‘Atiqot - Publications of the Israel Antiquities Authority

‘Atiqot 81 (2015) ISBN 2948-040X

Butchers’ Waste: Zooarchaeological Analysis of a Crusader/Ayyubid Bone Deposit from Jerusalem Street, Safed (Zefat) (pp. 99*–109*)
Guy Bar-Oz and Noa Raban-Gerstel
Keywords: Ottoman period, gnawing marks, butchery marks, butchery waste, food refuse, chopped bones, slaughtering, secondary products, economy, taxonomic representation
A small assemblage of 162 complete and fragmentary bones was retrieved from strata dated to the second half of the twelfth–thirteenth centuries CE. The faunal remains comprise predominantly domesticated livestock: sheep and goat (most frequent) as well as domestic fowl, cattle, an equid, a pig and a dog. In addition, a single shell fragment of a tortoise and two fish head-fragments were identified. The anatomical representation of sheep/goat skeletal elements seems to indicate a context of a butcher’s shop. The absence of burnt bones further attests to the excavated refuse being principally the leftovers of butchery deposits. More than 38% of the identified bones bore evidence of knife cutting and chopping. Such a preponderance of butchered bones characterizes the remains of large industrial butchery waste areas. The high frequency of chopped bones resembles other medieval urban industrial butchery sites.