Social Dimensions of Food in the Prehistoric Balkans

Ever since the definition of the Neolithic Revolution by Vere Gordon Childe, archaeologists have been aware of the crucial importance of food for the understanding of prehistoric developments. Numerous studies have classified and described cooking ware, hearths and ovens, have studied food residues and more recently also stable isotopes in skeletal material. However, we have not yet succeeded in integrating traditional, functional perspectives on nutrition and semiotic approaches (e.g. dietary practices as an identity marker) with current research in the fields of Food Studies and Material Culture Studies. This volume brings together leading specialists in archaeobotany, economic zooarchaeology and palaeoanthropology to discuss practices of food production and consumption in their social dimensions from the Mesolithic to the Early Iron Age in the Balkans, a region with intermediary position between and the Aegean Sea on one side and Central Europe and the Eurasian steppe regions on the other side. The prehistoric inhabitants of the Balkans were repeatedly confronted with foreign knowledge and practices of food production and consumption which they integrated and thereby transformed into their life. In a series of transdisciplinary studies, the contributors shed new light on the various social dimensions of food in a synchronous as well as diachronic perspective. Contributors present a series of case studies focused on themes of social interaction, communal food preparation and consumption, the role of feasting, and the importance and management of salt production. HISTORY / Europe / General Cover 1 Book Title 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 Introduction Philipp W. Stockhammer, Bogdan Athanassov and Maria Ivanova 8 1 ‘Herd’ mentality: László Bartosiewicz and Clive Bonsall 20 2 Neolithic taboos in Anatolia and southeast Europe: Nerissa Russell 33 3 Eating out: Food and social context in the Early Neolithic of Greece: Kostas Kotsakis 50 4 Breath of change: Food and pottery in the course of the Neolithic in northern Greece: Dushka Urem-Kotsou 66 5 Carcasses, ceramics, and cooking at Makriyalos I: Towards an integrated approach to human diet and commensality in Late Neolithic northern Greece: Valasia Isaakidou and Paul Halstead 85 6 Painted pottery and culinary practices: Use-alteration analysis of painted pottery from the site of Starčevo-Grad: Olga Bajčev 105 7 Feasting during the Early Neolithic of the central Balkans: The fauna from Blagotin, Serbia: Haskel J. Greenfield and Tina L. Jongsma-Greenfield 128 8 Of pits and bones: A ritual pit at the late Neolithic site of Sarnevo in Bulgarian Thrace: Krum Bacvarov and John Gorczyk 160 9 Foraging and food production strategies during the Early Neolithic in the Balkans-Carpathian area. The site of Bucova Pusta in Romanian Banat: Raiko Krauss, Bea De Cupere and Elena Marinova 176 10 ‘No quern, no food’? Milling technology and the spread of farming in southeast Europe: Maria Ivanova 192 11 Prehistoric agricultural toolkits in diachronic perspective: A case study from Bulgaria: Maria Gurova 209 12 Social dimensions of salt in the later prehistory of the eastern Balkans: Vassil Nikolov 234 13 Salt in European prehistory: Social and economic considerations: Anthony Harding 240 14 Plant-based food at Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Drama, southeast Bulgaria: Continuity and innovations: Ralf Gleser and Elena Marinova 249 15 Food, status, and power: Animal production and consumption practices during the Carpathian Basin Bronze Age: Amy Nicodemus 267 16 Plant food from the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age hilltop site Kush Kaya, Eastern Rhodope Mountains, Bulgaria: Insights on the cooking practices: Hristo Popov, Elena Marinova, Ivanka Hristova and Stanislav Iliev 282 17 Food supply and disposal of food remains at Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Ada Tepe: Bioarchaeological aspects of food production, processing and consumption: Krassimir Nikov, Elena Marinova, Bea De Cupere, Ivanka Hristova, Yana Dimitrova, Stanislav Iliev and Hristo Popov 297 18 Hunting together: Social aspects of hunting at a 13th–12th century BC fortified site in southwestern Bulgaria: John Gorczyk, Bogdan Athanassov and Philipp W. Stockhammer 319 19 Where Angel feared not to tread: Anthropometric approaches to food studies in Aegean and Balkan prehistory: Eva Rosenstock and Alisa Scheibner 339 Presents a multi-disciplinary approach to the archaeological exploration of the social dimensions of food production and consumption in the Balkans from the Mesolithic to Early iron Age.