Long & Dever/Transitions, 2. Diet, Drink, and Death

Both continuity and change mark the transition from the Intermediate Bronze Age to the Middle Bronze Age I in the southern Levant, and evidence for connection and disjunction may be found in social customs, settlement patterns, and economic organization in both eras. These associations and transitions are particularly notable in certain social practices: namely diet, drinking, and the customs surrounding the disposal of the dead, the last of which frequently also incorporates the first two. Evidence from both settlement and mortuary contexts suggests that there were considerable changes in practices associated with drinking between these two eras, yet at the same time, this evidence also exhibits considerable continuity in diet and subsistence patterns. Analysis of these social practices, using comparative data from excavated Intermediate Bronze Age and Middle Bronze Age sites, further illustrates the transition between these eras.