A taste for local food: Analysis of archaeological cereal-based foods from the East of England

Abstract

AbstractThe study of food preparation and cooking is a research area which is rapidly evolving within archaeobotany and archaeological sciences. Many are the methods available today for the investigation into past culinary and dietary choices and, within these, high-resolution microscopy of preserved remains of cooked foods has become a leading approach. This research presents the application of a fully integrated microscopic approach to the study of archaeological remains of food recovered from sites in Cambridgeshire, England. Applied methods included optical, digital and scanning electron microscopy for the detailed analysis of the identified food products. For the first time, this paper presents the results from the analysis of charred food remains recovered from sites in Britain, specifically from the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon Improvement Scheme excavations led by MOLA Headland Infrastructure.