Archaeology of food

Submitted by vicky on Saturday, 13 December 2003 Page Views: 1570

**Grotte de Mas D'Azil** submitted by thecaptain : The southern, upstream, entrance to the magnificent cave at Mas D'Azil, Ariege, southwest France. The river takes a shortcut through the hillside here, and has created a massive cave, which is so big that a fairly large road also runs through the cave. Within this cave were found signs of life going back tens of thousands of years, and indeed the world famous Faon aux Oiseaux spear thrower... (Vote or comment on this photo)

If you've ever seriously wondered what hunter-gatherers from the palaeolithic period actually slapped down on the cave floor after a hard morning's hunting, we may have found the postgraduate course for you writes Miles Brignall of The Guardian.

The University of Leicester's school of archaeology and ancient history has just launched a new MA focusing on what ancient, and relatively modern civilisations ate, and what those details tell us about they way they lived.

According to the woman behind the course, Marijke van der Veen, it aims to combine existing archaeological approaches to the study of food remains (archaeobotany and archaeozoology, no less) with anthropological and social approaches, by studying food as material culture. She describes it as the "meeting of biology and culture".

"There's a lot of interest in food at the moment - I came up with the idea while researching the link between luxury foods and their cultural significance. When I looked around, I soon realised there was nothing of its kind. There are several archaeology courses that touch on this area, but they tend to focus on the study of food production and the agricultural systems that existed. I think this is the only one to specialise in food," she says.

So if you sign up what can you expect? Teaching is by a combination of lectures, seminars, practical (laboratory work), and individual research, as well as plenty of informal workshops and fieldtrips. Taught modules include food in material culture and food in past societies, as well as more standard environmental archaeology.

Students will examine food production from the early cave dwellers right up to the nineteenth century - mostly in the 'old world', but also further afield. They will focus on the significance of feasts, on who produced the actual food, which foods were avoided for cultural or religious reasons - and what these tell us about each period.

There are practical lab-based modules on how to identify and recover botanical and animal remains, and one on IT and database skills. Optional modules include more standard fare such as Greco-Roman world, Britain in the Roman empire and how to manage archaeological projects.

At the moment the course is very much in its infancy (the first students have just started the first year) but will be offering 10 full-time places next autumn. "I'm after a mix of people and hopefully a mix of nationalities, as each person will bring a different experience to the course. In terms of previous degrees we will take people from a broad range of backgrounds - those who've done archaeology, history or even anthropology, geography or biological sciences will be eligible."

Despite the specialist nature of the course, Marijike says she is confident of future job prospects. "I expect some will carry on and do a PhD, but there should be plenty of work carrying out practical archaeology both in the UK and abroad. Some may go on to teach but there should be plenty of demand for those with the skills we teach."

Source: The Guardian 13/12/2003

Contributor Bio for vicky: Ex Megalithic Portal Editor, Co-author of 'Rock Around the Peak - Megalithic Monuments of the Peak District' and... More

<< Couple find Iron Age coin hoard

News

Stonedhenge >>