The Landscaoe and crops: Wildscape to Landscape: "Endosure" in pre historie Britain; Early Agriculture in Scotland; Agricultural tools: Function and use slash and Burn in the; Temperate European neolithic; Deadstock and Livestock; Reconstructing crop Husbandry practices from charred remanins of crops; Animal Husbandry: Aspects of cattle husbandry; Licestock products: Skins and fleeces; Early manuring techniques.
Emphasizing past gains in knowledge from experimental, aerial and field archaeology, Dr Fowler demonstrates how the application of archaeological approaches to agrarian history has made the subject central to our understanding of the prehistoric period. Emphasizing past gains in knowledge from experimental, aerial and field archaeology, Dr Fowler demonstrates how the application of archaeological approaches to agrarian history has made the subject central to our understanding of the prehistoric period.
From spit roasting pig to hanging cream cheese from the rafters, from baking roast pork under the ground in pits to cooking trout on wicker frames over an open fire, cooking techniques in prehistoric Britain are ingenious and revealing. There were no ovens and many vegetables and breeds of animal familiar to us today had not yet arrived. In reconstructing some of these techniques and recipes, the author has discovered a different world, with a completely different approach to food. This is native cuisine, cooked in a manner that persisted through the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages. This book first tells the story of prehistoric settlement, and moves on to explore the hunting and foraging techniques of the Mesolithic. After discussing the way in which the Britons farmed, and what they grew, the book moves into the roundhouse and the tools and utensils available. The final half of the book examines the varied techniques used, from covering fish in clay, to baking meat underground, spit roasting, brewing mead, boiling water with hot stones and so on. All the techniques have been carried out by the author.
Drawing upon his own extensive knowledge of European archaeology, Graeme Barker has impressively integrated the full range of archaeological data to produce in this book a masterly account of prehistoric farming in Europe on a unique scale. He makes use of modern archaeological techniques to reconstruct the lives of prehistoric farmers in remarkable detail. Not only do we now have a vivid picture of the prehistoric farmyard, but we know what animals were kept, how they were fed and why they were bred. Evidence for crops grown and techniques of cultivation and husbandry helps recreate the prehistoric landscape. Even the social organisation that determined the use of resources, and provided the crucial stimulus for agricultural change, can be relived. Graeme Barker develops his argument through analogies with the agricultural history of classical and medieval Europe and concludes that today's industrial farmers can learn much from the successes and failures of early European farming.
Prehistoric Britain, now in its second edition, examines the development of human societies in Britain from earliest times to the Roman conquest of AD 43, as revealed by archaeological evidence. Special attention is given to six themes which are traced through prehistory: subsistence, technology, ritual, trade, society, and population.
Addressing one of the most debated revolutions in the history of our species, the change from hunting and gathering to farming, this title takes a global view, and integrates an array of information from archaeology and many other disciplines, including anthropology, botany, climatology, genetics, linguistics, and zoology.
Neolithic Farming in Central Europe examines the nature of the earliest crop cultivation, a subject that illuminates the lives of Neolithic farming families and the day-to-day reality of the transition from hunting and gathering to farming. Debate surrounding the nature of crop husbandry in Neolithic central Europe has focussed on the permanence of cultivation, its intensity and its seasonality: variables that carry different implications for Neolithic society. Amy Bogaard reviews the archaeological evidence for four major competing models of Neolithic crop husbandry - shifting cultivation, extensive plough cultivation, floodplain cultivation and intensive garden cultivation - and evaluates charred crop and weed assemblages. Her conclusions identify the most appropriate model of cultivation, and highlight the consequences of these agricultural practices for our understanding of Neolithic societies in central Europe.
For most of Europe's long past we have no writing, no named individuals, no recorded deeds. This means that its history is almost entirely that of the ordinary individual--the hunger-gatherer, farmer, or metallurgist--rather than the king. Evidence of privileged elites and material splendor is not lacking, however. The skills and expertise of prehistoric Europeans were often employed in the production of exquisite jewelry, elaborately woven cloth, beautifully made tools, and finely wrought weapons. Though the palaces that have attracted excavators in other lands are absent, there are few monuments elsewhere in the world to rival Europe's massive megalithic tombs or great stone circles. And though individuals preserve their anonymity and many of their secrets, modern technology has made it possible to reveal parts of their life history in astonishing detail. Handbook to Life in Prehistoric Europe gathers the results of recent archaeological discoveries and scholarly research into a single accessible volume. Organized thematically, the handbook covers all aspects of life in prehistoric Europe, including the geography of the continent, settlement, trade and transport, industry and crafts, religion, death and burial, warfare, language, the arts, and more. Complemented with more than 75 illustrations and maps, the result is a fascinating introduction to the 7,000-year period that immediately preceded the Roman Empire.
The Digital atlas [www.plantatlas.eu] of traditional agricultural practices and food processing documents the various processes involved in the production of food--from working the fields through to processing the crops for food, fodder, and other purposes. The atlas aims to define and describe these various processes unambiguously by using a standardized vocabulary and by explicitly taking into account the intention behind each process. Illustrated with more than 3,000 photographs and numerous films documenting 20 years of field observation in the Mediterranean area, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent, the atlas also includes detailed case studies of the practices and processes involving grapes, olives, date palms, barley, and wheat. Many of these processes are part of the intangible cultural heritage of agriculture that is now rapidly disappearing.
