Animal Economy at Karkemish from the Late Bronze to the Iron Age: A Preliminary Assessment

The systematic zooarchaeological study of faunal assemblages from the excavations carried out between 2011 and 2016 by the Joint Turco–Italian Archaeological Expedition at Karkemish (province of Karkamış, Gaziantep, Turkey) is based on a sample of about ten thousand osteological remains. Data derive from different sectors of the urban settlement, including administrative, cultic, productive, residential, and funerary areas from the beginning of the Late Bronze Age down to the Iron IV/Achaemenid period. The faunal assemblage presents a good level of preservation with 30% of the sample determined to species level. Domestic animals were predominant in all periods, with sheep and goats covering almost half of the Number of Identified Specimens (NISP), followed by cattle and equids—both donkeys and horses— while pigs, dogs, and camels are rather scarce. The animal economy of Karkemish was evidently based on pastoralism, including the exploitation of both primary and secondary products as showed by the estimation of age-at-death. Wild animals were rare but included deer, fallow deer, and gazelle, and some exceptional examples of exotic animals.