Archaeological Evidence of Medieval Sugar Production in Sicily: A Reassessment

Abstract

SINCE MEDIEVAL TIMES, the impact of sugar production and consumption on European social, cultural, and economic development has been huge. The introduction of sugar cultivation entailed knowledge transfer and new technological requirements, such as the manufacture of sugar pots used to crystallise sugar, which is often the only archaeological evidence of its production and consumption. Sicily was one of the major sugar producers in medieval and post-medieval times, and many studies based on written sources are devoted to this phenomenon. However, the archaeological evidence seems comparatively scarce. This paper reviews the contexts and materials already known in Sicily, as well as research conducted under the EU-funded Marie Skłodowska-Curie SPotEU project. A typological classification based on sugar-pot shape and size is proposed here. This study allows the reconsideration of the archaeological evidence on the island and discusses changes in the design of sugar pots over phases, contexts and sites.

Résumé

Traces archéologiques de la production médiévale de sucre en Sicile : une réévaluation par Roberta Mentesana et Jaume Buxeda i Garrigòs

Depuis l’époque médiévale, la production et la consommation de sucre ont eu un impact énorme sur le développement européen d’un point de vue social, culturel et économique. L’introduction de la culture du sucre impliquait le transfert du savoir-faire et de nouvelles exigences technologiques, telles que la fabrication de pots de sucre utilisés pour la cristallisation, qui sont souvent la seule trace archéologique de sa production et consommation. La Sicile était l’un des principaux producteurs de sucre à l’époque médiévale et postmédiévale, et de nombreuses études fondées sur des sources écrites sont consacrées à ce phénomène. Toutefois, les traces archéologiques semblent comparativement peu nombreuses. Ce papier passe en revue les contextes et les matériaux déjà connus en Sicile, ainsi que les travaux de recherche effectués dans le cadre du projet Marie Skłodowska-Curie SPotEU financé par l’UE. Une classification typologique basée sur la forme et la dimension des pots de sucre est ici proposée. Cette étude permet de reconsidérer les traces archéologiques sur l’île et évoque les changements de forme des pots de sucre en fonction des phases, des contextes et des sites.

Zussamenfassung

Archäologische Beweise für die mittelalterliche Zuckerproduktion in Sizilien: Eine Neubewertung von Roberta Mentesana und Jaume Buxeda i Garrigòs

Die Auswirkungen der Zuckerproduktion und des Zuckerverbrauchs auf die soziale, kulturelle und wirtschaftliche Entwicklung in Europa waren seit dem Mittelalter enorm. Die Einführung des Zuckeranbaus brachte einen Wissenstransfer und neue technologische Erfordernisse mit sich, wie z. B. die Herstellung von Zuckertöpfen, in denen der Zucker auskristallisiert wurde, was oft der einzige archäologische Beweis für seine Herstellung und seinen Konsum ist. Sizilien war im Mittelalter und in der nachmittelalterlichen Zeit einer der größten Zuckerproduzenten, und viele Studien, die sich auf schriftliche Quellen stützen, sind diesem Phänomen gewidmet. Die archäologischen Belege scheinen jedoch vergleichsweise spärlich zu sein. Dieser Beitrag gibt einen Überblick über die bereits bekannten Kontexte und materiellen Funde in Sizilien sowie über die im Rahmen des EU-finanzierten Marie Skłodowska-Curie SPotEU-Projekts durchgeführten Forschungen. Es wird eine typologische Klassifizierung auf der Grundlage der Form und Größe der Zuckertöpfe vorgeschlagen. Diese Studie ermöglicht es, die archäologischen Funde auf der Insel neu zu betrachten und Veränderungen im Design der Zuckertöpfe über Phasen, Kontexte und Standorte hinweg zu diskutieren.

Riassunto

Evidenza archeologica della produzione medievale di zucchero in Sicilia: una rivalutazione di Roberta Mentesana e Jaume Buxeda i Garrigòs

Fin dal Medioevo, l’impatto della produzione di zucchero sullo sviluppo sociale, culturale ed economico europeo è stato enorme. L’introduzione della coltivazione per ottenere lo zucchero richiese la trasmissione di conoscenze e l’acquisizione di nuove tecniche quali la manifattura di vasi usati per la cristallizzazione dello zucchero, e spesso questi sono l’unica evidenza archeologica della produzione e del consumo dello zucchero. In epoca medievale e postmedievale, la Sicilia fu tra i più importanti produttori di zucchero ed esistono molti studi basati su documenti scritti dedicati a questo fenomeno. Tuttavia l’evidenza archeologica sembra comparativamente scarsa. In questo studio si riesaminano i contesti e i materiali già noti in Sicilia a cui si aggiunge la ricerca condotta nel quadro del progetto Marie Skłodowska-Curie SPotEU finanziato dalla UE. Qui si propone una classificazione tipologica basata sulla forma e sulle dimensioni dei vasi per lo zucchero. Questo articolo permette di considerare sotto una nuova luce l’evidenza archeologica dell’isola e discute i cambiamenti nel design dei vasi per lo zucchero a seconda delle fasi, dei contesti e dei siti.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

For their support, their feedback and for access to the materials, we would like to thank Lucia Arcifa of Universita di Catania; Franco D’Angelo, medieval archaeologist; Elena Pezzini, Francesca Spatafora, Caterina Greco of Museo A Salinas di Palermo; Stefano Vassallo, Giuseppina Battaglia and MariaRosa Cucco of Soprintendenza ai BBCCAA di Palermo; MariaRosa Panzica of Museo Pirro Marconi di Himera; Gioacchino Falsone of the Universitá di Palermo; Alessandra Molinari of Università La Sapienza di Roma. Marisol Madrid, Judith, Julia, Marta and Cristina of the ARQUB (Material culture and Archaeometry group of the University of Barcelona) and Vassilis Kilikoglou, Anno Hein, Maria and Dimitra of the National Centre for Scientific Research Demokritos team for their scientific and, more importantly, human support. Finally, also Veronica Testolini, Veronica Aniceti, Ghiselda Pennisi and Silvia Valenzuela for providing feedback and support since the first stages of the project.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

The raw data presented in this study are openly available in the CORA, Research Data Repository: Mentesana, R. B. 2022. Medieval sugar pots from Sicily: archaeological, typological and morphometric data. Repositori de Dades de Recerca. doi:10.34810/data156.

Notes

3 In this paper we refer to the generic term ‘sugar pots’, including sugar cone moulds and molasses collecting jars (in brief, sugar cone and molasses jar).

4 ‘Sugar Pot manufacture in western Europe in the medieval and post-medieval period (11th–16th centuries ad)’, funded under the Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions (grant agreement: 797242).

5 The provenance and technology of the sugar pots cited in this paper is published in Mentesana et al 2022.

6 These measurements differ slightly from those published by Ardizzone (2012) as they have been retaken for this study using the same procedure as for the other vessels.

7 D’Angelo states the cone was located in that church in the 1970s and that the priests confirmed it was taken with other vessels from vaults and other nearby buildings during restoration works (D’Angelo, pers comm).

8 After a review of the material retrieved from Lo Cascio, the material has been renumbered, as a couple of fragments join together, as for example PAR005a-b. Lo Cascio’s publication numbers are included in the museum/publication id column in Mentesana 2022.

Additional information

Funding

This research is part of the project ‘Sugar pot manufacture in western Europe in the medieval and post-medieval period (11th–16th centuries ad)’, funded under the Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions [grant agreement: 797242].