern China. Quaternary Research 70, 149-57.
30. Günther, K., Hannemann, H.-J., Hieke, F., Königsmann, E. and Schumann, H. 2000. Urania Tierreich. Insecten. Berlin: Urania.
31. Hendrickx, S. 2006. Predynastic-Early Dynastic chronology, pp. 55-93 and 487-488.
32. Hornung, E., Krauss, R. and Warburton, D. A. (eds.), Ancient Egyptian Chronology (Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 1, The Near and Middle East, 83). Leiden: Brill.
33. Hillman, G. 1984. Crop husbandry practices from charred remains in crops, pp. 123-62.
34. Mercer, R. (ed.), Farming Practice in British Prehistory. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University.
35. Kleiman, D., Geist, G. and McDade, C.M. 2003. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia: Mammals IV, vol. 16. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale.
36. Kühn, M. and Hadorn, P. 2004. Pflanzliche Makro-und Mikroreste aus Dung von Wiederkäuern, pp. 227-350.
37. Jacomet, S., Leuzinger, U. and Schibler, J. (eds.), Die Jungsteinzeitliche Seeufersiedlung Arbon-Bleiche 3 (Umwelt und Wirtschaft. Archälogie im Thurgau 12). Thurgau: Departement für Erziehung unde Kultur des Kantons Thurgau.
38. Kühn, M., Maier, U., Herbig, C., Ismail-Meyer, K., Le Bailly, M. and Wick, L. 2013. Methods for the examination of cattle, sheep and goat dung in prehistoric wetland settlements with the examples of the sites Alleshausen-Täschenwiesen and Alleshausen-Grundwiesen (around 2900 cal. BC) at Lake Federsee, South West Germany. Environmental Archaeology 18(1), 43-57.
39. Linseele, V., Marinova, E., Van Neer, W. and Vermeersch, P. M. 2010. Sites with Holocene dung deposits in the Eastern Desert of Egypt: Visited by herders? Journal of Arid Environments 74, 818-28.
40. Linseele, V., Riemer, H., Baeten, J., De Vos, D., Marinova, E. and Ottoni, C. 2013. Species identification of archaeological dung remains. A summary of possible methods. Environmental Archaeology 18(1), 5-17.
41. Marinova, E. and Van Neer, W. 2009. An elephant's last meal. Nekhen News 21, 10-1.
42. Marinova, E., De Meyer, M., van Loon, G. and Willems, H. 2012. Plant economy and land use in the Middle Egypt during the late Antique/early Islamic period-archaeobotanical analysis of mud bricks and mud plasters from the area of Dayr al Barsha, pp. 120-36.
43. Mercuri, A. M. 2008. Human influence, plant landscape, evolution and climate inferences from the archaeobotanical records of the Wadi Teshuinat area (Libyan Sahara). Journal of Arid Environments 72, 1950-67.
44. Piperno, D. R. 2006. Phytoliths: A Comprehensive Guide for Archaeologists and Paleoecologists. Lanham: Altamira Press.
45. Rätsch, C. 2005. The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants: Ethnopharmacology and Its Applications. Rochester: Park Street Press.
46. Rosen, A. 1992. Preliminary identification of silica skeletons from Near Eastern archaeological sites: an anatomical approach, pp. 129-48.
47. Rapp, G. and Mullholland, S. (eds.), Phytolith Systematics. New York: Plenum Press.
48. Rosen, A. 2005. Phytolith indicators of plant and land use at Çatalhöyük, pp. 203-121.
49. Hodder, I. (ed.), Inhabiting Çatalhöyük, Reports from the 1995-99 Seasons. Cambridge: McDonald Institute.
50. Scott, L. 2005. The Holocene of middle altitude arid areas, pp. 396-405.
51. Mackay, A., Battarbee, R., Birks, J. and Oldfield, F. (eds.), Global Change in the Holocene. London: Hodder Arnold.
52. van der Veen, M. and Tabinor, H. 2007. Ford, fodder and fuel at Mons Porphyrites: the botanical evidence, pp. 84-142.
53. Peacock, D. and Maxfield, J. (eds.), The Roman Imperial Quarries Survey and Excavations at Mons Porphyrites 1994-1998.
54. Van Neer, W. 2011. Two more wild animals from the elite cemetery at Hierakonpolis. Nekhen News 23, 10-1.
55. Van Neer, W. and Linseele, V. 2003. A second elephant at HK6. Nekhen News 15, 11-2.
56. Van Neer,W., Linseele, V. and Friedman, R. F. 2004. Animal burials and food offerings at the Elite Cemetery HK6 of Hierakonpolis, pp. 67-130.
57. Hendrickx, S., Friedman, R. F., Cialowicz, K. M. and Chlodnicki, M. (eds.), Egypt at its Origins. Studies in Memory of Barbara Adams (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 138). Leuven: Peeters.