The course focuses on the importance of food in human history. The diet of hominids will be explored through a historical excursion, covering the whole of human evolutionary history, including the phases of exploitation of the surrounding environment, the first forms of scavenging, and the processes involved in the transition from hunter-gatherers to systematic food producers. Lessons will include notions on:
The diet at the origin of the genus Homo; Hominids: vegetarianism, scavenging and omnivores; The first great hunters; Homo sapiens and subsistence strategies: food consumption and cultural processes; Early productive economies, Specialised economies and complex societies; Analytical techniques in reconstructing palaeodiet: biomolecular investigations, palaeopathologies and diet.

G. Rotilio. 2012. Il migratore onnivoro. Storia e geografia dell'alimentazione umana. Carocci Editore, Roma.



*handouts will be given during classes