1. Food and fat in prehistory: some
examples from experimental
archaeology
WP5
Professor Alan K. Outram
University of Exeter
April 2013

2. Scientific food experiments and their
potential for public presentation
• Can we extend beyond demonstrations of past dietary activities?
• Can we meaningfully communicate the scientific significance of
the demonstrations and reconstructions in terms of their original
scientific value?
• Can we meaningfully communicate how the activities result in an
archaeological record and how the reconstruction helps decode
that record?
• Can we demonstrate food practices which are alien to modern
societies rather than just show old ways of doing current things?
• Which types of food experimentation and demonstrations lend
themselves to the above?

3. • Food Production
• Food Processing
• Cooking Methods
• Food Consumption

4. Bone Fats – Marrow and Grease Extraction

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Importance of Fats
• More calories that carbohydrates and proteins by a
ration of 9:4.
• Carriers of some essential vitamins and minerals (A,
D, E and K)
• Essential fatty acids
• Tastes good!
• ‘Protein sparing’ action in low carbohydrate diets
• Many craft uses (e.g. lubricant, waterproofer)
• Fuel

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Identifying ‘peri-mortem’ fractures
1. Spiral or helical fracture outline
2. Acute or obtuse angle of fracture to cortical
surface (sharp)
3. Smooth fracture surface
4. Percussion cones/impact scars

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Identifying Grease Processing
• Examine fracture patterns
• Examine fragmentation patterns
• Examine taphonomic factors
• Consider archaeological evidence for rendering
• Consider the economic and environmental
context

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Case Study –
Greenland
Settled by Norse c. AD 985
In two are areas called:
Western Settlement
and
Eastern Settlement
(which was the larger and
richer)

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Qeqertasussuk
and
Itivnera
PaleoEskimo
Saqqaq Culture

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