Baking Bread in the Riff Area (Morocco): An Ethnographic Approach to the Study of Iron Age Archaeological Ovens

Abstract

We present the result of our fieldwork conducted in the Riff area (Morocco), where, through the participant observation technique, we have analysed the characteristics and functioning of several bread-baking traditional ovens that are still working in the region. We were able to observe the chaîne opératoire of the process of baking bread, where women are the main actors. This approach has proved to be a useful tool to analyse the uses and functions of similar culinary structures in the past; in our case, we will apply the information provided by these observations to study the ovens attested to Iron Age settlements in different areas of the western Mediterranean. The combination of experimental archaeology and ethnoarchaeology can provide valuable information for studying ovens and domestic activities in these societies, such as practical aspects like the oven’s construction techniques or the bread-baking knowledge (fuel used, the different steps of the process and their duration, etc.). Other valuable information we collected is related to the social sphere and community.

Keywords

• furnace, kiln or oven
• bread
• ethnoarchaeology
• iron age
• morocco