LE FORME DELLA CUCINA A CENCELLE: FATTORI DIMENSIONALI E CAPIENZE PER UNA RICOSTRUZIONE DEI SET DA CUCINA MEDIEVALI

Abstract

The town of Leopoli-Cencelle, founded in northern Lazio in the middle of the 9th century by Pope Leo
IV, has evidence for continuous habitation up until at least the 17th century, first as an urban centre and
subsequently as a farmstead. Within the context of the archaeological excavation project which La Sapienza
University of Rome has been carrying out on the site for almost thirty years, there is an increasing need to
focus research on aspects related to the social dimension of the vessels that were used in everyday life. The
classes of pottery that were used for cooking are particularly well suited to this type of research, in which
the dimensional value of the vessels plays an important role. This has made it possible establish the size
ranges of the pots that formed part of the cooking assemblage, which is linked to the number of people it
was possible to cook for, food requirements, individual or collective modes of cooking, and the real needs of
everyday life. The results obtained from this analysis, which are characteristic of the town of Cencelle, will
subsequently be compared with those from neighbouring towns and areas or with nearby regions, in order
to provide a standardised basis of comparison between different Late Medieval sites and to create wider
social models, based on parameters that are difficult to consider in the field of pottery studies.