The Connecting Foodways project (DAI, Berlin) investigates the culinary traditions of Early Iron Age sub-Saharan North Africa for evidence of interregional interaction, based on domestic, everyday foodways. The focus is upon the study of food technologies, specifically cooking pots and their technical dimensions, and food stuffs, such as food traces and botanical remains. These are used in combination to investigate cultural transmission via household-level interaction over the long-term.

Comparing key technical characteristics of globular cooking pots, including fabric, wall thickness, size of mouth opening, etc., we investigate similarities in function across sub-Saharan Africa North Africa, as well as regional changes in these over time. These are analysed in conjunction with a comparison of plant and animal lipids recovered from the same cooking pots using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and gas chromatography-combustion-isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC-C-IRMS), in collaboration with Dr. Julie Dunn (Bristol University). Here we present a first overview of results, focusing on the analysis of these food technologies and food stuffs from across sub-Saharan North Africa in interregional, comparative perspective.

Contact:

Mette Bangsborg Thuesen
Andrea Valsecchi Gillmeister
pottery@berliner-antike-kolleg.org

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