North Africa: the Maghreb
There are, at present, very few assemblages from the North African provinces. Most date from the late Roman period or later (Fig. 17), leaving only Cherchel (Clark 1993) and some of the Libyan Valley Survey sites (Clark 1986) to provide data pertinent to Romanisation. The Libyan sites all present a markedly sheep/goat dominated pattern that in fact persists throughout the Imperial period and into the Byzantine era (e.g. at Leptis Magna: Siracusano 1994; Caloi 1975). It seems likely that Romanisation had little influence on a strong indigenous dietary culture, that was reinforced by environmental determinants acting against the extensive rearing of cattle and pigs.
In Mauretania, Cherchel presents a different picture, with cattle bones predominant in the Juban/early Imperial and late Roman assemblages (Clark 1993), followed by sheep/goat and pig. Pig, too, is much more common than on the Libyan sites. By the 5th century in this region, sheep and goats are dominant, pig almost as common, but cattle markedly less so, as noted on sites such as Cherchel, Setif (King 1990) and Carthage (Reese 1977; 1981; Schwartz 1984). There seems to have been a change at this time to a diet with virtually no beef consumption, that was specific to this region. It was significantly different from earlier Roman times, and it was to change again during the Islamic period, when pork consumption dropped almost to zero, with the result that sheep and goats were almost the only sources of meat. The diet in this period obviously came under religious restrictions that resulted in the shift seen on the graph towards a pattern reminiscent of the Near East. This also happened in Spain, where Islamic assemblages reflect a similar marked reduction in pork consumption (Benito 1989). At Carthage, there is an interesting exception to the Islamic rule in the assemblage from the Ecclesiastical complex (Reese 1977), which may represent a Christian community continuing to follow the earlier dietary pattern.