ABSTRACT

The scale of animal husbandry in ancient Greece has been debated for decades. To contribute to this debate, we examined faunal assemblages from Pherae in central Greece using non-destructive zooarchaeological methods. The results show that Pherae was involved in a caprine-oriented husbandry. The limited mobility of domesticated animals, indicated by mortality profiles, suggests that small-scale animal husbandry was the norm. Meat was redistributed across the town, and the quality of meat a household consumed depended on that household’s financial status. These results lead us to propose an economic model whereby both small-scale and semi-specialized animal husbandry were practiced, corroborating arguments for multiple co-existing animal husbandry practices in ancient Greece. Unlike in other parts of the Roman Empire, the predominance of caprines, indications of their use in meat and dairy production, and their relatively small “Hellenistic” size suggests that the Roman presence in Pherae did not influence animal economy.

摘要

古希腊的畜牧业规模已经争论了几十年。为了促成这场辩论，我们使用非破坏性动物考古学方法检查了希腊中部 Pherae 的动物群落。结果表明，Pherae 参与了以山羊为导向的畜牧业。死亡率概况表明，家养动物的流动性有限，这表明小规模畜牧业是常态。肉类在全镇重新分配，家庭消费的肉类质量取决于该家庭的经济状况。这些结果使我们提出了一个经济模型，在该模型中，小规模和半专业化的畜牧业都得到了实践，证实了古希腊多种并存的畜牧业实践的论点。与罗马帝国的其他地区不同，山羊占主导地位，