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The socioeconomic status of Iron Age metalworkers: animal economy in the ‘Slaves’ Hill', Timna, Israel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 August 2014

Lidar Sapir-Hen  and
Erez Ben-Yosef
Lidar Sapir-Hen
Affiliation:
1Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel (Author for correspondence; Email: lidarsap@post.tau.ac.il)
Erez Ben-Yosef
Affiliation:
1Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel (Author for correspondence; Email: lidarsap@post.tau.ac.il) 2Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel
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Abstract

The popular image of metalworking sites in desert settings envisages armies of slaves engaged in back-breaking labour. This is in conflict with ethnographic evidence indicating that skilled specialist metalworkers are often accorded high social status. This study approaches that contradiction directly by studying the remains of domesticated food animals from domestic and industrial contexts at Timna in southern Israel. The authors demonstrate that the higher-value meat cuts come from industrial contexts, where they were associated with the specialist metalworkers, rather than the ‘domestic’ contexts occupied by lower status workers engaged in support roles. It is suggested that the pattern documented here could also have been a feature of early metalworking sites in other times and places.

Keywords

TimnaWadi Arabahcopper smeltingfaunal analysisEgyptianscraft specialistssocial status
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 88 , Issue 341 , September 2014 , pp. 775 - 790
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2014

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