West Asian food – Mesopotamia and Iran
Sumerians sipping beer through straws (ca. 2500 BC) The people of West Asia traditionally divided themselves into two groups who had very different eating and drinking habits. These two groups thought [...]
Sumerians sipping beer through straws (ca. 2500 BC) The people of West Asia traditionally divided themselves into two groups who had very different eating and drinking habits. These two groups thought [...]
Roti bread made with millet Romans ate a lot of fish Although the first people who came to the Mediterranean were probably following along the coast, and ate mainly fish, shellfish, seaweed, and [...]
Woman baking bread Poor people who lived near the Mediterranean Sea had to eat food that would grow in very dry areas, with light and not very fertile soil. Mostly they [...]
Ohlone people crossing San Francisco Bay, with a European wool blanket (Louis Choris, 1816 AD) Native people in California In 1500 AD, California was a popular place to live. About [...]
European food history: An early chocolate house Trade brings new foods During the 1500s and 1600s AD, European traders brought back all kinds of new foods from places they sailed to around the world. [...]
Muslims playing chess in Spain What is exponential growth? About 1260 AD, Ibn Khallikan, a Kurdish historian living in the Abbasid Empire (modern Iraq), wrote an encyclopedia with biographies of many famous men [...]
Clay figurines from Mehrgahr First people in India The first people reached India from Africa around 40,000 BC. There were probably still Neanderthals and Denisovans further north, but not in India. At first [...]
Hades kidnaps Persephone (mosaic from Amphipolis, 300s BC) Persephone was the daughter of the goddess Demeter. One day Persephone was dancing with her friends in a sunny meadow, having a good time, picking [...]
Eleusinian Mysteries: Demeter, Persephone, and Triptolemos (the boy), an 1899 drawing from a stone carving found at Eleusis . When did the Eleusinian Mysteries start? Beginning at least as early [...]
Greek goddess Demeter: A field of wheat growing What does "Demeter" mean? The Greek goddess Demeter is an earth goddess; her name is De, which means earth (the same word as Gaia) [...]