ANR BronzEats

Résumé du projet

The BronzEats project aims to explore foodways in Northern France during the Bronze Age (2300–700 BC), focusing on how economic, environmental, and cultural factors influenced diet and subsistence strategies. During the Bronze Age, the demand for copper and tin to produce bronze led to extensive trade networks connecting Northern France with the rest of Europe. This created a dynamic cultural and economic exchange that led to significant changes in diet and food production across Europe. The BronzEats project has three main research objectives, firstly it aims to understand food procurement and consumption by investigating how environmental factors, trade, and cultural preferences shaped food choices. We will study crop cultivation and animal husbandry and highlight regional and chronological variations in subsistence strategies across Northern France. Its second aim is to reconstruct Bronze Age dietary patterns using a multi-isotope approach to look at how diet changed over time and how diet differed regionally. Its third aim is to look at food from a social and economic perspective examining how food contributed to the development of a hierarchical society during the Bronze Age and in what manner food consumption reinforced social cohesion. The project combines archaeological study with biochemical analysis, using zooarchaeological, archaeobotanical, and isotopic data to reconstruct foodways. BronzEats will study a comprehensive dataset covering 100 settlements and 600 inhumations. By fostering collaboration between archaeologists, environmental specialists, and isotopic researchers, we hope to drive innovation in how food procurement and consumption are studied and interpreted, ultimately enriching our understanding of Bronze Age society.

Liste des membres du LGL-TPE impliqués :

• Vincent Balter
• Philippe Telouk