A Companion to Food in the Ancient World (Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World)
Language: English
Pages: 472
ISBN: 1405179406
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
A Companion to Food in the Ancient World presents a comprehensive overview of the cultural aspects relating to the production, preparation, and consumption of food and drink in antiquity.
• Provides an up-to-date overview of the study of food in the ancient world
• Addresses all aspects of food production, distribution, preparation, and consumption during antiquity
• Features original scholarship from some of the most influential North American and European specialists in Classical history, ancient history, and archaeology
• Covers a wide geographical range from Britain to ancient Asia, including Egypt and Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, regions surrounding the Black Sea, and China
• Considers the relationships of food in relation to ancient diet, nutrition, philosophy, gender, class, religion, and more
at Oberaden indicate that they frequently held wine (Desbat, 1997; Tchernia, 1997b; Marlière, 2002; Nelson, 2005, 180 Robert I. Curtis Figure 16.3 Stone relief. Transporting wine barrels by ship. Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier, Germany. Photo credit: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY. 46–66). Barrels no doubt continued to be used for beer and, most likely, processed fish products. Beer merchants (negotiatores cervesarii), for example, plied their trade in central and northern Europe, and
urban markets. Again, this was in part a question of logistics, as cheaper cereals were less worthwhile to merchants who were confronted with high costs of transportation and storage. In other words, the threshold for exporting cheap cereals was higher than for wheat. In part the difference between urban and rural consumption was due to the relatively higher urban buying power and to the privileges the urban populace had earned simply by being the subjects of the leading families’ patronage. It
controlled all communication. As the superior, he had to show an interest in his client’s affairs and to appear affable and considerate. Furthermore, he had to discipline himself in such a way that he did not ostentatiously display his factual superiority. The ritual of the dinner party thus needed to blend the ubiquitous display of hierarchy with well calculated “gestures of familiarity,” which made it appear both acceptable and legitimate to the client. If this balance were upset, if these
Rome. The relationship between these representations and actual practice is not photographic; while the images refer to the real world to which they belong, they are also themselves a development of these practices. Painters and sculptors made choices, which it is up to the modern exegete to identify and interpret as accurately as possible. Image, Document, Monument These images have been seen as documents that indirectly inform us about ways the symposion and banquet were conducted. The details
individuals in competition with each other to raise cows destined for Artemis Kindyas. An examination (dokimasis) of victims was organized among the tribes of the city to designate the most beautiful animals and determine their place in the procession on that basis (SEG 45 [1995] 1508). The rearing of ovicaprines was linked somewhat more closely to food concerns. Sheep were not, however, reared mainly for their flesh, and goats even less so; wool and milk were of primary import. To improve the