Food

Food in the Hittite kingdom depended on grain fields, herds, gardens and the work of people who processed their produce. From the seventeenth to the early twelfth centuries BCE, households in central Anatolia prepared food within an economy that also supplied the court, armies and temples. Bread and cereal dishes were staples; fermented drinks, animal products and fruit added to the range of foods recorded in texts and recovered through archaeology.

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Grain and stored supplies

Wheat and barley formed the basis of much food production. Studies of grain from Hattusa identify hulled wheats and hulled barley grown under relatively extensive cultivation. The stores contain crops raised under differing conditions, helping researchers reconstruct collection from producing communities around the capital. Large underground silos held reserves for institutions, while households needed supplies for meals and the next sowing.

Hulled wheat required several stages of processing. Threshing broke the harvested ears apart, but the grain remained enclosed in tough chaff. Further pounding released it, and cleaning separated edible grain from the husks and other debris. Milling then crushed it into flour; coarser preparations could instead become groats or porridge. These tasks transformed a stored crop into ingredients suitable for different dishes.

Bread and prepared dishes

Hittite texts name breads that differed in flour, shape, size and added ingredients. Some were thick and leavened, others thin and unleavened. Honey, fruit, fat or cheese could change flavour and texture. Festival provisions include bread alongside porridge and bread pudding, showing several ways of preparing cereals within the same meal.

These dishes required different work. Flour mixed into a dough could be shaped and baked, while coarsely broken grain cooked in liquid produced a softer food. A filling or topping turned a bread into a more elaborate preparation. Religious inventories preserve particularly detailed combinations because officials needed to know what to supply for a named ceremony.

Cooking with fire and vessels

Excavated Late Bronze Age houses contain open hearths and ovens. Hearths could have a hardened clay surface or a border of stone or clay, and stood in rooms or courtyards. Pots allowed food to cook in liquid over the fire; baking plates provided a surface for dough. An enclosed oven held heat around the food, creating different cooking conditions from an open fire.

Cooking equipment made the position of a hearth part of household organisation. Fuel, water, vessels and ingredients had to be brought together, and the fire needed tending while food cooked. Ash, cooking pots and plant or animal remains found around these installations connect a building’s plan with the preparation of actual meals.

Beer, wine and fermentation

Beer had a prominent place in Hittite religious and communal drinking. Brewing studies draw on vessels from Sarissa and Hattusa, written terminology and the biological processes required to turn cereals into alcohol. Malting begins by allowing grain to sprout, activating enzymes that help convert its starch into fermentable sugars. Mashing brings crushed grain and water together; fermentation then produces an alcoholic drink.

Brewing required suitable containers and management of the liquid through these stages. Michael Brown’s study of Hittite brewing discusses the reuse of material from an active fermentation to start another batch. Wine supplied a different fermented drink, made from grapes. Cult inventories frequently call for beer, while some major state festival texts give wine a more prominent role.

Animal foods and shared meals

Cattle, sheep, goats and pigs formed part of the livestock economy. Animal bones and texts reveal the use of meat, while milk products, including cheese, appear in food lists. Herds also supplied traction, wool and breeding animals, giving them value beyond a single meal. The slaughter of an animal at a festival brought a concentrated supply of meat into an organised gathering.

Offerings were followed in some ceremonies by the distribution and consumption of food. Local cult lists combine meat with bread, groats, fruit, milk products and drink, identifying the provisions owed to particular gods and participants. The KI.LAM festival at Hattusa drew contributions from communities into a public sequence of offerings and meals. Collection, preparation and division of food made the ceremony a practical undertaking involving cultivators, herders, cooks, servers and worshippers.

For the wider setting, see Hittite daily life.