Eating like a bird. Millet in Iron Age Italy: Economic, Political or identity choice?

Summary

Recent research reevaluating the evidence for consumption of millet in Archaic and Roman Italy indicates that its role has been underestimated. New findings from Iron Age and Archaic contexts at the Latin settlement of Gabii clearly support a more nuanced and complex situation than the one portrayed by ancient Latin authors and modern scholarship alike. The recovery of significant quantities of millet at Gabii is in sharp contrast with the absence of this crop in similar contexts from Iron Age Rome. These patterns suggest interesting implications for the understanding of the cultural and political landscape of central Italy during the Iron Age. Issues of identity, economic practice and socio-political interactions in a period of rapid transformations towards urbanism are here presented.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 17167