Table Of ContentPigs and Power: Pig Husbandry in Northern
Mesopotamia During the Emergence of Social
Complexity (6500-2000 Bc)
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Price, Max. 2016. Pigs and Power: Pig Husbandry in Northern Mesopotamia During the
Emergence of Social Complexity (6500-2000 Bc). Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University,
Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.
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PIGS AND POWER: PIG HUSBANDRY IN NORTHERN MESOPOTAMIA DURING THE
EMERGENCE OF SOCIAL COMPLEXITY (6500-2000 BC)
A dissertation presented by
MAX DANIEL PRICE
to
The Department of Anthropology
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
in the subject of
Anthropology
Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts
February 2016
© 2016 Max Daniel Price
All rights Reserved
Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Richard Meadow Max Daniel Price
Pigs and Power: Pig Husbandry in Northern Mesopotamia During the Emergence of Social
Complexity (6500-2000 BC)
ABSTRACT
This dissertation examines the evolution of pig husbandry during the period in which
complex societies developed in northern Mesopotamia. Pigs were unique in the ancient Middle
East because they were particularly well suited for smallholder production as opposed to elite
control. In tracking the evolution of pig husbandry practices over this long period of time, this
dissertation asks two questions. The first question is: when did pig husbandry practices intensify?
In other words, when did northern Mesopotamian communities begin penning and stall-feeding
their pigs? The second question is: why? Was there a correlation between intensification and the
development class conflict, a critical part of the emergence of complex societies? Did
smallholders intensify pig production to resist elite control over the agricultural sector?
After developing a theoretical framework informed by previous zooarchaeological
research and Marxist scholarship, this dissertation focuses on reconstructing pig husbandry at 10
archaeological sites dating to the 7th-3rd millennia BC. This research uses the assemblage of
hunted wild boar at Epipaleolithic (11th millennium) Hallan Çemi as a control. The 3rd-
millennium site of Tell Leilan, which included recognizable elite and non-elite areas, provides a
means of testing the hypothesis that smallholders intensified pig husbandry in order to resist
economic domination. This study employs a battery of standard and specialized
zooarchaeological techniques to provide multiple lines of evidence for determining three aspects
iii
of pig husbandry: control over diet, mobility, and reproduction. These methods include:
geometric morphometrics, survivorship analysis, biometrics, analysis of pathologies (including
linear enamel hypoplasia and dental calculus), dental microwear, and analysis of starch granules
and phytoliths embedded in calculus. Special attention is paid to developing appropriate
statistical models to make sense of the numerous datasets.
The results indicate that pig husbandry underwent region-wide intensification before or
during the Halaf (6th millennium BC), and thus intensification predated the development of
complex societies by about 2000 years. The Halaf is a relatively unknown period in the long-
term history of the region, and it remains unclear why pig husbandry may have changed at this
time. There was no detectable correlation between the emergence of complex societies and pig
husbandry change despite the fact that the development of social inequality radically changed the
nature of food production and consumption in the region. Moreover, there were few differences
between pig husbandry practices in the elite and non-elite areas of Tell Leilan. These results,
although plagued by a high degree of statistical uncertainty, suggest that the connections between
pigs and power are not reducible to the single axis of husbandry as a form of class-based
resistance. The concluding chapter offers alternative methods and theoretical frameworks for
archaeologists to investigate both class conflict and pig husbandry.
iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION TO PIGS AND POWER ........................................................ 1!
1.1 The Chapters in This Dissertation ......................................................................................... 5
CHAPTER 2 –THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND TERMINOLOGY .................................. 7!
2.1 Pigs and Socioeconomic Class .............................................................................................. 7!
2.2 Theoretical Framework and Terminology .......................................................................... 12!
2.2.1 Social Complexity ........................................................................................................ 12!
2.2.2 Socioeconomic Class ................................................................................................... 16!
2.2.3 Smallholders ................................................................................................................ 18!
2.2.4 “Everyday Resistance” ................................................................................................. 21!
2.2.5 Intensification .............................................................................................................. 23!
2.3 Chapter Summary ............................................................................................................... 25
CHAPTER 3 – THE EMERGENCE OF COMPLEX SOCIETY IN NORTHERN
MESOPOTAMIA IN ITS ENVIRONMENTAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXTS ................... 26!
3.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 26!
3.2 The Modern Environmental Context .................................................................................. 26!
3.3 Environmental Change in the Holocene until 2000 BC ...................................................... 27!
3.4 Environment and Pigs ......................................................................................................... 29!
3.5 The Development of Sociopolitical Complexity in Northern Mesopotamia ...................... 35!
3.5.1 Late (Pottery) Neolithic Society in Northern Mesopotamia (ca. 6500-5200 BC) ....... 35!
3.5.2 The Ubaid (ca. 5200-4200 BC) .................................................................................... 38!
3.5.3 Late Chalcolithic (LC) 1-5 (ca. 4500-3300 BC) .......................................................... 40!
3.5.4 The Second Cycle of Sociopolitical Complexity (ca. 3100-2100 BC) ........................ 43!
3.5.5 The Social Structure ..................................................................................................... 46!
3.5.6 Smallholders as a Socioeconomic Class ...................................................................... 49!
3.5.7 Agricultural Practices and Change in the 3rd Millennium ........................................... 52!
3.6 Chapter Summary ............................................................................................................... 54
CHAPTER 4 – PORCINE BIOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR IN DOMESTIC AND WILD
ANIMALS .................................................................................................................................... 56!
4.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 56!
4.2. General Description Classification .................................................................................... 56!
4.3 Dentition ............................................................................................................................. 57!
4.4 Skeleton ............................................................................................................................... 57!
4.4.1 Skeletal and Dental Differences Between Wild and Domestic Pigs ............................ 58!
4.5 Diet ...................................................................................................................................... 58!
4.6 Rooting ................................................................................................................................ 60!
4.7 Social and Breeding Behavior ............................................................................................ 60!
4.7.1 Behavioral Changes Under Domestication .................................................................. 61!
4.7.2 Managing Innate Behavioral Tendencies in Domestic Pigs ........................................ 62!
4.8 Reproduction ....................................................................................................................... 64!
4.9 Growth and Development ................................................................................................... 66!
4.9.1 Body Weight ................................................................................................................ 66!
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4.9.2 Dental Development .................................................................................................... 67!
4.9.3 Dental Wear ................................................................................................................. 70!
4.10 Climatic Tolerances .......................................................................................................... 71!
4.11 Chapter Summary ............................................................................................................. 72
CHAPTER 5 – PIG HUSBANDRY MODELS ........................................................................... 73!
5.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 73!
5.2 Pig Domestication ............................................................................................................... 74
5.3 Intensive Husbandry ........................................................................................................... 75
5.3.1 Sty-Raising ................................................................................................................... 77!
5.3.2 Industrial-Scale Stall-Raising ...................................................................................... 79!
5.4 Extensive Husbandry .......................................................................................................... 81!
5.4.1 Swine Herding ............................................................................................................. 81!
5.4.2 Free-Range Husbandry ................................................................................................ 86!
5.4.3 Urban Scavenging ........................................................................................................ 89!
5.5 Changing Husbandry Practices ........................................................................................... 91!
5.5.1 Shifting from Pannage to Penning in England, Medieval Period – 20th Century ........ 92!
5.6 Problems for Archaeological Reconstruction ..................................................................... 95!
5.7 Chapter Summary ............................................................................................................... 98
CHAPTER 6 : METHODS ......................................................................................................... 100!
6.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 100!
6.2 Size and Shape .................................................................................................................. 101!
6.2.1 Traditional Biometrics ............................................................................................... 102!
6.2.2 Geometric Morphometrics (GM) ............................................................................... 107!
6.3 Age-at-Death and Survivorship ........................................................................................ 115!
6.4 Pathologies ........................................................................................................................ 120!
6.4.1 Linear Enamel Hypoplasia (LEH) and Other Hypoplasias ........................................ 121!
6.4.2 Other Pathologies ....................................................................................................... 125!
6.5 Reconstructing Diet .......................................................................................................... 126!
6.5.1 Dental Calculus .......................................................................................................... 126!
6.5.2 Starch Grain/Phytolith Analysis ................................................................................ 129!
6.5.3 Dental Microwear Analysis ....................................................................................... 129!
6.6 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 133
CHAPTER 7 : SITES SAMPLED .............................................................................................. 135!
7.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 135!
7.2 Hallan Çemi ...................................................................................................................... 136!
7.2.1 Significance and Expectations ................................................................................... 137!
7.3 Jarmo ................................................................................................................................. 137!
7.3.1 Significance and Expectations ................................................................................... 139!
7.4 Banahilk ............................................................................................................................ 140!
7.4.1 Significance and Expectations ................................................................................... 141!
7.5 Domuztepe ........................................................................................................................ 141!
7.5.1 Significance and Expectations ................................................................................... 145!
7.6 Umm Qseir ........................................................................................................................ 146!
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7.6.1 Significance and Expectations ................................................................................... 147!
7.7 Tell Ziyadeh ...................................................................................................................... 148!
7.7.1 Significance and Expectations ................................................................................... 149!
7.8 Tell Mashnaqa ................................................................................................................... 150!
7.8.1 Significance and Expectations ................................................................................... 151!
7.9 Hacinebi Tepe ................................................................................................................... 152!
7.9.1 Significance and Expectations ................................................................................... 155!
7.10 Tell Atij ........................................................................................................................... 155!
7.10.1 Significance and Expectations ................................................................................. 158!
7.11 Tell Raqa’i ...................................................................................................................... 159!
7.11.1 Significance and Expectations ................................................................................. 162!
7.12 Tell Leilan ....................................................................................................................... 162!
7.12.1 Significance and Expectations ................................................................................. 166!
7.13 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 167
CHAPTER 8 : RESULTS BY SITE ........................................................................................... 168!
8.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 168!
8.2 Hallan Çemi ...................................................................................................................... 168!
8.2.1 Dental Metrics ............................................................................................................ 168!
8.2.2 Postcranial Metrics ..................................................................................................... 172!
8.2.3 Geometric Morphometrics ......................................................................................... 173!
8.2.4 Age-at-Death and Survivorship ................................................................................. 174!
8.2.5 Pathologies ................................................................................................................. 175!
8.2.6 Dental Calculus .......................................................................................................... 177!
8.2.7 Starch Grain/Phytolith Analysis ................................................................................ 178!
8.2.8 Dental Microwear Analysis ....................................................................................... 178!
8.3 Jarmo ................................................................................................................................. 179!
8.3.1 Dental Metrics ............................................................................................................ 180!
8.3.2 Postcranial Metrics ..................................................................................................... 183!
8.3.3 Geometric Morphometrics ......................................................................................... 184!
8.3.4 Age-at-Death and Survivorship ................................................................................. 185!
8.3.5 Pathologies ................................................................................................................. 186!
8.3.6 Dental Calculus .......................................................................................................... 188!
8.4 Banahilk ............................................................................................................................ 188!
8.4.1 Dental Metrics ............................................................................................................ 189!
8.4.2 Postcranial Metrics ..................................................................................................... 190!
8.4.3 Geometric Morphometrics ......................................................................................... 191!
8.4.4 Age-at-Death and Survivorship ................................................................................. 192!
8.4.5 Pathologies ................................................................................................................. 192!
8.4.6 Dental Calculus .......................................................................................................... 193!
8.4.7 Dental Microwear Analysis ....................................................................................... 194!
8.5 Domuztepe ........................................................................................................................ 194!
8.5.1 Dental Metrics ............................................................................................................ 194!
8.5.2 Postcranial Metrics ..................................................................................................... 197!
8.5.3 Geometric Morphometrics ......................................................................................... 198!
8.5.4 Age-at-Death and Survivorship ................................................................................. 199!
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8.5.5 Pathologies ................................................................................................................. 200!
8.5.6 Dental Calculus .......................................................................................................... 201!
8.5.7 Starch Grain/Phytolith Analysis ................................................................................ 201!
8.5.8 Dental Microwear Analysis ....................................................................................... 202!
8.6 Umm Qseir ........................................................................................................................ 203!
8.6.1 Dental Metrics ............................................................................................................ 203!
8.6.2 Geometric Morphometrics ......................................................................................... 205!
8.6.3 Age-at-Death and Survivorship ................................................................................. 206!
8.6.4 Pathologies ................................................................................................................. 206!
8.6.5 Dental Calculus .......................................................................................................... 207!
8.7 Ziyadeh ............................................................................................................................. 207!
8.7.1 Dental and Postcranial Metrics .................................................................................. 208!
8.7.2 Geometric Morphometrics ......................................................................................... 209!
8.7.3 Pathologies and Dental Calculus ............................................................................... 210!
8.7.4 Starch Grain/Phytolith Analysis ................................................................................ 210!
8.7.5 Dental Microwear Analysis ....................................................................................... 211!
8.8 Mashnaqa .......................................................................................................................... 211!
8.8.1 Dental and Postcranial Metrics .................................................................................. 211!
8.8.2 Pathologies and Dental Calculus ............................................................................... 213!
8.8.3 Dental Microwear Analysis ....................................................................................... 214!
8.9 Hacinebi ............................................................................................................................ 214!
8.9.1 Dental Metrics ............................................................................................................ 215!
8.9.2 Age-at-Death and Survivorship ................................................................................. 217!
8.9.3 Pathologies ................................................................................................................. 218!
8.9.4 Dental Calculus .......................................................................................................... 219!
8.9.5 Starch Grain/Phytolith Analysis ................................................................................ 220!
8.9.6 Dental Microwear Analysis ....................................................................................... 220!
8.10 Atij .................................................................................................................................. 220!
8.10.1 Dental Metrics .......................................................................................................... 221!
8.10.2 Postcranial Metrics ................................................................................................... 223!
8.10.3 Age-at-Death and Survivorship ............................................................................... 223!
8.10.4 Pathologies ............................................................................................................... 224!
8.10.5 Dental Calculus ........................................................................................................ 225!
8.10.6 Starch Grain/Phytolith Analysis and Dental Microwear Analysis .......................... 225!
8.11 Raqa’i .............................................................................................................................. 226!
8.11.1 Dental Metrics .......................................................................................................... 226!
8.11.2 Postcranial Metrics ................................................................................................... 228!
8.11.3 Age-at-Death and Survivorship ............................................................................... 229!
8.11.4 Pathologies ............................................................................................................... 229!
8.11.5 Dental Calculus ........................................................................................................ 230!
8.11.6 Starch Grain/Phytolith Analysis .............................................................................. 230!
8.11.7 Dental Microwear Analysis ..................................................................................... 231!
8.12 Leilan .............................................................................................................................. 231!
8.12.1 Dental Metrics .......................................................................................................... 232!
8.12.2 Postcranial Metrics ................................................................................................... 235!
8.12.3 Age-at-Death and Survivorship ............................................................................... 237!
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8.12.4 Pathologies ............................................................................................................... 240!
8.12.5 Dental Calculus ........................................................................................................ 242!
8.12.6 Starch Grain/Phytolith Analysis .............................................................................. 243!
8.12.7 Dental Microwear Analysis ..................................................................................... 243!
8.13 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 244
CHAPTER 9 : INTER-SITE COMPARISONS AND DISCUSSION ....................................... 246!
9.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 246!
9.2 Shape and Size Change ..................................................................................................... 246!
9.2.1 Geometric Morphometrics ......................................................................................... 247!
9.2.2 Biometrics .................................................................................................................. 258!
9.3 Changes in Diet ................................................................................................................. 260!
9.3.1 Rates of Dental Calculus ............................................................................................ 261!
9.3.2 Microwear .................................................................................................................. 262!
9.3.3 Plant Microfossils ...................................................................................................... 262!
9.4 Pathologies – Linear Enamel Hypoplasia ......................................................................... 263!
9.5 Changes in Survivorship ................................................................................................... 266!
9.6 Discussion: Pig Husbandry Change and the Societies of Northern Mesopotamia ........... 270!
9.6.1 Early Pottery Neolithic (7th Millennium BC) – Jarmo ............................................... 270!
9.6.2 Halaf Period (6000-5200 BC) – Banahilk, Domuztepe, and Umm Qseir ................. 271!
9.6.3 Ubaid-LC 1 Periods (5200-4100 BC) – Ziyadeh, Mashnaqa .................................... 272!
9.6.4 LC 2-LC 5 Periods (4100-3100 BC) – Hacinebi ....................................................... 273!
9.6.5 Early 3rd Millennium (2900-2500 BC) – Atij, Raqa’i, Leilan III .............................. 275!
9.6.6 EJ 3-4 Periods (2500-2100 BC) – Leilan IIa-IIb ....................................................... 276!
9.7 Chapter Summary ............................................................................................................. 279
CHAPTER 10 : CONCLUSIONS AND DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH ............ 281!
10.1 Pig Husbandry Change in Northern Mesopotamia ......................................................... 281!
10.2 Pig Husbandry and Smallholders in Northern Mesopotamia ......................................... 283!
10.3 The 3rd-Millennium Pig Increase and Alternative Theoretical Lenses ........................... 287!
10.4 Glass Halaf Full: The Future of Pig Husbandry Studies in Northern Mesopotamia ...... 288!
10.5 Epilogue .......................................................................................................................... 290
APPENDIX ................................................................................................................................. 292!
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Description:In Western cities in the 19th century, well-to-do residents Scholars debate the nature of the so-called “Uruk expansion,” but it is clear that southern . at Umm el-Marra, also occurred in the mid-3rd millennium (Schwartz et al. millennium, and culminated with hegemony of the Akkadian empire.
