| Reports from excavations in the northern and southern Levant suggest that settlement patterns altered significantly in the region in the last centuries of the Early Bronze Age (ca. 2300--2000 BCE), evidencing increasing decentralization that favored smaller rural settlements and possibly even nomadic subsistence strategies over "urban" living. In the first centuries of the subsequent early Middle Bronze Age (2000--1800 BCE), the pattern seems to shift back toward more densely populated settlement centers, with a considerable concentration of settlements along the coastal plain. Some significant changes in material culture, especially in ceramic form, production, and decoration, seem to accompany these changes in settlement structure.;Over the past century, scholars have attempted to identify the causes for these shifts in settlement pattern and material culture around the 3rd-2nd millennium transition. Explanatory models have ranged from an incursion of people groups from the north, to climate change, to changes in trade patterns, and beyond.;In order to gain a new perspective on the question, this dissertation explores the nature, context, and possible causes of these changes through an examination of food preparation and serving practices in the region during the periods in question, as reflected primarily in the ceramic repertoire. The daily necessity of cooking and food consumption renders these practices a stable category of habitus that may be reliably traced despite major societal, economic, political, or climatic changes. Additionally, their routine character can also make these actions desirable message-bearing practices: The way one prepares and consumes food or drink is potentially a conscious statement of self or group identity.;Although the abiding narrative theme in scholarly discussions of this transitional period is one of discontinuity, careful analysis of published ceramic materials from excavation reports with strata dating to the late Early Bronze and early Middle Bronze Ages suggests that despite major changes afoot in these communities, the manner in which they prepared and consumed food shows remarkable continuity. Although the ceramic forms do show a good deal of change in their particulars, their inferred functions change very little over time, possibly reflecting shifts in fashion but not practice. |
