Cultivating Cities: Perspectives from the New and Old Worlds on Wild Foods, Agriculture, and Urban Subsistence Economies

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Cultivating Cities: Perspectives from the New and Old Worlds on Wild Foods, Agriculture, and Urban Subsistence Economies" at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Systems of food production and distribution are closely tied to the economic organization and social structure of societies, particularly urban ones, where many households do not produce their own food. Urbanism emerged within specific historical and ecological settings with unique floral and faunal communities. These contexts inspired diverse practices of plant and animal exploitation, embedded within particular economic systems of production and distribution. Expanding archaeological research around the globe demonstrates that urbanism does not follow a one-size-fits-all trajectory, and yet our understanding of urban processes is still largely derived from studies in the Old World—particularly from cities where domesticated animals supplied crucial secondary products, such as fiber and dairy, and provided valuable labor for the transport of goods and intensification of horticultural practices. The papers in this session represent a diversity of urban systems by specifically examining aspects of foodways from both New World and Old World cities. Bringing together these papers in a comparative setting, this session endeavors to shed light on the common processes of urban provisioning, and to provide new understanding about urbanism as a global phenomenon.

Other Keywords
Zooarchaeology • Urbanism • Paleoethnobotany • Subsistence and Foodways • Bronze Age • Highland Mesoamerica: Classic • Subsistence • Agriculture • Trade and exchange • Historic

Geographic Keywords
State of Eritrea (Country) • Republic of Yemen (Country) • Asia (Continent) • Islamic Republic of Pakistan (Country) • Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (Country) • Republic of Turkey (Country) • Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (Country) • Republic of Iraq (Country) • Islamic Republic of Iran (Country) • State of Israel (Country)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-12 of 12)

  • Documents (12)
Documents
  • Agriculture, Alcohol, and Urban Economies in Late Neolithic North China: A Case Study from the Shimao Site (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Yahui He.

    This is an abstract from the "Cultivating Cities: Perspectives from the New and Old Worlds on Wild Foods, Agriculture, and Urban Subsistence Economies" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The late Neolithic period in China witnessed a boost of settlement scale and number, interregional interactions and exchanges, and sociopolitical and economic complexities. The Shimao site, located in the north Loess Plateau, China, was one of the most important urban...

  • Animals at the Periphery: Investigating Urban Subsistence at Iron Age Sam’al (Zincirli Höyük, Turkey) (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Laurel Poolman.

    This is an abstract from the "Cultivating Cities: Perspectives from the New and Old Worlds on Wild Foods, Agriculture, and Urban Subsistence Economies" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The site of Zincirli Höyük, the ancient city of Sam’al, provides nuanced archaeological testimony to the complex interactions between imperial ambition and local concern in the Iron Age of Southern Anatolia (ca. 850–600 BCE). During this period, Syro-Hittite...

  • Casting the Net: Evidence of Fishing and Fish Farming in Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Carlos Varela.

    This is an abstract from the "Cultivating Cities: Perspectives from the New and Old Worlds on Wild Foods, Agriculture, and Urban Subsistence Economies" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Mesoamerica is a region with highly biodiverse ecosystems, from temperate forests to tropical jungles, and where civilizations impacted the landscape in different ways. In several Mesoamerican cities, zooarchaeologists have found evidence for animal management and...

  • Cooking, Cuisine, and Class: The Ritualistic Aspect of Eurasian Foodways (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Xinyi Liu.

    This is an abstract from the "Cultivating Cities: Perspectives from the New and Old Worlds on Wild Foods, Agriculture, and Urban Subsistence Economies" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent investigation has shown that between 5000 and 1500 cal BC, the Eurasian and African landmass underpinned a continental-scale process of “globalization” of food and foodways. By 1500 cal BC, the trans-Eurasian exchange of cereal crops brought together previously...

  • Early Bronze Age Economies along the Dead Sea, Jordan: Reconstructing Agricultural Practices through Integrated Stable Isotope Analysis and Macrobotanical Study (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Chantel White. Michael Wallace. Angela Lamb. Meredith S. Chesson.

    This is an abstract from the "Cultivating Cities: Perspectives from the New and Old Worlds on Wild Foods, Agriculture, and Urban Subsistence Economies" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeologists such as Chesson (2019) have suggested the need for a more nuanced characterization of Early Bronze Age urbanism in the Southern Levant, one that embraces local variations as part of a regional EBA ideological package. Local agricultural economies would...

  • Feeding the Pre-Aksumite and Aksumite Society: Subsistence Strategies of Cities, Towns, and Urban Centers in the Horn of Africa (800 BCE–900 CE) (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Helina Woldekiros. Michael Harrower. Catherine D'Andrea.

    This is an abstract from the "Cultivating Cities: Perspectives from the New and Old Worlds on Wild Foods, Agriculture, and Urban Subsistence Economies" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Local and long-distance trade and productive agricultural systems contributed to establishing complex socioeconomic institutions in the Horn of Africa between 800 BCE and 900 CE. Several important urban centers and towns, such as Yeha, Aksum, and Matara, emerged...

  • Hunting and Husbandry at the Ancient Mexican City, Teotihuacan (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Maria Codlin.

    This is an abstract from the "Cultivating Cities: Perspectives from the New and Old Worlds on Wild Foods, Agriculture, and Urban Subsistence Economies" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Mesoamerica is a unique example of a center of urban development that thrived in the absence of large domesticated animals. And, while turkeys and dogs have a long history of domestic production in Mesoamerica, at the metropolis of Teotihuacan, we lack clear evidence...

  • Playing with Your Food to Feed the Masses: A Zooarchaeological Perspective at Teotihuacan, Mexico (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Teresa Hsu. Nawa Sugiyama.

    This is an abstract from the "Cultivating Cities: Perspectives from the New and Old Worlds on Wild Foods, Agriculture, and Urban Subsistence Economies" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Animals are invariably integrated into the intricate makings of human culture, providing material evidence to reconstruct ancient urban foodways that influence and structure sociopolitical identities, practices, and ideologies. We explore the concept of production and...

  • A Specialized City: Fatimid-Era Agriculture at Ashkelon (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kathleen Forste. Deirdre Fulton.

    This is an abstract from the "Cultivating Cities: Perspectives from the New and Old Worlds on Wild Foods, Agriculture, and Urban Subsistence Economies" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The ancient city of Ashkelon was a major economic port in the Near East during the Early Islamic period (ca. 636–1200 CE). Located on the Mediterranean coast of modern-day Israel, it was a cosmopolitan city, an administrative center, and a stronghold in the coastal...

  • Swahili Urban Foodways and Feasts: From Village to Town (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah Walshaw. Eréndira Quintana Morales.

    This is an abstract from the "Cultivating Cities: Perspectives from the New and Old Worlds on Wild Foods, Agriculture, and Urban Subsistence Economies" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Agropastoralists settled along eastern Africa’s coast in the first millennium, bringing with them domesticated sorghum and millets, cattle and ovi-caprids. The opportunities of the coastal environment led to marine resource exploitation and the adoption of rice and...

  • Swine, Kine, and Caprine: Divergent Political Economic and Ideological Trajectories of Mesopotamian Livestock (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Max Price.

    This is an abstract from the "Cultivating Cities: Perspectives from the New and Old Worlds on Wild Foods, Agriculture, and Urban Subsistence Economies" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Livestock are widely recognized as fundamental features of the political economies of ancient Near Eastern states. Animals served as “wealth on the hoof,” the strategic resources of urban institutions seeking to expand aspects of the subsistence economic to finance...

  • Wild Animals in Cities: A View from South Asia’s Early Historic Period Using a Zooarchaeological and Textual Approach (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Steven Ammerman.

    This is an abstract from the "Cultivating Cities: Perspectives from the New and Old Worlds on Wild Foods, Agriculture, and Urban Subsistence Economies" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Urban settings are often imagined as fully domesticated landscapes, but in fact cities are complex ecosystems where many kinds of animals, including non-domesticates, play important roles. Textual evidence from the Early Historic period of South Asia gives us a...