• 1 D. Edwards, 1996; D. Fuller, L. Lucas, 2021; R. Haaland, 2007; R. Haaland, 2012.

3Sudanese cuisine has been shaped by the complex interplay of internal African traditions and the adoption of foreign food practices. An important pathway for bidirectional cultural contacts has always been the river Nile, along which goods, ideas and technologies have been exchanged for millennia. Also food preparation techniques and domesticates dispersed along this river and contributed to an intermingling of local and external culinary traditions, including foodstuffs and cooking methods. Two major food systems converge in Nubia, northern Sudan: the Near Eastern “bread-and-oven” tradition and the African “porridge-and-pot” tradition, both being characterised by distinct agricultural regimes and cereal crops, as well as food processing and consumption techniques.1

• 2 E. Asouti, D. Fuller, 2013; A. Pasqualone, 2018.
• 3 e.g. E. Garcea, 2020, p. 90: E. Hildebrand, T. Schilling, 2016; M. Madella et al., 2014; A. Manzo, (...)
• 4 E. Garcea, 2020, p. 113; E. Hildebrand, 2007.
• 5 E. Garcea, 2020, p. 113-115; S. Salvatori, D. Usai, 2019; D. Usai, 2021.

4The Near Eastern type of food tradition, originating in Neolithic Southwest Asia, involved the use of domesticated winter crops, wheat and barley, and the transition to agriculture around 8500 BC.2 This type of food production quickly diffused in various directions and reached northern Africa by the 6th/5th millennium BC.3 By the 3rd millennium BC, the domesticated Near Eastern cereals emmer wheat (Triticum dicoccum) and barley (Hordeum vulgare) were being cultivated and processed for consumption in northern Sudan.4 As a result, food habits in Nubia aligned with the culinary traditions of the Near East. Yet, the use of these winter crops existed side by side with indigenous lifestyles and subsistence strategies, including foraging, pastoralism, and exploitation of edible wild species, as well as cultivation of native savannah crops.5

• 6 M. Madella et al., 2014; S. Shoemaker et al., 2017, p. 417; D. Usai, 2021.
• 7 A. Beldados, 2019; A. Beldados et al., 2018; M. Brass et al., 2019; D. Fuller, C. Stevens, 2018; D. (...)
• 8 C. D’Andrea et al., 2001; D. Fuller et al., 2019, fig. 5 ; D. Fuller, L. Lucas, 2021; K. Manning et (...)
• 9 D. Fuller, L. Lucas, 2021.

5The food traditions of the more southerly areas of central Sudan were largely based on African summer crops that had wild ancestors in the Sahel belt, such as sorghum and millet grains. These native C4-grasses are better adapted to the hot and dry climate of the savannah grasslands, where they had been widely used and processed for consumption already in their wild forms.6 Domestication processes of African summer crops evolved in Sub-Saharan Africa around the 4th/3rd millennia BC, including the independent cultivation and domestication of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) and pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum). In the 3rd millennium BC, sorghum had undergone the process of cultivation in eastern Sudan and on the Upper Nile and is attested in its fully domesticated form by the 2nd millennium BC.7 Domesticated sorghum varieties spread westwards from Sudan across the Sahel belt, whereas pearl millet went the opposite way, originating in the savannahs of West Africa and diffusing towards the east.8 By the 1st millennium BC, both cereals were the dominant staples in the cuisines of Sub-Saharan Africa and remain so to the modern day.9

• 10 D. Lyons, C. D’Andrea, 2008, 414.

6Different environmental conditions and crop availability have influenced the food technologies and cuisines of northern and central Sudan respectively. Indigenous African summer cereals are C4-plants that have different physicochemical characteristics from Near Eastern winter crops, which are C3-plants, contributing to fundamental differences in their processing techniques. The African cereals sorghum and various millet taxa lack the gluey protein commonly known as gluten, which has a direct impact on the performance of their doughs.10 As gluten-free staples, these native cereals do not produce elastic doughs that can easily be formed into bread loaves or baked in ovens. African crops therefore required other processing technologies, such as the preparation of liquid batters into porridges and grain beers.

• 11 D. Edwards, 1996; D. Edwards, 2003; R. Haaland, 2007; D. Fuller, L. Lucas, 2021.

7The specific properties of native African crop types had direct impact on the involved cooking technologies and consumption practices. This resulted in regionally distinct kitchen utensils, food products and cuisines, and hence created a specific African culinary tradition that is fundamentally different from the Near Eastern one.11 While the Near Eastern cuisine is defined by wheat or barley breads baked in ovens and eaten from flat dishes and plates, the African food culture is dominated by globular pots and jars set on open fireplaces to cook porridges and grain beers.

• 12 e.g. M. Badura, 2012; R. Cappers, 2015; M.J. Clapham, 2019; D. Fuller, 2004; D. Fuller, 2015; P. Ry (...)
• 13 C. Bonnet, 2005, p. 233-234; J. Budka, 2016, p. 438 fig. 11; Salah El-Din 1992, p. 98; N. Spencer, (...)
• 14 D. Fuller, 2004, tab. 1; D. Fuller, 2015, tab. 2.

9Different geographical and climatic conditions provided for a north–south dichotomy in the availability of food sources along the Middle Nile already in the past. The relatively cool climate and the narrow river oasis of Nubia sustained limited cereal cultivation on its inundated flood plain. Archaeobotanical and isotopic data attests to the dominance of irrigated farming of Near Eastern winter crops wheat and barley in the northern parts of Kush, in both urban and smaller agricultural communities.12 The presence of cylindrical tannur-style bread ovens, consisting of freestanding clay cylinders with a wide top opening and small vent hole near the base, is a further indicator for the adoption of Near Eastern foodways in Nubia during the Pharaonic New Kingdom and the Napatan period (ca. 1500–300 BC). These occur in larger numbers in the settlements of Sai, Amara West, Dukki Gel and Kawa, highlighting the importance of baked bread loaves in the daily subsistence of the population.13 Some of these towns also yielded African cereals, such as sorghum and millets, suggesting the dispersal of summer cereals towards the north and the blending of foodways already during the 1st millennium BC.14

• 15 D. Fuller, L. Lucas, 2021.
• 16 S. Matthews, U. Nowotnick, 2019, p. 475-477 (with further references).
• 17 D. Fuller, L. Gonzales Carretero, 2018, p. 115-116; M. Madella et al., 2014 ; D. Usai et al., 2014, (...)
• 18 D. Edwards, 1996; D. Edwards, 2003, p. 142-146; R. Haaland, 2007.

10Further upriver in central Sudan, climate and precipitation were more favourable, including annual summer rains that sustained cultivation of native African cereals by rain-fed agriculture (Figure 7b).15 Different forms of fire installations, such as open hearths and sunken fire pots, are prevalent in the kitchens of the southern settlements, pointing to different cooking and baking technologies.16 According to botanical and skeletal analyses, sorghum and millets were widely cultivated and consumed by the Iron Age population, constituting the dominant food crops in the region.17 The processing of these grains into typical African staple foods formed the “porridge-and-pot” tradition of Sudanic Africa.18

• 19 S. Smith, 2003a, p. 45-64; S. Smith, 2003b, p. 113-124 fig. 5.19.

11The two food traditions, the African “porridge-and-pot” and the Near Eastern “bread-and-oven” cuisines, were argued to have been culturally distinctive already in antiquity. A case study of organic residues in ancient cooking vessels from the fortress of Askut in Nubia (ca. 1850–1050 BC) testifies to diverging culinary habits of Egyptians and Nubians. Wheelmade Egyptian-style pots contained different kinds of foodstuffs when compared with handmade Nubian-style pots.19 Both assemblages comprise different sets of service, cooking and storage vessels, pointing to distinct cuisines amongst the two groups.

• 20 J. Pope, 2013.

12Cultural differences between Egyptian and Kushite food consumption were also expressed in Egyptian writings, marking a distinction between bread eaters and porridge eaters. Demotic texts of the 1st millennium BC and the early 1st century AD stigmatise Egypt’s southern neighbours as “eaters of 3wš” and “eaters of qmy”, which presumably means “eaters of porridge”,20 referring to culinary preferences of the Kushites for consuming cooked porridge rather than baked bread. Kushite foods and dietary practices had been so distinct from Egyptian food habits that they were used to express their ethnic identity.

• 21 J. Anderson et al., 2007.

13Archaeobotanical and material records of the early Iron Age confirm a dichotomy in culinary practices between Egypt and Nubia as a “bread-and-oven” culture and central Sudan as a realm of “porridge-and-pot” cuisine. For example, the identification of sorghum phytoliths and starch grains in conical bread moulds from the temple bakery of Dangeil21 indicates that sorghum porridge was substituted for wheat in conical Egyptian breads as temple offering, perhaps to better suit the availability of crops in central Sudan and the preferences of the local population.

• 22 D. Edwards, 2003, p. 143; D. Fuller, L. Lucas, 2021; R. Haaland, 2018.

14However, the division between Near Eastern and African foodways exhibits no hard boundary. Instead, the border zone between Egypt and Sudan is characterised by gradually shifting environmental conditions, including fauna and vegetation and thus foodstuffs. Continuous movements and cultural contact over several millennia turned Nubia into a contact space that added to a blending of Near Eastern and African food traditions and to the development of hybrid food processing techniques.22

• 23 H. Dirar, 1992, p. 28; D. Lyons, C. D’Andrea, 2003, p. 522-524.
• 24 M. Baldi, 2018, p. 19-26; D. Edwards, 2004, p. 15; D. Lyons, D’Andrea, 2008, p. 416; H. Dirar, 1992 (...)

15One example of this hybridity is the baking of flatbreads from African cereals, which appears to present a deviation from the “porridge-and-pot” food tradition in northeast Africa. While most African cuisines are largely based on porridge and beer, baked bread is a rare food component in ancient Sub-Saharan Africa.23 Sudanese bread baking has thus been regarded as a cultural adoption from Egypt and as a result of close culinary entanglements.24

• 25 R. Haaland, 2007, p. 177; D. Lyons, C. D’Andrea, 2003, p. 521-523; A. Pasqualone, 2018; A. Zukerman (...)

16Whereas bread baking is considered a food preparation technique typical of the Near Eastern tradition,25 the baking of flatbreads is central to several contemporary African cuisines. As noted above, the lack of gluten requires different processing methods for native African cereals. Doughs from sorghum and millets do not rise to form voluminous bread loaves, as wheat or barley breads commonly do. Instead, sorghum and millet flours are mixed with water into liquid batters and processed into cooked porridges or fermented grain beers, which constitute typical Sub-Saharan staple foods.

• 26 D. Lyons, C. D’Andrea, 2003, p. 518.

17To prepare bread from African cereals thus requires a specific cooking implement: flat baking plates or “griddles”. The liquid batter can be poured onto preheated griddle plates and baked into a bread-like food. Due to their specific properties, baked sorghum and millet batters result in rather thin pancake-like sheets of bread.26 Hence, for the preparation of flatbreads from African cereals, the griddle is the principal utensil.

• 27 e.g. J. Arthur, 2014, p. 152 fig. 13; H. Dirar, 1993; D. Groenenborn, C. Magnavita, 2000, fig. 7; D (...)
• 28 J. Arthur, 2014, fig. 13; D. Lyons, 2007, p. 356; D. Lyons, C. D’Andrea, 2003; J. De Torres Rodrígu (...)

18The baking of flatbreads on griddle plates is a widespread food preparation technique performed in several African cuisines to the present day. Flatbreads made on griddles are found, for example, in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia.27 Griddles are thus used across different cultural areas and ecological zones. While griddles are typically associated with flatbreads, they can also be employed for a wide range of cereal crops and for other food preparation techniques, resulting in regional variations in implements and final food products. Well-known African flatbreads are the Ethiopian injera and the Sudanese kisra. While injera is made from the local Ethiopian cereal tef (Eragrostis tef) and baked on ceramic griddles known as mogogo (Tigrinya) or mitad (Amharic),28 the Sudanese kisra bread is made from sorghum and baked on metal griddles locally known as doka.

• 29 H. Dirar, 1992, p. 28; H. Dirar, 1993, p. 168.
• 30 F. Ibnouf, 2012.

19Sudanese food culture incorporates a remarkably broad range of bread types baked on griddles. H. Dirar lists eleven kinds of sorghum bread or bread-like foods, which makes Sudanese cuisine one of the richest bread traditions in Africa.29 The various breads differ in the kinds of cereals used for the dough, in fermentation time, method of baking, thickness of the finished bread and mode of consumption. Typically, women perform the baking of flatbreads on a daily basis at the household level. They incorporate inherent knowledge and techniques in their domestic routines for preserving and processing the food to supply their families.30 These practices are handed down from one generation to the next and are well adapted to local foodstuffs and conditions.

• 31 M. Baldi, 2018, p. 22, 26; H. Dirar, 1992, p. 28; H. Dirar, 1993, p. 168; D. Edwards, 2004, p. 15.
• 32 D. Lyons, C. D’Andrea, 2003, p. 525; A. Manzo, 2017, p. 37.
• 33 S. Matthews, 2022, fig. 11.12.
• 34 D. Lyons, C. D’Andrea, 2008, fig. 1.

20There are diverging views of how griddle cooking emerged in Sudan. The baking of breads, as a typical Near Eastern food preparation technique, may have been introduced from the north via Egypt.31 Or, it may have developed as an indigenous innovation associated with the processing of gluten-free African weeds and crops, as recent discoveries of early griddles in eastern Sudan suggest.32 Multiple and more complex pathways to the diffusion of griddles in Africa are also conceivable, such as a blending of Near Eastern and African food preparation techniques initiated by repeated cultural interaction.33 The distribution of bread baking on griddles in the northern parts of Africa, particularly in coastal zones and along major river systems,34 indicates that griddle baking in Africa arose from cultural encounters between Near Eastern and African food traditions. Rather than directly transferring the foreign technology of baking from abroad, people have locally adapted this cooking implement to process native cereals and thus developed local forms of griddle cooking.

• 35 H. Dirar, 1993, p. 26, 114, 169.

22The technique of griddle cooking has great antiquity in Sudan. Its wider utilisation can be traced back at least to the early Iron Age, where flat ceramic plates from domestic sites seem to represent the antecedents of modern griddles. Close analogies in shape, size and contextual setting of past and present griddles may be regarded as indirect evidence for a long tradition of griddle baking, spanning more than two millennia in the region.35

• 36 A. Manzo, 2017, p. 38-48 fig. 32.
• 37 A. Beldados, 2019, p. 506; A. Beldados et al., 2018; D. Fuller et al., 2019, tab. 1; A. Manzo, 2017 (...)
• 38 A. Manzo, 2017, p. 33-40.

23The earliest finds of ceramic griddles have been recovered in eastern Sudan. Several flat circular plates or “trays” were discovered from the multi-period site Mahal Teglinos (K1) near Kassala, in a late 3rd millennium BC food preparation area.36 Its strategically important location in the eastern Sudanese lowlands and the early date of these locally produced griddles have considerably altered our understanding of the development of this food preparation technique in Africa. As eastern Sudan is an area where wild and domesticated sorghum was exploited for food as early as the 4th/3rd millennium BC,37 it has been suggested that griddle baking of sorghum breads may have emerged locally as a food processing technique for African cereal crops. However, it may not be a mere coincidence that the site was a major gathering place of the region and a node in interregional trade networks between Egypt, Nubia, eastern Sudan and Yemen.38 Repeated encounters with Near Eastern food traditions may have played a part in the integration of foreign technologies into local food preparation practices.

• 39 D. Lyons, C. D’Andrea, 2008, p. 414-416; S. Matthews, 2022.
• 40 D. Lyons, C. D’Andrea, 2003, 525; D. Lyons, C. D’Andrea, 2008, p. 414-416.

24However, the presence of griddles alone is no conclusive evidence for a specific crop or food product, as these cooking utensils can be widely employed—for example, for roasting, frying, and the processing of wild African crops as well as of Near Eastern cereals. Despite the close connection between griddle use, African cereals and the baking of flatbreads, this remains a non-exclusive relationship.39 In Ethiopia, for instance, griddles are used to cook barley breads, and in Yemen sorghum and millet breads are baked in tannur ovens.40 These examples show that the choice for a specific baking technique is not entirely predicated by environmental constraints or food availability but that the use of griddles is also a culturally determined one. Which kinds of foodstuffs were actually prepared on these early griddle plates can only be ascertained by analysing food remains.

• 41 e.g. W. Adams, 1962, p. 250, fig. 4; K. Weeks, 1967, fig. 31; P. Shinnie, M. Shinnie, 1978, p. 107; (...)
• 42 e.g. W. Adams, 1986, p. 104; M. Bashir, 2019, p. 78; D. Edwards, 1996, p. 72; D. Edwards, 2004, p.  (...)

26As griddle plates are well-known finds in Christian Nubian settlements,41 griddle cooking has been considered a rather late introduction, arriving about AD 600 in Sudan. The paucity of griddle finds in earlier contexts and their increased presence during the medieval period has led to the assumption that a significant transformation in the local food culture was underway by the mid-1st millennium AD.42 This transformation was associated with the introduction of water-wheel (saqia) irrigation to Nubia, which facilitated a more intensified agriculture of winter crops on the banks of the Middle Nile. As a consequence, wheat and barley would have become more widely available in medieval Nubia, and the ubiquity of griddles was seen as evidence for an increased processing of these crops into flatbreads as “new” staple foods. However, a growing body of evidence for an earlier use of griddles in the Middle Nile Valley challenges these opinions.

• 43 Griddle use in Ethiopia, too, has had a longer history—at least since the 1st millennium BC—than pr (...)
• 44 U. Nowotnick, 2018, p. 217-218 fig. 17.

27Flat ceramic plates were already present in the food culture of the Middle Nile Valley by the mid-1st millennium BC.43 Huge ceramic platters appear in Napatan levels of the 6th–4th centuries BC at Meroe. Some of these Napatan platters are heavy ceramic disks of ca. 3 cm thickness with a slightly raised rim, reaching diameters of 46–80 cm.44 They have a smooth upper face and a coarse lower side but yielded no clear traces of soot or burning.

• 45 Napatan griddle plates are known, for example, from the tomb of a royal female consort of king Nast (...)
• 46 e.g. D. Aston, 1999, pls. 83, 86, 91, 120; S. Herbert, A. Berlin, 2003, fig. 30; A. Masson, 2011, f (...)
• 47 D. Samuel, 2000, p. 568.
• 48 D. Samuel, 2000, p. 565-568.

28While few parallels are known from other Napatan sites in Sudan,45 similar platters had also been employed in contemporary Egypt, particularly those with increased size from New Kingdom down to Late Period times (ca. 11th–2nd century BC).46 The use of platters in ancient Egypt is far from being fully understood,47 and it remains an open question as to the cooking activities and foods they were employed for. Ancient Egyptian bread production encompassed various forms of baking tools, such as tannur ovens, box ovens and legged braziers, and different types of bread moulds, as well as small and large bread plates, resulting in a great variety of breads and cakes.48 During the New Kingdom conquest of Nubia and the following centuries (ca. 1500–300 BC), Egyptian-style vessel shapes and food processing techniques had diffused into Kush and became well established amongst the wider population, which may have reinforced the technology of baking bread. The Napatan platters, at least, seem to be closely related to Egyptian models.

• 49 K. Grzymski, 2003, p. 61 fig. 34 P.90; P. Shinnie, R. Bradley, 1980, p. 38, 313; R. Thomas, 2008, p (...)
• 50 The project “Connecting Foodways: Cultural Entanglement and Technological Transmission between the (...)
• 51 The Meroe griddles come from the Meroe Royal Baths excavations 2012–2014 led by S. Wolf and H.-U. O (...)

29By the 4th/3rd century BC, on the other hand, ceramic griddles already exemplify the typical features of Sudanese ceramic griddles, which remained in use until the 20th century. Specimens of Meroitic griddles have been previously published from a number of settlements, such as Arminna West, Umm Muri and Meroe,49 attesting to the application of griddle technology throughout the kingdom of Kush. A review of further cooking assemblages from central Sudan has revealed that similar griddle plates had been more widely employed than previously acknowledged. Archived ceramic collections, examined by the Connecting Foodways project,50 encompassed several unnoticed or yet unpublished ceramic griddles—for example, from the Meroitic sites of Meroe and Musawwarat and from settlements of Abu Geili and el-Tuweina on the fringes of the Kushite state, as well as from Zankor in Kordofan (Figure 2).51 Griddle plates thus seem to be part of the wider Sudanese food culture at least from the mid-1st millennium BC, stretching from the urban towns on the Middle Nile to the savannahs of western Sudan.

• 52 S. Matthews, U. Nowotnick, 2019, fig. 5d.
• 53 Sample MRB-2013-SP-014 (Poz-128412) from fire place MRB 0854, pl. 5b gave a 14C age of 2225±30 BP a (...)

30The earliest of these griddles were found at Meroe City (Figure 2 a–b), in an intensely used open-air kitchen with several oven pots installed along the western city wall, in the confines of the later “Meroe Royal Baths”.52 Two charcoal samples, from one of the hearths and from the ashy floor level, date these cooking activities to the 4th/3rd century BC.53 The pottery assemblages from this food processing area encompassed several cooking vessels, including two griddle plates that already show the typical fabric composition, manufacturing and surface traits that are common for later Meroitic griddles as well.

• 54 The site of Hamadab was excavated from 2001 to 2019 under the direction of Pawel Wolf, Deutsches Ar (...)
• 55 S. Matthews, 2022, fig. 11.7 no. 11; U. Nowotnick, 2022, pl. 37.

31Further details on the character of griddles during the Meroitic period were obtained from the urban settlement of Hamadab near Meroe. More than one hundred griddle plates of Meroitic date have been excavated in food preparation areas and domestic houses of the town.54 These cooking utensils are widely distributed across all quarters and occupation levels, from the earliest building phases of ca. the 3rd/2nd BC to the latest Meroitic phase of the 4th century AD. Most griddles were recovered in the town’s living quarters, partly in situ on kitchen floors near ash spots and fireplaces (Figure 3). Additional specimens were found in the residential tower house as well as in an excavated pottery kiln.55

• 56 Anne Benoist, Romain David, pers. comm.

32Ceramic griddles were thus locally produced and used by various members of Meroitic society, including high-status occupants of the elite residence who were adopting to the same food practices as the wider population in the living quarters around it. Baking on griddles must have been part of the community’s daily routine, judging by the ubiquity of these cooking items at Hamadab. Recent finds of similar griddles were furthermore reported from the Meroitic towns of el Hassa and Muweis,56 suggesting that griddle cooking was a common food preparation activity in the Meroitic south.

• 57 D. Fuller, L. Gonzales Carretero, 2018, p. 115-116 fig. 4c.

35Such analyses are currently employed by the Hamadab and the “Connecting Foodways” projects for the study of domestic cooking wares from Sudan. Botanical macro-remains and food crusts recovered from the kitchens at Hamadab have demonstrated that the Meroites had indeed been baking bread in their homes. Remains of bread-like foods, both from sorghum and from a sorghum-wheat mixture, were identified among the charred floatation samples collected from domestic kitchens and hearths of the town.57 These provide the first direct evidence of baked cereal foods in the Meroitic south, confirming baked breads as part of the Meroitic urban diet from the 2nd/1st century BC onwards. To relate these food remains to the use of griddles, three domestic griddle plates from the kitchens of Hamadab were submitted for starch analysis, which successfully detected sorghum starch on the surface of all three tested griddles as well as wheat starch on one specimen (Figure 4). These analytical results offer convincing evidence for the preparation of flatbreads and the use of griddles in processing of cereal meals in the same kitchens, using both African and Near Eastern crops. As a consequence—yet keeping in mind that griddles can serve a broad range of cooking applications—griddle plates can act as a marker for the baking of flatbreads in ancient Sudan.

• 58 C. Pierce, 2005; M. Schiffer, 1990; M. Schiffer et al., 1994; J. Skibo, 2013, p. 49.

37Despite encompassing some variation in shape and size, the most characteristic features of ceramic griddles are the smooth upper face and the coarse underside (Figure 3b). The smoothed—and­ sometimes burnished—top acts as the cooking surface, preventing the bread from sticking to the plate. The rough underside is coarsely textured—for example, with imprints of matting, tools or fingertips, to improve the thermal shock resistance and to avoid cracking when used over the fire.58

• 59 U. Nowotnick, 2022.
• 60 D. Lyons, C. D’Andrea, 2003, p. 522; N. Müller et al. 2009; J. Skibo, 2013, p. 33, 43; M. Tite et a (...)

39Most of the examined griddles from Hamadab were made of local alluvial clays with large amounts of coarse temper. Added components were angular pieces of grog, sand and organics. Grog particles (i.e. pieces of crushed pottery) were typically added to griddles and other coarse kitchen wares (Figure 5) to render them more resistant to temperature changes.59 Crushed pottery has a similar expansion coefficient and similar material properties to the surrounding ceramic paste and thereby ensures high resistance to thermal damage as well as good heating effectiveness.60

• 62 D. Lyons, C. D’Andrea, 2003, p. 517.

42A mixture for making contemporary mogogo in Ethiopia consisted of clay and sand in an approximate ratio of 1:2 or 1:3.62

• 63 D. Lyons, C. D’Andrea, 2003, p. 517.
• 64 H. Dirar, 1993, p. 171.
• 65 J. De Torres Rodríguez, 2017, fig. 5 lower left.

43All studied griddles from Sudan had been shaped by hand. The prepared mixture was presumably formed on the ground into a flat disk-like shape. In present-day Ethiopia, the prepared mixture can also be pressed into circular moulds,63 while ancient Sudanese griddles have irregular rims and coarse bases that suggest a free-hand shaping without the use of moulds (Figure 3b). The griddle’s upper surface was carefully smoothed to achieve a shiny and impervious cooking surface—for example, by rubbing it with a river pebble.64 The plate is then left to dry for one or two days, which requires special precautions to prevent the edges from warping upwards. This can be done by drying griddles in stacks or by placing heavy stones around the rim.65

• 66 D. Lyons, C. D’Andrea, 2003, p. 518; N. Müller, 2016; M. Tite et al., 2001, p. 316-317.
• 67 J. De Torres Rodríguez, 2017, p. 229-230.
• 68 H. Dirar, 1993, p. 171.
• 69 U. Nowotnick, 2022, p. 107, pl. 37.
• 70 Lower firing temperatures inside these pottery kilns can be achieved, for example, by placing the v (...)

44The soft brittle fabric of most ancient griddles indicates a firing at relatively low temperatures. Firing coarse wares at low temperatures ensures ideal performance qualities for cookwares, as it enhances the vessels’ thermal shock resistance and prevents the development of cracks during cooking.66 In present-day Ethiopia, the firing of griddles is performed in open-air bonfires.67 For the Blue Nile region of Sudan, a short one-hour firing using cow-dung fuel has been reported.68 However, the only Iron Age griddles ever found in a production context are nine Meroitic griddle plates from the vertical updraught kilns at Hamadab.69 The presence of over-fired griddles among the waster sherds of the Hamadab kiln testifies to their firing in sophisticated kiln structures.70 This finding cautions us against directly transferring observed modern practices from rural areas to urban societies of the past.

• 74 D. Lyons, C. D’Andrea, 2003, p. 516.

47The persistence of griddle baking in rural areas of central Sudan today provides valuable insights into the application of this cooking implement in food preparation. Ethno-archaeological observations of traditional bread baking allow us not only to explore the use of griddles as cooking tools and surrounding kitchen space; they also inform us about the work steps and skills involved in their utilisation as well as the social context of the cooked food preparation and consumption.74

• 75 H. Dirar, 1992; H. Dirar, 1993.
• 76 R. Bradley, 1992; N. Tobert, 1988.
• 77 e.g. N. Abdel Hafiz, 2019; A. Al Safi, 2006; J. Anderson et al. 2007; F. Ibnouf 2012; P. Ryan, 2017

48Because griddle baking is still performed on a daily basis in present-day Sudan, it serves as a valid analogy for domestic food practices that people perform in their day-to-day life. However, systematic anthropological data on traditional Sudanese food practices are relatively scarce. The most informative source on traditional Sudanese cuisines is the seminal work of H. Dirar on the fermented foods of Sudan.75 This is complemented by recordings on dietary ranges and culinary practices of the nomadic Zaghawa of Kordofan76 and additional studies from Nubia and central Sudan.77

• 78 H. Dirar, 1993, p. 34 tab. 2.2.

50While baked bread is not a common staple food in wider Africa, the traditional cuisines of Sudan reveal an exceptional array of different bread-like foods.78 In contrast to Egyptian and Near Eastern cuisines, traditional bread baking in the Sudan is confined to the use of griddles as the principal cooking tool. These griddle plates, locally called doka, are primarily employed to prepare gluten-free African cereals, such as sorghum and pearl millet, as flatbreads. The suitability of griddles for processing native African cereals, which have specific baking properties, has made griddle baking a successful cooking technique across northeast Africa and contributed to its wide dissemination.

• 79 R. Bradley, 1992, p. 51; H. Dirar, 1993, p. 114, 175.
• 80 H. Dirar, 1993, p. 114.

51To ensure successful performance in baking, griddle plates have a large flat shape and a smooth upper face. They are made of heat-resistant materials, such as ceramic, metal, or a flat stone slab.79 All three technologies are employed interchangeably for the same purpose. Today, most griddles are made of metal, consisting of a thin sheet of steel or aluminium, about 40–60 cm in diameter. A variety of different shapes and sizes is available, ranging from circular bowl-shaped aluminium griddles to heavy rectangular flat steel sheets (Figure 8; Figure 7c, e). The entirely flat rectangular griddle is also called saj (Arabic for steel plate). The deeper bowl-like griddle, locally known as tajin, typically serves for the cooking of porridge80 or for frying meat, fish and falafel (tamiya). Apart from these specific terms, all local griddle varieties are simply referred to as doka.

• 81 R. Bradley, 1992, p. 101; H. Dirar, 1993, p. 114; J. Phillips, 2003, p. 432; P. Shinnie, R. Bradley(...)
• 82 H. Dirar, 1993, p. 184; D. Lyons, D’Andrea, 2008, p. 520.

52Prior to the introduction of steel to Sudan at the end of the 19th century, most doka had been made of ceramic. These were locally made and widely employed in domestic kitchens until about the 1960s.81 Nowadays, ceramic griddles have largely disappeared from Sudanese kitchens, as have nearly all pottery vessels. The author has not encountered any ceramic doka still in use. Informants described them as having had the same size and shape as their circular metal counterparts but having a greater wall thickness of ca. 1–2 cm. They thus required longer preheating time but were better at absorbing and storing the heat, resulting in less abrupt temperature changes during the baking process.82

• 83 A. Al Safi, 2006, p. 258-259; H. Dirar, 1993, p. 184; D. Lyons, 2007, p. 356.

53The griddle’s base material and its firing characteristics also affected the sensory properties of final food products, such as the taste, smell and texture of the bread. Informants reported a contrast in the taste between breads baked on metal griddles and those baked on ceramic griddles. The ceramic body of the griddle lends specific qualities to the flatbread that are partly lost when baked on a metal plate.83

• 84 H. Dirar, 1993, p. 168, 187-210.

58The most common type of flatbread baked on griddles in present-day central Sudan is kisra (Figure 9), very thin sheets of sorghum bread, as well as gurassa, a thicker pancake-like wheat bread in the northerly regions of Sudan (Figure 11). Other Sudanese food products prepared on griddle plates are white abreh and hulu-mur, for which variously prepared sorghum batters will be baked into paper-thin sheets of bread, then dried and crumbled into flakes. For consumption, these dried bread flakes will be soaked in water, making a refreshing drink for special occasions.84 While the Near Eastern cereals wheat and barley are also suited for griddle baking, sorghum bicolor remains the most commonly used dietary staple in central Sudan.

• 89 O. Adebo, 2020, p. 4-7; F. Ibnouf, 2012, p. 244.
• 90 D. Fuller, D. Edwards, 2001, p. 99-100.

61Notwithstanding the broad array of available crops in Sudan today and the introduction of wheat bread to urban centres, sorghum remains the most commonly used grain for home consumption. Sorghum-based foods meet the basic nutritional requirements, providing an essential portion of carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients for daily sustenance.89 Hence, sorghum constitutes a major dietary component and is the most important food source in central Sudan.90

• 91 A. Gasimelseed, 2015.

63For culinary use, the cereal is either home-grown or purchased from a seller. Recent agricultural developments in Sudan have considerably altered the traditional livelihoods of large parts of the rural population. Even in agrarian areas, Sudanese people nowadays purchase most of their sorghum rations from the market, which has resulted in unfavourable health effects.91

• 92 N. Abdel Hafiz, 2019.
• 93 H. Dirar, 1993, p. 58-60.

64Hawatif also buys her cereals at the market, where an electric mill grinds them into flour. In earlier times, her family grew sorghum on their own piece of land, as the pastoral groups of the eastern hinterland still do today.92 She recalls that this was particularly hard work and that the harvest yield depended heavily on the amount and the timing of the summer rains. When ripe, the cereal was harvested, processed and best consumed when still fresh. Hawatif also claims that the sorghum of the past had been of a better quality; it was freshly processed and the bread had a nice white colour. She complains that the grain from large-scale cultivation schemes is stored for a longer time in stocks and shops, where it grows old. After an extended time in storage, sorghum loses some of its desired characteristics and acquires a staler taste. To enhance the bread, Hawatif therefore adds some wheat flour to the sorghum flour bought at the market, which gives the batter a more gluey texture and the bread a paler colour.93

• 94 Rotary querns are attested in northern Sudan particularly at gold mining sites of the Roman period (...)

66Prior to the introduction of mechanically driven mills, which grind most of today’s grain into flour, the dominant tools for millennia were saddle querns (murhaka) and hand stones.94 Although Hawatif buys ready-made flour in the market, the grindstone of her grandmother is still kept in the family home.

• 95 H. Dirar, 1993, p. 75-77.

68The traditional grinding of sorghum is carried out as wet milling on a stone quern. It is a laborious task but is claimed to produce finer flour than obtained from modern mills.95 A daily amount of sorghum grain (type feterita) is placed in water for about one hour to soak. In a wet state, it will be ground on a grindstone two or three times. The lower grindstone or saddle quern is stored leaning upright against the kitchen wall and has no fixed emplacement. For milling, it is placed into a small depression in the kitchen floor, in a way that the far end of the stone inclines downwards. A mat underneath the quern provides a clean surface for collecting the flour. In earlier times, this clean surface was provided by a smooth piece of sack, a densely woven mat or a white clay floor; today, reused rubber from a car tyre is placed underneath.

• 96 H. Dirar, 1993, p. 102 tab. 2.3.
• 97 H. Dirar, 1993; F. Ibnouf, 2012, p. 244.

70To prepare the batter for flatbreads, sorghum flour will be mixed with water at a ratio of ca. 1:1 until it becomes a liquid mass.96 Some salt is added. A small amount of batter is prepared in the evening, often mixed with a batch of previous dough to act as starter.97 The mix is then left to ferment overnight, producing a sourdough called ajin khemir (Figure 7c–d).

• 98 F. Ibnouf, 2012, p. 242.
• 99 O. Adebo, 2020, p. 8-11 fig. 2; H. Dirar, 1993, p. 26; Ibnouf, 2012, p. 242-245.
• 100 O. Adebo, 2020, p. 1-11; Ibnouf, 2012, p. 242-245.

71Fermentation has a long tradition in African culinary culture, serving as an easily practicable technique to enhance the quality, digestibility and preservation of food in hot and arid climates.98 The microbiology of sorghum fermentation is a complex process in which the grains are modified into new food products by a group of microorganisms, predominantly lactic acid bacteria. By enhancing the palatability and by raising the bio-availability of proteins, vitamins and minerals, this transformation has health-promoting features, as it improves the nutritional qualities of the final product.99 Activating a number of enzymes and organic acids, the fermentation process additionally inhibits food poisoning by degrading contaminants and by suppressing the growth of spoilage bacteria.100 As these changes provide a number of beneficial effects, fermentation is an important strategy for food improvement and food security widely applied in many cuisines of Sub-Saharan Africa.

• 101 H. Dirar, 1993.
• 102 F. Ibnouf, 2012.

72In the Sudanese cuisine, fermentation is involved in the preparation of many foods and drinks, constituting a large part of the daily diet.101 Even if not entirely aware of the detailed metabolic activities of microbes in sorghum fermentation, women widely practise this indigenous technique to contribute to the food security of household supplies, improving both the dietary quality of the foods and the health of the community.102

• 103 H. Dirar, 1993, p. 26; N. Tobert, 1988, p. 49 fig. 6.ii.i.

75As mixing vessel Hawatif uses a plastic bucket of about 5 l capacity, which has replaced the so-called khummara jar of the past, a large pottery jar with globular body and everted rim.103 For scooping, Hawatif now uses a small metal bowl of ca. 15 cm diameter, with a ledge rim for easy handling. In the past, this was a hemispherical cup made from a gourd, called kass.

• 104 D. Fuller, D. Edwards, 2001, p. 101; P. Shinnie, M. Shinnie, 1978, p. 107.

76The griddle plate is preheated and lubricated with a small amount of oil or butter, which is quickly spread with a piece of cloth over the hot griddle top. This will allow for easy removal of the bread from the plate. Hawatif uses sesame oil as a lubricant, which she buys from a local shop. In earlier times, she used a small amount of butter or animal fat. In Nubia, oil from locally grown castor oil beans is employed for this purpose.104

• 105 H. Dirar, 1993, p. 170.

77A small amount of liquid batter will be poured onto the hot plate. Hawatif scoops about 200 ml of batter with the small bowl from the container and pours it onto the far side of the griddle plate (Figure 15). She uses the scraper made from palm leaf to spread the dough with quick sideway movements towards herself until the griddle plate is evenly covered with a thin layer of batter (Figure 9). This palm leaf scraper, called gergeriba, has straight edges and a size of ca. 10 x 5 cm.105 Hawatif keeps it in a cup of water to rinse after each spreading.

• 106 H. Dirar, 1993, p. 169-170.

78The scraper gergeriba is the source of naming this type of bread kisrat-gergeriba, which allows for making nearly paper-thin sheets of bread. Nowadays, this widely used technique has largely replaced the older means of baking kisrat-kass flatbreads. For kisrat-kass, the batter was poured in the centre of the griddle and spread with the base of a bowl or bottle gourd (kass) in expanding circles towards the griddle edge.106 Analogous techniques of spreading batter in circles are still used in Ethiopia and Somalia.

• 107 Similar woven kitchen utensils were discovered at a number of domestic and funerary sites of Kushit (...)
• 108 H. Dirar, 1993, p. 176.

81Fresh bread sheets are typically stored in flat baskets until consumed (Figure 17). Woven baskets (reika) and their shallow covers (tabag) are made of palm leaves and have a long tradition in the food culture of the region.107 Nowadays, flatbreads are additionally wrapped in plastic sheets inside the basket, which prevents them from drying out. However, the humidity trapped by the plastic also causes the development of moulds and thus accelerates spoilage of the bread.108

• 109 H. Dirar, 1993, p. 106-108, 186; D. Edwards, 2004, p. 286.

82Kisra flatbreads are baked every morning and consumed throughout the country for breakfast and lunch. Leftovers can be kept until the next day, commonly for breakfast. The bread is very nutritious and has a slightly sour taste from fermentation. Hawatif herself enjoys the typical texture and taste of kisra, but she laments that her children prefer to eat wheat bread sold by bakeries and small roadside shops. Despite a latent social bias against sorghum and the official promotion of imported wheat breads,109 traditional sorghum flatbreads such as kisra still remain important staple foods in the region.

• 110 A. Al Safi, 2006, p. 211, 333; F. Ibnouf, 2012, p. 244.
• 111 O. Adebo, 2020, p. 5.

83Kisra bread is a regular accompaniment to many meals in Sudanese cuisine. It is served with different kinds of savoury stews and sauces, such as mulakh or tabikh, or eaten with dairy products such as yoghurt or curdled milk (rob).110 One of the most common main dishes is kisra bi mulakh, which is flatbread served with a cooked sauce of vegetables and/or meat. This traditional meal ensures a good nutritional balance as part of the diet. Although sorghum foods are a source of many health-promoting constituents, it is vital to complement these cereal staples with legumes and animal products to provide essential vitamins and proteins.111 For consumption, flatbreads are torn into pieces and arranged in a large bowl, over which the sauce is poured. The meal is communally eaten by all diners gathered around one dish. Pieces of bread, torn off by hand, equally serve as a tool to take up parts of the sauce and the meat.

• 112 F. Ibnouf, 2012.
• 113 H. Dirar, 1993, p. 186.
• 114 For similar gendered tasks and taboos on food, kitchen access and pottery in Ethiopia, J. Arthur, 2 (...)

84The making of kisra bread is a strongly gendered household task that is only carried out by women. Domestic food preparation in Sudan is typically a woman’s domain: collecting firewood for cooking, storing and processing food, grinding grain and cooking meals.112 Yet, gender division in the food preparation of Sudan is not absolute. Sudanese men are involved in food processing as well—for example, butchering animals, helping to prepare food for festivals and working as professional cooks and bakers. As such, almost all cooking activities can be carried out by men, including the use of griddles. Significantly, the only task no Sudanese man would do is the baking of kisra flatbread.113 Even male-run restaurants will be supplied by a stock of kisra bread baked by women who are especially hired for this task. Women also sell freshly baked kisra bread at markets. While other kinds of flatbreads such as the thicker wheat bread gurassa are occasionally prepared by men (Figure 11), the baking of kisra is a labour with such a strong gender taboo that no Sudanese man would ever agree to perform it.114