Food in Antiquity

by John Wilkins (Editor), Mike J. Dobson (Editor), David Harvey (Editor)

Food as a cultural symbol was as important in antiquity as in our own time, and Food in Antiquity investigates some of the ways in which food and eating shaped the lives and thoughts of the indigenous peoples of the ancient Mediterranean.
 
In this volume, thirty contributors consider aspects of food and eating in the Greco-Roman world. This is the most comprehensive exploration of questions relating to food in antiquity in this country. The authors, some specialists in this field, others with expertise in other areas, use a range of approaches to investigate the production and distribution of food, social, religious and political factors, medicine and diet, cultural identity and contrasts with neighbouring cultures, and food in literature. The volume is designed for both Classicists and those interested in the history of food.
 
The aim is both to illuminate and to entertain, and at the same time to remind the reader that the Greeks and Romans were not only philosophers and rulers of empires, they were also peasant farmers, traders and consumers of foods who considered that what and how they ate defined who they were.

Contents:
Foreword / Alan Davidson --
General introduction / John Wilkins --
Acornutopia? Determining the role of acorns in past human subsistence / Sarah Mason --
Barley cakes and emmer bread / Thomas Braun --
Cereals, bread and milling in the Roman world / K.D. White --
Byzantine porridge : tracta, trachanas and tarhana / Stephen Hill and Anthony Bryer --
Bread-baking in ancient Italy : clibanus and sub testu in the Roman world / Anthony Cubberley --
Ethnoarchaeology and storage in the ancient Mediterranean : beyond risk and survival / Hamish Forbes and Lin Foxhall --
Molecular archaeology and ancient history / Robert Sallares --
The Roman meat trade / Joan Frayn --
The Apician sauce --
ius apicianum / Jon Solomon --
Eating fish : the paradoxes of seafood / Nicholas Purcell --
A pretty kettle of fish / Brian Sparkes --
Fish from the Black Sea : classical Byzantium and the Greekness of trade / David Braund --
Cereal diet and the origins of man : myths of the Eleusinia in the context of ancient Mediterranean harvest festivals / Gerhard Baudy --
Ritual eating in archaic Greece : parasites and paredroi / Louise Bruit Zaidman --
Opsophagia : revolutionary eating at Athens / James Davidson --
Ancient vegetarianism / Catherine Osborne --
Fasting women in Judaisim and Christianity in late antiquity / Veronika Grimm. The most ancient recipies of all / Jean Bottero --
Food and 'frontier' in the Greek colonies of south Italy / Mario Lombardo --
Lydian specialties, Croesus' golden baking-woman, and dogs' dinners / David Harvey --
Persian food : stereotypes and political identity / Heleen Sancisi-Weerdenburg --
The food of the prehistoric Celts / Peter Reynolds --
Food for Ptolemaic temple workers / Dorothy J. Thompson --
Food and archaeology in Romano-Byzantine Palestine / Shimon Dar --
Hippokratic diaita / Elizabeth Craik --
Food and blood in Hippokratic gynaecology / Helen King --
Galen and the traveller's fare / Vivian Nutton --
Oribasios and medical dietetics or the three Ps / Mark Grant --
Comic food and food for comedy / Dwora Gilula --
Archestratos : where and when? / Andrew Dalby --
Problems in Greek gastronomic poetry : on Matro's Attikon deipnon / Enzo Degani --
The sources and sauces of Athenaeus / John Wilkins and Shaun Hill.

473 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1995

About the author

Professor John Wilkins is an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Exeter, England.

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I am a specialist in the history of food and medicine in Greco-Roman culture, with current interests in literature (eg comic drama) and medicine (especially nutrition). The texts I am currently working on are the Deipnosophistae (Philosophers at Dinner) of Athenaeus and On Maintaining Good Health of Galen, both written in the last 2nd/early 3rd centuries AD, at a time when Greek authors were reviewing the previous millennium of Greek culture.

I have co-organised conferences on food, comedy, Athenaeus, Galen, 'Plants & Knowledge', and in 2013 On the psyche: studies in literature, psychology and health. I am particularly interested in current research and teaching to develop links between ancient and modern medicine in the area of lifestyle and therapy. In teaching, this is part of the BA module Food and Medicine; it is central to the MA pathway in Food and Culture. In research, this is pursued through the Department's Galen project and as part of the work of the Centre for Medical History. The Galen project coordinates the work of Chris Gill, me and others in a number of publications and conferences, not least the publication of all Galen's work in English, which is coordinated by Philip van der Eijk (Newcastle). For this sxeries I am translating Galen's Simples Books 1-5. As part of this research, in 2012 I organised six workshops training volunteers in a health centre charity on healthy lifestyles, and together with Chris Gill I have worked with Paul Dieppe of the Exeter medical school in a project to promote health and wellbeing. For further details please email me or visit:

http://blogs.exeter.ac.uk/ancientheal...

http://centres.exeter.ac.uk/medhist/p...

I am on the editorial board of Food and History, and on the scientific committee of the Institut Européen d' Histoire et des Cultures de l'Alimentation. Between 2010 and 2012 I was editor of CQ.