In the present research, the attention is focused on the so called “husking trays”; one of the most “international” pottery shape used by the communities of Northern Mesopotamia during the 7th and the first half of the 6th millennium BC. Generally, these kinds of large trays are made of a coarsely strew-tempered clay with a very wide oval base and low sides. Their most interesting feature is that they show an interior surface crossed by incisions and impressions of different depths. Several hypotheses were suggested by the scholars about how the husking trays could have been used, but these ones have remained merely theories so far. The aim of this study is to improve our understanding of the use of the husking trays by way an experimental approach. To do this, the two best known hypotheses about their functionality have been tested through a set of experiments. After carrying out experimental replicas of husking trays (based on the published fragments found in the excavations of Sabi Abyad, Syria), they were used: - as tools to facilitate the threshing operations (Lloyd and Safar, 1945); - as portable ovens to bake bread (Voigt, 1983); To conduct the baking experimentations, were reproduced the three kinds of fire installations occurring in these archaeological contexts: a domed oven, a tabun-like oven and a hearth. Moreover, it has been taken into account the physico-chemical transformations involved in baking bread. The experimentations involved different kind of baking techniques, different kinds of grains, different levels of dough consistency and the presence or absence of the yeast base. These had proven that one of the suggested functions – that of the husking trays as baking trays for bread – is indeed feasible although it needs some adjustments. In conclusion, an alternative interpretation will be put forward to explain how the husking trays could have worked in practice, one that seems to fit better the archaeological data. This experimentation could reveal one of the first ways on how cereals were manipulated in a sophisticated manner just after the spread of agriculture in the Near East.
An experimental analysis of a pottery typology supposed to be used for baking bread / Taranto, Sergio. - STAMPA. - (2018). (Intervento presentato al convegno V Congreso Internacional de Arqueología Experimental en la Universitat Rovira i Virgili de Tarragona (25-27 Octubre 2017) tenutosi a Tarragona).
An experimental analysis of a pottery typology supposed to be used for baking bread
Taranto
2018
Abstract
In the present research, the attention is focused on the so called “husking trays”; one of the most “international” pottery shape used by the communities of Northern Mesopotamia during the 7th and the first half of the 6th millennium BC. Generally, these kinds of large trays are made of a coarsely strew-tempered clay with a very wide oval base and low sides. Their most interesting feature is that they show an interior surface crossed by incisions and impressions of different depths. Several hypotheses were suggested by the scholars about how the husking trays could have been used, but these ones have remained merely theories so far. The aim of this study is to improve our understanding of the use of the husking trays by way an experimental approach. To do this, the two best known hypotheses about their functionality have been tested through a set of experiments. After carrying out experimental replicas of husking trays (based on the published fragments found in the excavations of Sabi Abyad, Syria), they were used: - as tools to facilitate the threshing operations (Lloyd and Safar, 1945); - as portable ovens to bake bread (Voigt, 1983); To conduct the baking experimentations, were reproduced the three kinds of fire installations occurring in these archaeological contexts: a domed oven, a tabun-like oven and a hearth. Moreover, it has been taken into account the physico-chemical transformations involved in baking bread. The experimentations involved different kind of baking techniques, different kinds of grains, different levels of dough consistency and the presence or absence of the yeast base. These had proven that one of the suggested functions – that of the husking trays as baking trays for bread – is indeed feasible although it needs some adjustments. In conclusion, an alternative interpretation will be put forward to explain how the husking trays could have worked in practice, one that seems to fit better the archaeological data. This experimentation could reveal one of the first ways on how cereals were manipulated in a sophisticated manner just after the spread of agriculture in the Near East.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
