Table Of ContentExploring the Materiality
of Food ‘Stuffs’
From remote antiquity to contemporary contexts, food and the ‘stuff’ of
food remains central to people’s daily experiences as well as their sense and
expression of identity. This volume explores the materiality of foodstuffs
past and present, examining humanity’s intriguingly complex relationships
with, and experiences of, food. The book also makes a fresh contribution to
our understanding of materiality through a novel focus on material culture,
analysing objects used to prepare, wrap, serve and consume food and the
tactile experiences involved in its production and consumption. Consider-
ing a wide range of cultures, spanning from ancient China to modern-day
Kenya, this broad collection of interdisciplinary chapters reveal the multiple
interplays between foods, bodies, material worlds, rituals and embodied
knowledge that emerge from these encounters and which, in turn, shape the
material culture of food. Exploring the Materiality of Food ‘Stuffs’ makes
an important contribution to this burgeoning field and will be of interest to
archaeologists and anthropologists working in the key area of food research.
Louise Steel is Reader in Mediterranean Archaeology at UWTSD.
Katharina Zinn is Senior Lecturer for Egyptian archaeology and Heritage
at UWTSD.
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Transformations, symbolic consumption and embodiments
Edited By Louise Steel and Katharina Zinn
Exploring the Materiality
of Food ‘Stuffs’
Transformations, symbolic consumption
and embodiments
Edited by Louise Steel
and Katharina Zinn
First published 2017
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2017 selection and editorial matter, Louise Steel and Katharina Zinn;
individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Louise Steel and Katharina Zinn to be identified as the
authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual
chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Steel, Louise, editor of compilation. | Zinn, Katharina, editor of
compilation.
Title: Exploring the materiality of food “stuffs” : transformations,
symbolic consumption and embodiment(s) / edited by Louise Steel and
Katharina Zinn.
Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY :
Routledge, 2016. | Series: Routledge studies in archaeology | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016020406 | ISBN 9781138941199 (hardback :
alkaline paper) | ISBN 9781315673851 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Food—Social aspects—History. | Food habits—
History. | Diet—History. | Material culture—History. | Social
change—History. | Human body—Social aspects—History. | Identity
(Psychology)—Social aspects—History. | Group identity—History. |
Social archaeology.
Classification: LCC GT2860 .E97 2016 | DDC 394.1/209—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016020406
ISBN: 978-1-138-94119-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-67385-1 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
List of figures vii
List of tables ix
Acknowledgements xi
List of contributors xiii
1 Introduction: Exploring the materiality of food ‘stuffs’:
Transformations, embodiment and ritualized consumption 1
LOUISE STEEL AND KATHARINA ZINN
PART ONE
Transformations 13
2 From raw resources to food processing: Archaeobotanical
and ethnographic insights from New Kingdom Amara
West and present-day Ernetta Island in Northern Sudan 15
PHILIPPA RYAN
3 The domestication of innovation: Advertising strategies
for canned foods in the Netherlands, 1945–85 39
JON VERRIET
4 Our ‘daily bread’?: The origins of grinding grains
and breadmaking 57
BRIAN HAYDEN, LAURIE NIXON-DARCUS, LOGAN ANSELL
5 Bodies of water: Exploring water flows in rural Kenya 79
LUCI ATTALA
vi Contents
PART TWO
Embodied encounters 101
6 Embodied spirituality and self-divinization: A re-reading
of the Legend of Princess Miaoshan 103
THOMAS JANSEN
7 Permaculture: Discovering nature, designing ecologies 118
ELAINE FORDE
8 The logistics of bread production in Old Kingdom Egypt:
A nutritional perspective 131
CLAIRE MALLESON
9 ‘Everyday’ foodways and social connections in
Pompeian houses 152
PENELOPE ALLISON
PART THREE
Symbolic consumption 187
10 Sumptuous feasting in the ancient Near East: Exploring
the materiality of the Royal Tombs of Ur 189
LOUISE STEEL
11 Lacklustre offering plates? Symbolic food consumption,
ritual and representations in ancient Egyptian funerary culture 205
KATHARINA ZINN
12 The materiality of ecstatic ritual: Altered states of
consciousness and ritual in Late Bronze Age Cyprus 226
DAVID COLLARD
13 Ritual and daily life in the Chinese Bronze Age: Foodstuffs
and bodies in depositional context at Yanshi Shangcheng 248
KATRINKA REINHART
14 The ambiguous (but important) materiality of food 271
RICHARD WILK
Index 283
Figures
The following are reproduced with kind permission of the copyright hold-
ers. While every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and obtain
permission, this has not been possible in all cases. Any omissions brought to
our attention will be remedied in future editions.
2.1 Map showing the location of Ernetta Island (modern)
and New Kingdom towns in northern Sudan including
Amara West 16
2.2 The walled town at Amara West, with Ernetta Island on
the horizon 17
2.3 Storage bins in house D12.6.5, Amara West 27
2.4 Storage bins on Artigasha Island 28
2.5 Modern hulled barley grain (left) from Ernetta Island;
charred hulled barley grain and rachis (right) from house
D12.7.7 Amara West 31
3.1 Canned food adverts as a percentage of total food
adverts in Margriet and Libelle 43
3.2 Unox advertisement 46
3.3 Average mentions of domestication words per canned
food advertisement 49
3.4 Advertisement for Norda canned fish 50
5.1 Giriama women and children walking home after
collecting water from the community well, 2016 82
7.1 Map of West Wales 121
8.1 Map showing location of Heit el-Ghurab 134
8.2 Plan of Heit el-Ghurab 135
9.1 Long, low recess in west wall of room 6, House VIII 2, 26 158
9.2 Replicas of couch fittings found in situ and reconstructed
couches set into wall recesses in the north and west walls
of room 17, Casa dell’Efebo 158
9.3 Reconstructed couch end with original bronze and silver
fittings from tablinum 8, Casa del Menandro 159
9.4 Graph indicating quantities of terra sigillata remains,
according to room type 176
viii Figures
9.5 Graph indicating quantities of terra sigillata remains
recorded in atria 177
10.1 Banqueting scene and detail of upper right register
from the Standard of Ur 191
10.2 Lapis lazuli cylinder seal, with banquet scene from the
Tomb of Puabi, PG800, Royal Cemetery, Ur, Mesopotamia 193
10.3 Base of electrum tumbler from the Tomb of Puabi
PG800, Royal Cemetery, Ur, Mesopotamia 193
10.4 Gold vessel in the form of an ostrich egg from Tomb
PG779, Royal Cemetery of Ur 199
11.1 Offering Plate, Cyfartha Castle, Merthyr Tydfil,
CC308.004 206
11.2 Offering Plate, Cyfartha Castle, Merthyr Tydfil,
CC308.004, base view 207
11.3 Offering Plate, Cyfartha Castle, Merthyr Tydfil,
CC308.004, close up of breakage area 208
12.1 Comparison of an opium poppy capsule and a
BR I juglet 231
12.2 Enkomi-Ayios Iakovos Tomb 49/5. Plan of couche
I with BR juglets in grey and couche III with Bucchero
jugs circled 234
12.3 Seal image depicting an opium poppy 235
12.4 Poppy-shaped ivory sceptre head/filial (Kition-Kathari,
Floor IIIA) 236
12.5 Necklace of poppy-shaped pendants (Enkomi Cypriot
Area I, Room 39) 236
13.1 Map of China showing location of Yanshi Shangcheng 250
13.2 Ditch HG2 in Yanshi Area IV, unit T32 254
13.3 Pit H21 containing a human skeleton and broken
pottery, found associated with structure J2 located
just west of the Yanshi palace 260
13.4 Burial M22 in Yanshi Area IV, unit T28 262
13.5 Pit K1, unit T28, Yanshi Area IV 264
Tables
3.1 Word cluster for the domestication strategies, with English
translations 48
3.2 Depictions of various ‘domestic’ indicators as a percentage
of total canned food adverts 49
9.1 Room types in Pompeian houses, according to location and
architectural form 156
9.2 Long, low recesses 159
9.3 Low, narrow recesses 161
9.4 Couch remains 165
9.5 Tables 169
9.6 Seats, chairs and stools 174
9.7 Numbers of terra sigillata vessels recorded in the houses of
the Insula del Menandro and in the Casa di Julius Polybius 178
10.1 Chronological table for Southern Mesopotamia 190
12.1 Relative chronological phases on Cyprus 227
13.1 Ditch HG2 in Yanshi Area IV, unit T32 254
13.2 Selected wells in Yanshi Area IV 256
13.3 Selected pits from Yanshi Area IV 257
