Journal
JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE
Volume 38, Issue 12, Pages 3224-3233Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS LTD- ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2011.06.027
Keywords
Northern Africa; Althiburos; Protohistoty; Numidians; Husbandry; Phytoliths; Dung spherulites
Funding
- Spanish Ministry of Innovation and Science- MICINN [HUM2006-03432/HIST, HAR2009-13045]
- Spanish Ministry of Culture- MECUL [CUL/3348/2009, CUL/2165/2009]
- Catalan Agency for Administration of University and Research- AGAUR [2006-EXCAVA00011, 2009SGR 1418]
- Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation- AECID [A/017890/08]
- University of Barcelona
- National Heritage Institute of Tunisia- INP
- MICINN
- ICREA Funding Source: Custom
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Recent excavations at Althiburos, northern Tunisia, have shown the existence of permanent pre-roman occupations in the central area of the urban settlement. Significantly, the site has been found to contain one of the most complete Numidian sequences, spanning from the Early Numidian (at least from the 10th-9th century BC) to its final stage. Research at the site addresses questions related to the identification of settlement patterns at this time. The combined study of phytoliths and spherulites recovered from well defined archeological contexts at the site have provided new data for identifying husbandry activities carried out by the ancient Numidian populations. The results show that there is abundant evidence for both cooking and processing cereals, primarily from common or bread wheat (Triticum aestivum). Also significantly, was the abundance of faecal spherulites in certain areas of the site, indicative of dung accumulation. The correlation between large amounts of spherulites and rich phytolith sediments in specific contexts, suggested that grasses were brought to the site or consumed offsite and deposited onsite as livestock dung or dung-products. The identification of dung accumulations in the site raises questions about the diversity of economic practices developed by Protohistoric communities in northern Africa. Future research questions regarding such dung rich layers will also be examined. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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