(Uromastyx aegyptia) in Saudi Arabia

Journal of Archaeological Science 45 (2014) 96e102

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Journal of Archaeological Science journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jas

Archaeozoological evidence for traditional consumption of spiny-tailed lizard (Uromastyx aegyptia) in Saudi Arabia Hervé Monchot a, c, *, Salvador Bailon b, Jérémie Schiettecatte c a

Labex Resmed, PRES Sorbonne Universités, Université Sorbonne Paris IV, 1 Place Victor Cousin, 75005 Paris, France Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, UMR 7209 du CNRS Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: sociétés, pratiques et environnements case postale 55, 55 rue Buffon, 75005 Paris, France c UMR 8167, Orient & Méditerranée, Mondes sémitiques 27, rue Paul Bert, 94204 Ivry sur Seine cedex, France b

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history: Received 20 September 2013 Received in revised form 10 February 2014 Accepted 16 February 2014

A total of 145 skeletal remains belonging to the Arabian spiny-tailed lizard, locally called ḍabb (Uromastyx aegyptia) were found in various archaeological levels of the Late Pre-Islamic/Early Islamic site of alYamâma, Saudi Arabia. All the skeletal parts of the lizard were identifieddskull, trunk, forelimb and hindlimbdand represent a minimum of 22 individuals. The presence of lizard bones mixed with other bones considered mostly as food-waste, and the identification of a cut mark on a tibia made by a cutting tool, suggest an anthropogenic origin for some of this material. Their strong skin was a source of leather, while their meat was often considered as an alternative source of protein. This appears to be the first zooarchaeological confirmation of the consumption of lizards by the medieval Arab population of Central Arabia, a custom known in the written tradition. Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Spiny-tailed lizard (Uromastyx aegyptia) Zooarchaeology Consumption al-Yamâma Saudi Arabia

1. Introduction If lizards are abundant in the desert environment of the Arabian Peninsula or more generally in southwestern Asia and adjacent areas, there are few remnants of these species among the faunal lists from archaeological sites. Its primarily small taxa that are often mentioned as in faunal reports as “small lizards”, as for example from the Middle Pleistocene site of Qesem cave in Israel, which contains thousands of remains of lizards (i.e., Laudakia sp., Chamaeleo sp., Varanus sp., Maul et al., 2011) or in the site of ed-Dur in the United Arab Emirates (very rare bones of a small lizard, Van Neer and Gautier, 1993). These species, which are even not always contemporaneous with the rest of fauna, are generally considered as intrusive animals that died naturally on the site or as a bird prey and were not consumed by people. Contrarily to the Nile Area (EgypteSudan), where large lizards as Varanus or Uromastyx are often mentioned among the faunal list from archaeological sites (e.g., Peters, 1986, 1991), theses species are rarely described in the Arabian peninsula, excepted maybe some vertebrae of Varanus in

* Corresponding author. 51 Bd JF Kennedy, 51000 Châlons-en-Champagne, France. Tel.: þ33 (0)632694948. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (H. Monchot), [email protected] (S. Bailon), [email protected] (J. Schiettecatte). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2014.02.012 0305-4403/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Tell Aswad in Syria (Helmer and Gourichon, 2008). Generally, these species do not pertain to animals killed by people for consumption, but in the western desert of Egypt in a Neolithic site there is some evidence of Uromastyx consumption albeit without any cutmarks (Van Neer and Uerpmann, 1989). However, none of these sites has provided sufficient data for a zooarchaeological analysis. The lack of evidence in archaeological records can perhaps be explained by taphonomic and certain cultural traits: (1) the small size of the lizard’s bones reduces the chance of surviving the many sources of destruction that usually affect bones in an archaeological context; (2) the absence of systematic sediment screening; and (3) lizard bones stand a slim chance of being found in archaeological context if the consumers were nomadic peoples (Elmahi, 2002: 40). Several species and subspecies of the genus Uromastyx live in the arid desert lands that extend from northern Africa to southwestern Asia, including Pakistan and Northwest India (Fig. 1, Wilms and Böhme, 2007). Currently 15 species are considered to be valid, of which 6 are known to occur on the Arabian Peninsula (Wilms et al., 2009). Among these species, Uromastyx aegyptia (Forskål, 1775) is by far the largest member of the genus, reaching a maximum body length of more than 700 mm and a weight of up to 2500 g (Fig. 1). The Egyptian spiny-tailed lizard or mastigure (U. aegyptia microlepis) is found in central Saudi Arabia, Sultanate of Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and in the north and south

H. Monchot et al. / Journal of Archaeological Science 45 (2014) 96e102

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Fig. 1. A. Distribution range of the genus Uromastyx (after Wilms and Böhme, 2007: Fig. 1). B. Distribution of Uromastyx aegyptia aegyptia and Uromastyx aegyptia microlepis (for more details on the localities see Wilms and Böhme, 2007: Fig. 3). C. Photograph of Uromastyx aegyptia taken in South-East Jordan at around 100 km at the east from al-Jafr basin (Photograph W. Abu-Azizeh).

of Iraq (Fig. 1, Wilms and Böhme, 2000, 2007) and is locally known in Arabic as ḍabb. It is a burrowing lizard which has a predilection for open habitats with sand and gravel substrates, and sparse vegetation (Wilms et al., 2010). This lizard is a diurnal species that becomes active during the daytime while the outside temperature does not exceed 40 C. They have the ability of physiological colour change. At high temperatures the animals show a light brown to yellow or greenish coloration with a black throat and small black dots on the neck and dorsum. At low temperatures they show a dark grey coloration (Cunningham, 2001, 2013; Wilms and Böhme, 2000, 2007; Wilms et al., 2009). Uromastyx feeds on shrubs and other desert plants and occasionally on insects like beetles, ants, grasshoppers and even scorpions (Kevork and Al-Uthman, 1972; Wilms and Böhme, 2007). The discovery of 145 skeletal remains of spiny-tailed lizards in the Early to Late Islamic levels of the site of al-Yamâma in Saudi Arabia leads us to examine the contexts of their presence and the origin of these bones (natural or anthropogenic).

2. The site of al-Yamâma (al-Kharj oasis) The area of al-Kharj is located in the eastern part of the Najd in East-Central Saudi Arabia (Fig. 2). Within this oasis, the largest archaeological site is called al-Yamâma (Philby, 1920: 168; Zarins et al., 1979: 27, 30). This site is located in an alluvial plain watered by one of the largest drainage basins in the Arabian Peninsula (Vaslet et al., 1991). The archaeological area stretches over 75 ha (Fig. 3). The occupation of the site is dated at least from the 2nd century BC to the 18th century AD (Al-Ghazzi, 2010; Schiettecatte et al., 2013, 2014; Schiettecatte and al-Ghazzi, in press).

Faunal remains come from two archaeological contexts: Sounding 1 (accumulation of waste deposits in open-air area) and Sounding 2 (dwelling). In these soundings, four chronological phases of occupation have been isolated: phase 1 (15the18th centuries AD); phase 2 (Abbasid period: 8the12th cent. AD); phase 3 (provisionally dated to the Late pre-Islamic/Early Islamic period: 4the7th cent. AD); phase 4 (ca. 3rd cent. BCe3rd cent. AD). Uromastyx bones were found in eighteen stratigraphic units in both soundings, and in phases 1, 2, and 3. Their absence in the most ancient phase, phase 4, in spite of sieving, might be either due to different cultural practices or to the limited extension of the excavated area (9 sq. m. at the bottom of Sounding 1). The bones are always associated with other faunal remains including mammals considered mostly as food wastes (Table 1, Monchot, 2012). If the subsistence strategies of the inhabitants of the site were closely related to the exploitation of camels and caprines (sheep/goat), there is a non-negligible portion of wild, humanly-processed animals (gazelles, oryx, ostrich eggshells). Finally, but for Sounding 2 (dwelling), Uromastyx bones are always found in open-air areas, frequently along mudbrick walls, mixed with other bones. These bone deposits are seen as dumping areas.

3. The lizard bone assemblage The use of faunal reference collections in the French National Museum of Natural History in Paris made it possible to validate the field identifications. Among the lizard bone assemblage, the main diagnostic characteristic of the genus is the presence in adult specimens of a premaxillary bone forming a sharp (Fig. 4D), toothlike bone structure replacing the incisive teeth of the juvenile stage (Moody, 1980; Wilms and Böhme, 2007; Wilms et al., 2009).

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Fig. 2. The location of the oasis of al-Kharj and its environmental context (J. Schiettecatte e French-Saudi Archaeological Mission in al-Kharj).

Another characteristic is provided by the dentary and maxillary pleurodont teeth, which become firmly ankylosed to the bone as acrodont teeth (Fig. 4A and G). The acrodont teeth are truncated blunt cylinders with a rounded labial surface. Generally, in the oldest specimens the crowns are worn to such an extent that a continuous cutting edge is formed without distinguishable teeth. In Uromastyx, the jugal possesses a strong dorsal process but the infratemporal process is absent (Fig. 4E); the dentary is short and robust with a squarish anterior profile and a high coronoid process (Fig. 4A). On the dentary, wear surfaces are visible on both the dental bone between the teeth and on the teeth themselves. The splenial is fused with the dentary. The vertebrae are procoelus and flattened, possess a broadly rounded and smooth centrum and the condyle is set off centrum by a neck (Cooper et al., 1970; Cooper and Poole, 1973; Moody, 1980; Augé, 1988, 2005). Some of the studied elements belong to individuals of relatively large size, approximately 500 mm in total length and 300 mm in SVL (snout-vent length). Thus, among the different species of Uromastyx currently present in the Arabian Peninsula, the estimated total length of our individuals is only reached, or even exceeded, by U. aegyptia, also the only species currently present in the area where the site is located, while in other species the maximum known length is smaller, apparently not exceeding 400 mm and their present distribution does not include the region of al-Kharj (Wilms and Böhme, 2000, 2007; Wilms et al., 2009). We observed an abundance of vertebrae (n ¼ 83, 57.6%), which is not surprising in view of the number of vertebrae present in the animal (49: 8 cervical, 16 dorsal, 2 sacral, 23 caudal, El-Toubi, 1949). The trunk is also represented by 91 elements (63.2%). Nevertheless, most elements are present in the different structures studied: 20 remains (13.9%) belong to the skull, 10 (6.2%) to the forelimb and 24 (16.7%) to the hindlimb (Table 2). The bones are complete or rarely fragmented and show essentially unaltered surfaces (Fig. 4H), except a vertebra in UF 057 which clearly shows marks of corrosion from the acidic gastric juices of a predator (Fig. 4B), while a tibia found in UF 017 shows a cut mark produced by a cutting tool

(Fig. 4C). An anthropogenic origin seems to be attributable to at least some of the studied material. 4. Discussion The presence of spiny-tailed lizard bones mixed together with other faunal remains from domestic or hunted species as well as a cut mark likely made by a cutting tool suggest an anthropogenic origin for some of this faunal material. This origin is confirmed by the stratigraphic contexts where lizards were encountered, often in domestic dumping areas or in the occupation level of a dwelling structure (Building 2) (Table 1). While this is the first evidence of the consumption of lizards in an archaeological context, such a practice is documented in historical sources, as well as in the Hadiths of the prophet Muhammad, i.e. the reports of his deeds and sayings, in travellers’ reports from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and in recent ethnographic studies. The Periplus Maris Erythraei (x 30), a description of maritime roads and trade between Egypt, Arabia and India by an unknown author of the 1st century AD, reports that the island of Suqutra, south of Yemen, is a barren land “with huge lizards, so huge that people eat the flesh and melt down the fat to use in place of oil” (x 30, translation by Casson, 1989: 69). It might have applied to monitors, either Varanus griseus or Varanus niloticus. On the eve of Islam, lizards were a constituent part of the diet of the Arabian population, being mentioned in several Hadiths. A recurrent episode in this written tradition is that of Muhammad refusing to consume it personally but not condemning it (Lecomte, 1965: 350; Bettini, 1998: 80). Contrary to what the 19th-century traveller Burckhardt said, lizard was not eaten “in defiance of the laws of the prophet” (Burckhardt, 1822: 664) since it was not considered as harâm (sinful). In the mid-11th century AD, on his way back from Mecca to Persia, when crossing central Arabia, the Persian traveller Nasir-i Khusraw wrote that as soon as his fellow travellers caught sight of a lizard, they seized it, killed it and ate it (Schefer, 1881: 219).


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ma: map of the archaeological structures visible on the ground (M. Niveleau, J. Schiettecatte e French-Saudi Archaeological Mission in al-Kharj). Fig. 3. Al-Yama

The Egyptian historian al-Nuwayrî (1279e1332) mentions the consumption of lizards among the tribe of Banû Tamîm (Shams alDîn, 2004: 167), recalling the fact that it was tolerated by Islamic law but that other Arabs took this tribe for fools because of this habit. It is all the more interesting that this nomadic tribe was centered around the area immediately to the north of al-Yamâma. European travellers who crossed the Arabian peninsula in the past two centuries attest to the capture of lizards with several purposesdthe use of the scaly skin to preserve butter, water or to form tobacco purses (Burckhardt, 1822: 534, 664; Thesiger, 1978: 101), and the occasional consumption of its flesh in the region of the Jawf (North Arabia e Burckhardt, 1822: 534, 664), in the desert

of Rub‘ al-Khâlî (Thomas, 1932: 238) and in Central Oman (Thesiger, 1978: 222e223), that is to say almost the whole distribution area of that species in Arabia (Fig. 1). Recently, a detailed ethnographic study of the spiny-tailed lizard’s role in the diet of nomadic and settled populations of Central Oman cast new light on this tradition, showing that it is currently hunted and that it represents an occasional food resource for both nomadic population and oasis farmers (Elmahi, 2002; see also Cunningham, 2013 for the United Arab Emirates). This lizard is easy to capture, either by digging it out of its hole, or by trapping it with snares (Elmahi, 2002: 37). Once captured, lizards are usually slaughtered. According to the practices performed in the Sultanate

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Table 1 Faunal list in Number of identified specimens of the different stratigraphic layers (UF) which present some spiny-tailed lizard bones. UF UF UF UF UF UF UF UF UF UF UF UF UF UF UF UF UF UF UF

002 004 005 010 012 015 017 020 023 041 044 053 055 056 057 058 101 102

N

Camel

Sheep/Goat

33 91 52 182 159 71 196 73 86 320 78 1008 726 501 722 74 167 15

10 40 12 54 77 9 27 28 8 31 8 39 76 49 19 1 18 5

9 19 22 48 47 26 51 27 13 34 5 62 32 34 69 8 16 3

Gazelle 3 2 9 1 5 19 4

Bovids

Donkey

2 9

Dog

Fox

Cat

Ratel

Ostrich

Bird

1

15 11

2

1 1

1

1

3 7

1 2 3 25

2 7 4

2

1 1 2

1 1

2

1

1

1 1

Lizard 1 4 6 1 1 6 55 4 28 6 2 1 1 6 4 1 17 1

LM

MM

SM

Ind.

2

4 1 3 44 9 17 39 6 1 6

5 14 9 4 þþþþ 5 34 2 31 221 63 832 560 370 580 61 101

1 6 2 2 2 1 1 16

1 1 8

49 24 14 17

2 1

6 1 1

6

9 1

10 4 17 19 2 8 3

LM ¼ Large-sized Mammal; MM ¼ Medium-sized Mammal; SM ¼ Small-sized Mammal; Ind. ¼ indeterminate.

of Oman, the butchery process begins by severing the head and the limbs, an action likely to cause a cut mark on the tibia much like the one observed at al-Yamâma. Then the lizard is skinned and cut into small parts for cooking. The eggs could be cooked with the other parts of the lizard in a stew or eaten raw (Elmahi, 2002: 41). Thus, the consumption of spiny-tailed lizards is a longestablished practice in the Arabian Peninsula, constituting a significant nutritional supplement in such a harsh environment. While Arabic tradition associates this dietary custom with nomadic Bedouins (Bettini, 1998: 78, 80; Kopf, 1965: 71e72), the ethnographic study in Central Oman (Elmahi, 2002), as well as the discovery of bones in the urban context of the pre-Islamic and

medieval site of al-Yamâma, show that city dwellers in the region also used to occasionally augment their diet with this source of protein and fat. 5. Conclusion With the exception of tortoises which have been widely consumed by humans at all times (e.g., Klemens and Thorbjarnarson, 1995; De Grosso Mazzorin and Minniti, 1999; Speth and Tchernov, 2002; Avery et al., 2004; Blasco, 2008), references to reptiles in archaeozoological studies are most often limited to the description of some invasive or troglophile species hunted by

Fig. 4. Uromastyx aegyptia. A: right dentary UF 005, lateral and medial views; B: trunk vertebra UF 057, dorsal view; C: left tibia UF 017 with a probably cutting mark, medio-ventral view; D: right premaxillary UF 044, antero-dorsal view; E: right jugal UF 017, lateral view; F: left ilium UF 017, lateral view; G: left maxillary UF 057, lateral view; H: right humerus UF 023, ventral view.


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Table 2 Skeletal elements of Uromastyx aegyptia according to the different stratigraphic layers (UF) of al-Yamâma. UF

Sector

Type of deposition/structure

Skeletal elements Skull PM

UF002 UF004 UF005 UF010 UF012 UF015 UF017 UF020 UF023 UF041 UF044 UF053 UF055 UF056 UF057

S1 CP S1 CP S1 CP S1 CP S1 CP S1 CP S1 CP S1 CP B1 S1 CP West B1 S1 NP S1 NP S1 NP S1 NP

UF058 UF101 UF102

S1 NP B2 R109 B2 R109

Aeolian sand deposit Destruction layer Aeolian sand deposit Circulation level Aeolian sand deposit Circulation level Circulation level Circulation level Aeolian sand deposit over Building 1 Circulation level Destruction layer over a circulation level Aeolian sand deposit, light occupation (hearths) Destruction layer Aeolian sand deposit, light occupation (hearths) Aeolian sand deposit, light occupation (hearths) over destruction Aeolian sand deposit Destruction layer over an occupation level Occupation level Total

M

J

1 3

D 2 1

1

1 2 1

1

NR Trunk V 1 2 1 1 1 4 36 3 19 6

Forelimb R

S

H

1

4

R

U

1

1

I

Is

P

F

T

Fi

Mt

1

1 2

1 1

1

2

2 2

2

2

2

1 1 1 1 1

1 1

1

1

7

2

83

8

1

2 1 1

1

7

2

3 1 10

1 1

4

MNI

Hindlimb

1 2

3

4

1

4

3

1

2

3

5

4

1 4 6 1 1 6 55 4 28 6 2 1 1 6 4

1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1

1 17 1 145

1 2 1 22

[S1 ¼ sounding 1; CP ¼ central part; B1 ¼ building 1; NP ¼ northern part; B2 R109 ¼ building 2 room 109] [PM ¼ Premaxillary; M ¼ Maxillary; J ¼ Jugal; D ¼ Dentary; V ¼ Vertebrae; R ¼ Rib; S ¼ Scapula; H ¼ Humerus; R ¼ Radius; U ¼ Ulna; I ¼ Ilium; Is ¼ Ischium; P ¼ Pubis; F ¼ Femur; T ¼ Tibia; Fi ¼ Fibula; Mt ¼ Metatarsal; NR ¼ number of remains; MNI ¼ Minimum number of individuals].

predators such as carnivores or birds (e.g., Bailon and Aouraghe, 2002; Blain et al., 2008; Maul et al., 2011). Moreover, these studies are usually oriented towards palaeoclimatic or palaeoenvironmental reconstructions. As such, the discovery of many skeletal remains of spiny-tailed lizards at the Pre-Islamic/Islamic site of al-Yamâma is quite exceptional. While human consumption of lizards is seldom documented in the Near East and Middle East (see introduction), it is attested to in other parts of the world, such as in Peru in South America during the ‘Neolithic’ (with the species Dicrodon sp. and Callopistes flavipunctatus, Béarez et al., 2011), species still eaten today (Holmberg, 1957) or in the pre-Columbian Neotropics (Cooke, 1981). The use of lizards as food for humans can be traced back to the middle Pleistocene in Java (Auffenberg, 1988; see more references in Klemens and Thorbjarnarson, 1995) to today (Buffrénil and Hémery, 2007). In the Arabian Peninsula, the spiny-tailed lizard was one of the sources of subsistence for the inland inhabitants. Like other desert species such as the gazelle and the Ethiopian hedgehog, the Bedouins and farmers from al-Yamâma harvested these animals, which might have provided an important nutritional supplement to their diet.

Acknowledgements The authors are very grateful to John Speth, Mounir Arbach, Wael Abu-Azizeh and Michel Coutureau for the remarks and documentation they shared with them. Hervé Monchot benefited from financial support from the Labex Resmed. The Saudi-French Mission benefited from the support of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (Riyadh), the King Saud University (Riyadh), the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the French Embassy in Riyadh, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), UMR 8167 ‘Orient et Méditerranée’, the French National Research Agency (ANR), the Labex ‘ResMed’ [ANR-10-LABX-72], the University of Paris-Sorbonne, and the University of Strasbourg. The authors would like to thank these institutions most warmly for their financial and technical support.

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