Daily life from the Iron Age to the Roman period at Tel Dor, Israel

We conducted a comprehensive diachronic analysis of the ancient economies at Tel Dor, a major port-city site located on the Coastal Plane of Israel. The site revealed a wealth of zooarchaeological information about the Iron Age, Persian, Hellenistic and Early Roman periods. It was a major Iron Age port-city along the Carmel coast, while in the Roman period it was a small provincial town.

The major domesticates in both periods were sheep and goats, followed by cattle. The frequency of pigs rises significantly from the Iron Age to the Roman period, suggesting a change in the identity or the dietary preferences of the site inhabitants. Another change is evident by the increase in the frequency of horses/donkeys, dogs and a wealth of wildlife mammals and birds in the Roman period. A modification in the exploitation pattern of livestock is evident from a preference change in favor of sheep over goats, and in mortality profiles of both the cattle, and sheep and goats. While the frequency of young increases for the first, it decreases for the later.

The evident change in the faunal remains from the Iron Age to the Roman Period at Tel Dor, along with change in the settlement type, from port-city to small town, implies a change in the economic provisioning of the city and a possible change in the identity and status of the site inhabitants. These differences may be attributed to the “Romanization of the diet”.