Supper’s ready. Preparing and cooking food in Italian Protohistory

Summary

The paper focuses on some aspects of food production and preparation of meals in the poorly equipped context of the protohistoric village in Italian territory.

Some arrangements that have already been observed or reconstructed on archaeological basis, specifically when connected to particular found tools are discussed.

With specific reference to the Italian protohistory, research on these items has been sometimes supported by ethnographic comparisons.

In this search some already stated hypotheses, like those regarding the equipment of the “apennine civilization” are taken into account as well as aspects related to the production of specialized vessels in Nuragic Sardinia.

In several Bronze Age settlements examples of cylindrical pots with an inner continuous strip have been found; among the excavation findings is even more evident the presence of pottery cones with hollow bases and densely perforated walls.

In archaeological literature, such vessels -in association with cones- are considered functional to the boiling of the milk or of a liquid, however, that, during the boiling process, tends to spill from the container.

Others observations will be made about specialized pottery shapes which allow to hypothesize some specific functions of preparation and/or cooking foods as the probable distillation stills.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Anthropic activity markers: archaeology and ethnoarchaeology

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