Shape analysis of Iron Age sheep astragali suggests west-to-east morphotype diffusion in the southern Levant

We examine the possibility that expanding trans-Mediterranean trade during the Iron Age (ca. 1,000–350 BCE) has resulted in increased morphological variability among sheep from maritime sites in the southern Levant. Using geometric morphometric tools, we compared the variability in sheep astragal morphology in a port settlement on the Carmel coast (Tel Dor), a coastal settlement in the Akko valley (Tell Keisan), and an inland urban settlement in the Hula Valley (Tel Abel Beit Maacah). Our results suggest that the sheep astragali from the port settlement at Tel Dor occupy a significantly different part of shape space than the specimens examined from the two other sites. In addition, a source-sink dynamic is implied by the appearance of coastal morphotypes in the inland site, whereas unique inland morphotypes do not occur at the coastal site. This findings do not contradict the possibility of maritime importation and consequent overland spread of non-local sheep variants in the southern Levant during the heyday of ‘Phoenician’ trade.