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.
Reviews
“Overall, this Atlas makes an extremely important contribution towards demonstrating with excellent quality photographic documentation the rich variability in the ways human societies produce and process plants for food or other needs. It is a very useful tool for archaeologists, archaeobotanists, and food historians, safeguarding culinary heritage in a rich photographic compendium. It has also a strong educational value for schoolchildren in industrialized communities, mainly estranged from the processes leading to the foodstuffs available in readymade forms in supermarkets and fast-foods. The beautifully illustrated three volumes of the Digital Atlas of Traditional Agricultural Practices and Food Processing constitute a work of reference for researchers but also a highly attractive piece of work for the wider public.” Soultana Maria Valamoti in Economic Botany, 72.4 (2018) 573-574
VOLUME 1
PREFACE IX
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Organization of the book 1
1.2 Fieldwork 2
1.3 Crop metabolism as it relates to agricultural practices 11
1.4 Crop production as it relates to animal husbandry 12
1.5 Crop processing, morphology, and anatomy 14
WORKING THE FIELDS 19
2 Tillage 21
2.1 Hoeing, digging, and ploughing 21
2.2 Raking, harrowing, and rolling 23
2.3 Plates 24
3 Water management 77
3.1 Drainage 77
3.2 Flooding and irrigation 78
3.3 Plates 80
4 Manuring 121
4.1 Soil as fertilizer 121
4.2 Green manures 122
4.3 Dung, ash, and trash 122
4.4 Plates 124
5 Sowing and planting 151
5.1 Sowing 151
5.2 Planting 152
5.3 Seasonal produce 152
5.4 Plates 154
6 Yield improvement and grazing 185
6.1 Weed control 185
6.2 Crop protection 186
6.3 Grazing 188
6.4 Plates 190
PROCESSING THE CROP 223
7 Harvesting 225
7.1 Ripening 225
7.2 Uprooting and picking 226
7.3 Cutting, reaping, and mowing 228
7.4 Plates 242
8 Post-harvest processing 381
8.1 Transport 381
8.2 Fragmentation and separation 381
8.3 Chopping and threshing 386
8.4 De-hulling, polishing, de-stoning, and de-seeding 388
8.5 Pounding and grinding 391
8.6 Winnowing and sieving 393
8.7 Wetting and drying 397
8.8 Plates 398
INDICES 709
Plant index 711
Subject index 719
VOLUME 2
USING THE HARVEST 735
9 Food and fodder 737
9.1 Edibility and digestibility 737
9.2 Food preservation 739
9.3 Fodder 742
9.4 Fuel 744
9.5 Food preparation 745
9.6 Storage 754
9.7 Quantification 756
9.8 Plates 758
10 Non-food uses 1123
10.1 Building material 1123
10.2 Some other uses 1124
10.3 Plates 1126
CASE STUDIES 1171
11 Grape 1173
11.1 Leaves and fruits 1173
11.2 Pekmez and wine 1174
11.3 Plates 1176
12 Olive 1213
12.1 Table olives 1213
12.2 Oil 1213
12.3 Plates 1216
13 Date palm 1235
13.1 Stems 1235
13.2 Leaves 1235
13.3 Fruits 1236
13.4 Plates 1238
INDICES 1285
Plant index 1287
Subject index 1295
VOLUME 3
CASE STUDIES (cont.)
14 Barley and Wheat 1311
14.1 Crop processing 1311
14.2 Frikeh, bulgur, tarhana, pasta, and bread 1336
14.3 Beer 1341
14.4 Plates 1343
APPENDIXES 1925
Glossary 1927
References cited 1935
INDICES 1941
Plant index 1943
Subject index 1951
