Domestic and communal cooking at the dawn of urbanization in greater Mesopotamia and the specialization of bread production

Abstract - In Greater Mesopotamian societies, the ruling elites rooted their power on rural communities mainly through the control on raw material, among which staple food was one of the most important goods. Accumulation and redistribution of food, in ceremonial and administrative contexts, were basic factors for this process, which led to early state formation, and were essential political, social and economic instruments in the hands of the elites. Meal distribution in temple and palatine “great organisations” represented an essential key in establishing relations between centralised poles and rural population, but in Early Bronze Age urban contexts, private specialized cooking areas suggest a greater variability in food preparation and consumption. The research on cooking areas and culinary devices for such meals has proven as an important tool to investigate not only technological aspects related to food processing but also to get a deeper insight into social and economic relations which characterized those societies. The present paper aims at comparing cooking devices, - specifically their ovens - from northern Mesopotamia and Anatolia, - in the crucial moment from the Late Chalcolithic to the Early Bronze age, when urbanization processes took place in Mesopotamia, but not in Anatolia. Differences in the organization of cooking areas as well as different types of culinary devices, will be presented and investigated in order to define cooking contexts.