NEW PRODUCTS, NEW TASTES? AGRICULTURAL INNOVATIONS AND CONTINUITIES BETWEEN THE NINTH AND FOURTH CENTURIES BC IN MEDITERRANEAN IBERIA

Abstract

The encounters between the immigrant populations of the Levant and the local communities of the south and east of the Iberian peninsula occurring from the beginning of the first millennium led to the transformation of diet and agricultural production. The arrival of new products such as chickpeas and different fruit trees, including in particular the vine, increased the variety and quality of the food consumed. It was at this specific moment that the so-called ‘Mediterranean agricultural model’ was defined, upon which the identity of the different communities living in this territory was built.