KOROPI - 2012

Koropi. A. Hadjikoumis (BSA) reports on analysis of the animal bone assemblage recovered during rescue excavation of an EBA site at the Medical Centre of Koropi conducted by O. Kakavogianni in the 1980s. Based on ca.3,500 identified items, this is the first study of a large and well-defined assemblage in Bronze Age Attica, shedding light on many aspects of economic life, social practice, and the surrounding environment.

Analysis revealed a well-developed agropastoral economy with a high level of knowledge of husbandry and some signs of social and economic complexity. Sheep and goat were the most abundant species (Fig. 1), with slightly more than half of the identified remains. They were exploited mainly for their meat and were economically very important but not dominant, since other domestic animals exploited, while less abundant, had a much larger body mass. Thus cattle may have been equally or more important than sheep/goat, with overall percentages approaching 20% (Fig. 1). Ageing data for cattle suggest their exploitation until old age, perhaps for traction or milking. Pigs were also relatively abundant, with percentages again approaching 20% (Fig. 1), and contributed large quantities of meat. The combination of data on age and sex revealed possible signs of intensive (perhaps household- based and/or seasonal) fattening of pigs, as suggested by the high mortality among animals around 12 months. A second peak in mortality between 12 and 24 months probably includes those animals which failed to gain sufficient weight in their first year and/or were selected out by the breeder. Breeding sows were kept beyond three years of age, while breeding boars were probably slaughtered before full adulthood.

Dogs were exploited in multiple ways. Beyond their use as guards and shepherds, there is strong evidence that they were systematically bred and consumed. Their overall abundance (see Fig. 1) and the frequency of cut-marks (Fig. 2) in all parts of the skeleton constitute the strongest evidence of cynophagy. Cynophagy was also practiced in Neolithic Greece and it is of interest to follow the evolution of the practice in later periods. The date of the introduction of equids into Attica remains uncertain. A single equid tooth (Fig. 3) raises the possibility of that it took place around the EH period, but the evidence is too slight to rely upon.

Demanding agropastoral activities left the inhabitants of EH Koropi limited time to hunt. Red deer and wild boar were occasionally hunted, as were hare and roe deer in much lower numbers (Figure 1). Wolves and foxes were present in the area (Fig. 1) and were hunted occasionally, perhaps to protect domestic animals and for their fur. The absence of fallow deer from the assemblage may reflect its absence from that area.

The manufacture of objects from bone, horn and antlers is attested by a significant number of worked bones (e.g., Fig. 4) and signs that antlers and horns were used to produce different objects.

Analysis of the assemblage according to the different represented gives insights into social practices and possible chronological differences within the site. For example, indications of periodic communal meals include mortality peaks, structured deposits, and evidence of unusual consumption of animals in terms of age, size, species composition, carcass processing and cooking. Some differences observed between contexts can also be attributed to minor chronological differences.