Tunc Cererem corruptam undis emittit ab alto. Grain and baking bread in Sardinia during Roman age between cultural persistences and technical innovations

Abstract

Cereals manufacture and the production and consumption of bread have always been important cultural indicators in the analysis of ancient Mediterranean communities. The focus of this paper is the analysis of elements related to bread-making in Roman-age Sardinia, with specific attention to the fictile ovens identified in the scientific bibliography by the terms tabouna and tannur. The aim is to outline persistences and innovations in the transition from Punic to Roman times, through a bibliographic excursus of sites in the western Mediterranean and using as a comparison the case study of the stratigraphic contexts of some sectors of Nora, a Roman municipium in southern Sardinia.