This is hard to demonstrate, because more work needs to be done on
faunal evidence to provide data comparable to what is now available
from sites like Adjiyska Vodenitsa. Access to wild and marine species
provided additional variety to what was already a relatively broad menu,
while local wines coexisted with more highly valued imported ones. The
evidence from country houses suggests that their owners took a great
interest in the creative possibilities of food and food preparation, while
houses at Olynthos show that specialization in foodstuffs, as well as non-
food resources, was already well developed. The creative urge is also
recognizable in the cultural semantics of food preparation, so aptly
illustrated in Theopompos’remarks about dining fashions with which
this chapter opened.
296 Dining cultures