Throughout Egyptian history, pastoralists have played a vital role in food production, and the importance of domesticated animals is reflected in their abundant depictions in texts, tomb reliefs, and 3D art. Richard Redding highlights how critical animal-rearing was to all…
New research examining the transition between the Iron Age and Romano-British period has shed new light on the detrimental impact of Roman occupation and urbanisation on population health. Previous studies had already highlighted the likely health consequences of ‘Romanisation’ in…
This volume comprises 11 regional or national papers and a synthesis of lipid analysis results. Several contributors note that Impressed Wares have been a ‘Cinderella’ among Neolithic pottery traditions. They echo Isobel Smith’s 1974 characterisation of Peterborough Ware (the Impressed…
REVIEW BY CH Packed with more than 300 illustrations, this wide-ranging book is as much a feast for the eyes as it is a fascinating exploration of humanity’s relationship with food. Throughout history and across cultures, one thing that unites…
Hilary looks at the symbolism attached to one of the major food sources for ancient Egyptians.
Barbara Gai investigates the diet of ancient Egyptians and the ways in which their meals were prepared.
Palaeolithic portable art Several small limestone slabs, found at an open-air site at Bellegarde in south-eastern France in 2015 by Inrap archaeologists, have recently been identified as containing rare carvings made during the Upper Palaeolithic. Portable art from this period…
Your observations, your objections, and your opinions on CWA.
Analysis of pottery from the Caribbean island of Isla de Mona, part of the Puerto Rican archipelago, is shedding new light on food and drink practices on the island at the time of its early colonisation, including what may be…
A round-up of some of the latest discoveries from across the globe.
Joannes Dekker, along with researchers from the Universities of York, Copenhagen, Chester, and Leiden, used a type of mass spectrometry to visualise the two-dimensional distribution of proteins in both archaeological and modern teeth. In this month’s ‘Science Notes’, we explore the results from this project.
In this month’s ‘Science Notes’, we explore recent research that has tested whether zinc (Zn) isotopes could be used as a proxy for nitrogen in such cases.
A round-up of some of the latest archaeological news from across the globe, including: Etruscan bronze statues found in Italy; a hominin footprint found in Spain; and a study of hunter-gatherer cooking practices.
A glance at some of the latest exciting archaeological stories from across the globe.
Review by Claire Hodson Over the last decade, numerous studies have challenged the traditional assumptions that the words ‘Roman Britain’ may incite. Included within this re-evaluation has been the increase in osteological analyses to reveal further insights into those working,…
In this issue HW looks at how this major source of protein was shared among the ancient Egyptian population, and asks, “Who ate all the fish?”
Research suggests that, for Neanderthals and early modern humans, flavour was an important consideration during food preparation.
Analysis of Beveled Rim Bowls excavated from a Late Chalcolithic site in Iraq has challenged traditional interpretations that they were used for distributing cereal rations to state-dependent labourers.
Analysis of cereal grains recovered from Neolithic sites in Scotland have revealed that the first farmers adapted their methods based on individual soil conditions.
The research focused on carbon and nitrogen signatures preserved in the bone collagen of 2,023 people buried in England between the 5th and 11th centuries AD.
This is the first molecular evidence of beer production in Iron Age Europe.
Radiocarbon dating revealed the child, nicknamed 'Neve’, lived around 10,000 years ago
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.
‘Males had greater access to marine fish at Herculaneum and more broadly in Roman Italy.’
In this month’s ‘Science Notes’, we are looking at a recent study from a team of researchers led by Aleksandar Kostic from Harvard Medical School, which analysed examples of palaeofaeces, or coprolites, from the Americas.
Britain pulled out the red carpet last weekend, as world leaders arrived in Cornwall for this year's G7 summit. It wasn't the first time in history that power and pleasure have been so mixed, however. Indeed, last week's gathering would have seemed strangely familar to the 6,000 Englishmen and women who 501 years earlier accompanied their king, Henry VIII, as he crossed the Channel to join his French counterpart, Francis I, at the lavish three-week summit-cum-carnival known as the Field for the Cloth of Gold.
According to Tacitus, which Roman emperor held a floating banquet at which guests were rowed by an army of slaves between 'brothels stocked with high-ranking ladies’?
Many of these characteristics bear a close resemblance to other salt-production sites in Britain from the Bronze and Iron Ages, and are features in common with known Neolithic salterns from the Continent.
Overall, these results seem to be consistent with lay individuals who may have entered into a monastic life as children and subsequently gained access to a higher-status diet.
The dominance of skeletal fragments from domestic fowl, and the absence of pig specimens and species of fish other than herring, which is kosher, provides evidence that the inhabitants followed a Jewish diet.
At a time of food scarcity, obesity became a desirable condition… the Venus figurines represented an ideal body type.
There has been much debate about what to call the people of medieval Scandinavia now known widely as ‘Vikings’. The term stems from the Old Norse vikingr, used to describe someone who went on seafaring expeditions, but this was not…
A project looking at the history of crops in prehistoric China has identified differences in regional diets and changes over time, which may be connected to varying cooking practices in these areas.
Scientific analysis of a human skeleton discovered at Tarrant Hinton in Dorset has shed new light on life – and the transmission of infectious disease – in Iron Age Britain. The remains were originally found during excavations at a small…
The Ness of Brodgar: as it stands Nick Card, Mark Edmonds, and Anne Mitchell (eds) The Orcadian, www.orcadian.co.uk/shop, £35.99 ISBN 978-1912889082 Review CH
Ochre mining in Mexico Evidence for the mining of red ochre has been discovered in the now-submerged caves of Quintana Roo in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. Dated to between 12,000 and 10,000 years ago, this is the earliest-known exploitation of this…