ANIMAL BONE REMAINS FROM THE MIDDLE BRONZE AGE BURIAL CAVE AT BEIT Ṣafafa, JERUSALEM

A salvage excavation of a Middle Bronze Age II burial cave near Beit Safafa (see Ben-Ari and Wiegmann, this volume) yielded a small assemblage of animal bones that had been deposited in the tomb. These bones provide another opportunity to study animal consumption associated with funerary events and the variability in mortuary ritual during this period. The damage sustained to the site by construction activities prohibited the detailed mapping of the finds inside the cave; therefore, the entire assemblage was studied as a single unit. The main questions were: what animal species were represented by the bone fragments found in the cave, and how many individuals of each? Selection for body part, side of the body, age and sex of the animals consumed is common in ritual contexts (Lev Tov and McGeough 2001) and these aspects were therefore sought in the assemblage in hope of clarifying details of the mortuary rite. Bone surface modifications and preservation were studied to understand the butchery and food preparation practices used in the funerary ceremonies, and to separate the patterns in the data affected by taphonomic processes and those affected by human procedures.