Poster: Bread production during the European Neolithic period. Reconstruction of the acorn bread manufacturing process / Póster: Producción de pan durante el Neolítico europeo. Reconstrucción del proceso de manufactura de pan de bellota.

BREAD PRODUCTION DURING THE EUROPEAN NEOLITHIC PERIOD. RECONSTRUCTION OF THE ACORN BREAD MANUFACTURING PROCESS AYERDI, M., DE FRANCISCO, S., ECHAZARRETA-GALLEGO, A., HERNÁNDEZ, H. H. and SARASKETA-GARTZIA, I. Geography, Prehistory and Archaeology Department, UPV/EHU. INTRODUCTION Since the beginning of domestication, bread has been a basic foodstuff characterized by its caloric and nutritional value . We have tried to reproduce the acorn bread manufacturing process following the neolithical techniques with the aim of knowing the preparation times during its phases, as well as making diverse flavour tests to check the bitterness of bread. First of all, some common stages have been carried out in order to obtain the acorn flour. After this milling, the cooking experimentation has been divided into two different procedures: making the bread before and after a leaching process. It is worth to mention that the pottery selection has been limited due to the impossibility to find handmade ceramics. Therefore, a potter’s wheel made plate has been used instead. MATERIALS ►2kg of Quercus ilex ilex acorns from Hinojosa del Duque, Córdoba ►1 refractory plate ►1 quartz-sandstone from Ullíbarri-Gamboa, Álava (mill base) ►1 ophite pebble from Barrika, Bizkaia ( for the mill base erosion) ►1 sandstone from Ibaizábal River, Galdakao, Bizkaia (oven stone)

► 1 limestone from Barrika, Bizkaia (mill ball) ►Cord ►Fabric (cellulose) ►2 potter’s wheel made plates ►1 lamb leather

Materials

COMMON PHASES

Selection RESULTS We observed that, during both the acorn roasting and the bread cooking, the plate system was much faster and effective than the one with the stone; considering that the pottery warmed up more quickly (15 minutes were needed to roast 40 acorns with the sandstone, and just 8 minutes in the case of the plate) and, besides that, it was more manageable. It is necessary to say that in both systems the acorns were covered with another potter's wheel made plate. This phase was followed by the peeling. Once it was done, we mashed the acorns on the quartz-sandstone with a limestone until we obtained the flour that was subsequently kneaded. Totally, we got about 1.3 kg of flour (700gr was the acorn skin).

Acorn roasting DIRECT COOKING

Bread cooking

Milling

Acorn peeling

Kneading

COOKING AFTER LEACHING

Leaching

Bread cooking

Regarding the cooking, 300 gr of flour were first made on the plate without leaching, as well as on the stone. Two pancakes were put on the fire. Over the stone, it was not well done yet after 45 minutes of cooking. Over the plate, on the other hand, the pancakes lasted just 20 minutes. In both cases, the flavour was very bitter and somewhat unpleasant. After this testing, we proceeded with the leaching, which consisted on putting the flour through water in order to eliminate the tanic acids. This procedure was repeated five times in an accumulative way, from which we got five different samples (L1=270 gr; L2=250 gr, L3= 190 gr; L4= 200 gr; L5: 90 gr) from a total of 1 kg of flour. Concerning the cooking, this case was made only using the plate. The first two samples were discarded as a result of their bad state after four days of storage. The third sample still tasted slightly bitter. That did not happen with the fourth one, which even had a clean acorn taste. Finally, the last sample was tasty and exempt of bitterness. CONCLUSIONS

After finishing with this experimentation, we conclude that the acorn bread is eatable once the leaching process is made. Nowadays, however, the taste of the final product is slightly unpleasant maybe due to its great difference with the current processed food. Some authors think that this bread consumption was typical during lack periods (IGLESIAS-GIL, 1999). However, during prehistoric times, it might have been commonly eaten not only in shortage times, but also in normal situations.

Final acorn pancake

BIBLIOGRAPHY • GUTIÉRREZ LLORET, S., Panes, hogazas y fogones portátiles. Dos formas cerámicas destinadas a la cocción del pan en Al-Andalus: El Hornillo (Tannür) y el plato (Tábag). Lucentum, IX-X, 1990-91: 161-175 • IGLESIAS GIL, José Manuel (1999): "Autarquía económica y comercio exterior de la Cantabria romana", en I Encuentro de Historia de Cantabria: Actas del Encuentro celebrado en Santander los días 16 a 19 de diciembre de 1996, Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, vol. 1, 1999: 331-350 • ŠALKOVA, T; DIVISOVÁ, M; KADOCHOVÁ, S; BENES, J; DELAWSKÁ, K; KADLCKOVÁ, E; NEMECKOVÁ, L; POKORNA, K; VOSKA,V; ZEMLICKOVÁ, A., Acorns as a Food Resource. An Experiment with Acorn Preparation and Taste. LANSA, 2011, II, 2: 139-147 • ZAPATA, L., La recolección de plantas silvestres en la subsistencia mesolítica y neolítica. Datos arqueobotánicos del País Vasco. Complutum, 11, 2000: 157-169

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Firstly to the UPV/EHU, specially to the Geography, Prehistory and Archaeology Departament; to Erlantz Bizkarra, Luis Rodríguez, Víctor Ruiz and Aitziber Suárez.