The history, evolution and use of cooking pots from diverse places, such as Syria, Papua New Guinea, China and Spain are discussed.

Contains essays on food and material culture presented at the 2013 Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery.

Award-winning food writer Bee Wilson's secret history of kitchens, showing how new technologies - from the fork to the microwave and beyond - have fundamentally shaped how and what we eat. Since prehistory, humans have braved sharp knives, fire, and grindstones to transform raw ingredients into something delicious -- or at least edible. But these tools have also transformed how we consume, and how we think about, our food. In Consider the Fork, award-winning food writer Bee Wilson takes readers on a wonderful and witty tour of the evolution of cooking around the world, revealing the hidden history of objects we often take for granted. Technology in the kitchen does not just mean the Pacojets and sous-vide machines of the modern kitchen, but also the humbler tools of everyday cooking and eating: a wooden spoon and a skillet, chopsticks and forks. Blending history, science, and personal anecdotes, Wilson reveals how our culinary tools and tricks came to be and how their influence has shaped food culture today. The story of how we have tamed fire and ice and wielded whisks, spoons, and graters, all for the sake of putting food in our mouths, Consider the Fork is truly a book to savor.

The Familiar Past surveys material culture from 1500 to the present day. Fourteen case studies, grouped under related topics, include discussion of issues such as: * the origins of modernity in urban contexts * the historical anthropology of food * the social and spatial construction of country houses * the social history of a workhouse site * changes in memorial forms and inscriptions * the archaeological treatment of gardens. The Familiar Past has been structured as a teaching text and will be useful to students of history and archaeology.

This book provides a thrilling account of a thoughtful gastronomic journey through the Roman Empire. It reviews the role that food and its associated constituents had in the evolution of Roman life, and highlights the cookery processes practised by both social elites and humble peasant and common households. The hypotheses and conclusions presented here shed light onto the significance that Ancient Romans attached to food, the banquet, and the simple daily act of sharing food, while the text also offers new research findings on recipes and cooking technologies that have passed unnoticed.