Food archaeologists

The appreciation of color and the use of colorants dates back to antiquity. The art of making colored candy is shown in paintings in Egyptian tombs as far back as 1500 bc. Pliny the Elder described the use of artificial colorants in wine in 1500 bc. Spices and condiments were colored at least 500 years ago. The use of colorants in cosmetics is better documented than colorants in foods. Archaeologists have pointed out that Egyptian women used green copper ores as eye shadow as early as 5000 bc. Henna was used to redden hair and feet, carmine to redden lips, faces were colored yellow with saffron and kohl, an arsenic compound, was used to darken eyebrows. More recently, in Britain, in the twelfth century, sugar was colored red with kermes and madder and purple with Tyrian purple. 

Food archaeologists may try to recreate the diet of a culture long past, using the physical evidence that remains from plant and animal meals, as well as written recipes that survive. In 2009, archaeologists managed to analyze and reproduce an ancient Chinese wine using chemical analyses of the wine residue found in pottery jars. 

By examining Otzi s teeth and bones and comparing their isotope ratios to those foimd in the nearby environments, archaeologists can get clues about where the Iceman grew up and where he spent his adulthood. (More precisely, these measurements indicate where Otzi s food and water came from. But in this ancient era, Otzi would have probably obtained most or perhaps all of the necessities of Ufe from the local area.) Teeth enamel provide clues of childhood environment, and bone, which gets remade every decade or two, indicates a more recent abode. 

DNA is especially valuable because the sequence can identify a single individual as well as provide a rich source of information about human evolution. But another critical aspect of life is diet—what people eat and drink. Chemical analysis of food and liquids can give archaeologists important clues about how people used to live. 

Walshaw, S. (2006). Swahili food production Archaeobotany of town and country on Pemba Island, Tanzania, A.D. 600-1500 presented in the meeting of the Society of Africanist Archaeologists Calagary, 22-26 June, 2006. http //cohesion.rice.edu/CentersAndInst/ SAFA/emplibrary/Walshaw,S.SAfA.pdf. 

Man probably used wheat as food 10,000 to 15,000 years before Christ In 1948, archaeologists from the University of Chicago found kernels of wheat, believed to be about 6,700 years old, preserved in the ruins of an ancient village in Iraq. 

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