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Beyond staple crops: exploring the use of ‘invisible’ plant ingredients in Minoan cuisine through starch grain analysis on ceramic vessels

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Abstract

Systematic archaeobotanical research in the Bronze Age Aegean has greatly expanded our knowledge regarding staple crops and aspects such as palaeoecology, human diet and food production. However, some plant foodstuffs remain ‘invisible’ to conventional archaeobotanical methods. This study explores the use of plant ingredients in Minoan cuisine through the analysis of starch grains from cooking or cooking related vessels from two Minoan sites, Sissi and Malia. By combining available macrobotanical, textual and ethnobotanical data with newly acquired microbotanical evidence from cooking vessels, this study expands the list of plant species cooked and consumed in Minoan cuisine and enables a further exploration of food-related practices. In particular, we were able to document starch grains from staple crops (Triticeae), underground storage organs, tiger nut (Cyperus esculentus) and cumin (Cuminum cyminum). The identification of previously unattested plant ingredients of Minoan cuisine broadens the horizon of food consumption practices and contributes to the discussion regarding the economic and social meaning of food consumption in Minoan communities during Final Palatial and Post-Palatial periods.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports for granting us permission to analyse the archaeological samples in this study. We would also like to express special thanks for the permissions to EFALAS, its director Chrysa Sofianou and its conservator Cleio Zervaki, as well as to EFHER and the conservator Manolis Patedakis. Our warmest thanks goes to Charlotte Langohr, Jan Driessen and Maia Pomadere for giving us the opportunity to analyse the archaeological material, their great support to the realisation of these analyses and their helpful comments to this paper. We would like to warmly thank the Belgian School of Athens (EBSA) and its deputy director, Professor Panagiotis Iossif, for his great support in administrative matters, as well as the French School at Athens (FSA). This study would not have been possible without financial support from the Université Catholique de Louvain (F.S.R.) and the Sissi archaeological Project for the analysis of the samples from Sissi, and financial support from The Institute for the Aegean Prehistory (INSTAP) for the analysis of samples from Malia. We would like to thank Amy Boogaard for allowing the use of the laboratory facilities at the University of Oxford, as well as the University of Sheffield for awarding E. Tsafou an Andrew Sherratt grant, which enabled her to work on the botanical reference collection at the Wiener Laboratory at Athens (ASCSA). We are also grateful to Anaya Sarpaki and Alexandra Livarda for their support and feedback at different stages of this research. The results presented in this study are part of E. Tsafou’s ongoing PhD project ‘The Function and Use of Cooking Vessels in Minoan Crete. An interdisciplinary study on ceramic assemblages from Sissi and Malia/Area Pi (MMIIIA-LMIIIB: 1750-1200 B.C.)’, funded by the F.S.R. and Université Catholique de Louvain. While working on this paper, J.J. García-Granero has been funded by the European Commission (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions 2015, Grant No. 704867) and the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (Juan de la Cierva Incorporación 2018 Programme).

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  1. Aegean Interdisciplinary Studies (AEGIS), Institute Des Civilisations, Arts Et Lettres (INCAL), Université Catholique de Louvain, Collège Erasme, Place Blaise Pascal 1, 1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

    Evgenia Tsafou

  2. HUMANE – Human Ecology and Archaeology Research Group, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, IMF-CSIC, C/Egipcíaques, 15, 08001, Barcelona, Spain

    Juan José García-Granero

  3. School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, 1 South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3TG, UK

    Juan José García-Granero

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  1. Evgenia Tsafou
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Tsafou, E., García-Granero, J.J. Beyond staple crops: exploring the use of ‘invisible’ plant ingredients in Minoan cuisine through starch grain analysis on ceramic vessels. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 13, 128 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-021-01375-4

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