Examination of culinary technologies in the Ancient Near East, from the Neolithic to the Early Roman period, shows how food preparation was central to social, political, and religious life. Innovations ranging from bread and beer production to hearths, ovens, stoves, and milling systems highlight advanced knowledge of chemistry, thermodynamics, and materials science. Far from primitive, these practices reveal sophisticated engineering and cultural traditions that shaped modern cooking. Cooking emerges as both a scientific achievement and a source of joy, creativity, and communal identity.
See also Culinary Technology of the Ancient Near East: From the Neolithic to the Early Roman Period (Routledge, 2025).
By Jill L. Baker
Independent Researcher of Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology
September 2025
Few would challenge the notion that food was and remains essential for survival, but it might surprise some to learn that even in antiquity, our forebearers threw lavish banquets and dinner parties hosted in elegant surroundings. Cooks (both professional and proletarian) labored in wealthy households, palaces, and temples, managing bustling kitchens that utilized both basic and state-of-the-art pyrotechnic equipment to prepare and serve multi-course feasts.
Communal dining – public and private – was a significant way to strengthen relationships, forge new bonds, mark rites of passage, celebrate important events, observe religious ritual, and solidify political or business agreements (Garnsey 2002; Dunbabin 2003; Pollock 2003; Smith 2003; Lindsay 2001; Jensen 2008; Baker 2025:1, 14-19; Bottéro 2004). The menus and beverages offered on these occasions were carefully selected to impress and honor guests, convey socio-economic status, and serve as religious and cultural symbols. To this end, cooks prepared meals using proven recipes and the appropriate equipment and utensils. This essay will explore and describe some of the culinary technologies, techniques, and practices employed by the peoples of the ancient Near East, which will demonstrate their remarkable knowledge of gastronomy, nutrition, chemical reactions, thermodynamics, and engineering, while also noting that their culinary techniques and associated technologies serve as antecedents to those in contemporary use.
Until now, bread and beer have been considered to be among the earliest prepared foods and drinks identified in the archaeological record. Natufian and Neolithic sites, including Shubaqya I (14,400 years old), Çatalhöyük (8,600 years old), and Küllüoba Höyük (5,000 years old), have yielded evidence that hunter-gatherers were making bread dough and baking it. The complexity of bread is found in the chemical changes that occur, specifically the activation of proteins and gluten, as well as the fermentation process, when combined with yeast (both natural yeast in the grain and supplementary). Throughout antiquity, bread was considered both life-giving and nourishing, containing, as it did, essential proteins, minerals, and vitamins. Ancient grains, including emmer, barley, and wheat, contained “higher levels of proteins, lipids … soluble fibers, minerals, vitamins and phytochemicals” (Valli, Taccari, Nunzio, Danesi, and Bordini 2018: 206). Baking the dough, with or without a pan or mold, was the final step in this process. No wonder bread quickly became symbolic of life itself.
Evidence from the Raqefet Cave, Israel, suggests that the brewing of beer began as early as 10,000 BCE, which coincides with the birth of agriculture (Liu, Wang, Rosenberg, et al. 2018; Mark 2011). However, the concept of fermented drinks may have occurred even earlier as a result of natural observation and encounters. As uneaten fruits, such as dates, figs, berries, and grapes, ripen, they ferment naturally. This is a process by which the natural yeasts consume sugars and excrete carbon dioxide and alcohol. Once the fruits fell to the ground and remained there, the natural reaction of the wild yeasts resulted in fermentation. These natural alcoholic mixtures were enjoyed by humans, animals, and insects alike (McGovern 2009). Eventually, humankind began to produce fermented drinks, initially beer (made from barley and malted bread) and wine, indicating that they understood the basic concepts of chemical reactions and thermodynamics and the beneficial effects they brought to prepared foods (Baker 2025: 183-189).
Given the prominent role food played in daily life in antiquity, food preparation spaces, or kitchens, became integral features of a household. Based on architectural and artifactual evidence, it is possible to identify areas within domestic dwellings, palaces, and temples where food preparation, cooking, and baking took place (Baker 2025:29-55). The size, arrangement, and location of the kitchen within a dwelling's layout reflected the demands of the household. Similarly, this was the case in terms of the equipment found within a kitchen. In general, kitchens included cooking and baking equipment and tools such as grinding/milling apparatuses, pots, pans, storage jars, and utensils (Baker 2025).
Heat, produced by fire, was essential to cooking and baking. The main devices that generated heat were hearths, stoves, portable cookers, and ovens, each one delivering it in different ways. Direct heat was necessary for boiling, frying, and roasting. Baking required evenly distributed, indirect, dry heat that enveloped whatever was being baked.
Although seemingly rather crude and simple installations, hearths were indeed complex, state-of-the-art devices which utilized sophisticated technology and used specific materials, enabling cooks to create healthful daily meals that sustained families, households, and clans for millennia. These hearths demonstrate the ancients’ knowledge and understanding of heat, temperature, and its transference – the essence of thermodynamics. They understood the benefit of cooking foods both to destroy parasites and to enhance flavor, and how to combine ingredients, meats, vegetables, fruits, and spices, to create tasteful, nutritious dishes (Baker 2025: 57). In general, there were three types of hearths: open-hearth, enclosed hearth, and built hearth. Open hearths were the easiest and most affordable installations to make, but they were by no means unsophisticated. Their construction was designed to achieve specific temperatures, to capture and radiate heat, and create zones for direct and indirect cooking. Initially, a roaring fire was built and allowed to burn down to hot, fiery coals. Hearths for cooking generally consisted of a hot spot over the fiery coals in one zone, used for boiling or roasting, while in other areas of the hearth, cooler coals were used for warming or slow cooking. In general, open hearths consisted of a cleared surface or shallow pit dug into the ground or floor of a room, courtyard, or extra-mural open space, constructed in various shapes: either oval, round, rectangular, or square. The hearth floor was either the natural surface or was coated with clay or mudbrick. In addition, a bedding or lining of pebbles, stones, pottery sherds, or shells might be placed inside the concave semi-subterranean pit. A final bedding of mudbrick or clay might also be added. Fuel for the fire was placed atop the bedding and consisted of either wood, charcoal, or dung, and possibly dry grasses as a starter. The concave shape and the bedding helped to retain, conduct, and radiate heat throughout the hearth, enabling the user to create hot, warm, and tepid zones within it. The bedding, then, functioned as a heating element (Black and Thoms 2014). The hearth’s perimeter was enclosed by non-flammable materials: rocks or bricks, to define and contain the burning area. Some hearths boasted high curbing that may have also served as shelving or warming areas. Examples may be found at Subayqa 1 (Arranz-Otaegui, Carretero, Ramsey, Fuller, and Richter 2018), Tell Asmar in the Arch house (Delougaz, Hill, and Lloyd 1967, Pl. 69:A), and Arslantepe (Restelli 2015: 134, Fig. 4:2, 3).
The enclosed hearth was a vertical structure built around the fireplace, generally horseshoe-shaped or U-shaped, and usually made of mudbrick so that the heat generated by the hot coals was driven upwards. Although most of the fireplace was enclosed, there was a small opening through which the user could tend the fiery coals. Cooking was accomplished by placing either a grate on top of the mudbrick enclosure or setting a pot onto an andiron (stand) or directly into the coals. This type of hearth was especially useful in urban settings as it contained the fire and helped to intensify and direct the heat. Examples can be found at Tell Arbid (Smogorzewska 2012: 237-238, Figs. 13 and 14) and Nippur, Temple of Enlil, Scribal Quarters (McCown, Haines, and Hansen 1967, Pl. 23A).
Built hearths were found in both domestic and cultic contexts. This type was an open hearth, usually square or rectangular, with a well-planned hearth floor, and was built on a low platform, usually made of mudbrick. The platform sides could be outlined with low curbing, presumably to contain the hot coals. Examples have been found in both domestic and cultic settings at Nippur (McCown, Haines, and Hansen 1967).
Pyrotechnological advancement led to the development of installations that resemble modern stoves or cooking ranges. It is possible that the enclosed hearth inspired the technology behind ancient stoves, of which several examples have been discovered. However, these stoves were not ubiquitous, nor did they replace hearths in most domestic contexts, and were discovered primarily in wealthy domestic households, palaces, and temples. In some contexts, they appear to have served a specific purpose, namely to feed large numbers of people (Baker 2025: 69-82).
The stoves discovered thus far can be divided into two types: linear and free-standing. Linear cooking ranges were usually affixed to a wall, constructed of mudbrick, and covered with plaster. They were built of solid mudbrick, resembling a bench, with multiple rounded, horseshoe-shaped openings, or hearths, cut into the bench that functioned as burners. Each burner extended to floor level, creating a little alcove or firebox into which fiery coals were placed. This formed a kind of chamber that directed the heat upward. Across the opening was set a grate for the pot, or taller pots could be set directly into the hot coals or onto an andiron (stand), with the upper body supported by the burner opening. An excellent example of this stove type has been discovered at Ebla in modern Syria in the so-called “Special Kitchen,” Room L.2890 (ca. 2450-2300 BCE) (Graf 2012, Mazzoni 1993, Peyronel, Vacca, and Wachter-Starkady 2014). A similar type of linear cooking range was discovered at Ishchali in modern Iraq (Hill, Jacobsen, and Delougaz 1990).
Free-standing stoves were generally made of mudbrick and consisted of a base or platform upon which the stove structure was built. Although described as free-standing, stoves could be built into a wall on one or two sides. Free-standing stoves were either round, oval, or rectangular, and the interior of the structure was hollow, with an opening on one end to allow access to the firebox. On top of the structure, openings served as burners, upon which pots and/or grates with pots were set for cooking. These openings concentrated the heat from the fires below upward. These stoves have been compared to “modern iron cooking range[s]” (Delougaz, Hill, and Lloyd 1967: 155, Pl. 67D). Examples of these stoves have been discovered in the Kitîtum Complex at Ishchali, Room I-Q.29 (Hill, Jacobsen, and Delougaz 1990, Pl. 10B); the Arch House, Room J19:41, Str. Vc at Tell Asmar (Delougaz, Hill, and Lloyd 1967, Pls. 33 and 67D); and Area E, Room 47 at Abu Salabikh (Crawford 1981: 110, Fig. 1 and Postgate 1980: 89, Fig. 1).
At Masada, Roman-period cooking installations, stoves, were discovered (Reich 2003: 143). They were located in storehouses, the Western Palace, the casemate wall, and Buildings 7-9, 12-13 (Netzer 1991, Reich 2003). Due to their unique architecture, these have been termed the “Masada-type stove” by excavators. The stoves appeared in several configurations: as twin, triple, and quadruple installations, based on the number of “burners” (Reich 2003: 142). The stoves were used primarily for cooking and boiling with a cooking pot. They were generally square, measured ca. 24-25 cm high, and were made of mudbrick and, occasionally, stones. On top of the stove, circles were carved out and open to the firebox below. Cooking pots were placed on top of the circles, which functioned as burners. Fires were set under the burners and tended through the main opening (Reich 2003: 142). Similar stoves have been found at the Burnt House in Jerusalem (Avigad 1983, Figs. 61, 64, 74) and the Herodian Mansion, Area P (Avigad 1983, Fig. 84); the Roman Villa at Jericho contained three Masada-type stoves (Netzer 2001: 281-286; Reich 2003: 154-155).
Portable cookers, such as braziers and grills, were transportable and especially beloved by merchants, travelers, military personnel, and in structures where space was tight, in both domestic and cultic settings (Baker 2025: 82-89). Their configuration ranged from simple to complex, but their primary function was to deliver heat directly to a cooking vessel. Portable cookers generally consisted of a main compartment, a bowl, basin, or platform, which accommodated fiery coals. The walls of the bowl or basin, or the horseshoe-shaped curbing on a platform, directed the heat up to the cooking vessel and also served as a support for it. Braziers were generally made from fired clay, bronze, or iron. Ubiquitous in the archaeological record, braziers have been in use since the fourth millennium BCE in Anatolia, Greece, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Canaan (Palumbi 2011: 217; Kelly-Buccellati 2004; Graff 2018; Thomas 2014), as well as throughout the wider Mediterranean. Examples have been found at Hasanlu, ca. ninth century BCE (Metropolitan Museum of Art, Accession No. 1976.233.15), Hellenistic braziers found in the Bodrum Museum (Leonard 1973), the Agora Museum in Athens, and the Archaeological Museum of Mytilene in Mytilene, Greece (Inventory No. 18236).
The baking of bread, cakes, and even casseroles was achieved in ovens, which provided an even, indirect heat that enveloped the object being baked. The most common type of oven was called a tannūr, derived from the Semitic root word tnr, from which the old Babylonian/Akkadian word tinūru was derived. The Hebrew root word for oven was tanar or tannūr and may have been a “loan-word” from the Assyrian and Persian words (Davidson 1970: 766; Brown, Driver, and Briggs 1951: 1072; Parker 2011; Van der Steen 1991; Greppin 1991). Here, the words “oven” and “tannur” will be used. The tannur was tall and conical in shape, measuring up to one meter high and 40-50 cm wide at the top. The base could be sunk into the floor or placed on a platform. To facilitate air flow, the top of the oven was open, and the bottom often contained a small opening through which the fire could be tended and air could be drawn upward across the fiery coals. Bread dough was baked by literally sticking it to the walls of the oven, and once baked, it fell to the floor. Bread, cakes, and casseroles that were baked in dishes were placed on the oven floor near the hot coals (Baker 2025: 90-106).
The regular use and control of fire in antiquity was an integral aspect of daily life. In domestic contexts, hearth fires could reach between 500° and 800° C (Gur-Arieh 2018: 67; Maeir 2015: 313-314). Industrial fires required temperatures ranging between 900° and 1900° C, specifically for smelting and manipulating metals including gold, silver, copper, tin, and iron (Ogden 2009: 167). A variety of materials were used to fuel fires, although wood was the most common. Several species were used, including acacia, tamarix, retama, and Haloxylon persicumto. Tree species were selected according to the task, e.g., cooking or smelting, while regional variations and availability influenced choice as well (Sherwood, Nikolic, Humphrey, and Oleson 2020: 54-55; Ben-Yosef and Levy 2014: 897-902; Engel 1993; Sapir-Hen and Ben-Yosef 2014). Each species of tree achieved a different temperature and length of burn. Charcoal provided the most even and stable fuel for cooking and baking. To obtain charcoal, timber was piled, combined with grasses and twigs, and set aflame. Once the fire burned down to hot coals, cooking and baking could begin. Commercially, timber was collected, burned, the fire doused, and coals were collected for trade and sale (Horne 1982; Veal 2013: 47). Other sources of fuel included dung, olive pumice or presscake, and petroleum and petroleum by-products.
The grinding of grain into flour was an essential daily task in nearly every part of the ancient world (Molleson 1994; Ebeling and Rowan 2004). Milling took place in most households, from the humblest of homes to those of the wealthy, and in palaces and temples. Grinding tools were required in any kitchen and appeared in a variety of forms. The simplest was the saddle quern, consisting of a stationary lower stone and a movable upper rubbing stone. Harvested grains were placed on the stationary stone, the rubbing stone was placed on top of the grain, and moved back and forth to grind the grain into flour. Larger installations were found in wealthy households and in temples and palaces where flour was needed in greater quantities, as for example, at Ebla, in Royal Palace G, the West Unit of the Central Complex, and West Palace Q (Vacca, Peyronel, and Wachter-Sarkady 2017; Cooper 2016: 210, Fig. 1). Eventually, milling became mechanized by attaching levers to upper rubbing stones, as with the Olynthos Mill (examples have been found at Yavne-Yam and Gamla), and the invention of rotary mills, as with the Pompeian style mills, and water-powered mills (Baker 2025: 116-129).
A wide variety of cookware, bakeware, and utensils was developed in antiquity to assist cooks in their meal preparation. Cookware included an assortment of pots and pans for boiling, slow cooking, sautéing, and frying. Bakeware consisted of baking pans, sheets, dishes, and molds. Each vessel was specifically and purposefully designed for the task it was intended to perform, and designed to be durable and to withstand the heat from the fire, cooling, cleaning, and drying on a daily basis. These often-overlooked utilitarian objects were essential culinary tools which demonstrate the ancients’ knowledge of materials technology and thermodynamics.
Ceramic cooking and baking vessels were primarily utilitarian, making them one of the most recognizable and ubiquitous ceramic types found during excavation, and one of the most overlooked. Their thick, clunky walls, globular physique, incomplete firing, and coarse clay with high content of mineral inclusions and layers of soot make them unattractive and easily dismissed as crude, of low technology, unsophisticated, and insignificant. But appearance is deceiving! These steadfast culinary companions silently boast the ingenuity and technological knowledge of the potter who created the vessel.
The best example of this knowledge resides in the stalwart cooking pot. In general, it had a wide, open mouth, a wide neck allowing access into the vessel, and a deep, rounded body. Sitting just below the rim and neck, the body of the vessel grew wider at the shoulder, then tapered at the middle of the vessel inward toward the base. One or two handles extended from the rim to the shoulder. Cooking pots with wide, flaring rims often accommodated a lid. Vessel shape was critical to heating efficiency, and was essential for heat conductivity and transfer, determining how the heat traveled up and through the vessel walls, ultimately transferring heat to the food it contained. Cookware was mainly used for boiling and simmering. Cooking vessels were exposed to hot coals either directly or indirectly on andirons (stands), and then set aside to cool. They were scraped, washed, and left to dry every day.
Bakeware, in general, was exposed to the indirect heat of an oven or a temperate zone within the hearth. In an oven, the indirect heat circulated and enveloped the vessel and the food it contained. Baking trays, likely used for bread, were round, flat, and shallow. The interior surface was incised, probably to prevent the dough from sticking to the bottom and walls of the vessel. Casserole dishes were also round but had deeper walls. Three modes of heat transfer can be identified: conduction, convection, and radiation. Conduction is when energy is transmitted via a material, e.g., bakeware, cookware, and is called thermal conductivity, affected when a solid surface comes into direct contact with the heat. Convection is when heat is transferred because of the circulation of air or steam. Tannurs created a vertical circulation of air or air flow that distributed heat throughout the oven. Radiation transfers energy to baking and cookware when they come into direct contact with heat, such as hot coals or heated bricks. The vertical circulation of the heated oven enveloped the baking dishes, transferring heat to the food it contained and baking it.
To survive the expanding, contracting, and thrashing, the matrix of the fabric had to be flexible enough to withstand the varying temperatures without cracking, yet conduct and transfer heat to the contents, while remaining solid, sufficient to be water-tight. As previously mentioned, cookware and bakeware were heavy vessels, consisting of thick walls and bases, partially fired clay, which contained mineral inclusions. Although utilitarian and unattractive, recent studies reveal that considerable knowledge, research, and technology were devoted to developing cutting-edge cookware and bakeware in antiquity. Potters continually advanced the composition of the fabric – the clay recipe, temper, and mineral inclusions (Peña 2007, London 2016, Ben-Shlomo, Bouzaglou, Mommsen, and Sterba 2023, Shinde and Shirvalkar 2008-2009, Frangié-Joly 2014) – and the vessel shape (Hein, Müller, and Kilikoglou 2015) as they sought to produce more efficient cookware and bakeware. These seemingly unsophisticated vessels display remarkable expertise and reveal the ancients’ remarkable understanding of materials technology and thermodynamics.
This is but a glimpse of the extraordinary culinary technologies of the ancient Near East. Our forebearers expanded their knowledge of engineering, materials technology, pyrotechnics, science, and gastronomy and applied it, enabling both culinarians and craftspeople to devise technologies, techniques, and tools which contributed to the culinary knowledge, skills, and practices required to create tasteful and nutritious meals for humble households, large dinner parties, and festive banquets. Even though modern cooking and baking equipment have become more sophisticated, the basic science, technologies, and techniques remain relatively unchanged. The engineering and technology of modern cooking and baking equipment are anchored in these ancient antecedents.
Beyond the technology, gathering for a meal is rooted in ancient tradition and custom, while cooking is more than simply preparing food for mere consumption. Irrespective of the time period, in every generation cooks have sought to combine and balance flavors and textures to present diners with “food that delights the palate, stimulates the senses, and delivers pleasure” (Baker 2025: 215). It may be clearly stated that cooks are “pleasure providers” (Symons 2004: 96), as they create meals that “delight the palate without upsetting the stomach and sustenance that provides the greatest nutritional value…” (Baker 2025: 216). Such is the joy of cooking, and this joy resides in producing foods and creating meals for diners to delight in, savor, and truly appreciate.
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