Ovens, fireplaces and the preparation of food in Uruk Mesopotamia

A crucial element in the examination of food-related practices is a consideration of how plants and animals are turned into food. Much archaeological research has been focused on the acquisition of food ingredients, but considerably less attention has been devoted to specific forms of food preparation (but see papers in Pollock ed. 2012). In a survey of the literature, I have examined forms of food preparation that require heat (cooking, roasting, baking) and specifically the fire installations with the help of which these practices were carried out. An emphasis on heat-based forms of preparing food represents an enormous simplification of a much more complex series of processes, as they are only one of many means of transforming plant and animal products into food (see, for example, brewing, pickling, salting; Leroi-Gourhan 1945).