By author > Pernille Bangsgaard

Jerash located in northern Jordan, was one of the Decapolis cities, but also an important city during the Roman, Byzantine and Islamic periods. Earlier archaeological missions have focused mainly on large scale monumental architecture as well as the central part of the city. The Danish-German Northwest Quarter Project, directed by Rubina Raja and Achim Lichtenberger, began exploring the highest point of the walled city in 2011. The area lies behind the Sanctuary of Artemis, next to the city wall and has in previous decades gone largely unexplored. In 6 archaeological campaigns the project has significantly added to the knowledge of the city of Jerash and documented extensive occupation of this particular area in the Roman, Late Roman, Byzantine, Umayyad and Mamluk periods. The faunal collection represents material from a wide range of contexts, such as monumental buildings, houses, streets, occupation- and waste layers.

This paper will present a summary of the analysis of these faunal remains. The aim is to identify the ways that the people within this quarter of Jerash were procuring and utilizing various animal populations and recourses, enabling the inhabitants to flourish over time and in multiple periods.