Farming and feasting in the Neolithic of Greece: the ecological context of fighting with food

Abstract

Fine Neolithic ceramics from Greece are widely interpreted in terms of ceremonial eating and drinking, while the spatial organisation of settlement suggests that such commensality played a significant role in shaping social relationships. Faunal evidence implies consumption of many domestic animals inlarge-scale commensality and supports the view that this promoted competition as well as solidarity. This paper explores the ecological context of such 'fighting with food'. Feasting, and ceremonial consumption of livestock, was enabled by and helped to reinforce domestic strategies of surplus production and labour mobilisation that were driven as much by 'economic' as 'political' imperatives.