How and Where did Shawbak Castle's People Live? The Faunal Remains.

Excavations have been underway at Shawbak Castle’s area 6000c since 2005. In this report we present the preliminary results of the zooarchaeological analysis of the fauna from this area. The excavation reached horizons that range from the Crusader/Ayyubid to the Mamluk periods. The biodiversity of the fauna shows a marked decrease from the earlier to the latest stratigraphical levels. Both assemblages are dominated by two goats of different sizes. In the light of the present analyses, the use of goats changed through time. Another mammalian taxon worth noting is Sus scrofa/domesticus, which indirectly confirms the presence of Christian communities. The few wild taxa include the gazelle, several birds, and the parrotfish. Birds are always quite frequent and include an Ardeid and the Syrian ostrich in the earlier levels, substituted by the hawk and crow in the younger horizon. This substitution indicates a marked change in the exploitation of birds by the local human population. Moreover, the presence of typical water dwellers in the earlier levels and the occurrence of open landscape dwellers such as the gazelle attest to an evident environmental change. The parrotfish, represented by a king-size variety, Scaurus sp., occurs in relatively high numbers. The large amounts of a so rapidly rotting food item raises the question of its transportation and preservation in a locality many kilometers away from the nearest sea shore. Given the importance of the site and the control the castle had in the region, the data that can be disclosed from Shawbak with the opportune zooarchaeological methodologies can not only add considerably to our knowledge of the subsistence strategies of the time, also in relation to the climatic changes and environmental conditions which occurred during the castle’s existence, but it can also impact considerably on established models about the commercial and trading routes in this part of the Near East.