Customer Reviews

Food in Antiquity: A Survey of the Diet of Early Peoples

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I picked up this book thinking that it would be a nice survey-style introduction into the various foods and dishes of the ancient world--especially the Classical Mediterranean, given the mosaic on the cover. However, this reads far more like an archaeological treatise recording processes of animal and plant domestication since the Neolithic. With a plethora of taxonomic and anatomical information that's of little use to the non-specialist, the book nevertheless manages to intrigue on occasion, with some tidbits; especially fascinating are the chapters on insects as food and on beverages. Most of the work focuses on the classical and near-eastern civilizations, but occasional mention is made of the mesoamerican cultures as well. Worth reading, but by no means a comprehensive work on early diets.

This book bills itself as ' a world-wide
survey of the eating and drirking habits
of early peoples'. It's actually a bit
more restricted than that-more of a survey
of what is known archaeologically about
food and drink in pre-modern times.

The book has two great uses. First, for
the eternally curious food-lover, it's a
wonderful browse. The dryly humorous section
on the food value of insects,for example,
is enough of a delight to be worth reading
aloud. The first page of the section on
drinks has the droll observation "It is
sobering to consider that the neglected jar
of fruit juice. . . . .set man along the
road to alcoholism and the illicit still."
The section on cannibalism is perhaps worth
the price of the whole volume.

The second use of this book is as a reference
for the writer and student. Since things
are their history, there's scarcely any
treatment of food, drink or cooking that
would not benefit from at least a reference
to their origins. Organized by type of
foodstuff, this book may be all anyone needs
to know. For those who wish to go further,
there are useful notes and a generous bib-
liography.

By focussing on material culture and archae
ology, the book avoids the trickier
questions of ancient diet as a whole.
What did early man eat? Well, this book gives
some pieces of an answer, but certainly
not a comprehensive picture. As so often
the case with academic writing, it's good
to be familiar with the subjects at hand
so as to avoid being caught up in in
accuracies-honey, for example, does not
ferment in spite of the authors' suggestion.

An excellent source and a jolly diversion,
this is a valuable addition to the scholarly
cook's library.

Lynn Hoffman, author of The New Short Course in Wine and the forthcoming novel bang-BANG from Kunati Press.