A world in miniature. Terracotta food models from Seleucia on the Tigris

Models of food are a small group among the terracottas from Seleucia on the Tigris: the recorded items are around 75 out of over 11.000 figurines, either representing fruit or offering plates filled with different foodstuffs. Virtually absent in the coroplastic repertories of the other centres of Seleucid and Parthian Babylonia, they find timely parallels in the contemporary production from the Eastern Mediterranean area. Aim of this paper is to take a closer look at these ostensibly marginal materials, exploring their possible function as tools of domestic cult practices based on old traditions but renewed in the light of the changing social and cultural milieu of the city.