Cooked Food in the Mycenaean Feast - Evidence from the Cooking Pots

Abstract

It is widely accepted that food consumption is a major component of feasting. This should also be true of the Aegean Bronze Age. Therefore, food and its role in the execution of a feast should be one of the main focuses of feasting-related studies. Such issues are one of the main concerns of both archaeozoology and the study of Linear B tablets. However, food preparation and consumption, as evidenced by ceramic remains, constitute a field still not properly surveyed, in great contrast to wine drinking. This is partly due to the lack of ambiguity of wine-related vessels among feasting remains. Wine pouring, mixing and drinking vessels are easily recognizable (or at least are thought to be so), something which cannot be said about food serving vessels. However, food preparation vessels, the ordinary cooking pots, are usually easy to identify due to their distinct fabric, shape and frequent burning marks, and I shall focus on them in the discussion that follows. Food serving vessels will be of secondary concern.