Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Resources: various

Thanks to Tony Cagle's ArchaeoBlog for these.


Archaeology of Ancient Beer
Delwen Samuel
http://ancientgrains.org/samuel1996beer.pdf


Palaeoepidemiology, literacy, and medical tradition among necropolis workmen in New Kingdom Egypt.
R L Miller
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1036267/pdf/medhist00052-0005.pdf
We are fortunate in having a number of sources for reconstructing the epidemiology of occupational diseases in pharaonic Egypt and the religious, magical, and medical means of treatment available to workmen engaged in various projects and tasks. In addition to the inscriptions which the leaders and personnel of official expeditions often left in the desert,1 we have a rich collection of records and monuments from the community of workmen at Deir el Medina, which give an indication of the number of working days lost through sickness,2 the accidents and health problems the workers suffered from, and even the means ofmagical, ritual, and medical treatment they had at their disposal.3 From the Egyptian medical texts we have an idea of the range of health problems which were diagnosed and treated


Investigation of Ancient Egyptian Baking and Brewing Methods by Correlative Microscopy
Delwen Samuel
http://sbli.ls.manchester.ac.uk/fungi/21st_Century_Guidebook_to_Fungi/REPRINT_collection/Samuel_ancient_Egyptian_baking+brewing1996.pdf
Ancient Egyptian methods of baking and brewing are investigated by optical and scanning electron microscopy of desiccated bread loaves and beer remains. The resultssuggest that current conceptions about ancient Egyptian bread and beer making should be modified. Bread was made not only with flour from raw grain, but sometimes also with malt and with yeast. Brewing blended cooked and uncooked malt with water; the mixture was strained free of husk before inoculation with yeast.


Estimating Osteological Health in Ancient Egyptian Bone via Applications of Modern Radiological Technology
Carol Haigh
http://www.assemblage.group.shef.ac.uk/5/haigh.html
This paper offers a process evaluation of the use of dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) in the study of ancient human remains. The study was undertaken to assess the potential use of the DXA technique as a non-invasive and non-destructive method of assessing bone health in an ancient population: poor diet, for example, could reasonably be expected to affect bone density.



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