The Pork in the Road: Revisiting Animal Husbandry Trends in Central Italy, 900-100 BCE

Abstract

The rise of Rome and its expansion have long been invoked to explain changes in observed animal husbandry practices in central Italy and elsewhere. Shifts in livestock frequencies and the evolution of domestic animal morphology have been understood to coincide with the Roman conquest of Italy, representing direct manifestations of Rome assuming political and economic power over the region. Central Italian zooarchaeological scholarship has linked an increase in the ratio of pig remains against other livestock species through time with a Roman influence in the first millennium BCE. Pork consumption has been closely associated with Roman culture, both due to the high percentages of pig in assemblages from Rome and the emphasis placed upon pork in the Latin sources from the Imperial period. Consequently, the scholarly consensus has been that a broad increase in pig percentages through time is indicative of ‘Romanisation’ in the region and that, as Rome expanded, settlements emulated Roman dietary preferences through both ‘peopleled’ and ‘military-led’ mechanisms. This study uses statistical methods to reconsider the central Italian dataset of livestock ratios from the first millennium BCE. Results indicate that a positive trend towards pig husbandry is present, but that the inclusion of assemblages from Rome strongly influences the strength of this trend. An increase in variance through time was also detected in the dataset. Rather than gradual convergence towards intensified pig husbandry, as has been previously understood, the results of this study suggest that central Italian sites became increasingly diverse in their animal husbandry regimes through time. Faunal data from Tarquinia, Caere, and Narce was tested for the presence of a trend in livestock frequencies. Excluding Rome, these are the only sites from the central Italian dataset with multiple faunal assemblages across an 800 year period. While the data was insufficient to identify a trend, a synchronic analysis indicated a striking difference in livestock frequencies between the sites. Zooarchaeological literature has recently called for the reassessment of broad narratives, such as ‘Romanisation’, and their application to observed changes in faunal data. The results of this study bolster this need for re-evaluation. This study reveals a high degree of variance within the central Italian dataset and, thus, a tension between broad narratives and site-level variability in animal husbandry regimes. Future faunal studies are required to elucidate site-level and subcentury diversity in animal husbandry strategies across central Italy.