The transformation of food ingredients into meals corresponds to complex choices resulting from the interplay of environmental and cultural factors: available ingredients, technologies of transformation, cultural perceptions of food, as well as taste and food taboos. Project PLANTCULT (ERC Consolidator Grant, GA 682529) aims to investigate prehistoric culinary cultures from the Aegean to Central Europe by focusing on plant foods and associated food preparation technologies spanning the Neolithic through to the Iron Age. Our paper offers an overview of the lines of investigation pursued within the project to address plant food preparation and related stone tool technologies. The wide range of plant foods from the area under investigation (ground cereals, breads, beer, pressed grapes, split pulses, etc.) suggests great variability of culinary preparations. Yet, little is known of the transformation technologies involved (e.g., pounding, grinding, and boiling). Changes in size and shape of grinding stones over time have been associated with efficiency of grinding, specific culinary practices and socioeconomic organisation. Informed by ethnography and experimental data, as well as ancient texts, PLANTCULT integrates archaeobotanical food remains and associated equipment to address these issues. We utilize a multifaceted approach including the study of both published archaeological data and original assemblages from key sites. We aim to develop methods for understanding the interaction of tool type, use-wear formation and associated plant micro- and macro- remains in the archaeological record. Our experimental program aims to generate (a) reference material for the identification of plant processing in the archaeological record and (b) ingredients for the preparation of experimental plant foods, which hold a key role to unlocking the recipes of prehistory. Plant processing technologies are thus investigated across space and through time, in an attempt to explore the dynamic role of culinary transformation of plant ingredients into shaping social and cultural identities in prehistoric Europe.
Ever since the Paleolithic, the use of stone tools comprises one of the fundamental methods for the processing of plants (domesticated or not) and their transformation into edible substances. After many years of neglect, food-processing stone tools, such as grinding slabs and grinders (henceforth grinding tools), mortars and pestles (henceforth pounding tools), usually attributed to the wider technological categories of ‘ground stones’ or ‘macrolithics’, have finally gained a prominent position within the archaeological discipline. Especially during recent decades, several studies have demonstrated the analytical potential of these technological products towards the approach of past technological practices, economic strategies and social relations. The interpretive dynamics of prehistoric grinding and pounding tools were further informed by significant developments in the methodological field. Rigorous macroscopic studies, discussing the whole use-lives of these artifacts or aspects of them, as well as several microscopic studies, such as petrographic, use-wear and plant micro-remains analysis (i.e., phytoliths and starches), but also experimental and ethnoarchaeological research have further highlighted the vital role of these implements for prehistoric societies.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.