The Husking tray: a shared cooking technology between the Late Neolithic communities of the Near East?

The paper focuses on a specifi c pottery artifact used by the comm unities of the Near East during the 7 th and the fi rst half of the 6 th millennium BC: the so-called husking tray. These are large oval trays with their most interesting peculiarity being the incisions and impres- sions which cross entirely throughout its interior surface. The husking trays were found for the fi rst time and in abundant quantities at the Hassuna archa eological sites; for this reason, they were considered for a long time a fossil director of this culture. By this time, archaeological research had moved on and fragments of this pottery shape were found all over the Near East questioning the earlier interpretation of the nature of these vessels. Also in regards to its possible function, new data has changed the possible interpretation of the husking trays. In fact, while in previous decades scholars have argued over several hypo- theses just on the basis of analogies, a recent experimental analysis has proved that these vessels could have been used to bake bread. The paper will show the results of an up-to-date experimental analysis that confi rms and broadens the previous o ne. In summary, it will be suggested that the husking trays could be better understood as a sort of cooking technology shared between the communities of the Near East.