Souvlaki: Difference between revisions

Excavations in [[Santorini]], [[Greece]], unearthed [[Fire dog|stone sets of barbecue for skewers]] used before the 17th century BC. In each pair of the supports, the receptions for the spits are found in absolute equivalence, while the line of small openings in the base formed a mechanism to supply the coals with oxygen so that they remained alight during its use.<ref>[http://www.tovima.gr/default.asp?pid=2&ct=1&artId=382454&dt=04/02/2011#ixzz1D5R96Hvx To Vima (in Greek)], 6-2-2011 (picture 2 of 7)</ref> [[Mycenaeans|Mycenaean Greeks]] used portable tray as grills. These trays were rectangular ceramic pans that sat underneath skewers of meat but it is not clear whether these trays would have been placed directly over a fire or if the pans would have held hot coals like a portable barbecue pit.<ref>[http://www.livescience.com/42414-ancient-cooking-mycenaeans-portable-grills.html Ancient Greeks Used Portable Grills at Their Picnics], LiveScience</ref><ref>[http://www.archaeology.org/news/1707-140109-mycenaean-souvlaki-tray How to Cook Like a Mycenaean], Archaeology Magazine</ref> [[Homer]] mentions meat roasted on spits (οβελώς).<ref>Homer, [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Il.+1.465&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134 "Iliad" 1.465], on Perseus Digital Library</ref><ref>Ancient Wine, Patrick E. McGovern</ref><ref>Wright, Clifford A. (1999). A Mediterranean Feast. New York: William Morrow. pp. 333.</ref> In [[Classical Greece]], a small spit or skewer was known as ὀβελίσκος (''obeliskos''),<ref>[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%2371909 ὀβελίσκος], Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus, dim. of ὀβελός (''obelos''), [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%2371912 ὀβελός], ''ibid.''</ref> and [[Aristophanes]] mentions such skewers being used to roast thrushes,<ref>''Acharnians'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Aristoph.+Ach.+1007&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0240 1007]</ref> but there is no direct evidence of chunks of meat being skewered.