Braziers and the Hellenistic koiné in the kitchen: the case of Paphos, capital of Cyprus

Abstract

Portable braziers played a very important role in ancient kitchens. Stoves with a stand, fire bowl and three supports were very common in Middle and Late Hellenistic times (2nd century BCE and late 2nd century to 30 BCE, accordingly), but they do not seem to have been imported in large numbers to Cyprus. The paper discusses the finds from Cyprus, and from Paphos in particular, the island’s capital from the end of the 3rd century BCE, which is where most of the finds come from. The research entails a re-examination of the stoves from the House of Dionysos (original spelling after Hayes 1981) and the mostly unknown material from the University of Warsaw excavations in the Maloutena area. Fabrics were distinguished by macroscopic observation with the naked eye using a hand lens, identifying macroscopic groups (MG). Paphos is suggested as a potential place of production, as well as a major importer of stoves, an idea that should be clarified by future archaeometric analyses.