There is now a wide awareness of the crucial role played by food, its preparation and consumption, in the articulation of cultural identity and the negotiation of social relations. Studies of Aegean prehistoric societies have shown awareness of this primarily in the attention given to food consumption and particularly commensality, from everyday eating to diacritical feasting (e.g. Hamilakis, Reference Hamilakis1999; Halstead & Barrett, Reference Halstead and Barrett2004; Wright, Reference Wright2004). Notably less attention has been paid to what cooking practices might reveal in this regard (but see Mee & Renard, Reference Mee and Renard2007; Tzedakis et al., Reference Tzedakis, Martlew and Jones2008; Morrison et al., Reference Morrison, Sofianou, Brogan, Alyounis, Mylona, Spataro and Villing2015), with priority generally given to cooking vessels, typically treated in isolation from the settings and practices in which they were originally employed. Although the last two decades have seen great advancements in our understanding of cooking vessels (typology, technology, chronology) in the prehistoric Aegean, rather less is known about the cooking practices in which such vessels and their users were embedded, leaving us with a regrettably limited and poorly evidenced grasp on the identities, social relations, and cultural forms enacted through the preparation of food in different contexts. This lacuna has much to do with the significant challenges—theoretical, methodological, and practical—involved in the contextual reconstruction and empirical analysis of prehistoric cooking practices.
This volume represents a welcome attempt to redress this imbalance for the Late Bronze Age (LBA hereafter) Aegean and Cyprus, by showcasing a developing body of work on cooking vessels and by promoting a shift in attention from the vessels themselves to a consideration of cooking as a cultural practice. In doing so, the volume provides a useful measure of the current status quo of research and shows how the challenges of reconstructing cooking practices are being met. The volume is the result of a panel, organized by the editors at the 115th Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America in January 2014, supplemented with further invited contributions. In the discussion below references are made to different contemporary LBA regional chronologies for mainland Greece (Late Helladic, hereafter LH), Crete (Late Minoan, hereafter LM) and Cyprus (Late Cypriot, hereafter LC).
The introductory chapter by the editors establishes their primary goal, ‘to investigate the potential for Minoan and Mycenaean cooking vessels to illuminate important economic, political, and social issues in Mediterranean prehistory’ (p. 4), and sets out some of the challenges that this goal brings. Basic issues of inattention and recognition are identified and a definition of cooking vessels is proposed characterizing them as vessels ‘designed to resist thermal shock and maintain toughness despite repeated exposure to temperature changes’ (p. 1). Although, as the authors note, this definition also includes ceramic objects used for metallurgy or perfume production—a problem easily resolved by the addition of a functional qualifier—a greater, but unacknowledged, issue is the implication that cooking vessels are always determined by an intention in the producer to create a vessel with specific (optimal) performance, characteristics, and an intended cooking function. Such a definition is overly narrow, not simply because, in emphasizing intended use, it excludes secondary use of other vessel types for heat-transfer cooking, but also because it asserts that only vessels used with heat may be considered cooking vessels. If the ultimate aim is the reconstruction of cooking practices, then the authors’ proposal to focus on the identification of specialized ceramic types (reiterated in the closing chapter) is reductive and makes assumptions about past realities that risk obscuring a greater range of possibilities: that heat-transfer cooking was always achieved with ceramic vessels (as opposed to installations or containers in other materials), that ceramic vessels used for heat-transfer cooking were always specialized types, that improvised or secondary use of ceramic vessels for heat-transfer cooking is epiphenomenal. Such foreclosing of the field of enquiry seems counterproductive if a meaningful engagement with cultural practices, and social, economic, and political issues is to be achieved.
A counter-case would suggest that the study of cooking practices must necessarily proceed contextually (see e.g. Ch. 9), beginning with the identification of spatial settings where cooking practices took place, followed by detailed, integrated contextual study of recovered organic and artefactual materials, amongst which might be ceramic types specialized for specific forms of heat-transfer cooking. Such an approach would not simply employ heat use-alteration to confirm the identification of predetermined specialized types, but would be concerned with documenting the full extent of heat-traces and other use-wear across the entire ceramic and non-ceramic assemblage in order to reconstruct actual practice. Cooking vessels would thus be a category defined by context rather than predetermined on the basis of our own expectations of typology, technology, and intended function. In such a practice-led approach, experimental replication and deployment of ancient cooking vessel types is vital, not just to understand how certain shapes could have performed (e.g. Ch. 3), but primarily as a means of checking contextual reconstructions of cooking practices and, thereby, of experiencing how such practices brought people, materials and settings into specific, culturally meaningful associations (e.g. Ch. 9).
Unfortunately, context-led approaches rely on the detailed recording, recovery, and retention of material remains from cooking areas during excavation, which was by no means standard practice in earlier fieldwork. One of the principal challenges faced by those studying Aegean Bronze Age cooking practices, remarked upon by many contributors, is not just the scarcity of well-recorded contextual evidence for cooking, but also a fundamental neglect of cooking vessels and their contexts of use, manifest in absent or inadequate recording, study, and even discard for older excavations. This issue is well-documented in Chapter 2 (Trusty), which provides a thorough history of research into LBA cooking vessels in the Aegean. Some early notable exceptions aside (e.g. Schliemann), the first dedicated studies of cooking vessels appeared in the 1980s when provenance work began to show their movement, counteracting the assumption that coarse wares must be local products. From the late 1990s studies of cooking vessels used artefactual and contextual information to reconstruct different techniques of cooking and associate them with specific cultural identities.
In Chapter 3 Hruby assesses the definition and function of the ‘griddle’ and the ‘souvlaki tray’, two specialized ceramic cooking vessel types considered to be of LH III date. Her study uses experimental reconstruction as a means of exploring the functional properties and likely use of both types. In the case of the griddle, this suggests that the indented surface, a feature of examples from Pylos and Midea, functioned in a similar way to the cooking surface of a modern griddle, enabling cooked food (e.g. bread) to avoid sticking. She concludes that the appearance of both specialized types in LH III reflects the introduction of new, high status forms of cuisine for elites. However, her date for the appearance of the griddle is called into question by the conclusions reached in Chapter 4, where griddles of earlier date are noted at Iklaina. In addition, the attempt to demonstrate that these specialized types are restricted to elite contexts is unconvincing as they appear to have a distribution that is not unambiguously elite. Moreover, in order to identify an association with elite cuisine one would need to assess how such devices facilitated cooking that departed from normal practice: in the case of the ‘souvlaki tray’, the cooking of meat on a skewer can be achieved in multiple ways. If ‘haute cuisine’ is the performance of class difference, then a convincing identification requires demonstration of how the preparation of food achieved this in an ancient context.
In Chapter 4 Gulizio and Shelmerdine present a survey of continuity and change in cooking vessel typology and technology at Iklaina during an earlier LBA phase, when the site appears to have been autonomous, and a later phase when it was seemingly a second-order centre in the Pylian state. The study notes the presence of tripod and griddle vessels throughout both periods of analysis, with greater diversity in the earlier phase. As with Chapter 3, the non-availability of contextual evidence means that inferences of the social sometimes outstrip the evidential basis supplied by object-only study. Very little in the way of clear change in cooking vessels occurs around the site's transition from independent polity to centralized administrative control and the authors’ emphasis on the significance of a decrease in the use of spit supports seems more to be influenced by the site's inferred change in political status. Their claim that the grilling of meat became a cooking method controlled by a centralized, palatial elite seems unlikely given that such supports are not integral to the grilling of meat, which may be achieved in ways that leave no trace in the archaeological record.
Lis provides an interregional comparison of Mycenaean cooking pots through time at Menelaion, Mitrou, and Tsoungiza in Chapter 5. This contribution usefully summarizes a large and important body of completed work, much of it by the author himself, focusing on vessel form, the composition of cooking vessel assemblages, the presence of specialized cooking equipment, and the likely methods of cooking involved. During the Palatial period, a koine in cooking vessel types is suggested for the Peloponnese, paralleling in general terms the koine proposed for fine wares (from LH IIIA2). The collapse of the Mycenaean palaces had little direct impact on cooking vessels and the Post-Palatial period is marked by a progressive simplification of form with an essentially uniform tradition identifiable over a wide area, in contrast to the regionality attested by decorated pottery. Lis suggests that the quantity of food consumed during this period may have been of greater importance than the articulation of qualitative differences through dining, an interpretation supported by a measurable increase in the size of cooking vessels that implies a larger commensal group.
Chapter 6 (Gauss et al.) presents results from an interdisciplinary technological (macroscopic, petrographic), typological, and contextual study of a specific tradition of cooking vessel production on the island of Aegina, the distinctive products of which occur at sites across the central Aegean. The paper focuses on the LBA and Early Iron Age phases of this tradition as documented at a probable pottery production area at Kolonna on Aegina, supplemented by sampling of Aeginetan cooking pots from Mitrou, Asine, Tsoungiza, and Kalaureia-Poros in neighbouring regions. The paper usefully summarizes the prior Bronze Age history of Aeginetan cooking vessels and notes, for the Middle Bronze Age (hereafter MBA), the short-lived presence of a ‘Minoanizing’ (morphology, technology) local group, which is considered to suggest the presence of Cretan potters at Kolonna. The main legacy of this presence seems to be the subsequent incorporation of the Minoan tripod cooking vessel in the local ceramic repertoire. The presence of morphologically similar vessels in fabrics incompatible with a source on Aegina raises the possibility that itinerant Aeginetan potters operated beyond the island.
Gorogianni et al. (Ch. 7) trace synchronic and diachronic variation in cooking pot types and, thereby, cooking practices at Ayia Irini on the island of Kea during the MBA-LBA. While the significance of Cretan-style material culture, including cooking vessels, has previously been emphasised in discussions of ‘Minoanization’, the study identifies important evidence for the presence of other cooking pot types. Such evidence suggests that cooking practices during this period were actually more diverse with mainland/Aeginetan cooking traditions co-existing alongside the Cretan. The authors conclude that the Ayia Irini community was probably multi-cultural, comprising groups employing different cooking practices, articulating diverse cultural affiliations.
Chapter 8 (Vitale & Morrison) summarizes results from technological (fabric, forming) and typological studies of LBA storage and cooking pottery produced on Kos. Notable diversity is apparent from LBA I when Minoan cooking vessels first appear alongside the local types, but in fabrics and forming sequences that are local in tradition. During LH IIIA2-IIIC Mycenaean cooking pottery predominates but again in local fabrics. Ultimately, it is concluded that such cooking pottery had a deeper and more pervasive influence playing a role in the formation of a local Mycenaean cultural identity.
Chapter 9 (Morrison) provides a model for how a broad, contextually based study of cooking practices might profitably proceed, drawing on a wealth of evidence for LBA cooking materials and spaces revealed by excavations at Mochlos, Crete. This chapter is strengthened by the author's extensive and pioneering experimental work on the reconstruction of vessel types, the documentation of their performance characteristics, and the integration of archaeologically attested foodstuffs in order to explore aspects of potential cuisine. During the LBA the local/Cretan cooking tradition endures with little sign of alteration by outside influences. Experimental work shows that tripod cooking pots, present in diverse range of forms, were generally well suited to slow cooking, such as liquid-based stews, while shallower cooking dishes performed well for sautéing, grilling, roasting, preparing sauces, and baking flatbread. Changes between LM I and the LM II-III reoccupation of the site centre on the introduction of thin-walled, elliptical, scoop-shaped dishes and the appearance of built hearths, cooking holes, and ‘cook sheds’. Experimental work supports a use of the Mycenaean cooking jug next to the fire with handle position furthest away, while use-wear study suggests a similar use of the Mycenaean amphorae. In both cases, alternative methods for stewing are available other than the Minoan tripod cooking pot. In this case, the Mycenaean period is held to represent a fusion of practices, with an adoption of some Mycenaean cooking styles alongside a maintenance of established Minoan cooking traditions.
Borgna and Levi (Ch. 10) discuss LBA cooking contexts in Italy and Crete, highlighting convergence in practice at a Mediterranean scale. The general scarcity of cooking vessels of Aegean type in Italy during the second millennium bc is interpreted as raising doubts about the actual presence of Aegean individuals. Evidence for Italian cooking pots in Aegean contexts is similarly scarce but the authors note for Tiryns and Crete a number of Handmade Burnished Ware vessels in types and/or fabrics that could be connected with cooking. At LM IIIC Phaistos, evidence is presented for cooking in large tripod vessels, implying a larger participating group, while, at LM II-III Mochlos (Ch. 9), smaller-sized amphoras and jugs showing evidence for use next to a fire could have served a smaller commensal group. An occurrence of flat-based jars with small handles on the shoulder in stone enclosures is interpreted as possible evidence for a use of ‘pit’ or ‘earth ovens’, which are attested in LBA Italy. Finally, the authors note that, although built hearths with potsherd beddings are generally seen as a mainland introduction into Crete, by the time this occurs these had already become a more widespread Mediterranean phenomenon, from Italy to the Levant, suggesting that the ultimate provenance of this influence on Crete should be left open.
Jung provides an overview of traditions of cooking vessels at Enkomi and other sites on Cyprus in Chapter 11. The evolution of a Cypriot cooking vessel tradition is traced from the Early Bronze Age to the LBA without major change. A notable development at Enkomi from LC IIC to LC IIIA is when Mycenaean types (e.g. cooking jug, amphora, flat-based cooking vessels and hearth platforms), are introduced and quickly supplant the traditional Cypriot forms as the most common types. These Mycenaean types, while locally produced, are not made in any pre-existing ceramic tradition. A likely presence of Mycenaean populations at Enkomi should be read alongside evidence at other sites for a continuity in local Cypriot cooking traditions into LC III. In addition, the presence of Levantine cooking pots at certain LC IIIA harbour sites, such as Hala Sultan Tekke or Maa-Paleokastro, where Levantine transport jars are numerous, suggests the presence also of Levantine groups.
Chapter 12 (Galaty) closes the volume with a retrospective and sideways comparative consideration of how cooking vessels have been differentially studied in the Aegean and North America. North American traditions of study serve as the basis for a series of recommendations for future practice in the Aegean, which gratifyingly seem already to have been adopted by contributors to the volume.
The editors of the volume are to be congratulated for bringing together and publishing a high-quality, excellently illustrated set of papers by leading specialists in the field that exemplify the rapidly improving health of cooking vessel studies in the prehistoric Aegean. Many of these papers are also valuable for the way they highlight how contextually led, experimentally supported, and ethnographically informed studies can shed significant light on cooking as a social and cultural practice in antiquity.
