Archaeological Evidence of Medieval Sugar Production in Sicily: A Reassessment

Abstract

Since medieval times, sugar production and consumption hugely impacted European social, cultural, and economic development. 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 sugar production and consumption. Sicily was one of the major sugar producers in medieval and post-medieval times, and many studies based on archive sources were devoted to this phenomenon. However, the archaeological evidence seemed comparatively scarce. This paper reviews the contexts and materials already known in Sicily, adding those resulting from the 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 us to reconsider the archaeological evidence on the island and discuss changes in the design of sugar pots over phases, contexts and sites.