Food Habits and Ceramic Repertoire: preparing and cooking Food in Hellenistic Epirus

This preliminary study is focused on the Hellenistic households and cooking wares found in northern Epirus, with a particular focus on the city of Phoinike (Southern Albania) coming from both its urban and funerary contexts. Starting from the chronological study of pottery sherds and then shapes, the main aim of the study is to contextualize household and cooking ceramic repertoire in the bigger framework of the everyday life of the Hellenistic city and its food habits. Although in the absence of chemical analysis, not yet conducted, the morphological study and the observing of technical features show that local/regional productions, related to the Illyric and Epirus area, are the most represented. Imports from both eastern and western Mediterranean Sea are attested starting from the second half of the 2nd century B. C., together with the inclusion of the region in the Provincia of Macedonia.