ARCH 0770 Food and Drink in Classical Antiquity
Professor Sue Alcock
Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World
101 Rhode Island Hall 863-3710
Office Hours: TBA
Teaching Assistant: Sarah Craft
Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World
Rhode Island Hall
Office Hours: TBA
Class wiki: http://proteus.brown.edu/fooddrinkclassicalantiquity/Home
Class meetings: MWF 11:00 - 11:50 (D Hour)
Rhode Island Hall 108
Everybody eats - but patterns of eating (and drinking) vary dramatically from culture to culture. This course traces the mechanics of food production and consumption in the ancient Mediterranean world, considers how diet marked symbolic boundaries, gender differences, and in general explores the extent to which the ancient Greeks and Romans ‘were what they ate’.
Required readings:
(available as e-books via Josiah, or via Amazon.com or other vendors)
Peter Garnsey, Food and Society in Classical Antiquity (Cambridge 1999)
John M. Wilkins and Shaun Hill, Food in the Ancient World (Blackwell 2006)
Course Requirements:
10% Food Reviews: Dining and Shopping in Divine Providence (2 pages)
— to be posted to course wiki by class on September 21st
15% Midterm Examination
— Friday, October 16th (in class); on material up to October 9th
15% Object analysis, Rhode Island School of Design Museum (2-4 pages)
— due October 30th
20% Paper/project (7-10 pages)
— Abstract (half page, plus pictures/multi-media display, if necessary) to be posted to course wiki by class on November 20th
— Final paper/project due December 2nd
20% Final Examination
— Tuesday, December 15th, 9:00 am
20% On going participation in class activities and discussions, periodic
mandatory wiki contributions
Total: 100%
Course Requirements:
1) Food Reviews: Dining and Shopping in Divine Providence (due September 21st)
A short (two page) critique of any aspect of your local food scene: Brown or Providence, supermarkets, farmers markets, restaurants, bars, the Ratty, any drinking and dining experiences. Form and style up to you: sound like an epicurean or social reformer, make like a food critic, emote from the perspective of an alien or a pet…
2) Midterm Examination: Friday, October 16th (in class, on material up to 10/9)
Eight identifications of terms, concepts and images drawn from the readings and from lectures (5 minutes each); one short answer question (10 minutes). Choice offered in both categories.
3) Object analysis, Rhode Island School of Design Museum (due October 30th)
Pick any ancient object (or group of objects) with ‘food connotations’ in the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, and produce a short (2-4 page) description and interpretation, setting the piece in context and explaining its significance in understanding processes of dining or drinking. Supplemental bibliography will be made available to help jumpstart your research; talk to Professor Alcock and Sarah Craft for assistance and advice.
4) Paper/project (equivalent of 7-10 pages)
(abstract due November 20th, final product due December 2nd)
A chance to follow your own interests and instincts in exploring food and drink in classical antiquity. This paper or project (which can be a traditional research paper or a project more experiential, web-based or multi-media in nature) will allow you to develop in greater detail any topic that intrigues you. Possible suggestions include: breast feeding in antiquity; soldier diets and army provisions; food ‘doles’ in the ancient world; the use of animals in ancient agriculture and diet; poison; sympotic poetry; the archaeology of the ancient kitchen; aphrodisiacs; the alcoholism of Alexander the Great; the treatment of food and dining by a particular ancient author or authors (Homer, Athenaeus, Aristophanes, Suetonius, Plautus, Martial); prehistoric diets; spices; representations of food and drink in ancient art (e.g. Greek vase painting, Roman wall painting); athletic diets; the antics of satyrs, ancient fast food… Or anything else that catches your fancy! Supplemental bibliography will be made available to help jumpstart your research; consult with Professor Alcock and Sarah Craft.
5) Final Examination: Tuesday, December 15th, 9:00 am
Identifications of terms, concepts and images drawn from the readings and from lectures class; short answer questions; essays. While there will be an emphasis on the material covered since the mid-term, the examination will be cumulative in nature.
6) Ongoing participation in class activities and discussions, and mandatory brief contributions to the class wiki on:
Food and Memory (x2); Cookbooks; Drugs and Medicine
Course Outline:
Bottom of Form
W, September 9
Playing with Food I
F, September 11
Playing with Food II
Classwork Assignment: Food and Memory
(postings to wiki due noon on Sunday)
M, September 14
Background check: Greeks and Romans
Classwork Exercise: Food and Memory
W, September 16
Background check: do people eat mountain lions?
F, September 18
The mechanics of production and of diet
M, September 21
Food categories and their symbolic baggage
Classwork Assignment: Dining and Shopping in Divine Providence
(postings to wiki due by class time)
W, September 23
Liquid refreshment
F, September 25
Food Reviews
Classwork Exercise: Dining and Shopping in Divine Providence
(read at least 10 food critiques, and comment online and in class)
M, September 28
Home cooking and feeding the gods
W, September 30
Buying and selling: fast food?
F, October 2
‘Normality’ vs. watching ‘the other’ feed
M, October 5
Deviant diets (cont.), and table manners
W, October 7
RISD Visit: Taking Food into a Museum (field trip)
F, October 9
RISD Visit: Taking Food into a Museum (field trip)
M, October 12
No Class
W, October 14
Museum review and open questions
F, October 16
Midterm Examination
M, October 19
Food insecurity: going hungry…
W, October 21
… and getting hungrier: famine and starvation
F, October 23
Teeth, bones and stomach contents
Classwork Assignment: Cookbooks and Do-It-Yourself
(postings and burnt offerings due by class Monday)
M, October 26
Time to Eat/Gag
Classwork Exercise: Cookbooks and Do-It-Yourself
W, October 28
Status and the Rituals of Dinner
F, October 30
Food and Status: you are what you eat (and how!)
RISD Object Analysis due
M, November 2
Food and gender: the edible woman vs. …
W, November 4
Food and 'inferiority': women and children last
F, November 6
Where DO babies come from? Food and sex
M, November 9
Food in Roman Art
W, November 11
Classwork Exercise: Food and memory (revisited)
F, November 13
Food Films: Our Daily Bread; Fast Food Nation, etc
M, November 16
Drugs and medicine
Classwork Exercise: Pick an herb, any herb
W, November 18
Food and ‘Morality’: funny food, funny people
F, November 20
Paper/Project Abstract Discussions
M, November 23
Feasts and feasting
W, November 25
Feast and feasting II: Analyzing Thanksgiving
F, November 27
No Class (Thanksgiving)
M, November 30
Food and early Christianity
W, December 2
Food poems of antiquity (and modernity)
F, December 4
Paper/Project Presentations and Wrap Up
Final Examination:
Tuesday, December 15, 9:00 am