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Twenty centuries ago, Roman poet and self-styled love expert Ovid wrote that, in order to be sexually attractive, “Women should learn how to hide their blackened teeth.” A difficult trick, but a necessary one in the ancient world because — in an age before spinbrushes, pastes, and flosses, with nothing but the occasional silver pick to remove lettuce (Rome loved its salads, in case you were wondering) — teeth in those days were basically left to their own devices, to do their thing until they got ugly and died. Or you died, possibly from Guinness-record abscesses reaching, as they did in one poor soul excavated from Pompeii, past the sinuses, and into the bone. Ouch!

Enter twenty-first century researchers G. Richard Scott and Simon R. Poulson from the University of Nevada, Reno (a town loaded,  coincidentally,... Read More

I’m always on a diet: the Mediterranean Diet, which seems to keep me in good condition both mentally and physically.  How simple it and healthful it is: a bit of  meat and poultry, more fish,  a few tasty grains, and plenty of vegetables and fruit.

Like this, spilling gloriously from a glass bowl  in Pompeii around 70AD. Though the fresco has faded, the fruit still looks so ripe, so bite-into-able, I feel like I could reach out and pluck a piece for myself . What’s seducing my palate? Maybe it’s the pomegranate off to the side, split in half to reveal its  hidden treasure of glistening red kernels; the golden quinces so crowded together they’re just begging to be let out; the cluster of grapes I just know are sweet and juicy on the inside with skin just crisp enough to go–pop!–between... Read More

It is perhaps the oldest  recipe known to Man:

one part barley flour
one part millet flour
sugar
water
yeast

The ancient Egyptians called it hqt. We call it beer. In Egypt, it was considered a health food, enjoyed morning, noon, and night, by children and adults, upper and lower classes, women and men. It has even been discovered in tombs as an offering to the gods of the afterlife.
Scholars now believe the beer familiar to the pharaohs  may have been somewhat sweeter than modern-day incarnations, perhaps due to the extreme sweetness of the date sugar these early brewers probably used. Its alcohol content was lower too, though still high enough to provide a mild buzz. It was highly nutritious, sans gazeuse, as the folks at Evian would say, and thick with impurities of all sorts —... Read More