The archaeology of food – theoretical and methodological approaches

Course Information
TitleΗ αρχαιολογία της διατροφής: θεωρητικές και μεθοδολογικές προσεγγίσεις / The archaeology of food – theoretical and methodological approaches
CodeΑΠΡ 714
FacultyPhilosophy
SchoolHistory and Archaeology
Cycle / Level2nd / Postgraduate
Teaching PeriodWinter/Spring
CommonNo
StatusActive
Course ID600015950

Programme of Study: PMS stīn Archaiología, Téchnī kai Politismó 2024-2025

Registered students: 0
OrientationAttendance TypeSemesterYearECTS
Proïstorikī ArchaiologíaCompulsory CourseWinter/Spring-15
Class Information
Academic Year2020 – 2021
Class PeriodSpring
Faculty Instructors
Weekly Hours3
Total Hours39
Class ID
600185756
Mode of Delivery
  • Face to face
Digital Course Content
Erasmus
The course is also offered to exchange programme students.
Learning Outcomes
Students are expected that in the context of the course will • comprehend the significance of researching food in approaching prehistoric societies • familiarise themselves with the main methodological tools to approach past dietary practices through bibliography and experimental replication • familiarise themselves with theorhetical approaches concerning the investigation of prehistoric diet and the social framework of food production and consumption • comprehend the processes and the significance of the available data-sets that allow the investigation of food procurement, food transformation technologies (hearths, pots etc), food production and consumption spaces • θα ερευνήσουν το ρόλο της παραγωγής και κατανάλωσης της τροφής στη διαμόρφωση σχέσεων μεταξύ των μελών μιας προϊστορικής κοινότητας καθώς και μεταξύ κοινοτήτων σε ένα ευρύτερο γεωγραφικό πλαίσιο. •Θα ερευνήσουν τη δυναμική της τροφής στη διαμόρφωση πολιτισμικών ταυτοτήτων και στη διαπραγμάτευση της εξουσίας •Θα ερευνήσουν τη δυναμική των διαδικασιών παραγωγής της τροφής και κατανάλωσής της στην κινητοποίηση μεταβολών σε κοινωνικο-οικονομικό επίπεδο. • inform themselves on methodological and practical issues that may occur through the intervention of the researcher in the specific field of inquiry • develop skills in the oral and written presentation of their ideas and arguments
General Competences
  • Apply knowledge in practice
  • Retrieve, analyse and synthesise data and information, with the use of necessary technologies
  • Make decisions
  • Work autonomously
  • Work in teams
  • Work in an interdisciplinary team
  • Generate new research ideas
  • Appreciate diversity and multiculturality
  • Respect natural environment
  • Demonstrate social, professional and ethical commitment and sensitivity to gender issues
  • Be critical and self-critical
  • Advance free, creative and causative thinking
Course Content (Syllabus)
The investigation of prehistoric diet has acquired and important role in the past years. Having as a starting point Andrew Sherratt's (1991) phrase that "people do not eat species, they eat meals", a series of conferences, scientific articles and books have focused on luxury foods (van der Veen, 2003), special contexts of consumption such as collective meals including meat and alcohol (Jones, 2007; Wright, 2004; Miracle and Milner, 2002) or on the various social, economic and symbolic dimmensions of food in human societies of the past (Gosden and Hather, 1999). Research projects have examined 'food globalisation in prehistory" (Martin Jones et al., 2011), the consumption of special foods such as dairy products (Craig et al., 2005; Evershed et al., 2008). At the same time a vast range of methods and approaches in different regions and periods concern ancient food studies, often accompanied by experimental and ethnographic approaches (e.g. Anderson et al., 2013, Capparelli et al., 2011; Chevalier et al., 2014; Parker-Pearson, 2003; Renard and Mee,2007; Tzedakis et al., 2008; Voutsaki and Valamoti, 2013). This course examines the role of food in many aspects of prehistoric human lives, starting from the palaeolithic societies of hunter-gatherers and ending with the hierarchical societies of the Bronze Age, based on selected case studies from different parts of the world.
Keywords
prehistory, Ancient Food, organic remains, archaeobotanical remains, zooarchaeological remains, food technology, spatial organisation
Educational Material Types
  • Notes
  • Slide presentations
  • Interactive excersises
Use of Information and Communication Technologies
Use of ICT
  • Use of ICT in Course Teaching
  • Use of ICT in Communication with Students
  • Use of ICT in Student Assessment
Course Organization
ActivitiesWorkloadECTSIndividualTeamworkErasmus
Lectures75✓
Seminars9
Laboratory Work40
Reading Assigment130
Field trips and participation in conferences / seminars / activities46
Written assigments150
Total450
Student Assessment
Description
Students will have to study weekly specific book chapters and articles (in Greek or English) and present, orally or in written, brief reports of their critical reading. Students' evaluation will depend on their weekly presentations, their ability to argue and to answer complicated questions based on bibliography and the relevant sources.
Student Assessment methods
  • Written Assignment (Summative)
  • Performance / Staging (Summative)
  • Participation in article presentation during courses
Bibliography
Additional bibliography for study
Arnold, B., 1999. ‘Drinking the Feast’: Alcohol and the Legitimation of Power in Celtic Europe. Cambridge Archaeol. J. 9, 71. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959774300015213 Dietler, M., Hayden, B. (Eds.), 2001. Feasts: Archaeological and ethnographic perspectives on food, politics, and power. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C. Evershed, R.P., Payne, S., Sherratt, A.G., Copley, M.S., Coolidge, J., Urem-Kotsu, D., Kotsakis, K., Özdoǧan, M., Özdoǧan, A.E., Nieuwenhuyse, O., Akkermans, P.M.M.G., Bailey, D., Andeescu, R.R., Campbell, S., Farid, S., Hodder, I., Yalman, N., Özbaşaran, M., Biçakci, E., Garfinkel, Y., Levy, T., Burton, M.M., 2008. Earliest date for milk use in the Near East and southeastern Europe linked to cattle herding. Nature 455, 528–531. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature07180 Fechner, K., Mesnil M. (Eds.), 2002. Pain, fours et foyers des temps passés Archéologie et traditions boulangères des peuples agriculteurs d'Europe et du Proche Orient. Civilisations. Université Libre de Bruxelles, Bruxelles. Fuller, D.Q., Rowlands, M. 2011. Ingestion and food technologies: maintaining differences over the long-term inWest, South and East Asia, in: Bennet, J., Sherratt, S., Wilkinson, T.C. (Eds.),Interweaving worlds: systematic interactions in Eurasia, 7th to the 1st millennia BC.Essays from a conference in memory of Professor Andrew Sherratt. Oxbow Books, Oxford, pp. 37-60. Gosden, C., Hather, J. (Eds.), 1999. The Prehistory of Food. Appetites for change. Routledge, New York; London. Hastorf, C. 2018. The Social Archaeology of Food. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Jones, M., Hunt, H., Lightfoot, E., Lister, D., Liu, X., Motuzaite-Matuzeviciute, G., 2011. Food globalization in prehistory. World Archaeol. 43, 665–675. https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2011.624764 Mee, C., Renard, J. (Eds.), 2007. Cooking up the Past: Food and Culinary Practices in the Neolithic and Bronze Age Aegean. Oxbow Books, Oxford. Miracle, P., Milner, N. (Eds.), 2002. Consuming Passions and Patterns of Consumption. McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge. Pearson, M.P. (Ed), 2003. Food, culture and identity in the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. British Archaeological Reports Ltd. Archaeopress, London. Sherratt, A., 1991. Palaeoethnobotany: from crops to cuisine. In: Queiroga F, Dinis AP (eds) Paleoecologia e Arqueologia II.Centro de Estudos Arqueologicos Famalicences, Vila Nova de Famalicão, pp. 221–236. Valamoti, S.M., Dimoula, A., Ntinou, M. (2022) Cooking with Plants in Ancient Europe and Beyond. Sidestone Press, Leiden.
Last Update
27-03-2023