The Archaeology of Neolithic Cooking Traditions: Archaeobotanical Approaches to Baking, Boiling and Fermenting

Dorian Q Fuller,Lara Gonzalez Carretero

doi:10.5334/ai-391

Abstract

The Neolithic was not only a shift in how food was obtained, through farming, but it also set up long-lasting traditions in how foods were prepared and cooked. Archaeologists have increasingly recognized regionally distinctive emphases on cereal preparations, such as baked breads or boiled porridges that characterize different Neolithic traditions. While these can be inferred through features, such as ovens on archaeological sites, it has become possible to recognize the charred crumbs of past breads, batters or porridges from typical charred archaeobotanical assemblages. We illustrate recent developments in micro-structural analysis of such remains, including wheat breads from Neolithic and pre-Neolithic western Asia, and sorghum breads and porridges from Early Historic (Meroitic) Sudan. The study of such archaeobotanical remains has great potential to help map the distribution of cereal cooking practices in time and space.

Highlights

Food, as a biological necessity, has long been associated with the structuring of social identities and long-term cultural traditions
Archaeologists have recognized the Neolithic was a key transition in the material lives of human societies and in their impact on the world around them (Peake and Fleure 1927)
Gordon Childe’s (1936) thinking set out a definition of the Neolithic that has been a focal point for much archaeological research for decades, defining the Neolithic in terms of a set of linked technological and subsistence innovations: food production, sedentism, ceramics and other creative technologies like textiles

Summary

Introduction

As a biological necessity, has long been associated with the structuring of social identities and long-term cultural traditions. A more nuanced understanding of the emergence of bread and its social role, is possible through the systematic study of the preserved remains of cooked foodstuffs themselves, which in turn can be considered alongside other lines of evidence such as constructed bread making fire installations, i.e. ovens or hearths, and flour-making tools such as querns.

Results

Conclusion