Archaeologists from Tel Aviv University have revealed the dietary habits of the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the 1st century AD: many sheep and goats, few cows and chickens, zero pigeons and pigs. Over 5,000 animal bones excavated in the territory of the City of David National Park reveal a window into the daily life of the residents of Jerusalem during the Second Temple period.
Science sheds light on Jerusalem's past: excavations in Jerusalem's ancient garbage dump reveal the dietary habits of Jerusalemites under Roman rule - just before the destruction of the city. Archaeologists at Tel Aviv University have analyzed over 5,000 animal bones excavated in the ancient burial ground, which is now located in the City of David National Park, and are presenting for the first time the dietary habits of the city's inhabitants during the Second Temple period.
The research was conducted by Master's student Avra Sepsiaritz, under the guidance of Dr. Yuval Gadot and Dr. Lider Sapir-Chen from the Department of Archeology at Tel Aviv University. The excavation in the City of David National Park was managed by the Institute of Archeology of Tel Aviv University, in cooperation with the Antiquities Authority. The results of the research were published last week in the journal of the Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv.
"For three years, we excavated the remains of animal bones that were discarded in Jerusalem's garbage dump from the days of the Second Temple," explains Dr. Sapir-Chen. "Animal bones are the remains of the food of the ancient Jerusalemites, and they allow us to learn about their lifestyles. That's how we learned that those who threw the garbage in this landfill were the ordinary residents, not the elite of the city. By the nature of archaeological remains such as coins and architecture, we generally know very little about the daily lives of most people who lived in the past. In this sense, animal bones constitute a rare social and cultural window."
A careful analysis of the bones reveals that the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the 1st century AD fed mainly on sheep - that is, sheep and goats - very little on cows and chickens, and kept kosher by avoiding pork. The researchers even analyzed the age at which the animals were consumed as food.
"We showed that residents of Jerusalem who were not among the city's elites ate older animals," says Dr. Sapir-Chen. "It is not the soft and high-quality meat, nor the high-quality cuts of meat, that we find in other burial sites from the same period, those that are closer to the temple. In addition, we discovered that raising pigeons and eating them was done only in a ritual context, such as in the cemetery near the Temple Mount. In the municipal garbage, which was collected from ordinary households, there are no pigeon bones at all - nor pig bones."
According to Dr. Yuval Gadot, our trash also says a lot about us. "Even if we were to professionally rummage through the trash we produce today, we could learn a lot about the degree of cultural openness and trade relations (import vs. self-production), about the way worldviews shape our food (kosher/non-kosher, vegetarianism, veganism) and even about The difference between a wasteful society and a recycling society".
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From this research it appears as if the Jerusalemites only ate meat, which is not the case. No one can find in a garbage dump remains of cheese, or bread, nor fruit, etc.
It is quite likely that the poor ate the meat of older animals because earlier they used their produce for food and clothing.
And in short, research on individual details is fine, but the conclusion should be recorded in a different way.