BELIEFS AND CURIOSITIES · 02

Work, food and bodies

Pottery and workshops help us understand how food was cooked, stored and served.

Museum documentation · free public access, no account required.

Contextual detail of Red and Black Ware before the Palaces, associated with the card Work, food and bodies — **DECLARED VISUAL RECONSTRUCTION · AI-GENERATED IMAGE · TRACEKEEPERS**
Generated reconstruction · Declared visual hypothesis
Declared visual reconstruction; not a photograph of the original nor documentary evidence.

History and context

Vasiliki pottery, large containers and workshop remains situate cooking, storing and serving in domestic and palatial chains. The quality of a piece does not automatically identify the position of its user.

Textiles and oil appear in Mycenaean archives, but rarely survive complete. The tablets record quantities and categories of personnel from the office’s perspective.

Evidence and interpretation

Documented fact: Vasiliki pottery belongs to Early Bronze Age Crete; pithoi and tablets document later storage and distribution. Interpretation and caution: Administrative categories do not equal biographies, and dress reconstructions depend heavily on elite images.

Catalogue facts

Scope: Work, food and bodies
Culture: Greeks: from Minoan Crete to the Hellenic world
Reference part: Red and black ware before the palaces
Reading: Fact and interpretation are presented on separate layers

A closer look

About 1 min to read · 1 section. Further reading and sources · free access. Editorial review recorded: September 5, 2026.

Stored legumes and exploited animals

The excavations of a Bronze Age house in Gypsades, near Knossos, recovered stored plant remains, including various legumes. The study presented by the Ashmolean situates plant food at the centre of the diet, with occasional meat. Other bones studied reveal cuts made against the grain and animals consumed after serving for agricultural labour. These are indications of concrete domestic decisions: conserving vegetables, exploiting animals over years and preparing their meat afterwards, activities that large storage jars alone do not allow reconstruction.

Museum · Andrew Shapland · Dining with the Minoans, Ashmolean MuseumAccess recorded: September 5, 2026.

Location and territory

REGIONAL AREA

Crete, Aegean and mainland Greece; the museum begins in the Minoan phaseCrete, Aegean and mainland Greece; the museum begins in the Minoan phase. The footprint marks the orientative centre of the scope, not a boundary nor an exact point.

Sources and references

Expand this belief or curiosity on its sources

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