[Sca-cooks] tannurs

[Johnna Holloway]

Found a number of these plus websites by searching under Persia Bread  
archeology ovens

http://www3.uakron.edu/ziyaret/tour.html


Articles
Some fire installations from Abu Salabikh, Iraq (Dedicated to the  
memory of Margaret Munn-Rankin)
Crawford H.    Paléorient     Year   1981    Volume   7    Issue    
7-2    pp. 105-114

Waines, David. Cereals, Bread and Society. Journal of the Economic and  
Social History of the Orient
Vol xxx, 1987. (in Jstor)

Griddles, Ovens, and Agricultural Origins: An Ethnoarchaeological  
Study of Bread Baking in Highland Ethiopia
Diane Lyons 1 A. Catherine D'Andrea 2
American Anthropologist
Volume 105 Issue 3, Pages 515 - 530
Published Online: 7 Jan 2008
ABSTRACT
An ethnoarchaeological study of highland Ethiopian griddle technology  
is compared to bread-baking technologies in Africa and the Near East.  
There is a functional relationship between the use of ovens and  
griddles and the presence or absence of gluten in bread ingredients.  
Ovens are most appropriate for cereals containing gluten and may be  
implicated in the selection of higher quality gluten in domesticated  
wheats. We conclude, based on evidence for griddle use and the  
performance characteristics of African cereals, that indigenous  
species were exploited in highland Ethiopia before Near Eastern  
cereals were introduced. Griddle-cooking practices that bias the  
preservation of Near Eastern cereals over African ones may explain the  
absence of African cereals in the early archaeobotanical record.  
[Keywords: Ethiopia, ethnoarchaeology, archaeobotany, ovens, griddles]


Archaeobotanical evidence for early Dilmun diet at Saar, Bahrain
MARK NESBITT 1
Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy
Volume 4 Issue 1, Pages 20 - 47
Published Online: 22 Feb 2007
ABSTRACT
A flotation machine was used to process large quantities of earth at  
the Saar excavation in the 1990 and 1991 seasons. Carbonised seeds and  
charcoal were recovered from a wide range of contexts dating to about  
1900 BC. While overall quantities were low, enough contexts were  
productive to allow quantification. Date stones were the most frequent  
crop remains, with smaller amounts of free-threshing wheat and hulled  
six-row barley. This confirms evidence from other sources (textual,  
dental) for the importance of dates as a staple food in the Early  
Dilmun period. A survey of ethnographic and archaeological evidence  
for date husbandry in Bahrain suggests that the date-palms and cereals  
were grown in irrigated date gardens similar to those found today.


A search through SCA Cooks didn't turn much up but maybe it's before I  
started keeping most of the posts. If you can give me a range of dates  
I can try the search through Jstor and Articlefirst.

Johnnae

On Aug 4, 2010, at 9:37 AM, Johnnae  wrote:

> I have an appointment with my knee specialist in a few minutes so  
> I'll look later on today.
> Sounds like something out of Biblical Archaeology. Until I get back  
> take a look at
> Food in the ancient world from A to Z By Andrew Dalby which is up on  
> Google Books. The sections on cooking utensils and baking have a  
> number of references.
>
> Johnna
>
>
> On Aug 4, 2010, at 8:41 AM, Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius wrote:
>> I vaguely recall reading a lengthy article in one of the Middle  
>> Eastern archaeological journals on Persian baking which included  
>> pretty detailed discussions of tannurs, griddles, the griddle-like  
>> object whose name escapes me but which looks like an inverted wok  
>> sitting on top of a fire, and the aforementioned box oven. The  
>> article was basically a study of ancient methods that have survived  
>> to the present day. It's possible Cariadoc or Johnnae might be able  
>> to recall the article before I am able to dig up the ubiquitous  
>> smudgy old photocopy...
>>
>> Adamantius