Fifty Shapes of Grain. New archaeobotanical approaches towards charred finds of processed cereal-based foods. I. Rahmenschrift and Original Papers

Remains of ancient dishes can contribute significantly to the knowledge of past dietary habits, adding cuisine as the “missing link” between crop and consumption. Charred and fragmented archaeological remains of processed cereal preparations, while long having been neglected as a find category, bear large potential for analysis just as entire archaeological “bread loaves” do. The submitted work aims at providing a set of methods suitable for the analysis and interpretation of such finds. After the introduction to the theoretical framework of the research questions, basic processes in food transformation are laid out with a particular focus on their consequences for the raw material’s tissue and cell structures. Likewise, major factors affecting the deposition, preservation, and recovery of cereal-based foodstuffs are discussed, particularly highlighting the destructive potential of flotation. The historical overview of the field of ancient bread research together with its consecutive chapter gives an evaluation of previous analytical approaches and a methodological “state of the art” as suggested by the applicant, pointing out possibilities and limitations encountered in the identification and quantification of ingredients and in the observation of possible traces of food transformation processes. The thesis concludes with highlighting possible strategies for finding answers to the initial questions by giving suggestions for modelling chaînes opératoires of archaeological food remains, and for the construction of comprehensive typologies within this complex find category