Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 72 (2023) 101549 Available online 24 October 2023 0278-4165/© 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Urbanizing food: New perspectives on food processing tools in the Early Bronze Age villages and early urban centers of the southern Levant Karolina Hruby * , Danny Rosenberg Laboratory for Ancient Food Processing Technologies, Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, 199 Aba Hushi Avenue, Mount Carmel, Haifa 3498838, Israel A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Early Bronze Age EB Southern Levant Urbanization Urbanism Ground stone tools Food processing Foodways Basalt ABSTRACT The Early Bronze Age in the southern Levant is associated with the onset of urbanization processes, expressed through the emergence of walled, densely populated settlements. The local agro-pastoral economy faced new challenges regarding subsistence of the aggregated communities. We compare ground stone tool assemblages involved in food processing from rural, fortifed non-urban, and urban settlements in an attempt to understand the impact of the urbanization process on foodways during that period. Additionally, we explore food processing technologies and preferences as indicators of social complexity and urban development. The results point to specialized production and wide distribution of high-quality, standardized grinding implements and, conse- quently, an intensifcation of staple food provision. We propose that this phenomenon is associated with a change of socio-economic priorities that comes with the onset of urbanism, causing a decline of the basalt bowl industry and reorganization of the food processing habitus within growing settlements. We also propose that the enhanced organization of food production concerned mainly the early urban centers, whereas villages display higher variability in modes of food processing and tendencies to utilize easily accessible materials. This indicates an opportunistic approach regarding food processing technologies and/or higher variability of local staple food resources in the rural peripheries. 1. Introduction Early urbanism and increasing social complexity of the south Levantine Early Bronze Age (henceforth EB, ca. 3,700–2,500 cal BC; Regev et al. 2012; 2020) have been vital subjects of local archaeological research for the last three decades. During the EB, the late prehistoric southern Levant was situated in the infuence zones of the earliest developing urban societies of Uruk Mesopotamia and Early Dynastic Egypt. The region served as a corridor for interregional transfers – an intermediate zone of the core area of development of the earliest sedentary agrarian economies and complex societies. Therefore, it sets a perfect stage for studying chronological and interregional/intercultural aspects of social development and change (e.g., Chesson 2018; Cowgill 2004; Gaastra et al. 2020). Levantine urbanization was long considered secondary to earlier comparable processes in Mesopotamia and Egypt, reproducing leading characteristics of urbanism in these neighboring lands; yet it eludes straightforward defnitions (e.g., Adams 2012; Chesson 2015; Greenberg 2011b and see references therein). Many attempts to pin down and understand the earliest manifestations of urban development in the southern Levant focused on defning economic relationships between settlements, and changes within the local agro-pastoral economy that was challenged by food security of growing urban populations (e.g., Berger 2018; Chesson 2018; Fall et al. 1998; Fuller and Stevens 2009; Longford and Berger 2016; see also McMahon 2020; Ruel et al. 1998; Styring et al. 2017). Addressing urbanization process through evidence regarding food provisioning, access, and consumption patterns is not uncommon, as the origins of the earliest expressions of urbanism are tightly intertwined with agricultural prosperity and the accumulation of wealth and power associated with control over food resources (Algaze 1993; 2008; Campagno 2019; Fletcher 2012; Gaastra et al. 2020; Manning et al. 2014; McMahon 2020; Morrison 1994; Tentracoste 2020; Twiss 2012; Styring et al. 2017; Ur 2010; Zamboni 2021). Local studies provided an exhaustive data scope on foodways regarding paleoenvironment and natural resources (e.g., Rosen 2007; Staubwasser and Weiss 2006), farming (e.g., Fall et al. 1998; Frumkin et al. 2014; Genz 2003; Langgut et al. 2016) and livestock management (e.g., Berger 2018; Gaastra et al. 2020; Hesse and Wapnish 2001; * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: karolina.hruby@gmail.com (K. Hruby), drosen@research.haifa.ac.il (D. Rosenberg). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Anthropological Archaeology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jaa https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2023.101549 Received 5 September 2022; Received in revised form 14 September 2023;