A Specialized City: Fatimid-Era Agriculture at Ashkelon

Summary

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 fortification system. Merchants and artisans at Ashkelon traded goods via maritime and overland trade routes from Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and the Far East. The wealth of the city is illustrated by the expansion of neighborhoods and the luxury goods that included gold filigree jewelry, imported Chinese porcelains, and delicate carved items in bone and ivory. While the layout and function of Early Islamic Ashkelon are understood, the details of its agricultural economy are less-so. In this paper we use archaeological faunal and botanical data from Ashkelon to argue that the agricultural economy during the Fatimid period (969–1153 CE) was one of investment agriculture, contra subsistence agriculture, which supported the specialization of small industry and contributed to the city’s economic stability. Our data come from households, workshops, and refuse dumps, representing various depositional pathways that enable us to re-create how people at Fatimid-era Ashkelon utilized plant and animal resources in their daily lives.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Cultivating Cities: Perspectives from the New and Old Worlds on Wild Foods, Agriculture, and Urban Subsistence Economies

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32434