As a food studies scholar working across a range of disciplines, including archaeology and anthropology, it is a great pleasure to see this volume come to fruition. As Madeline Shanahan notes in her introduction, there is both great potential but also a critical need for food-focused studies in Australian archaeology. I would argue that an archaeology of food is of critical importance for all archaeologists, because food has the ability to bring all aspects of society and culture into focus.

There is interpretive power in a food lens. As this volume clearly demonstrates, archaeologists can connect food-related evidence to meaningful socio-cultural practice, from subsistence strategies and food systems, to the social and symbolic, to the economic and the political, across a range of temporalities and geographies. By highlighting the diverse food-related practices of Australia’s original inhabitants, as well as those of the many groups of colonists, migrants, immigrants, and labourers who settled here, the authors also draw our attention to the vast range of outcomes that may result from cultural encounter and exchange.

In each chapter, whether examining prehistoric or historical contexts, the authors incorporate into their analyses the core concept of foodways – defined as the range of cultural, social, material, technological and economic practices related to the production and consumption of food, from production, procurement and preparation to presentation, consumption and disposal. This is a term that is well known to historical archaeologists and anthropologists, but Chapters 1–3 are particularly notable for their contributors’ engagement with the concept of foodways in prehistoric contexts, connecting the evidence for food resources and food choices to cultural, social, and even symbolic practice.

In Chapter 1, Tim Owen links prehistoric subsistence strategies to the concepts of foodways and cuisine. This type of interpretive lens is still rare in archaeological literature from around the globe, so to think about foodways and culture in deep time is both exciting and powerful. That the author is successful in doing so here suggests the strength of multidisciplinary approaches that incorporate multiple lines of evidence, including traditional knowledge, to build those connections.

In Chapter 2, Dilkes-Hall, Davis and Malo draw heavily on the concept of ecological knowledge to examine and interpret the evidence for Aboriginal plant use dating back 47,000 years. The choice to view archaeobotanical evidence through this lens deliberately extends the discussion of food as part of a subsistence strategy to consider the cultural choices behind the selection of certain resources and decisions to prepare and consume them in a certain way (foodways).

In Chapter 3, Disspain, Manne and Lambrides shift the focus from plants to the ecological, social, and cultural significance of fishing in Australia. They provide an overview of the archaeological evidence for fishing across the continent, from 42,000 years ago to the present. These three chapters should prompt important discussion and new interpretations of the Aboriginal past, particularly as the material, archaeobotanical, and zooarchaeological evidence for food extends far back in time. The use of oral tradition and ecological knowledge further expands and deepens our interpretations. Together, the authors provide compelling evidence for how the Australian landscape has shaped and been shaped for millennia by its original inhabitants.

The effects of colonialism, capitalism, and globalisation, though comparatively recent and rapid in development and impact, have also been wide-ranging and profound, altering the landscape in ways that will continue to be felt well into the future. Archaeologists are on more familiar ground here when discussing foodways, given the abundance of textual, material, and archaeological evidence of past lifeways in the historical period. The chapters that follow are nonetheless quite revelatory, demonstrating the important contributions offered by a food-focused lens but also highlighting the profound impacts that foods and food practices can have in a variety of socio-cultural contexts. In Chapter 4, for example, Nussbaumer and Fillios provide an excellent overview and discussion of the social and ecological dynamics of colonisation with specific focus on the introduction of domesticated animals to Australia, beginning in 1788. The authors highlight the archaeological evidence for both short-term cultural encounter and extended contact through colonisation, noting variations in both responses and actions, as well as the long-term consequences of these encounters.

The study of institutional food by Connor in Chapter 5 is extremely important, highlighting as it does the fact that food represents and is used as an implement of power, and those who control access to food can exert their power over others in a variety of social, economic, and cultural contexts. Two types of institutional contexts are examined with respect to food: rationing, for example through the British Navy, the carceral system, the many work camps organised within extractive industries, the fisheries, and the agricultural sector, as well as mission sites; and institutional provisioning and dining through prisons, hospitals, and schools. Connor draws from archaeological and historical evidence to outline the varied contexts of institutional food provisioning in Australia, distinguishing not only between institutions and provisioning systems, but also between voluntary residents and those subject to coercive practices; the author also demonstrates the varied impacts of institutional provisioning on the basis of gender, ethnicity, and indigeneity.

In Chapter 6, Grimwade explores changing foodways practice in the Chinese diaspora to Australia through the documentation of large stone ovens that were built to roast pigs and were a frequent feature of Chinese immigrant communities. The chapter provides a typology of ovens, spatial distribution of documented examples, a brief examination of the ritual importance of the pig in Chinese religion, and an overview of preparation methods and contexts of consumption in Australia. Grimwade demonstrates that this traditional foodway, though steeped in ritual and religion, nonetheless changed over time to become increasingly secular in practice.

Newling’s emphasis in Chapter 7 on cooking processes in historic-period domestic kitchens provides critical background to understanding both daily practice as well as changes to those practices with the introduction of new technologies and material goods. As the author notes, there is plenty in the literature on British and American kitchens, but it is important to describe the construction and technologies specific to Australian kitchens beginning with the colonial period. This chapter serves as a primer for any historical archaeologist, historian, or site interpreter working with food and foodways.

Finally, in Chapter 8, Harris, Woff, and O’Donohue discuss the importance of glass and ceramic bottles and containers as diagnostic artifacts and as essential forms of food-related material culture that give insight into domestic foodways practices. This chapter offers an introduction to food preservation technologies of the historical period and links the material evidence for these containers to specific food preservation methods. But the authors connect these bottles and containers to larger questions around food choice and food consumption as well, noting that vessel selection and use were also influenced by and reflected aspects of identity in relation to ethnicity, social class, and economic status. Further complicating their history, the choice of vessels and how to use them also reflected differences between urban and rural households, access to changing technologies, as well as the degree of participation in an increasingly global economy. For this reason, the authors stress the value in determining the context of a vessel’s use or re-use to better understand foodways practiced in the home.

Shanahan argues that many archaeologists in Australia are hesitant to engage with or are unaware of the potential for a food-focused archaeology. If that is the case, this volume provides an excellent demonstration of its methodological and interpretive power, whether researchers use existing data and collections or embark on new research endeavors. The volume will prove to be a critical resource for Australian archaeologists. The contributors have highlighted a wide range of datasets and methods with respect to the study of plants, animals, fish and shellfish, but also wild and domesticated food sources, and the range of choices made with respect to foraging, husbandry, cultivation, importation, and domestic manufacture. They review a wide range of material and technological evidence, providing detailed discussions of food processing and preparation methods across time and space. They also have made their work accessible, and readers will see how to usefully apply a food lens to their own area of study. Finally, the detailed citations and references will be an important – even critical – resource, particularly the inclusion of gray literature where large amounts of data are to be found.

This volume serves to emphasise the applicability of a food lens to a broad range of time periods, from deep time to the colonial era to the present day. Critically, in her role as editor, Shanahan emphasises the public’s interest in food and suggests this interest makes a food-focused archaeology both relevant and exciting. Given both scholarly interest in and public discourse about identity and multicultural exchange, but also the need to critically redress the biases and inequalities linked to colonialism, capitalism, industrialisation, and globalisation, Shanahan’s observation is prescient. Notably, several authors in this volume draw on their research data to discuss issues regarding sustainability, environmental degradation, and the loss of resources. Questions of access to and control of food resources are also critical topics today and will be in the future. The contributors to this volume demonstrate clearly that these issues have a deep history, however, and are often multifaceted in origin and nuanced in their outcome. As such the authors demonstrate the relevance of a food-focused archaeology to future policy and planning.

This volume, then, provides a compelling foundation for an area of research that should prove essential to understanding both past and present in Australian archaeology, and will make an important contribution to the field of archaeology more broadly, demonstrating the potential for a food-focused archaeology. But this volume will also excite the interest of the public. As the contributors show, not only can each food or ingredient or recipe have different methods of preparation and consumption depending on place and time, but each culture and even each generation within the same culture can develop different preferences for foods and make different choices as to the best ingredients, methods of preparation, and ways of consumption—that is, what is “good” to eat. That is something to which we can all relate. And that too suggests the power of food archaeology.

Karen Bescherer Metheny

Master Lecturer in Gastronomy and Archaeology

Boston University