RECONSTRUCTING MINOAN DINING PRACTICE AND SOCIOPOLITICAL ORGANIZATION IN NEOPALATIAL HOUSEHOLDS AND PALACES A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Micaela Carignano May 2018 © 2018 Micaela Carignano RECONSTRUCTING MINOAN DINING PRACTICE AND SOCIOPOLITICAL ORGANIZATION IN NEOPALATIAL HOUSEHOLDS AND PALACES Micaela Carignano, Ph. D. Cornell University 2018 Food is among the most symbolically potent materials with which humans interact because it is simultaneously biologically necessary and socially constructed. Nevertheless, studies of Minoan Crete, as in other areas of the Bronze Age Mediterranean, fail to acknowledge this dual nature of food. Instead, most current scholarship on Minoan food is divided into two distinct camps: studies of subsistence focus on the nutritional qualities of food, and studies of feasting invoke its role in elite social organization. The result of this dichotomy is that while scholars have been able to list the ingredients in the typical Minoan’s diet and have been quick to identify sumptuous banquets at palaces, tombs, and religious sites, little attention is paid to the practices of cooking and eating in Minoan homes. This dissertation addresses this lacuna by analyzing the evidence of cuisine and dining etiquette at four Late Minoan IB domestic sites. Through a functional analysis of ceramic vessels and close examination of architectural layout, I investigate what kinds of foods were cooked, what cooking techniques were used, how diners interacted with the food and with each other, and how household layout reflected commensality behaviors. Furthermore, this study clarifies the political role of feasting in Neopalatial palaces by comparing the palace evidence to the general system of Minoan commensality gleaned from the case studies. I accomplish this goal by implementing a theoretical model that treats feasting as one end of a spectrum of food-sharing behaviors encompassing the most mundane to the most elaborate meals. Treating meals comparatively allows a closer understanding of the experience of the diners, who would have judged a meal’s value against all those they had eaten previously. Thus, I consider the intentions of the hosts and the messages received by the guests. As a result, my analysis of Minoan cuisine and reevaluation of palatial feasts sheds light on the functions of the palaces themselves, and the sociopolitical systems that they upheld through their banquets. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Micaela completed her undergraduate studies at Washington University in St. Louis, where she earned a B.A. summa cum laude with a double major in Archaeology and Classics. As a doctoral student at Cornell University, she studied Bronze Age Crete, ceramics, feasting, and archaeology of everyday life and the domestic sphere. During her studies, she has participated in excavations in Crete, Cyprus, mainland Greece, and Mississippi. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am extremely grateful to the many people who have helped me during the completion of this project. First I would like to thank my committee chair, Sturt Manning, for always pushing me to work harder. Sturt’s unfailing ability to see where my work was heading and what must come next was crucial to my understanding of the full scope of my ideas. I am also indebted to my committee members, Lori Khatchadourian and Caitlín Barrett, for their invaluable comments. Lori’s sharp attention to organization and style have done wonders for my writing, and Caitie’s grammar lessons and bibliographic suggestions have been both helpful and encouraging. I must also thank the other faculty in the Cornell Department of Classics for making my six years in Ithaca a fascinating if exhausting experience. In particular, my thanks go to the Director of Graduate Studies, Eric Rebillard, who has made a point of checking on me to make sure I was on track with my work. Lastly, I offer my deepest thanks to my parents and my husband, whose support of my academic pursuits has never faltered, regardless of my own complaints. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................................... v LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................ x LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................ xii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 15 Cuisine as an alternative way to study ancient food ................................................................. 20 CHAPTER 2: BACKGROUND ON FEASTING AND THE MINOAN PALACES ................. 26 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 26 Identifying feasts ....................................................................................................................... 27 Tombs and Sanctuaries ............................................................................................................. 29 Palace feasts: conflicting interpretations and insufficient evidence ......................................... 32 Architecture: the Minoan Hall and the Central Court ............................................................... 41 Ceramics: the puzzle of the conical cup, and other “drinking” vessels .................................... 44 The foods at the feast: assessing past availability from limited evidence ................................ 50 Feasting and sociopolitical organization ................................................................................... 57 Conclusions: where to go from here? ....................................................................................... 61 CHAPTER 3: THEORIES OF COMMENSALITY..................................................................... 64 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 64 Defining the feast ...................................................................................................................... 65 vii Is it enough to just identify feasts? ........................................................................................... 76 Towards a solution: some helpful patterns ............................................................................... 81 Breaking free of the problem of definition ............................................................................... 84 Why houses? ............................................................................................................................. 87 Going forward ........................................................................................................................... 90 CHAPTER 4: METHODS ............................................................................................................ 92 Site Selection ............................................................................................................................ 92 The sites .................................................................................................................................... 95 Ceramics ................................................................................................................................. 102 Other relevant data .................................................................................................................. 107 Limitations of the data ............................................................................................................ 108 Summary of the analysis ......................................................................................................... 109 CHAPTER 5: THE CASE STUDIES ......................................................................................... 111 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 111 The Chalinomouri farmhouse ................................................................................................. 111 The Ayia Varvara house ......................................................................................................... 114 The Mochlos Artisans’ Quarter .............................................................................................. 116 Palaikastro House N ................................................................................................................ 122 Preliminary Analysis ............................................................................................................... 126 Synthesis: combining lines of evidence to reconstruct eating behaviors ................................ 145 viii Spectra of commensality at the four sites ............................................................................... 148 CHAPTER 6: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS ............................................................... 152 Recontextualizing the case studies.......................................................................................... 153 The full spectrum of commensality .......................................................................................