This volume stakes a bold claim in foodways archaeology, surveying cuisine from the Early Archaic (circa 9000 B.C.) through Late Precontact (up to A.D. 1500) across ecological zones from boreal forests to prairie lands. The editors assemble 14 contributors who blend residue chemistry, zooarchaeology, and experimental cooking to reconstruct ancient menus and mealtime rituals—not just what people ate, but how food forged social bonds and marked identity.
Standout essays include a deep dive into earth-oven feasting via fire-cracked rock, revealing communal cooking strategies; an exploration of wild rice’s cultural pulse among Anishinaabe communities in the Northern Great Lakes; and an innovative chapter on limestone-based nixtamalization that defined Cahokian cuisine. Each case study is rigorously underpinned by 18 data-rich tables and 34 black-and-white figures, anchored by six regional maps that guide the reader through shifting culinary landscapes.
The volume’s punch comes from its dual framing: detailed, method-driven chapters are bookended by reflective essays that argue cuisine itself is a form of material culture and ritual performance. The result is neither dry cataloging nor romantic nostalgia, but a crisp, evidence-driven narrative that reframes ancient meals as windows into social worlds. For archaeologists, anthropologists, and anyone hungry to taste the past, Ancient Indigenous Cuisines serves a robust feast of insights—and lays out a tantalizing research agenda for the next generation of culinary archaeologists.
