Michael Parker Pearson

Food, Culture and Identity in the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age (Bar International Series) Michael Parker Pearson Large Type edition

Archaeology literally feeds on the residues and discarded remains of our ancestors' meals. Such material has spawned a vast field of research and scientific techniques looking at prehistoric diet and food so that we can now learn more about the residues found stuck to the bottom of a Bronze Age pot than what is at the bottom of our own freezers. This volume contains twelve papers given at a conference held in Sheffield in 1999 which consider the ways in which we study food in the prehistoric past - `culinary archaeology'. Geared towards highlighting scientific tecniques that are useful in reconstructing food habits and cementing the divide between specialism, papers include: Domestication, food and identity in Late Neolithic Orkney ( A Jones & C Richards ); Early Neolithic diets: evidence from pathology and dental wear ( A Chamberlain & A Witkin ); Use of dental microwear to infer diet and subsistence patterns in past human populations ( P Nystrom & S Cox) ; Dairying, dairy products and milk residues ( O E Craig ); Mead, chiefs and feasts in later prehistoric Europe. ( E Kock ).