OF MICE AND SPARROWS - COMMENSAL FAUNAS FROM THE IBERIAN IRON-AGE IN THE DUERO VALLEY (CENTRAL SPAIN)

Citation
Am. Muniz et al., OF MICE AND SPARROWS - COMMENSAL FAUNAS FROM THE IBERIAN IRON-AGE IN THE DUERO VALLEY (CENTRAL SPAIN), International journal of osteoarchaeology, 5(2), 1995, pp. 127-138
Citations number
59
Categorie Soggetti
Archaeology,Archaeology
ISSN journal
1047482X
Volume
5
Issue
2
Year of publication
1995
Pages
127 - 138
Database
ISI
SICI code
1047-482X(1995)5:2<127:OMAS-C>2.0.ZU;2-2
Abstract
This paper aims to emphasize the importance of imported commensal faun as in archaeological contexts by reporting on the earliest known house sparrows and house mice from the Iberian peninsula. The finds, which date to the Iron Age of a hinterland area of the peninsula, have been identified on the basis of osteomorphological and osteometrical criter ia, which are specified in the text in order to demonstrate the reliab ility of the identification. The temporal and geographical coincidence of these remains in the two sites analysed with those of donkey and, secondarily, chicken remains and faunal remains of littoral origin, le nds support to the hypothesis that these animals arrived with the earl iest trans-Mediterranean colonizers to the southern shores of the Iber ian peninsula and spread involuntarily thereafter as 'side-products' o f the Phoenician commercial routes throughout the Iberian hinterland.