Archaeology – CYNTHIA D. BERTELSEN

“A Hastiness of Cooks”: A How-to Handbook for Lovers of Historic Cooking and Cookbooks

March 23, 2019

You’re probably wondering what “A Hastiness of Cooks” means. Read the following definition and you’ll see why the phrase inspired me in writing my new book, “A Hastiness of Cooks“: A word game, popular in the great households of late medieval England, had at its heart the creation of collective nouns. In the lists of … More “A Hastiness of Cooks”: A How-to Handbook for Lovers of Historic Cooking and Cookbooks

Pollos de Carretero con Salsa de Pobres ( Chicken a la Carters, with Black Pepper Sauce)

October 19, 2018

A recipe analyzed in my upcoming book, A Hastiness of Cooks.

Skeletons, Disease, and the Dinner Table

April 27, 2018

I don’t like to get my hands dirty. Literally. And that’s why I will never be an archaeologist. Grubbing around in the muck and peat and clay, no way. So how come I was in Washington D.C. for the 2018 meetings of the American Archaeological Society (AAS), along with several thousands of other people? Many … More Skeletons, Disease, and the Dinner Table

Weather, Weather, Weather

September 15, 2017

Good morning to everyone. Hurricane Irma came knocking on my door on Monday, September 11, 2017. Her gusty breath took down a kingly live oak in my neighbor’s yard and threatened to rip up my back fence. Some of my fellow citizens still wade thigh-high in the muddy alligator- and snake-infested water of Newnan’s Lake. … More Weather, Weather, Weather

Prometheus Unbound: New Evidence on Humans’ Early Use of Fire

May 30, 2015

I woke up this morning fully intending to end my two weeks of silence on this blog – due to familial obligations – with a preliminary examination of the role of ducks in French cuisine. But that alluring topic took a sudden backseat when I opened up my local newspaper and read, “Humans May have … More Prometheus Unbound: New Evidence on Humans’ Early Use of Fire

The Curse of Corn: Pellagra

July 20, 2012

To be continued …

Hunger is the Best Sauce

November 11, 2009

A hungry people listens not to reason, nor cares for justice, nor is bent by any prayers. [Lat., Nec rationem patitur, nec aequitate mitigatur nec ulla prece flectitur, populus esuriens.] De Brevitate Vitoe (XVIII), Seneca (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) Chronic hunger is something that most of us in the United States will never really know.* Yet … More Hunger is the Best Sauce