Creating Communities of Mourners through the Sense of Taste: The Consumption of Bread in Liminal Rites

Abstract

ABSTRACT Phoenicians and Punic people constructed a liminal community in the funerary realm that this article will explore, highlighting the centrality of taste through the consumption of bread. The study will unfold in three stages: It will begin with an overview of the recent interest in the “archaeology of senses.” In a second step, the written sources and the material and visual culture related to the existence of the so-called bread of mourning will be presented. Finally, the article will discuss how taste participates actively in the creation of a sense of alterity for the funerary community.