Overview

Fat has been cast as a villain in our modern, Western society, but for many economies, past and present, the availability of foods rich in fat could mean the difference between life and death. But fat has more to offer than nutrition; fats can be used in waterproofing, as lubrication, and as a base for other items such as perfumes and cosmetics. This variety of use means that fats have been a valuable trading commodity for thousands of years. The various ways in which fats can be utilised has important implications for the archaeological record. The physical method(s) of extracting the fat from a dead animal will leave differing signs on the carcass, while the removal of fats while an animal is alive (such as milking) has been the focus of much ethnographic research. Then there is the matter of how the fats are stored...and so on. The zooarchaeological study of fats is a complex, interdisciplinary area of archaeology. The nineteen papers in this volume represent a firm foundation for further research into the past exploitation of this heroic substance.

Full Product Details

Author:   J. Mulville ,  A. Outram
Publisher:   Oxbow Books
Imprint:   Oxbow Books
Dimensions:   Width: 21.00cm , Height: 1.90cm , Length: 29.70cm
Weight:   1.012kg
ISBN:  

9781842171165

ISBN 10:   184217116
Pages:   208
Publication Date:   10 February 2005
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Out of Print
Availability:   Awaiting stock  

Table of Contents

Introduction and Overview (Jacqui Mulville and Alan K Outram); Section 1: Evidence and Method Milk use in Prehistory; the osteological evidence (Tony Legge); A reconsideration of the Secondary Products Revolution in southeastern Europe: twenty years of research in the central Balkans on the origins and use of domestic animals for milk, wool, and traction (Haskel Greenfield); Distinguishing Bone Fat Exploitation from other Taphonomic Processes: What Caused the High Level of Bone Fragmentation at the Middle Neolithic Site of Ajvide, Gotland? (Alan K Outram); A Preliminary Study of Microscopic Evidence for Lactation in Cattle (Andrew T Chamberlain and Stephen T Forbes); The Use of Bone as Fuel During the Palaeolithic: Experimental Study of Bone Combustion Properties (I Thery-Parisot, S Costamagno, J P Brugal, P Fosse & R Guilbert); Fermented Dairy Product Analysis and Palaeodietary Repercussions: Is Stable Isotope Analysis not Cheesy Enough? (Karen Privat, Tamsin O'Connell, Ken Neal and Robert Hedges); Presence or absence: A preliminary study into the detection of fish oils in ceramics (Louise D. Brown & Carl Heron); Interpretation of d13C Values of Fatty Acids in Relation to Animal Husbandry, Food Processing and Consumption in Prehistory (Anna J. Mukherjee, Mark S Copley, Robert Berstan, Katherine A Clark & Richard P Evershed); Section 2: Ethno-Historical Studies Facilitating Milk Let-down in Traditional Cattle Herding Systems: East Africa and Beyond (Kathleen Ryan); Animal Fat in the Cultural World of the Native Peoples of Northeastern America (Claire Saint-Germain); Early Techniques as Forerunner of Milking Practices (Yutaka Tani); A review of Camel Milking in the Levant (L K Horwitz and B Rosen); Medieval dairying in England: prescription, practice and performance (Mike Thompson); Oil from troubled waters :historical and archaeological investigations into the use of fish and sea mammal oil in the Northern Isles of Scotland (Rebecca A Nicholson); Section 3: Case Studies: Milk and Fats Meat and fat: intensive exploitation strategies in the Upper Palaeolithic approached from bone fracture analysis (Ana Mateos); The guanaco as a source of meat and fat in the Southern Andes (Mariana E De Nigris & Guillermo L Mengoni Gonalons); The White Stuff: Milking in Atlantic Scotland (Julie Bond, Ollie Craig and Jacqui Mulville); Identification of animal fats in late Roman cooking pots of Sagalassos (southwestern Turkey) (K Kimpe, P A Jacobs and M Waelkens); The large scale and specialised late medieval urban craft of marrow extraction: archaeological and historical evidence from Malines (Belgium), confronted with experimental work (An Alen & Anton Ervynck).

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