Il piatto è servito. Il pane nel mondo ittita e il caso dei grandi piatti da cottura

Food is essential to human existence, and food supply, processing and consumption shape the lives of present as well as of past societies. The growing interest in these topics has fostered the development and specialization of food archaeology, which provides an exceptional insight into ancient civilizations and cultures. At Uşaklı Höyük, probably the holy city of Zippalanda in central Anatolia, the excavations of large official buildings dating back to the Hittite period revealed hundreds of ceramic potsherds belonging to large plates with fire-resistant fabrics characterised by curved walls and, frequently, by a wide, banded rim. The use of this cooking device, which appears to be exclusive to Hittite contexts, is quite remarkable since it constitutes the only handmade type among the massified, wheelmade production of the period. Preliminary analysis of incidence, distribution, context, ethnohistorical and iconographic evidence, technological and archaeometric evidence and technological and ethnographic experimentation, suggests that large plates were crucial for the production of flat breads.