Before the fridge and the running water. Considerations on food treatment

The issues focused in this paper are well defined aspects of production of foods and their conservation and preparation as meals in the poorly equipped context of the protohistoric village.
Some arrangements that have already been observed or reconstructed on archaeological basis, specifically when connected to particular found tools are discussed. In some cases the said arrangements have been only intuitively hypotyzed. With specific reference to the Italian protohistory, research on these items has been sometimes supported by ethnographic comparisons.
In this search some already stated hypotheses, like those regarding the equipment of the “apennine civilization” are taken into account. Also, new investigation fields are proposed, using an ethnoarchaeological method implying comparisons with social groups not contemporary to the subject. In this case the comparisons are preferably conducted with habits and behaviour of present days rural people living in the research areas themselves. People living far away are not taken into account, but some references to past civilizations are anyhow made.
It is possible to infer that many daily problems concerning conservation and handling of alimentary resources were coped in our villages according with ancient traditions, up to the introduction of electricity and current water in all the habitations.