For more information on the published version, visit Rowman and Littlefield's Website. https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780759123663/Archaeology-of-Food-An-Encyclopedia-2-Volumes

Bruno, Maria C. Agriculture, Procurement, Processing, and Storage. In Archaeology of Food: An Encyclopedia, edited by Karen Bescherer Metheny and Mary C. Beaudry, 18-23. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015.

Maria Bruno is a professor of Anthropology and Archaeology at Dickinson College.

Agriculture is a form of subsistence in which humans primarily raise domesticated plants or animals for food or secondary products rather that procuring them from the wild. Agriculture developed independently and spread in many regions around the world. As a result, a great diversity of agricultural strategies emerged to maintain and intensify production across a wide range of ecological settings and for a variety of social and political purposes. In order to grasp the multitude of past agricultural practices, archaeologists employ numerous methods from landscape reconstruction to examination of microscopic plant remains. Various scales of agricultural practice are discussed in this entry, along with the range of methodological approaches and evidence available to archaeologists interested in studying ancient farming.