The manufacture of traditional bread-baking pans: Ethnoarchaeology and the safeguarding of intangible heritage

Abstract

Bread-baking pans-manufactured and used by generations of women to bake bread in their hearths at home-are a traditional form of pottery, primarily in the Central and East Balkan region. Over the last 50 years these vessels have become so scarce that they are not only rarely used, but are no longer manufactured anywhere in Serbia. The origins of bread-baking pans can be traced back to as early as the Neolithic period when they appeared for the first time. They have been found to have existed in all the epochs of prehistory and antiquity, and became one of the dominant forms of kitchenware in the Middle Ages. The unchanged pattern of their use, their form, and almost unchanged process of manufacture, make these bread-baking pans an ideal subject for ethnoarchaeological research. Reconstruction of the manufacture of traditional bread-baking pans in Gostuşa, a village in eastern Serbia, has yielded valuable information on the technology used in the manufacturing process. This had never before been adequately documented in ethnographic literature. The revitalization of these traditional manufacturing processes and increased use of bread-baking pans has not only helped to preserve an endangered part of an intangible cultural heritage, but has also helped provide a sustainable existence in remote regions which, outside the flow of contemporary communication, are suffering a gradual decline.