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Work feasting

A reference page linking a name, group, or concept to the materials that discuss it.

An interpretive model connecting collective labour and hospitality: food accompanies participation in a project. Proposed for some Göbekli Tepe evidence, it does not establish the details of a particular feast.

Modern conceptual diagram of work feasting: people around shared food and participation links. It does not portray specific ancient people, equipment or rites, or reconstruct an event at Göbekli Tepe
Modern conceptual diagram of work feasting: people around shared food and participation links. It does not portray specific ancient people, equipment or rites, or reconstruct an event at Göbekli TepeIL Archive · CC BYLicense

Text

A term for a social mechanism familiar from anthropological comparison: people gather for collective labour, with hospitality and food helping to organise participation and relationships. An occasion may have practical and ritualRitualAn organised or distinguished practice meaningful to a community; it may leave traces, but its form alone does not reveal an associated doctrine.Glossary · Click to read the explanation dimensions together.[1]

Its use at Göbekli Tepe

The model connects communal architecture with numerous food-processing tools and food remains. The 2019 study proposes a possible relationship between substantial food production, gatherings and construction, while the 2012 paper records an earlier stage of debate about ritual and feasting.[1][2]

The model is not a direct account of an event: grinding tools alone do not identify participant numbers, an organiser or labour rules. The accompanying image is a modern conceptual diagram, not a reconstruction of a Neolithic feast.

References and notes

  1. Laura Dietrich et al. (2019). Cereal processing at Early Neolithic Göbekli Tepe, southeastern Turkey. PLOS ONE 14(5), e0215214. Abstract and selected methods, context and discussion sections; more than 7,000 tools, cereal processing and the feasting model. Storage absence concerns the study’s available evidence. Figure 7 includes a modern experimental replica in panel D. Return to the text ↑
  2. Oliver Dietrich, Manfred Heun, Jens Notroff, Klaus Schmidt & Martin Zarnkow (2012). The role of cult and feasting in the emergence of Neolithic communities. New evidence from Göbekli Tepe, south-eastern Turkey. Antiquity 86(333), 674–695. Publisher extract and metadata only; a reference for the history of the ritual and feasting model. The full text was not read; detailed food-evidence reasoning here comes from the open 2019 study. Return to the text ↑

Research history

Substantive changes are retained here. Minor copy edits remain in the internal operational log.

  1. Edition 2 · 10 October 2026 · editor:aladmin

    Substantive record update

    Read this revision in its original language (Arabic)

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Cite this record

IL Archive, «Work feasting», Edition 2, https://ilarchive.com/en/entities/work-feasting