Dear Colleagues,
As part of the 21st Annual Meeting of the European Association of
Archaeologists (EAA), to be held in Glasgow between the 2nd and 5th
September 2015, we are organizing a session that will present topics on
fermented foods and beverages in pre- and protohistory, focusing mainly on
methods used to identify fermentation products and their cultural
significance. The call for abstracts is now open until the 16th February
2015, and we would like to invite you to submit paper/poster abstracts.
Abstracts can be submitted by following this link:
http://eaaglasgow2015.com/call-for-papers/
Please find our session abstract below.
Best Regards,
Shira Gur-Arieh, Domingo Carlos Salazar García, Cynthianne Debono Spiteri
______________________________________________________________
*Main theme:* Science and Archaeology
*Session title:* Exploring the production and consumption of fermented
beverages and foods in pre- and protohistoric communities (SA9)
*Abstract:* Fermentation is an important process in the production of some
of the staple food products and beverages in the human diet. It is brought
about by the action of yeast, enzymes and bacteria, which convert
carbohydrates into alcohols, organic acids and gas. Examples of these are
the leavening of bread, the production of beer, wine, mead, cider, yoghurt
and the souring of milk. These fermented products are not only important
for their nutritional value, their potential to store otherwise perishable
foodstuffs, their increased digestibility (e.g. yoghurt for lactose
intolerant individuals), but also for their social aspect. Indeed, they
play a central role in cultural, celebratory and ritual aspects of
different human communities around the world. Identifying the production
and consumption of fermented foods and beverages is not straight forward
since they rarely preserve in the archaeological record, especially in pre-
and protohistoric periods. Attempts to identify these dietary products
often require a multidisciplinary approach, including the use of
macroscopic (e.g. charred grains) and microscopic (e.g. phytoliths and
starches) plant remains from archaeological finds including stone tools and
sediments, or directly from skeletal remains such as dental calculus and
stomach content. Fermented food and drink products can also be identified
using spectroscopic techniques to identify residual biomolecules trapped in
porous, unglazed pottery vessels. Other lines of evidence are derived from
the study of historical references such as art and decoration, ancient
texts, typological pottery studies, and ethnographic or ethnoarchaeological
studies. This session will focus on research carried out at identifying
fermented food and beverage products, and their dietary and cultural
significance to the communities that produced them. We invite submissions
aimed at exploring the role of fermented products in the human diet, and
their contribution to our understanding of the development and spread of
complex food production processes and cultural ideas.
--
Shira Gur-Arieh
Postdoctoral Fellow
Max Planck Research Group on Plant Foods in Hominin Dietary Ecology
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6
04103 Leipzig
Germany
phone: +49 341 3550 827
email: [log in to unmask]
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