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Viewing Our Past Through a Culinary Prism
by Albert Leonard, Jr.
What we eat defines
us as a culture. From matso to tortillas, the relationship between culture and
cuisine is evident. When we view our past through a culinary prism, we discover
that our forebears were not very different from ourselves and we begin to see
more of ourselves in the artifacts that were left behind by these distant relatives.
Is it any surprise then that archaeology suggests that many of the technological
advances made by our early ancestors were directly related to culinary pursuits?
71 Understanding
Domestic Space: An Example from Iron Age Tel Halif
by
James W. Hardin
How did the ancient inhabitants of Palestine
utilize space for food production? Can the rooms of an ancient home and the artifacts
found in it tell us something about the individual members of the household and
allow us to reconstruct aspects
of ancient life that are invisible in the
palaces, fortifications and other monumental constructions that have traditionally
preoccupied archaeologists? In particular, can we assess the different contributions
made by men and women to sustaining a household? The remains of the four-room
house from Tel Halif help to provide an answer to these most basic of questions.
84 Beer
and Its Drinkers: An Ancient Near Eastern Love Story
by
Michael M. Homan
Since the classical period, beer has developed
a bad reputation as the drink of the uncouth and the loutish. But more ancient
evidence from the Near East suggests that beer was highly regarded and used extensively
is religious ritual. The author examines the evidence for beer production, storage
and consumption in the archaeological record of Syria-Palestine, which tells us
of the enduring popularity of one of humanity’s oldest indulgences.
96 Eat,
Drink and Be Merry: The Mediterranean Diet
By Oded
Borowski
The Mediterranean Diet has been lauded because of
its positive effects on the prevention of coronary heart disease and cancer. Does
the Mediterranean Diet of
today have any relationship to the ancient diet
in this region? What was the Mediterranean Diet in antiquity and was it actually
healthy? Was everybody living in the ancient Mediterranean world really slim and
trim? This article provides some answers to these questions as well as important
insights into the development of a way of life in antiquity that persists in the
region to this day.
108
The Archaeology of the Daily Grind
By Jennie R. Ebeling and Yorke M. Rowan
Few people in the world today work with stone tools that they, or their immediate
community, manufactured. But this is a recent development, as stone tools have
played a central role in daily life for many millennia, for huntergatherers, settled
agriculturalists and pastoralists. As a fundamental component of the food-production
tool kit, these are the most visible artifacts to provide information about a
daily activity necessary to human survival. Ground stone tools can offer insights
into such diverse phenomena as changes in diet and food processing techniques,
mobility and residence patterns, division of labor, and specialized activities
related to cultic practices.
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