Previous articleNext article FreeBook ReviewsMultidisciplinary Approaches to Food and Foodways in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean Edited by Sylvie Yona Waksman (Archéologies 4). Lyon: Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée 2020. Pp. 508. €65. ISBN 978-2-35668-070-9 (paper).Konstantinos Filis and Katerina ChamilakiKonstantinos FilisMinistry of Culture and Sports Ephorate of Antiquities of Achaia Search for more articles by this author and Katerina ChamilakiMinistry of Culture and Sports Ephorate of Antiquities of Aetoloacarnania and Leukas Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreThis collective volume, edited by Sylvie Yona Waksman, is a multidisciplinary work and the outcome of the international conference People, Pottery and Food in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean (POMEDOR), held in Lyon on 19–21 May 2016. The POMEDOR project is funded by the French National Research Agency and directed by Waksman. It aims to expand research on food and foodways (food production, trade, distribution, storage, and consumption, and their impact on material culture) in the eastern Mediterranean between the 10th and the 17th centuries CE through workshops, sessions and meetings, the creation of databases, laboratory investigations, and the study of archaeological contexts and museum collections.The book comprises a representative and well-documented collection of case studies focusing mainly on the transitional periods in the history of the areas under examination: for example, the Levantine coast between the Fatimid and the Crusader periods, Cyprus between Lusignan and Venetian rule, and western Anatolia between the Byzantine and the Ottoman Empires. The papers span several subdisciplines of archaeology, including: ceramic typologies, techniques and manufacture, archaeometry, bioarchaeology, osteoarchaeology, archaeobotany, and archaeozoology. Others focus on historical aspects of food culture.The volume is presented as three main sections, the first two covering the main geographic and cultural areas under study (Cyprus, the Levantine coast, Byzantium and beyond) and the third presenting the transport of food containers, tableware, and food in the eastern Mediterranean. The introduction by Sylvie Yona Waksman provides both a thorough presentation of the scope, organization, and implementation of the POMEDOR project as well as a useful summary of the main scientific results of the project.The geographic area of Cyprus and the Levant is represented by a series of multidisciplinary papers. Philippe Trélat gives a thorough view of fish trade and consumption in Frankish and Venetian Cyprus (1191–1570 CE), highlighting the central control of the governors regarding fish farming in the salt lake of Limassol and the distribution of fish to the elite. The supply of wine from the 13th to the 16th century through a network of tavernae under governmental control is analyzed in a paper based on literary sources by Gilles Grivaud, who also describes in detail the social role of the canutes in the distribution of wine to individuals. Nicholas Coureas stresses the role of the Latin Church in Lusignan Cyprus (1191–1473) in the production of food and wine on estates and in the redistribution of food to the clergy, estate-workers, and to the poor through almsgiving.The collective contribution of Ruth Smadar Gabrieli et al. presents the archaeological and archaeometric evidence for the interaction of Byzantine cookware traditions with the new production techniques, pottery imports, and the cooking habits of the Frankish and Latin population that settled the island of Cyprus.Moving towards the Levantine coast, Edna Stern et al. give a well-documented overview of the cultural implications of the transition from the Fatimid empire to the establishment of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. They show both changes and continuity in local pottery production through the examination of eight sites, including pottery workshops in Tiberias, Acre, and Beirut, and also employing chemical and petrographic analysis. Elisabeth Yehuda sheds light on another important aspect of food preparation: baking bread and cooking; and she stresses the difference in habits between the Franks and locals in the Holy Land in the Crusader period.The next case study presented in this volume is sugar production in the areas of Israel and Jordan during the Fatimid, Crusader, and Mamluk periods. Specifically, the multidisciplinary paper of Anastasia Shapiro et al. highlights the flourishing of sugar manufacturing in the fertile Akko plain during the 11th to 17th centuries, through the study of five excavated sites, with vessels examined via typo-chronological, chemical, and petrographic methods. Richard Jones and Anthony Grey present the sugar production centers of the 11th to 14th centuries in the area south of the Dead Sea, which were directly connected to central administration.The section dedicated to Byzantium begins with an elaborate article by Ilias Anagnostakis on two letters of Eustathios of Thessaloniki (12th-century scholar and Metropolitan of Thessaloniki), filled with rhetorical schemes, allusions, and literary references, that describe recipes for game birds roasted and coated in a crust. Béatrice Caseau’s paper discusses how the Byzantines criticized the nomadic people and enemies such as the Turks, Bulgarians, and Latins as blood-consuming, bloodthirsty barbarians, creating lists of foods inappropriate to Byzantine culture.Pottery papers relating to Greece and the Aegean area consist of three substantial contributions. Nikos D. Kontogiannis et al. reveal through recent research on pottery assemblages from Chalkis the importance of the city for the production and distribution of tableware and amphoras in the Middle Byzantine era until the mid 13th century. Elli Tzavella compares the mid 12th- to mid 13th-century pottery assemblage from a plot inside the early Byzantine wall of Corinth with pottery from assemblages excavated in the Forum, where the Frankish population is believed to have settled, tracing differences and trends in ceramic use and dining habits. Joanita Vroom presents remarks on household archaeology and eating habits based on the Leiden University VIDI research project that studied long-term patterns of production, distribution, consumption, and social changes in Butrint, Athens, Ephesos, and Tarsus. This paper analyzes ceramics and pithoi from houses in the Athenian Agora, tracing the changing dining habits under Western influence in Late Medieval assemblages.The volume also presents case studies on pottery assemblages from Crimea and western Anatolia. Iryna Teslenko studies the pottery assemblage and faunal remains of the festive meals taking place in the double-apsed medieval church of the Tuzlik Hill in the south Crimean Peninsula. Zeynep Mercangöz presents the ample pottery production in Kadicalesi (Kuşadası) during the Late Byzantine period, comprising glazed tableware related to the Zeuxippus type and Aegean wares as well as unglazed wares such as amphoras and service vessels; she poses questions about their markets and their relation to wine trade. Trade is also the main topic of the article by Michel Balard, giving a thorough accounting of the Genovese and Venetian traders’ role in food circulation between Constantinople, the West, and the Black Sea and Pontus in the 13th to 15th centuries.The joint paper by Jacques Burlot et al. focuses on pottery production from various sites in western Anatolia during the transition period between the Byzantine era, the arrival of the Turkish populations in the second half of the 13th century, and the creation of the Beyliks, proving that aspects of the Byzantine pottery tradition persisted while new decoration patterns and techniques (e.g., Turquoise Glazed Ware, Moulded Ware) were introduced by the newcomers.The next section encompasses contributions connected to archaeometry, zooarchaeology, bioarchaeology and archaeobotanical analysis. Based on the study of faunal remains from the Yenikapı metro excavations at the Theodosian harbor of Constantinople, Vedat Onar presents an overview of the meat consumption in the capital from the Early to the Middle Byzantine era. Anna Elena Reuter highlights the changes in cultivation and distribution of cultivated cereals, pulses, oil, and fiber plants, as well as fruit, nuts, vegetables, and spices throughout the Byzantine empire. Chryssa Bourbou stresses the importance of the standardization of criteria and methodology applied to the study of human remains in her paper on the Greek Byzantine diet during the seventh to 15th centuries. Filiz Yenişehirlioǧlu gives a helpful summary of the available information concerning Ottoman dining habits and pottery in Istanbul, based on historical and iconographic data combined with archaeological finds.In the last section, Evelina Todorova tackles the important but not unsolvable issue of the reuse of transport amphoras, though the problem of the extent and location of the reuse and the economic structures still remains. (It is also significant that empty amphoras could be traded over long distances, as is shown by the Portiţei A shipwreck in Halmyris Bay on the western Black Sea coast [see the website of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Forschung, Provinzialrömische Archäologie, Das Schiffswrack Portiţei A], which contained a cargo of empty second-century CE Heraclea Pontic amphoras.) Alessandra Pecci et al. attempt to shed light on the issue of the content of Günsenin III and IV amphoras through the residue analysis, but here, too, the question of primary or secondary use remains, as the results indicate that such amphoras seem to have been reused, probably several times. Yana Morozova et al. focus in the next paper on the amphora types Günsenin II, III and XX, which have been found in the Novy Svet shipwrecks off the Crimean Peninsula; the main cargo group was identified as the production of Chalkis in Euboea. George Koutsouflakis presents an impressive number of Byzantine shipwrecks from the Aegean Sea—particularly important as it increases our knowledge of maritime trade routes and the movement of goods. Valentina Vezzoli’s paper focuses on the rich material culture from the Islamic world present in Venice in the Late Middle Ages and in particular the imported ceramic artifacts from the Mamluk Sultanate.Johannes Koder in his concluding remarks summarizes the main topics and papers presented in the POMEDOR conference and provides a useful appendix of medieval Greek terms related to food and foodways.The illustrations in the volume are well done and highlight important points, especially regarding ceramic analysis. Overall, the present volume uses new methodologies for the study of food production, food consumption, storage, and trade in the Medieval era. These new approaches improve our understanding of the medieval eastern Mediterranean history and make a welcome addition to the literature. Although case studies and specific subjects examined are limited mainly to the research areas of the POMEDOR project participants, the multidisciplinary papers presented give a representative view of the state of research concerning food and foodways in the eastern Mediterranean. The edition is highlighted by the recipes and images of the Byzantine dinner offered to the contributors at the conference. The recipes were prepared by Sally Grainger following the original idea of Ilias Anagnostakis and Sylvie Yona Waksman. Andrew Dalby presents the inspiration and gives the detailed description of the menu and the dinner prepared by the Institute Paul Bocuse.Notes[email protected][email protected] Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Archaeology Volume 126, Number 2April 2022 The journal of the Archaeological Institute of America Views: 850Total views on this site Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/718639HistoryPublished online January 04, 2022 Copyright © 2022 by the Archaeological Institute of AmericaPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.