Ceramic Cooking Dishes in the Prehistoric Aegean: Variability and Uses

ABSTRACT:This article discusses the history of cooking dishes—namely, large, open and shallow, undecorated ceramic vessels—following their diachronic development from the Neolithic to the Iron Age (6th millennium to 8th century b.c.), and their synchronic distribution across the Aegean and the Balkans. The methodological approach involves a synthesis of the information available in the archaeological literature, including experimental and ethnographic material. The morphological, technological, and functional attributes of cooking dishes are reviewed, and their contexts of use are reconstructed. The ultimate aim is to deduce the role of these vessels in past culinary activities, to contribute to discussions on their function(s), and to aid ceramicists in further developing protocols for future analyses and experimentation.