Food ID
Food Identities: biomolecular archaeology reveals multiple and dynamic social identities.
PI Ester Oras
Period: 1 September 2025 – 31 August 2030
From Pilot Analysis
The major challenge of archaeological identity studies stems from the dynamic, multidimensional, performative, and contextual nature of identities, which are hard to grasp through the material remains alone. Food and ancient dietary practices allow us to investigate identity-related social phenomena that bridge both daily and special events, apply to all members of a community, cover different social categories, and are not limited to material culture.
Building on the concept of social foodways, FoodID sets out to reveal how ancient dietary practices reflect individual and group identities through combining cutting-edge biomolecular dietary analysis with an in-depth socio-archaeological contextualisation. Through the advanced analysis of isotopes, proteins, aDNA, microfossils, and pottery residues, the project reconstructs lifetime dietary profiles and final ritual meals for over 150 individuals. The aim is to develop a synergetic conceptual framework that reveals multiple, intersectional, and context-specific identity manifestations, transforming how social dietary archaeology approaches identity in the past.
FoodID integrates biological, social, and biomolecular data using advanced statistics and modelling to uncover shared and diverging dietary practices across individuals and groups. High-resolution methods allow tracing both major and minor food components, temporal dietary shifts, and differences between lived diets and funerary ritual meals. Multivariate and mixed modelling approaches reveal rigid and fluid identity categories, intersectional identity groups, and biographical dietary shifts. These insights feed into an open-access analytical platform, establishing a new framework for social dietary archaeology.
The FoodID project is funded by the European Research Council under the Horizon 2020 framework programme, Starting Grant agreement No. 101162819.
