Food and Drink Practices in Mesopotamian Households between the Early and Middle Bronze Ages

Food and food-related practices have always had a paramount importance in every society and in every time. All people cook and the activity of cooking can be considered as a distinctive marker between human and non-human, between civilization and a primitive state. Food does not respond only to physiological needs, but also to social, symbolic, ideological, political and economic requirements, in other words it responds to a specific culture. The aim of this research is that of investigating some food-related activities, in particular the preparation of edible dishes, which constitutes an integral part of social life. The framework of reference is the world of the Mesopotamian households between late 3rd and early 2nd millennium BC. Food is here taken as a tool for understanding complex societies, with the purpose of investigating the Mesopotamian society between the Early and Middle Bronze Age, identifying similarities, changes and patterns related to food production in a diachronic and geographical perspective. In particular, two macro-areas are considered, the northern region of the Khabur River basin and the central-southern Mesopotamia. The single case studies are analysed, keeping in mind that each productive activity can be inserted within a wider operational chain. The concept of chaine opératoire is not commonly employed in food studies, since the majority of the researches generally focuses on a specific step of the process, neglecting all the others. In the present study I intend to provide an overview of all the passages of the process, with the aim of identifying the essential elements for recognizing the different activity areas related to food. The major focus is on the step of the transformation of raw materials into edible foodstuffs, by investigating the physical places where this activity took place, the most typical installations, features and material assemblage. The aim is that of identifying the “ideal typical room” for food-production activities, on the basis of multiple and integrated evidence, providing a “typical inventory” of pottery, small finds, installations, architectural features and planimetric patterns. The analysis of selected case studies, which shed light on both small- and large-scale production processes, contribute to delineate some socio-economic patterns of late 3rd-early 2nd millennium BC Mesopotamia.