The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Diet

Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Diet aims to provide a survey of both the diversity of human diet in the past as well as providing solid information on the many approaches to the topic. Thus the aim was not just to present what we know, but how we gain that understanding. The first section presents research on the diets of non-human primates and ancestral humans using a variety of approaches to explore their environmental, biological and cultural contexts. The second section aims to show how human diet has diversified along with human expansion across the globe, from Africa to Eurasia, the Americas and Oceania. The third section focuses on human diet, health and disease across the lifespan and includes ethnographic and clinical studies as well as bioarchaeological approaches to assessing growth, health and disease in the context of diet. Each chapter combines a specific methodological approach with key research questions about past dietary adaptations.