Archaeological evidence from various sites shows that the consumption of pork, while limited, was higher in the early Iron Age but had mostly disappeared during the later Iron Age. Sites in the highlands and the coastal plains show low levels of pig utilization in the early Iron Age, but on the coastal plain, excavations such as Ekron show a higher consumption of pig; this is usually associated with the arrival of the Philistines. However, even at Philistine sites, pig remains were a small proportion of the bones discovered, and these decline after the initial period of settlement. This may have been due to unsuitable environmental factors for raising pigs. At archaeological excavations at Mount Ebal in Samaria, from the period immediately after the Israelite conquest, animal bones discovered were only from animals considered permissible, such as cattle, sheep, goats, and deer.