What Did The Bronze Age People Eat?

The El Algar society thrived in complex hilltop settlements across the Iberian Peninsula from 2200-1550 cal BCE, says a report in the journal PLOS ONE Researchers decided to find out what they ate and conducted carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis at two different El Algar hilltop settlements in present-day Totana, Murcia, and Turre, Almería in Spain. While the elite ate more animal-based foods, the others focussed on barley and dairy. Other studies have shown that rice and tea hadn’t made their entry yet in this particular society and the focus remained on wheat, millets and barley. Bronze Age babies drank animal milk and archaeologists have found little sippy cups with drinking spouts. By the Bronze Age, there was no more dependence on foraging because farming was very much prevalent as people realised that it could sustain more people.

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