From Cooking Vessels to Cultural Practices in the Late Bronze Age Aegean [Paperback]

Late Bronze Age Aegean cooking vessels illuminate prehistoric cultures, foodways, social interactions, and communication systems. While many scholars have focused on the utility of painted fineware vessels for chronological purposes, the contributors to this volume maintain that cooking wares have the potential to answer not only chronological but also economic, political, and social questions when analysed and contrasted with assemblages from different sites or chronological periods. The text is dedicated entirely to prehistoric cooking vessels, compiles evidence from a wide range of Greek sites and incorporates new methodologies and evidence. The contributors utilise a wide variety of analytical approaches and demonstrate the impact that cooking vessels can have on the archaeological interpretation of sites and their inhabitants. These sites include major Late Bronze Age citadels and smaller settlements throughout the Aegean and surrounding Mediterranean area, including Greece, the islands, Crete, Italy, and Cyprus. In particular, contributors highlight socio-economic connections by examining the production methods, fabrics and forms of cooking vessels. Recent improvements in excavation techniques, advances in archaeological sciences, and increasing attention to socioeconomic questions make this is an opportune time to renew conversations about and explore new approaches to cooking vessels and what they can teach us.

"The editors have done a wonderful job and inspired high-quality contributions that are beautifully illustrated with an abundance of illustrations and colour photos… this timely book has demonstrated that the future of cooking vessels studies is bright and full of possibilities."
Dr Ina Berg
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (16/10/2017)

"[…] an informative book that fulfils its own set of standards and builds a base for further studies."
Jasmin Huber
Ancient West & East (03/12/2020)

"This book has precisely defined the framework of the research on LBA Aegean cooking vessels and thus constitutes a "must read" to researchers whose main focus is the Aegean Bronze Age."
Evgenia Tsafou
Revue Archeologique (10/03/2020)

"[…] the volume makes an important contribution that should form the basis of further research not just into the Late Bronze Age Aegean, but also into other historical periods and geographical regions."
Rik Vaessen
Journal of Hellenic Studies (18/09/2020)

"Overall, this book is to be welcomed as a very interesting and thought-provoking collection of studies that offer ideas about historical and social development as well as information on local sequences and the history of particular types. The reviewer hopes for further work of this kind."
Oliver Dickinson
Journal of Greek Archaeology (19/11/2018)