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SUMMARY:Archaeology and Discovering the Food of the Past - Professor Marti
 n Jones\, University of Cambridge
DTSTART:20220304T173000Z
DTEND:20220304T183000Z
UID:TALK164218@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Janet Gibson
DESCRIPTION:Martin Jones was the first George Pitt-Rivers Professor of Arc
 haeological Science at the University of Cambridge. He works on archaeobot
 any and archaeogenetics\, in the context of the broader archaeology of foo
 d. His current research interests include the spread of farming of both ma
 jor and minor crops across Asia\, most recently in the context of the Food
  Globalization in Prehistory Project.  His latest project explores the co-
 evolution and Eurasian biogeography of crops and bees.\n\nJones books incl
 ude Unlocking the Past: how archaeologists are rewriting history with anci
 ent DNA (2016) and Feast: why humans share food (2007)\, winner of the Gui
 ld of Food Writers’ Food Book of the Year award \n\nWe look back to the 
 past for many reasons\; sometimes out of sheer curiosity\, other times to 
 see which way we be going\, and to understand from whence we came.  The la
 st of these reasons often informs cultural approach to food.  Many modern 
 diners are keen to get back beyond modern meals to something more traditio
 nal\, wholesome and harmonious. In the west we may aspire to reach back be
 yond fast food\, beyond industrial food\, or even further back beyond the 
 dawn of agriculture to return to a diet closer to our hunter-gatherer ance
 stors.  The last of these has generated a ‘palaeo-diet’ industry with 
 a current annual turnover exceeding ten billion dollars.\n\nBut what is th
 e basis of these imagined early diets? Traditionally concerned with more d
 urable objects\, archaeology now has a wide range of scientific techniques
  with which to analyse the fragile traces of foods we actually consumed in
  the past\, and to illuminate how we consumed them.  In this lecture\, Mar
 tin Jones will review such evidence to explore what the food of our distan
 ce forebears was actually like\, with particular reference to those questi
 onable traits of modern dining that have driven our desire to reach closer
  to our beginnings\, and return to a more ancient way of eating. \n
LOCATION:Lady Mitchell Hall\, Sidgwick Avenue
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