Food Through History
Every scene here is a reconstruction — a moment in the story of food rebuilt from archaeology, written records and food science, and dated as closely as the evidence allows. Informed visualizations of the past, not photographs of it.
Explore by period
Before Habitual Toolmaking (6)
Lucy at Hadar, Selam, the Dikika Child, The Laetoli Footprint Makers, MRD: Lucy’s Earlier Relative, The Taung Child, Australopithecines of Makapansgat
The First Stone Tools (8)
Lomekwi 3 Toolmakers, Nyayanga Butchers, Gona’s Early Oldowan, Bouri Cut-Marked Bones, Homo habilis at Olduvai, Kanjera South Meat Processing, Early Humans at Koobi Fora, Dmanisi at the Edge of Eurasia
The Fire Revolution (10)
Wonderwerk Cave Fire, Cooked Fish at Gesher Benot Ya’aqov, Homo erectus and the Expensive Body, Peking Man at Zhoukoudian, Acheulean Life at Olorgesailie, Boxgrove Horse Butchery, Sima de los Huesos Community, Bilzingsleben Lakeside Camp
See all 10
Ice Age Specialists (15)
Shanidar Neanderthals, Neanderthals of Gibraltar, El Sidrón Family Group, La Ferrassie Neanderthals, Spy Neanderthals, Vindija’s Late Neanderthals, Denisova Cave Populations, The Altamura Neanderthal
See all 15
Humans Conquer the World (18)
Lake Mungo’s First Australians, Madjedbebe Pioneers, Niah Cave Foragers, Tam Pà Ling in Mainland Southeast Asia, Tianyuan Man near Beijing, Zhoukoudian Upper Cave People, The Sunghir Burials, Dolní Věstonice Mammoth Hunters
See all 18
The Broad Spectrum Revolution (12)
Ohalo II Lakeshore Camp, Natufians of Eynan, Abu Hureyra Before Farming, Shubayqa’s Desert Foragers, Lepenski Vir Danube Fishers, Star Carr Wetland Hunters, Mount Sandel River Camp, Jōmon Shellfish at Torihama
See all 12
The First Farmers (39)
Jericho’s Early Cultivators, Göbekli Tepe Feasting, Çayönü’s Mixed Economy, Abu Hureyra Farmers, Aşıklı Höyük Households, Jiahu Rice, Fish and Fermentation, Peiligang Millet Farmers, Cishan’s Millet Stores
See all 39
Villages Become Civilizations (39)
Çatalhöyük Households, Skara Brae Island Village, Neolithic Britain’s Milk Pots, Cucuteni–Trypillia Megasite, Varna’s Gold and Inequality, Ötzi the Iceman’s Alpine World, Stonehenge Builders at Durrington Walls, Newgrange Farming Community
See all 39
Bronze Age Networks (52)
Workers of Giza, Tutankhamun’s Funerary Foods, Deir el-Medina Workmen, Ur’s Royal Cemetery, Babylonian Culinary Tablets, Mari Palace Kitchens, Mohenjo-daro Households, Harappa’s Urban Food System
See all 52
Iron Age Kingdoms (46)
Tollund Man’s Last Meal, Lindow Man in the Bog, The Salt Men of Chehrabad, Hallstatt Salt Miners, Heuneburg Celtic Center, The Hochdorf Chieftain, Assyrian Nineveh, Persepolis Banquet Economy
See all 46
The Classical World (78)
Pompeii on Its Final Day, Herculaneum’s Preserved Meals, Rome’s Testaccio Mountain, Ostia’s Port Population, Vindolanda Frontier Rations, The Grauballe Man, Athens in the Age of Pericles, Sparta’s Plain Fare
See all 78
The Medieval Food Worlds (124)
Viking York’s Coppergate, The First Hawaiian Food System, Tikopia’s Engineered Island Diet, Greenland Norse Farmers, Novgorod’s Wooden Streets, Constantinople’s Imperial Market, Baghdad’s Abbasid Cuisine, Cairo Geniza Households
See all 124
The Columbian Exchange (76)
Tenochtitlan Meets Europe, Columbus at La Isabela, Jamestown’s Starving Time, Plymouth’s New Food Landscape, St. Augustine’s Spanish Table, Potosí’s Global Silver City, Manila Galleon Foods, Seville’s American Cargoes
See all 76
The Early Industrial Food Age (118)
London’s Sugar Boom, Manchester’s Factory Diet, Dublin During the Great Famine, Nicolas Appert and Canned Food, Chicago’s Meatpacking Revolution, New York’s Tenement Table, James Lind’s Scurvy Experiment, Meiji Tokyo’s Changing Diet
See all 118
The Industrial Diet (109)
Battle Creek Breakfast Cereal, Coca-Cola’s Atlanta Origins, Haber–Bosch Synthetic Nitrogen, Borlaug and the Green Revolution, Postwar London and Rationing, Soviet Communal Food in Moscow, Shanghai’s Socialist Canteens, Tokyo’s Postwar Nutrition Transition
See all 109
The Ultra-Processed Age (98)
The First McDonald’s System, The Pima Diabetes Natural Experiment, The Chinese Nutrition Transition, Nauru’s Rapid Nutrition Transition, Convenience-Store Japan, Mexico’s Soda and Snack Environment, The NOVA Classification Emerges, The Marshall Islands Diabetes Transition
See all 98
