Byzantine coop in Sa'adon / Photo credit: University of Haifa
Posted on 03/24/2018 8:16:20 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
The study, which focused on the ancient settlements of Shivta and Sa'adon, found archaeological evidence that the Byzantines in the Negev did not raise their pigeons for food, but to fertilize the dry loess soil and making it more suitable for intensive agriculture.
Loess is made up of fragment of geological detritus, formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. But despite its lowly origins, loess tends to develop into very rich soils. Under appropriate climatic conditions, it forms some of the most agriculturally productive terrain in the world.
"The pigeon droppings are rich in phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen, which are essential for agriculture and lacking in the loess soil of the Negev," the researchers noted, adding that "the fact that the pigeon bones we found are much smaller than pigeons grown for meat, along with the nesting materials discovered in the trenches and the location of these within the agricultural fields, indicate that the pigeons were grown without significant human intervention, with people mainly providing them with protection."
In recent years, a large-scale study has been conducted in the Byzantine Negev communities, led by Prof. Guy Bar-Oz of the University of Haifa, in an attempt to understand, among other things, how the Byzantines managed to maintain an extensive farming system in the desert about 1,500 years ago, and what caused these thriving communities to be abandoned overnight.
In a study published several months ago, the research group presented significant archaeological evidence of the extent of agriculture in the Negev at the time, using the bones of a rodent (Marion), which lives only in more humid environments and is not found in desert.
(Excerpt) Read more at jewishpress.com ...
Byzantine coop in Sa'adon / Photo credit: University of Haifa
I wonder what water sources were in the Negev at the time.
bird flu
Islam.
Somehow I suspect that they also raised them for eggs, and meat in addition to fertilizer. Strange how myopic “researchers” are. Sometimes I think pot is a key research tool.
Rome actually scattered the Jewish people from Israel. Islam came 330 years later.
They’re saying this place flourished 1500 years ago, i.e., the sixth century.
Then you get the Arabs taking over in the 7th.
Crack pot?
Used to work with a guy that raced pigeons for a hobby. He told a story about a guy that cleaned out his coop intending to use the droppings to fertilize his lawn. Instead he got a lawn full of whatever weeds that the pigeons had been eating as seed.
Tastes like Chicken.
Did they have Pigeon-fil-As ?
There’s an old practice to deal with that problem, it’s called “weeding”. Also note that the birdies were probably being fed a steady diet and having their wings clipped to keep them on the site.
/bingo
The sudden abandonment (in the article, “abandoned overnight”) was obviously from the Islamic scourge after these farms had been thriving a while.
The redemption of the Negev in the 20th century came about through lots of hard work and careful, regular hand watering by the residents of the kibbutzim. Nasser wanted to annex the Negev to Egypt, but the Pan-Arab attempt to annihilate the Jews didn’t work out for the bastards.
Squab!
Pigeon towers were found in a number of places in the Middle East. Google “Images of Pigeon Towers.” Below is a link about use of pigeon towers in Isfahan, Iran for pigeon manure and agriculture.
[snip] Wood also looks at the list of cities that the Iliad says sent ships to Troy. Many were long gone by Homer’s time. One was Thisbe, which Homer describes as a city of many pigeons. Following Homer’s directions in Greece, Wood tracks down the site of the Bronze Age ruins of Thisbe. And the site is full of pigeons! [/snip]
https://atlassociety.org/commentary/commentary-blog/4470-tv-review-when-men-were-gods
Maybe eggs, but as I read the article, they discounted the birds as a meaningful source of meat.
In Search Of The Trojan War Extra: Michael Wood Interview (BBC)
Bingo. The moslem armies wiped out extensive irrigated farms in Egypt and Libya.
They say in the article 1500 years ago. But that’s within the margin of error for when the moslem armies swept through about 650 AD
In Search Of The Trojan War Extra: Michael Wood Interview (BBC)
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