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RR 2016/216 Archaeology of Food: An Encyclopedia Edited by Karen Bescherer Metheny and Mary C. Beaudry Rowman & Littlefield Lanham, MD and London 2015 2 vols. ISBN 978 0 7591 2364 9 (print); ISBN 978 0 7591 2366 3 (e-book) £130 $195
This book is an encyclopedia/dictionary with around 250 entries. It takes a broad approach to the subject of archaeology. It does not cover the methods of archaeology, which are fairly well standardised and are well covered in other sources. However, archaeology is more than just the recovery of artefacts; there is the identification and the interpretation of the finds. This book is rich on the interpretation of the finds and goes further in looking at social and economic systems that are affected by food. So the book is about hunting and gathering and origins of agriculture. It is also about the processing and use of foods and the sociology and anthropology of eating.
The scope is also wide in time covering Homo heidelbergensis as early hunter-gathers (the text also mentions primate behaviour in this topic). It also...