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Dear colleagues,as a didactical exercise, I'm trying to find out when and how, in zooarchaeology, we can reach the level of a recipe (a 'meal') in our interpretations. Of course not a full reconstruction with sauce, pommes dauphinois, etc., but a rather detailed view of how the meat or fish arrived on the consumer's dish (assuming he or she used one).For the moment, I think this is possible to some extent when following conditions are met:- clear processing (chopping, cutting) traces, e.g., sheep skulls with burning marks, split in two, as the result of eating the cooked brains from the skull- when you have material exclusively belonging to the taphonomic category of table leftovers (a cesspit in a sleeping room with a complete postcranial herring skeleton)- even better: when you have the tabel leftovers representing a single event (e.g., the ritual deposit of waste from a single Roman banquet)- when you have the remains of a preparation that went wrong (a cooking pot filled with carbonised peas and some 'marrow' bones)Of course, intraskeletal distributions (absence of peculiar frequencies of certain skeletal elements), and certain processing traces can also reveal whether a product arrived fresh, or was treated in some way (Roman salted hams, stockfish, gutted herring).My question would be whether some of you have examples from your own work or the literature that would fit into this framework. Theoretical thoughts are also welcomed. Your reward will be being mentioned in a tasty publication!all the best, and thanks beforehand,AntonAnton Ervynckonderzoeker natuurwetenschappen+32 2 553 1830Vlaams Instituut voor het Onroerend ErfgoedFlemish Heritage InstituteKoning Albert II-laan 19 bus 51210 BrusselBelgiumP Save a tree...please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to