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Food-Processing Ground Stone Tools in the Greek Neolithic and Bronze Age

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Food-Processing Ground Stone Tools in the Greek Neolithic and Bronze Age Tasos Bekiaris, Danai Chondrou, Ismini Ninou and Soultana-Maria Valamoti Food-processing ground stone tools in the Greek Neolithic and Bronze Age. A synthesis of the published data Tasos Bekiaris1, Danai Chondrou1, Ismini Ninou1, Soultana-Maria Valamoti1 1 LIRA Laboratory, Department of Archaeology, School of History and Archaeology, University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece & Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Innovation (CIRI-AUTH), Balkan Center, Buildings A & B, Thessaloniki, 10th km Thessaloniki-Thermi Rd, P.O. Box 8318, 57001 Corresponding author: [email protected] 1. Introduction Ever since the Paleolithic, the use of stone tools comprises one of the fundamental methods for the processing of plants (domesticated or not) and their transformation into edible substances.1 After many years of neglect, food-processing stone tools, such as grinding slabs and grinders (henceforth grinding tools), mortars and pestles (henceforth pounding tools), usually attributed to the wider technological categories of ‘ground stones’ or ‘macrolithics’, have finally gained a prominent position within the archaeological discipline. Especially during recent decades, several studies have demonstrated the analytical potential of these technological products towards the approach of past technological practices, economic strategies and social relations.2 The interpretive dynamics of prehistoric grinding and pounding tools were further informed by significant developments in the methodological field. Rigorous macroscopic studies, discussing the whole use-lives of these artifacts or aspects of them,3 as well as several microscopic studies, such as petrographic,4 use- wear5 and plant micro-remains analysis (i.e., phytoliths and starches),6 but also experimental and ethnoarchaeological research7 have further highlighted the vital role of these implements for prehistoric societies. In Greece, recent excavations on several prehistoric sites, most of which were located in the northern parts of the country, have yielded large amounts of ‘fresh’ ground stone data, triggering a broader ‘wave’ of Aegean ground stone studies.8 Most of these studies concern the whole ground stone assemblages of individual archaeological sites, dating, almost exclusively, to the Neolithic period. What is missing, is a bird’s eye view that will focus on particular tool types of the Greek ground stone material, thus facilitating a deeper understanding of how certain ground stone technological groups emerged and developed during prehistory. Moreover, it will allow the recognition of possible similarities and differences in the ways that the prehistoric communities of Greece have perceived, produced and consumed these technological products across different regions and within different time-frames. 1 e.g., Stahl 1989; Wrangham 2009. 2 e.g., Adams 2002; Adams et al. 2009; Dubreil 2001; Risch 2008; Santellier et al. 2002; Wright 1992, 2014. 3 e.g., Baysal and Wright 2005; Tsoraki 2008; Stroulia 2010; Wright et al. 2013. 4 e.g., Melfos et al. 2001; Ninou 2006. 5 e.g., Adams 2013; Bofill 2012; Cristiani and Dalmeri 2011; Dubreuil 2008; Dubreuil and Grosman 2013; Hamon and Plisson 2008; Van Gijn and Verbaas 2009. 6 Buonasera 2013; Fullagar et al. 2008; Liu 2015; Li et al. 2019; Piperno et al. 2009; Portillo et al. 2013. 7 e.g., Alonso et al. 2013, 2014; Hamon and Le Gall 2013; Nixon-Darcus 2014; Procopiou et al. 2013; Robitaille 2016; Searcy 2011. 8 Bekiaris 2007, 2018, forthcoming; Chadou 2011; Chondrou 2011, 2018, forthcoming; Ninou 2006; Tsiolaki 2009; Tsoraki 2008; Stroulia 2010, 2018. Journal of Greek Archaeology 5 (2020): 135–195 TASOS BEKIARIS, DANAI CHONDROU, ISMINI NINOU AND SOULTANA-MARIA VALAMOTI This paper seeks to provide an overview of the grinding and pounding stone tools of Greece during the Neolithic and the Bronze Age (7th to 2nd millennium BC). Through the comparative examination of the published data, we explore how grinding and pounding technologies and their associated practices have appeared and evolved in this vast geographical area in the course of prehistory. Our goal is to map the technological attributes of the grinding and pounding implements, check their consistency and investigate aspects of their production, consumption and discard patterns through a diachronic perspective. Under the light of the freshly emerged data, we will revisit and reexamine some old, deep-rooted notions regarding the grinding equipment of Prehistoric Greece (e.g., the sizes of the grinding slabs and their supposed expansion from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age), often encountered in the related literature. 2. Materials, methods and constraints PLANTCULT Project9 explores the plant food cultures of the prehistoric (7th to 1st millennium BC) farming communities of Southeastern Europe, from the Aegean to Central Europe, seeking to detect their evolution and change across space and time.10 The Project focuses on archaeological data, namely charred plant food remains and their associated processing and cooking equipment (i.e., stone tools, pots and cooking facilities), while it is also informed by several experiments, the study of ancient written sources, and the exploration of traditional food preparation practices and plant food ingredients. In the context of PLANTCULT, the study of grinding and pounding technologies is of special interest, since such tools have held a vital part in the processing of plant- foods during prehistory, especially starchy plant foods, such as cereals, with serious advantages in food preparation, cooking, nutrition and digestion.11 Through the combination of archaeological, experimental and ethnographic evidence, the Project seeks to investigate the technology of the prehistoric food processing stone tools and associate it with the dietary cultures of the past.12 Within this scope, a thorough review of the published literature concerning the grinding and pounding toolkits of Prehistoric Greece has been conducted for the first time and forms the basis of this paper. The goal of this endeavor was to gather information regarding the Greek food-processing stone tools and create an analytical tool that will facilitate the organization and management of the collected data. Therefore, a database, the PLANTCULT Archaeogrinding Database13 (henceforth: Archaeogrinding Database), was designed to serve the purposes of this study,14 as well as the wider goals of the PLANTCULT Project (i.e., the combination of the ground stone data with the archaeobotanical and pottery data).15 With the aid of the Archaeogrinding Database we have tried to homogenize and quantify, where possible, a diverse corpus of published data, in order to extract a reliable data-set with representative and comparable evidence, used to obtain results presented here in the form of graphs, tables and maps. Date BC Phases 6700/6500-5800 Early Neolithic 5800-5400/5300 Middle Neolithic 5400/5300-4800 Late Neolithic I 4800-4600/4500 Late Neolithic II 4600/4500-3300/3100 Final Neolithic/Chalcolithic 9 Project PLANTCULT is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (Consolidator Grant, Grant Agreement No 682529). For more information visit: plantcult.web.auth.gr 10 See Valamoti et al. 2017. 11 See Carmody and Wrangham 2009; Butterwoth et al. 2016. 12 Chondrou et al. 2018b, 2019; Valamoti et al. in press. 13 The Archaeogrinding Database was designed by Panagiotis Tokmakidis and Themistoklis Roustanis. 14 The Archaeogrinding Database was also used for managing the literature regarding the food processing macrolithic tools from other geographical areas studied within the context of PLANTCULT Project, such as Central Europe and the Balkans. 15 See Valamoti et al. 2017. 136 FOOD-PROCESSING GROUND STONE TOOLS IN THE GREEK NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE Date BC Phases 3300/3100-2800 Early Bronze Age I 2800-2300 Early Bronze Age II 2300-2000 Early Bronze Age III 2000-1900 Middle Bronze Age I 1900-1700 Middle Bronze Age II 1700-1550 Middle Bronze Age IΙΙ 1550-1500 Late Bronze Age I 1500-1400 Late Bronze Age IΙ 1400-1300 Late Bronze Age IIIA 1300-1200 Late Bronze Age IIIB 1200-1100 Late Bronze Age IIIC 1100-1000 Submycenean Table 1a. Dates and archaeological phases for the Greek Neolithic and Bronze Age.16 Phases Date BC Crete Cyclades Mainland Greece 3000-2900 Early Minoan I Early Cycladic I Early Helladic I 2900-2300 Early Minoan II Early Cycladic I/II Early Helladic II 2300-2000 Early Minoan III Early Helladic III 2000-1900 Middle Minoan IA Early Cycladic III 1900-1800 Middle Minoan IB 1800-1750 Middle Minoan IΙA Middle Helladic 1750-1650 Middle Minoan IΙB/IIIA Middle Cycladic 1650-1600 Middle Minoan IIIB 1600-1500 Late Minoan IA Late Cycladic I Late Helladic I 1500-1450 Late Minoan IB Late Cycladic II Late Helladic II 1450-1350 Late Minoan II/IIIA Late Cycladic III Late Helladic III 1350-1100 Late Minoan IIIA-IIIC Table 1b. Dates and archaeological phases for the Greek Bronze Age in Crete, Cyclades and Mainland Greece.17 The Archaeogrinding Database comprises data deriving from a large dataset of publications on ground stone tools from various archaeological sites across Prehistoric Greece, but also of unpublished archaeological material that has been studied within the context of PLANTCULT Project. Each entry on the Database corresponds to a single grinding or pounding implement. Following a biographical approach, a variety of quantitative and qualitative data reflecting all stages of each tool’s life cycle18 were extracted
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