Chickens in Africa: the importance of Qasr Ibrim.

Chickens in Africa: the importance of Qasr Ibrim. An articulated hen's skeleton, set under the doorway of abuilding at the celebrated desiccated site of Qasr Ibrim in EgyptianNubia, is cause to look again at the flight of chickens into Africa. This paper was submitted in honour of Dr Juliet Clutton-Brock ofthe British Museum (Natural History). Introduction The introduction of the chicken into Egypt and its use, whetherritual or alimentary alimentary/al¡¤i¡¤men¡¤ta¡¤ry/ (al?i-men¡ätah-re) pertaining to food or nutritive material, or to the organs of digestion. al¡¤i¡¤men¡¤ta¡¤ryadj.1. , has remained a subject of active supposition overthe past 70 years (cf. Carter 1923; Zeuner 1963; Darby et al. 1977;Houlihan 1986). Ongoing excavations in Egypt stand to provide importantarchaeozoological data which may clarify the development of the chicke nas an important economic, and perhaps symbolic, resource in Ptolemaicand Roman Egypt. In Nubia, the site of Qasr Ibrim (FIGURE 1) has alreadyshown significant changes in agricultural regimes during the first halfof the 1st millennium AD. Preliminary work by Rowley-Conwy (1989a)suggests that the later Meroitic and post-Meroitic periods (c. AD1--550) witness the first appearance of a number of tropical Africancrops in Nubia, as well as the spread southwards from Egypt of new typesof wheat. These agricultural innovations would seem to reflect morewide-ranging contacts between the Lower Nile Valley, Central Sudan, and,indeed, other parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Within this context, thediscovery of chicken remains at Qasr Ibrim is of particular interest. [CHART OMITTED] Archaeological context Qasr Ibrim was an important Nubian settlement from at least theearly 1st millennium BC until the 19th century AD. A programme ofexcavations, sponsored by the Egyptian Exploration Socie ty, hascontinued at the site since the early 1960s. During the 1992 season,work concentrated on a complex of Post-Meroitic rooms, X-265 (previouslyX-29) lying on the east side of Magazine Street at the south end of arange of buildings adjoining Tavern Street (Plumley et al. 1976: 34--5,figure B). Here, as elsewhere at the site, preservation of organicmaterials is phenomenal due to extreme aridity. During the excavation ofthe primary floor of Room 8 on the west side of this complex, asemiarticulated cluster of bird bones was recovered sealed within thepacked mud floor of the room, just inside the doorway. While faunalsamples from previous seasons have yet to be systematically analysed,preliminary work has indicated that bird bones are uncommon in thesite's faunal assemblage during this period (Rowley-Conwy 1989b).The condition and arrangement of the bones suggested careful deposition.The highly comminuted nature of the sub-floor deposits relating to anearlier plaza makes it a lmost inconceivable that these intact bones froma single individual were included by chance in the floor make-up.Furthermore, on the north side of the doorway underlying the door jamb,a large group of feathers had been deposited. The taxonomic affiliationof these feathers has yet to be assessed, but they may well pertain tothe near-by skeleton. The notion of a 'ritual' deposit wassupported by the discovery of part of a copper-alloy anthropomorphic Having the characteristics of a human being. For example, an anthropomorphic robot has a head, arms and legs. statue and a number of liquid-soaked textile fragments built into theroom's stone walls. Comparable bundles of liquid-soaked cloth,possibly some form of votive offering, had been found in contexts ofsimilar date within one of the late temples on the site during 1986(Driskell et al. 1989: 27--8). Architectural analysis of the buildingindicates that this room was a late addition to the core structure,which is consistent with preliminary ceramic studies, which also suggesta relatively late Post-Meroitic ('X-Group') date, probably inthe late 5th century AD. The fowl The remains recovered were those of a single individual. The boneswere well preserved, with very little breakage, and some skin andligaments still adhering to the tarsometatarsi. A knotted piece of plantfibre, found in association with the remains, may have been used to bindthe legs. The body part representation of these remains is highlycurious, as it includes the cranium cranium:see skull. , the ribs, the innominate innominate/in¡¤nom¡¤i¡¤nate/ (i-nom¡äi-nat) nameless. in¡¤nom¡¤i¡¤nateadj.1. Having no name.2. Anonymous. (excludingthe synsacrum) and most limb bones (including all phalanges), but lacksthe vertebral column and several pairs of limb bones (see FIGURE 2). Themethod of disarticulation disarticulation/dis¡¤ar¡¤tic¡¤u¡¤la¡¤tion/ (dis?ahr-tik?u-la¡äshun) exarticulation; amputation or separation at a joint. dis¡¤ar¡¤tic ¡¤u¡¤la¡¤tionn. is also unusual: the ribs and the ilium Ilium:see Troy. appearto have been cut or snapped rather than cleanly chopped, the basalcoracoids are only slightly damaged although the sternum is missing, nodamage is visible related to the removal of the tibiotarsus from theproximal tarsometatarsus tarsometatarsusthe bone of the lower shank of birds made up of fused tarsal and metatarsal bones. , and single cut-marks are visible on one of theacetabula where the femur was evidently removed. The scapula scapula/scap¡¤u¡¤la/ (skap¡äu-lah) pl. scap¡äulae ? [L.] shoulder blade; the flat, triangular bone in the back of the shoulder. scap¡äular scap¡¤u¡¤lan. pl. andcoracoid coracoid/cor¡¤a¡¤coid/ (kor¡äah-koid)1. like a crow's beak.2. the coracoid process.cor¡¤a¡¤coidn.1. , the tarsometatarsi and their phalanges and the wing bonesdistal of the humerus humerus:see arm. were articulated when recovered. It would appearthat some of these remains were carefully disarticulated, t he primarymeat-bearing elements and the vertebral column were removed, and theremaining elements buried. Disarticulation may have been assisted bycooking, probably boiling as the remains are uncharred. [CHART OMITTED] On morphological and metrical criteria, these remains aredefinitely those of the domestic chicken (Gallus gallus) and not ofother phasianids which may have existed or been imported into theregion, including the guinea fowl (Numida meleagris), partridges(Alectoris sp.) or francolins (Francolinus sp.). Criteria fordistinguishing domestic chicken from the guinea fowl and the frncolinsare presented in MacDonald (1992). Partridges, in many waysmorphologically similar to francolins, share such traits as the basalarticular articular/ar¡¤tic¡¤u¡¤lar/ (ahr-tik¡äu-ler) pertaining to a joint. ar¡¤tic¡¤u¡¤laradj.Of or relating to a joint or joints.articularpertaining to a joint. morphology of the coracoid and the possession of a projectingacromion acromion/acro¡¤mi¡¤on/ (ah-kro¡äme-on) the lateral extension of the spine of the scapula, forming the highest point of the shoulder. a¡¤cro¡¤mi¡¤onn. process on the scapula, which differentiate them from smallerchickens. As the remains are fully formed and show no traces of immaturity,and as the tarsometatarsus shows no trace of spur formation, they arealmost certainly those of a hen and not a cock. Metrical relation to other chicken populations As this articulated find is very unusual, we report themeasurements in detail (see TABLE 1). All measurements were takenfollowing the system of von den Driesch (1976).bone mm bone mmCranium -- GB 24 Ulna -- Dip 10.1Mandibular 42.2 Ulna -- Did 7.3 -- LaFCoracoid -- GL 43.4 Carpometacarpus -- GL 30.9Scapula -- GL 44.5 Carpometacarpus -- BP 9.6Scapula -- Dic 9.5 Carpal Phalanx 1 -- GL 12.2Radius -- GL 51.5 Pelvis -- DiA 5.2Radius -- BD 5.6 Tars ometatarsus -- GL 61.8Ulna -- GL 54 Tarsometatarsus -- BP 11Ulna -- BP 7.1 Tarsometatarsus -- BD 10.9 The Qasr Ibrim hen is a small individual (TABLE 1, FIGURE 3)comparable in size to modern bantam breeds, wild jungle-fowl and theIron Age domestic chickens of Mali and Europe. The small size ofdomestic chickens in Europe before the Roman era and in Africa untilmodern times is increasingly recognised (cf. Thesing 1977; MacDonald1992). This is most probably due to the semi-feral state of pre-Romanand African domesticates, usually left to forage for their own food orgiven nutritionally poor foodstuffs foodstuffsnpl → comestibles mplfoodstuffsnpl → denr¨¦es fpl alimentairesfoodstuffsfood npl → (MacDonald 1992). [CHART OMITTED] Discussion It has been believed that the earliest skeletal remainsattributable to the domestic chicken in Africa were those from Thebes,tentatively dated to Dynasty XVIII (c. 1567--1320 BC) (Darby et al.19 97: 301). From the illustration given (Darby et al. 1977: figure6.32), however, these would appear to be mixed remains from severalindividuals, including some waterfowl (anseriformes) and diurnalpredatory birds (falconiformes). A recent examination of this material,housed in the Agricultural Museum (Dokki, Egypt), by von den Driesch(pers. comm.) revealed absolutely no chicken amongst these remains.Although it is generally believed that the chicken was introduced toEgypt as a 'farmyard animal' along with European domesticgeese in the Persian period (Dynasty XXVII, beginning 525 BC), we haveno definite osteological evidence for the presence of domestic fowl inEgypt until the beginning of the Greco-Roman period (c. 332 BC)(Boessneck 1986; 1988). Remains from Ptolemaic and early Roman contexts(c. 332 BC to 200 AD) are known from the site of Tell Maskhuta in theeastern Nile Delta, and the earliest physical evidence for the domesticfowl from Upper Egypt has come from intrusive Cop tic contexts (c. post400 AD) at the necropolis necropolis:see cemetery. necropolis(Greek: “city of the dead”) Extensive and elaborate burial place serving an ancient city. The locations of these cemeteries varied. of Elephantine Elephantine(ĕl'əfăntī`nē), island, SE Egypt, in the Nile below the First Cataract, near Aswan. In ancient times it was a military post guarding the southern frontier of Egypt. (Boessneck & von denDriesch 1982; Boessneck 1986; Katzmann 1990). Chicken remains are alsoquantitatively very rare compared with those of waterfowl in the sitesfrom which they have been recovered. It is doubtful that chickens becamecommon in Egypt until sometime after the Ptolemaic period (post 30 BC). The earliest pictorial evidence, broadly coeval co¡¤e¡¤val?adj.Originating or existing during the same period; lasting through the same era.n.One of the same era or period; a contemporary. with the supposedearly skeletal remains from Th ebes, comes from a painted limestonefragment of a cock also dated to the New Kingdom (c. 1425--1123 BC), orpossibly more precisely to Dynasty XIX (Carter 1923: 1; Houlihan 1986:79). In the Ptolemaic period, depictions of fowl increase, for the mostpart roosters rather than hens. The tomb of Petosiris, dating to the 4thcentury BC, provides two representations of cocks amongst the funeraryofferings (Lefebvre 1923: volume III, plates XXXV, XLVII). Whether thesecan be interpreted as evidence for the 'consumption' ofchicken, as suggested by Houlihan (1986: 81), is doubtful. The funerarycontext need not, of course, reflect domestic circumstances and the twococks are depicted in a manner very different from the numerous ducks,geese and other birds in the offering scenes, suggesting a more symbolicrole for the cocks. Outside Egypt, the earliest representation ofchickens in Africa is a single anomalous occurrence on ivory plaquesfrom the Dynasty XXV tomb of Iretirou, at Nuri in north Sudan (mid 7thcentury BC) (Dunham 1955: 37). However, the source of these plaques isuncertain and local manufacture is unlikely. At Meroe, a number of whatare probably chickens are depicted on the chapel wall of the royalpyramid Beg. N. 11. The dating of this tomb is uncertain and thesuggested early-2nd-century BC date remains tentative (Lepsius 1849--55:volume V, plate 29; Dunham 1957: 72). A loose fragment of sculpturedepicting roosters found at Faras in Sudanese Nubia (Griffith 1926: 35,plate XXX.5), seems likely to be of late Meroitic date. It would seemthat the lack of chicken remains and the scarcity of representations indynastic Egypt are indeed due to a real rarity, if not an absence, ofthe domestic fowl prior to the Ptolemaic period, apart from'exotics'. The chicken at Qasr Ibrim dating to the late 5h or early 6thcenturies AD, further evidence for north--south contacts along the NileValley during the Post-Meroitic period (cf. Rowley-Conwy 1989a), mayshow the route followed by the chicken during its dispersion intosub-Saharan Africa. Extensive modern archaeo-zoological studies atearlier sites in central Sudan such as Meroe (Carter & Foley 1980)and Kerma (Chaix 1990) provide no osteological evidence for domesticfowl. Although a single find of 'chicken bones' was reportedfrom a ritual deposit in the chapel of a very late Meroitic pyramid(Beg. N. 36; dated by Dunham to c. 228--246 AD), this importantidentification remains unconfirmed (Dunham 1957: 184). At present, theearliest known remains for chicken elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa arefrom Jenne-jeno (Mali) and date to between 450 and 850 AD (MacDonald1992). Remains dating to after 800 AD are known from most of the rest ofSub-Saharan Africa (MacDonald 1992). Thus, the remains from Qasr Ibrimmay be seen to represent the earliest known incidence of domesticchicken in Africa south of the Tropic of Cancer (see FIGURE 4). [CHART OMITTED] As well as the Nile corridor, the other two pos sible routes fordiffusion of the chicken into sub-Saharan Africa are from the NorthAfrican littoral and the East African coast. The Phoenicians played theprimary role in popularizing the domestic fowl across the Mediterraneanregion; the earliest positive osteological evidence for domesticchickens from Sicily and southern Spain are linked with Phoeniciansettlements dating to c. 800--600 BC (Ryder 1975; Carrasquilla 1992).Unfortunately we have no data from Phoenician sites along the NorthAfrican littoral, particularly Carthage, where it is probable thatchicken was present. Early evidence for trans-Saharan commerce remainsproblematic, so it is doubtful that chickens, if present, could havefollowed this route until much later. The appearance of chicken remainsin sites along the East African coast dating to the 9th century are mostprobably related to Indian Ocean trade which, although foreshadowed byearlier coastal voyages, did not begin in earnest until c. 800 AD(Phillipson 1988 : 197). It would appear that the chicken was most likelyintroduced to Qasr Ibrim and into the Sudan from the north along theNile corridor. The early remains from Jenne-jeno and other Saheliansites may be attributed either to east--west trade along theSahelo--Sudanic belt or to trans-Saharan camel caravan trade from theNorth African littoral, which may have begun as early the 5th century AD(Curtin 1985). Acknowledgements. We would like to acknowledge the support of theEgyptian Exploration Society, sponsor of the Qasr Ibrim expedition, andthe many members of the field staff who have helped with theexcavations. Thanks to M. Whewell, B. 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