Food storage in the late fifth, fourth and third millennia BC in the Northern Fertile Crescent

FoodStore investigates food storage systems in the Northern Fertile Crescent (western inner Syria, south eastern Turkey, northern Iraq) during the late fifth, fourth and third millennia BC, in order to define the relationship between storage practices, socio-economic complexity and ecological conditions. During these millennia, the area experienced different trajectories leading to the emergence of complex societies, and the storage of food staples was central to these developments. The project has a multi-level design that combines the collection of published data, with the direct study of storage facilities from key archaeological sites. These features will be investigated through a combination of traditional macro-archaeological methods with micro-archaeological techniques from applied geological, chemical, and biological disciplines: microstratigraphy, Fourier Transform Infra-Red Spectroscopy, and phytolith analysis. Key objectives for FoodStore are the establishment of a robust analytical protocol to investigate food storage practices in archaeological contexts; to develop an interdisciplinary framework to tackle issues connected to food preservation; to contribute to the collaboration between archaeology, anthropology and natural sciences; and to enhance the relevance of archaeology to support traditional rural heritage and food management practices.