Lifting the Lid

Abstract

In this paper we investigate local foodways and ritual consumption in Iron Age Sicily through a study of cooking pots, integrating contextual, archaeozoological, archaeobotanical and chemical data. We focus on material from the central cult site of the settlement of Monte Iato, located in the hinterland of western Sicily, in order to explore the interaction between food, people, bio-/artefacts and environments as a process of formulating and reformulating social relationships and local power dynamics within specific social spaces and settings. We reveal different foodways and consumption practices within the same cult site, characterized on the one hand by long-standing traditions, with more or less constant and unchanging dishes, and on the other by the integration of external stimuli. We discuss the emergence of foreign- (Greek/Phoenician-) style cooking pots and ingredients as markers of an haute cuisine, developed with the aim of social differentiation.

Chaîne Opératoires and Communities of Practice in Local Ceramic Production at Iron Age Monte Iato (Sicily, 6th-5th Century Bce)

“…The presented ceramic material comes from the central cult site of the settlement (so-called West Quarter), which underwent signi cant transformation processes from the 6th to the middle of the 5th century BCE. As already shown elsewhere it developed from an open-air cult site for communal gatherings and commensal feasting practices (600/575 − 525 BCE) to a regional cult site with a central meeting house adopting Greek-style architecture (the so-called 'Aphrodite Temple', 1st phase: 525 − 500 BCE) (Kistler et al, 2018;Kistler, 2020;Öhlinger et al, 2021). Around 500 BCE the cult place underwent an expansion and monumentalisation with the construction of a Greek-style temple with an altar ('Aphrodite Temple', 2nd phase: 500/475 − 460/50 BCE), a banquet house (so-called Late Archaic House; Kistler, 2020) with clear signs of external expert knowledge as well as several smaller rectangular buildings interpreted as guest-and meeting-houses for commensal gatherings during festive events.…”