|
Archaeology of Food and Foodways
Number of Followers: 6  Subscription journalISSN (Print) 2514-8370 - ISSN (Online) 2514-8389 Published by Equinox Publishing  [44 journals]
|
- Work is the Curse of the Drinking Class
-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: Jason R. Kennedy
Pages: 103 - 122
Abstract: The archaeology of beer has received significant attention in the last three decades. However, many studies focus on the special role that beer played in sumptuous prestige feasts and for conducting commensal politics, with an emphasis on elite motivations. In this paper, I view the production of beer as a cornerstone of state exploitation in the early states of Egypt and Mesopotamia. I will briefly outline the archaeological and glyptic evidence for beer production in the early historic periods of the ancient Near East, and its role in providing for the workforce of the early state. The consumption of beer as payment for state-sponsored labor projects changes the commensal dynamics of society. Repeatedly consuming daily rations of beer at the location of labor creates an identity as worker and subject; that is, as one who works for someone else for their subsistence. In this sense, beer may have been crucial in creating class identity for the worker, as well as providing the means of control for the elites in society who organized its production and distribution.
PubDate: 2023-02-20
DOI: 10.1558/aff.20839
Issue No: Vol. 1, No. 2 (2023)
-
- Plant Use and Agriculture in Roman Italy
-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: Jessica Feito
Pages: 123 - 153
Abstract: This article features an archaeobotanical meta-analysis of plant macroremains from the whole of Roman Italy. The aim is to further refine understandings of ‘Roman’ foodways, and to highlight the ways that Roman expansion impacted the core of the Empire itself. The study builds upon previous regional overviews by expanding the geographical focus, integrating fully quantified data and wild/weed seed analysis, and broadening the topical range so as to consider not only dietary patterns, but also agricultural practices and fuel use throughout Roman Italy. The majority of the dataset is derived from published archaeobotanical reports, and consists of macroremains from archaeological sites in Italy dating from 500 BC to AD 500. In utilising such a broad chronological framework, changes in the plant repertoire may be better elucidated. The data are further divided according to geographical region and site type, and ancient literary sources are used to contextualise patterns observed in the dataset. The findings shed light on diverse agricultural practices, as well as trends effecting the distribution of key cash crops, which suggest that imperial expansion may have affected the olive oil and wine industries differently. Other observations include regional variations in consumption patterns and cultural preferences for specific nut varieties. A peak in dietary diversity can be observed in the Roman Imperial period, followed by a decline in the Late Roman period.
PubDate: 2023-02-20
DOI: 10.1558/aff.23545
Issue No: Vol. 1, No. 2 (2023)
-
- Beer, Drugs and Meat
-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: Justin Jennings, Aleksa K. Alaica, Matthew E. Biwer
Pages: 154 - 177
Abstract: Feasts were integral to pre-Columbian political economies in the Andes. The large feasts of the Inca Empire, which institutionalized asymmetrical relationships between subjects and the state, are the best known, and a point of comparison for many pre-Inca societies. It is therefore unsurprising that the feasts hosted by the Wari, an expansionist state in the central highland of Peru some 700 years earlier, are often assumed to have played a similar role. In this article, we argue that there were substantial differences between early Wari and Inca practices that reflect the different objectives of their hosts. The large feasts in Inca plazas emphasized the unbridgeable gap between ruler and subjects, while early Wari hosts strove to build interpersonal relationships between households in far more intimate affairs. To better understand the nature of Wari feasting, we discuss the acquisition, preparation, consumption and disposal of roasted camelid meat and hallucinogen-laced beer that were featured at the feasts of the Wari-affiliated settlement of Quilcapampa. The differences in feasting practices may relate to profound differences between early Wari and Inca statecraft that would narrow in Wari’s final century, as the state matured.
PubDate: 2023-02-20
DOI: 10.1558/aff.20801
Issue No: Vol. 1, No. 2 (2023)
-
- An Ethnoarchaeological Study on Salt-Fermented Fish in the Upper Mun River
Valley, Northeast Thailand-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: Andrea Yankowski, Dr. Nigel Chang, Puangtip Kerdsap
Pages: 178 - 198
Abstract: Salt-fermented fish is a staple food item in the traditional diets of Northeast Thailand. Rural households make fermented fish by using local salt resources to preserve seasonal fish supplies, allowing them to ferment and store surplus fish for the dry season. Evidence suggests that this food preservation strategy predates modern dietary practices, and was important in the prehistoric foodways of Northeast Thailand. Using ethnoarchaeological methods, we examine and compare contemporary fermented-fish production, which relies heavily on locally made salt, with archaeological data for these same prehistoric food items and industries. Ethnographic data is compared to archaeological data from the site of Ban Non Wat and the greater Upper Mun River Valley of Northeast Thailand during the Iron Age, which demonstrates a significant increase in the procurement and production of fish and salt resources, and rice cultivation, during the 1st millennium AD. It was also a period of significant social and environmental change, with a marked climatic shift towards distinct wet and dry seasons favoring the exploitation of and reliance on seasonal supplies of fish and salt, as is done today. From this evidence, we establish a correlation between ancient and modern fish and salt production, procurement, preparation, preservation, and consumption practices.
PubDate: 2023-02-20
DOI: 10.1558/aff.23267
Issue No: Vol. 1, No. 2 (2023)
-
- Beer and Feasts in the Gamo Highlands of Southern Ethiopia
-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: John W. Arthur
Pages: 199 - 217
Abstract: Feasting and the drinking of beer by the Gamo Boreda, who live in the highlands of southern Ethiopia, represent status and seniority and have a long tradition of connecting the living with their ancestors. This paper focuses on the archaeological site of Ochollo Mulato (AD 1270–1950), incorporating oral traditions in association with ceramic ethnoarchaeological and archaeological research documenting the importance of beer and feasting to the Gamo Boreda. Elders recount, from their oral tradition, that Ochollo Mulato is the oldest and most senior of the nine original settlements encompassing the Gamo highlands. Oral tradition and archaeological and ethnoarchaeological ceramic analyses suggest that large-scale ritual feasting of beer and other foods were part of the activities that occurred at Ochollo Mulato over the last eight centuries.
PubDate: 2023-02-20
DOI: 10.1558/aff.20852
Issue No: Vol. 1, No. 2 (2023)
-
- Pouring the Past
-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: Marie Hopwood, Melissa M. Ayling
Abstract: One of the first questions asked of ancient ale recreations is whether or not the beer is ‘authentic’. In the subtext of this question is an unwavering belief that a single, original form actually existed and is attainable in a modern ale inspired by millennia-old archaeological traces. This desire for an idealized authenticity comes even before curiosity about how the beverage tastes, which begs the question: what is actually being consumed' The ‘authentic’ circumstances of ancient beer brewing differ with each archaeological investigation. Many of the earliest brews would require some form of hygienically questionable open boils in large ceramic vessels in order to be recreated, and were designed to be drunk through straws made of… straw. Under this burden of proof, an ancient-inspired ale would only be deemed genuine if not viable in a craft beer market. Yet this consumer desire for an authentic experience or product has been groomed for decades through tourism. Consumers believe that the authentic exists, is packageable, and can be purchased. Today, the question of authenticity is compounded with the serious issues of cultural appropriation, decolonizing tourism, and global, migratory work forces. All of this leads to the very real need for an exploration of authenticity in experimental and sensory archaeology. Towards that goal, we discuss authenticity and its implications for ancient beer recreations, its implications for experimental archaeology, and how to best unpack this topic for the broader audiences for whom these recreations are made.
Keywords:-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: Sharyn Jones
Abstract: Taking inspiration from post-humanist theory, I frame my work about human life, both past and present, in a way that attempts to avoid the traditional concretized definitions of humanity and culture that envision these subjects as separate from nature or the environment. Archaeologists may benefit from perspectives that envision humanity as only part of a much bigger and richer montage that makes up the world, life, and our interconnected being. This perspective allows us to explore the past in compelling ways. While food-focused archaeologists have long argued that food is much more than sustenance or calories, if we go a step further and envision nature from a perspective that assumes dimensions of a live essence and an active intricate existence, rather than something to be mastered or dominated, our understanding and appreciation of these complex relationships may deepen. The concepts that provide a foundation for my efforts to flesh out these connections are ‘human-nonhuman relationships’ and terroir. Using this framework, and multiple lines of evidence drawn from nearly two decades of field research on the Fiji Islands, I am working to grasp the subtle manner in which human identities, experiences, foodways, and nature connect and co-mingle in the present and the past.
Keywords:-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: Erica Rowan, Shanti Morell-Hart, Shinya Shoda
Pages: 1 - 4
Keywords:-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: Christine A. Hastorf
Pages: 5 - 15
Abstract: Food plays a central role in human life, both past and present. For much of human history, obtaining a sufficient amount of food was a daily priority. Eating not only engages the senses, but it is a vital form of social engagement, creating important and crucial social and familial bonds. The various steps and stages required in the procurement, production, preparation and consumption of food all leave their traces in the archaeological record. Much of the material culture we encounter at archaeological sites, from the macro to the micro, can in some way be connected to food. Archaeologists continue to develop new techniques and technologies that bring us closer to the ways in which people interacted with food, in its many variant forms, in the past. This thematic essay does not seek to provide a thorough review of archaeological food studies, but rather, in the words of Levi-Strauss, to provide something, like food, that is ‘good to think with’. The goal is to present some of the traditional research questions and methods surrounding food, along with explorations of some newer perspectives. It highlights the importance of environmental archaeology and archaeological sciences, and demonstrates how the integration of macro- and micro-remains, through microscopic techniques and the analysis of residues found on ceramics, can aid in our understanding of a wide range of foodways practices, from fermentation to storage, cooking and consumption. Now is the time to reorient both past and future research, to more clearly address the rich and engaging topic of what and how our ancestors ate, why they did so, and what every part of this great process might have meant to them.
Keywords:-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: Crystal A. Dozier, Grace E. Tsai
Pages: 16 - 33
Abstract: This project recreated 16th century wine following Charles Estienne’s recipe in L’agriculture et Maison Rustique (1570). The primary goal was to better understand enology from this period, through scientific analysis of wine made in a historical manner. The resulting wine had an ABV of 9.74%, 216.7 kcal per 12 fl. oz., and a pH of 3.8, with volatile aromas common in modern young white wine. A secondary goal was to compare pollen profiles from the wine and the vineyard from which the wine was produced. The wine contained Vitis as a major pollen type, unlike sedimentary samples from the vineyard. Together, we conclude that a wine produced in a traditional manner may be enologically compared to modern wines, and that the palynological characteristics will include Vitis but may not reflect vineyard conditions. The implications for the archaeological record as well as our understanding of 16th century European wine traditions are discussed.
Keywords:-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: Adam King, Sheldon Skaggs, Terry G. Powis, Christina M. Luke, George J. Micheletti, Kong F. Cheong, Nilesh W. Gaikwad
Pages: 34 - 53
Abstract: The material plays a fundamental and active role in the social lives of people, from objects like containers or buildings to food and other consumables. In this paper, evidence from absorbed residues are used to explore the contents of an Ulúa-style marble vase found in a royal courtyard at the ancient Maya site of Pacbitun in west-central Belize. Those results indicate that the vase once held concoctions containing cacao, willow and possibly vanilla. Significantly, the results also confirm residues of the important Maya ritual drink balché, in an ancient container. By placing the vase and its contents in the history of Pacbitun, we demonstrate the important role of this object and its contents in dedicatory rituals practiced in this region; we argue that subsequent disturbance of the context and the vase in antiquity points to the fragmentation of kingship.
Keywords:
Practice in South Asia-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: Ayushi Nayak, Nicole Boivin, Patrick Roberts
Pages: 54 - 84
Abstract: Today, over half of the people living in South Asia are employed in an agricultural sector that supports one of the most densely populated regions on Earth. Yet the origins of agriculture in this environmentally and culturally diverse region have received relatively little attention compared to other parts of the Old World. Narratives of agricultural origins have frequently been monocausal, treating this massive landmass as a single entity. Recently, multidisciplinary applications of diverse methods (including archaeobotany, systematic radiometric dating, stable isotope analysis, and ancient DNA) have facilitated more nuanced insights into the origins, as well as the social and environmental consequences, of different farming foodways in prehistory. Here, we review the current application of these techniques across the Indian Subcontinent, focusing on the insights they have provided into cultivation and herding practices, dietary reliance on particular foods and culinary techniques, demographic turnover, changing settlement patterns, and the environmental impacts of agricultural practice in the Holocene. We argue that such approaches are essential if we are to properly understand the diverse drivers of different farming practices, as well as their demographic, ecological and dietary outcomes on the production and consumption of food in different parts of South Asia. Only then can we begin to discuss the prehistoric origins of the culinary and agronomic diversity that characterises this region today.
Keywords:-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: Björn Reichhardt
Pages: 85 - 102
Abstract: In this photo essay, I illustrate ethnographic encounters with dairying practices and dairy microbes in various regions of Mongolia. Drawing on fieldwork conducted during two consecutive summers, this essay focuses on the sociocultural role of microbial starter cultures in producing diverse dairy products (such as fermented mare’s milk) and in cross-generational knowledge transfer. The Mongolian word for starter culture is khöröngö, which also means capital and heritage. In this context, a sociocultural anthropological approach sheds new light on starter cultures as mobile entities of value across space and time.
Keywords:
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
