By UBC
The middle school of Asparn/Zaya is closely involved in UBC over a span of several years. We not only want to get the students excited about archaeology, but especially about the application of scientific methods & STEM. After starting our interaction with a joint excursion to the Asparn/Schletz site in 2022, we have now approached a new topic: nutrition!
Hypotheses on the origin and type of food consumed by the individuals excavated at Schletz during their lifetime are important for the sampling strategy and interpretation of the project's geochemical investigations. In the outdoor area of MAMUZ Schloss Asparn/Zaya, Julia Längauer has used this fact for a culinary workshop:
At the beginning of May, the students of classes 3A and 3B were invited to bake "Stone Age pizza" with us. Of course, classic Italian pizza as we know it today is not documented 7000 years ago, but dome ovens already existed and we assume that the people of that time also baked a kind of flatbread and possibly topped it. As ingredients like tomatoes and corn were just as non-existent in Europe 7000 years ago as wheat or potatoes, our students had to get creative. Emmer was ground, dandelions and daisies collected, nuts crushed and bacon cut. Lentils were crushed into a paste as a tomato substitute. As the latest scientific studies show possible milk processing and cheese production in the Early Neolithic, cream cheese was also used. For "sweet pizza", the flatbred was topped with apples, nuts and honey, foods that were also used in the Neolithic Age.
Even if the result certainly differs from modern trained tastes, the students participated with a great deal of curiosity, joy and commitment. In some cases, the pizza designs placed in the dome oven might even be called works of art!
