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Politika Zoa: Animals and Social Change in Ancient Greece (1600-300 B.C.)

Dibble, William F
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6693-2888
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin151203957883514

Abstract Details

2017, PhD, University of Cincinnati, Arts and Sciences: Classics.
The archaeological evidence for foodstuffs is an underappreciated topic within the field of Classics. While syntheses and narratives exist for prehistoric periods, this project foregrounds evidence for foodstuffs within an examination of animals and social change in ancient Greece. This study presents primary datasets of animal bones and teeth from three ancient Greek settlements framed in a larger narrative of changing food practices and urbanism in Greece: the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age village at Nichoria, the Archaic town at Azoria, and the urban center of Classical Athens. Classical Greek urbanism is accompanied by significant changes in the mobilization, processing, and distribution of animal resources within communities. While Homeric heroes might have feasted on heroic portions of meat, their Early Iron Age audience did not. By the Archaic period, corporate groups (cultic or civic in nature) provided meat to members in expressions of communal identity through feasting. There is a shift in how animals were processed related to the development of professional butchery. It is possible to trace the development of an urban cuisine – from textual sources, ceramic vessels, and organic remains – a meatier cuisine prepared in new ways within the Greek cityscape. Food production strategies shift from a fairly homogenous set of strategies in the Late Bronze Age to a fairly heterogenous set of strategies in the first millennium B.C. It is perhaps possible to conceive this shift as an adaptation to changing climate around this time, with heterogenous strategies a better fit for various ecological niches. These heterogenous production strategies, wherein different settlements practiced different productive strategies, perhaps contributed to an increase in connectivity in the Mediterranean. A narrative foregrounding animal bones contextualizes our understanding of ancient Greek feasting, butchery, animal husbandry, sacrificial ritual, and refuse disposal within a historical study of social changes.
Kathleen Lynch, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Jack Davis, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Paul Halstead, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Antonios Kotsonas, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Alan Sullivan, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
647 p.
Archaeology
Classical Archaeology; Foodways; Zooarchaeology; Athens; Greek Archaeology; Ancient Food

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Dibble, W. F. (2017). Politika Zoa: Animals and Social Change in Ancient Greece (1600-300 B.C.) [Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin151203957883514

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Dibble, William. Politika Zoa: Animals and Social Change in Ancient Greece (1600-300 B.C.). 2017. University of Cincinnati, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin151203957883514.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Dibble, William. "Politika Zoa: Animals and Social Change in Ancient Greece (1600-300 B.C.)." Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin151203957883514

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin151203957883514
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This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.