We argue that the observed sub-regional variation in pottery use cannot simply be explained by differences in the environmental settings and resource availability. For example, while faunal assemblages from Narva culture sites demonstrate that both terrestrial and aquatic ecotones were exploited [71,104–106], pottery appears to have been almost exclusively used for the processing of aquatic resources. Instead hunter–gatherer pottery use was under strong cultural control. These differences can, therefore, be
crudely described as sub-regional ‘cuisines'. From an anthropological perspective, this observation is perhaps of no surprise, as all documented hunter–gatherers practice some form of culturally specific custom for food preparation and consumption, often deploying specific material culture for defined tasks [107–109].
Whether such ‘culinary traits' can be used to help understand the dispersal dynamics of pottery technology is debatable. Only through detailed analysis of the raw materials and manufacturing techniques can we test whether ceramic form follows function.
Perhaps a more productive interpretive approach is to situate pottery use in a broader culinary historical context that must have included other food preparation methods such as roasting, grilling, drying and fermenting.
Mid-Holocene hunter–gatherers were influenced both by their own ‘traditional’ aceramic culinary practices and through interaction with other ceramic using groups they came into contact with. So while there is scant evidence that the environment or food procurement strategies changed with the advent of pottery, culinary ideas for combining and cooking foodstuffs in ceramic vessels were undoubtedly mutable with adoption motivated by prior beliefs, for example, concerning cooking performance and efficacy or equally notions of novelty and prestige. Following the widespread uptake of ceramic production among aceramic hunter–gatherers, the use of the new technology remained, at a sub-regional scale, strongly influenced by the surrounding foodscape and pre-existing culinary practices.