Towards the development of a quantitative spatial method for the study of the social organization of the Igiliz archaeological site (Morocco, 11th-13th c.): a case study on faunal remains

Although intrasite spatial studies of artefact distribution are not new, their scarcity in the field of medieval Islamic archaeology in Portugal, Spain and Morocco is evident. The research conducted at the Igiliz archaeological site (Morocco, 11th-13th c.) constitutes a first attempt at this approach in Morocco to analyze functional and social organizations. It is conducted within the scope of a PhD thesis, as part of the Moroccan-French archaeological program “La Montagne d'Igiliz et le pays des Arghen”. Its aim is to develop a method tailored to the site context which shapes research questions, excavation strategies, recording techniques and determines the format of our data. The study focuses on faunal remains, which, by their nature, are the elected proxy for the study. The approach is based on a trial and error process of finding suitable visualization and treatment methods. As a result, heatmaps by Kernel Density Estimation (KDE), although widely used in prehistoric archaeology, prove to be unfit for our data. A visualization at the scale of the structures using an adapted symbology is preferred. Meanwhile, multivariate statistics, in particular Correspondence Analysis and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis, allow for a comparison between the assemblages at the scale of the archaeological site. Both resulting figures show similar tendencies within data opposing the two main taxa at the site (Caprinae and Bos taurus). This result needs to be interpreted against subsequent queries in order to assess the impact of spatial, occupational, functional or social dynamics on the formation of the faunal assemblage.