The Setting: Geography of the Near East
Dramatis Personae: Pigs and Wild Boar
“Pig Principles” and Types of Data
3.From Paleolithic Wild Boar to Neolithic Pigs
Reluctant Hunters of the Lower and Middle Paleolithic
The Upper Paleolithic and Epipaleolithic
The Road to Domestication: The Pre-Pottery Neolithic A
The Intensification of Wild Boar Hunting at Hallan Çemi
Taking Boars on Boats to Cyprus
First Domestic Pigs: The Early and Middle PPNB
The (Delayed) Adoption of Pig Husbandry in the Near East
New Approaches in the Late Neolithic
Pigs in the Chalcolithic: The Great Transformation
5.Urban Swine and Ritual Pigs in the Bronze Age
Plows, Wool, Warhorses (and Wardonkeys), and Wealth
Regional Diversity in Pig Husbandry in the Early and Middle Bronze Age
The (Informal) City Pigs of Early and Middle Bronze Age Mesopotamia
The Inheritance of Tradition in Western Anatolia, Egypt, and Iran
The Erosion of Pig Husbandry in the Levant and Western Syria
Pigs and the Changing Environment
Pork Consumption in the Late Bronze Age
Classical Writers on Pig Taboos
Douglas’s Physiological Explanation
Political-Economic Explanations
The Pig Taboo as an Evolving Cultural Element
7.The Coming of the Taboo: Pigs in the Iron Age
The Iron Age and Israelite Ethnogenesis
The Writing of the Torah and the Pork Taboo
The Archaeology of the Israelites and the First Jews
Pig Husbandry and Avoidance in the Southern Levant
The Evolution of the Israelite Pig Taboo
Pig Taboos in Other Parts of the Near East
8.Clash of Cultures in the Classical Period
Pigs in Greek and Roman Cultures
Ritual and Cultural Significance
Zooarchaeology of the Greco-Roman Near East
Raising Pigs in the Classical Period
Judaism and the Levant in the Classical Period
Unholy of Unholies: Pigs and the Clash of Cultures
Between Judaism and Christianity
Islam: Orthopraxy, Food Laws, and the Pig Taboo
Zooarchaeological and Historical Data on Pigs
Raising Domestic Pigs in the Near East Today
Informal Economics: Pig Husbandry in Egypt
Formal Economics: “White Steak” and Pig Husbandry in Israel
Wild Boar in the Near East Today
Swine, Bigotry, and Intolerance
Swine in Retrospect: A Window onto Complexity
The Ritual Significance of Swine
The Unpredictable Evolution of the Pig Taboo