Archaeology of drinking places

"In Italian scholarship to date, little effort has been devoted to the study of formalized drinking practices in complex prehistoric
societies, a crucial moment in social life. In the light of recent discoveries in the archaeobotanical field, this paper uses a comparative approach to reassess some examples from Bronze Age contexts, which have been selected for the quality of the data available. The case studies are located in Emilia and Calabria, in northern and southern Italy respectively. Special attention is paid to the formation of new material manifestations linked to ceremonial drinking customs in different areas of the peninsula during the recent Bronze Age (1300-1150 BC), a period of rapid socio-economic change and broad geo-political crisis. How this connects with funerary practices, especially with cremation, and with the commensality rituals of new elites, is also discussed."

This paper reconsiders the emergence of an iconographic formula in the context of Western Anatolia in the sixth and fifth centuries BC, which came later to be termed the 'Funerary Banquet' or 'Totenmahl'. Consisting usually of a single  male shown in a 'sympotic' context (reclining on a kline, with drinking service), flanked by attendants and often accompanied by a female consort, this formula is known earlier, and elsewhere, but the standarisation of the image type as a funerary motif at this juncture is notable. The paper addresses why this phenomenon occurred there and then, and whether there were specific meanings associated with it. It argues that the motif emerged in a context of heightened competition in drinking culture in both the Achaemenid Empire and the late Archaic Aegean zone. While the 'funerary banquets' of Western Anatolia never displayed overt signs of eschatological significance, its ambiguity meant that it was particularly resonant in funerary contexts, and could accommodate multiple explanations on the part of viewers, encouraging investment with funerary meaning which eventually affected its further trajectory in later periods. (See also Introduction of the volume for general discussion of the 'funerary banquet' motif in ancient art and its interpretation.)

New England seafarers from small merchant ships visited the natural saltpans of the Venezuelan island of La Tortuga from the late seventeenth century up until 1781. The liminal space of the island set the stage for the creation of an improvised “tavern” where the communalism of shipboard life was suddenly changed to more markedly vertical relations. Drawing from archaeological excavations and original documentary sources it is argued that, while on land, captains no longer worked alongside their crews who now labored extracting salt. With leisure time available to them, punch drinking offered captains a means of discursive practice through the manipulation of fashionable material culture and an opportunity to negotiate their social position among peers. When given to the crew, punch served as a labor incentive and a way of obfuscating the sudden change in customary captain-crew relations while on the island.

This work aims to examine the use and social significance of pottery and other vessels found in burials from the early Iron Age (500 BC - 575 AD) in Eastern Norway. In this long-term perspective, one particular and significant change stands out: In the first half of the period the pottery found in graves was used as urns, then from the first century AD beakers for food and drink began to be deposited alongside the deceased. The latter tradition is associated with table setting; almost it would appear as at a feast.
The transition from urns to sets of table goods also relates to a change of pottery shapes, temper and ornamentation. The rough, undecorated cooking-/storage vessels that dominate in the graves from the earliest periods were often used as urns. In the later part of the period tableware with finer temper and a polished, often decorated surface are developed. The transition to tableware also coincides with Roman glass and bronze vessels occurring in some graves.
The use of pottery is compared to mythic beliefs, ritual performances and the social development in general. In mythology vessels are linked to ritual meals/sacrifices, feasting and death, probably as a symbol of regeneration and rebirth. The consumption metaphor is closely related to burials in urns, as both a dead body and a meal are transformed through the use of fire. The change from urns to tableware mark a shift from a passive death, where the dead is consumed by fire, to a life aspect where the deceased more or less participate in a feast or drinking party in death. The new focus on food and drink is interpreted as referring to an idealized lifestyle, as it appears in the hall, with a banquet and entertainment of guests. From a high level of standardization in large cemeteries with urns, the graves are increasingly individualized by the use of mounds and a wider variety of grave goods, for instance vessels for food and drink, as a way of standing out. The use of tableware reaches its peak around 400 AD, after which the custom gradually declines and disappears.

http://www.hf.uio.no/iakh/english/research/news-and-events/news/rodsrud.html

http://sciencenordic.com/pottery-grave-goods-tell-us-about-life

"In this
paper it is argued that in the thirteenth century, during the Regional Development Period, new social groups
emerged from the aggregation of people from smaller scattered communities into new spaces. In the Quebrada
de Humahuaca, Jujuy, Argentina, during this process of identity formation social practices led these communities
to develop and establish permanence through time. Celebrations and rituals were fundamental in stimulating and
maintaining social ties and cohesion in the community. An extraordinary find from the Juella site is particularly
relevant: 17 complete and semi complete pots found buried in the occupation floor. To understand the social
practices and relations involved in this context a supra-domestic space of production, consumption and storage
of chichi is postulated. This would have been a context of sharing and celebration where various activities took
place, promoting relationships of commonality and shared life experiences, and so forming a communal identity
rather than generating or promoting social differences."