Multidisciplinary Approaches to Food and Foodways in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean

Multidisciplinary Approaches to Food and Foodways in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean lead image

Multidisciplinary Approaches to Food and Foodways in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean, Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée, Lyon, May 19–21, 2016

Multidisciplinary Approaches to Food and Foodways in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean is the final conference of the POMEDOR project (People, Pottery and Food in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean).

Within the rapidly expanding area of research on food and foodways, the medieval eastern Mediterranean is still very much an unexplored area. The aim of the POMEDOR project was to explore this new field in a multidisciplinary way and to stimulate further research. Although the project focused primarily on food and foodways approached through archaeological and archaeometric studies of pottery - from transport amphorae to serving dishes, through food processing utensils, cooking wares, and wares used in food production processes - the conference encompasses a wider field, including historical, archaeozoological, archaeobotanical and anthropological studies.

Case studies in Greece, Turkey, Israel, Cyprus, Ukraine, etc., provide insight into food and foodways in the Byzantine Empire, the Crusader states, and beyond. Special attention was paid in the project to transitional periods, when new rulers and new populations with different cultural identities came into contact: the Fatimid and Crusader Levant, the Aegean between Byzantine and Frankish rule, Anatolia from the Byzantine to the Ottoman periods, etc. The conference presents the latest research, from exploratory studies on Late Byzantine transport amphorae to synthesis on the role of the harbour of Chalkis in food and pottery supply and maritime trade.

Registration closes May 1, 2016

PROGRAM