What the people of Utica (Tunisia) ate at a banquet in the 9th century BCE. Zooarchaeology of a North African early Phoenician settlement

Abstract In the paper are presented the results of a faunal set from the recent excavations at the Phoenician colony of Utica (Tunis). The set is composed by 536 fragments of bones found in an abandoned Phoenician water pit, filled intentionally with bones of consumed animals, drinking cups, plates, and bowls, as well as amphorae of Phoenician, Geometric Greek, Sardinian and Lybic productions. The hypothesis is that the well possibly was filled with the remains of a ritual banquet in which oxen, caprinae, pigs, horse and domestic dog were consumed. Another species such as turtle and African elephant complete this ancient faunal set. C14 dating samples from the deposit points to the last quarter of cal 10th century BCE to the middle of cal 9th century BCE, as the initial period of Phoenician presence in the Western and Central Mediterranean. So the faunal remains are for the moment the oldest in a Phoenician settlement in North Africa and Central Mediterranean area.