For the birds — An environmental archaeological analysis of Byzantine pigeon towers at Shivta (Negev Desert, Israel)
Introduction
The site of Shivta is located in the Negev Desert of Israel (Fig. 1). It was, according to current research, founded in the early Roman period (ca. 1st century BCE – 1st century CE) and reached its peak during the Byzantine period (4th – 7th centuries CE). It appears that the Roman military presence in the area of southern Israel and Jordan during the 4th century CE, following an empire-wide economic collapse, likely played a significant role in causing an increase in agricultural production throughout the region (cf. Barker, 2002, Rubin, 1991). Farming was the primary occupation of the inhabitants of the site, who were prosperous enough to build large and complex agricultural installations such as wine presses, aqueducts, cisterns, water pools and dovecotes (Segal, 1983, Negev, 1993, Hirschfeld, 2003), as well as three Byzantine churches.
A good deal of recent scholarship on the Roman–Byzantine period has increasingly focused on the nature and capacity of its agricultural economy in arid environments (Kehoe, 1990, Barker, 1996, Barker, 2002, Barker, 2012, Avni et al., 2009, Avni et al., 2013, Ashkenazi et al., 2012, Erickson-Gini, 2012, Haiman, 2012, Kamash, 2012, Ramsay and Parker, 2016). Understanding the empire's economy is indeed a formidable task as in general there is a lack of surviving documentary evidence that relates to agricultural production and trade. Therefore archaeological investigations of agricultural sites are one of the only ways to elucidate information about arguably the most important economy in the ancient world.
Evidence for regional rain-water harvesting agriculture in southern Israel and Jordan appears to have had a long history and has been documented as early as the Neolithic. It appears to continue in relation to precipitation levels through to the recent past (for example see: Kedar, 1956, Bruins and van der Plicht, 2004, Hunt and el-Rishi, 2010, Barker, 2012, Bruins, 2012). Shivta was supported by sophisticated systems of water collection and irrigation during the Roman-Byzantine period that allowed large-scale agriculture. These included dams, channels cisterns and reservoirs. Early research at the site determined that the agricultural fields coincided with the watershed lines of the basin of the valleys and tributaries (Kedar, 1956). Kedar's (1956) study determined that agriculture was based on a hydrographic system and distribution of rainfall. He noted that all fields depended on episodic rainfall for irrigation as there were no perennial or seasonal water sources in the area. Cereal agriculture was still being carried-out on these systems when Kedar's study was conducted as the water-carrying ditches were still intact and the ancient fields still had flat surfaces. In antiquity these large-scale agricultural field systems were also supported by intensive pigeon-raising and four large dovecotes remains are scattered around them.
According to written accounts, archaeological evidence and artistic representations, pigeon-raising was a widespread livestock industry in the Roman-Byzantine world. Pigeons were raised primarily for the production of fertilizer and as a year-round source of meat (Tepper, 2007a, Tepper, 2007b). All of the dovecote remains were excavated between 2000 and 2004 by Hirschfeld and Tepper (2006; Fig. 2). On a small hill 500 m north of the site a round dovecote was excavated (Fig. 2:1; Fig. 3) and the structure's debris buried under the collapsed stones consisted of large quantities of pigeon (Columba livia) remains, as well as pigeon manure, and various botanical remains. Though numerous dovecots are known, no research has so far been carried out on the remains themselves.
Barker has stated that a major problem with research on desert settlements has been a lack of interdisciplinary research (Barker, 2002, Barker, 2012). Therefore the aim of this paper is to contribute to our understanding of desert agricultural in the Roman-Byzantine period by analyzing the various well preserved floral and faunal materials that are part of the complex agricultural regime in this arid landscape of the Negev and use them to reconstruct pigeon diet, home range, taphonomy, demographic profiles of pigeons and environment (< 100 mm mean annual precipitation) (Fig. 4).
The excavation of the dovecote was carried out in two seasons during 2003–2004 by Hirschfeld and Tepper on behalf of the Institute of archaeology of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. A round dovecote was revealed with an external diameter of 5.2 m and preserved to a maximum height of 1.65 m. The internal diameter is 4 m divided by Y-shaped walls into three rooms, with open doors at the interior wall (Fig. 5). Two main strata were excavated under the surface layer at the top of the ruined tower. The first stratum was a collapse layer (1.2–1.3 m) of the walls and the second was a pigeon dung layer, that attained a depth of 0.4 m above the dovecote floor (Fig. 5). The debris layer and the dung on the floor probably point to the destruction of the dovecote (Hirschfeld and Tepper, 2006). The pottery retrieved from the second stratum can date the construction and use of the building to the Byzantine period (Hirschfeld and Tepper, 2006: 102, Fig. 25: 10–13). Likewise, a Greek inscription (ΔΟΡΟΝ = present) with an associated cross was found on top of the first strata and supports our assumption of the destruction period of the dovecote during the Byzantine period (Hirschfeld and Tepper, 2006: 97, Fig. 14). Although we cannot be completely certain, all the above evidence, supports the abandonment of the dovecote (with the dung layer above the floor), having been related to a critical event that happened in the middle of the 6th century CE.
Section snippets
Materials and methods
The material obtained for the current comprehensive analysis of botanical and zoological remains recovered from the pigeon tower was excavated between 2003 and 2004 by Hirschfeld and Tepper (2006). At this time, two barrels that contained 500–600 l of organic matter were collected from the floor deposit and stored for future analysis. These were from two rooms, the northern (#814) and the western (#817) rooms of the dovecote. The floor of both rooms, located under collapse debris which consisted
Dating
Radiocarbon dating was based on pigeon dung found on the floor of room #817. The concentration of the radiocarbon in the sample was determined using the Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) technique. The sample was prepared by Beta Analytic Inc. (sample number 92415) and a detailed methodological protocol is available at their website (http://www.radiocarbon.com/carbon-dating-pretreatment.htm). Calibration was calculated with 2013 INTCAL program (Reimer et al., 2013). Details of the sample are
Discussion
As noted earlier, information derived from archaeological excavations provides some of the only data available for understanding the ancient agricultural economy that existed in the arid region of southern Israel and Jordan during the Roman-Byzantine period. As a result, the information recovered in this agro-archaeological study of a dovecote provides integral data for desert agricultural practices that appear to have been a necessity to support a burgeoning population, likely stemming from an
Conclusions
Written accounts, archaeological evidence and artistic depictions testify to the intertwined lives of pigeons and people in the Negev and the surrounding arid regions: pigeons were raised for the fertilizer they yielded and as a year-round source of meat. The results of our holistic research, examining botanical and zooarchaeological data provide information on how pigeon were raised, used and in particular how they were fed.
Clearly pigeon rearing was an integral part of the mixed husbandry
Acknowledgments
This study was conducted under the license of the Israel Antiquary Authority (G-31/11). We are grateful for the assistance of Shivta National Park personnel, Ami and Dina Oach (Shivta Farm), Michael Shomroni, Avishi Blumenkrantz, Ada Caspi and Yigal Tepper (field survey) and Anat Regev-Gisis (graphic design). This work was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement no 648427), the Israel Science
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Signs of soil fertigation in the desert: A pigeon tower structure near Byzantine Shivta, Israel
2017, Journal of Arid EnvironmentsCitation Excerpt :On top of this floor, a layer of detritus c. 30–40 cm in depth was identified (L-814, section A-A’, in Fig. 4; see Hirschfeld and Tepper, 2006). This waste layer contained pigeon bones, broken pigeon eggs, pigeon dung (Fig. 5A–D), organic material containing nesting material and seeds (Ramsay et al., 2016). The condition of the bones and the preservation state of biological finds (e.g., undamaged branches, complete manure pellets, fully preserved seeds and pigeon bones) displayed no water damage, demonstrating that no water, which might have damaged the material or washed it away, penetrated the structure.