The Archaeology of Food: How and Why we eat what we do

The Archaeology of Food: How and Why we eat what we do

  • 04 Sep
    2024

    Indian Aesthetics

    Kurush F. Dalal

The Archaeology of Food: How and Why we eat what we do

Image:Oldest Olive oil in a glass jar 79 AD from Pompeii


Most of the history of our food is lost to antiquity. This is because humans and their eating patterns are much older than history. At its very oldest history goes back 5500 years, humans on the other hand have been on the face of this planet for over 2 million years. Human Food History is divided into 2 very clear sets; Prehistoric where for most of the 2 million plus years we went from scavengers and opportunistic hunters gatherers to specialised hunter gatherers and the ultimate pack killing machines on the planet, and Neolithic till date the story of peoples who grow their own food.  The first starts 2 million plus years ago and ends roughly 11 thousand years ago where the second period starts and in which we live today. The study of human food is thus mainly the province of archaeology and not history. This talk, which dwells mainly on the subcontinent and mainly on the 2nd period is the introduction to that story. 


Free In-Person only Public Lecture at JPM institute.

Duration -

September 4, 2024

Timing: Tea: 6:00 PM | Lecture: 6:30 - 8:30 PM IST

Registrations Closed

Kurush F. Dalal

Kurush F. Dalal

Kurush F Dalal has a BA in Ancient Indian History and History from the University of Mumbai), an MA in Archaeology as well as a PhD in the early Iron Age in Rajasthan, both from Deccan College, Pune University. Subsequently, he shifted focus to the Early Medieval Period predominantly on the West Coast of India and excavated the sites of Sanjan, Chandore and Mandad. These excavations and the data recovered have had a strong impact on scholarship in the region. The recent Mandad excavations have revealed a brand new hitherto unknown Indo-Roman Port site with antecedents going back even further.

Dr Dalal also actively works on Memorial Stones and Ass-curse Stones in India and dabbles in Numismatics, Defence Archaeology, Architecture, Ethnoarchaeology and allied disciplines. He blends his passion for food and archaeology into research in Culinary Anthropology and Food Archaeology. He is Director of Instucen School of Archaeology and the Joint-Director of the Salcette Explorations Project, a massive Urban Archaeology Project documenting the Archaeology of Mumbai since 2015, thus extending his interest from the Medieval into the Colonial Period.

He has published over 35 papers and has read many more at National and International Seminars. He is a visiting lecturer at various Universities, Colleges, Schools and Government Institutions. He taught archaeology and allied subjects at the University of Mumbai for 10 years. He was Consulting Editor with Live History India from 2019 to 2020.