Embarking on his ERC-funded research, Philipp Stockhammer unravels the vibrant social tapestry of the Bronze Age world of the eastern Mediterranean. These ancient societies, spanning from Egypt to Anatolia, Cyprus, and the Levant, formed a remarkably interconnected web. They communicated through letters in a common language, Acadian, and even shared a unified measurement system.

“One my favourite writing involves the king of Anatolia seeking medical help from the Babylonian king, who obliges by sending a doctor,” Stockhammer says. “Later, when asking for his return, the Anatolian king replied, I gave him a wife and a villa – not my problem if he won't return. “

This connectivity, involving the exchange of letters, art, and specialists across vast distances, challenges our modern perceptions of the distant past. “Contrary to notions of humble living and day-to-day struggles, these societies thrived with sophisticated exchanges and a joyous existence,” Stockhammer asserts. “In my view, the Bronze Age is a fascinating era to study."

Complexities of today

According to Stockhammer, exploring the history of a global system from over 4000 years ago, including its collapse, serves as our backstage pass to unravel the complexities of the modern world. He insists that while this may seem simplistic, it is our sole opportunity to comprehend the challenges of today.

In his initial ERC-funded project, FoodTransforms, Stockhammer investigates ancient culinary traditions across regions from Greece to Egypt. His research challenges the idea that globalized food practices pose a contemporary threat to traditional cuisines. The cuisine of the Eastern Mediterranean has, in fact, embraced global flavours for centuries. Stockhammer states, "Nothing in culinary traditions exists in isolation, is entirely original, or remains authentically untouched."

Continuing with his ongoing ERC-funded project, MySocialBeIng, Stockhammer explores the societal complexities of Mycenaean Greece, focusing on collective burials in rock-carved chambers. Whether influenced by social practices, biological connections, or shared migrant backgrounds, these burial practices reveal captivating stories of ancient social bonds. Stockhammer emphasizes, "Biology alone did not determine burial companions."

One of the most intriguing findings is the prevalence of cousin-cousin marriages during the Bronze Age. “While marrying first cousins is a common tradition in many Muslim societies, our data shows an almost strict adherence to cousin-cousin marriage on certain Greek islands and Crete during the third and second millennium—a pattern unprecedented in any ancient society so far”, Stockhammer says.

The question arises: why did ancient Greeks practice this? Stockhammer: “Imagine life on a small island with limited farmland. Dividing the land between siblings or a son and a daughter and then having their children marry within the family ensures that the farmland remains within the family. It becomes a clever strategy for maintaining local stability and continuity. In the Mediterranean, where olive and wine cultivation are a long-term investment with harvests taking years, even decades, marrying within the kin group emerges as a strategic approach to focus on the sustainability and continuity of local resources.”

Food residues

Both projects utilize state-of-the-art research methods, leveraging recent advancements in bioinformatics and DNA and protein analyses. According to Stockhammer, dental calculus preserves food remnants. When examining dental calculus from the ancient Eastern Mediterranean, particularly Israel in the second millennium BC, surprising findings emerged. “We found that a lot of exotic foods from South and East Asia, like bananas and turmeric, were present much earlier than previously believed—about a thousand years earlier. It shows that people were always interested in not only good food but also in exotic tastes.”

Analysing food residues in dental calculus is like decoding a culinary time capsule. It's meticulous work, focusing on isolating proteins and building reference databases for identification. Additionally, DNA degradation in warmer climates prompted to the development of a new method for enriching genetic data.

Despite the challenges, Stockhammer finds excitement in scientific research's collaborative nature. “Working with people from diverse backgrounds is crucial at the forefront of decades-long research”, he asserts. “I find joy in combining different perspectives to uncover new insights. My happiness in scientific research lies in the collaborative journey—from collecting samples with local archaeologists to the final data integration, involving everyone—technicians, archaeologists, scientists of different training and informaticists.”

Grasping meanings

Through biochemical analysis of ingredients dating back 2,500 years, Stockhammer and his team unveiled the substances used by Egyptian embalmers to preserve bodies for the afterlife – a discovery that garnered global attention. In the FoodTransforms project, their goal was to reveal the names for food items that remained indecipherable in ancient Egyptian texts. These texts, rich in information about daily life, posed a challenge as terms related to food, like oils and spices, couldn’t be translated. Despite recognizing the words, researchers have so far struggled to grasp their precise meanings.

The Egyptian habit to write content labels on their pottery, inspired Stockhammer to explore food residues in Egyptian vessels, hoping to illuminate these elusive culinary terms. An unexpected turn occurred during a conference presentation by postdoc Victoria Altmann-Wendling, catching the interest of Egyptologist Ramadan Hussein. He offered a collection of vessels containing oils and substances used in embalming, some associated with food. Collaborating with Ramadan, the team conducted analyses in Egypt, not only focusing on traditional food but also substances linked to embalming practices.

Despite the deviation from their original plan, the venture proved immensely rewarding. Organic residue analysis revealed previously unknown substances. These results, obtained through analysis in Egypt, provided intricate details of Egyptian embalming practices, leaving the team astounded. “The entire experience was nothing short of mind-blowing”, Stockhammer says.

His research on the ancient Mediterranean has captured imaginations, earning extensive news coverage, with 800 reports about the embalming paper in news outlets worldwide, and an average of around 2000 overall. The discussion about bananas and exotic foods even reached unexpected platforms, such as a Lady Gaga fan page. “It's a light-hearted and somewhat playful context, not the usual scholarly content”, he adds. “The unpredictability of research reaching unexpected audiences, perhaps even catching Lady Gaga's attention through press coverage, adds an intriguing dimension to the research journey.”

Biography

Philipp W. Stockhammer is Professor for prehistoric archaeology with a focus on the Eastern Mediterranean at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) Munich and co-director of the Max Planck-Harvard Research Center for the Archaeoscience of the Ancient Mediterranean at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig. In 2008, he earned his PhD at Heidelberg University. He continued to work as a postdoctoral researcher at Heidelberg until 2016 and received his venia legendi at the University of Basel in 2013. He is a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute, fellow of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and member of the Center for Advanced Studies at LMU Munich, the Steering Committee of the Munich Centre for Global History and the Israel Center at LMU Munich.