Dietary continuation in the southern Levant: a Neolithic-Chalcolithic perspective through organic residue analysis

Foodways in the late prehistoric southern Levant evolved alongside changes in the social and economic organization of the communities occupying the region. In this paper, we present a comprehensive study of culinary practices from the Pottery Neolithic to the Late Chalcolithic period (ca. 6,400–3,800 cal. BC). The research examines changes and continuity in food-related organic residues preserved within ceramic and stone vessels along diachronic and interregional climatic lines in Israel. The results of lipid biomarker and compound-specific isotope analyses, together with the faunal and botanic records, indicate that while this timespan witnessed significant social and economic developments (including most notably the introduction of pottery and later copper metallurgy), there was a fairly uniform diet. Dietary preferences included meat, originating mainly from domestic ruminants, and cultivated vegetal resources, usually regardless of chronological, cultural, or environmental differences. Some chronological and potentially environmental variation was noted in the use of dairy products, which chemical residue analysis detected from samples dating to the Middle Chalcolithic period onwards in semi-arid regions. The overarching general uniformity in diet during the Pottery Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods suggests that the timespan was one long economic continuum separated by distinct cultural entities sharing a core dietary tradition. The socio-economic processes of the timespan had no significant effect on what people ate and how they used vessels to prepare and consume food.