Animal Secondary Products

Animal Secondary Products investigates animal exploitation and the animal economy from the end of the Neolithic to the beginning of the Bronze Age in the Near East and Europe.

This new edition of a well-respected reference brings together, in one place, information on the entire field of animal by-products processing and utilization. The book's contents cover both edible and non-edible products, by-products of seafood and poultry in addition to red meat, medicinal and pharmaceutical processing and utilization of animal by-products, and animal product waste disposal, processing, reduction and utilization. Particular attention has been paid to new products for the rendering industry, and to concerns over new animal diseases, which might well be transferred by feeding low-temperature rendered products to animals.

The history of the Ancient Near East covers a huge chronological frame, from the first pictographic texts of the late 4th millennium to the conquest of Alexander the Great in 333 BC. During these millennia, different societies developed in a changing landscape where sheep (and their wool) always played an important economic role. The 22 papers presented here explore the place of wool in the ancient economy of the region, where large-scale textile production began during the second half of the 3rd millennium. By placing emphasis on the development of multi-disciplinary methodologies, experimentation and use of archaeological evidence combined with ancient textual sources, the wide-ranging contributions explore a number of key themes. These include: the first uses of wool in textile manufacture and organization of weaving; trade and exchange; the role of wool in institutionalized economies; and the reconstruction of the processes that led to this first form of industry in Antiquity. The numerous archaeological and written sources provide an enormous amount of data on wool, textile crafts, and clothing and these inter-disciplinary studies are beginning to present a comprehensive picture of the economic and cultural impact of woollen textiles and textile manufacturing on formative ancient societies.

The transition from hunting and gathering to food production is one of the most significant developments in all of human prehistory, since it led to profound changes in population, settlement patterns, and technology. The authors examine the process of early animal domestication in the Near East, South Asia, and Europe, focusing on the cultural context of early animal husbandry. MASCA Vol. 6 Supplement

This book is principally concerned with the relatively complex small molecules produced by plants, which are important as drugs, fine chemicals, fragrances, flavours and biologically-active dietary constituents. In a wide-ranging series of thematic essays, it covers key aspects of their role in plant ecology, their metabolism in the plant, their discovery, characterisation and use and their significance in the diet. Biotechnology, including prospects for the genetic engineering of metabolic pathways, for biotransformations and also for the production of biologically-active proteins, is the focus of the final section of the book. The overall aim of the volume is to provide, in each of the selected subject areas, a personal critique which is readily accessible to the advanced undergraduate student and to the non-specialist research worker alike.