Feasts

Feasts are among the few meals history bothered to record — a coronation, a temple offering, a royal wedding earned a scribe’s attention in a way an ordinary supper never did. Those accounts are where each scene here begins: the dress, the pottery, the vessels and the room are reconstructed from archaeology and the written record, so what you see is as close to the evening as the evidence can carry us.

Explore by period

The First Farmers (10)

Göbekli Tepe’s Monument-Builders’ Feasts, Kfar HaHoresh Mortuary Feast, Çayönü Communal Building Feast, Aşıklı Höyük Communal Meat Feast, Çatalhöyük Cattle-Horn Feast, Domuztepe Death-Pit Feast, Makriyalos Neolithic Communal Feast, Grotta Scaloria Cave Ritual Feast

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Villages Become Civilizations (13)

Durrington Walls Midwinter Feast, Ness of Brodgar Monumental Feast, Stonehenge Avenue Gathering Feast, Shimao Ritual Beer Feast, Hierakonpolis Elite Cattle Feast, Abydos First-Dynasty Funerary Feast, Uruk Temple Festival Feast, Varna Elite Mortuary Feast

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Bronze Age Networks (20)

The Beautiful Feast of the Valley, The Hittite AN.TAH.ŠUM Spring Festival, The Hittite KI.LAM Festival Banquet, Ramesses II’s Opet Festival Feast, Amenhotep III’s Sed-Festival Banquet, Akhenaten’s Great Aten Offering Feast, Pylos Palace State Feast, Mycenae Palace Festival Feast

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Iron Age Kingdoms (20)

Ashurnasirpal II’s Kalhu Inauguration Banquet, Ashurbanipal’s Garden Victory Banquet, Babylon’s Akitu New Year Feast, Josiah’s Passover at Jerusalem, Achaemenid Royal New-Year Banquet at Persepolis, The Persian King’s Table, The Hochdorf Chieftain’s Funerary Feast, The Vix Princess’s Wine Feast

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The Classical World (33)

Alexander’s Susa Wedding Feast, Ptolemy II’s Grand Procession Banquet, The Last Supper, Julius Caesar’s Triumph Banquet, Cleopatra and Antony’s Alexandrian Banquet, Augustus’ Secular Games Sacrificial Feasts, Nero’s Golden House Banquet, Trajan’s Dacian Triumph Feast

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The Medieval Food Worlds (47)

The Imperial Mongol Pastoral Food System, Karakorum: Foods of a Eurasian Capital, The Yam Postal Network and Mobile Provisioning, Ilkhanid Persian Court Cuisine, The Yuan Imperial Table, Chuño: The Inca Freeze-Dried Potato Network, Qullqas: The Inca State Storehouse System, Chicha Brewing for Inca Labor and State Feasts

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The Columbian Exchange (34)

The Field of Cloth of Gold, Anne Boleyn’s Coronation Feast, Henry VIII Receives Charles V, François I’s Fontainebleau Court Feast, Moctezuma II Hosts Cortés, Süleyman’s 1530 Circumcision Festival, Murad III’s 1582 Circumcision Festival, Oda Nobunaga’s Banquet for Tokugawa Ieyasu

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The Early Industrial Food Age (28)

Cook at Tonga’s ʻInasi Festival, Cook’s Arrival During the Hawaiian Makahiki, Qianlong’s Thousand-Elders Banquet, Lady Hyegyeong’s 60th-Birthday Banquet, George IV’s Coronation Banquet, The Prince Regent’s Brighton Pavilion Feast, Napoleon’s Coronation Banquet, The Congress of Vienna Court Banquets

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The Industrial Diet (25)

The Banquet of the Mayors of France, The First Nobel Banquet, Theodore Roosevelt Dines with Booker T. Washington, Roosevelt’s Dinner for Prince Henry of Prussia, The Romanovs’ 1903 Winter Palace Ball Supper, Edward VII’s Coronation State Banquet, The 1911 Delhi Durbar Banquet, Emperor Taishō’s Enthronement Banquet

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The Ultra-Processed Age (25)

Elizabeth II’s Coronation Luncheon, Kennedy’s Mount Vernon State Dinner, Kennedy’s Versailles-Inspired White House Dinner, The Persepolis 2,500-Year Celebration Banquet, Nixon’s Beijing State Banquet, Nixon’s Shanghai Banquet, Carter Hosts Deng Xiaoping, Reagan Hosts Queen Elizabeth II

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All 255 results

Tongan ʻInasi First-Fruits CeremonyTongan ʻInasi First-Fruits CeremonyToyotomi Hideyoshi’s Golden Tea Room FeastToyotomi Hideyoshi’s Golden Tea Room FeastToyotomi Hideyoshi's Grand Daigo Flower-Viewing FeastToyotomi Hideyoshi's Grand Daigo Flower-Viewing FeastTrajan’s Dacian Triumph FeastTrajan’s Dacian Triumph FeastTrump’s State Dinner for Emmanuel MacronTrump’s State Dinner for Emmanuel MacronTrypillia Megasite Assembly FeastTrypillia Megasite Assembly FeastTupinambá Victory Cannibalistic Feast, Coastal BrazilTupinambá Victory Cannibalistic Feast, Coastal BrazilUgarit Royal Festival FeastUgarit Royal Festival FeastUr Royal Cemetery Funerary FeastUr Royal Cemetery Funerary FeastUruk Temple Festival FeastUruk Temple Festival FeastVarna Elite Mortuary FeastVarna Elite Mortuary FeastWari Administrative Feast at Pikillaqta, PeruWari Administrative Feast at Pikillaqta, PeruXin Zhui’s Funerary BanquetXin Zhui’s Funerary BanquetZhou Ancestral Temple FeastZhou Ancestral Temple FeastZimri-Lim Receives Foreign EnvoysZimri-Lim Receives Foreign Envoys