“Come, O pilgrim”—but buy local: an isotopic investigation of animal provisioning at Iron Age II Tel Dan

This pilot study examines the provisioning of domestic sheep and goats as it pertains to pilgrimage at the archeological site of Tel Dan (Tell el-Qadi), Israel, an Iron Age IIA–B (ca. 10th/9th–7th c. BCE) religious center in the southern Levant traditionally associated with Israelite Yahwistic worship. The question of how far animals were transported for sacrifice is addressed through isotopic analyses (carbon, oxygen, and strontium) on tooth enamel of domestic sheep and goats (predominately sheep) from Iron Age IIA–B contexts at Tel Dan through sequential intra-tooth sampling. While the results show some diversity of origins among the animals, none was brought from a distance greater than 10–20 km from Tel Dan. As such, the data suggest that however far pilgrims traveled to the site, the animals sold for sacrifice and consumption were raised locally.