Ancient Foods & Such Intro

Well the time has come to finally revisit that archaeology degree from the University of Edinburgh and, I must say, I am absolutely ecstatic about it!!

I don't know about you but modern life can be pretty exhausting when you are trying to navigate ultra processed foods, AI histeria, plastic, water pollution, industrial farming practices and every other frightening thing that seems to be going on just now!

I am craving simplicity, time spent outside, land connection, hand crafts and the quiet.

Looking back at ancient life brings with it a deep sense of how short our lives on this planet are and how precious every moment and opportunity is. Although we have come along way, there are many things that we have lost or forgotten and I can't help but feel that if we slowed down and revisited some of these skills and practices that life might be better, for all of us.

One little blog isn't going to cut it so am hoping to use this as a diary space for my research...

The archaeological record is an amalgamation of tiny fragments of life left behind by those that came before us and we can only try to piece together an insight. Practically a lot of the evidence has disappeared and we are lucky to be left with the occasional clue but in truth, a clue is all it is. Hurcombe calls it the missing majority. In some ways I think that makes it more exciting and open to interpretation!

Technically I am looking at covering thousands and thousands of years of life across the whole world. I'll give you an example I usually use at the start of these workshops which I find really helps to put things into perspective... I have been learning to make string recently using lime bast which is the inner bark of the linden or lime tree (Tilia species). Cordage is a facinating subject in itself. So how old is the oldest piece of string to have ever been found? It potentially dates back to a monumental 50,000 years ago in Southern France and was made by Neanderthals from a conifer. How mad is that?

I hope that gives you some idea of what I am dealing with!! And how capable Neanderthals actually were!

I'll be back soon with more facinating finds and very old stories.