Session: #501

Session, made up of a combination of papers, max. 15 minutes each

Storage practices are a crucial part of subsistence strategies of many human communities. As such, facilities used for storing unprocessed or processed food and beverages have been found in different geographic and chronological contexts, among societies with different cultures and economic strategies. Whether dealing with hunter-gatherers or agricultural societies with diverse levels of complexity, storage has been a key-subject in many archaeological investigations.
This session will gather different perspectives on storage practices, from archaeological, archaeobotanical and ethnographic points of view, addressing 1) technical issues related to storage facilities, 2) the characterization of storage goods and storage practices and 3) the social aspects related to storage.
What types of storage facilities can we find in the archaeological record and how were they built and maintained? Which goods were stored? Were there particular facilities for particular goods? How were these goods processed before storage? How to detect long-term and short-term storage, household and communal storage? Who managed storage facilities and the access to stored goods? Which were the social implications of managing stored goods?
These are some of the questions we intend to address in this session. Presentations may focus on archaeological contexts from the Neolithic to the Iron Age or present day ethnographic studies which may help understand archaeological realities.

Storage, Pre-history, IronAge, Archaeology, Ethnography

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João Tereso (Portugal) ^1,2,3

Srs. Natàlia Alonso (Spain) ⁴
Sra. Georgina Prats (Spain) ^5,4