Sensual yet pre-eminently functional, food is of intrinsic interest to us all. This exciting new work by a leading authority explores food and related concepts in the Greek and Roman worlds. In entries ranging from a few lines to a couple of pages, Andrew Dalby describes individual foodstuffs (such as catfish, gazelle, peaches and parsley), utensils, ancient writers on food, and a vast range of other topics, drawn from classical literature, history and archaeology, as well as looking at the approaches of modern scholars. Approachable, reliable and fun, this A-to-Z explains and clarifies a subject that crops up in numerous classical sources, from plays to histories and beyond. It also gives references to useful primary and secondary reading. It will be an invaluable companion for students, academics and gastronomes alike.

A Companion to Food in the Ancient World presents a comprehensive overview of the cultural aspects relating to the production, preparation, and consumption of food and drink in antiquity. • Provides an up-to-date overview of the study of food in the ancient world • Addresses all aspects of food production, distribution, preparation, and consumption during antiquity • Features original scholarship from some of the most influential North American and European specialists in Classical history, ancient history, and archaeology • Covers a wide geographical range from Britain to ancient Asia, including Egypt and Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, regions surrounding the Black Sea, and China • Considers the relationships of food in relation to ancient diet, nutrition, philosophy, gender, class, religion, and more

Serving students and general readers alike, this encyclopedia addresses the myriad and profound ways foods have shaped the world we inhabit, from prehistory to the present. Written with the needs of students in mind, Foods That Changed History: How Foods Shaped Civilization from the Ancient World to the Present presents nearly 100 entries on foods that have shaped history—fascinating topics that are rarely addressed in detail in traditional history texts. In learning about foods and their importance, readers will gain valuable insight into other areas such as religious movements, literature, economics, technology, and the human condition itself. Readers will learn how the potato, for example, changed lives in drastic ways in northern Europe, particularly Ireland; and how the potato famine led to the foundation of the science of plant pathology, which now affects how scientists and governments consider the dangers of genetic uniformity. The entries document how the consumption of tea and spices fostered global exploration, and how citrus fruits led to the prevention of scurvy. This book helps students acquire fundamental information about the role of foods in shaping world history, and it promotes critical thinking about that topic.

In Food in the Ancient World, a respected classicist and apractising world-class chef explore a millennium of eating anddrinking. Explores a millennium of food consumption, from c.750 BC to 200AD. Shows the pivotal role food had in a world where it was linkedwith morality and the social order. Concerns people from all walks of life – impoverishedcitizens subsisting on cereals to the meat-eating elites. Describes religious sacrifices, ancient dinner parties anddrinking bouts, as well as exotic foods and recipes. Considers the role of food in ancient literature from Homer toJuvenal and Petronius.

In this intriguing blend of the commonplace and the ancient, Jean Bottéro presents the first extensive look at the delectable secrets of Mesopotamia. Bottéro’s broad perspective takes us inside the religious rites, everyday rituals, attitudes and taboos, and even the detailed preparation techniques involving food and drink in Mesopotamian high culture during the second and third millennia BCE, as the Mesopotamians recorded them. Offering everything from translated recipes for pigeon and gazelle stews, the contents of medicinal teas and broths, and the origins of ingredients native to the region, this book reveals the cuisine of one of history’s most fascinating societies. Links to the modern world, along with incredible recreations of a rich, ancient culture through its cuisine, make Bottéro’s guide an entertaining and mesmerizing read.

The first full-length study of famine in antiquity. The study provides detailed case studies of Athens and Rome, the best known states of antiquity, but also illuminates the institutional response to food crisis in the mass of ordinary cities in the Mediterranean world. Ancient historians have generally shown little interest in investigating the material base of the unique civilisations of the Graeco-Roman world, and have left unexplored the role of the food supply in framing the central institutions and practices of ancient society.

Food as a cultural symbol was as important in antiquity as in our own times 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.

New research that transforms how to understand food and eating in literature Meredith J. C. Warren identifies and defines a new genre in ancient texts that she terms hierophagy, a specific type of transformational eating where otherworldly things are consumed. Multiple ancient Mediterranean, Jewish, and Christian texts represent the ramifications of consuming otherworldly food, ramifications that were understood across religious boundaries. Reading ancient texts through the lens of hierophagy helps scholars and students interpret difficult passages in Joseph and Aseneth, 4 Ezra, Revelation 10, and the Persephone myths, among others. Features: Exploration of how ancient literature relies on bending, challenging, inverting, and parodying cultural norms in order to make meaning out of genres Analysis of hierophagy as social action that articulates how patterns of communication across texts and cultures emerge and diverge A new understanding of previously confounding scenes of literary eating

Employing a wide variety of sources, this book discusses innovations in food processing and preservation from the Palaeolithic period through the late Roman Empire. All through the ages, there has been the need to acquire and maintain a consistent food supply leading to the invention of tools and new technologies to process certain plant and animal foods into different and more usable forms. This handbook presents the results of the most recent investigations, identifies controversies, and points to areas needing further work. It is the first book to focus specifically on ancient food technology, and to discuss the integral role it played in the political, economic, and social fabric of ancient society. Fully documented and lavishly illustrated with numerous photographs and drawings, it will appeal to students and scholars of both the arts and the sciences.

This is the first study of food in classical antiquity that treats it as both a biological and a cultural phenomenon. The variables of food quantity, quality and availability, and the impact of disease, are evaluated and a judgement reached which inclines to pessimism. Food is also a symbol, evoking other basic human needs and desires, especially sex, and performing social and cultural roles which can be either integrative or divisive. The book explores food taboos in Greek, Roman, and Jewish society, and food-allocation within the family, as well as more familiar cultural and economic polarities which are highlighted by food and eating. The author draws on a wide range of evidence new and old, from written sources to human skeletal remains, and uses both comparative historical evidence from early modern and contemporary developing societies and the anthropological literature, to create a case-study of food in antiquity.