Unit name | Food and feasting in the Roman World |
---|---|
Unit code | ARCH20049 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | I/5 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
Unit director | Dr. Cramp |
Open unit status | Open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | Department of Anthropology and Archaeology |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit will introduce students to diet and cuisine in the Roman World. They will become familiar with both characteristics and the diversity of food practices and dining in the Roman period and in doing so, explore its relationship with the culture, economy, environment and even health-status of ancient societies stretching from Britain, to North Africa, to the Eastern Mediterranean. Within this context, students will be introduced to key scientific methods of analysis which can be invoked to explore these questions, including the archaeological analysis of ceramics (e.g. macroscopic skills of identification of clay vessel shapes and ceramic production techniques, microscopic skills of identification of clay compounds and biomolecular analysis of ancient lipid residues).
The unit comprises a three-hour weekly session combining lectures, seminars and practical work. Seminars will discuss an aspect of diet and cuisine from a specific region of the Roman World. The practical classes will focus upon sorting and identifying Roman pottery, followed by the analysis and interpretation of absorbed organic residues from the fabric of cooking or dining vessels they select over the duration of the unit. The work carried out in these practical sessions will form the basis of their assessed report which will require the contextualisation, reporting and interpretation of their findings from the 8 practical sessions.
Aims:
By the end of this unit, a successful student on this unit will be able to:
Weekly three hour session to include lecture and practical work/seminars
Seminar presentation (15 min individual; summative, 30 %). ILO 1
Report (2500 words + illustrations, tables and figures; summative, 70%). ILOs 1-4
Cool, HEM. 2006. Eating and drinking in Roman Britain. Cambridge: CUP.
Garnsey, P. 1999. Food and society in Classical Antiquity. Cambridge: CUP.
Henderson, J. 2000. The Science and Archaeology of materials. London: Routledge
Nielsen, HE. & Nielsen, I. (Eds.) 2001. Meals in a Social Context: Aspects of the Communal Meal in the Hellenistic and Roman World. Aarhus University Press.
Rice, P.M. 2005. Pottery Analysis: a sourcebook. Chicago: University of Chicago Press