Ancient Cookware from the Levant

Ancient clay cooking pots in the southern Levant are unappealing, rough pots that are not easily connected to meals known from ancient writings or iconographic representations. To narrow the gap between excavated sherds and ancient meals, the approach adopted in this study starts by learning how food traditionally was processed, preserved, cooked, stored, and transported in clay containers. This research is based on the cookware and culinary practices in traditional societies in Cyprus and the Levant, where people still make pots by hand. Clay pots were not only to cook or hold foods. Their absorbent and permeable walls stored memories of food residue. Clay jars were automatic yogurt makers and fermentation vats for wine and beer, while jugs were the traditional water coolers and purifiers. Dairy foods, grains, and water lasted longer and/or tasted better when stored or prepared in clay pots. Biblical texts provide numerous terms for cookware without details of how they looked, how they were used, or why there are so many different words. Recent studies of potters for over a century in the southern Levant provide a wealth of names whose diversity helps to delineate the various categories of ancient cookware and names in the text. Ancient Cookware from the Levant begins with a description of five data sources: excavations, ancient and medieval texts, 20th century government reports, early accounts of potters, and ethnoarchaeological studies. The final section focuses on the shape, style, and manufacture of cookware for the past 12,000 years. For archaeologists, changes in cooking pot morphology offer important chronological information for dating entire assemblages, from Neolithic to recent times. The survey of pot shapes in Israel, Palestine, and Jordan presents how different shapes were made and used.

Ancient clay cooking pots in the southern Levant are unappealing, rough pots that are not easily connected to meals known from ancient writings or iconographic representations. To narrow the gap between excavated sherds and ancient meals, the approach adopted in this study starts by learning how food traditionally was processed, preserved, cooked, stored, and transported in clay containers. This research is based on the cookware and culinary practices in traditional societies in Cyprus and the Levant, where people still make pots by hand. Clay pots were not only to cook or hold foods. Their absorbent and permeable walls stored memories of food residue. Clay jars were automatic yogurt makers and fermentation vats for wine and beer, while jugs were the traditional water coolers and purifiers. Dairy foods, grains, and water lasted longer and/or tasted better when stored or prepared in clay pots. Biblical texts provide numerous terms for cookware without details of how they looked, how they were used, or why there are so many different words. Recent studies of potters for over a century in the southern Levant provide a wealth of names whose diversity helps to delineate the various categories of ancient cookware and names in the text. Ancient Cookware from the Levant begins with a description of five data sources: excavations, ancient and medieval texts, 20th century government reports, early accounts of potters, and ethnoarchaeological studies. The final section focuses on the shape, style, and manufacture of cookware for the past 12,000 years. For archaeologists, changes in cooking pot morphology offer important chronological information for dating entire assemblages, from Neolithic to recent times. The survey of pot shapes in Israel, Palestine, and Jordan presents how different shapes were made and used.

• By (author) Gloria London

"Many studies have concentrated on a specific class of cooking vessels. . . Gloria London's research instead aims to achieve a longue dureie perspective on production, consumption, and usage of cooking vessels in the Levant. The greatest achievement and contribution of this research lies in the illumination of finds and behaviors from various periods combined with the results and insights from the field of ethnoarchaeology, especially the research of traditional potters from Cyprus and the Middle East. London has made a remarkable effort to introduce the use of current ethnoarchaeological research as a tool for understanding a fundamental portion of daily life, including cooking and the production of cooking vessels. . . . The book supplies more useful tools for the arsenal of anyone interested in the ancient Near East, and her research will hopefully be used by the scholarly community in the coming years." --Monnickendam-Givon, Barak, Israel Antiquities Authority, Journal of Near Eastern Studies (2020, 79/1) "Ancient Cookware from the Levant is an extraordinary volume that brings together decades of ground-breaking research by one of ethnoarchaeology's most notable and accomplished ceramic experts. . . . While the significance of this volume is to the study of pyrotechnology, craft production, and foodways is tremendous, the groundwork is also laid for connecting these subfields to larger socioeconomic, cultural, and political research questions. . . . High product values and copious illustrations make this a volume of standout quality destined to become a fundamental reference text for ceramics specialsts of the ancient Near East and beyond." --Mara T. Horowitz (2019), ETHNOARCHAEOLOGY, VOL.11, NO.1, 95-96. "This book is an important contribution to the study of ethnoarchaeology, ceramics, and food preparation in the southern Levant. [...] Scholars and students interested in ancient food preparation will find this book an essential addition to their library." --Cynthia Shafer-Elliott, Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 2017 "A valuable and rigorous contribution to the archaeology of the Levant." --Rebekah Welton, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 41.5 "By providing vivid examples of the contemporary production and use of traditional pottery, London reminds us of the human depth and complexity behind the production of kitchen equipment and the preparation of meals. In doing so, she provides archaeologists much food for through regarding how ancient cooking wares could have been made, sold, and used." --Peter J. Stone, American Journal of Archaeology Vol. 122, No. 1 (January 2018)
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