as well as to the room in which these commodities were kept. It was headed by a larderer. The Scots term for larder was spence, This referred specifically to a place from which stores or food were distributed. And so in Scotland larderers (also pantlers and cellarers) were known as spencers. The office generally was subordinated to the kitchen and existed as a separate office only in larger households. It was closely connected to other offices of the kitchen, such as the saucery and the scullery. Larders were used by the Indus Valley civilization to store bones of goats, oxen, and sheep. These larders were made of large clay pots. Animal larders Places where animals store food for later consumption are sometimes referred to as 'larders', a well-known example being the hoards of seeds and nuts hidden by squirrels to provide a store of fresh food during the leaner months of the year. For alligators and crocodiles, larders are underwater storage places for their fresh kills until such time as they wish to consume the carcass when its flesh is rotten. These larders are usually dug into the side of a land bank, or wedged under a log or tree root. See also Food storage Root cellar References Bibliography Halliday, Tim, gen. ed. (1994). Animal Behavior. Oklahoma: UOP. Rooms Food preservation Food storage de:Speisekammer he:מזווה