Backglocken, Backdeckel und Backhauben. Archäologische Angaben zur Ernährungskultur Süd- und Mitteleuropas

Abstract

Baking bells (or baking lids) were actually very simple ovens that were suitable for baking bread, meat and fish. This method of food preparation was practiced since prehistory in the Mediterranean world and we can find descriptions of baking bells in the Bible and in the works of the writers of antiquity. This individual mode of baking bread became especially widespread during late antiquity. In some regions, the use of baking bells survived either owing to a general stagnation (as in the Balkans or the Alpine lands), or to unusual living conditions (as in the Roman military camps of the Augustan period and in the medieval Ottoman-period border forts in Hungary). Their increasingly frequent use in late antiquity was a reflection of economic decline and the disappearance of urban bakeries. At the same time, the adoption of baking bells by the Barbarian peoples (such as the Avars and the ancient Hungarians) settling on the fringes of the Mediterranean world can be seen as a cultural advance and the adoption of local traditions. Baking bells were still used in the Carpathian Basin as late as the 19th century and they can be found in some areas of the Balkans even today.