Ancient Israelite cuisine refers to the culinary practices of the Israelites from the Late Bronze Age arrival of Israelites in the Land of Israel through to the mass expulsion of Jews from Roman Judea in the 2nd century CE. Dietary staples among the Israelites were bread, wine, and olive oil; also included were legumes, fruits and vegetables, dairy products, fish, and meat. Israelite cuisine was adherent to the dietary restrictions and guidelines of Yahwism and its later-developed forms: Judaism and Samaritanism. There was a considerable continuity in the main components of the diet over time, despite the introduction of new foodstuffs at various stages. The food of ancient Israel was similar to that of other Mediterranean cuisines of the time. Sources Information about the food of the ancient Israelites is based on written sources, archaeological records and comparative evidence from the wider region of the ancient Levant. The primary written source for the period is the Hebrew Bible, the largest collection of written documents surviving from ancient Israel. Other texts, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, apocryphal works, the New Testament, the Mishnah and the Talmud also provide information. Epigraphic sources include ostraca from Samaria and Arad. The Bible provides names of plants and animals that were used for food, such as the lists of permitted and forbidden animals (for example, and ), and the lists of foods brought to the king’s table (for example, ) or the foods that the Israelites are said to have longed for after leaving Egypt (). These lists indicate the potential foods that were available, but not necessarily how regularly the food was eaten or how significant it was in the cuisine, which needs to be derived from other sources. Archaeological remains include the items used for the production of food, such as wine or olive presses, stone and metal implements used in the preparation of food, and amphorae, jars, storerooms and grain pits used for storage. Animal bones provide evidence of meat consumption, the types of animals eaten, and whether they were kept for milk production or other uses, while paleobotanical remains, such as seeds or other carbonized or desiccated plant remains provide information about plant foods. Using both written and archaeological data, some comparisons can be drawn between the food of ancient Israel and its neighbors. Although there is much information about the foods of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, the inferences that