Full Description
The book is the outcome of more than 20 years of archaeobotanical research conducted by the author at prehistoric sites from Greece. In its 13 chapters the book offers an overview of a wide range of plant food ingredients, starting from their retrieval in the field and proceeding with a presentation of their spatial and temporal distribution as well as an exploration of their potential uses in prehistoric cuisine. Cuisine transforms nature into culture and the book offers a journey from the prehistoric fields and harvests from the wild to the meals prepared and consumed in daily meals and special occasions. The culinary innovations introduced by the first farmers established on European grounds become transformed into traditions of the Neolithic which in turn are further modified with crop introductions from far-away places during the Bronze Age. Changes in available ingredients and recipes observed in the course of time allow insights into contact networks, culinary innovations and identities forged on food preparation and consumption practices. Special plant based substances like oil, alcoholic drinks, medicinal and hallucinogenic preparations form the basis for a discussion of special contexts of consumption and the appropriation of power. The prehistoric recipes are investigated using actual archaeobotanical food remains as well as ethnography and experimental reproduction. Continuities and change from prehistory to the historic periods are explored through ancient Greek texts while current perceptions of prehistoric cuisine by the wider public are critically discussed. The book ends with a selection of delicious recipes with simple ingredients the author has compiled, the outcome of her passion for cooking grafted with her archaeobotanical knowledge on plant ingredients and recipes.
Contents
1. Introduction2. Collecting the evidence3. Domesticated ingredients: The beginnings of agriculture in prehistoric Greece4. Prehistoric 'bread'5. Pulses: adding protein, colour and variety 6. From harvesting the wild to prehistoric arboriculture: consuming fruits and nuts in prehistoric Greece7. Alcoholic drinks of prehistoric Greece: tales of intoxication8. A few drops of oil? Oil plants in the prehistoric cuisines of the Aegean9. The prehistoric healer's plant ingredients: towards a 'cuisine' of healing10. From ingredients to recipes: processing, cooking and consuming plants in prehistoric Greece11. Plant foods as identity signifiers. Exploring variability and change in the plant foods of prehistoric Greece.12. The prehistoric heritage of plant foods at the dawn of History13. Prehistoric seedy tastes and the modern consumer: exploring the context of `public' archaeobotany in contemporary Greece and beyondSome recipesBibliographyAppendix. Appendix with summarised information on all sites from prehistoric Greece with archaeobotanical finds and the cereals, pulses, fruits and nuts, oil and aromatic plants identified. Followed by an exhaustive bibliography corresponding to the sources used for the appendix.
