What we call the typical Mediterranean Diet is based on plants and animals that were introduced from the Near East during the so-called Neolithic Revolution that resulted in the birth of agriculture. We have the introduction of domestic plants and domestic animals. domestic wheat. barley. domestic pig. sheep. goats and domestic cattle -all of which were not local. Agriculture and herding bring you some kind of security but that’s also labour: you probably had to work even more than with hunting and gathering. But then the whole social landscape changes because people start living in built villages and they have all these domestic animals around. So we are in a completely new world.

Catherine Perles
archaeologist