Complicated endings: Household-based foodways and the demise of Early Bronze Age urban society in the southern Levant

Abstract

The end of the Early Bronze Age III (EB III, c. 2900–2500 BCE) period in the southern Levant (modern day Jordan, Israel, Palestine, southern Lebanon, and southern Syria) has traditionally been characterized as a time of wide-scale, total collapse. Recently, researchers have highlighted evidence for cultural continuity and slow transitions as people abandoned EB III urban settlements throughout the region to disperse into villages, hamlets, and farmsteads during the EB IV (c. 2500–2000 BCE). Focusing on the last occupations of EB III Numayra and Tall al-Handaquq South in Jordan, we examine household-based food practices as indicators of what everyday life was like for EB people living through the decline of their communities. Analyzing ceramic storage and serving vessel data, we found an overall continuity in serving and storage practices at both sites before their abandonment, suggesting that residents of both communities did not alter their daily food practices and likely maintained their social and economic networks despite approaching a ‘collapse’ of EB urbanism. However, significant decreases in platterbowl size and serving vessel decoration indicate smaller scales of food-sharing and possibly early hints of out-migration from Numayra and Tall al-Handaquq South. This research requires scholars to pursue a more nuanced understanding of EB urban abandonment, one that recognizes the continuity in foodways between terminal EB III and early EB IV settlements.