Project acronym FoodTransforms
Project Transformations of Food in the Eastern Mediterranean Late Bronze Age
Researcher (PI) Philipp Stockhammer
Host Institution (HI) LUDWIG-MAXIMILIANS-UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH6, ERC-2015-STG
Summary Mediterranean cuisine has long been perceived as a timeless constant, already linking the different societies around the sea by the 2nd mill. BC. The geographic frame was considered to be essential, whereas intercultural entanglements as transformative factors were neglected. By integrating archaeological, textual and scientific research, we will shed new light on the transformative power of cultural encounters arising from the intense connectivity between local communities in the Eastern Mediterranean Late Bronze Age and the simultaneous introduction of food of South and East Asian origin (e.g. pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon). We intend to achieve this goal by analysing human remains and pottery vessels from selected sites between the Aegean and Egypt from the 15th to the 12th cent. BC to trace spatial and temporal dynamics. Organic residue analyses of the pottery will shed light on the preparation and consumption of food (e.g. oils, wine, spices). We will include vessels with their contents labelled on them and then link so-far hardly understood Egyptian textual evidence to the contents, which enables a new understanding of these texts for the study of food. We combine the results from residue analyses with a cutting-edge approach to the study of human dental calculus, the potential of which has just been recognized for the understanding of human nutrition: we will analyse DNA from food traces and bacteria as well as proteins, lipids and microremains in dental calculus. This will give unique insight into individual consumption of different oils (olive, sesame etc.), kinds of milk (cow, sheep, goat) and related products (cheese, kefir) and of plants (spices, cereals), which goes far beyond what has been achieved to date. The linkage of food residues in vessels and calculus will allow us to trace processes of homogenization and diversification as consequences of early globalization and better understand food circulation in present and future globalization processes.
Summary
Mediterranean cuisine has long been perceived as a timeless constant, already linking the different societies around the sea by the 2nd mill. BC. The geographic frame was considered to be essential, whereas intercultural entanglements as transformative factors were neglected. By integrating archaeological, textual and scientific research, we will shed new light on the transformative power of cultural encounters arising from the intense connectivity between local communities in the Eastern Mediterranean Late Bronze Age and the simultaneous introduction of food of South and East Asian origin (e.g. pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon). We intend to achieve this goal by analysing human remains and pottery vessels from selected sites between the Aegean and Egypt from the 15th to the 12th cent. BC to trace spatial and temporal dynamics. Organic residue analyses of the pottery will shed light on the preparation and consumption of food (e.g. oils, wine, spices). We will include vessels with their contents labelled on them and then link so-far hardly understood Egyptian textual evidence to the contents, which enables a new understanding of these texts for the study of food. We combine the results from residue analyses with a cutting-edge approach to the study of human dental calculus, the potential of which has just been recognized for the understanding of human nutrition: we will analyse DNA from food traces and bacteria as well as proteins, lipids and microremains in dental calculus. This will give unique insight into individual consumption of different oils (olive, sesame etc.), kinds of milk (cow, sheep, goat) and related products (cheese, kefir) and of plants (spices, cereals), which goes far beyond what has been achieved to date. The linkage of food residues in vessels and calculus will allow us to trace processes of homogenization and diversification as consequences of early globalization and better understand food circulation in present and future globalization processes.
Max ERC Funding
1 499 125 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-07-01, End date: 2021-06-30
Project acronym PRILA
Project Prisons: the Rule of Law, Accountability and Rights
Researcher (PI) Mary Rogan
Host Institution (HI) THE PROVOST, FELLOWS, FOUNDATION SCHOLARS & THE OTHER MEMBERS OF BOARD OF THE COLLEGE OF THE HOLY & UNDIVIDED TRINITY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH NEAR DUBLIN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2015-STG
Summary PRILA will create the first account of how mechanisms for securing rights, ensuring accountability and achieving adherence to the rule of law are experienced in European prisons. Prisons are places where considerable power differentials exist, and are unique sites for the expression of the values which underpin public and prison law. Systems to ensure that prisoners are treated fairly and that rights are upheld are essential to ensure that imprisonment is conducted in ways that are just and promote good order. These are fundamental principles of the ‘European’ way in penal policy and penal law. Existing accounts of the deployment of penal power overlook key elements of how accountability, the rule of law, and rights are experienced. PRILA will document how prisoners, prison staff, staff of accountability bodies experience structures for ensuring decisions and actions taken in prison are fair, transparent, consistent, subject to appeal and review, and in compliance with principles of human rights. In doing so, PRILA will transform and extend accounts of legitimacy in prisons, judicial review of administrative action, the pains of imprisonment, and understandings of how penal power is experienced. Drawing on the disciplines of public and prison law, human rights, comparative law, and the sociology of punishment, the project will utilise legal, qualitative and quantitative research methods to create an account of how ‘accountability work’ is experienced. It will also examine how accountability structures are manifestations of penal ideologies or types of prison regimes. The project will advance current judicial and legal conceptions of accountability, the rule of law, and fairness, by reference to how these concepts are experienced in practice, and examine whether and how they are distinctively ‘European’. The project will thereby support the creation of better penal policies and practices aimed at the protection of the rule of law and rights in the prison context.
Summary
PRILA will create the first account of how mechanisms for securing rights, ensuring accountability and achieving adherence to the rule of law are experienced in European prisons. Prisons are places where considerable power differentials exist, and are unique sites for the expression of the values which underpin public and prison law. Systems to ensure that prisoners are treated fairly and that rights are upheld are essential to ensure that imprisonment is conducted in ways that are just and promote good order. These are fundamental principles of the ‘European’ way in penal policy and penal law. Existing accounts of the deployment of penal power overlook key elements of how accountability, the rule of law, and rights are experienced. PRILA will document how prisoners, prison staff, staff of accountability bodies experience structures for ensuring decisions and actions taken in prison are fair, transparent, consistent, subject to appeal and review, and in compliance with principles of human rights. In doing so, PRILA will transform and extend accounts of legitimacy in prisons, judicial review of administrative action, the pains of imprisonment, and understandings of how penal power is experienced. Drawing on the disciplines of public and prison law, human rights, comparative law, and the sociology of punishment, the project will utilise legal, qualitative and quantitative research methods to create an account of how ‘accountability work’ is experienced. It will also examine how accountability structures are manifestations of penal ideologies or types of prison regimes. The project will advance current judicial and legal conceptions of accountability, the rule of law, and fairness, by reference to how these concepts are experienced in practice, and examine whether and how they are distinctively ‘European’. The project will thereby support the creation of better penal policies and practices aimed at the protection of the rule of law and rights in the prison context.
Max ERC Funding
1 428 343 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-04-01, End date: 2021-03-31
