Digital Atlas of Traditional Agricultural Practices and Food Processing

Book excerpt: This atlas is intended as a resource, not just for archaeobotanists hoping to reconstruct past foodways, but also for other archaeologists, palaeoecologists, ethnographers, and agricultural historians. Documenting an era of actual rural community practices in relation to local land use, it also provides unique material for rural sociologists, landscape ecologists, and agricultural technologists. The 'Digital atlas of traditional agricultural practices and food processing' documents the various processes involved in the production of food - from working the fields through to processing the crops for food, fodder, and other purposes. The atlas aims to define and describe these various processes unambiguously by using a standardized vocabulary and by explicitly taking into account the intention behind each process. Illustrated with more than 3,000 photographs and numerous films documenting 20 years of field observation in the Mediterranean area, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent, the atlas also includes detailed case studies of the practices and processes involving grapes, olives, date palms, barley, and wheat. Many of these processes are part of the intangible cultural heritage of agriculture that is now rapidly disappearing. The books contain full colour photographs as well as indexes on plant name and subject. The website includes both photographs and films, which can be examined in more detail using the site's extensive search tools.