Hot diggity dog!

An archaeological dig in Santorini, Greece, found the earliest known (to date) kebap cookers delightfully called ‘fire dogs’  — with a hotbox carved into the shape of a dog — that were in use 3700 years ago. Proof, if such were needed, that it’s one of humanity’s most ancient forms of cooking, one now evolved into a fine art.

Wiki confirms that they held skewers and had air-holes to ensure continued combustion as you can see in the image at the bottom.

Andirons, or fire dogs, had been in use by the Ancient Greeks, and were called krateutai (Greek: κρατευταί).[7] Excavations made on the Greek island of Santorini unearthed stone sets of firedogs used before the seventeenth century BCE. In each pair of the supports, the receptacles to hold skewers or spits were found in equivalence, while the line of small openings in the base formed a mechanism to supply the coals with oxygen so that they remained alight during its use.

I’m reading a lot of recipes from various Turkish cooks. This little factoid caught my eye. As did the lovely ceramic work.