This paper presents part of my doctoral research investigating cooking practices and culinary traditions in Neopalatial to Postpalatial Minoan Crete (1750-1200 BC), with a particular focus on the function and use of various cooking vessels from northeastern Crete. While significant progress has been made in recent years in the study of culinary traditions in the Aegean Bronze Age, the specifics of cooking practices and culinary traditions on the island of Crete remain little understood. Furthermore, the question of whether there was a single unified culinary tradition or several distinct traditions on the island has yet to be resolved. The aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of the culinary traditions of the island, by examining ceramic cooking assemblages from two Minoan settlements, Sissi and Malia, and by using an interdisciplinary methodology. The study of two neighboring settlements allows the identification of culinary traditions both within individual sites and across regional settlement patterns, providing insights into common and distinct cooking practices. In addition, the interdisciplinary methodology provided a holistic approach to the study and included five different methods of analysis: the morphological and technological analysis of cooking vessels, the use-wear analysis, the organic residues analysis by using two techniques (microbotanical and molecular analysis), and contextual analysis. These methods helped to assess aspects such as cooking temperatures, the consistency of food contents, the positioning of vessels in relation to heat sources, and the nature of the foods and natural products used. The results, considered alongside the contextual and spatio-temporal information of the vessels, offer new interpretations of the function and use of different types of Minoan cooking vessels and enhance our understanding of the existing cooking practices, as well as common and distinctive aspects of Minoan culinary tradition(s).
Wednesday, February 26, 2025, 12 pm EST, 7 pm in Greece, Zoom format
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