Topics: Archaeology, Foodways, Human sustenance, Consumption, (Eastern) Mediterranean, Byzantine and Islamic worlds
Disciplines: Archaeology, History, Art History, Anthropology, Sociology
Admission requirements:
This course is an (extracurricular) Honours Class: an elective course within the Honours College programme. Third year students who don’t participate in the Honours College, have the opportunity to apply for a Bachelor Honours Class. Students will be selected based on i.a. their motivation and average grade.
Description:
Although perhaps the largest cliché in human history, the proverb ‘you are what you eat’ has not only generated a wealth of research but also shaped our dietary behavior. From hunter-gatherer societies to empires, food is crucial to the organization of our economies and environments. To survive, people need daily rations of calories and nutrients. What people gathered or grew, and how they processed this to feed themselves has thus always been a cornerstone in archaeological interpretations of earlier societies.
The archaeology of food has currently moved beyond considerations of efficiency and adaptation to embrace insights from sociology and anthropology showing that food styles are deeply culturally embedded. What people ate and drank and how they served food and drink have always played a major role in ideologies, and social identities.
This course explores various aspects of the archaeology of food and the important relationship between human sustenance and prior and present societies. Within this theme, case studies will be presented on the archaeology of foodways, consumption, and cuisine in the Medieval Mediterranean, with a focus on the Byzantine and Islamic worlds (ca. 300-1500 CE).
Topics that will be discussed concern the dynamics between material culture and past foodways, changes in foodways and cuisines over time, as well as food and environment, garbage practices, the world of spices, and applied techniques formulated through experimental archaeology and ethnoarchaeology.
A museum visit is included in this course. Through this visit and accompanying assignment (preparation of an object description), students will become familiar with Museum Boymans Van Beuningen (Rotterdam), its collection, and its depot. Students will train their heuristic skills in that setting.
Course objectives:
Upon successful completion of this course, students will:
become acquainted with current interpretative debates concerning the role of food in past economies and societies;
gain detailed knowledge of selected case studies and the archaeological debates in the literature associated with these topics;
practice their ability to assess current research and literature critically, and to formulate a well-argued opinion in discussions;
practice their skills in summarizing the current status of a specific topic and present this in a presentation;
practice how to write a balanced essay, expressing a critical assessment of relevant literature and one’s own well-argued opinion, while using feedback from group discussions and presentations.
Programme and timetable:
The sessions of this class will be held on the following dates: TBA.
The course starts with a general introduction to methodological issues regarding the archaeology of food, including interpretative debates and perspectives from sociology and (cultural) anthropology. It is the aim to review in this course some of the (theoretical) schools concerning the relationships humans have with their food. After this introduction, the upcoming classes will explore themes such as food production, processing, preservation, preparation, cooking, wining and dining.
Location:
TBA
Reading list:
The reading list will be published on Brightspace, two weeks before the first meeting. Students will assemble additional reading for case studies as part of their presentation.
Course load and teaching method:
This course is worth 5 ECTS, which means the total course load equals 140 hours:
Seminars: 7 seminars of 2 hours (participation is mandatory)
Excursion: 1 excursion of 6 hours
Literature reading: 3 hours/week
Assignments & final essay: 21 hours x 44 hours
Self-tuition: 34 hours
Assessment methods:
The assessment methods will look as follows:
Active participation in class discussions and weekly assignments (10%).
Quality of the presentation in class and museum (40%).
Quality of the final essay of ca. 2000 words and an abstract of ca. 500 words (50%).
All essays must be submitted through Turnitin/Brightspace, and only on-time Turnitin/Brightspace submissions count. A retake is only possible for the final essay, and only if all other requirements have been met and a genuine and complete first final essay has been submitted.
Students can only pass this course after successful completion of all partial exams.
Brightspace and uSis:
Brightspace will be used in this course. Upon admission students will be enrolled in Brightspace by the teaching administration.
Please note: students are not required to register through uSis for the Bachelor Honours Classes. Your registration will be done centrally.
Application process:
Submitting an application for this course is possible from Monday 28 October 2024 up to and including Tuesday 17 November 2024 23:59 through the link on the Honours Academy student website.
Note: students don’t have to register for the Bachelor Honours Classes in uSis. The registration is done centrally before the start of the class.
Contact:
Prof. Dr. J.A.C. Vroom
j.a.c.vroom@arch.leidenuniv.nl
Faculty of Archaeology
Van Steenisbuilding
Einsteinweg 2 (room B1.09)
2333 CC Leiden