University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Papers
Document Type
Book Chapter
Date of this Version
2000
Publication Source
The Cambridge World History of Food
Start Page
1123
Last Page
1139
Abstract
The Sumerians may have said it best: “Food: That’s the thing! Drink: That’s the thing!” (Gordon 1959: 142). From bread and beer to wine and cheese, the people of the ancient Near East and North Africa developed a rich cuisine based on a set of crops and livestock domesticated in Southwest Asia, and a sophisticated technology of food preparation and preservation. This chapter traces the history of diet and food of hunter-gatherers who lived at the end of the Stone Age in the Near East and North Africa, the impact of the development and the spread of agriculture, and the social context of food and drink in early Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilization.
Recommended Citation
Miller, N. F., & Wetterstrom, W. (2000). The Beginnings of Agriculture: The Ancient Near East and North Africa. In K. F. Kiple & K. C. Ornelas (Eds.), The Cambridge World History of Food (pp. 1123-1239). University of Cambridge Press. Cambridge.
Included in
Archaeological Anthropology Commons, Near Eastern Languages and Societies Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons
Date Posted: 10 November 2016
This document has been peer reviewed.