The copper road
For the first time in human experience, a substance could be melted and converted into something new. If you set off by car from the Volga River to Hungary, you will have to drive for 32 hours and cover a…
agriculture
Hilary Wilson on… Bread, beer and economics – Part 1
Hilary Wilson explores the importance of grain for wages and taxes.
A Landscape of Plenty: excavations on a Roman estate, Cambridgeshire
REVIEW BY PADDY LAMBERT This report details the results of a large (3.56ha) excavation undertaken by Archaeological Research Services prior to the construction of the new Cambridgeshire South Police Station. The result of the analysis suggests the site formed a…
Hilary Wilson on… A taste of sweetness
Hilary Wilson explores the importance of the date palm in ancient Egyptian daily life.
The Anglo-Saxon Agricultural Revolution in Norfolk
REVIEW BY KK Encapsulated within this volume are the published proceedings of the conference held in 2020 to mark the 25th anniversary of the Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project (SHARP) – but it is so much more than a…
Garden cities
Spring is upon us in the northern hemisphere and people are venturing out into the open again: into their gardens, onto their balconies, into urban parks or the countryside to enjoy the miracle of spring and the verdant, flowering flora that accompanies it.
Repast: The story of food
REVIEW BY CARLY JONES If there is one thing that unites the many, incredibly varied cultures that have inhabited the world throughout human history, it is that we all need to eat. Catching, cultivating, cooking, and consuming food have been…
From brewing to bread: Exploring the buildings of the British malting industry
In CA 419, Chris Catling reported on the history and development of kilns and oast houses used for drying the hops that help to preserve and give flavour to beer. This month, he reports on the buildings associated with the production of the malted grain used primarily in making beer and whisky, but also as an ingredient in a range of foods, from bagels to biscuits, and from vinegar to Ovaltine.
Hopping through the history of oast houses: From 19th-century brewing sites to luxurious living spaces
The websites of upmarket estate agents will typically feature a dozen or more properties for sale in Sussex or Kent converted from 19th-century oast houses. These desirable residences once served a humbler purpose, drying the resinous hop flowers that are an essential ingredient in the nation’s beer. Patrick Grattan recorded the last of these buildings in use for that purpose in the 1960s, and his knowledge has fermented into a detailed history of the oast, as Chris Catling now reports.
Pioneering spirit: Exploring the archaeology and history of The Glenlivet whisky
Two hundred years ago, George Smith was granted the first licence to distil whisky legally in the Glenlivet area of Speyside, in the Scottish Highlands. Now archaeological fieldwork by the National Trust for Scotland, in partnership with The Glenlivet, has shed new light on how the whisky-making process was industrialised in the 19th century, as Derek Alexander and Daniel Rhodes report.
Qarn al-Harf: Exploring a Bronze Age refuge
Around 2000 BC, a successful and prosperous Bronze Age culture in Southeast Arabia suddenly collapsed. Traditions and settlements that had developed over centuries disappeared, apart from in one small enclave towards the north of their former territory. Derek Kennet told Matthew Symonds how attempts to hold on to the past ushered in a new era.
Nile shift brings wealth
New research published in Nature Geoscience suggests that a sudden major shift in the course of the Nile, 4,000 years ago, created a greatly enlarged area of fertile land. The team from Sweden’s Uppsala University and the University of Southampton…
Domestic Plants and Animals: The Egyptian Origins
REVIEW BY SG This second Oxbow Classics facsimile explores the history of domestication and the role of agriculture in the social economy, based on what was current evidence when it was first published in 1994, before presenting a comprehensive catalogue…
Orchards in England, a landscape history: A fruitful wander through the agriculture of the past
Orchards have not featured largely in studies of the historic environment, though there is a growing recognition of their ecological value. Yet orchards were once ubiquitous features of the landscape in many counties, whether in the form of a small plot attached to a farm, or as a large commercial orchard cultivated as the owner’s principal source of income. Making up for this omission is a new book by Gerry Barnes and Tom Williamson that attempts, for the first time, to provide a comprehensive overview of the development of orchards in England from the Middle Ages to the present day, as Chris Catling reports.
Cooking Recipes and Drink Preparation in Ancient Egypt
Barbara Gai investigates the diet of ancient Egyptians and the ways in which their meals were prepared.
The meaning of Joseph’s Egyptian name
Joseph L Thimes explores a range of different translations of the Egyptian name given to his namesake, the biblical Joseph.
English Orchards: A landscape history
REVIEW BY AB Until the mid-20th century, England was covered with orchards. But these quintessential features of the historic landscape did not simply spring into being: the story of England’s orchards is filled with generations of people who cultivated them.…
Living with Land and Sea at the British Museum
As the British Museum launches its first permanent display dedicated to the cultures of Peru and the Andes, Carly Hilts visited to find out more.
The First Stones: Penywyrlod, Gwernvale, and the Black Mountains Neolithic long cairns of south-east Wales
REVIEW BY GEORGE NASH The two Cotswold-Severn Neolithic burial-ritual monuments of Penywyrlod and Gwernvale occupy the western hinterlands of the Black Mountains in Breconshire, Wales. Both monuments are only part of a handful of Neolithic burial-ritual monuments in Wales to…
Beer: a global journey through the past and present
Review by Max Nelson Arthur presents a global history of beer inspired by his two-year stay with the Gamo people of Ethiopia. He begins with a brief introduction examining beer in terms of technology (as fermented malted cereal processed with…
An archaeology of thought
I doubted if Daeng would find anything of interest within. An hour later, she was revealing the smallest skeleton I have ever seen.
Ancient Egypt Magazine 136 Letters
Your thoughts on issues raised by the magazine, plus what’s coming up in future issues. Email the Editor: peter@ancientegyptmagazine.com with your comments.
Seasons and the city
Even reputable observers like Pliny the Younger often ended up at the mercy of the competence of later scribes. As his writings only survive as copies, it may be no more than a scribal slip of the hand that immortalised August as the month when Pompeii met its fate.
New discoveries in Nîmes
The excavations revealed at least 50 burials dating to the Roman period, including inhumation graves, cremation urns, and signs of funerary pyres.
Early farming practices at Balbridie brought to light
Analysis of cereal grains recovered from Neolithic sites in Scotland have revealed that the first farmers adapted their methods based on individual soil conditions.
This week: Butser Ancient Farm
'Through a series of spectacular experiments, the archaeologist Peter Reynolds... told us more about Iron Age buildings and agriculture than most of the excavations of that period put together,' said The Guardian in its 2001 obituary of the first director of Butser Ancient Farm, the pioneering archaeological open-air museum nestling in the South Downs, which is now celebrating its 50th birthday.
Butser Ancient Farm at 50: celebrating half a century of experimental archaeology
With Butser Ancient Farm marking its 50th birthday this year, Trevor Creighton reflects on the past and present of this pioneering experimental archaeological site, and shares the memories of some of the people who have been involved with its work.
Evidence of Roman beer production in Bedfordshire
Earlier this year, CA reported on excavations at a 2.3ha site called ‘Field 44’ near Tempsford in Central Bedfordshire, where archaeologists from Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) and the Cambridge Archaeological Unit found the remains of two Iron Age roundhouses…
Words of wisdom: ‘Give to him who gives’
For the man who gives willingly, even if he gives much, rejoices in the gift and feels glad in his heart. The man who takes for himself, observing no sense of shame, even if it involves a small amount, hardens the heart.
Trellyffaint: how excavating a Pembrokeshire portal dolmen illuminated Neolithic dairy farming in Wales
A project that initially set out to study rock art on a c.5,000-year-old monument has uncovered what could be the earliest direct evidence of dairy farming in Wales. George Nash, Carol James, and Thomas Wellicome from the Welsh Rock Art Organisation (WRAO), and Julie Dunne and Emmanuelle Casanova from the University of Bristol, explain more.
Seasons, saints, and feast days
When exactly did we begin to lose touch with the natural cycle of the sun, the stars, and the seasons? Was it at the start of the Industrial Revolution, when people moved from land-based activities to working in factories?
Southern Levant: what was on the menu in the land of milk and honey?
Just how much can ancient diet tell us about past lives? Shyama Vermeersch considers what cuisine reveals about the southern Levant in the Bronze and Iron Ages.
The Wandering Herd: the medieval cattle economy of south-east England c.450-1450
‘The late medieval sheep of Britain have so engaged the attention of the agrarian historians that other aspects of stock husbandry appear to have been neglected. Our knowledge of the cattle of the period, and of how they were kept,…
Roman bath complex emerges from Spanish sand dunes
Whilst searching for old lagoons and marshy sites that may have been used as a fish or crustacean farm, the archaeologists came across the 4m-high walls of the Roman baths emerging from the sand.
A new world of communication
One of the most breathtaking experiences in my archaeological life was to mount the steps and look out over the assembled ranks of the terracotta army.
Huge quernstone unearthed in Orkney reveals Early Neolithic site
The settlement is centuries older than the Stone Age site of Skara Brae.