Thursday, July 4, 2013

ANCIENT GREECE AND GASTRONOMY

Greece is one of the main olive oil producers worldwide.
It's also the country with a huge tradition and history about olive oil. 
How can we forget that the goddess Athena, patroness of the city of Athens, was given this title by Zeus, because she offered the Olive tree as a gift.
Who doesn't know that during the great Panathenaic festival, the winners awarded amphorae full of olive oil, which came from the sacred olive oil trees of Athens!
That's why we owe a flashback to ancient Greek gastronomy.

How did the ancestors of Greeks cooked?


From the very early ancient Greek ages and very often there was a separate room for cooking with dominant element called "estia". In cases there was no separated room for cooking, portable braziers were used which could be placed everywhere for this purpose.

Archaeological Finds of  "estia" were found in seven houses of Olynthus, with large limestone slabs, often below the soil surface, usually four of them, shaped square or slightly oblong, which ignited the fire. There were found remains of ashes and bones. These rooms were austere  with a floor of beaten earth and walls  without coating. The smoke from the room was leaving apparently through a "kapnodoki" or "kapni"a form of chimney, as mentioned in the sources. Examples of "esties" found in homes of Priene, in the house or more rarely in yard.

Read more about Greek ancient life here: http://www.tmth.gr/sciencerelated/64-arxaia-elliniki-technology/353-arxaia-katoikia-b



(Source: http://www.tmth.gr/home)


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