Eating and Drinking in Roman Britain (review)

Reviewed by: Eating and Drinking in Roman Britain Jennifer Moore H. E. M. Cool. Eating and Drinking in Roman Britain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Pp. 282. US 105. 00 (cloth), 40. 00 (paper), 30. 00 (eBook). ISBN 97805218 02765 (cloth), 9780521003278 (paper), 9780511257940 (eBook). If the title of this work seems rather specialized, do not be misled. This book would be worthwhile reading for archaeologists, economic and social historians, and their students. Cool’s examination of dietary habits in Roman Britain is a didactic exercise to address a common problem: the propensity to “lose the will to live when faced with the reams of specialist reports that even a minor excavation can generate” (xiii). These specialist reports are often so technical that they are accessible only to other experts in the same field, while the disparate methods that specialists employ can lead to disjointed results at a single site, let alone across multiple projects. The segregated nature of finds analysis also limits the ways in which the data can be utilized. In other words, our own approaches and publishing practices can interfere with the basic goal of enhancing the picture of an ancient society. Cool’s aim is to demystify the various fields of specialization and demonstrate how their results can be pooled to address a variety of issues. Her topic of demonstration, eating and drinking practices, can reveal social conditioning related to such considerations as religion, gender, economic status, trade, occupation, and cultural background. Any activity of such primary importance will leave a wealth of traces in the ancient records; in this case, the evidence comes in such varied forms as shopping lists written on stylus tablets, culinary ceramics, charred seeds, glass and metalwork, dental cavities, butchered bones, and quern stones. While Cool is not the first to point out the benefits of a holistic approach, she has done an exemplary job of integrating these many facets both cohesively and intriguingly. Cool assumes that the reader has a rudimentary background in Roman history but may not be familiar with Roman Britain, so she provides geographic and historic background to give context to her discussions. Although the chronological focus is the first five centuries A. C. , Cool sets up the discussion by explaining late Iron Age trends. Then, if the ancient evidence is scanty, she draws on practices from post-antique Britain, though always with caveats about the dangers of doing so. The bibliography is accordingly profuse and diverse (21 pages, excluding individual chapters within volumes). Cool has a special talent for making this vast amount of complex material accessible and stimulating. Her approach is tripartite. The first third of her book is devoted to introducing the types of evidence for the End Page 171 Romano-British diet, including food packaging materials; vessels and utensils used to store, prepare, and serve food and drink; faunal and paleobotanical remains; nutritionally-significant pathologies on human skeletons; and epigraphic and written evidence. The main approaches used to study these finds are explained and evaluated, providing the reader with a good base of knowledge. Since Cool intends to assess the relative contributions of various foodstuffs to the ancient Britons’ diet, she pays particular attention to considerations such as survival rates, collection techniques for finds, and the quantification methods employed by specialists. She explains technical terminology and concepts in easily-understood language; if, further on in the text, readers forget a term, they can use the index to relocate the definition. In the second section of her book, Cool employs these basic principles and categories of evidence for examining the individual components of the Romano-British diet: staples and store cupboard supplies (such as grains, salt, fish sauce, olive oil, and sweetenings), meat, dairy products, poultry and eggs, fish and shellfish, game, fruits and vegetables, and beverages. The reader learns the techniques that were used for preparation, such as extracting salt from seawater, grinding grain, and brewing beer. Published finds of each food type allow Cool to assess its relative popularity over time and place. As in all sections of the book, line drawings of artifacts and statistical tables and graphs support the author’s statements; she also provides an appendix detailing her data. . .