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,
Anton
Anton
Ervynck
onderzoeker
natuurwetenschappen
+32 2 553 1830
Vlaams Instituut voor het
Onroerend Erfgoed
Flemish Heritage
Institute
Koning Albert II-laan 19 bus
5
1210 Brussel
Belgium
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