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Groundwater often remains a neglected natural resource in archaeological studies in the Near East. Here we examine the potential role of aquifers in transitional phenomena in the eastern Mediterranean at the Early Bronze Age (EBA) – Middle Bronze Age (MBA) boundary using geographic relations between aquifers and archaeological settlements. As a basis for this analysis, the aquifer areas within buffers zones of 5, 10 and 20 km around the sites were used. For comparison, the total watercourse lengths within the same zones were calculated. Although no substantial changes in watercourse lengths could be found, the aquifer geography around EBA and MBA sites did show regional differences. The proportion of settlements with aquifers in upper Mesopotamia and the northern Levant doubled during the transition from EBA to MBA, whereas in the southern Levant this proportion decreased. We propose several explanatory models for these results: environmental (desiccation regional trend around 4.2 ka BP), non-environmental (changes in strategic importance, subsistence economy or hygienic requirements) and combined (human-induced transformation in the vegetation, changes in soil properties or changes in human perception of the environment followed by changes in behavioral attitudes). This study further emphasizes the potential of GIS-based spatial analysis applications in archaeology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subsistence patterns during the Early Bronze Age I through the Iron Age II (3600-586 BCE) are the topic of many archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological studies. The results of these two disciplines are usually published separately, depriving us of an all-encompassing view of subsistence and agriculture during this time period since people did not solely make use of animal or plant products. In this paper, our goal is to integrate faunal and botanical lines of evidence and study developments in subsistence using multivariate statistics. By analysing individual and integrated datasets of botanical and faunal remains, we aim to better understand the role of diverse variables, such as chronology, mean annual precipitation, and elevation within the composition of our datasets. We see chronological differences, a distinction between sites at higher (400–600 mm) and lower (200–400 mm) precipitation ranges and differences between sites at different elevations (0–100 m and 500–600 m). We also highlight methodological issues intrinsic to differences in genesis and quantification of archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological datasets. We conclude that to obtain a complete understanding of subsistence during the Bronze and Iron Age in the Southern Levant, archaeobotanists and zooarchaeologists need to work on integrating their data on a site-specific level. This will allow us to obtain a holistic understanding of subsistence and agricultural practices on both a site and regional level and allow us to develop a stronger framework for understanding social and political developments that occurred during these time periods. • Integration of archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological data is essential. • Multivariate statistics help understand past subsistence practices. • Bronze and Iron Age diet are determined by historical processes. • Early and Middle Bronze Age diet differs from Late Bronze Age and Iron Age diet. • Precipitation and elevation play a role in past subsistence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]