The

Evolution of
Utensils
By: Morgan Johnson

Today I will be talking about:

Spoons
Forks
Knives
Chopsticks

Some old utensils

Spoon timeline
Date back to paleolithic times
First spoons were shells and wood chips
Egyptian spoons were connected to their religion
1st Century AD Romans made two kinds:
ligula- soft foods and soups
cochleare- shellfish and eggs
England had similar spoons due to the Roman
occupation of Britain from 43-410 AD.

Turkish spoon of wood and shell (left)

European spoon of horn (center)
Southeast Asian spoon of rock crystal (right)

Spoon timeline cont.

Ancient Chinese spoons were bronze
Spoon found in China dated back to first
millennium BC
Much later Korean spoons came about
As time went on the spoon spread throughout
the world

Spoons can be made

of:
Metals- gold, silver, pewter, bronze, ect.
Ivory
Bone
Horn
Pottery
Porcelain
Crystal
Plastic

Forks
Forks first appeared in the 6th Century in Greece
First forks were used to carve meat
Spread to Middle East, especially to the royals of
Byzantium
Italy caught on when Doge of Venice married a woman
from Byzantium
1533 forks came to France by the marriage of Catherine
de Medicis and King Henry II (She was Italian)
Englishman, Thomas Coryate, brought the fork back to
England

Two German Forks (left)

Three Early English Forks (right)

Fancy Forks
In the 1600 only wealthy British people used
forks
Very fashionable
Made out of expensive materials with delicate
details to impress guests
They were prized possessions; only used to eat
sweet, sticky foods and foods like berries that
would stain the fingers

Some Fancy Forks

The OG of Knives
The first knives were used as tools and weapons
In middle age Europe they started to be used to eat
It was customary to carry your own eating knife
The knives were little food spears
Had a sharp point at the end (to spear food)
Forks stole their thunder

Italian Knife and sheath (left)

German and English Knives (middle)
18th Century English Knife and Knife Set (right)

Evolution of Knives
First they were spears
As forks came into the picture, knives became
less popular
Knives are threatening, forks arent (or are less)
1669 King Louis XIV (14th) decreed pointy knives
illegal
Tips of all knives were grinded down

Evolution of Knives Cont.

The redesign lead to other changes
Knives now made wider and rounder (like dip
knives)
Used as a shovel to pick up food missed by the
fork (at this time 2 prongs- kinda sucky)
At the beginning of the 19th century knives lost
their bulbous tip as forks were made more
effective with more tines

Americans and knives

In the 18th century Americans were slow to
get forks, so we used spoons and knives
Theyd use them like we use forks and knives
today
Cut with dominant, switch to spoon and eat
with dominant
Shaped the traditional American way of eating
with forks

This is how we do it

Chopsticks
400 BC Chinese started using them
Growing population= less fuel to go around
They had to cut food into tiny pieces to cook
fast and conserve fuel
Knives didnt cut it anymore
First chopsticks were tree twings

Chopsticks travel
First in China
Then Vietnam
Korea
Japan
Japanese made disposable chopsticks
We now have them in America and all around
the world

Variance of chopsticks
Made from bamboo, cedar, jade, gold, bronze, bass, agate,
coral, ivory, and silver
1st Japanese chopsticks were connected at the top like
tweezers
They split them in the 10th century
Japanese chopsticks are about 7in for females and 8in for
males.
They are rounded into a point
Chinese chopsticks are 9-10in long
They are rectangular with a blunt end

Chopsticks

Conclusion
Im glad we use utensils
Old knives were kind of cool
Still suck at using chopsticks
Thanks for spoons, Homo Habilis. You really
are a handy man
My favorite thing I learned about in my
research was the reason for chopsticks

I think I covered it pretty

well...
But I guess if you really have a question
This is the time to do it.