Unlocking prehistoric culinary records through the analysis of food remains

Award-winning museum, stunning limestone gorge. Home to the only Ice Age rock art in Britain, Ice Age artefacts, and the world-famous Witch Marks. Creswell Crags is one of the most important and protected sites in the UK it is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Creswell Crags

Join Dr Lara González Carretero online to discover what archaeological food remains can reveal about culinary traditions in prehistory.

Online Talks

Talks with our team and expert guest speakers. Themes include archaeology, palaeontology, and folklore and the natural environment. Recordings of many past talks on our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/CreswellCrags

Food for thought: Unlocking prehistoric culinary records through the analysis of archaeological remains of foodMonday 16th June, 6pm BSTSpeaker: Dr Lara González Carretero (University of York)Previous research into food in Archaeology has mainly focused on the potential ingredients from the recovered plant and animal remains, as well as cooking technologies including pottery, ground stone tools, fire installations, etc. However, the different processes behind the preparation of food and meals have only recently started to be disentangled.Advances in the application of coherent and cohesive methodological approaches involving different types of microscopy (Digital Microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy) in combination with Organic Residue Analysis (ORA) have enable the successful identification of a variety of archaeological food remains, shedding light on past food choices and cuisine. These methods have provided a new means of characterising archaeobotanical assemblages with charred food fragments as representative of past “recipes”, allowing the study of the chaîne opératoire of food, which links plant and animals to cooked products for consumption.This talk will focus on some of the earliest examples of food remains recovered from archaeological sites around the world, providing an overview of early culinary traditions from the Epipalaeolithic to the Neolithic.This talk will be hosted via Zoom webinar. The Zoom link will be sent to your email address the day before the event (remember to check spam/junk/other folders in your inbox).This talk is free to attend but we do ask for a suggested donation of £4. This important support allows us continue our work. We are very grateful for any support you can give.You may be interested in our Patreon channel (<a href="https://www.patreon.com/CreswellCrags" title="https://www.patreon.com/CreswellCrags" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://www.patreon.com/CreswellCrags</a>), which contains recordings of our past online talks, in addition to other digital content about archaeology, palaeontology, and the natural environment.