Episode 1 - Joining Up and Settling Down
Discover when and why humans first drank alcohol.
When and why did humans start consuming drinking alcohol?
With the help of archaeologists and archaeobotanists, Dr Nick Groat finds out when humans first started experimenting with alcoholic substances and why they might have done so.
Full transcript available here.
Guests:
Professor Martin Jones is a Professor of Archaeological Science at the University of Cambridge.
He works on archaeobotany and archaeogenetics, in the context of the broader archaeology of food. His current research interests include the spread of farming across Asia, currently in the context of the BUCKBEE project, and recently in the context of the Domestication of Europe project and the FOGLIP project and food sharing in the Upper Palaeolithic, currently in the context of the Moravian Gate project
Professor Li Liu is the Sir Robert Ho Tung Professor in Chinese Archaeology at the Stanford Archaeology Center, Stanford University.
Her research interests include archaeology of early China (Neolithic and Bronze Age), domestication of plants and animals in China and the development of complex societies and state formation.
Click below to see their recent publications:
Dr Catherine Longford is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Biosciences at the University of Sheffield.
She specialises in Near Eastern archaeology and ancient agriculture, in particular the Bronze Age Kura-Araxes culture, and agriculture in Neolithic Europe. She has been involved as an archaeobotanist in field projects in Turkey, Georgia, Israel, Bulgaria and the UK at sites dating from the Neolithic to Medieval period.
Professor Tania Valamoti is a Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece.
Her research interests focus on human-plant interactions, anthropogenic landscape and vegetation change and ancient food. She is director of the Departmental lab, LIRA, as well as the PlantCult laboratory at CIRI at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
Click below to see their recent publications:
Credits
- Writer and Presenter: Professor Phil Withington (Professor in Social and Cultural History at the University of Sheffield)
- Writer and Presenter: Dr Nick Groat (Research Associate at the University of Sheffield)
- Producer: Julia Letts (Freelance Consultant at Letts Talk)
- Guest: Professor Martin Jones (Professor of Archaeological Science at the University of Cambridge)
- Guest: Professor Li Liu (Sir Robert Ho Tung Professor in Chinese Archaeology at Stanford University)
- Guest: Dr Catherine Longford (British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Sheffield)
- Guest: Professor Tania Valamoti (Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)
