Ceramics, Cuisine and Culture: The archaeology and science of kitchen pottery in the ancient mediterranean world - Softcover

9781789253412: Ceramics, Cuisine and Culture: The archaeology and science of kitchen pottery in the ancient mediterranean world

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1789253411 ISBN 13: 9781789253412

Publisher: Oxbow Books, 2019

The 23 papers presented here are the product of the interdisciplinary exchange of ideas and approaches to the study of kitchen pottery between archaeologists, material scientists, historians and ethnoarchaeologists. They aim to set a vital but long-neglected category of evidence in its wider social, political and economic contexts. Structured around main themes concerning technical aspects of pottery production; cooking as socio-economic practice; and changing tastes, culinary identities and cross-cultural encounters, a range of social economic and technological models are discussed on the basis of insights gained from the study of kitchen pottery production, use and evolution. Much discussion and work in the last decade has focussed on technical and social aspects of coarse ware and in particular kitchen ware. The chapters in this volume contribute to this debate, moving kitchen pottery beyond the Binfordian ‘technomic’ category and embracing a wider view, linking processualism, ceramic-ecology, behavioural schools, and ethnoarchaeology to research on historical developments and cultural transformations covering a broad geographical area of the Mediterranean region and spanning a long chronological sequence.

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Review

"...a masterly interdisciplinary research volume with the participation of forty scholars, and the editors deserve our honest admiration and gratitude... this volume presents the reader with a chock-full of varied archaeological data, discussions, interpretations and questions relating to ancient cookware and culinary practices. Well-illustrated with colour photos, drawings, diagrams, thin-sections and maps it is a true treasure-trove and an invaluable research tool for every ceramist and anthropologist and in particular a trend-setting stimulation for young scholars." --Journal of Hellenistic Pottery

"The production quality (text editing, lay out and images) is excellent overall, also considering the rich and varied contents of the book, and the selling price very friendly."--Bryn Mawr Classical Review

From the Publisher

Michela Spataro is a scientist in the Department: Conservation and Scientific Research at the British Museum. She is particularly interested in the provenance of ceramic raw materials (clays and mineral inclusions) which can indicate where a pot was manufactured, and therefore shed light on patterns of pottery production and trade in the past.

Alexandra Villing is curator of Greek pottery and terracotta figurines at the British Museum. Her special interests are Greek pottery and its uses and decoration; the relations between Greece and Egypt and the Near East; religion and mythology; iconography; and daily life.

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