Talks by Sally Grainger
The Story of Garum recounts the convoluted journey of that notorious Roman fish sauce, known as g... more The Story of Garum recounts the convoluted journey of that notorious Roman fish sauce, known as garum, from a smelly Greek fish paste to an expensive luxury at the heart of Roman cuisine and back to obscurity as the Roman empire declines.
Recent experiments to manufactures fish sauce has led to a new understanding of the design featur... more Recent experiments to manufactures fish sauce has led to a new understanding of the design features of fish sauce amphorae. The talk will outline the results of the experiments and discuss how the observation of the residue formation has informed a new theory as to how Roman fish sauce was traded.
Papers by Sally Grainger
Journal of Maritime Archaeology, 2018
In studying fish products in the ancient Mediterranean we explore textual and archaeological sour... more In studying fish products in the ancient Mediterranean we explore textual and archaeological sources to understand the fish preservation processes, to estimate the volume of production, to infer the nature and richness of the raw materials, and, ultimately, to understand how this industry was embedded in the economies of the past. The papers and posters in the Bountiful Sea Conference have demonstrated the richness of these approaches and they have elaborated on the potential of future research. Departing from the sphere of production, fishing grounds, salting vats and foul smelling cetariae, the salted fish, the fish sauces and pastes became food, a desired commodity. Processed fish products in antiquity were known by a large variety of names: garum, liquamen, muria, allec; names that derived from their shape, the method of processing, the species and the body parts that were processed, their origin, their colour and their texture, to name only some possibilities (Figs. 1, 2). Names are descriptive and informative. They reflect the way people order their world. The abundance of names for salted fish and sauces suggest an intense social interest in them. Most importantly these names are closely linked to the sphere of consumption. Some presentations in the Bountiful Sea Conference elaborated on such aspects: processed fish on the table, in cuisine and in medicine. Eating is not a simple process and it is not only about sustenance; by eating we incorporate the world and we define ourselves! When eating, taste, smell, texture and also the memories these evoke are crucial. The stories around the food we eat are also very important! These immaterial aspects of the past are the most elusive to modern researchers (e.g. Lupton 1996; Tarlow 2000). The Bountiful Sea Conference attempted to explore them by offering opportunities of an experiential approach to the issue in parallel to the academic program. A number of culinary events and experiences were organized along with presentations of modern-day fish products by the producers themselves. The celebratory event of the conference was the "Roman Feast" that took place in the Ashmolean Museum. Food historian Sally Grainger in collaboration with chef Mike Dewing, set the table with replicas of Roman Samian ware platters, bowls and glass bottles, with Mediterranean fruits and greens (Fig. 3). This event gave the participants the opportunity to form a multisensory personal view of what seafood and processed fish look and taste like, of what are * Dimitra Mylona
Archaeofauna International Journal of Archaeozoology, 2013
In this paper I will report on the results of experiments, conducted from 2009 through to 2011, t... more In this paper I will report on the results of experiments, conducted from 2009 through to 2011, to manufacture Roman fish sauce, using the ancient recipes. More specifically, it will consider the nature of the fish sauce residue, known as allec, observe its formation and assess its qualities. The paper concludes that many shipwrecks currently identified as having transported amphorae that contained a salted fish product made from mackerel may in fact be shipping a semi processed fish sauce which will go on to produce a quality liquamen type sauce at its destination. This paper offers a new interpretation of the archaeological remains found in ancient transport amphorae and provides new insights into the commerce of processed fish products in the Roman Mediterranean.
Multidisciplinary approaches to food and foodways in the medieval Eastern Mediterranean
The Classical Review, 2012
Journal of Maritime Archaeology, Nov 15, 2018
There is a dilemma at the heart of the study of the Roman fish sauce trade. The meaning of the Gr... more There is a dilemma at the heart of the study of the Roman fish sauce trade. The meaning of the Greek and Latin words used to name the fish sauces is still contested: currently there is much confusion and contradiction between modern scholars and ancient commentators about the use of the terms garum and liquamen. It is also not readily recognised that the ancients themselves were less than clear as to the exact meaning of the terms that they used, and this confusion has informed and exacerbated our own. In this paper some of the key texts that have been used to define fish sauce are re-evaluated in light of the need to distinguish and separate them out into the distinct types and sub-types.
Mylona D and R. Nicholson (eds) The Bountiful Sea: Fish Processing and Consumption in Mediterranean Antiquity, Special Issue in Journal of Maritime Archaeology 13: 219-222, 2018
In studying fish products in the ancient Mediterranean we explore textual and archaeological sour... more In studying fish products in the ancient Mediterranean we explore textual and archaeological sources to understand the fish preservation processes, to estimate the volume of production , to infer the nature and richness of the raw materials, and, ultimately, to understand how this industry was embedded in the economies of the past. The papers and posters in the Bountiful Sea Conference have demonstrated the richness of these approaches and they have elaborated on the potential of future research. Departing from the sphere of production, fishing grounds, salting vats and foul smelling cetariae, the salted fish, the fish sauces and pastes became food, a desired commodity. Processed fish products in antiquity were known by a large variety of names: garum, liquamen, muria, allec; names that derived from their shape, the method of processing, the species and the body parts that were processed, their origin, their colour and their texture, to name only some possibilities (Figs. 1, 2). Names are descriptive and informative. They reflect the way people order their world. The abundance of names for salted fish and sauces suggest an intense social interest in them. Most importantly these names are closely linked to the sphere of consumption. Some presentations in the Bountiful Sea Conference elaborated on such aspects: processed fish on the table, in cuisine and in medicine. Eating is not a simple process and it is not only about sustenance; by eating we incorporate the world and we define ourselves! When eating, taste, smell, texture and also the memories these evoke are crucial. The stories around the food we eat are also very important ! These immaterial aspects of the past are the most elusive to modern researchers (e.g. Lupton 1996; Tarlow 2000). The Bountiful Sea Conference attempted to explore them by offering opportunities of an experiential approach to the issue in parallel to the academic program. A number of culinary events and experiences were organized along with presentations of modern-day fish products by the producers themselves. The celebratory event of the conference was the " Roman Feast " that took place in the Ash-molean Museum. Food historian Sally Grainger in collaboration with chef Mike Dewing, set the table with replicas of Roman Samian ware platters, bowls and glass bottles, with Mediter-ranean fruits and greens (Fig. 3). This event gave the participants the opportunity to form a multisensory personal view of what seafood and processed fish look and taste like, of what are
The Classical Cookbook, 2nd ed., 2012
We have tried to do something quite new in this book. Many people have written about the Roman co... more We have tried to do something quite new in this book. Many people have written about the Roman cookery text Apicius, but no one has yet gathered a collection of recipes from the entire ancient world – from both Greek and Roman writings – and shown how they can be recreated in the modern kitchen. We have set the resulting 'menus' beside pictures and narratives of dining, drinking and festivity, which have survived from that period. We bridge the gap between modern experience and the tastes, smells, sights and sounds of two thousand years ago. This book is a collaboration: Sally writes on the finding and adapting of ancient recipes; the translations and the historical background are Andrew's work.
by Sonia Gabriel, James H Barrett, Tatiana Theodoropoulou, Arlene Fradkin, Richard Hoffmann, María Fernanda Martínez-Polanco, Gabriele Carenti, Antonio Saez Romero, Kenneth Ritchie, Jen Harland, Ying Zhang, Ana Costa, Thomas Royle, Eve Rannamäe, Gaël Piquès, Katariina Nurminen, Wim Wouters, Jan Bakker, Sharyn Jones, Olga Krylovich, Dimitra Mylona, Sally Grainger, and Marrie Tensen TRABALHOS DO LARC, Sep 2015
In this volume of Trabalhos do LARC we present the Program and Abstracts of the 18th biennial mee... more In this volume of Trabalhos do LARC we present the Program and Abstracts of the 18th biennial meeting of
the International Council for Archaeozoology - Fish Remains Working Group (ICAZ-FRWG), hosted by the
Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage - Archaeosciences Laboratory (DGPC - LARC) and the Research
Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources – Environmental Archaeology Research Group (CIBIO -
EnvArch).
The meeting is aimed primarily for archaeozoologists interested in the systematic study of fish bones
retrieved from archaeological sites around the world, and also to archaeologists, ichthyologists, historians,
ethnographers, and fishery biologists. To this end the conference is structured to encompass a multiplicity
of approaches to the study of fish remains and their contribution to our understanding of how fishing, fish
trade, fish consumption, biodiversity, ecology and human impact on aquatic environments have changed
through time.
International Journal of Archaeology, 2013
In this paper I will report on the results of experiments, conducted from 2009 through to 2011, t... more In this paper I will report on the results of experiments, conducted from 2009 through to 2011, to manufacture Roman fish sauce, using the ancient recipes. More specifically, it will consider the nature of the fish sauce residue, known as allec, observe its formation and assess its qualities. The paper concludes that many shipwrecks currently identified as having transported amphorae that contained a salted fish product made from mackerel may in fact be shipping a semi processed fish sauce which will go on to produce a quality liquamen type sauce at its destination. This paper offers a new interpretation of the archaeological remains found in ancient transport amphorae and provides new insights into the commerce of processed fish products in the Roman Mediterranean.
Conference Announcements by Sally Grainger
The Bountiful Sea conference will gather archaeologists, scientists, cooks, and classical scholar... more The Bountiful Sea conference will gather archaeologists, scientists, cooks, and classical scholars to discuss new evidence for fish exploitation and new perspectives on the manufacture, transport, and consumption of fish-based products in Mediterranean antiquity.
Books by Sally Grainger
Routledge monograph series , 2021
The Story of Garum recounts the convoluted journey of that notorious Roman fish sauce, known as g... more The Story of Garum recounts the convoluted journey of that notorious Roman fish sauce, known as garum, from a smelly Greek fish paste to an expensive luxury at the heart of Roman cuisine and back to obscurity as the Roman empire declines. This book is a unique attempt to meld the very disparate disciplines of ancient history, classical literature, archaeology, zooarchaeology, experimental archaeology, ethnographic studies and modern sciences to illuminate this little understood commodity. Currently Roman fish sauce has many identities depending on which discipline engages with it, in what era and at what level. These identities are often contradictory and confused and as yet no one has attempted a holistic approach where fish sauce has been given centre stage. Roman fish sauce, along with oil and wine, formed a triad of commodities which dominated Mediterranean trade and while oil and wine can be understood, fish sauce was until now a mystery. Students and specialists in the archaeology of ancient Mediterranean trade whether through amphora studies, shipwrecks or zooarchaeology will find this invaluable. Scholars of ancient history and classics wishing to understand the nuances of Roman dining literature and the wider food history discipline will also benefit from this volume. Sally Grainger is an independent scholar with degrees in ancient history and archaeology. She is a food historian, chef and experimental archaeologist. She has worked with many university institutions and museums helping to interpret the foodways of ancient societies. She has published widely in food history, and jointly with Andrew Dalby she wrote the acclaimed Classical Cook Book, and with her husband Dr Christopher Grocock she edited and translated the recipe text known as Apicius. She continues to collaborate with archaeologist in research into the various ways in which ancient fish sauces were made, traded and consumed.
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Talks by Sally Grainger
Papers by Sally Grainger
the International Council for Archaeozoology - Fish Remains Working Group (ICAZ-FRWG), hosted by the
Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage - Archaeosciences Laboratory (DGPC - LARC) and the Research
Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources – Environmental Archaeology Research Group (CIBIO -
EnvArch).
The meeting is aimed primarily for archaeozoologists interested in the systematic study of fish bones
retrieved from archaeological sites around the world, and also to archaeologists, ichthyologists, historians,
ethnographers, and fishery biologists. To this end the conference is structured to encompass a multiplicity
of approaches to the study of fish remains and their contribution to our understanding of how fishing, fish
trade, fish consumption, biodiversity, ecology and human impact on aquatic environments have changed
through time.
Conference Announcements by Sally Grainger
Books by Sally Grainger
the International Council for Archaeozoology - Fish Remains Working Group (ICAZ-FRWG), hosted by the
Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage - Archaeosciences Laboratory (DGPC - LARC) and the Research
Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources – Environmental Archaeology Research Group (CIBIO -
EnvArch).
The meeting is aimed primarily for archaeozoologists interested in the systematic study of fish bones
retrieved from archaeological sites around the world, and also to archaeologists, ichthyologists, historians,
ethnographers, and fishery biologists. To this end the conference is structured to encompass a multiplicity
of approaches to the study of fish remains and their contribution to our understanding of how fishing, fish
trade, fish consumption, biodiversity, ecology and human impact on aquatic environments have changed
through time.