Mycenaeans Invented the Hibachi!

Reconstructed Mycenaean grill (Photo:  Julie Hruby)

My last post turned out to have been based upon a hoax article.  The following series of articles, however, seem to be genuine.

Archaeological finds of clay pans suggest that they were the drip pans from portable grills used by the Mycenaean Greeks, according to this article. Perforated griddles that may have been used to cook flatbreads were also found. It is theorized that these griddles were perforated to allow oil to spread more evenly over them and reduce sticking of cooked breads.  

I am going to try tracking down more information about these finds.  If true, they are too interesting not to receive more attention.

EDIT: The names to follow on this one appear to be Julie Hruby of Dartmouth College and ceramicist Connie Podleski of the Oregon College of Art and Craft. They worked together to make their own ceramic trays and griddles (probably the ones shown in the Yahoo news article) to see how well they work for cooking purposes.  I have also found other news articles by Archaeology Magazine and the website Live Science about Hruby's experiment and the related archaeological finds. A scholarly article about Mycenaean cooking equipment may be found on academia.edu. Accounts on academia.edu are free; for those of my readers who have one, the relevant article is here.