A goodly feast … a cup of mellow wine: feasting in bronze age Cyprus

Hesperia, Spring, 2004 by Louise Steel

ABSTRACT

Recent studies have focused on the consumption of food and drink in antiquity, specifically employing anthropological perspectives to examine the social aspects of these activities. In light of these studies, I review in this article the evidence for feasting as a group activity in Cyprus during the third and second millennia B.C. and argue that the practice of feasting was used to reinforce group ties. The main focus is the impact of Mycenaean customs on indigenous Cypriot feasting practices between the 14th and 12th centuries B.C.

THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF FOOD AND DRINK

The consumption of food and drink represents more than the biological act of meeting necessary subsistence requirements, since it is also a culturally constructed social act. (1) Components of human diet are essentially anthropogenic; they are culturally transformed from their raw state into a transient element of material culture prior to consumption. Moreover, food and drink are symbolically charged because they represent embodied material culture, produced specifically to be ingested into the human body. (2) Indeed, Hamilakis comments that "humans as social entities make themselves through the consumption of food and drink." (3) Dining and drinking are the focus of social interaction both within the immediate household context and throughout the wider community. (4) The consumption of food and drink is used in the construction of social identities, shared experiences of consumption resulting in a corporate sense of identity. (5)

The social connotations of diet are culturally specific and are constructed according to modes of preparation, service, and consumption. Within these social codes we see the construction of food taboos: the definition of certain foods as clean or unclean, edible or inedible. Concepts of distinctive food tastes, accepted combinations of dietary elements in the construction of cuisines, and required modes of preparation and consumption are incorporated into concepts of ethnicity. (6) As a corollary, the associated paraphernalia used in the preparation, serving, and consumption of food and drink are also culturally specific. Similarly, the locations where these activities take place are defined within strict cultural norms, with food preparation areas frequently distinct from areas for dining and for the disposal of the debris of feasting. Even within certain social contexts these vary according to the context of consumption: distinctions in diet and eating habits may refer to internal cultural boundaries by reflecting gender differences, age distinctions, and social status. Special foods, different modes of preparation, and utensils might be used for religious ceremonies including rites of passage, religious festivals, and burial rites. (7)

Although diet is closely interwoven with expressions of cultural identity, it is an arena that is susceptible to modification as a result of outside influence. This is particularly apparent in the changing patterns of social dining in the Greek and Roman world brought about by increasing social and economic contact. (8) In archaeological contexts, changes in dietary practices, and thus the appearance of novel elements in the ceramic repertoire, are frequently attributed to the arrival of new population groups. One of the most frequently cited examples is the change in the Canaanite ceramic repertoire at the beginning of the Iron Age with the introduction of the Philistine Bichrome style, especially new forms such as the side-spouted strainer jug and the deep bowl or skyphos. (9) Changes in dietary practices and food preparation are further illustrated by the appearance of new types of cooking pot. (10) Alternative causal factors, however, should also be considered, in particular, the role of imported exotic commodities and esoteric knowledge in the construction of political and ideological power. (11) One such example is elite appropriation of imported, and thus exotic, alcoholic beverages and associated drinking equipment for use in exclusive high-status feasts. (12) This is exemplified by the spread of the symposium, and of the custom of dining in a reclining position, from the Near East to the Greek world during the Archaic period, and the dissemination of Greek and Phoenician drinking equipment and concepts of the Homeric banquet to central Italy. (13) Similarly, in Old Kingdom Egypt the elite used wine and drinking equipment imported from the southern Levant in exclusive diacritical drinking ceremonies. (14)

A clear distinction can be drawn between everyday consumption of staples within a household context and the larger ceremonial gatherings and ritual feasts that mark special occasions and define social relations. Feasts stand out from normal consumption practices by virtue of their location, the quantity and possibly the choice of food and drink consumed, and the associated paraphernalia, i.e., not only the dining services but also the dress and ornamentation of the participants. (15) Typically feasts might include luxury foodstuffs that were distinct from the staples consumed in everyday diet. While it might be prohibitive to rear livestock for consumption of meat as a staple, numerous ethnographic studies have illustrated the prestige value of large livestock such as goats and, in particular, cattle, especially males with impressive coats and horns. (16) The consumption of meat within a feasting context is therefore something special, a highly symbolic display of wealth and status. Feasts might also be differentiated by the use of exotic foods, or foods with psychoactive properties, such as alcoholic beverages. The symbolic importance of alcoholic drinks derives in part from their peculiar mood-enhancing properties and from the process of manufacture, "a quasi-magical transformation of food into a substance that, in turn, transforms human consciousness." (17) Alcohol serves to construct "an ideal world" and is particularly appropriate for ceremonial consumption and the forging of alliances. (18) In terms of embodied material culture, therefore, alcohol occupies a privileged place, and its production and consumption are closely controlled. (19)