Cooking Practices in a Central Anatolian Site between the 2nd and the 1st Millennium BC: Fires and Pots at Uşaklı Hӧyük

Since 2008 the investigations at Uşaklı Hӧyük have aimed at reconstructing in detail the history and settlement development of this multi-phase site of the central Anatolian plateau. This paper presents the evidence related to cooking methods spread in central Anatolia during the Late Bronze Age and the Early/Middle Iron Age, with particular emphasis on fire installations and cooking tools found in the recent excavations of Uşaklı Hӧyük. Archaeology supplies a great number of materials and information on cooking and the related pottery and firing equipment: ovens, hearths, andirons, cooking pots and baking plates are a constant presence within the various settlements of the Anatolian plateau. An attempt will be made to identify the functions of the various devices within the different food processing techniques with the aim to reconstruct ancient culinary practices. The morphological analysis of the kitchen utensils and their archaeological context, together with the recent multi-disciplinary approaches (archaeobotanical, zooarchaeological, ethnographic studies, and experimental archaeology), will be able to provide data and information on food preparation and cooking daily life. Therefore, their analysis may also contribute to identifying some general social and economic dynamics, such as processes of crisis and resilience, changes, and continuity in this critical historical period of the Anatolian Plateau and Ancient Near East.