Eat with Your Hands & Lean on Your Elbows?

Royersford Public Library will begin a series of lectures from the Penn Museum’s Outreach Lecture Programs on Monday, April 7 at 6:30 PM. The first lecture, Eat with Your Hands and Lean on Your Elbows, narrates how food arrived at the table in ancient Rome; who cooked it, served it, and who came as a guest. Roman banquets and etiquette became more elaborate and extravagant over time, and included hours of entertainment, toasts, speeches, and even poetry competitions. They often had themes like the zodiac, seasons, or lives of the gods, and food was disguised as elaborate edible sculptures.

This presentation will be lead by Professor John Kuehne. John has an MS in Archaeological Material Science from the University of Sheffield, England; a Post-Baccalaureate in Classical Language from University of Penn; and a BA in Classical and Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology from Penn State. His expertise is in petrographic analysis of pottery fabrics in determining trade routes and technologies implemented in their production. He has excavated in Mendes, Egypt and has been the petrographic analyst for two British archaeological programs. He has also travelled extensively around the Mediterranean rim, and is versed in ancient languages such as Greek, Latin, and Middle Egyptian hieroglyphs.