Tel Anafa: Busted pots and ancient quiche

An American team from Concordia University has been excavating at the ancient city of Hippos in the Holy Land. Here is one of a series of reports about excavations nearby. More about Hippos itself is at http://virtualdig.org.

Real Romans don’t eat quiche? Yes they did. Andrea Berlin has the busted pots to prove it.

The University of Minnesota archaeologist sifted through kitchens from long ago at a dig in northern Israel and read ancient cookbooks to get an idea of what people there ate.

A broken pot tells a story. The curve of the rim shows how big the mouth was. The pot’s shape shows what it cooked.

Berlin’s pots are from a dig at Tel Anafa (ah na FAH) in a swampy area known as the Huleh (HOO leh) Valley, where the Jordan River flows southward toward the Sea of Galilee.

Tel Anafa pots from the third century BCE* are round-bellied with narrow mouths and wide necks — good for soups and stews. The narrow mouth keeps in heat and moisture. Meat and vegetables cut into small pieces fit through the narrow opening. These round-bottomed pots can balance on uneven rocks near the fire for slow cooking.

A century later, people at Tel Anafa used the same kind of pot but had something new as well — the casserole. Much larger chunks of food fit into this pot — half a cabbage, big pieces of fish, whole vegetables. With a rounded bottom,  casseroles could also balance on rocks in or near the fire for slow cooking.

STEWED EELS

Berlin looked for clues in ancient texts about what these pots might have cooked. She found recipes for soups and bean dishes. The Greeks even had a word for casserole — lopas (LOH pahs). The playwright Aristophanes (ar ih STOF uh neez ) mentions lopas with stewed eels. In fact, archaeologists have found casserole pots like hers in Aristophanes’ fifth-century BCE Greece.

Back at Tel Anafa, Berlin found still another kind of pot at a later level,  broad and shallow like a pan. She checked ancient books for dishes that work in such a vessel — and found a Roman recipe book by a chef named Apicius (ah PICKY us).

These cooking vessels suggest Roman soldiers lived at Tel Anafa in the first century CE*. Other archaeologists working at the same site found parts of weapons only issued to Roman soldiers.

Apicius “had a whole chapter on a kind of delicacy called in Latin patinae,” says Berlin. Patinae (pah TEE nye) dishes were fish or meat and vegetables baked with beaten eggs poured over the top. “It’s like a fritata,” says Berlin. “Or a quiche.” — Marc Hequet

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* BCE means “before common era.” It’s the same as “before Christ.” CE means “common era.” It’s the same as A.D., which means “anno Domini,” Latin for “in the year of our Lord.”

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Marc Hequet writes about Concordia University’s excavation at Hippos and other digs as well. Students, teachers and families are welcome to make use of the material as part of a curriculum. Contact Marc with questions via mhequet@sprintmail.com.