Food and Society in Classical Antiquity

Abstract

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.

Eating out or dining in: modeling diverse dietary strategies in the Middle Period, San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

“…Males 5 −14.4 ± 0.8 11.2 ± 0.6 −9.0 ± 0.7 5.3 ± 0.6 24.1 ± 4.2 19.7 ± 3.7 31.4 ± 2.6 24.8 ± 6.3 inequality and human mobility should be associated with differential access to certain food items and/or the ability of particular individuals to choose from a broader/distinct array of potential foodstuffs (Curet and Pestle 2010;Garnsey 1999;Gumerman 1997;Hubbe et al 2012;Smith 1987). The isotopic and diet modeling data presented here paint a rather clear picture of the ways in which diets varied between and, more dramatically, within Middle Period cemeteries, in ways that we suggest may reflect differential individual involvement in long-distance exchange and the broad, and seemingly uneven, distribution of resource access at this time.…”

Exploring Pompeii: Discovering Hospitality through Research Synergy

“…The impacts of these hierarchically driven service needs and requirements on early commercial hospitality provision fuelled development, growth and entrepreneurial activity in the sector (see Garnsey 1998Garnsey , 1999Shelton 1988). …”

Statistics in Ancient History

“…Government interventions in wheat markets make it clear that the market could not prevent shortages even in Rome (Garnsey, 1999). The government intervened in the wheat market from time to time to lower prices and alleviate shortages, particularly under Augustus.…”