From Terrace to Tray
Agriculture and Foodways at a 13th Century 'Alquería'
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/aff.28606Keywords:
Islamic cuisine, al-Andalus, rural foodways, agriculture, cookingAbstract
Medieval archaeology in Spain has recently benefited from the expansion of rural studies and food studies, countering the field’s historical focus on urban sites. More specifically, there is growing interest in the lifeways of the medieval Muslim population of the Balearic Islands, who inhabited this part of Muslim Iberia (al-Andalus) from the 10th through 13th centuries CE. In this paper, we combine botanical, faunal, ceramic, and spatial data from the alquería (farming village) at the site of Torre d’en Galmés, Menorca with contemporary textual evidence to investigate how the inhabitants of this settlement fed themselves, from agricultural terrace to tray. More specifically, we discuss (1) what aspects of foodways we can reconstruct at Torre d’en Galmés; (2) how this information compares to the mainland, i.e., are there any differences between this rural island settlement and mainland rural settlements; and (3) what we can interpret about local cultivation practices through food remains. Present evidence suggests that this rural community raised their own livestock and cultivated crops through dry farming. Despite their self-sufficiency, they were connected to the wider culinary culture in al-Andalus through their food choices, food preparation styles, and organization of cooking space.
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