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6 - Cooking, Baking, and Serving: A Window into the Kitchen of Egyptian Monastic Households and the Archaeology of Cooking

from II. - Production and Consumption of Food and Material Goods

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2023

By
Darlene L. Brooks Hedstrom
Edited by
Louise Blanke  and
Jennifer Cromwell
Louise Blanke
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
Jennifer Cromwell
Affiliation:
Manchester Metropolitan University
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Summary

Egypt has an abundance of well-preserved monastic settlements. The mudbrick structures provide ample evidence for examining domestic spaces associated with the daily household activities of food preparation through the acts of cooking, frying, and baking. While monastic literature presents a portrait of food scarcity in monastic communities, the archaeological evidence of kitchens and cooking spaces creates a more dynamic story of how monks interacted with ingredients, prepared meals, and considered the economy of space in designing areas for food preparation. The monastic movement required new habitations and ones in new locations to be set apart from the traditional and biological households. The importance of consumption habits within the family setting played a role in reinforcing one’s identity in a monastery or in a non-monastic family. The numerous examples of preserved monastic kitchens offer substantial evidence for a robust analysis that combines the theoretical models of household archaeology and spatial configuration to consider how monastic builders addressed the specific needs for food production within a homosocial community. The advent of new monastic settlements in late antique Egypt provides a unique opportunity to observe the evolution of cooking within an archaeological context.

Keywords

FoodasceticismEgyptEgyptian monasticismcookingbakingkitchenmonasteryhousehold
Type
Chapter
Information
Monastic Economies in Late Antique Egypt and Palestine , pp. 152 - 180
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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