Cash Crop Production and Storage in the Early Bronze Age Southern Levant

Abstract

Often an Egyptian demand for olive oil and wine is seen as a stimulus not only for the increasing production of these commodities in the Early Bronze Age (EBA) southern Levant, but also for their growing socioeconomic importance. While the import of southern Levantine wine to Egypt is proven by archaeological finds, the scale of this trade as well as its significance for the socioeconomic development of the southern Levant is debatable. It is more likely that the production of cash crops in the southern Levant was primarily directed towards the needs of local markets, and that it was local elites who gained power by controlling the flow of agricultural goods between the highlands and the lowlands. Thus the production of cash crops may be regarded as one of the factors that led towards increasing social stratification, eventually resulting in an urban society in the EBA southern Levant.

The Archaeology of Food and Social Diversity

“…Although adherents of each approach could and did (and can and do) write on a variety of food-related topics, certain aspects of social diversity received particular attention from scholars of specific theoretical stripes. Feminist and engendered approaches have an inherent interest in gender and foodways (Brumfiel 1991;Gero 1992;Hastorf 1991;Subías 2002), as Marxist and neo-Marxist ones do in politicoeconomics (Genz 2003;Thomas 1998). With their interest in the ongoing creation and negotiation of social identity, scholars embracing agency and practice theory have often written about ethnicity and culture contact (Franklin 2001;McKee 1999;Smith 2003;).…”

Fruits of Their Labour: Urbanisation, Orchard Crops, and Dental Health in Early Bronze Age Jordan

“…While dried fruits are more conducive to transport, they are also easier to store for less‐productive periods of the agricultural cycle. The general lack of olive oil presses and the discovery of olives and grapes in numerous domestic settings (including Bab edh‐Dhra'), suggest that these foods were eaten by the people producing them (Genz, ). At Tell es‐Sa'idiyeh, charred archaeobotanical remnants of grapes, olives and figs were found in direct association with ceramic jars, platters, juglets and other items useful in food preparation and service (Cartwright, ).…”

“…At many sites, storage areas for surplus products appear in the EBII–III, in association with administrative complexes (Chesson, ). Elite control and distribution of these agricultural goods for local consumption may have been a factor leading to the advent of urbanism in the EBA (Genz, ).…”

Bone Color Changes in a Burned Burial Structure from Early Bronze Age Bab adh-Dhra’, Jordan

“…The EBA of the southern Levant has been associated with nascent 'urbanism' (deMiroschedji, 1989;Genz, 2003;Philip, 2008). During this period, dispersed groups of people coalesced to form new, larger communities in walled towns with planned roadways and innovative agricultural techniques (Fall, et al, 2002;Greenberg, 2002;Philip, 2008).…”