The Handle Wagging the Cup. Formal Aspects of Alcohol Consumption in the Transfer of Ideology: Anatolia and the Aegean Towards the End of the Third Millennium BC

Fermented drinks have been socially and economically important since their advent, not only because they are functionally significant in preserving calories, but also as value‐added foodstuffs incorporated into symbolically important ceremonies and feasts to increase the social value of an individual or a group's status. Towards the end of the third millennium BC, just as wine was becoming an important commodity, the manifestation of this emphasis on the communal consumption of alcoholic beverages can be observed in the material culture of Anatolia and the Aegean with the so‐called ‘west Anatolian drinking set’ consisting of drinking cups with characteristically oversized handles and beak‐spouted pitchers. Against the backdrop of the socio‐economic reasons for the distribution of this particular drinking set over a wide geographical area, the focus of this article is on their impact upon the prevailing local pottery traditions and the local adaptation of these vessels into the traditional repertoire where the importance of the oversized handles is recognized.