Tel Tsaf is a Middle Chalcolithic (ca. 5200–4700 cal BC) site located in the central Jordan Valley, Israel. The site reflects increasing long-distance trade, organized cereal crop cultivation and possibly olive horticulture. Organic residue analysis of lipids recovered from 100 pottery vessels and three stone vessels and comparison to the botanical and faunal remains suggest that the vessels were used to contain or process various combinations of domestic animal and plant products and that these food products were supplemented by local wild plants. This shows direct continuity of dietary traditions from the preceding Neolithic period; however, there were some developments within the suite of domesticated resources, including the earliest direct evidence for milk exploitation in the southern Levant. Culinary traditions incorporated recipes where these food products were cooked and consumed together in various combinations. These dietary patterns were a part of daily life at Tel Tsaf, adding another layer to our understanding of the village and the culinary traditions of the Middle Chalcolithic period in the southern Levant.@en

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.@en

Beehive products have a rich global history. In the wider Levantine region, bees had a significant role in Egypt and Mesopotamia, and intensive beekeeping was noted in Israel during the Biblical period when apiaries were first identified. This study investigates the origins of this extensive beekeeping through organic residue analysis of pottery from prehistoric sites in the southern Levant. The results suggest that beehive products from likely wild bees were used during the Chalcolithic period as a vessel surface treatment and/or as part of the diet. These functions are reinforced by comparison to the wider archaeological record. While the true frequency of beeswax use may be debated, alternatives to beehive products were seemingly preferred as wild resources contrasted with the socio-economic system centred on domesticated resources, controlled production and standardization. Bee products only became an important part of the economic canon in the southern Levant several millennia later. @en