From Ludlow to Lydia: Food in the Ancient World

Plato argued that there were good people and bad people to go to for advice about caring for the body and, whilst the doctor advised on what the body needed, the cook would pander to pleasure and desire. What would he have made of our modern obsession with TV chefs and cooking channels? Would Delia Smith have been celebrated as a culinary goddess in ancient Greece? Would Jamie Oliver’s ‘naked’ style of cooking have been celebrated or condemned in ancient Rome? John Wilkins and the renowned chef Shaun Hill provide the context in which such questions could be answered in their new book Food in the Ancient World.

Seventh Century Saxondom…

Two big books on seventh century Saxondom bring back memories of the past for David Brown.

Of all the new books that have passed over the desks of the Oxbow staff this month, these, for whatever reason, are the ones that grabbed their attention.

Meet the Author: Michael Balter

Michael Balter is the archaeology correspondent for the journal Science, and author of The Goddess and the Bull. OXeN quizzed him on just why Catalhouyk is so very special...

New Releases

Deconstructing Context: A Critical Approach to Archaeological Practice
edited by Demetra Papaconstantinou
Paperback. GB £30.00, GB £9.95

The importance of context has been extensively discussed in recent years. This volume attempts to address the fragmentation and misconceptions that have developed around context in archaeology, highlighting the common threads that link together varying contextual perspectives. The first part of the book examines the concept of archaeological context by offering a critical assessment of its 'historical' development. The second section presents a number of case studies, and the third section discusses the management of archaeological material. Finally, part four takes the discussion on context further, setting the content of the book in a wider perspective.

Myos Hormos - Quseir al-Qadim, Roman and Islamic Ports on the Red Sea, Volume 1: The Survey and Report on the Excavations
edited by David Peacock and Lucy Blue
Hardback. GB £45.00, GB £10.00

Between 1999 and 2003, the University of Southampton conducted excavations at the site of Quseir al-Qadim. This excavation was prompted by the idea that the site was not the minor port of Leucos Limen – as had been thought by previous excavators from the University of Chicago – but the important site of Myos Hormos. This site, in tandem with its sister harbour at Berenike, saw the bulk of Rome's trade with India and the East. The present volume deals with the survey and excavation of the site, with volumes on the finds to appear at a later date.

St Martin's Uncovered: Investigations in the Churchyard of St. Martin's-in-the-Bull-Ring, Birmingham, 2001
by Megan Brickley and Simon Buteux, Josephine Adams and Richard Cherrington
Hardback. GB £30.00, GB £10.00

The archaeological excavations at St. Martin's churchyard, Birmingham uncovered 857 burials dating to the late 18th and the 19th century. The burials represent a cross-section of Birmingham's population during the peiod of the Industrial Revolution. Detailed anthropological analysis was carried out on a sample of 505 of the skeletons, investigating aspects of demography and health. Compared to the modern British population, the analysis revealed a high prevalence of metabolic diseases, such as scurvy and rickets. The results of these and other pathological conditions reveal that there were very real links between the prevalence of diseases and the socio-economic status of the individuals under investigation. This is most striking in the patterns of various types of trauma, which graphically illustrate the hard lives led by working-class women. The investigations also provide insights into burial practices and funerary trade, and documentary research on named individuals from the vaults provides information on family histories which complements and informs the anthropological and archaeological analyses. Throughout the report an attempt is made to place the findings in the context of their social, economic and religious background, in order to provide an integrated analysis. The report concludes with contrasting reconstructions of two funerals at St. Martin's, one of a wealthy iron merchant and the other of a butcher's wife.