Faunal remains recovered during excavations beneath Wilson’s Arch in Jerusalem reveal the dietary and ritual uses of animals in the Late Roman colony of Aelia Capitolina. This colony was erected on the ruins of Jerusalem following the First Jewish War and occupied by the Legio X Fretensis. We show that over the course of the third and fourth centuries CE, pigs turn into a dominant source of food at the site, an assessment supported by excavations elsewhere in Late Roman Jerusalem. Significant variations of the domestic pigs from Jerusalem indicate that the animals may have been provisioned from multiple rural sites of primary production, and possibly represent different local breeds. More surprisingly, the pig remains from Wilson’s Arch are dominated by prime-aged (12–24 months) male jaws from two stratified deposits. The focus on mature males, particularly in Stratum V, is atypical of pig husbandry systems in general, and in Roman-period contexts in particular. Due to the rapidity with which the bones were deposited and the unusual demographic, alongside the disproportionate representation of mandibles, we interpret the remains as the end-product of rituals involving pigs. We suggest that the significance of pigs as an anti-Jewish cultural element provided soldiers and colonists a means of asserting their identity within an imperial context.

在耶路撒冷威尔逊拱门下的挖掘过程中发现的动物遗骸揭示了晚期罗马殖民地埃利亚卡皮托利纳动物的饮食和仪式用途。这个殖民地是在第一次犹太战争后在耶路撒冷的废墟上建立的，并被军团 X Fretensis 占领。我们表明，在公元三世纪和四世纪的过程中，猪成为该地区的主要食物来源，这一评估得到了晚期罗马耶路撒冷其他地方的发掘的支持。来自耶路撒冷的家猪的显着差异表明，这些动物可能是从多个农村初级生产地点提供的，并且可能代表不同的当地品种。更令人惊讶的是，威尔逊拱门的猪遗骸主要是来自两个分层沉积物的壮年（12-24 个月）雄性颌骨。对成熟雄性的关注，特别是在第五层，是一般养猪系统的非典型，特别是在罗马时期的背景下。由于骨头沉积的速度很快，人口结构不寻常，加上下颌骨的比例不成比例，我们将这些遗骸解释为涉及猪的仪式的最终产品。我们认为，猪作为反犹太文化元素的重要性为士兵和殖民者在帝国背景下维护自己的身份提供了一种手段。