Material Culture and Cultural Identity

Feasting equipment, copper‐alloy cauldrons and flesh‐hooks, are a distinctive feature of the later Atlantic Bronze Age suggesting elements of a shared ideology whose ultimate origin may lie in the eastern Mediterranean. The easterly distribution of the earliest British cauldrons previously identified is further confirmed by the recent discovery of a Type Colchester example at Salle, Norfolk, which brings to three the number of cauldrons of this type found in the region. Similarities between them suggest their origin lies in a single workshop, if not individual craftsman. The appearance of the cauldrons found at Feltwell, Norfolk, and Salle is so close as to suggest a new ‘Feltwell’ Variant. Analysis of the contents of the Feltwell cauldron hint at the function of these intriguing objects as high status cooking vessels, most likely reserved for the chiefly class and deployed in the hosting of feasts which, along with flesh‐hooks, served to build and cement political alliances.

KEYWORDS
CAULDRON, FLESH‐HOOK, FEASTING, LATER BRONZE AGE, IDEOLOGY, BRONZE AGE CHRONOLOGY, METAL DETECTING

The present work was developed within the scope of a curricular internship of the Master's Degree in Portuguese Art History of FLUP, which took place in the Municipal Division of Museums and Cultural Heritage of the Porto City Council. The main objective, resulting from a research process on medieval civil architecture in the city of Porto, was orientated towards the production of a guide on the theme. Therefore three different yet complementary research moments were chosen: theoretical basis using previous studies, cartography and in situ photographic collection of the examples of the typology and chronology studied, and the transmission of all theoretical knowledge through a guide, considering target audiences and the various ways of communicating heritage.