- Researchers examined fish bones dating back thousands of years from 30 sites
- These archaeological dig sites date back from the late Bronze to late Iron Age
- Finding non-kosher fish species helps pin down the origin of Hebrew dietary law
- The team hope to find out when Jewish people stopped eating finless fish
This is the anterior vertebra of a catfish excavated at Jerusalem used as part of a study into the eating habits of Iron age residents of Judea. It found they regularly eat non-Kosher fish like catfish despite it being 'strictly forbidden' under Jewish dietary laws
Residents of Judea regularly ate non-Kosher fish like catfish despite it being 'strictly forbidden' under Jewish dietary laws, a new archaeological study found. Researchers from Israel's Ariel University examined fish bones dating back thousands of years, found at 30 archaeological sites in the country, to uncover the dietary secrets. The team found no evidence of people following rules banning the eating of fish species without scale or fin until the Roman era in the 6th century CE.
The findings shed fresh light on the origin of Old Testament dietary laws still observed by Jewish people today, that mythology and religious history suggest were first introduced by Moses in the 12th century BCE. The Torah, including dietary rules around forbidden foods and slaughter practices, began to be written down during the Persian period of Judea in the 3rd century BCE.
A set of passages repeated twice forbids the eating of certain types of fish, but the origins and history of the seafood ban have not been explored in detail until now. The Israeli team say their findings call for a rethink of assumptions that long-held traditions were the basis for the food laws outlined in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, suggesting instead they were introduced when first written down.