Signs from a green desert: a preliminary examination of the archaeobotanical remains from a Byzantine dovecote near Shivta, Israel |
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Authors: | Jennifer Ramsay Yotam Tepper |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Anthropology, SUNY the College at Brockport, Brockport, NY 14420, USA;(2) Tel Aviv University and the Israel Antiquities Authority, P.O. Box 35, 10600 Nahlal, Israel |
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Abstract: | This paper presents a preliminary examination of archaeobotanical material from pigeon dung samples obtained from Byzantine
period destruction levels of a dovecote near the site of Shivta, Israel. Such pigeon dung was a valuable fertilizer in antiquity
and would not have been abandoned without a reason. The plant remains from the dung provide direct evidence of pigeon diet
and the local environment during the Byzantine period. Eleven plant taxa, represented by either seeds and/or plant parts (cereal
chaff material), including five wild taxa, one legume, four fruit/nut taxa and several unidentified seed fragments were recovered.
The most common seeds found were from weeds of the genus Thymelaea sp., and Ficus (fig). The finds indicate that the birds in the dovecote consumed a mixed diet of wild seeds including Thymelaea sp. and Fumaria sp. (fumitory), and small fruits of Vitis (grape), Ficus (fig), Olea (olive) and Phoenix (date). The sample analyzed also included Rumex (dock), Carex (sedge) and Androsace which may not have come from the feed. Apparently the pigeons were free to forage in the desert, the fallowed fields and
refuse piles or/and were intentionally fed agricultural by-products including wild plants. |
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