Farm to Table Archaeology: The Operational Chain of Food Production

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Farm to Table Archaeology: The Operational Chain of Food Production," at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Our growing social consciousness has piqued public interest in understanding the various steps that lead to the creation of a meal. Food production passes through many stages that are visible in the archaeological record. Each stage provides a unique insight into the cultural practices often entangled in food production, from the initial production or procurement of food, to the processing and consumption of food, and finally to the discarding of food waste. The papers in this session examine different aspects of the operational chain of food production showcasing the full breath of archaeological methods and techniques used to understand the individual stages, actors, and practices that lead to the creation of a meal. Rather than isolate archaeologists by their specializations, the papers in this session highlight how interface between different archaeological subfields provides a more holistic understanding of ancient food cultures.

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-7 of 7)

  • Documents (7)

Documents
  • Cuisine on the Harappan Frontier: Regional Cooking Vessels in Harappan Gujarat (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Sneh Patel.

    This is an abstract from the "Farm to Table Archaeology: The Operational Chain of Food Production" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the 3rd and 2nd millennium BCE, the western Indian state of Gujarat was home to a regional expression of Harappan culture known as the Sorath Harappans. This cultural group was composed of a network of farmers, herders, and craftsmen that subsided on an economy based on cattle herding and the farming of summer...

  • Dugongs, Dromedaries, and Domesticates: Disentangling Diverse Diets in Bronze Age Southeast Arabia (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Smiti Nathan.

    This is an abstract from the "Farm to Table Archaeology: The Operational Chain of Food Production" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Bronze Age (ca. 3100 – 1250 BCE) in southeast Arabia is a period of major social and economic changes. In general, several aspects of the southeastern Arabian Bronze Age diverge from patterns occurring in neighboring areas, making it an interesting focal point of study. In terms of subsistence strategies,...

  • Foodways and Identity in the Great Lakes: Investigating Western Basin Tradition Food Production Using Starch Grain and Macrobotanical Analysis. (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Lindi Masur.

    This is an abstract from the "Farm to Table Archaeology: The Operational Chain of Food Production" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent excavations at the early Late Woodland (A.D. 1,000-1,300) Western Basin Tradition Arkona sites have called into question our conceptualization of Algonquian food production, landscape construction, and mobility in southwestern-most Ontario. Isotopic analyses have also revealed a vast underestimation of the amount...

  • Grasses Are Always Greener: The Technology of Herding and Mobility among Neolithic Pastoralists in South Arabia (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Abigail Buffington.

    This is an abstract from the "Farm to Table Archaeology: The Operational Chain of Food Production" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The development of pastoralism still features a number of gaps in the archaeological record. Principally, herders invest in the maintenance of a resource base capable of supporting their herds. While pursuing these resources through both intensive and extensive land management strategies, they impact vegetation...

  • Making a Meal at the Late Moche (AD 600-850) Site of Wasi Huachuma, Peru (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Guy Duke.

    This is an abstract from the "Farm to Table Archaeology: The Operational Chain of Food Production" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Creating a meal at the Late Moche (AD 600-850) site of Wasi Huachuma was not simply a matter of visiting the pantry and cooking the ingredients. It required the knowledge of whom to acquire ingredients from, when the ingredients were available, and how to process them. The culinary materials recovered from Wasi Huachuma...

  • Modeling Early Medieval Agricultural Practices through Archaeobotany (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Allison Whitlock.

    This is an abstract from the "Farm to Table Archaeology: The Operational Chain of Food Production" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Medieval landscape archaeologists have described the Middle Saxon (650-850 AD) and Late Saxon (850-1100 AD) periods in England as times of increased agricultural production and economic expansion, but archaeobotanical analyses are not often integrated with these studies. Archaeobotanists have developed several methods...

  • What’s in the Menu? Harappan Culinary Practices during the Urban Phase of the Indus Age (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kalyan Sekhar Chakraborty. Greg Slater. Shyamalava Mazumdar. Prabodh Shirvalkar. Heather M.-L. Miller.

    This is an abstract from the "Farm to Table Archaeology: The Operational Chain of Food Production" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The study of ancient food residues does not only provide information on the ancient diet but also sheds light on the nature of food selection, processing, storage and finally the discard of food wastes. The presence of large quantities of animal bones, primarily from cattle/buffalo and sheep/goat in all Harappan...