Ancient Food Technology (Technology and Change in History)(Gnv64)

TECHNOLOGY AND CHANGE IN HISTORY

Ancient Food TechnologyRobet I. Curtis

BRILL

S ( ) R ( ) R I

ANCIENT FOOD TECHNOLOGY

B Y

ROBERT I. CURTIS

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BRILL L E I D E N · B O S T O N · K Ö L N

2001

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D i e D e u t s c h e B i b l i o t h e k - C I P - E i n h e i t s a u f n a h m e

C u r t i s , R o b e r t I.s Anc ient food technology / by Robert I. Curtis. Leiden ; Boston ; Köln : Brill, 2001

(Technology and change in history ; Vol. 5) ISBN 90 0 1 09681 7

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I'RINTKl) IN ΙΊΙΙ M.Hn.KI.AM)S

TABLE O F C O N T E N T S

List of Abbreviations xi List of Figures xiii List of Plates xv List of Maps xvii Acknowledgements xix Foreword xxiii

PART O N E

P R E H I S T O R Y

Chapter One: Lower and Middle Paleolithic Periods 3 A. Hominids and Their Tools 4 B. Early Hominid Subsistence Strategies 20 C. Hominid Intelligence 32

Chapter Two: Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic Periods 35 A. Upper Paleolithic Period 35 B. Last Glacial Maximum 48 C. Epipaleolithic Period and the Rise of Agriculture 57 D. Neolithic Period 65

1. Southwest Asia 65 2. Europe 74 3. Egypt 77

Summary and Conclusions to Part One 81

PAR T T W O

EGYPT AND T H E N E A R EAST

Chapter Three: Egypt 1 93 A. Cereal Processing 99

1. Storage 99 2. Bread and Beer 105

TABLE OF CON TENTS VI11

a. Milling 114 b. Bread Making 117 c. Beer Production 131

Chapter Four: Egypt II 142 B. Wine 142 C. Oil 164 D. Animal Processing 165

1. Butchery 165 2. Dairy Products 173 3. Fish 173

E. Sweeteners 176

Chapter Five: T h e Ancient Near East 178 A. Prehistoric Period 180

1. Cereal Processing 183 2. Wine 184 3. Oil 187

B. Historic Period 189 1. Food Technology and the Rise of the State 190 2. Cereal Processing 195

a. Storage 195 b. Milling 199 c. Bread Making 205 d. Beer Production 210

3. Wine 219 4. Oil 226 5. Animal Processing 233

a. Butchery 233 b. Dairy Products 234 c. Fish 238

6. Sweeteners 240

Summary and Conclusions to Part Two 243

TABLE OF CONTENTS IX

P A R T T H R E E

M E D I T E R R A N E A N C I V I L I Z A T I O N S

Chapter Six: The Greek World: Bronze Age Through the Hellenistic Period 259

A. Bronze Age 259 1. Cereals 260 2. Wine and Olive Oil 267 3. Miscellaneous Processes 274

B. Classical and Hellenistic Periods 275 1. Cereal Processing 276

a. Storage 276 b. Milling 279 c. Bread Making 289 d. Beer Production 294

4. Wine 294 5. Olive 303 6. Animal Processing 313

a. Butchery 313 b. Dairy Products 315 c. Fish 316

7. Sweeteners 322

Chapter Seven: Rome I 323 A. Cereal Processing 325

1. Storage 325 2. Milling 335 3. Bread Making 358 4. Beer Production 370

B. Wine 372 C. Oil 380

Chapter Eight: Rome II 395 1). Animal Processing 395

1. Butchery 395 2. Dairy Products 399 3. Fish 402

E. Sweeteners 417 F. Refrigeration 419 ο

Summary and Conclusions to Part Three 420

Select Bibliography 435

Index 467

Plates

LIS׳!' O F ABBREVIATIONS

Abbreviations of modern works follow those listed either in the most recent issue of L'Année Philologique, or in the American Journal of Archaeology 95, no. 1 (Jan. 1991). In general, abbreviations of ancient Greek and Roman authors conform to those listed in the Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3r<l edition (Oxford: Oxford Universi-ty Press, 1998). Abbreviations of papyri and ostraca conform to those listed in Checklist of Editions of Greek Papyri and Ostraca. Supplement No. 4 of Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists. J ohn F. Oates, Roger S. Bagnall, William H. Willis, and K. A. Worp, eds. 3,{l ed. (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1985). Attention is particularly drawn to the following:

The African Archaeological Review American Journal ()) Physical Anthropology American Anthropologist Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament. James B. Pritchard, ed. 3rd ed. Princeton, N . J . : Princeton University Press, 1969. L'Année Epigraphique Annual Review of Anthropology A rchaeological Review from Cambridge Biblical A rchaeologist Bulletin of Sumerian Agriculture Cambridge Ancient History Dictionnaire des antiquités grecques et romaines. C. Daremberg and FI Saglio, eds. 10 Vols. Paris: Hachette, 1877 1918. John M. Edmonds, ed., The Fragments of Attic Comedy. 4 Vols. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1957-1961. Human Evolution Inscriptiones Graecae Ad Res Romanas Pertinentes. René Cagnat et al, eds. 4 Vols. Paris: E. Leroux, 1911-27.

Journal of Anthropological Research Journal of A rchaeological Research Journal of Archaeological Science Journal of Cuneiform Studies

Afr Archaeol Rev AJPA AmerAnthr A N E T

L'AnnEp. AnnRAnthr Archaeol RevCamb BiblArch BullSumAgri CAM Dar.-Sag.

Edmonds

H um Ε vol IG R R

JAnthrRes J Arch Res JArchSci J O S

I.IST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Journal of Human Evolution Journal of World Prehistory Lexikon der Ägyptologie. Wolfgang Helck, Eberhard Otto, and Wolfhart Westendorf, eds. 6 Vols. Wiesbaden: Ot to Harrassowitz, 1975— 1986. Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts. (A=Athenische Abteilung; B=Baghdader Abteiling; I=Istanbuler Abteilung; Κ=Kai ro Abteilung; M=Madr ide r Abteilung; R=Römische Abteilung) Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft. A. Pauly, G. Wissowa, and W. Kroll, eds. Stuttgart: J . B. Metzler, 1894-1980. Review of Paleobotany and Paly no logy Reallexikon der Assyriologie und vorderasiatischen Archäologie. Berlin: W. de Gruyter & Co., 1928 . M. I. Rostovtzeff, The Social and Economic History of the Hellenistic World. 3 Vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1941. /

x i i

JHumEvol JWorld Prehist LÄ

M D AI

R E

RevPalaeobotPalynology RIA

S E H H W

LIST O F F I G U R E S

1. Cladogram of hominid evolution, with associated tool kits 12 2. Oldowan Tools 13 3. Acheulian Tools 16 4. Mousterian Tools 38 5. Final Perigordian tools (blade and bone) 39 6. Egyptian domed granaries 102 7. Hieroglyphic symbols associated with food technology 109 8. Fifth-Dynasty T o m b of Rec-em-Kuy, at Saqqara 113 9. Bakery-Brewery model from Twelfth-Dynasty T o m b of Meket-re, al

Thebes 126 10. T o m b of Rameses III 128 11. T o m b o f N a k h t 152 12. Egyptian wall paintings showing grape treading and pressing with bag

press 155 13. Bag press in frame 159 14. Assyrian camp 204 15. Sumerograms for kaš, šim, and ninda 206 16. Lcver-and-weight press from Ekron, Israel 230 17. Milking frieze from Temple of Ninhursag, at Ubaid 236 18. Cretan Hieroglyphic Form 116, for wine 268 19. Megarian Bowl, from Thebes 283 20. Hopper mill, from Olynthus 285 21. Archaic bakery model 292 22. Hero's weight-and-drum press, according to Drachmann 312 23. North granary in Roman fort at Housesteads 332 24. Morgantina and Pompeian rotary mills 342 25. Pompeian rotary donkey mill 346 26. Barberai water mill 354 27. Gearing for water mill 356 28. Relief from the T o m b of Eurysaces 359 29. Kneadinsr machine 364 30. Miliarium, from Stabiae 375 31. Trapetum, from Pompeii 383 32. Wedge press, from Herculaneum 386 33. Cato's lever-and-drum press 387

LIST OF FIGURES XIV

34. Composite drawing of Tripolitanian oil press 389 35. Pliny's second lever-and-screw press, according to Drachmann . . . 392

LIST O F PLATES

1. Limestone mortars and pestle, from VVadi Kubbaniya 2. Quern and rubber, from Wadi Kubbaniya 3. Basalt mortar and pestle, from Jericho 4. Fifth-Dynasty granary models, from Giza 5. Reed and rush sieve, from Lisht 6. Fifth-Dynasty servant statue of woman grinding grain, from Giza 7. Bakery-brewery model from Twelfth-Dynasty T o m b of Meket-re, from

Thebes 8. Bread loaves from Eleventh-Dynasty tomb, from Thebes 9. Fifth-Dynasty servant statue of man baking bread, from Giza

10. Relief of royal kitchen, from Amarna 1 1. Sixth-Dynasty servant statue of a "Brewer," from Giza 12. Eleventh-Dynasty servant statues of men making beer, from Deir el-

Bersheh 13. Sixth-Dynasty beer vat, from Giza 14. Eighteenth-Dynasty stela of Syrian drinking beer with siphon, from

Amarna 15. VVine amphorae from Tomb, of Tutankhamun 16. Model of butcher's shop from T o m b of Meket-re, from Thebes 17. Saddle quern and rubber, from Jericho 18. Neo-Babylonian cuneiform tablet discussing brewing techniques 19. Impression of banquet scene on Early Dynastic 111 cylinder seal 20. Granary model from Geometric II tomb, from Athens 21. Hopper-rubbers, from Olynthus 22. Black-figure vase showing satyrs treading grapes, from Athens 23. Black-figure vase showing two men operating oil press, from Athens 24. Stone-spouted press bed, from Olynthus 25. Salt-fish (.salsamentum), from Corinth 26. Roman rotary handmill from Roman fort at Chesters 27. Pompeian rotary donkey mills from bakery (Reg. VII.ii.22) in Pompeii 28. Funerary relief of P. Nonius Zethus, from Ostia 29. Barbegal water mill 30. Sarcophagus of M. Annius Octavius Valerianus 31. Kneading machine from bakery at Reg. VII.ii.22 in Pompeii 32. Roman relief showing grape treading, from Rome

LIST OF PLATES XVI

33. Roman relief showing the boiling of musturn to make defrutum 34. Roman rotary crushing basin (trapetum), from Boscoreale 35. Reconstructed lever-and-drum press in Villa of the Mysteries, near

Pompeii 36. Relief of butcher shop, f rom Ostia 37. Altar of Atimetus, from Rome 38. Cheese press from Roman fort at Balmuildy, on Antonine Wall, Scotland 39. Late fourth-century A. D. salting vats at Santa Pola, Spain

LIST O F MAPS

1. East and South Africa 5

2. Europe and Southwest Asia 37

3. Egypt and Southwest Asia 96

4. Ancient Near East 179

5. Eastern Mediterranean 261

6. Western Roman Empire 324

AC K N ( )WLEI )GEX I EN1 ׳ S

An author must inevitably assume full responsibility for his work, but the final product is always more than just the result of his efforts alone. I gladly and with-out reservation acknowledge the assistance of numerous individuals and institu-dons without whose support this book would neither have been finished nor would have attained what value readers may judge to reside in it. When acknowledging one's debt to those who have contributed in one way or another, an author invariably runs the risk of omitting someone deserving of mention. Should there be any in this category, I hereby warmly thank them and apologize for the unintended omission. Many individuals and institutions provided timely and valuable assistance. Some offered advice and suggestions, freely given, and received by me with much appreciation, even if not always followed. Others gave encouragement not only at the beginning when the project was first under-taken but, most importantly, throughout the period of research and writing when at times my energy and spirits flagged. And still others, in a spirit of pro-fessional collegiality, materially assisted in obtaining illustrations and permis-sions to publish them. All in their own way significantly contributed to the final product; none but myself, however, is accountable for it. T o all I concede a tremendous debt of gratitude and offer my sincere thanks in hopes that the book in its final form to some degree finds favor with them.

I would like to thank Ervan Garrison, Elizabeth Kann, Ja red Klein, Dan Robie, and Gay Robins, who read portions of the book in manuscript, thereby saving me from mistakes of commission and omission, keeping me focused on the topic at hand, and providing guidance and timely suggestions on where the book might be improved. Where imperfections of any kind remain, the fault lies where it should, with the author. Other individuals were instrumental in provid-ing a visual component to the book. These include Lindsay Allason-Jones, Francesco Buranelli, Richard Fazzini, Robert Foley, Seymour Gitin, Sue Hutchison, Lawrence Keppie, David Mattingly, Mark J. Meister, Georgina Plowright, Scott Sanders, Guy Sanders, Stacey H. Savatsky, Bettina Schmitz,

Joan Tucker, Fred Wendorf, Brandon Wester, Donald White, and Larry Zim-merman. I would especially like to thank Catharine Roehrig, who during my visit to the Department of Egyptian Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, gave of her time and expertise in assisting my research, mak-ing the trip a memorable and successful one. T o Susan Morris and the staff of the Interlibrary Loan Office of the University of Georgia Libraries, I extend a

A( :Κ NOW I ,ED Ci Ε M ENTS XX

warm note of thanks for their skill and professionalism in tracking down many and obscure books and articles. Among those whose conversation on specific aspects of ancient food technology or linguistic matters always provided grist for the mill, I particularly wish to recognize my colleagues Bob Harris, Ja red Klein, and Benedict Lowe. I would specifically like to thank Julian Deahl, Senior Acquisitions Editor, at Brill Academic Publishers, for his encouragement throughout the writing of this book, his sympathetic understanding in periods of personal crisis for the author, which intervened to slow progress on the book, and for his seemingly eternal patience.

Many institutions graciously provided photographs and line drawings and permissions to publish them, often with nominal or no charge at all. These include Ägyptisches Museum of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin; the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, both the Agora and Corinth Excavations; the Archaeological Institute of America; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; British Museum; Brooklyn Museum of Art; Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory Uni-versity; Centre Camille Ju l l i an-CNRS; Direzione Generale Musei Vaticani; English Heritage; Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum; Hargrett Collection of the University of Georgia; Hunter ian Museum of the University of Glasgow;

Jona than P. Rosen Collection, New York; Metropolitan Museum, New York, both the Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Collections; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Museum of Antiquities of the University and Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle Upon Tyne; the Oriental Institute, Chicago; Pelizaeus Museum, Hildesheim; and the Saalburg Museum. Among publishers who gave permission to use illustrations from works published by them are Academic Press, American Journal of Archaeology, Antiquity, the British School of Archaeology in Iraq, Chrysalis Books Group, The Johns Hopkins University Press, McGraw-Hill Companies, Oxford Journal of Archaeology, and Routledge.

The writing of this book was immeasurably supported through two Senior Research grants from the Vice President for Research of the University of Geor-gia, with additional financial assistance from Wyatt Anderson, Dean of Arts and Sciences, and Richard A. LaFleur, Head of the Department of Classics. I would also like to thank the Department of Classics at the University of Leeds, which granted me the teaching position of Visiting Professor of Classics during the fall of 1997, and provided lodging and library assistance, plus gracious camaraderie, while I was conducting research in England.

My final, and most heartfelt, appreciation goes to my wife, Susan, and daugh-ter, Julia. Susan, a professional librarian, contributed her expertise in ferreting out the most obscure references. O n one occasion in particular, when other more enjoyable activities beckoned, she spent her free time in Boston perusing the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts looking for any art historical material

XXI ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

related to ancient food technology. Julia, though disappointed, was always understanding when, on too many occasions, her father begged off participating in other activities in order to spend time on the book. Both had for many months 011 end to endure my long absences, both of mind and body, and to walk around and step over books, papers, and photographs scattered about the house. Without their patience and generosity my task would have been far more onerous than it otherwise was.

F O R E W O R D

In January 1939, while excavating in the northern section of the Archaic cerne-tery at Saqqara, Walter B. Emery discovered a rather humble tomb dating to the Second Dynasty (early third millennium B. C.).1 Denoted T o m b 3477, in size and intrinsic value of its contents it was rather unremarkable save in one respect. It had lain undisturbed from the time of the burial in it of a woman of about sixty years of age. Emery found there an almost perfectly preserved meal, laid out on dishes of pottery, alabaster, and diorite. Here was a near pristine example of a funerary meal found in other Early Dynastic burials, though none preserved so well as this nor so elaborate. Emery was excited because he believed that it proved what he had long suspected, that is, that early Egyptians as part of the funerary ritual included cooked meals with the deceased.2 Later tombs contained not only examples of food items but more frequently paintings, sculpture, and models of food and drink, which, apparently through a magical transformation, were intended to serve as gifts to the gods or as sustenance for the deceased throughout eternity.:i

Emery's interest lay more in the meal's symbolic importance than in the indi-vidual food items and what they can tell us about the state of Egyptian food technology. Foods found in T o m b 3477 fell into two general categories, those which were eaten in their natural state, whether cooked or raw, and those which had been processed in some fashion. In the former category were stewed fruit (possibly figs) and berries. Processed foods included grape wine, a triangu-lar loaf of bread made from emmer wheat, circular honey-cakes, a sort of por-ridge of ground barley, various cuts and portions of beef, cleaned and dressed fish and fowl, a pigeon stew, and perhaps cheese.1 These processed foods show Egyptian knowledge of the principles of butchery, fermentation, milling, and cooking. Already, at the dawn of the historical period in Egypt, nearly 5,000 years ago, the Egyptian diet was both varied and technologically sophisticated.

' Wal ter B. Emery, A Funerary Repast in an Egyptian Tomb of the Archaic Period Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor hot Nabije Oosten, 1962).

- T h e typicality of a such a sumptuous meal is debatable. Cf. Hilary W ilson, Egyptian Food and Drink (Bucks: Shire Publications Ltd., 1988), p. 11.

5 Emery, Funerary Repast, p. 2. 1 Ibid., pp. 6 7. There was also an unidentifiable liquid made of some fatty substance. The

food items were identified by Alfred Lucas, at that t ime chemical advisor for the Egyptian Amiq-uities Service.

FOREWORD XXVI11

They were, however, neither the first to apply technology to food nor the last to do so.

All species of animals must have food to survive. Herbivores graze on grasses, forage off bushes or trees, and dig for roots and bulbs. Carnivores hunt or ambush and kill their prey, or scavenge previously killed animals. Omnivores participate in some or all of these activities. Although animals exhibit greater or lesser large and small motor dexterity, visual, aural and olfactory acuteness, speed, strength, ingenuity, patience, endurance, and, in pack animals, coopéra-tion, none of these food procuring activities rely on technology per se. If by the term food technology one understands simply a method of acquiring something to eat or drink through solving a specific technical problem, then clearly many animals engage in food technology. So, for instance, over thirty years ago J a n e Goodall demonstrated that chimpanzees, whose diet is basically frugivorous, that is, made up of fruits, leaves, bark, and pith, sometimes made and used sim-pie tools, such as sticks, stems, and small twigs, to catch and eat termites and ants. They also use leaves as a drinking tool, and, at certain times of the year exploit stone hammer and anvil technology to get at meat in nuts. Indeed, out-side of the use of weapons, most habitual tool-use behavior of chimpanzees cen-ters on subsistence. Tufted capuchin monkeys were observed to produce simple stone tools for cutting and hammering. T h e "archer fish" projects water spouts at insects, spiders, and other small creatures to knock them into the water and so render them more readily available to eat. Likewise, various south Pacific birds use small twigs held in their bill to probe for insect larvae in trees, and sea otters while floating on their backs place stones on their chest and pound hard-shell mollusks against them to crack the shell.5 The conclusion seems inescapable. Humans are not the only animals to make and use tools and were probably not the first to create tools to exploit opportunities for obtaining food. The question is, of course, more complicated than this when humans are involved.

Not all foods require processing to be edible; fruits, many nuts, and most veg-etables come readily to mind. These and even uncooked meat were basic food items for prehistoric humans. Other foods for a variety of reasons required some

J י a n e Goodal l , "Too l -us ing a n d A i m e d T h r o w i n g in a C o m m u n i t y of Free-living C h i m -panzees , " Nature '201 (2» Mar. , ' 1964): 1264-66 ; B e n j a m i n B. Beck, Animal Tool Behavior: Vie Use and Manufacture of Tools by Animals (New York: G a r l a n d S T P M Press, 1980), esp. pp. 20 105, 109 15; G rego ry Cha r l e s Wes te rgaa rd a n d S t e p h e n J . Suomi , "A Simple Stone-tool Technology in Monkeys , " JHumEvol 27 (1994): 3 9 9 - 4 0 4 ; Elisabetta Visalberghi , " C a p u c h i n Monkeys: A W i n -dow into T o o l Use in Apes a n d H u m a n s , " in Tools, Language and Cognition in Human Evolution. K a d i -lcen R. Gibson a n d T i m Ingold, cds. (Cambr idge : C a m b r i d g e University Press, 1993), p p . 138 50; Wil l iam C . M c G r c w , " T h e Intelligent Use of Tools : T w e n t y Proposi t ions," in ibid., pp. 154 -57 .

XXVI1 FOREWORD

degree of alteration. Some foods, for example, demand processing to render them more palatable or easier to digest. Others, poisonous in their natural state, can be made safe when properly treated or rendered into a different form. When processed in some fashion to achieve these purposes, the number and variety of available foods expand and more food becomes available for more people. Excess foods or those needed as a safeguard against future want can be stored for short or long periods of time when properly processed. They can also be transported if necessary or desired. Additionally, some foods in processed form have a value beyond alleviating hunger. Fermented grain, grapes, and dates, for example, in the form of alcoholic beverages, through their mind-alter-ing characteristics, give pleasure beyond being merely tasteful or safe. This rais-es two questions. What exactly does the term "food technology" mean, and what was ancient man's contribution to it? The former question can be fairly precisely defined; the answer to the latter will occupy the remainder of this book.

Food technology concerns the knowledge and practical application of the principles of food science to the preservation, processing, preparation, packag-ing, storage, and transportation of food.'׳ While this definition fits well in the modern, complex world, and, as will become clear, serves as the basis for defin-ing the scope of this book, it does not entirely encompass the ancient view of technology, or at least the Greek view of it.7 T h e modern world has severed the link between technology and technique. Knowledge of the principles of tool use (technology), for example, has been separated from the skilled use of the tool itself (technique). The latter embodies specific and practical know-how gained primarily through observing and copying procedures. The former, on the other hand, is theoretical knowledge capable of general application.8 So, today, to consider an activity as technical is to imply that its focus is narrow and its perfor-mance is perfunctory, requiring little or no general or theoretical knowledge. One thinks of the difference between an electrician and an electrical engineer, or between a cook and a food scientist. This dichotomy is foreign to the Graeco-Roman view of technology in general and serves only to obscure our knowledge of the changing relationship between man and his diet.

The term technology derives from the Greek τέχνη, meaning craft, skill, and cunning of hand; it can also refer to the process of doing or making something

Dictionary of Nutrition and Food Technology. Arno ׳' ld E. Bender , cd. 6th cd. (London: But terworths , 1990), p. 114."

7 W e have little in fo rmat ion on w h a t p reced ing cul tures thought abou t it, if they p o n d e r e d the quest ion at all.

8 T i m Ingold, "Tool -use , Sociality a n d Intel l igence," in Tools, Language and Cognition, pp. 433-36.

FOREWORD XXVI11

related to art or craft. The term μηχανή, artificial contrivance or machine, simi-larly assumes the manual operation of some apparatus to assist the application of τέχνη. Inherent in both these terms is the idea that the craftsman utilizes knowl-edge to effect something practical or meaningful. For the ancients, therefore, knowledge and technique go hand in hand. I should also add that the ancient would include what we would call superstition as a natural concomitant to tech-nique.9 In the modern world, the tool, an instrument manipulated by human agency, is distinguished from the machine that is not manually operated but runs upon some non-human power, such as electricity. Although much of ancient technology does depend upon working by hand, it will become clear that in the area of food the ancient world progressed from the use of simple hand tools to complex machines operated by animal or water power designed to produce more and better products more efficiently. The journey from simple tool to complex machine, however, was a long one, and many of the old hand techniques contin-ued in use long after new mechanical apparatus had appeared on the sccne. The reasons for this vary, and involve differences of economic status, the speed and methods by which technical knowledge was transferred, and the degree to which new methods and tools replaced the old. I propose to look at food technology from the ancient perspective, focussing not only 011 the theoretical principles employed, even if not completely understood, by them but also on who applied them, why, under what conditions, to what practical application they were put, and what products they produced.

Technological innovation in antiquity did not develop in a vacuum anymore than it docs today. Just as it arises within a certain environment so it also many times alters the society from which it springs. The conclusion about technologi-cal change that Frances and Joseph Gies have ascribed to the Medieval period applies equally to the ancient world:10

The most momentous changes are now understood not as single, explicit inven-lions but as gradual, imperceptible revolutions . . . taking place through incremen-tal improvements, large or small, in tools, techniques, and the organization of work. This new view is part of a broader change in historical theory that has come to perceive technological innovation in all ages as primarily a social process rather than a disconnected series of individual initiatives.

G יי e o r g e W . H o u s t o n , " T h e Sta te of the Art: C u r r e n t W o r k in the T e c h n o l o g y of Ancien t R o m e , " C J 8 5 (1989): 80.

1(1 Prances a n d J o s e p h Gics, Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel. Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages (Ν. Y.: H a i p e r Collins, 1994), p. 2. Cf. for the R o m a n per iod , Kevin G r e e n e , " T h e Study of R o m a n Techno logy : S o m e Theoretical Cons t ra in t s , " in Theoretical Roman Archaeology: First Confer-ence Proceedings. E leanor Scott , ed. (Aldershot: Avebury , 1993), pp . 39 47.

XXVI1 FOREWORD

In this book, therefore, I propose to describe and discuss not only the technolo-gies applied by ancient man to food processing but also to place these innova-tions within their social, economic, and political context. Food technology, for example, played a role in religion, the rise of the state, the creation of bureau-cratic institutions, even the development of writing itself. Going one step further, I will focus on the ramifications of these innovations upon ancient society at large. 111 other words, what led to these advances in food technology and what were their influences, intended 01־ not, upon that society?

111 approaching this subject I had to answer several questions. First and fore-most was the question of where to begin. Where, for instance, does agriculture or husbandry end and food technology begin? The answer is not an easy one, but is not altogether arbitrary. Agriculture is closely allied to food processing, since both deal directly with food and neither particularly require skilled individ-uals. Nevertheless, a clear distinction can and should be drawn between these two activities. The selection of plants to be grown, the preparing of the soil for planting, the sowing of seeds, the care of the plants during growing, and the liar-vesting of the produce all fall clearly under agriculture. If foods consumed in their natural state without further processing, as nuts, fresh vegetables, fruits, and milk often are, are not in some way altered after harvesting, they do not fall under the category of food technology. The grape and olive, however, most often receive further treatment after picking, and grains are only selected for their various uses after they have been separated from the stalk through thresh-ing. Food technology begins at the point when these plant foods undergo specif-ic processes to change their form in some way (such as milling grain into Hour) or to so alter them as to create a different food product altogether (for instance, fermenting grapes into wine). In other words, for the grape and olive it is 111 the vat; for grain, it is 011 the threshing room floor. T h e care, raising, and feeding of animals as well as the use of their byproducts, such as wool, skin, horn, and so on, plainly belong to animal husbandry. I would also include in the same cate-gory the raising of bees for their honey and the milking of cows, sheep, and goats for their milk. But the processing of the honey and the production of but-ter, cheese, or yogurt from milk fall into the realm of food processing. So also butchery of the animal, which precedes preservation of the meat, qualifies for inclusion. And finally, (lie methods and tools for catching fish are not part of food processing, but what one does to preserve the fish for later consumption, whether salting, smoking, drying, or fermenting, clearly is.

The second question involved what to do with those subjects that affected food technology but were not part of it. Here, I mean, for example, grain stor-age and long-distance transportation of finished pre )ducts. HcW ing no 1ntcnt10n<il effect 011 the food item, nevertheless, storage of cereals as an alternative to

FOREWORD XXVI11

immediate processing docs play a role in the decision of when to process. Like-wise, storage and transportation of a food item after processing also constitute a continuation of that process. Here, I am thinking particularly of the racking of wine or the storage of preserved fish and their subsequent delivery to market. I have, therefore, classed storage and transport containers as part of food technol-ogy in accordance with the modern definition of the term. And, finally, the invention of pottery led directly to important innovations in cooking and other techniques to alter food. But pottery has many other uses. I have, therefore, restricted my discussion to particular containers that were developed specifically to process foods, and have left to others to treat pottery more widely.

The present book is essentially a handbook, and as such, claims only modest aims. It neither breaks new ground nor advances a particular thesis about the subject. It does, however, seek to synthesize the vast amount of work accom-plished on the topic and to present the state of the question on ancient food tech-nology as it exists in A. D. 2000. Food technology has never received the atten-tion it deserves, being usually relegated to a minor sidelight in a discussion of agriculture or as an afterthought to general discussions on ancient technology where pride of place goes to engineering, metallurgy, or water power. R. J. Forbes, in Studies in Ancient Technology, for example, devoted comparatively little space to food processing and preservation, and scattered this information among several different volumes." He relied almost exclusively on literary sources, and did not attempt to place the role of food technology in its societal context. This book, therefore, will for the first time focus specifically on ancient food technolo-gy, and will bring to bear literary, archaeological, epigraphic, art historical, and scientific evidence upon the subject. In doing so, it goes beyond previous general histories of ancient technology by showing the interrelationship of food technolo-gy with ancient society, believing that the former cannot with profit be isolated from the latter. I have also sought to point out areas where controversy continues and in which further work is necessary. T o take only one example, food technolo-gy, more so than any other area of ancient technology, involved the active partie-ipation of women, since they were in all places and at all times intimately con-nected with its function. In some instances, they may have been the instigators of technical innovation if not of invention itself. Because the information on ancient

11 R . J . Forbes, Studies in Ancient Technology. 9 Vols. (Leiden: E . J . Brill, 1955-1964) . Forbes dis-tr ibutes his discussion of food technology in four different volumes, with a por t ion of V o l u m e T h r e e con ta in ing the bulk of the mater ia l . H e also wro t e the chap t e r on food technology in Char l e s Singer , E . J . H o l m y a r d , a n d A. R. Hal l , eds., A History of Technology. 8 Vols. (Oxford : O x f o r d Universi ty Press, 1954 84), I: '238 98, bu t even here he lumps chemicals a n d cosmetics a long with food.

XXVI1 FOREWORD

food technology is so scattered and because this is the first attempt to bring it all together, I have provided full, though not exhaustive, documentation of both pri-mary and secondary sources. Considering the rate of archaeological discovery and evaluation, some of what is contained between these two covers may be in need of revision by the time it is published. So, for example, as this book was going to press, Cambridge University Press brought out a book entitled Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology, too late for me to consult.12

A word needs to be said on the organization of the book. 111 organizing the book along chronological and geographic lines while focussing on products that received processing, I have departed somewhat from the usual topical organiza-tion of handbooks in this series. Food technology tended to be associated with certain plant foods, such as the cereals, grapes, and olives, the Mediterranean triad as they have come to be known, but not others, and a few animals, such as cattle, goats, sheep, and pigs, desirable for their meat or dairy by-products. Food technology does not lend itself well to discussion of its separate principles, since several technological applications are often applicable to a single product. So, for instance, grain milling could involve four separate processes: parching, pounding, grinding, and sieving. Fermentation plays a primary role in the pro-duction of wine, but so does treading and pressing. T o concentrate on each activity or principle separately would, I believe, result in a loss of understanding of the whole, thereby giving a false impression of the technology itself. Addition-ally, to treat the subject strictly topically would, I believe, have hindered, if not prevented, accomplishing a major goal, that of placing food technology within ancient society. So, for example, Forbes' topical treatment of the subject tends to mix Egyptian, ancient Near Eastern, Greek, and Roman contributions in a way that obscures the role of innovation within each society. My choice has been to approach the topic by culture and chronologically within each one. The geographical areas include the ancient Near East, Egypt, and both the eastern and western Mediterranean. Time and space constraints, unfortunately, require omission of the Far East and the New World. The chronological periods under review span the years from the appearance of genus homo, ca. two and one-half million years ago, to the period of the late Roman Empire. Three overlapping time periods structure the work: the prehistoric period, the historical period of Egypt and the ancient Near East, and the Graeco-Roman period. I have com-posed each of the three parts as self-contained units, so that each can be read separate from the others. I have, however, provided cross-references and have

1'-' Paul T . Nicholson a n d Ian Shaw, eds., Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology (Cambr idge : C a m b r i d g e Universi ty Press, 2000).

FOREWORD XXVI11

designated subsections so that someone interested in, say, milling or wine mak-ing could read those parts only of each section. This has, of course, necessitated some repetition across cultures. Effort has been made to keep this to a mini-mum, though I have not hesitated to include a moderate amount where it seemed necessary for the discussion at hand. Comparison of ancient and mod-ern production methods and description of physical and chemical changes undergone by the product when processed, for example, have been placed where the technology is first discussed in detail. The quantity and quality of evi-dence available, however, has determined where that discussion comes in the book. So, for instance, modern wine making and the chemical and physical changes inherent in the process first receive full treatment in the chapter on Egypt, even though Egyptian knowledge of the process apparently came from inhabitants of Southwest Asia. The latter people likely acquired it from popula-tions farther to the east where evidence for wine making precedes that in Egypt by nearly a thousand years. While information for wine making in those areas is not plentiful, it is for Egypt. Methods for salting fish, though probably practiced by peoples of the Near East and definitely by Greeks, are more clearly under-stood from evidence dating to the Roman period. And finally, I have appended to each section a chapter summarizing the technological innovations arising from the cultures discussed. A reader desiring a rapid overview of ancient food technology, therefore, could read these summary chapters. I hope that they will also encourage the reader to investigate the other chapters to learn the role of food technology in each ancient culture.

P A R T O N E

P R E H I S T O R Y

C H A P TER O N E

T H E L O W E R AND M I D D L E P A L E O L I T H I C P E R I O D S

T o undertake a study of the development of ancient food technology wc must first know where and when man began and how he evolved. This is not an easy task. Practitioners of paleontology and paleoanthropology study fossil evidence, such as bones, or artifacts that betray behavior, such as tools, weapons, and jew-elry, and compare them with modern data to create hypotheses to explain the evolutionary history of man. The evidence, however, does not remain static. Archaeological finds increase almost daily, and scientific instruments become ever more accurate and precise in measuring various aspects of the evidence. So, for example, no sooner have archaeologists announced the discovery in one place of the oldest fossil evidence for early man, than in another location comes the claim for a still older fossil. This generates reinterpretation of evidence and reconsideration of theories once considered strong. Theories are constantly being produced, altered, refined, and sometimes discarded. Changing interpre-tations of often contradictory evidence begets controversy and characterizes a field continually in (lux. Nevertheless, as competing theories arise and contend with each other, dead ends are met, new directions are taken, our understanding of man's beginnings becomes clearer.

T o impose order on the mass of archaeological material dating to the early Chronological

periods of man's history — there is, of course, no written evidence — and to fiameumk

relate it to cultural developments down to historic times, prehistorians have defined subdivisions of time based upon observed changes in the most frequently found and widely-spread artifacts, stone tools. So, for instance, the period encompassed by the use of the first tools received the name Paleolithic and, in general terms, spanned the period from roughly '2.5 million years B. P. to about 10,000 years B. P. By convention, these arc further subdivided into Early, or Lower, Paleolithic, Middle Paleolithic, and Late, or Upper, Paleolithic. The term "Stone Age" has been attached to archaeological time sequences to distin-guish tool development in Sub-Saharan Africa from what transpired in Europe and Eurasia. The division points are roughly identical, except that the Middle Stone Age began about 100,000 years earlier than the Middle Paleolithic. The final 10,000 years, roughly 20,000 10,500 B. P., are now in some areas, such as North Africa and the Middle East, frequently denoted Epipaleolithic. In geolog-ic terms, the period coincides with the years stretching from the Late Pliocene

CHAPTER ONE 4

epoch to the Late, or Upper , Pleistocene. T h e subsequent period, falling geolog-ically into the Early Holocene, is styled Neolithic, or "New Stone" age, and is characterized not only by the manufacture of polished stone implements, but more importantly by its dominant cultural activity, the practice of agriculture and the domestication of plants and animals. T h e term Mesolithic, sometimes limited to northwestern Europe but frequently applied more broadly, designates the period in the Early Holocene just preceding the arrival of agriculture. One needs to keep in mind that, although, as will be shown later, the Paleolithic era began in East Africa and the Neolithic period arose in Southwest Asia, these cul-tural activities may have occurred at different times elsewhere, and, although the sequences of development may be similar, they need not be synchronous. Additionally, every stage of development observed in one area may not always appear in another. This can result from, among other factors, the momentum and direction of the spread of the culture with its technology from one area to another and the rate of adaptation of the innovation in a different environment. O u r understanding of the relationship of cultural development in various geo-graphic areas may also be hampered by the degree of archaeological work accomplished in one place compared to that in another.1

A. Hominids and Their Tools

Ausiralopiihecines Most everyone agrees that man began in Africa, where ca. five or six million years ago (mya) he became genetically separated from the great apes, particularly chim-panzees.2 Until recently, evidence placed the earliest hominid population in Ethiopia, at Hadar, where in 1974 archaeologists discovered Australopithecus afaren-sis, familiarly called "Lucy," a small creature with a rather ape-like head who lived perhaps 3.5 mya.3 Lucy was not the first hominid identified in Africa, but she was

1 G r a h a m e Clark , World Prehistory. In New Perspective. 3rd cd. (Cambr idge : C a m b r i d g e Universi ty Press, 1977), pp. 24—25; 1). Bruce Dickson, Ancient Preludes. World Prehistory from the Perspectives of Archaeology, Geology, and Paleoecolog}׳ (Minneapo l i s / St. Paul: Wes t Publishing Co. , 1993), pp . 192-93, '

- R i c h a r d G . Kle in , " A n a t o m y , Behavior , a n d M o d e r n H u m a n Or ig ins , " JWorldPrehisl 9, no. 2 (1995): 1(59; P. V. Tob ias , " T h e Env i ronmen ta l Background of H o m i n i d E m e r g e n c e a n d the A p p e a r a n c e of the G e n u s Homo," JHumEvol 6, no. 2 (1991): 135.

3 D o n a l d C . J o h a n s o n a n d Ma i t l and A. Edcy, Lucy. The Beginnings of Humankind (New York: S imon a n d Schuster , 1981). A convenient s u m m a r y of the physical characterist ics of the various Plio-Pleistocenc homin ids a n d the in te rpre ta t ions of their evolut ion can be found in Alan Bilsbor-ough , "Diversi ty, Evolut ion a n d Adap t ion in Early H o m i n i d s , " in Stone Age Prehistory. Studies in Memory of Charles McBurney. G . Ν. Bailey a n d P. Cal low, eds. (Cambr idge : C a m b r i d g e Universi ty Press, 1986), pp . 1 9 7 - 2 2 0 .

THF, !.()WER AND MIDDLE PALEOLITHIC PERIODS כ

1. East and South Africa

CHAPTER ONE 6

the oldest up to that time.4 Fossil evidence discovered in 1992-1993, however, indicates that the earliest known hominid population inhabited Aramis, Middle Awash, Ethiopia, about 4.4 mya. Termed Ardipithecus ramidus, this hominid differs significantly from apes in its dental, cranial, and post-cranial characteristics, and to a lesser extent from Australopithecus, with which it may be a sister taxon.5 Shortly after Ard. ramidusי discovery, another find, Australopithecus anamensis, from Kanapoi and Allia Bay, Kenya, near Lake Turkana, was announced. Dating between 3.9 and 4.2 mya, this is the earliest hominid which reliable evidence shows to have walked upright at least part of the time.6 A. anamensis may prove to have been an intermediary in a direct lineage between Ard. ramidus and A. afarensis. There is, however, controversy over whether these are linear species or examples of the radiation of several different species, some of which were contemporary with each other and only one of which eventually led to humans.7

In addition to Hadar, A. afarensis fossils have been unearthed at Laetoli in Tan-zania and in the early 1990s at Maka and Fejej in Ethiopia, the latter find possi-bly extending the A. afarensis population back to 4.0-4.18 mya.8 T o judge from bones and fossil footprints, this hominid was especially suited for walking upright, though it retained an essentially ape-like rib cage.9 Whether linearly derived from

4 Australopithecus africanus was first d iscovered in 1925 at T a t i n g in South Africa, while a robust fo rm, A. hoisei, was discovered in 1959 in n o r t h e r n T a n z a n i a on the western edge of the eastern Rift Valley at O lduva i Gorge . P. V. Tobias, Olduvai Gorge. Vol. 4 (Cambr idge : C a m b r i d g e Uni -versity Press, 1991), p. 17. Var ious robust a n d gracile aust ra lopi thecines have come to light at o the r places in Sou th Africa, such as Sterkfonte in , M a k a p a n s g a t , Swar tkrans , a n d D r o m d r a a i . See R i c h a r d G . Klein, " T h e S tone Age Prehis tory of Sou the rn Afr ica ," AnnRAnth 12 (1983): Be ;־48 25 rna rd A. W o o d a n d M . Ellis, "Ev idence for Die tary Special ization in the 'Robus t ' Aus-t ra lopi thecines ," in Fossil Man. New Facts — New Idea. V lad imi r V. Novo tny a n d Alcna Mizerova , eds. (Brno: A n t h r o p o s Ins t i tu te -Moravian M u s e u m , 1986), pp . 102-03 .

5 T i m 1). Whi te , G e n Suwa , a n d B e r h a n e Asfaw, "Australopithecus ramidus, a N e w Species of Early H o m i n i d f rom Aramis , E th iop ia , " Nature 371 (22 Sept. 1994): 306 12; terminology revised in Nature 375 (4 M a y 1995): 88.

6 M e a v e G . Leakey, C r a i g S. Feibcl, I an McDouga l l , a n d Alan Walker , " N e w Four-mill ion-year-old H o m i n i d Species f r o m K a n a p o i a n d Allia Bay, K e n y a , " Nature 376 (17 Aug. 1995): 565 7 1. Since as yet lower skeletal remains of the strongly ape-like hominid Ard. ramidus have not c o m e to light, o n e canno t speculate on the degree of bipedali ty of this spccies. "Earliest Bipedal Ances tor?" Archaeology (Nov. Dec . 1995): 18.

7 El izabeth Culo t ta , " N e w H o m i n i d C r o w d s the Field," Science 269 (18 Aug. 1995): 918; D e a n Falk, T i m o t h y B. G a g e , Bruce Dudek , a n d T o d d R. Olson , "Did M o r e T h a n O n e Specics of H o m i n i d Coexist Before 3.0 M a ? Evidence f r o m Blood a n d T e e t h , " JHumEvol 29 (1995): 591 600; Klein, " A n a t o m y , Behavior , a n d M o d e r n H u m a n Or ig ins , " pp. 169 70.

B J o h n K a p p e l m a n , Ca r l C . Swisher , III, J o h n G . Fleagle, So lomon Yirga, T h o m a s M . Brown, a n d Muluge t a Feseha , "Age of Australopithecus afarensis f r o m Fejej, E th iop ia , " JHumEvol 30 (1996): 139-46 .

!1 T i m 1). Whi t e , G e n Suwa, Wil l iam K. H a r t , Rober t G. Wal te r , G iday WoldeGabr ie l , J e a n de Heinzel ln , J . D e s m o n d Clark , Be rhane Asfaw, a n d Elisabeth V r b a , " N e w Discoveries of Aus-

כTHF, ! . ( )WER AND MIDDLE PALEOLITHIC PERIODS

Ard. ramidus or one of several contemporaneous hominids, A. afarensis seems to have been the ancestor of all later hominids. Somewhere around 3.0 2.5 mya A afarensis split into two general directions. T h e first, which proved a dead end, con-stituted the robust australopithecines, usually denominated P[aranthr0pus) aethiopi-eus, P. robustus, and P. boisei. The second, or gracile, form, named A. africanus, known only from southern Africa, may have led directly to the genus Homo. The recent discovery in the Hata Beds of the Middle Awash Valley of Ethiopia of a new species, Australopithecus garhi, thus far known only from craniodental remains and dated to 2.5 mya, has now challenged this conclusion. Although clearly descended from A. afarensis, this hominid possesses some dental features similar to those of early genus Homo. This has led its discoverers to suggest that A. garhi is a prime candidate for the nearest ancestor of our own species.10

Major site locations for fossil remains of the earliest example of the genus demis H o m o

Homo include Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania , in Ethiopia in the vicinity of Lake Turkana, and especially in Kenya, on the northeast shore of Lake Turkana at Koobi Fora and at Chemeron to the south." The genus Homo can be anatomi-

tralopithecus at M a k a in E th iop ia , " Nature 366 (18 Nov . 1993): 261 65; R i c h a r d Leakey, 771e Origin of Humankind{ N e w York: Basic Books, 1994), pp. 55 56; Michae l H . Day , " H o m i n i d Locomot ion

F rom T a t i n g to the Lactoli Footpr in ts , " in Hominid Evolution. Past, Present, and Future. Phillip V. Tob ias , ed. (New York: Alan R. Liss, Ltd., 1985), pp . 115-27 .

10 R icha rd G. Klein, The Human Career. Human Biological and Cultural Origins (Chicago: T h e Uni -versity of Ch icago Press, 1989), pp. 158 62; idem, "Ana tomy , Behavior, a n d M o d e r n H u m a n Or i -gins," p. 170; H e n r y M . M c H c n r y a n d Randal l R. Skelton, "Is Australopithecus africanus Ancestral to Homo?" in Hominid Evolution, pp . 221 26; a n d Tobias , Olduvai Gorge, Vol . 4, pp . 8 11, 820 27; Bils-bo rough , "Diversity, Evolution a n d Adap t ion , " pp. 210 13. T h e lineage of Homo remains cont ro-versial. Dona ld C . J o h a n s o n argues that A. afarensis was the ances tor of all later hominids, but con-siders it m o r e likely tha t A. africanus led to P. robustus/bosei a n d was not a precursor to Homo. H e thinks that that link has yet to be discovered. Dona ld C . J o h a n s o n , " T h e Most Primitive Australop-ithecus," in Hominid Evolution, pp . 203 21. For A. garhi, see Berhane Asfaw, T i m Whi te , O w e n Lovejoy, Bruce Lat imer , Scott Simpson, a n d G e n Suwa, "Austalopithecus garlic. A N e w Species of Early H o m i n i d f r o m Ethiopia, ' 5 Science 284 (23 April 1999): 629 35. Its bra incase size of ca. 450 cc. is well below that of H. habilis at ca. 640 cc. Cf. also Leakey, The Origin of Humankind, pp . 21 36.

11 T h a t / / . habilis, t he earliest identif iable example of Homo, represents a single taxon is strongly ma in t a ined by Tob ias , " E n v i r o n m e n t a l Backg round , " 129 42, a n d idem, Olduvai Gorge. Vol. 4, pp. 3 49. O the r s , however , assert that , because of significant ana tomica l var iat ions seen in fossils f rom different sites, the earliest representat ives of this genus m a y actually represent three different species of Homo. So, for instance, differences 111 endocran ia l capaci ty a n d tooth size incline some scholars to believe tha t Π habilis at O lduva i G o r g e differs f rom Homo finds at K o o b i Fo ra a n d so postulate th ree separa te species: H. habilis sensu stricto, II. rudolfensis, a n d II. ergaster. See, e.g., Be rna rd W o o d , "Or ig in a n d Evolut ion of the G e n u s Homo" Nature 355 (27 Feb. 1992): 783 90; idem, "Ear ly H o m i n i d Species a n d Specia t ion ," JHumEvol 22 (1992): 351 65; Daniel L. Lieber-m a n , Berna rd A. W o o d , a n d David R. P i lbeam, " H o m o p l a s y a n d Early Homo: an Analysis of the Evolut ionary Rela t ionships of II. habilis sensu stricto a n d II. rudolfensis," JHumEvol 30 (1996): 97 120; a n d G. Philip Righ tmi re , "Var ia t ion A m o n g Early Homo C r a n i a f r o m Olduva i G o r g e a n d the Koob i Fora Reg ion , " AJPA 90 (1993): 1 33. '

CHAPTER ONE 8

cally differentiated from Australopithecus in a number of ways, but most clearly by possession of a cranial capacity ranging from two to five times larger.12 The dif-ferential between P. robustus, with an average endocranial capacity of 530 cc, and the earliest Homo, H. habilis, with 640 cc, is quite small. The slightly younger and more widely dispersed contemporary, H. erectus, however, had a significantly larger endocranial capacity, averaging 1,043 cc.13 Although increased brain size is important, brain structure seems more critical in processing, learning, and retaining information. Increased mental complexity and processing capacity affect linguistic skills, tool use, and social intelligence. 14

12 Aust ra lopi thecine c ran ia vary f r o m 380 cc to 530 cc, while the earliest Homo had a capaci ty of f rom 600 cc to 752 cc. Homo erectus, ;1 later f o r m found at sites ex tend ing f rom Africa to C h i n a over a long span of t ime, weighs in with a crania l capaci ty vary ing be tween 700 cc a n d 1250 cc. By compar i son , the bra in of m o d e r n m a n , Homo sapiens sapiens, varies be tween 1,000 cc a n d 2,000 cc. T o b i a s gives slightly varying figures for the m e a n endocran ia l capacit ies for early hominids , bu t they a re relatively close. See T o b i a s , Olduvai Gorge, Vol . 4, p. 708, T a b l e 181, a n d pp. 799 801. Frank E. Poirier, Understanding Human Evolution. 2 n d ed. (Englewood Cliffs, N . J . : Pren-tice Hall , 1990), pp . 139-42 , 211; Dickson, Ancient Preludes, pp . 185 86; J o h n YVymcr, The Palae-olithic Age (New York: St. M a r t i n ' s Press, 1982), pp. 46 47.

13 Figures given by Phillip V7. Tob ias , in Lar ry Trask , Phillip V . Tob ias , T h o m a s W y n n , lain Davidson, Wil l iam Noble , a n d Paul Mellars , " T h e Or ig ins of S p e e c h , " CArchJ 8, η θ . 1 (1998): 75. Homo habilis may u p o n fu r the r investigation p rove to be m o r e an end-s tage of aus t ra lopi thecine deve lopment than the first example of genus Homo. Cf . Clark , World Prehistory, p. 22. A hominid similar to II. habilis of eas tern Afr ica a n d p e r h a p s a p recur so r to II. erectus has been discovered at Longgupo in S ichuan , C h i n a a n d dates to ca. 500 ,000 years af ter the a p p e a r a n c e of II. habilis in Africa. Roy Larick a n d Russell C h i c h o n , " T h e First Asians," Archaeology ( Jan . -Feb . 1996): 5 1 - 5 3 . H. erectus fossils have been recorded in Nor th a n d East Afr ica (Algeria a n d Olduva i Gorge , for example) , Southeas t Asia (Java), a n d C h i n a . W h e t h e r II. erectus m a d e it to E u r o p e is open to ques-tion. They d i sappea r f r o m the fossil records abou t 300 ,000 B. P., a l though some m a y have sur-vived as late as 27 ,000 B.P. in J a v a . C . C . Swisher , III, W . J . Rink, S. C . An ton , H. P. Schwarcz , G . H. Curt is , A. Supr i jo , a n d Wid ia smoro , "Latest Homo erectus of J a v a : Potential C o n t e m p o r a n e -ity with Homo sapiens in Southeas t Asia," Science 274 (13 Dec. 1996): 1870-74 ; A n n Gibbons , "Homo erectus in J a v a : A 2 5 0 , 0 0 0 - Y e a r A n a c h r o n i s m , " Science 274 (13 Dec. 1996): 1841-42; Dick-soil, Ancient Preludes, pp . 187 90; W y m e r , Palaeolithic Age, pp. 46, 138 39; J o h n A. J . Gowlet t , Ascent to Civilization. The Archaeology of Early Humans. 2nd ed. (New York: M c G r a w - H i l l , Inc., 1993), pp. 84- 85, 100-09; Kle in , Human Carier, pp . 183 223.

" Klein, " A n a t o m y , Behavior , a n d M o d e r n H u m a n Orig ins ," p. 169; Poirier, Understanding Human Evolution, pp. 140 42; Ka th leen R. Gibson , "Too l Use, L a n g u a g e a n d Social Behavior in Rela t ionship to In fo rma t ion Processing Capac i t i es , " in Tools, Language and Cognition in Human Evo-lution. Ka th leen R. Gibson a n d T i m Ingold, cds. (Cambr idge : C a m b r i d g e Universi ty Press, 1993), pp . 251 69; Chr i s St r inger , " H u m a n Evolution a n d Biological Adap ta t ion in the Pleistocene," in Hominid Evolution and Community Ecology. Prehistoric Human Adaption in Biological Perspective. Rober t Foley, ed. (London: A c a d e m i c Press, 1984), pp . 77 78. W h y the bra in size of Homo increased as it did, the reby init iating an ever widen ing d i f ference be tween it a n d o the r early hominids , r emains u n k n o w n . O n e line of thought associates the evolut ion of bipedal ism with the deve lopment of a blood-f low system in the bra in that al lowed for an increased cool ing capabil i ty du r ing hyper ther -mia the reby al lowing for larger b ra in size a n d increased menta l capaci ty . See D e a n Falk, "En la rged Occ ip i t a l / Marg ina l Sinuses a n d Emissary Fo ramina : T h e i r Significance in H o m i n i d


The Chemeron site in Kenya has yielded the oldest evidence thus far for the H. habilis and

genus Homo. T h e date o f c a . 2.5 mya established for H. habilis, or "skillful man," stone tools

is contemporaneous with dating of stone tools found in Ethiopia at Kada Gona and West Gona. At Hadar archaeologists have uncovered remains of genus Homo, dated by potassium-argon dating of volcanic ash to ca. 2.33 mya, in the same strata as finds of stone flakes and chopping tools of the Oldowan lithic industry.15 Recent studies showing tool making and tool-use among modern monkeys and chimpanzees, however, cause some hesitation in attributing the first tool use to Homo. If tool behavior of modern apes is any indication of early hominid activities, australopithecines may have used simple tools, particularly wooden ones, which would have left no archaeological trace. But, stone tools made by modern apes are clearly inferior to those that began to appear at this time in East Africa.16 The flaking skill evident in Oldowan tools found at Gona implies a much earlier development of the knowledge of stone-tool manufacture, but the identification of the hominid who made the tools remains unknown. Time and location, however, make A. garhi a prime contender for the tool mak-

Evolu t ion ," in Evolutionary History 0J the "Robust" Australopithecus. Freder ick E. Gr ine , ed . (New York: Aldi ne de Gruy te r , 1988), pp . 85 96, a n d Steven Mid ien , 77ie Prehistory of the Mind. A Search for the Origins of Art, Religion and Science (London: T h a m e s a n d H u d s o n , 1996), pp . 2 0 4 - 0 6 . A second idea, re fer red to as the "energet ic a p p r o a c h , " suggests that a shift f rom an essentially vegetar ian diet to o n e based on mea t , a n d so one m o r e easily digestible, allowed for smaller gut tissue. T h i s permi t -ted a n evolut ion whe reby energy, otherwise utilized for a larger gut to digest plant foods, was diverted to the bra in . T h e ext ra energy went in to suppor t ing a larger bra in . T h e r e may also be a correlat ion be tween increased brain size a n d tin־ extra energy acqui red by a m o t h e r whose diet began to be m o r e heavily mea t based. T h e mo the r ' s a d d e d energy was passed on to her fetus whose bra in size thereby increased. See A n n G i b b o n , "Solving the Brain 's Energy Crisis," Science 280, 29) 5 3 6 M ח״. 8 a y 1998): 1345 47. But cf. C . M . Hladk , b . J . Chivers , a n d P. Pasquet , " O n Diet a n d Gut Size in N o n - h u m a n Pr imates a n d H u m a n s : Is there a Rela t ionship to Brain Size?" CurrAnth 40, nM. 5 (Dec. 1999): 695 97.

S. S '־' e m a w , P. R e n n e , J . W . K. Harr is , C . S. Feibel, R. L. Bernor , N . Fesseha, a n d K. M o w -bray , "2.5-mil l ion-year-old Stone Tools f r o m G o n a , E th iop ia , " Nature 385 (23 J a n . 1997): 333-36. W h o m a d e the tools at G o n a is u n k n o w n . See also A. M . H. S., "Earliest R e m a i n s of G e n u s H o m o , " Archaeology 50, 1 (Jan. Feb. 1997): 26; Tob ia s , " E n v i r o n m e n t a l Background of H o m i n i d E m e r g e n c e , " p. 138; idem, Olduvai Gorge, Vol . 4, pp. 830 32; A n d r e w Hill, Steven W a r d , Alan D e m o , Garniss Curt is , a n d R o b e r t Drake , "Earliest H o m o , " Nature 355 (20 Feb. 1992): 719 22; G lynn Isaac, " T h e Archaeology of H u m a n Origins: Studies of the Lower Pleistocene in East Afr ica 1971 1981," in The Archaeology of Human Origins. B a r b a r a Isaac, cd. (Cambr idge : C a m -br idge Universi ty Press, 1989), pp . 126 '27.

Gregory Char ׳" l e s Wes te rgaa rd a n d S tephen J . Suomi , "A Simple Stone-tool Technolog) in ׳Monkeys , " JHumEvol 17 (1994): 403. T h e viability of rel iance on compar i sons be tween observed behaviors 111 m o d e r n ch impanzees a n d o the r apes a n d assumed behaviors in early homin ids is not shared by all paleoanthropologis ts . Dissenters p re fe r to rely upon fossil evidence alone. Cf. R i c h a r d Polls, " H o m i n i d Hun te r s? Prob lems of Ident i fying the Earliest H u n t e r / Ga the re r s , " in Hominid Evolution and Community Ecology, pp. 129 66.

CHAPTER ONE 1 0

crs of Gona. Bones of an antelope and of a three-toed horse, found in close proximity to the bones of A. garhi, bear cut marks indicative of butchery with stone tools. That this hominid may have engaged in behavior to this point char-acteristic of genus Homo alone further supports the suggestion that A. garhi was ancestor to H. habilis.7י The proposition that tool making was species specific, therefore, may have to be altered if these finds in the Hata beds bear further scrutiny. Credit for the earliest stone tools, however, must continue to reside for the moment with H. habilis rather than with any australopithecine. The former possessed a greater brain size and assumed increased brain structure, and his thumb placement allowed for more precise grasping than the chimpanzee-like thumb of, for instance, A. afarensisAdditionally, although the brain capacity and thumb placement of P. robustus are similar to those of Ii. habilis, there has been no firm evidence for stone tools in relation to finds of P. robustus.{9

The appearance of genus Homo at around 2.5 mya coincided with several important events. Physiological changes from the australopithecines include increased brain capacity and complexity, which led to an increased level of cog-nitive intelligence. Dentocranial variances, such as decreased posterior teeth size and enamel thickness relative to australopithecines (slightly with respect to Ii. habilis but significantly in H. erectus), as well as a less developed jaw musculature in comparison with that of Paranthropus indicate differences in diet.20 And finally,

17 El izabeth Culo t t a , "A N e w H u m a n Ances tor?" Science 284 (23 April 1999): 5 7 2 - 7 3 ; J e a n de Heinzel ln , J . D e s m o n d Clark , T i m Whi te , Will iam H a r t , Paul R e n n e , G iday WoldeGabr i e l , Y o n a s Beyene, a n d Elisabeth V r b a , " E n v i r o n m e n t a n d Behavior of 2 .5-Mil l ion-Year-Old Bouri Homin ids , " Science 284 (23 April 1999): 6 2 5 . 2 9 ־

18 T h e endocran ia l capaci ty of H. habilis is ca. 190 cc greater than that of A. garhi and 226 cc grea ter than that of A afarensis. Postcranial bones of A. garhi have yet to be discovered. See Tobias , Olduvai Gorge, Vol. 4, p. 709, Fig. 49, a n d p. 799; Asfaw et al, "Australopithecus garhi," p. 632. T h e issue of w h o m a d e the first tools, II. habilis, the robust australopithecines, or both, remains con-tentious. Sec T i m D . Whi te , " T h e C o m p a r a t i v e Biology of 'robust'Australopithecus: Clues f rom C o n -text ," in Evolutionaly History, p. 464; a n d Bilsborough, "Diversity, Evolution and Adap t ion , " p. 215.

19 W . C . M c G r e w , M a r k W . H a m r i c k , S a n d r a E. Inouye , J a m e s C . O h m a n , Melissa Slanina , Gail Baker, R o b e r t P. M e n s f o r t h , a n d Randa l l L. S u s m a n , " T h u m b s , Tools , a n d Early H u m a n s , " Science 2 6 8 (28 April 1995): 586 89; Klein, " A n a t o m y , Behavior , a n d M o d e r n H u m a n Or ig ins , " pp. 172- 75; idem, Human Career, pp . 1 6 9 7 ־ 0 . Randa l l S u s m a n , on the o ther h a n d , argues tha t I'. robustus did possess precision grasp ing capabili t ies a n d p robab ly m a d e a n d used tools app rop r i a t e for his basically vegetar ian diet. Randa l l L. S u s m a n , " N e w Postcranial R e m a i n s f rom Swar tk rans a n d T h e i r Bear ing on the Funct ional M o r p h o l o g y a n d Behavior of Paranthropus robustus," in Evolutionary History, pp. 149 72; idem, " H a n d of Paranthropus robustus f rom M e m b e r 1, Swar tkrans : Fossil Evidence for Too l Behavior ," Science 240 (6 M a y 1988): 781 -84 ; a n d idem, " W h o M a d e the O l d o w a n Tools? Fossil Evidence for Too l Behavior in Plio-Pleistocene Homin ids , , ) JAnthRes 47 י S u m m e r 1991): 129-51 .

20 H e n r y M . M c H e n r y , " N e w Est imates of Body Weigh t in Early H o m i n i d s a n d T h e i r Signifi-cance to Encephal iza t ion a n d M c g a d o n t i a in ' R o b u s t ' Aust ra lopi thecines ," in Evolutionary History,

THF, ! . ( )WER AND MIDDLE PALEOLITHIC PERIODS כ

postcranial elements show marked changes. Homo developed a more efficient thumb placement on his hand, thereby allowing for increased grasping and manipulation skills. He differed significantly as well from the more ape-like aus-tralopithecines in bone structure of the shoulders, rib cage, and waist, so that the bipedalism of Homo was more agile and quick.1־ /VII these developments seem fortuitous with the simultaneous appearance of the first stone tools.

T h e spread of the use of stone tools was not a gradual process. Once knowl- Stone ״tool kits״

edge of how to construct tools was discovered and analyzed, diffusion of the skill probably occurred rather rapidly, and the sophistication of the objects and the complexity of the processes used to produce them depended upon the proficien-cy of the individual tool makers. Archaeologists conventionally group these tool "kits" into lithic "industries," typified by the technological process used to pro-duce them, by the specific materials from which they were made, and by the use to which they were put, and named for the particular site where first discovered. The range of tool industries for the entire Paleolithic period varies considerably from one area to another, and many local variants can be identified. In general, however, Paleolithic tools can be classified into four general types based on the technology used to produce them and further correlated with specific time peri-ods and with particular hominid groups (Fig. I).22 These include the Oldowan, Acheulian, Mousterian, and Blade industries.

The type of tools used at Olduvai Gorge in the lower Paleolithic period in contexts of H. habilis finds are usually classed as Oldowan (Fig. 2) and comprise H. habilis and the what has been termed the "chopper-core" or "cobble-tool" industry. Made prin- Oldowan tool kit

cipally of basalt and quartzite, Oldowan tools, while assuming no clearly pre-conceived form, served diverse purposes. The basic Oldowan tool was a pebble or cobblestone chipped on one side (unifacial) to produce a chopper. Later, Developed Oldowan tools included bifacial chopping implements and core and flake scrapers. One cannot always be sure whether the larger stone, which has been chipped, is the intended tool or the flakes struck from it. Modern experi-ments with recreating Oldowan-type tools indicate that the cores were good for

pp . 133 48; Wil l iam L. Hy lande r , " Impl ica t ions of In Vivo Exper imen t s for In te rpre ta t ing the Func t iona l Signif icance of ' R o b u s t ' Aust ra lopi thecine J a w s , " in Evolutionary History, pp . 5 5 - 8 3 ; Frederick E. G r i n e a n d Lawrence B. M a r t i n , " E n a m e l Thickness a n d Deve lopmen t in Australo-pithecus a n d Paranthropus," in Evolutionary History, pp. 3 42; Klein, " A n a t o m y , Behaviour a n d M o d -ern H u m a n Or ig ins , " 172 75, csp. Fig. 3, p. 174; idem, Human Career, pp . 138 58. O n the rcla-t ionship be tween tooth size a n d dietary adap ta t ion in genera l , see W o o d a n d Ellis, "Ev idence for Die tary Special izat ion," in Fossil Man, pp. 1 1 4 . 1 ־ 6

21 Leakey, Origin 0J Humankind, pp. 55 57. 22 In o t h e r words , homin id technology follows a similar evolut ionary process as homin id mor -

phology. Sec R o b e r t Foley, " H o m i n i d Species a n d Stone-tool Assemblages: H o w a re they Relat-ed?" Antiquity 61, no. 233 (Nov. 1987): 3 8 0 - 9 2 .

1 2 CHAFFER ONE

Hi © I

Ô

Anatomically modern H. sapiens (Africa )

0 African archaic H.sapiens

@ European 'Neanderthals '

^ European archaic H sapiens

? SE Asian H. erect us

φ SE Asian archaic M sapiens φ Ε Asian Η. erectus

fy Ε Asian archaic H. sapiens

^ Early African Η erectus

0 3 sp.

ft H. habilis

I A robustus

A. crasstdens A boisei

A. aethiopicus (?)

A. africanus

A afarensis

\\(m Pan

KEY

Termite 'fishing sticks '

Hammerstones

Digging sticks

Oldowan

Ach eu lea η

Asian pebble-tools

Leva!lois Mousterian

African MSA

Blade technology

Fig. 1. Cladogram of hominid evolution with associated tool kits. From Foley, "Hominid Species and Stone-tool Assemblages,1' p. 38b, Fig. 2. Reprinted by permission of Robert Foley and Antiquity Publications Ltd.


Fig. 2. Oldowan Tools: 1 and 2. Chopping tools, from Olduvai Gorge; 3. Tool f rom Sterkfontein, S. Africa; 4. Choppe r f rom Vallonet cave, Provence, France, contemporary with Beds 1 and 2 at Olduvai. Bordes, Old Stone Age, Fig. 10. Courtesy of McGraw-Hil l Companies .

CHAPTER ONE 1 4

cutting branches or for dismemberment and breaking of animal bones. T h e small, thin Hakes, often retouched, possessed sharp edges useful for skinning and scraping or for precise cutting in butchery.23 Whether they were actually used for those purposes is another question.

One other event, roughly coincident with the appearance of H. habilis, proba-bly played an important role in human evolution. Strong evidence suggests the occurrence of a global climatic change, which in Africa was characterized by a shift f rom a wet, hot environment to a cooler, drier one, with the concomitant alteration of the ecosystem from generally forest and woodlands to a more open area of savannah and shrubs.24 Coming as it does at the point of a branching of the hominid line into the robust australopithecines going off in one direction and Homo in another, the climatic changes may have played a role in intensify-ing observable evolutionary responses of the different lines.25 This certainly seems the case in regard to habitat and diet. Homo prospered in different envi-ronments, such as along rivers and lakes, in wooded areas, and in dry open grasslands, and developed a more generalized, omnivorous diet. The robust aus-tralopithecines seem tied to open grassland near rivers and to a predominantly herbivorous diet.26

H. erectus and die This climatic change may have spurred development of the second species of Acheulian tool kit Homo. Known earlier as "Java M a n " (Pithecanthropus erectus) from finds in Java

and "Peking M a n " (Sinanthropus pekinensis) from fossils discovered near Peking (now Beijing), China, especially Zhoukoudian, H. erectus arose first at Koobi Fora near Lake Turkana in northern Kenya ca. 1.8-1.7 mya. He is also attested at

23 A l though some scholars a rgue for the p re fe rence of def ined shapes, such as spheroids, dis-coids, a n d po lyhedrons , O l d o w a n tool shapes d e p e n d e d on the cha rac t e r of the s tone a n d on the n u m b e r a n d sequence of flakes de t ached . Sec M i t h e n , Prehistory of the Mind, pp ־ 98 96 . , a n d Iain Davidson a n d Wil l iam Noble , "Tools a n d L a n g u a g e in H u m a n Evolu t ion ," in Tools, Language and Cognition, p p . 3 6 7 - 6 9 . Cf. W y m e r , Palaeolithic Age, p. 55; Dickson, Ancient Preludes, pp . 193-95; Isaac, "Archaeo logy of H u m a n Or ig ins , " pp. 129-31; Gowlet t , Ascent to Civilization, pp. 3 8 - 3 9 , 5 2 - 5 3 ; Klein, Human Career, pp. 165-82 .

24 Elisabeth S. V r b a , "La te Pliocene Cl imat ic Events a n d H o m i n i d Evolut ion ," in Evolutionary History, pp. 4 0 5 - 2 6 ; Michae l L. Prent ice a n d George H . D e n t o n , " T h e Deep -Sea Oxygen Isotope Record , T h e Global Ice Sheet System a n d H o m i n i d Evolu t ion ," in ibid., pp . 3 8 3 - 4 0 3 ; Tob ias , "Env i ronmen ta l Background , " pp . 137 38; R i c h a r d L. Hay , "O lduva i Gorge ; A Case His tory in the In te rp re ta t ion of H o m i n i d Pa leoenv i ronment s in East Af r ia , " in Establishment of a Geologic Framework for Paleoanthropology. Leo F. Lapor te , ed. Special P a p e r 242 (Boulder, Co. : T h e Gcologi-cal Society of Amer ica , Inc., 1990), pp . 2 3 - 3 7 ; a n d Bilsborough, "Diversity, Evolution a n d Adap -t ion," p. 213.

25 Elisabeth S. V r b a , "Cl imate , H e t e r o c h r o n y a n d H u m a n E v o l u t i o n / ' JAnthRes 52 (Spring 1996): 1 - 2 8 .

26 V r b a 5 "La te Pliocene Cl imat ic Events ," pp. 418 20; Pat S h i p m a n a n d J o h n M . Harr is , " H a b i t a t Prefe rence a n d Palcoecology of Australopithecus boisei in Eastern Afr ica ," in Evolutionary History, pp . 343 81.


other African sites, such as Beds II and IV at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania and Bodo in Ethiopia. Perhaps ancestral to modern humans, H. erectus was probably the first hominid to depend almost entirely on bipedalism.27 Reliance upon this new mode of travel, which freed him from attachment to an arboreal or semiar-boreal existence, a significantly increased brain capacity and complexity leading to advances in cultural adaptations, and development of more sophisticated and efficient tools, doubtless contributed to his spread first to Southwest Asia, at Ubeidiya in the Jordan Valley of Israel, as early as 1.4—1.3 mya, then to the Far East and, perhaps, subsequently to Europe.28

The first important innovation in the prehistoric tool kit beyond the unspe-cializcd Oldowan industry was the so-called Acheulian industry (Fig. 3), com-posed of bifacial tools, such as cleavers, and, most characteristically, the hand-axe. The earliest Acheulian handaxes are closely associated with African H. erec-tus, sometimes called H. ergaster. Acheulian-type tools have been found over nearly all the Old World, and the industry lasted probably well beyond 200,000 years B. P.29 Crude forms appear in the early levels at Olduvai Gorge, but once in use advances in sophistication came rapidly. The handaxe, made from a core or retouched large flake, was in its later, most elegant form (after ca. 250,000 B. P.) pre-shaped on the core and then struck off in what has been called the Levai-lois technique. The handaxe makes an efficient tool for butchering large ani-mais, while the clcaver outperforms the simple flake tool in cutting wood and splitting hides.

For a long time scholars believed that while hominids were developing in H. erectus and H. sapiens

27 Klein, " M o d e r n H u m a n Or ig ins , " pp . 175-79; idem, Human Career, pp . 183-223; Poirier , Understanding Human Evolution, pp. 221 51; Hay , " O l d u v a i Gorge : A Case His tory ," pp . 23 37. R igh tmi re believes that H. erectus m a y have been a distinct species r a the r than a stage of evolution leading directly to H. sapiens sapiens. Cf. G . Philip R igh tmi re , " H o m o erectus a n d Later Midd le Pleistocene H u m a n s , " AnnRevAnthr 17 (1988): 2 3 9 - 5 9 ; idem, The Evolution of Homo Erectus ( C a m -bridge: C a m b r i d g e Universi ty Press, 1990), pp. 180 237.

28 Cla ims of p re - / / , erectus homin id migra t ion f r o m Africa to L u n g g u p o C a v e in S ichuan province da t ing ca. 1.9-1.7 mya have recently been pu t fo rward , a n d an early / / . erectus move-m e n t ca. 1.8 1.6 to J a v a a n d to Dmanis i , Georg ia finds approva l with others . T h e dates, howev-er, a re highly controversial . G ü n t e r Bräue r a n d Michae l Schul tz , " T h e Morpho log ica l Affinities of the Plio-Pleistocene M a n d i b l e f r o m Dmanis i , Georg ia , " JHumEvol 30 (1996): 4 4 5 - 8 1 ; A n n G i b b o n s , "Rewr i t ing — a n d Reda t i ng Prehis tory," Science 263 (25 Feb. 1994): 1087-88 ; Eliza-b e t h Culo t ta , "Asian H o m i n i d s G r o w O l d e r , " Science 270 (17 Nov. 1995): 1116 17; O f e r Bar-Yosef, " T h e Lower Paleolithic of the N e a r Eas t ," JWorldPrehist 8, no. 3 (1994): 211 65; Poirier , Understanding Human Evolution, pp . 239 41.

29 Gowlet t , Ascent to Civilization, pp. 62 63; VVymcr, Palaeolithic Age, pp. 102 23; Dickson, Ancient Preludes, pp. 199-200; Rober t J . Bra idwood, Prehistoric Men. 7lh ed. (Glenview, II.: Scott , Fo re sman , 1967), pp . 5 0 5 ־ 8 ; Klein, " A n a t o m y , Behaviour , a n d M o d e r n H u m a n Or ig ins , " pp. 176 78; idem. Human Career, pp . 183-223; Clive G a m b l e , Timewalkers. The Prehistory of Global Colonization (Cambr idge , M A : H a r v a r d University, 1994), pp . 5 3 - 6 4 .

CHAPTER ONE 16

Fig. 3. Acheulian Tools: Middle Acheulian: I. Handaxe from Swanscombe, England; 2 -4 . Side-scraper, point, and end-scraper, respectively, f rom Saint-Acheul, Amiens, France; 5. "Limande," from Cagny, near Amiens, France. U p p e r Acheulian: 6. Cleaver, f rom Bihorel, near Rouen, France. Bordes, Old Stone Age, Fig. 16. Courtesy of McGraw-Hil l Companies .


Africa and Asia none lived in Europe before 0.5 mya. Finds of H. erectus in Dmanisi, near Tbilisi in Georgia, which may date as early as 1.8 mya, give rea-son to believe that firm evidence of early hominids will be found in eastern and perhaps western Europe. T o date, however, although Acheulian-type tools have been found, no H. erectus fossils have been conclusively identified. Fossil finds dating no earlier than about 500,000 B.P., found at Mauer near Heidelberg in Germany, Boxgrove, Swanscombe, and Hoxne in England, and Vertesszöllös, near Budapest in Hungary, arc considered by some to be early, or archaic, H. sapiens rather than II. erectus. A similar conclusion holds for finds in Italy, Greece, and France.30 Since 1976 at Atapuerca, in southern Spain, archaeologists have found numerous fossil remains, particularly at Sima de los Huesos, or Pit of Bones, which yielded fossil remains of archaic H. sapiens dating to well over 200,000 B. P. During 1994-1996, however, excavations at the nearby Spanish site of Gran Dolina T D 6 yielded remains of at least six individual hominids in a layer dated to between 0.8 to 1.0 mya. Found in association with the hominids were stone tools, such as hammer-stones, Hakes, and cores, but no handaxes or cleavers. This fact, plus the presence of certain morphological differences, set these hominids off from African or Asian H. erectus and from later II. sapiens nean-derthalensis. They seem, therefore, to be precursors to archaic H. sapiens found in Germany at Mauer (H. heidelbergensis), although they may constitute a new species altogether (H. antecessor).31 Acheulian artifacts continue to characterize

30 T h e C e p r a n o fossil, found in Italy ca. fifty-five miles southeas t of R o m e , m a y represent a late II. erectus popula t ion in E u r o p e in the early Midd le Pleistocene pe r iod (ca. 700,000 B. P.), but the evidence is far f rom clear. A. Ascenzi , I. Biddit tu, P. F. Cassoli, A. G . Segre, a n d E. Segre-Naldi-ni, "A C a l v a r i u m of Late Homo erectus f rom C e p r a n o , Italy," JHumEvol 31 (1996): 4 0 9 - 2 3 ; J e a n -

J a c q u e s Hub l in , " T h e First Eu ropeans , " Archaeology (Jan. Feb. 1996): 36 44; Klein, Human Career, p. 214; a n d idem, " M o d e r n H u m a n Or ig ins , G ;ין. 177 " . Philip Righ tmi re , " T h e Dispersal of Homo erectus f r o m Africa a n d the E m e r g e n c e of M o r e M o d e r n H u m a n s , " JAnthrRes 47 ( S u m m e r 1991): 177 91; idem, " H o m o Erectus a n d La te r Midd le Pleistocene H u m a n s , " pp . 239 59; idem, Evolution of Homo Erectus, pp. 224 33; Poirier , Understanding Human Evolution, pp. 239 43, 252 57. S o m e scholars believe tha t / / . erectus as a species a c c o m m o d a t e s a wide variat ion, encompass ing Afr ican a n d Asian II. erectus a n d a rcha ic H sapiens. See A n d r e w K r a m e r , " H u m a n T a x o n o m i c Diversity in the Pleistocene: Does Homo erectus Represen t Mul t ip le H o m i n i d Species ," A J PA 91 (1993): 161 71.

31 J . M . B e r m û d e z de Cas t ro , J . L. Arsuaga , E. Carbone l l , A. Rosas, I. Mar t inez , a n d M . Mos-que ra , "A H o m i n i d f r o m the Lower Pleistocene of A t a p u e r c a , Spain: Possible Ances tor to N e a n -dertals a n d M o d e r n H u m a n s , " Science 276 (30 M a y 1997): 1392 95; A n n Gibbons , "A N e w Face for H u m a n Ancestors ," Science 276 (30 M a y 1997): 1331-33; Paul G . Bahn , " T r e a s u r e of the Sier-ra A t a p u e r c a , " Archaeology (Jan. Feb. 1996): 45 48; E. Carbone l l , J . N. B e r m ú d e z de Cas t ro , J . L. Arsuaga , J . C . Diez, A. Rosas, G. Cuenca-Bescôs , R. Sala, M . M o s q u e r a , a n d X . P. Rodr iguez , " L o w e r Pleistocene H o m i n i d s a n d Artifacts f r o m A t a p u e r c a - T D 6 (Spain)," Science 269 (1 1 Aug. 1995): 8 2 6 2 9 ־ ; J o s e p M . Parés a n d Alf redo Pérez-Gonzâ lez , "Pa leomagne t i c Age for Homin id Fossils at A t a p u e r c a Archaeological Site, Spa in , " Science 269 (1 1 Aug. 1995): 830 32; Emi l iano

CHAPTER ONE 1 8

early, or archaic, H. sapiens, who are not clearly distinguished from Ii. erectus and whose representative fossils vary widely among individuals.32 In Africa and Europe archaic H. sapiens tended to diverge from H. erectus more so than in the East. Those in Africa evolved toward anatomically modern humans (//. sapiens sapiens), in Europe toward Neanderthal man.

Neanderthal man Neanderthals (H. sapiens neanderthalensLs) occupied areas from western Europe and the Mouserian to Asia during the later interglacial and early Last Glaciation periods, about

tool kit 110,000 B. P. to ca. 35,000 B. P., and probably earlier.33 Whether they formed a distinct spccies or are directly descendent from the archaic Ii. sapiens populations of Europe, H. heidelbergensis for example, remains debatable.34 The lithic industry associated with them in Europe and western Asia, though not exclusively linked to Neanderthals, has been termed Mousterian and involves use of several flake-producing strategies, prominent among them the Levallois technique. The Neanderthal tool kit comprises a variety of small unifacial flakes (4.0-7.0 cm. in length) and bifacial tools, such as elongated points, backed knives, handaxes, notched and denticulate tools, and particularly side scrappers. Although Mous-terian tools do appear in Africa, they are not linked with Neanderthal occupa-tions.35

At this point it might be well to summarize the complex evolution of man traced thus far. Anatomically modern man, H. sapiens sapiens, ultimately derived from early African hominids, particularly A. afarensis, who arose in Ethiopia at around 4.18 mya. T h e first hominid clearly in direct line to mod-ern man was H. habilis, who can be placed in Kenya and Ethiopia by 2.5 mya at a time coincident with significant climatic change and the invention of stone tools. Specific anatomic evolutions that set Homo on a fast track to development included increased cranial capacity, changes in size of teeth and in j aw struc-ture, placement of the thumb on the hand and acquisition of the capability for

Aguir re a n d An ton io Rosas, "Fossil M a n f r o m C u e v a M a y o r , Ibeas, Spain: N e w Findings a n d T a x o n o m i c Discussion," in Hominid Evolution, pp . 3 1 7 - 2 8 ; Euda ld Carbone l l , M a r i n a M o s q u e r a , Xosc Rodr iguez , a n d Rober t Sala, " T h e First H u m a n Set t lement of E u r o p e , " JAnthrRes 51 (1995): 107-14 .

32 Klein, Human Career, pp . 2 2 4 - 6 2 . 33 Paul Mellars , The Neanderthal Legacy. An Archaeological Perspective fiom Western Europe (Princeton:

Pr ince ton Universi ty Press, 1996), pp. 2 4; Poir ier , Understanding Human Evolution, pp. 2 6 6 - 9 7 . 34 Mellars , Neanderthal Legacy, pp. 2 4 ־ ; Fred H. Smi th , " T h e Neander ta l s : Evolut ionary D e a d

Ends or Ancestors of M o d e r n People?" JAnthrRes 47 ( S u m m e r 1991): 2 1 9 - 3 8 ; G. Bräuer , " N e w Evidence on the Trans i t iona l Per iod Between N e a n d e r t h a l a n d M o d e r n M a n , " JHumEvol 10 (1981): 4 6 7 - 7 4 .

35 Mellars , Neanderthal Legacy, pp . 56 77, 9 5 - 1 4 0 ; Klein, Human Career, pp . 2 6 4 - 3 4 3 ; Gowlet t , Ascent to Civilization, pp. 1 10-13; W y m c r , Palaeolithic Age, pp . 145-56; Dickson, Ancient Preludes, pp. 2 0 9 - 1 4 ; Bra idwood , Prehistoric Men, pp . 50 58.


precision grasping, development of shoulders, ribs, and waist to aid movement and maneuverability, a more sophisticated brain structure leading to increased cognitive skills, and perhaps a rudimentary form of speech. H. erectus, at around 1.4 mya, and perhaps earlier, spread out of Africa into Southwest Asia, the Far East, and by 1.0 mya perhaps to Europe. This last assertion is contro-versial, since the earliest human fossils found there (Atapuerca, Gran Dolina, Spain) may constitute a different species altogether, and more recent ones, dat-ing to ca. 0.5 mya and later, so far diverge from H. erectus as to be frequently distinguished by the term archaic / / . sapiens. 111 Africa H. erectus had been replaced by anatomically modern humans by 100,000 B.P.,36 By this time, therefore, three distinct species of early man coexisted: late H. erectus (or archa-ic H. sapiens) in the Far East, H. sapiens neanderthalensis in Europe, and H. sapiens sapiens in Africa.

The question of the spread and distribution of anatomically modern H. sapiens throughout the Old World forms the center of an ongoing controversy. The two ״Multiregional

competing theories accept that H. erectus (— H. ergaster) spread from Africa by 1.4 evolution" vs. "Out mya and settled throughout Southwest Asia and the Far East, and that either of Africa"

late Ii. erectus or archaic H. sapiens populated Europe. There agreement ends.37

One group of scholars opts for a "Multiregional Evolution," which argues that anatomically modern humans developed wherever earlier non-modern ones (//. habilis, H. erectus, archaic II sapiens, and H. sapiens neanderthalensis) lived.38 A con-tinuous gene flow among the populations maintained a homogeneous and syn-chronous evolutionary development everywhere. The second group adheres to the theory dubbed "Out of Africa."39 Proponents of this group posit a second movement, dating to ca. 60,000 50,000 B. P., during which time modern or near modern H. sapiens of Africa fanned out and supplanted archaic II sapiens

36 T h e earliest specimens of / / . sapiens sapiens in Afr ica c o m e f rom the O m o River Valley of Eth iopia a n d f r o m Eyasi a n d Laetoli in T a n z a n i a a n d da te to ca. 120 ,000-130 ,000 B. P. Poirier, Understanding Human Evolution, pp. 313 16.

37 T h e controversy is s o m e w h a t more compl ica ted t h a n descr ibed, since var iat ions to these models have been offered as well. Nevertheless, the two hypotheses described fo rm the basic divide. See Leslie C . Aiello, " T h e Fossil Evidence for M o d e r n H u m a n Or ig ins in Africa: A Revised View," AmerAnthr 95 (1993): 73 96.

38 Cf. Klein, " M o d e r n H u m a n Orig ins ," pp . 179 91; Leakey, Origin of Humankind, pp . 83 99; Milford H. WolpofT, Alan G . T h o r n e , Fred H. Smi th , David W . Frayer , a n d Geof f rey Ci. Pope, "Mul t i reg iona l Evolut ion: A Wor ld-wide Source for M o d e r n H u m a n Popula t ions ," in Origins of Anatomically Modern Humans. M a t t h e w H. Nitecki and Doris V. Nitecki, eds. (New York: P l enum Press, 1994), pp . 175 99.

39 Cf. Chr i s Str inger a n d R o b i n M c K i e , African Exodus (London: J o n a t h a n C a p e , 1996); Chr i s tophe r B. Str inger , " O u t of Afr ica A Personal History," in Origins of Anatomically Modern Humans., p p . 149-72; Klein, " M o d e r n H u m a n Or ig ins , " pp. 179-91; Leakey, Origin of Humankind, pp. 83 99; Aiel lü , "Fossil Evidence ," pp . 73 96.

CHAPTER ONE 2 0

populations in Eurasia and the Neanderthals of Europe. Regardless of the valid-ity of either theory, anatomically modern humans, Ii. sapiens sapiens, dominate the Old World by 30,000 B. P.40

B. Early Hominid Subsistence Strategies

Diet and tool-wear We must now turn our attention directly to the question at hand: how did food analysis technology develop during the evolution of man, and what role did it play in

that evolution? Although tools can serve many functions, such as weapons for defense or offense, many can be associated with the acquisition, preparation, or processing of food, and so can tell us much about early man's subsistence strate-gies. Although modern experiments with making stone tools can imply the pur-poses for which tools were used, it remains difficult to prove these potential uses. More recently, studies under a microscope of wear patterns on stone tools allow scholars to determine the material on which the tool was used. Sometimes parti-clcs of the material adhere to the tool and can be seen under magnification. So, for instance, flint tools at Koobi Fora, in Kenya, showed polish consistent with cutting meat, plants, and wood. Not every instance, however, would have been related to food, since not all plants would have been eaten. Additionally, study of tool marks on bone has, for limited types of stone, provided additional help in determining the actual use of some stone tools. Bones at Olduvai Gorge and at Koobi Fora, for example, show clear evidence of having been cut or scraped while fresh.41 But modern primates are not totally carnivorous; some plant foods in varying proportions make up their diet. So it probably was with early man.

4(1 Aicllo, "Fossil Ev idence ," pp . 81 84. For s u m m a t i o n s of the controversy, sec F. Clark H o w -ell, "A C h r o n o s t r a d g r a p h i c a n d T a x o n o m i c F r a m e w o r k of the Or ig ins of M o d e r n H u m a n s , " in Origins of Anatomically Modem Humans, pp. 253 319. Anatomical ly m o d e r n H. sapiens w h o a p p e a r e d in Israel at Skhul as early as 120,000 B. P. a n d at Q a f z e h by 90 ,000 B. P. were c o n t e m p o r a r y with Neander tha l s , w h o supe rceded them ca. 75,000 B. P., a n d so were not ancestors to ana tomi -tal ly m o d e r n / / . sapiens a p p e a r i n g in E u r o p e ca. 40 ,000 B. P. T h e latest N e a n d e r t h a l recorded is at the K e b a r a C a v e on the western slope of M t . C a r m e l a n d dates as late as 60 ,000 B. P. Klein, Human Career, pp. 3 3 9 - 4 2 ; N o r b e r t Merc i e r a n d Hé lène Val ladas , " T h e r m o l u m i n e s c e n c e Dates for the Paleoli thic Levan t , " in Late Quaternary Chronology and Paleoclimates of the Eastern Mediterranean. O f e r Bar-Yosef and R e n e e S. Kra , eds. (Tuscon, Az.: Universi ty of Ar izona , 1994), p. 18. See also A n t h o n y E. Marks , " T h e Midd le a n d U p p e r Palaeoli thic of the N e a r East and the Nile Valley: T h e Problem of Cul tu ra l T r a n s f o r m a t i o n s , " in The Emergence of Modern Humans. An Archaeological Perspective. Paul Mellars , ed . (I thaca: Cornel l Universi ty Press, 1990), pp . 6 0 - 6 4 . N e w evidence f r o m J a v a indicates that ana tomica l ly m o d e r n II. sapiens in the Fa r East were c o n t e m p o r a r y with H. erectus d o w n to ca. 27 ,000 B. P. See Swisher et al, "Latest Homo erectus of J a v a , " pp . 1870-74 .

41 Isaac, "Archaeology of H u m a n Or ig ins , " pp. 132-34; Gowlet t , Ascent to Civilization, pp. 52 5 3 .


Wear patterns on stone tools or cut marks on bone, therefore, can provide only part of the picture of early hominid diet.

Also helpful in determining the types of foods consumed by the earliest Diet, tooth size, and

hominids is the study of tooth size and dental wear patterns.42 Studies on dental dental-wear analysis

wear and tooth size of early pre-hominid and australopithecine inhabitants of eastern and southern Africa in comparison with modern primates, for example, provide general knowledge of the diet of early man, and may indicate differ-ences among the species. These differences may also point to changes in dietary habits and habitat occupations coincident with climatic changes and the appear-ance of tool making and tool-use at ca. 2.5 mya.

Orthographic and wear analyses of australopithecince teeth indicate that their Australopithecine diet

diet probably consisted of soft foods, such as fruits and foliage, as well as nuts, grasses, cereals, and bulbs and tubers. T h e latter group, being tougher, would have left their marks on the teeth. The determination of specific kinds of plant foods eaten and the proportion of plant to meat consumed by early hominids, however, is as yet impossible, since plant-food remains in Plio-Pleistocene archaeological contexts are, for all intents and purposes, non-existent. Prior to the use of fire to render some plant foods edible, or at least palatable, selection of plant foods must have been impeded by their palatability, digestibility, harm-fullness, availability, and ease of acquisition.43 Lack of tools probably restricted consumption to easily obtainable, more pliable foods gathered locally and need-ing little or no further preparation. This would, doubtless, also restrict the size of animals eaten to the smaller mammals, insects, and perhaps fish. Fish bones, pri-marily catfish (clarias) and tilapia (cichlidae·), have been found in Beds I and II at Olduvai Gorge. These lake-margin paleoenvironments were home to both P. boisei and H. habilis. Opportunity to consume fish probably depended upon catching them by hand during dry seasons.44

T h e earliest "tools" used by the first hominids, therefore, were probably items

12 P. S. U n g a r a n d F. E. G r i n e , " Incisor Size a n d W e a r in Australopithecus africanus a n d Paranthro-pus robustus" JHumEvol 20 (1991): 3 1 3 - 4 0 ; Alan S. R y a n a n d D o n a l d C . J o h a n s o n , "Ante r io r Denta l M i c r o w e a r in Australopithecus afarensis״. C o m p a r i s o n s with H u m a n a n d N o n h u m a n Pri-m a t e s , " JHumEvol 18 (1989): 2 3 5 - 6 8 ; R i c h a r d F. Kay a n d Freder ick E. Gr ine , " Tooth M o r p h o l o -gy, W e a r a n d Diet in Australopithecus a n d Paranthropus f rom S o u t h e r n Afr ica ," in Evolutionär1׳ History, p p . 4 2 7 - 4 7 .

t;i A n n Brower Stahl , " H o m i n i d Die tary Selection Before Fire," CurrAnthr 25, no. 2 (April 1984): 151 68; J e a n n e M . Sept , "Beyond Bones: Archaeologica l Sites, Ear ly H o m i n i d Subsis-tence, a n d the Costs a n d Benefits of Exploi t ing Wild Plant Foods in East Afr ican River ine L a n d -scapes ," JHumEvol 27 (1994): 295 320.

" Kath lyn M . Stewar t , "Ear ly H o m i n i d Utilisation of Fish Resources a n d Impl icat ions for Sea-sonali ty a n d Behav iour , " JHumEvol 27 (1994): 2 2 9 - 4 5 : H a y , " O l d u v a i Gorge : A Case His tory ," p p . 3 0 - 3 1 .

CI !AFTER ONE 2 2

which came to hand and were used practically unaltered for some simple pur-pose, such as knocking fruit from trees, digging roots and bulbs, or killing small animals. These could take the form of sticks, unaltered rocks, or discarded bone, all of which would have left little or no trace in the archaeological record. Mod-ern chimpanzees, for example, use small twigs as probes inserted into nests to extract termites, and large sticks and stones to crack nuts, even transporting stones to the site for that purpose. They even occasionally consume meat. Cap-tive capuchin monkeys have also been observed to make and use digging sticks similar to those of the !Kung San, a modern hunter-gatherer society of the Kala-hari Desert of Botswana. Unlike the !Kung, however, capuchin monkeys do not periodically retouch their tools, and they abandon them after use.45 The various australopithecines, therefore, probably functioned at this level, although some differences among them are discernible.

P. robustus, relative to estimated body weight, had smaller anterior (incisors and canines) but larger posterior (molars) teeth than did the gracile australop-ithecines, A. afarensis and A. africanus. T h e posterior teeth were used for crushing a n d / o r grinding during mastication.46 Wear patterns on incisors of the gracile species indicate more abrasion from grit and more frequent use. What this means specifically for their dietary habits is as yet unclear. It seems likely, though, that the robust hominids enjoyed a "hard-object" diet made up more of items like seeds that were encased in a hard outer shell, while the gracile forms ate a greater variety of foods, especially leaves and stems. This does not indicate exclusivity of dietary choice, only apparent preference.

Microwear patterns may also indicate a seasonal consumption of various foods. Studies of A. afarensis teeth, for example, indicate that changes in wear patterns may imply that teeth show more polish and striations when the hominid is eating foods in a forested area during wet seasons, and more flaking and pitting when consuming hard, gritty foods, such as seeds and roots, in a savannah area during dry periods. If so, then it may indicate that this species was not only predominantly herbivorous but also occupied different habitats at different times.47 Early hominids, therefore, in general probably had a diet made up of fruits, leaves, nuts, roots, seeds, and grasses, and, at some time and in vary-

45 R i c h a r d Potts, Early Hominid Activities at Olduvai (New York: Aldine D e Gruy t e r , 1988), p. 233. G r e g o r y Cha r l e s W e s t e r g a a r d a n d S t e p h e n J . Suomi . " T h e Produc t ion a n d Use of Digging T o o l s by Monkeys : Λ N o n h u m a n Pr ima te M o d e l of a H o m i n i d Subsis tence Activity," JAnthrRes 51 (Spring 1995): 1 8. T h e use of the digging stick, however , m a y have been an innovat ion of Homo. Sec W . C . M c G r e w , in Stahl , " H o m i n i d Die tary Select ion," p. 160.

Potts, Early Hominid Activities, pp <״ . 282 84; W h i t e et al, "Australopithecus ramidus," p. 312; W o o d a n d Ellis, in Fossil Man, pp. 101 24; H y l a n d e r , " Impl ica t ions , " pp . 75 77.

47 R y a n a n d j o h a n s o n , "Ante r io r Den ta l M i c r o w e a r , " p. 265; Sept , "Beyond Bones ," p . 301.


ing degree, animals that ate the latter.48 The major difference between the robust and gracile forms is that the latter tended more toward softer foods.

T h e emergence of genus Homo and the invention of stone tools ca. 2.5 mya, Diet of genus

followed by climatic change ca. 0.5 mya later, initiated a major dietary shift H o m o

among early hominids. The trend to smaller posterior teeth continued in genus Homo and was probably related to dietary change from one largely vegetarian to one predominantly omnivorous. T o judge from evidence from Atapuerca, Spain, dated to the European Middle Pleistocene period, the contention that the development of food preparation techniques led to further reduction in posterior teeth size until the level presently seen in modern H. sapiens sapiens, however, is subject to dispute.49 Meat became a significant part of man's diet, although what percentage it assumed compared to plant and other foods is unknown. The shift to a heavier concentration of meat in the diet may have resulted from a trade-off in the physical development of genus Homo. Increased brain size and function require a higher caloric intake best achieved through an increase in meat con-sumption. The change to a more meaty diet, however, may not have occurred smoothly. One H. erectus individual from Koobi Fora, dated to ca. 1.7 mya, showed bone development characteristic of an excess of vitamin A, perhaps the result of a diet too much dependent upon meat and internal organs, particularly liver."'0

If one can assume hominid meat-eating activity from the presence at an Meat eating

archaeological site of stone tools a n d / o r long bones that have percussion or cut marks or have been broken along the shaft rather than at the joint ends, then the species of animals processed with Oldowan-type tools and consumed by Homo were even at this early time quite varied. In Beds I and II at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania and along the O m o River near Koobi Fora in Kenya, for instance, perhaps H. habilis and certainly early H. erectus consumed not only moderate-sized animals, such as various bovids and gazelles, but also the larger hippopotamus, elephant, and giraffe.51 Whether he actively hunted for the

4 " J u l i a A. L e e - T h o r p , N i k o l a a s J . van der M e r w e , a n d C . K. Brain, "Die t of Australopithecus robustus at Swar tk rans f r o m Stable C a r b o n Isotopic Analysis," JHumEvol 27 (1994): 361 72; Bils-bo rough , "Diversity, Evolution a n d A d a p t i o n , " pp. 2 1 4 - 1 6 .

49 S o m e scholars, while accep t ing the inf luence of d ie tary c h a n g e on denta l activity as signifi-can t in the decrease in size of poster ior teeth, p re fe r to sec a biological cause as m o r e impor t an t . Cf . Jose M . B e r m ú d e z de C a s t r o a n d M . Elena Nicolas, "Poster ior Denta l Size Reduc t ion in Homin ids : T h e A t a p u e r c a Evidence ," A J PA 96 (1995): 3 4 5 - 5 1 .

M °י i t h e n , Prehistory of the Mind, 103 .רן; Klein, Human Career, p. 219; Bilsborough, "Diversi ty, Evolut ion a n d A d a p t i o n , " p. 215.

Potts, Early Hominid Activities, p. 130: Robe יי* r t J . Blumenschine , "Percuss ion Marks , T o o t h Marks , and Exper imenta l De te rmina t ions of the T i m i n g of H o m i n i d a n d Ca rn ivo re Access to Long Bones at FLKQnjanlhropus, O lduva i Gorge , T a n z a n i a , " JHumEvol 29 (1995): 21 51; H e n r y

CHAPTER ONE 2 4

large animals or merely capitalized on their deaths by other means to scavenge the carcass is unclear. T h e difficulty in distinguishing the one from the other can be illustrated by evidence, dated to ca. 0.5 mya, from Torralba and Ambrona in north central Spain. Fossilized bones represent elephants, rhinoc-eroses, horses, deer, and oxen. T h e bones, found in conjunction with stone tools and showing evidence of cutmarks, have been interpreted as the remains of kills by hunters, and, with respect to one particular elephant at Torralba, may represent the intentional driving of the animal into a bog where it was killed and butchered. O n the other hand, the sites may have originated in the accumulation of bones over a long period of time and merely indicate oppor-tunistic killing or the scavenging of already dead animals.52 Regardless of how he came upon the animal, stone tools allowed man to butcher the carcass by removing the hide and stripping the bones of their meat at the kill site or by cutting off the meatiest pieces, bone and all, and taking them to another loca-tion where in relative safety the meat could be cut away and the bones broken for their marrow.

Subsistence strategies: T h e task of determining early man ' s adaptive behavior to his changing hunting habitat is complicated by carnivore activity within the same environment .

T h e question of the competitiveness of early Homo vis-à-vis carnivores occu-pying the same ecosystem has received much attention, because how well he competed implies much about his intellectual and social development. T h e " M a n the Hunte r" model postulates that hunt ing behavior spawned physical and mental developments in early man that, through natural selection, led to a more successful competi tor. It fur ther argues that cooperative group hunt-ing proved the basis for the development of social bonds that led to primitive communities.5 3 Although primarily based on observed behavior of modern hunter-gatherer societies, the larger apes, and social carnivores, not on archaeological evidence, this theory carried the day among scholars until quite recently.

Glynn Isaac in the early 1970s espoused an alternative model which he

T . Bunn , "Ear ly Pleistocene H o m i n i d Fo rag ing Strategies Along the Ancestral O m o River at Koobi Fora , K e n y a , " JHumEvol 27 (1994): 2 4 7 - 6 6 . If the stone tools found in the vicinity of A. garhi in Midd le Awash , E th iop ia , a n d da ted to 2.5 m y a were used by this homin id for bu tche r ing animals , then his diet included the mea t a n d m a r r o w of the three- toed horse a n d ante lope . Cf. Heinzel ln et al, " E n v i r o n m e n t a n d Behavior , " pp . 625 29.

Poirier י2 , Understanding Human Evolution, ])p. 2 3 9 - 4 0 . Cf י3- . e.g. R. Ardrey , The Hunting Hypothesis (New York: Ban tam, 1976), esp. pp . 3 24; Sher -

wood L. W a s h b u r n a n d C . S. Lancas ter , " T h e Evolut ion of H u n t i n g , " in Man the Hunter. R. !}. Lee a n d I. D e V o r c , eds. (Chicago: Aldine Puhl. Co . , 1968), pp . 293 303, a n d Will iam S. Laugh-lin, " H u n t i n g : An In tegra t ing Biobehavior System a n d its Evolu t ionary I m p o r t a n c e , " in ibid., pp. 3 0 4 - 2 0 .


termed "food sharing."54 Based on study of archaeological sites containing fossil Food sharing

bones and primitive tools found in East Turkana, around Koobi Fora and Olorgesailie, he suggested that man not only hunted and foraged individually but also transported meat to a "home base" where others could share in its con-sumption. He saw this behavior, along with the development of speech and soci-etal rules, as basic to the development of human societies. In answer to critics who posed different interpretations about what went on at these occupation sites, Isaac altered his model from "food sharing" at living sites to areas of refuge and denoted this model as "central-place-foraging."55

Many questions have yet to be answered, but most recent models are varia- Foraging, scavenging.

tions of Isaac's proposals or reactions to them. Early and Middle Pleistocene and refuging

man was both hunter and scavenger, but most likely predominantly the latter. Upon killing the animal or finding a carcass, man could proceed to eat it on the spot, a strategy called "routed foraging."56 This, however, offers certain disad-vantages, such as danger from predators or other competitors and incomplete consumption because of lack of time or inability to butcher the carcass ade-quatcly. A minimalist view, therefore, sees early hominids as merely scavenging carnivore-ravaged bones for marrow and small amounts of meat. In this see-nario man is a poor competitor, living hand-to-mouth on little meat.57 An alter-nate strategy, called "refuging," lies in transporting all or part of the animal. This model suggests that Homo had early access to a carcass, which he transport-

ed whole or, most likely, from which he cut the meatiest parts with the assistance of stone tools and moved to a location at a distance from the kill or find spot where he further processed the meat before consuming it.58 Why he did so, to

54 For a collection of Issac's best works, see B a r b a r a Isaac, ed . The Archaeology of Human Origins. Papers by Glynn Isaac (Cambr idge : C a m b r i d g e Universi ty Press, 1989). T h e significance of his con-t r ibut ion is discussed in R o b e r t J . Blumenschine ' s review of the book, "Breakfast at Olorgesail ie: T h e Na tu ra l History A p p r o a c h to Early S tone Age Archaeo logy ," JHumEvol 21 (1991): 307 27.

55 Blumenschine , "Breakfast at Olorgesai l ie ," pp. 3 1 4 - 2 0 . Robe י6 r t J . Blumenschine , J o h n A. Caval lo , a n d Salvatore I). C a p a l d o , " C o m p e t i t i o n for C a r -

casses a n d Early H o m i n i d Behavioral Ecology: A Case S tudy a n d Concep tua l F r a m e w o r k , " JHumEvol 27 (1994): 197 213; R i cha rd Potts, " O n an Early H o m i n i d Scavenging Niche , " CurrAn-thr 29 (Feb. 1988): 153 55.

" ,L. R. Binford י7· C o m m e n t on 'Systematic Butchery ' by Plio-Pleistocene H o m i n i d s at O l d u -vai G o r g e , " CunAnthr 27 (1986): 4 4 4 - 4 6 . Views range f r o m the minimalist views of Binford, th rough Blumenschine , w h o believes that m a n h a d access to some mea t af ter the carnivores but first choice on m a r r o w and the bra in , to Bunn , w h o believes that Homo had early acccss to the meatiest pa r t of the an imal . See Blumenschine , "Percussion Marks , " p. 22; Bunn , "Rep ly , " Cur-rAnthr 29 (Feb. 1988): 135-49 .

H י8· o w far homin ids t ranspor ted the m e a t has implicat ions for evaluat ing their social organiza-tion. See James F. ( ) ' C o u n c i l , " O n Pl io /Ple is tocene Archaeological Sites a n d Cen t ra l Places," CunAnthr 38 (Feb. 1997): 86 88.

CHAPTER ONE 2 6

what extent this was habitual, and what social activity went on at the refuge area continues to spark controversy among paleoanthropologists.

J . S. Oliver sees refuging as an anti-predator strategy suggestive of human pat-terns antecedent to the development of home base-like areas.59 Transport allowed food to be consumed in a central location more safely and more leisure-ly without risk. Additionally, mothers and their altricial young could remain protected in a secluded area while the stronger members of the group foraged and then returned with the food. Although the motivation may not have been food sharing per se but merely the coïncidence of two anti-predator strategies, it may have served to develop societal bonds, create a sexual division of labor, and promote a hierarchical structure. Richard Potts suggests that the "home bases" were not living sites but caches where stone tools were located for use in process-ing meat brought to it. Although these areas could be reused or new ones estab-lished, actual time spent in any one place was probably minimal. T o Potts, "resource transport" encouraged individual interaction and so was key to man's social development.60 More recently, Lisa Rose and Fiona Marshall suggest a "resource-defense" model, whereby early man chose ideal sites for defense against predators and for access to resources, such as water, plant foods, and trees, to process and consume meat either hunted or scavenged.61 These sites, probably distributed throughout an expansive range, they contend, became, as Isaac had suggested, home bases or central places where cooperation, tool use, and personal interaction developed into social organization with some division of labor, though not necessarily at this stage sexually based.

Some scholars see a diversification in subsistence strategies with the appear-ance of H. erectus in East Africa ca. 1.8 mya. Based on a study of fossilized bones bearing cut marks a n d / o r percussion damage found in sites lacking evidence for stone tools, for example, Henry Bunn asserts that early H. erectus at Koobi Fora not only used but carried large tools up to 15 km. at a time — to process

Subsistence strategies

and development of

societies

H . erectus and

multiple subsistence

strategies

5 9 J . S. Ol iver , "Es t imates of H o m i n i d a n d Ca rn ivo re Involvement in the ELK ^injanthropus Fos-sil Assemblage: S o m e Socioecological Impl icat ions ," JHumEvol 27 (1994): 267 94.

60 Potts, Early Hominid Activities at Olduvai, pp . 235 47, 286 90; idem, " H o m i n i d Hunte r s : Prob-lems of Ident i fy ing the Earliest H u n t e r / G a t h e r e r s , " in Hominid Evolution and Community Ecology, pp . 129- 66; idem, " O n an Ear ly H o m i n i d Scavenging Niche , " CunAnthr 29 (Feb. 1988): 153-55; idem, " W h y the O l d o w a n : Plio-Pleistocene T o o l m a k i n g a n d the T r a n s p o r t of Resources ," JAnlhr-Res 47 ( S u m m e r 1991): 153 76. Sec also K a t h y D. Schick a n d Nicholas T h o t h , "Ear ly S tone Age Techno logy in Africa. A Review a n d Case S tudy into the N a t u r e a n d Funct ion of Sphero ids a n d Subsphero ids , " in Integrative Paths to the Past. Paleoanthropological Advances in Honor of F. Clark Howell. Rober t S. Cor rucc in i a n d Russell L. C i o c h o n , cds. (Englewood Cliffs, N . J . : Prent ice Hall, 1994), p p . 4 2 9 - 4 9 .

61 Lisa Rose a n d Fiona Marshal l , " M e a t Eat ing, H o m i n i d Sociality, and H o m e Bases Revisit-ed , " CunAnthr 37 (April 1996): 307 38.


meat from large animals, and rarely discarded them.62 Additionally, C. M. Monahan believes that H. erectus was an aggressive competitor who both hunted and scavenged. He had first access to carcasses and consumed meal and marrow before carnivores.63 Citing evidence from Bed II hominids at Olduvai and espc-daily H. erectus in the area of Koobi Fora in northern Kenya, he further suggests that H. erectus, using "multiple foraging strategies," took advantage of the various seasons, habitats, and food availability to extend the range of foods consumed. His larger body size, greater mobility, increased intelligence, advanced skill in tool making and use, and possibly the use of fire contributed to greater success in his ecological niche.

By the Middle Paleolithic, hunting, particularly for large animals such as cquids and bovids, rather than scavenging seems to have been the primary, though not the only, method of obtaining meat. This seems evident from the types of animal bones bearing cut marks found at sites in France at Combe Grenal and Mauran , in Germany at Lehringen, the Shanidar Cave in Iraq, and in the Crimea at Volgograd and Starosel'e.64 Use during this period of the heavy Levallois (lakes and the sharp, if smaller, Mousterian points seems to imply a desire for a heavier or a deeper penetrating spear and a more intense and, per-haps, efficient hunting strategy. Additionally, large birds, such as owls, falcons, partridges, and pigeons, as well as freshwater fish, eel, trout, and caip, for exam-pie, became part of the hominid diet. Plant foods were also probably part of the diet but, as with the Lower Pleistocene period, little evidence for them exists.65

This hunter-forager-fisher existence sufficed as long as food could be readily

ü2 Bunn, "Ear ly Pleistocene H o m i n i d Fo rag ing Strategies ," pp . 247 (56. Interestingly, the dis-coverers of A. garhi suggest that this homin id 2.5 m y a was t ranspor t ing his s tone tools to the site w h e r e he bu t che red his prey (or scavenged find). See Hcinzcl ln et al, " E n v i r o n m e n t a n d Behav-ior," pp . 6 2 5 - 2 9 .

63 C h r i s t o p h e r M o n a h a n , " N e w Zoolarchaeological Da ta f rom Bed II, O lduva i Gorge , T a n z a -nia: Implicat ions for H o m i n i d Behavior in the Early Pleistocene," JHumEvol 31 (1996): 9 3 128.

64 Philip G . Chase , "Scavenging a n d H u n t i n g in the Midd le Paleolithic. T h e Evidence f rom E u r o p e , " in Upper Pleistocene Prehistory of Western Eurasia. Universi ty M u s e u m M o n o g r a p h 54. Haro ld L. Dibble a n d An ta M o n t e t - W h i t e , cds. (Philadelphia: T h e Universi ty M u s e u m , 1988), pp. 2 2 5 - 3 2 ; Poirier , Understanding Human Evolution, pp . 2 7 4 - 7 8 .

65 Isaac, "Archaeology of H u m a n Or ig ins , " pp. 132-63; W y m c r , Palaeolithic Age, pp. 161 64; Stewar t , "Ear ly H o m i n i d Utilisation of Fish Resources ," pp. 233 35; Alison S. Brooks, Dav id M . Helgren , J o n S. C r a m e r , Alan Franklin, Wil l iam Hornyak , J o d y M . Keat ing , R i c h a r d G . Kle in , Will iam J. Rink, H e n r y Schwarcz , J . N. Leith Smi th , Kath lyn Stewart , N a n c y E. T o d d , J a c q u e s Verniers , a n d J o h n E. Ycllen, " D a t i n g a n d Con tex t of T h r e e Midd le S tone Age Sites with Bone Points in the U p p e r Semliki Valley, Z a i r e / ' Science 268 (28 April 1995): 5 4 8 53; a n d J o h n E. Ycllen, Alison S. Brooks, Els Cornel issen, Michae l J . M e h l m a n , a n d Kath lyn Stewart , "A Midd le S tone Age W o r k e d Bone Indus t ry f r o m K a t a n d a , U p p e r Semliki Valley, Za i re , " Science 268 (28 April 1995): 553 56; Poirier , Understanding Human Evolution, pp . 275-76.

CHAPTER ONE 2 8

obtained. It was essentially a mobile life — following the wandering herds of gazelle and deer as well as gathering whatever plant foods happened to be in season, such as wild cereals, pulses, and fruits.

Fire Plio-Plcistocene hominids probably consumed their food raw. How early man used fire to cook his meat remains unknown, but finds of patches of reddened or baked earth or artifacts showing signs of fire, in places like Koobi Fora and Chesowanja in Kenya, Gadeb and Middle Awash, Ethiopia, and Swartkrans in South Africa, indicate that he may have used fire as early as 1.6 mya.66 The aus-tralopithecine sites in East Africa lack clear evidence of burnt bones, and so fires there may have resulted from wild brush fires or volcanic activity rather than from controlled campfires. 111 any case, there is little evidence to show that hominids at this time were cooking or preserving food. The Member 3 site at Swartkrans, however, did yield burnt bones, primarily of antelopes, which also showed signs of butchery. Unfortunately, the data indicates that South African hominids, whether Homo or P. robustus is unknown, used fires only occasionally, probably as the opportunity presented itself rather than as a direct result of their own creation, and does not prove that they used fire for cooking.67 Uses of fire other than for cooking food, such as for defense against predators, warmth, craftmaking, and, particularly in a cave, for light, might also account for the cvi-dence.

Many scholars remain dubious of early hominid capacity to make and use fire, preferring to attribute this skill at the earliest to Homo sapiens, particularly the Neanderthals of the late Middle Pleistocene. Major factors cited for this con-elusion are the especial need for heat in the colder climate of Europe during the

66 R a n d y V. Bel lomo, " M e t h o d s of D e t e r m i n i n g Ear ly H o m i n i d Behavioral Activities Associât-ed with the Cont ro l l ed Use of Fire at Fx j j 20 M a i n , K o o b i Fora , K e n y a "JHumEvol 27 (1994): I 7395־ ; idem, "Ear ly Pleistocene Fire T e c h n o l o g y in N o r t h e r n K e n y a , " in Society, Culture, and Technology in Africa. S. Terr)• Childs, ed . S u p p l e m e n t to Vol. 11, M A S C A Research Papers in Sei-cnce a n d Archaeology (Philadelphia: Universi ty of Pennsylvania M u s e u m of Archaeology a n d Anthropology , 1994), pp . 16-28; J . D. C la rk a n d J . W . K. Harr is , "Fire a n d Its Role in Early H o m i n i d Lifeways," AfrArcheolRev 3 (1985): 3 - 2 7 ; M i k e Barbet t i , " T r a c e s of Fire in the Archaeo-logical R e c o r d , Before O n e Million Years Ago "JHumEvol 15 (1986): 7 7 1 8 1 ־ ; J . A . J . G o w l e t t , J . W . K. Harr is , 1). Wa l ton , a n d B. A. W o o d , "Ear ly Archaeological Sites, H o m i n i d R e m a i n s a n d T r a c e s of Fire f r o m C h e s o w a n j a , K e n y a , " Nature 294 (12 Nov. 1981): 125-29; Gowlet t , Ascent to Civilization, pp . 47, 5 6 - 5 7

('7 Isaac, "Archaeology of H u m a n Or ig ins , " p. 151; Prentiss S. De Jesus , " C o m m e n t s on the D e v e l o p m e n t of Pyro technology in Ear ly Societies, , in Origin and Early Development of Food-Producing יCultures in North-eastern Africa. Lech Krzyzaniak a n d Micha t Kobusiewicz, eds (Poznan: Polish A c a d e m y of Sciences, 1984), pp . 278 79; Char les K. Brain, " N e w In fo rmat ion f rom the Swar tk rans C a v e of Re levance to ' R o b u s t ' Aust ra lopi thecines ," in Evolutionary History, pp . 3 1 1 - 1 6 ; C . K. Brain a n d A. Sillen, "Ev idence f rom the Swar tk rans C a v e for the Earliest Use of Fire ," Nature 336 (1 Dec . 1988): 4 6 4 - 6 6 ; a n d G a m b l e , Timewalkers, p. 70.


Ice Age and archaeological evidence for controlled campfires defined by hearths.68 It has been noted, however, that increased evidence for fires, even for those probably resulting from bushes ignited by lightning strikes or from vol-canic activity, seems to follow the climatic shift to a cooler, drier climate and more open environment and the appearance of genus Homo, particularly H. erec-tus around 1.8 mya.69 His greater intellectual potential and capacity for move-ment render it possible, even likely, that lie may have used fire this early, even if he did not make it himself. Perhaps he removed a burning log from a smolder-ing tree trunk struck by lightning and took it back to his campsite or cave where lie maintained it until it went out. He then awaited another opportunity. But all this is speculation. Incontrovertible proof that man used controlled fire at this time must await scientific data that can conclusively link evidence at a specific site both for fire and for its direct association with human activity.70 This will most likely come in a cave dwelling where the site is less susceptible to distur-bance by wind, weather, water, or animal and other hominid damage or conta-mination.

Absent further finds, the honor of being the first to use fire to cook food prob- Cooking

ably belongs to Homo erectus in his early Middle Pleistocene cave at Zhoukoudi-an, near Beijing in northern China, datable to ca. 500,000 years B. P.71 He most likely brought animal carcasses back to his cave for further butchering and cook-ing. Signs of this activity come from layer upon layer of ashes, charcoal, and

68 So, for example , Steven R . J a m e s , " H o m i n i d Use of Fire in the Lower a n d M i d d l e Plcis-tocene. A Review of the Evidence , י CurrAnthr 30 (Feb. 1989): 1 26; Mellars י , .Neanderthal Legacy, pp . 295 301.

fi9 C la rk a n d Har r i s , "F i re a n d Its Role in Early H o m i n i d Lifeways," p. 6; V r b a , " L a t e Pl iocene Cl imat ic Events a n d H o m i n i d Evolu t ion ," pp . 405 26

70 Barbet t i , " T r a c e s of Fire" p p . 7 7 1 - 8 1 . 71 R o b e r t J . W e n k e , Patterns in Prehistory. Humankinds First Tiuee Million Tears. 3 rd ed. (New York:

O x f o r d Universi ty Press, 1990), pp . 145 47; Gowle t t , Ascent to Civilization, p. 57; W y m e r , Palae-olithic Age, pp . 7 6 7 7 ־ . T h e evidence for cooking in Locali ty 1 at Z h o u k o u d i a n r ema ins con t rovcr -sial. Cf. Lewis R. Binford a n d N a n c y M . S tone , " Z h o u k o u d i a n : A Closer Look," CurrAnthr 27, no . 5 (Dec. 1986): 467, the response to their article by J o h n W . Olsen , in ibid., pp . 4 7 0 - 7 1 , a n d their re jo inder , in ibid., p. 473 . S t raus notes the s t rong ev idence for paved hea r ths a n d excava ted hear ths wi th "dra f t c h a n n e l s " at the Pech de l 'Aze II site in France . H e dates this activity to ca. 300 ,000 to 200 ,000 year ago a n d a t t r ibutes it to Archa ic Homo sapiens. See L a w r e n c e G u y Strauss, " O n Early H o m i n i d Use of Fire ," CurrAnth 30, no. 4 (Aug.-Oct . 1989): 4 8 8 91. A m o r e recent theory holds that II. erectus, by 1.9 mya , used control led fires to cook p lan t foods, especially tubers , u p o n which he p laced grea t rel iance, especially in l imes of food shor tage . Cook ing , a c c o r d i n g to this a r g u m e n t , also led to closer male - female re la t ionships a n d a sexual division of labor in which w o m e n assumed the role of cook while m e n were hun t e r s a n d protectors . See R i c h a r d W . W r a n g h a m , J a m e s Ho l l and J o n e s , G r e g L a d e n , Dav id P h i l b c a m , a n d N a n c y - L o u Conkl in-Bri t -tain, " T h e R a w a n d the Stolen. C o o k i n g a n d the Ecology of H u m a n Orig ins , י CurrAnth 40, no. 5 י(Dec. 1999): 5 6 7 - 9 4 .

CHAPTER ONE 3 0

charred bones primarily of deer but also of bison, leopard, bear, wild boar, musk ox, and other medium to large-size animals. From the Middle Pleistocene site of Jisr Banat Yakub, in Israel, also come examples of burnt animal bones found in conjunction with Acheulian handaxes and cleavers made of basalt.72 Archaeolo-gists recently may have found a fireplace on the southern coast of Brittany in France, dated to ca. 465,000 B.P. T h e site has yielded burnt pebbles and char-coal, which may indicate a controlled fire but not cooking per se.73 At Terra Amata, in Nice, France, dated by some to ca. 400,000 B. P. but by others to no earlier than ca. 250,000 B. P., archaeologists have uncovered evidence, though disputed, not only of a circular hearth marked out by stones but also of lodgings, identified by post-holes, with the hearth at its center.74 The site seems to have been composed of temporary dwellings (8.0 111. χ 4.0 m.) near the sea occupied in the late spring and early summer by a population engaged in hunting. Bones of animals large and small, but especially of elephant, red deer, rabbit, and wild boar, appear; a few show signs of burning. Butchery certainly went on in the dwelling; whether cooking per se occurred as well is unknown. There is also some evidence for consumption of marine mussels. Since much of the evidence for the earliest use of fire for cooking in the Lower and Middle Pleistocene remains the subject of differing views, the question must remain open. 75

The best evidence for the early use of fire in Africa comes from Kalambo Falls in northern Zambia, where charred logs, perhaps fire-hardened tools, and red-dened areas indicate that early Homo sapiens may have been controlling and using fire by ca. 180,000 B. P.76 T h e clearest evidence for controlled fire, howev-er, comes from Europe, where at about the same time H. sapiens neanderthalensis was apparently constructing hearths near where he processed food. So, for instance, two small hearths in the Grotte du Lazaret, near Nice, dating to ca. 150,000-130,000 B. P., show signs of small fires of short duration, alongside which were found flints used for processing foods. Lewis Binford has interpreted two areas with different kinds of hearth in a cave at Combe Grenal, dated to ca. 110,000-100,000 B. P., as illustrative of Neanderthal social structure and tech-

7 2 J . D e s m o n d Cla rk , "Acheu l ian O c c u p a t i o n Sites in the M i d d l e East a n d Africa: A S tudy in Cu l tu ra l Var iabi l i ty ," AmerAnthr 68, 2 (1966): 219.

73 Michae l Baiter, " D i d Homo erectus T a m e Fire First?" Science 268 ( 1 6 J u n e 1995): 1570. 74 Paola Villa, Tena Amata and the Middle Pleistocene Archaeological Record of Southern France (Berkeley:

Univers i ty of Cal i forn ia Press, 1983), pp . xxi xxiii, 7 9 - 8 1 ; Gowlet t , Ascent to Civilization, pp . 56, 8 9 - 9 0 ; W y m e r , Palaeolithic Age, pp . 124-34 ; a n d Ian Tat tersa l l , The Last Neanderthal (New York: M a c M i l l a n , 1995), p. 72.

7 5 J a m e s , " H o m i n i d Use of Fire ," pp . 1 - 2 6 . 7 6 J a m e s , " H o m i n i d Use of Fire ," pp . 4 - 5 ; Klein, " S t o n e Age Prehis tory of Sou the rn Af r i ca , "

p. 33.


nology.77 The small hearth located on the periphery of the cave he explains as an area where males processed large, complete bones and the articular ends of major long bones using primarily side scrapers. The interior, larger hearth he describes as a placc where females, using notches and denticulates, processed crania and upper jaws, probed fragmented bones for marrow, and cooked meat. His interpretation that the evidence suggests a sexual division of labor where the two groups, as in modern ape societies, live in close proximity but only occasion-ally mix (for mating, for example) rather than in a living zone, or home-base type area, for cooperative living is open to dispute. Tha t sexual division of labor was associated with food transport and processing in some way seems highly likely; how early this occurred remains unknown.7 8 Some hearths are associated with seasonal dwellings, such as the ones at Terra Amata and Grotte du Lazaret in France, Cracow in Poland, and Molodova on the Dnestr River in the Ukraine.79 Although much of the evidence is open to variant interpretation, it is clear that the appearance of hearths and controlled fires in the late Middle Pleis-tocene constitutes a significant advance in hominid social evolution and proba-bly food technology.

The hearths of the European Middle Paleolithic consist of two basic types: Middle Paleolithic

open hearths and constructed hearths.80 The former, and most common, found hearths

for instance in France at Grotte du Lazaret, are usually small, 4050־ cm. in diameter, and lie on top of ground receiving little or no preparation. They were of short duration and rarely reached high temperatures. Identification of the lat-ter type is often disputed by archaeologists, but, where described, they are gen-erally categorized into one of three basic forms. "Paved" hearths, for example, in the early Middle Paleolithic site at Pech de l'Azé II, comprise areas up to ca. 1.0 meter in diameter paved with limestone blocks on top of which the lire was built. T h e "encircled" hearth, such as at the late Lower Paleolithic site at Terra Amata and at Grotte du Bison of the late Middle Paleolithic, was basically an arrangement of stones which, for protection from wind, surrounded the fire built on a prepared surface. The third type, or "excavated" hearth, at Pech de l'Azé

77 Binford 's ideas are discussed by Mellars , Neanderthal l e g a c y , . 6 קנן. 280 95, 357 078 M a r y C . St iner , " M o d e r n H u m a n Or ig ins - F a u n a f Perspectives," AnnRAnlhr 22 (1993):

60 61. 79 W y m e r , Palaeolithic Age, pp . 158 61. T h e Mous te r i an site at Gro t t e X V I nea r D o r d o g n e ,

France , da t ed to be tween 65 ,600 a n d 53 ,900 B. P., shows s t rong evidence for the use of fire on a shor t - te rm basis, p robab ly for w a r m t h a n d light but appa ren t ly not for cooking. See Jean -Ph i l i ppe Rigaud , Jan F. Simek, a n d Thierry Ge , "Mous t e r i an Fires f rom Gro t t e X V I (Dordogne , France) ," Antiquity 69 (Dec. 1995): 9 0 2 - 1 2 .

80 T h e s e hea r th types are described in Mellars , Neanderthal legacy, pp . 295 301. See also W y m e r , Palaeolithic Age, pp . 158 61.

CHAPTER ONE 3 2

II, for example, is a hole dug into the ground so that its sides protcctcd the fire built at the bottom. All of these hearths could serve to roast meat, cook vegcta-bles, and boil water, but would have been unsuitable for much else, since the usual temperature ofcampfi res rarely exceeds ca. 400° C. Tha t he was cooking vegetables and boiling water at this time, however, is incapable of proof. François Bordes reports finding at Pech de l'Azc II dug-out hearths with a chan-nel leading away from the ashes, which could have served to provide more oxy-gen, thereby creating a hotter fire. This characteristic, however, is more typical of Upper Paleolithic hearths.81

C. Hominid Intelligence

While man was developing ever more sophisticated tools, increasing his range of habitation, and broadening the variety of foods consumed, especially meats, he not only developed physically but also intellectually and socially. Prominent among physical changes which gave Homo advantages over other hominids were development in upper-body bone structure contributing to an agile bipedalism and a shift in thumb placement on the hand that resulted in precision grasping and manipulation. Alterations in tooth size and jaw musculature resulted from significant dietary changes, going from one essentially vegetarian to a more omnivorous one, which included meat. It was, however, the growth in brain capacity and complexity with its concomitant increase in cognitive abilities that had the greatest impact on developments in technology generally, but particu-larly in areas associated with food.

Types ()/'intelligence Determination of hominid intelligence is difficult at best; even the concept of intelligence is not a simple one. Steven Mithen, in his recent study on the devel-opment of the mind in prehistoric man, provides an excellent model for under-standing this area of hominid evolution. He identifies four distinct and separate types of intelligence: general intelligence, technological intelligence, natural his-torv intelligence, and social intelligence. He asserts, for instance, that while H. habilis possessed a general intelligence no greater than that of his hominid prede-cessors, his natural history intelligence betrays an increased ability to read signs in his environment (animal behavior or tracks) and to predict resource potential (food). His social intelligence increased over that of the australopithecines when he realized that group living assisted not only in defense but also in food pro-

81 Cla rk a n d Har r i s , "Fire and its Roles in Early H o m i n i d Lifeways," p. 10; Strauss, "Ear ly H o m i n i d Use of Fire ," pp François Bordes, A Tale of Two Caves (New York: H ;־91 488 . a r p e r a n d R o w , 1972), pp . 61 62.

כTHF, !.()WER AND MIDDLE PALEOLITHIC PERIODS

curement. His technical intelligence provided for a rudimentary knowledge of stone working, evident in his use of a restricted range of easily worked materials and, within narrow limits, in his conceptualization of resource requirements such that he engaged in tool transport to compensate for living areas lacking in stone. Uncertainty arises, however, in attributing some technical advances of II. habilis to an enlarged technical intelligence or to consequences of increased opportunities for learning in an expanding social environment.82 Study of simple Oldowan tools implies that the earliest hominids who made and used stone tools functioned at a level similar to the "pre-operational" mode of the great apes. They lacked the ability to organize and classify; neither could they plan for con-tingencies, such as pre-correcting errors. Their tools resulted basically from trial-and-error, and so showed only the crudest variety of shapes, although they dis-played some knowledge of acute angles and the adjustment of striking force and direction to produce a proper stone chip.iW

Hominids from H. erectus through H. sapiens neanderthalensis, particularly the lat- Planning ter, displayed significant advances in technical and social intelligence. Although Thomas Wynn asserts that the symmetry of Developed Oldowan bifacial tools marks a clear advance in the conceptualization of an end product, the ability to visualize is best seen in the development by H. erectus ca. 1.8 1.6 mya of the Acheulian handaxe.84 Possessing a d e a r idea of the shape and generalized func-tion of an end product requires the concept of simple planning. So, by the end of the Middle Paleolithic the intellectual prerequisites for advances in food tech-nology were becoming apparent , and included the ability (1) to identify and define a need, (2) to conceptualize an end product, and (3) to plan ahead. The fourth prerequisite is perhaps the most crucial and derives from man's growing technical and social intelligence, namely, the development of effective communi-cation.

Increased brain capacity and complexity, the development of a more struc- Communication

tured vocal tract, and the need to share information in a developing social milieu may have initiated the development of language and so the most far reaching aspect of social intelligence.85 Possessing the capability of speech is not, however, the same as speaking. Agreement on when man began to speak remains elusive. Tobias, for example, asserts that capability and need, tool mak-

82 M i t h e n , Prehistory of the Mind, 206 ,114 95 .קנן. !t:i T h o m a s W y n n , " T h e Intel l igence of O l d o w a n H o m i n i d s , " JHumEvol 10 (1981): 529 41;

Tob ia s , Olduvai Gorge, Vol . 4, pp. 8 3 2 - 3 5 ; M i t h e n , Prehistory of the M i n d , . 1 9 .קנן98, 117 8 6 ־84 W y n n , "Intel l igence of O l d o w a n H o m i n i d s , " p. 540; M i t h e n , Prehistory of the Mind, p. 96. 8 5 T h e a p p e a r a n c e of the Levallois m e t h o d in h a n d a x e p roduc t ion , for example , M i t h e n

ascribes less to technical advances t h a n to in fo rma t ion shar ing within m o r e highly deve loped social in terac t ion . M i t h e n , Prehistory of the Mind, p. 144.

CHAPTER THREE 3 4

ing for instance, were present with H. habilis, though the level of speech commu-nication would have been necessarily rudimentary. Mithen, on the other hand, contends that speech communication was not possible before the appearance of archaic H. sapiens or Neanderthal man. Others argue that speech did not appear before modern man developed fully.86 Although the evidence is unclear and sus-ceptible to varied interpretation, the development of cognitive abilities was relat-ed to alterations of diet. Changes in types of foods eaten and the increased skills in obtaining them by hunting, scavenging, and foraging, may have led to the development of subsistence strategies, such as food sharing, which in turn fos-tered small primitive communities wherein language and culture developed among early hominid populations. T h e exact process and sequence by which these evolutions occurred, however, remain open to debate. Thomas Wynn, for example, postulates that Homo erectus may have possessed the cognitive ability to perceive the perspective of his comrades and to integrate that into long-range planning to facilitate group hunting or foraging strategies which relied little on vocal communication.8 7

With all this change both in the physical and mental capacities of early man, the growth of vary ing food strategies, and the appearance of fledgling cultural entities, why does food technology over nearly two million years not progress beyond simple butchery and the most basic attempts at cooking? Mithen ascribes this relatively static situation, not just in the context of food technology but in human evolution generally, to the fact that the various intelligences were not fully integrated. Until man developed what he calls "cognitive fluidity," he could not be fully modern.8 8 This comes only with the onset of the Upper Pale-olithic period.

S(i Cf. Tob ia s , Olduvai Gorge, Vol . 4: 8 3 6 - 4 0 ; M i t h e n , Prehistory of the Mind, p . 142; T r a s k et al, "Or ig in s of S p e e c h , " pp . 6 9 - 9 4 .

87 T h o m a s W y n n , " T w o D e v e l o p m e n t s in the M i n d of Ear ly Homo," JAnthArch 12, no. 3 (Sept. 1993): 2 9 9 - 3 2 2 .

88 M i t h e n , Prehistory of the Mind, p p . 1 1 5 1 See also Gibson .־־46, 208 5 , "Too l Use, L a n g u a g e a n d Social Behavior , י pp י . 256 58, esp. p . 56: " H u m a n technology, for instance, is inextr icably l inked wi th h u m a n social s t ruc tu re . " F o r an oppos ing view on both h a n d axe p roduc t ion , espe-da i ly us ing the Levallois m e t h o d , a n d M o u s t e r i a n tools, see Dav idson a n d Noble , "Too l s a n d Language in H u m a n Evolu t ion ," pp . 369 82. Cf. also R i c h a r d G . Milo, "Ev idence for H o m i n i d Préda t ion at Klasics River M o u t h , Sou th Afr ica , a n d its Impl ica t ions for the Behav iour of Ear ly M o d e r n H u m a n s , " JAS 25 (1998): 123-26 ; a n d Danie l K a u f m a n , Archaeological Perspectives on the Origins of Modem Humans. A View from the Levant (Westpor t , C o n n . : Bergin & Garvey , 1999).

C H A F F E R T W O

UPPER PALEOLI THIC AND NE OL I THIC P E R I O D S

A. Upper Paleolithic Period

The Upper Paleolithic period was a time of significant and rapid change in the Blade tools

capabilities of man to adjust to and to function in his surroundings. T h e differ-ences, for example, between Middle and Upper Paleolithic tool kits are striking. Although blade tools, the kit generally associated with Upper Paleolithic popula-tions, can be found in late Middle Paleolithic contexts in both Africa and Europe, those of the later period show an originality, quality, and variety of shape lacking in the earlier era.1 Widespread in North Africa, the Middle East, and eastern Europe by 40,000 B. P. and in western Europe 7,000 years later, blade tools were long narrow blades, ranging up to 30 cm. in length, struck from a core and finished by retouching into various types of useful implements. Spe-cialization of use and an increasing standardization in shape characterize these tools, particularly in Europe, throughout the Upper Paleolithic. Tools included "tanged" and "notched" blades for arrow heads and small spears, "backed" blades for knives, a type of engraving tool called a burin, and side and end scrapers. So, for example, the Aurignacian kit (ca. 35,000 29,000 B. P.), charac-terized by long blades, side and end scrapers, and split-base bone points, was probably introduced into western Europe from farther east by ca. 34,000 B. P. Perigordian (= Gravettian) tools (ca. 29,000-21,000 B. P.), particularly backed bladelets, extended into Spain, central Europe, and southward into Italy.2 T h e

1 Blade tools appeared a m o n g Neander thals in Europe dur ing the Middle Paleolithic and anatomically modern h u m a n populations of Africa dur ing the Middle Stone Age. In Africa, where blade tools were never the sole tool kit and medium-sized flakes and the older Lcvallois flake tools retained popularity, locally developed tool kits were common . 1'. A. Mellars, " T h e Charac te r of the Middle -Upper Paleolithic Transi t ion in Southwest France," in 'The Explanation of Culture Change: Models in Prehistory. Colin Renfrew, ed. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1973), pp. 256 58; idem, Neanderthal Legacy, pp . 56 94; Gowlett , Ascent to Civilization, pp . 1 18 23; Klein, Human Career־, pp. 344 98; Wymer , Palaeolithic Age, pp . 145 56; Dickson, Ancient Preludes, pp. 215 25; Braidwood, Prehistoric Men, pp. 60 70.

2 T h e Epigravettian Period of Italy (ca. 20,000 10,000 B. P. is characterized by a variety of tools, such as burins, endscrapers, and foliate pieces, which show a regional variation, as well as bone implements and ornaments . Amilcare Bietti, " T h e Late U p p e r Paleolithic in Italy: An Overview," JWorldPrehist 4, no. 1 (1990): 120-34.

CHAPTER THREE 3 6

locally developed Solutrean kit (ca. 22,000-19,000 B. P.) of France and Spain included strongly standardized unifacial and bifacial foliate or leaf-shaped blades, particularly useful for large spear points. Among the innovations of the Magdalenian period (ca. 19,000 11,000 B. P.) are multiple, star-shaped borers, microblades, denticulated bladelets, and parrot-beak burins.3

Bone hols Blades were the first implements used to fashion bone and antler into other tools. Mousterian populations of Europe utilized bone and antler for tools, but the shaping of them into specific forms seems characteristic only of the Upper Paleolithic (Fig. 4).י Burins, for example, were used in the Solutrean era to carve wood, bone, ivory, and antler to make a variety of other tools, such as eyed sewing needles and spear-throwers, and during the Magdalenian period to con-struct trident spear-heads, unilateral and bilateral barbed harpoons, and fish hooks (Fig. 5). In Russia bone and antler tools took the form of semi-worked long bones used as burnishing tools for hides, as tables, digging sticks, and knives, while straight pieces of bone functioned as wedges or chisels. Bone and ivory also served as material for points, punches, and awls.5

Although late Middle Stone Age inhabitants in certain areas of Africa also used bone tools, they were generally not carefully made. O n e exception may come from three 90,000-year old sites at Katanda in the Upper Semliki River Valley in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire).6 Barbed and unbarbed bone points and a flat dagger-shaped object, made most likely by anatomically modern H. sapiens, were found in contexts with fish, primarily catfish (clarias and synodontis), and mammalian remains. The

;i Poirier, Understanding Human Evolution, pp . 3 0 3 - 0 4 ; Gowlet t , Ascent to Civilization, pp . 120 27; VVenke, Patterns in Prehistory, p. 174, Fig. 4.16; Mellars , " C h a r a c t e r of M i d d l e - U p p e r Palaeoli thic T rans i t i on , " p. 257; Klein, Human Career, pp. 360 64.

1 Cf . Lewis Binford, in c o m m e n t s to Randa l l Whi t e , "Re t h i n k i n g the M i d d l e / U p p e r Pale-olithic T rans i t i on , " CurrAnthr 23 (April 1982): 177, versus Leslie G . F r e e m a n , "Mous te r i an W o r k e d Bone f r o m C u e v a M o r i n (San tander , Spain): A Pre l iminary Descr ip t ion ," in Views of the Past. Essays in Old World Prehistory and Paleoanthropology. Leslie G . F r e e m a n , ed. (The Hague : M o u -ton Publishers , 1978), pp . 29 51 .

C י' . Michae l Bar ton , D e b o r a h 1. Olszewski, a n d N a n c y R. C o i n m a n , "Beyond the Grave r : Recons ider ing Burin Func t ion , " JFA 23, no. 1 (Spring 1996): 1 11-25; Mellars , " C h a r a c t e r of the M i d d l e - U p p e r Palaeoli thic T rans i t i on , " pp . 256 59; Ed i th M . Shimkin , " T h e U p p e r Paleolithic in N o r t h - C e n t r a l Eurasia: Evidence a n d Prob lems , " in Views of the Past, pp. 261 69.

Klein, "S ׳' tone Age Prehistory of S o u t h e r n Afr ica , " pp . 36 37; "Or ig ins of M o d e r n H u m a n Behavior ," Archaeology (Nov. Dec. 1995): 27; Alison S. Brooks, David M . H e l g r e n , J o n S. C r a m e r , Alan Frankl in , Wil l iam Hornyak , J o d y M . Keat ing . R i c h a r d G . Klein, Wil l iam J . Rink , H e n r y Schwarcz , J . N . Leith Smi th , Ka th lyn Stewar t , N a n c y E. T o d d , J a c q u e s Verniers , a n d J o h n E. Yellen, " D a t i n g a n d Con tex t of T h r e e M i d d l e S tone Age Sites with Bone Points in the U p p e r Semliki V a l l e y Z a i r e , " Science 268 (28 April 1995): 5 4 8 - 5 3 ; a n d J o h n Yellen, Alison S. Brooks, Els Cornel issen, Michae l J . M e h l m a n , a n d Ka th lyn Stewar t , "A Midd le S tone Age W o r k e d Bone Indust ry f r o m K a t a n d a , U p p e r Semliki Valley, Za i re , " Science 268 (28 April 1995): 5 3 5 6 ־ .

CHAPTER THREE 3 8

Fig. 4. Mousterian Flint Tools: 1. Convex side-scraper; 2. Levallois point; 3, 4, 5. Mousterian points; 6. Can ted scraper; 7. Transversal scraper; 8. Convergent scraper; 9. Double scraper; 10. Levallois flake. No. 2, f rom Houppeville, Normandy , and No. 10, from Corbiac, Dordogne. All others f rom Combe-Grena l , Dordogne, Layer 29. Bordes, Old Stone Age, Fig. 33. Courtesy of McGraw-Hil l Companies .

UPPF.R PALEOLITHIC AND NEOLITHIC PERIODS 69

Fig. 5. Final Perigordian Protomadgalcnian) Blade and Bone Tools: I. Borer; 2. Multiple burin 4. Bone point; 5. Pierced tooth; 6. Denticulated backed bladelet; 7. Backed bladelet; 8, 10. Dihedral burins on retouched blades; 9. Double dihedral burin; I 1. Retouched blade. All tools found at Laugerie-Haute, at Les Eyzies, Dordogne. Bordes, Old Stone Age, Fig. 55. Courtesy of McGraw-Hi l l Companies .

CHAPTER THREE 4 0

bone may have been shaped with a stone grinder and the points formed with a quartz flake rather than with a burin. Since the date is open to dispute and the find thus far seems unique among African sites, some due caution is warranted.7

In the Levant, particularly as seen in Layer I) of the Hayonim Cave, in western Galilee (ca. 30,000 B. P.), points and awls constitute most bone tools manufac-tured, but also found are polishers, spatulae, and perforated animal teeth, made primarily from deer and gazelle.8

Development of Besides developing a brain size considerably larger than that of H. erectus, for speech and symbol instance, between the late Middle Paleolithic and the early Upper Paleolithic

anatomically modern humans also experienced increased mental complexity and processing capacity leading to a sharp expansion of their cognitive abilities.9

They not only became conscious of themselves but also began to perceive them-selves as part of a larger society defined in time and space. Although H. erectus, archaic II. sapiens, and probably H. sapiens neanderthalensis could only mimic observed actions and pass on information in basically non-verbal modes of expression, anatomically modern / / . sapiens, while retaining this skill, through a process of cognitive development and enculturation additionally evolved a capacity for communication through speech and symbol.10 Mithen asserts that symbolic representation, that is, art, was not possible until man had the capacity to conceive of an image, to attach a meaning to it, and to possess a desire or need to transmit that idea through the image to another person. Each of these capacities existed in the human mind beforehand, but it was not, he argues, until about 40,000 B. P. in Europe that modern H. sapiens fused together the technical, social, and natural history domains of the brain. 111 other words, cog-nitive fluidity allowed him an "anthropomorphic" vision of the world." The ere-ation of statuettes in human form, particularly the Venus figures found in numerous sites from southwestern France to Russia, and in shapes of animals, as well as decoration of cave walls with scenes of hunting show early man's sense not only of the concept of time (whether portraying a past event or anticipation

7 T h e earliest ev idence for ana tomica l ly m o d e r n / / . sapiens in Afr ica , f r o m the Lower O m o Riv-er Valley of Eth iopia , da tes to ca. 1()(),()()() B. P. o r earl ier . Klein, " S t o n e Age Prehis tory of Sou th -c rn Afr ica , " p p . 3 4 - 3 6 .

H A. Be l fe r -Cohen a n d C). Bar-Yosef , " T h e Aur ignac i an a t H a y o n i m C a v e , " Paléorient 7, no. 2 (1981): 3 0 - 3 4 ; Isaac Gi lead , " T h e U p p e r Paleoli thic Per iod in the L e v a n t , " JWorldPrehist 5 (1991): 137-39 .

W יי e n k e , Patterns in Prehistory, pp . 151 56. 1,1 Mer l in D o n a l d , " H o m i n i d Encu l tu ra t ion a n d Cogni t ive Evolu t ion ," ArchaeolRevCamb 12, no.

2 (1993): 5 24; P. B. Pettit a n d B. A. S c h u m a n n , "Fal l ing into History: H o m i n i d Concep t ions of T i m e at the Midd le to U p p e r Palaeoli thic T r a n s i t i o n , " ArchaeolRevCamb 12, no. 2 (1993): 36 40; M i t h e n , Prehistory of the Mind, pp. 159 73.

11 M i t h e n , Prehistory of the Mind, pp . 159 73.

4 1 UPPF.R PALEOLITHIC AND NEOLITHIC PERIODS

of a future one) but also of symbol. So, also, cave art may have had a practical, didactic purpose. During the Last Glacial Maximum in Europe when survival was precarious and highly dependent upon certain game species, the drawings may have served to instruct succeeding generations on hunting techniques or knowledge of animal behavior.12

Variation among groups in separate regions may reflect a growing sense of identification of the individual or small extended family with a larger, perhaps ethnic group. Increased ethnic identity implies as well a heightened sense of self-conception. Besides the creation of statuettes in human form, this may also be seen in the propensity of Upper Paleolithic populations to decorate basically utilitarian tools with designs to create an aesthetically pleasing implement, as well as a useful one, and to create objects purely ornamental , such as jewelry, necklaces, and pendants, f rom bone, antler, and ivory, for no apparent reason other than for adornment to enhance their personal pleasure.13 Additionally, individual self-awareness seems also behind the new habit of anatomically mod-ern / / . sapiens in Africa, Europe, and Russia of burying their dead with selected grave goods and with the bodies intentionally placed in a certain position or arranged according to a specific orientation. Many of these burials, sometimes containing more than one body, in quantity and quality of grave goods may also show a growing sense of social distinction within the society and regional vari-ability among the groups.14

Lawrence G ־' u y St raus , " H u m a n G e o g r a p h y of the La te U p p e r Paleolithic in Wes te rn E u r o p e : Present State of the Q u e s t i o n , " JAnthrRes 47 ( S u m m e r 1991): 270. Ar twork in the Levan-tine U p p e r Paleolithic a p p e a r s m u c h later t h a n that of E u r o p e , p robab ly because the f o r m e r h a d a pa t t e rn of small social units a n d so requ i red little artistic expression. See Gi lead , " U p p e r Pale-olithic Per iod in the Levan t , " pp . 142 43.

13 Mellars , " C h a r a c t e r of the M i d d l e - U p p e r Palaeol i thic T r a n s i t i o n , " p p . 2 5 9 - 6 0 ; Shimkin , " U p p e r Paleolithic in N o r t h - C e n t r a l Euras i a , " pp . 269 84.

14 Pettit a n d S c h u m a n n , "Fal l ing into His tory ," pp . 25 50; A l e x a n d e r M a r s h a c k , "Ear ly H o m i n i d Symbol a n d Evolut ion of the H u m a n C a p a c i t y , " in The Emergence of Modern Humans. An Archaeological Perspective. Paul Mel lars , ed . (I thaca: Corne l l Universi ty Press, 1990), pp . 457 98; Bietti. " L a t e U p p e r Paleolithic in Italy," p p . 135 36; Sh imkin , " U p p e r Paleoli thic in N o r t h - C e n -tral Euras ia , " pp . 274—80; O l g a SofTcr, " U p p e r Paleoli thic C o n n u b i a , Réfug ia , a n d the Archaeo -logical R e c o r d f rom Eastern E u r o p e , " in The Pleistocene Old World. Regional Perspectives. O l g a Soffer , ed . (New York: P lenum Press, 1987), pp . 335 39; Klein, Human Career, pp . 378 85; W y m e r , Palae-olithic Age, pp . 2 5 0 - 6 7 ; Dickson, Ancient Preludes, pp . 237 38; J i r i Svoboda , V o j e n Lozek, a n d E m a n u e l Vlcek, Hunters Between East and West. The Paleolithic of Moravia (New York: P lenum Press, 1996), pp . 6 4 - 6 6 , 169 70. "Symbol ic b e h a v i o r " expressed t h rough cave ar t m a y have h a d its beginnings in the late Midd le Paleoli thic per iod , but its substant ia l increase in quant i ty , quali ty, a n d variabil i ty as the U p p e r Paleoli thic era progressed is significant. See Paul G . Bahn , " N e w Advances in the Field of Ice Age Ar t , " in Origins of Anatomically Modern Humans. M a t t h e w H. Ni tec-ki a n d Doris V. Nitecki, cds. (New York: P l enum Press, 1994), pp. 121 32. O n var ious in te rpré ta -tions appl ied to cave ar t , see W e like, Patterns in Prehistory, pp . 182 85.

CHAPTER THREE 4 2

Advanced planning The planning inherent behind the making of specialized and standardized tools, the creation of jewelry, the application of decoration to various artifacts, and the appearance of representational art on cave walls bespeak a level of intel-ligencc and intellectual conceptualization unknown in previous hominids.15 So, for instance, the barbed and unbarbed points worked from bone by anatomical-ly modern H. sapiens at the late Middle Stone Age sites of Ka tanda on the Upper Semliki River in the Democratic Republic of Congo exhibit a sense of planning in two ways. First, the fact that the bone was worked into a specific type of tool and not merely used as found implies that the maker was preparing his tools for a future need and for a specific purpose. And, second, the fact that the catfish, which were caught, included no juvenile examples implies that they were caught during the spawning season, in this case the rainy season. In other words, the bone implements were made to catch a certain kind of fish at a specific time of the year.16 T h e creation of workshop sites near sources of raw material, such as certain Gravettian sites in Romania , implies the application of forethought in the creation of stone tools.17

Changing settlement Although mobility continued to characterize hunter-gatherer societies of the patterns Upper Paleolithic period, certain improvements to individual sites, such as

cleaning out older debris or paving of floors with pebbles, imply a more perma-nent or settled attitude toward living space. These enhancements suggest a desire for longer stays at particular sites or the persistent return to the same space.18 Settlement sites seem generally to increase in size, perhaps ranging from 100 to 500 individuals at a few of the largest sites, such as the Solutrean rock shelter site at Laugeric Hau te and the Magdalenian open site at Solvieux in southwest France. At Abri Pataud, a rock shelter site containing fourteen habita-Hon levels ranging from the Aurignacian era to the proto-Magdalenian period, roughly 34,000-20,000 B. P., for example, the small size and arrangements of

Gowlet יי' t , Ascent to Civilization, pp. 128 33; Poirier, Understanding Human Evolution, pp. 3 0 5 1 ־ 3 ; Pettit a n d S c h u m a n n , "Falling into History," pp. 25 -50 .

.Yellen et al, "Middle Stone Age Worked Bone Industry," pp. 553 56 ׳"17 Pettit and S c h u m a n n , "Falling into History," pp. 29 -30 . IH Olga Sofler, J a m e s M . Adovasio, Ninelj L. Kornietz , Andrei A. Velichko, Yurii N.

Gr ibchenko, Brett R. Lenz, and Valeriy Yu. Suntsov, "Cul tura l Strat igraphy at Mezhir ich, an U p p e r Palaeolithic Site in Ukra ine with Multiple Occupa t ions , " Antiquity 71 (March 1997): 48 62; Gennadi i Pavlovich Grigor 'ev, " T h e Kostenki-Avdeevo Archaeological Cul ture and the Wi Mendorf-Pavlov-Kosten ki Avdeevo Cul tura l Uni ty ," in From Kostenki to Clovis. Upper Paleolithic-Paleo-Indian Adaptations. Olga Sofier and N. 1). Praslov, eds. (New York: Plenum Press, 1993), pp. 57 60; Dickson, Ancient Preludes, pp . 228 29; Mellars, " C h a r a c t e r of the Midd le -Upper Palaeolithic Trans i t ion ," pp. 266 67; N e n a Galan idou , "Home is Where the Hearth Is." The Spatial Organisation of the Upper Palaeolithic Rocksheiter Occupations at Klithi and Kastritsa in Northwest Greece. BAR Internat ional Series 687 (Oxford: British Archaeological Reports , 1997), pp. 137 40.


hearths in Aurignacian levels 7, 8, 12, and 14 indicate a population made up of expanded nuclear families or a series of such families stretched out along the cave site. The larger "bonfire-type" hearths of later Levels 4 (Noaillian) and 5 (Perigordian IV) imply larger family social units.19 Population densities, although this is less certain, seem also to have increased at this time.20 At least part of the increase is owed to population "packing," as mobile hunter-gatherers aban-doned Britain and northern Europe to escape the cold during the Last Glacial Maximum, ca. 29,000-16,000 B. P. The bitter cold and declining food supplies precipitated a gradual population shift southward where people sought refuge in southwest France, coastal Spain, and northern Italy.21 Population migration also occurred just before and during the Last Glacial Maximum in central and east-ern Europe and European Russia but present evidence does not allow a firm understanding of regional variation in reaction to glacial advancement, except to indicate that the movement was from west to east.22

Early Upper Paleolithic habitations reflected the increasingly colder climate just before and during the Last Glacial Maximum. In western and central Europe where caves were plentiful, small to large groups gathered about a single hearth or a series of hearths. At places like Laugerie Haute and Pech de la Bois-sicrc, further protection came from the construction of walls to support branches or animal skins to create lean-to-type dwellings within the cave or rock shelter.23

In open sites where caves were not so easily available, simple dwellings of vari-ous sizes became the norm. Although in western Europe numerous open sites have come to light, evidence for houses is rare.24 Small oval-shaped huts con-structed of mammoth bones and built about a hearth have come to light at Dol-ni Vêstonice (ca. 26,000 Β. P.) in the Czech Republic, but the best finds are in

l!' T h i s is d isputed, however . Cf. Dickson, Ancient Preludes, pp . 227 28; H a l l a m L. Movius , J r . , " T h e H e a r t h s of the U p p e r Per igordian a n d Aur ignac ian Hor i zons at the Abri Pa taud , Les Eyzics (Dordogne) , a n d T h e i r Possible Signif icance ," AmerAnthr 68, no. 2 (April 1966): 296 325; idem, Excavation of the Abri Pataud Ijes Eyzies (Dordogne). Stratigraphy. A m e r i c a n School of Prehistoric Resea rch , Bulletin 31 (Cambr idge , Mass. : H a r v a r d Universi ty Press, 1977); C a t h e r i n e Farizy, "Behaviora l a n d Cu l tu ra l C h a n g e s at the Midd le to U p p e r Paleolithic Trans i t ion in Wes te rn E u r o p e , " in Origins of Anatomically Modern Iiumans, pp . 98 99.

20 Mellars , " C h a r a c t e r of the M i d d l e - U p p e r Palaeol i thic T rans i t i on , " pp . 2 6 4 - 7 1 . But cf. W h i t e , " R e t h i n k i n g the M i d d l e / U p p e r Paleoli thic T r a n s i t i o n , " pp. 172 73

21 S t raus , " H u m a n G e o g r a p h y , " pp . 259 78; Michae l J o c h i m , "La te Pleistocene Ré fug ia in E u r o p e , " in Pleistocene Old World, pp . 3 1 7 - 3 1 ; Sh imkin , " U p p e r Paleolithic in N o r t h - C e n t r a l Euras ia , " p. 246.

22 O lga Soffer , " U p p e r Paleolithic Adap ta t ions in Cen t ra l a n d Eas tern E u r o p e a n d M a n - M a m -m o t h In te rac t ions , " in From Kostenki to Ctovis,31-49 .קנן; i dem, " U p p e r Paleoli thic C o n n u b i a , " pp. 333 48; Sh imkin , " U p p e r Paleoli thic in N o r t h - C e n t r a l Euras i a , " pp . 246.

23 Mel lars , " C h a r a c t e r of the M i d d l e - U p p e r Palaeoli thic T r a n s i t i o n , " pp . 266 67. 24 W y m e r , Palaeolithic Age, pp. 2 3 3 3 7 ־ ; Dickson, Ancient Preludes, p. 229.

CHAPTER THREE 4 4

the East European Plain of Ukraine and in Russia. Here excavators have unearthed large, oval structures, or "long houses," with several hearths arranged along the long axis.25 At Avdeevo (ca. 22,700-19,800 B. P.), on the Ragozna River west of the Don, for example, a long house with six hearths arranged in a single line was capable of sheltering many families at a time. At Kostenki I (ca. 24,000-18,000 B. P.), in the Don basin near Voronezh, three long houses each contained nine hearths arranged in a line.26 In Ukraine at Pushkari I (ca. 19,000-16,700 B. P.), on the Desna River, a long house made of mammoth bones and similarly arranged with three hearths has come to light, while other multi-dwelling settlements have been found along the Dnieper River at Mezhirich and Dobranichevka. (311 the Dnestr River at Molodova V, Horizon 6 (ca. 16,500 B. P.), archaeologists have found small, round or oval huts, usually from four to six meters in diameter, constructed of mammoth bones and cov-ered probably with hides, built about a single hearth.

Extended interaction Whereas Mousterian populations tended to use local resources, II. sapiens sapi-ens of the Upper Paleolithic roamed farther afield establishing contacts at great distances away. In the Perigord region of France, for instance, investigators have found seashells from coastal areas perhaps more than one hundred miles away. 111 Germany, the Magdalenian inhabitants obtained fossil shells and various minerals f rom other parts of Germany and mollusks from the Mediterranean area, f rom the Paris Basin, and from the Atlantic coast. Seashells have been found in the Jo rdan Valley, Negev, and Sinai, up to 60 miles from the coast. Also transported great distances by Levantine hunter-gatherers were basalt grinding stones and obsidian, the latter conveyed from sources perhaps more than five hundred miles away. Since these items camc from areas at a greater distance than hunter-gatherer populations would tend to roam, some sort of individual or group communication and social interaction, perhaps in a vaguely

25 S v o b o d a cl al, Hunters Between East and West, p p . 2 0 9 - 1 4 . T h e earliest a n d wes te rnmos t site is on the D n e s t r R ive r in the U k r a i n e at M o l o d o v a I. H o r i z o n 4, of late Mous t e r i an da te , w h e r e large m a m m o t h bones f o r m e d a lodging, p robab ly covered with skins a n d measu r ing ca. 1 0 x 7 meters . Sh imkin , " U p p e r Paleoli thic in N o r t h - C e n t r a l Euras ia , י pp י ,See also Poirier .־04 201 .Understanding Human Evolution, p. 302, a n d F r e d H. Smi th , " U p p e r Pleistocene H o m i n i d Evolut ion in S o u t h - C e n t r a l E u r o p e : A Review of the Ev idence a n d Analysis of T r e n d s , " CunAnthr 23 (Dec. 1982): 681 82. Da tes for Eas te rn E u r o p e a n a n d Russ ian sites c o m e pr imar i ly f r o m those listed in Yurii S tepanovich Svezhentscz , " R a d i o c a r b o n C h r o n o l o g y for the U p p e r Paleoli thic Sites on the East E u r o p e a n Pla in ," in From Kostenki to Clovis, pp . 23 30.

26 Gr igor ' ev , " T h e Kos tenki -Avdeevo Archaeological C u l t u r e , " pp . 5 7 - 5 8 ; W y m e r , Palaeolithic Age, pp . 2 3 7 - 4 6 ; Shimkin , " U p p e r Paleoli thic in N o r t h - C e n t r a l Euras ia , " pp . 201 27; Klein, Human Career, pp . 3 6 9 7 6 ־ ; G . P. Gr igor ' ev , "A N e w Recons t ruc t ion of the Above -g round Dwel l ing at Kos tenki , " CunAnthr 8 (1967): 344 49.


structured fashion, such as commercial barter or gift exchange, may be inferred.27 Larger settlements, denser populations, and individual and group interactions all point to significant social restructuring.

The idea that food could be stored for later consumption rather than eaten Food storage and

immediately at the kill site or soon after at a home base seems to have been for- long-term planning

eign to hominids of the Lower and Middle Paleolithic periods. Storage of food in above-ground facilities during winter months and on drying racks in below-ground facilities in the spring and summer months appears common among North American hunter-gatherers, but archaeological evidence for similar activ-ities in the Upper Paleolithic Old World is scarce. In Eastern Europe and Rus-sia, by 20,000 B. P. or earlier, houses were made of mammoth bones and had clearly defined living areas centered about a hearth. Some also possessed under-ground facilities for storing food.28 Storage pits at various early Upper Paleolith-ic sites, such as at Dobranichevka, Mezhirich, and Mczin in the Ukraine, and at Kostenki in Russia, ranged in size up to ca. 1.7 2.0 meters in diameter by 1.2 meters deep. Found either within the structures or outside of them, the pits con-tained the remains of various animals, such as mammoth , bison, reindeer, wolf, and arctic fox. The presence of storage facilities at what were either cold-wcath-er or warm-weather base camps, the latter occupied for as long as nine months, suggests a strong sense of long-range planning to accommodate future needs for food in a hostile climate where animal resources could be unpredictable at times. Olga Soffer suggests that the number of sites with storage pits increased after 18,000 B. P. She further concludes that the numbers of pits and their arrangement throughout the overall site and about individual huts indicate that inequality of social and economic status grew over time.29 It is difficult to judge the degree to which food storage was beginning to be practiced at this time, but the fact that it was engaged in to any degree implies that some sites served as

27 Mellars , " C h a r a c t e r of the M i d d l e - U p p e r Palaeolithic Trans i t ion , י pp י . '267-68; G e r d - C . Wenige r , " M a g d a l e n i a n Se t t lement Pat tern a n d Subsistence 111 Cen t r a l Eu rope . T h e Southwest-e in a n d Cen t ra l G e r m a n Cases, ' in Pleistocene Old World, pp י . 213 14; R o b i n Dennel l , European Economic Prehistory (London: Academic Press, 1983). pp . 9 3 94; Gi lead, " U p p e r Paleolithic Period in the Levant , " pp . 141-42 .

28 Lewis R. Biiilbrd, "Bones for Stones: Cons idera t ions of Analogues for Features F o u n d on the Cen t r a l Russian Plain ," in From Kostenki to Clovis, pp . 101-24; O l g a SolTer, "S torage , Sedent i sm a n d the Euras ian Palaeoli thic R e c o r d , " Antiquity 6 3 (1989): 7 1 9 - 3 2 .

Dennel יי2 l , European Economic Prehistory, p. 89; Pettit a n d S c h u m a n n , "Fall ing into His tory," pp. 2 9 - 3 0 . For s torage pits, sec Shimkin , " U p p e r Paleolithic 111 N o r t h - C e n t r a l Euras ia , " pp . 205 12 (Dobranichevka) , 2 1 2 - 1 3 (Me/in) , 2 1 4 - 1 5 (Yeliseyevichi), a n d 2 1 6 - 1 9 (Kostenki); Sofier et al, "Cu l tu ra l S t ra t ig raphy at Mezh i r i ch , " pp . 48 62.; idem, "S torage , Sedent ism a n d the Euras ian Palaeoli thic R e c o r d , " pp . 719 32, a n d idem, The Upper Paleolithic of the Central Russian Plain (New York: Academic Press, 1985), pp . 2 5 3 - 5 8 (storage strategies), 392 404 (storage ])its), 459 63 (con-trol of l abor a n d resources).

CHAPTER THREE 4 6

semi-permanent places where mobile hunter-gatherers returned repeatedly at certain times of the year. Although these storage pits cannot be considered examples of intensive food storage nor does their use suggest sedentism, they may constitute the beginnings of an emergent disposition toward both. 50

Upper Paleolithic Improved hearths typically found in Upper Paleolithic sites provide strong hearths and cooking evidence for the cooking of food. The hearths vary in size and construction. At

Abri Pataud in southwest France simple, prepared, roughly oval basins typify Aurignacian hearths, while elaborate ones of the Perigordian level show a range from small basin-shaped types through the larger "bonfire" type to oval-shaped hearths constructed in a well defined basin. Bone and wood found in late Auri-gnacian hearths imply the type of fuel used to prepare an open fire. Several of the later Perigordian hearths had associated with them smooth river stones clearly discolored by heat. These stones may have been used to increase the time that the fireplace would radiate heat or, it has been suggested, as "pot-boil-crs." These stones may have been heated in the fire and then placed in a con-tainer of water to heat it. Evidence is lacking, however, for any watertight con-tainer.31 One Perigordian hearth had a trench dug away from the hearth paral-lei with the cliff. Although the excavator postulates drainage as its purpose, it may have served the same aim as that proposed for channels associated with Aurignacian hearths in southwest France at the cave site of Roc de Combe and the open-air site at Corbioc, the Upper Solutrean site in southern Spain at Cue-va de Ambrosio, and the "long house" at Kostenki I, Horizon 1, in Russia. These channels may have served as draft-trenches designed to raise the heat of the fire above that of a regular campfire.32 O n e Eastern Gravettian (ca. 25,000 B. P.) hearth found at Dolni Vcstonice, in the Czech Republic, was surrounded by a clay and stone wall and may have served as a kiln to fire Venus figurines. Although this may be an isolated instance, if accurately interpreted, this site rep-resents one of the earliest attempts to raise temperatures high enough to fire clay

a technological innovation usually assigned to the Neolithic Period.33 At the same site archaeologists have also found small pits in close proximity to hearths.

30 So, for example , at Mezhi r ich . Soffer et al, "Cu l tu ra l S t ra t ig raphy at Mezh i r i ch , " pp . 4 9 6 2 ־ . For the dist inctions be tween s tor ing a n d non-s tor ing hun te r -ga the re r societies, see Alain Tes ta r t , " T h e Signif icance of Food S torage a m o n g H u n t e r - G a t h e r e r s : Res idence Pat terns , Popula t ion Densities, a n d Social Inequali t ies ," CunAnthr 23 (Oct. 1982): 5 2 3 - 3 7 .

31 Movius , " H e a r t h s of the U p p e r Per igordian a n d Aur ignac ian Hor izons , " pp . 2 9 6 - 3 2 5 . 32 Movius , Excavation of the Abri Pataud, Les Eyzies (Dordogne), pp . 62 65, esp. PI. 39 a n d Fig. 15;

idem, " H e a r t h s of the U p p e r Per igordian a n d Aur ignac ian Hor izons , " pp. 3 1 2 - 1 3 ; Bordes, Tale of Two Caves, pp . 6 1 - 6 2 ; Shimkin , " U p p e r Paleolithic in N o r t h - C e n t r a l Eurasia , י .p. 217 י

33 W y m e r , Palaeolithic Age, p. 239; Smi th , " U p p e r Pleistocene H o m i n i d Evolut ion," p. 681.


These have been identified as "boiling pits," where meat, stripped from the bones, were cooked. And finally, the central hearth of one dwelling at Mezhirich in the Ukraine was surrounded by mammoth bones that had been inserted into the ground, perhaps to create a spit to cook meat.34

In southwest Germany moderate and large Magdalenian sites frequently show a rather sophisticated hearth constructed of stone slabs of non-local origin. Dur-ing the same period two major types of hearth characterize the Paris Basin of France. T h e first, such as appears at Etiolles, is relatively flat, usually one to two meters in diameter but only five centimeters or less in depth, and contains numerous burnt stones. T h e second type, the basin-shaped hearth, varies between forty and eighty centimeters in diameter and from five to twenty ccn-timeters deep and is lined with stone slabs. T h e latter form, found, for example, at Pincevent and Verberie, is associated with numerous remains of butchered reindeer bones, some apparently broken for marrow.3 5

In the Levant most hearths were shallow, oval-shaped pits, usually numbering several to a site and frequently arranged in a line as in European locations. T w o open-air sites in the Abu Noshra basin of the Wadi Feiran in southern Sinai arc good examples. Abu Noshra I dates f rom ca. 35,800-29,500 B. P., while Abu Noshra II dates slightly later to 34,000 31,500 B. P.36 Excavators of the former site uncovered four hearths composed of circular stones surrounding a burn area. Hearth 4, the largest so far known in the Levant of this period, measuring 1.8 m. long by 2.3 m. wide and excavated to a depth of from ten to thirty-five centimeters, may have been used for a roasting pit, since bones and teeth of the Onager (.Equus hemionus), or wild ass, lay strewn about in the vicinity. Meat and bone /an t le r polish on burins and blade tools indicates that two of the other hearths supported meat processing as well. At Abu Noshra II, which contained twelve hearths, Feature 1, excavated to a depth of 30 cm., may have served a similar purpose, since bones of equids, goats, and birds have been found.37 Both sites were occupied seasonally, and provided a place where tools were made, animals butchered for their meat, hides prepared for clothes, and food cooked.

SofFer, "S '׳3 torage , Sedent i sm a n d the Euras ian Palaeoli thic R e c o r d , " p. 725; Sh imkin , " U p p e r Paleoli thic in N o r t h - C e n t r a l Euras ia , " p. 204.

35 Françoise Audouze , " T h e Paris Basin in M a g d a l e n i a n T i m e s , " in Pleistocene Old World, pp. 183-200; Weniger , " M a g d a l e n a i n Set t lement Pa t te rn a n d Subsistence in Cen t ra l E u r o p e , " p. 203.

3 6 J a m e s L. Phillips, " T h e U p p e r Paleolithic C h r o n o l o g y of the Levant a n d the Nile Val ley ," in Late Quaternary Chronology and Paleoclimates of the Eastern Mediterranean. O f e r Bar-Yosef a n d R e n e e J . K r a , eds. (Tuscon, Az: T h e Universi ty of Ar i zona Press, 1994), 173 .כן; idem, " T h e U p p e r Pale-olithic of the W a d i Fe i ran , S o u t h e r n Sinai ," Paléorient 14, no. 2 (1988): 183 -200; idem, " U p p e r Paleolithic H u n t e r - G a t h e r e r s in the W a d i Fe i ran , S o u t h e r n S ina i , " in Pleistocene Old World, pp . 169-82; Gi lcad , " U p p e r Paleoli thic Per iod in the Levan t , " pp . 133 35.

37 Phillips, " U p p e r Paleoli thic of the W a d i Fe i r an , " pp . 188 99.

CHAPTER THREE 4 8

Β. Last Glacial Maximum

Turning point in T h e Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) marked a turning point in the development development of food of food technology. During this time and its immediate aftermath, called vari-

technology ously the Late Glacial, Terminal Pleistocene, or Epipaleolithic period, down to ca. 10,000 B. P., man began to expand the types of foods consumed, such as the wild grains, to process various kinds of foods by altering their form through pounding or grinding, and to store foods on a long-term basis to provide subsis-tence during anticipated leaner seasons. Significant climatic changes also marked this period and, although the cxact process and degree of influence are debatable, probably played an important role in the shift away from an essen-tially mobile hunter-gatherer lifestyle to one based on sedentism and agriculture. Discussion will concentrate on Southwest Asia, Europe, and Egypt, because the best and earliest evidence for these innovations derives from these areas.

At the onset of the Last Glacial Maximum the climate of Europe was essential-ly cold and dry, though there were some oscillations of temperature and rainfall amounts between 20,000 B. P. and 16,000 B. P. Following the abandonment of much of northern Europe and Britain after ca. 27,000 B. P. with its resultant "réfugia" into southwest France, the Late Glacial period (16,000-10,000) wit-nessed an increase in temperature and humidity. Although there were local vari-ations, in general Magdalenian populations in the Mediterranean environments increased and between 12,500 and 10,000 B. P. spread eastward and northward onto the Northern European Plain and into Denmark and Britain. In periglacial areas of central and eastern Europe populations shifted north and northwest. In Southwest Asia the L G M was similar to that of Europe, though the temperatures were probably somewhat milder. The Late Glacial period, however, was hyper-arid with high temperatures, though some short periods of increased rainfall did occur. In Egypt, the L G M was cool but so hyperarid that Lower Egypt was most-ly uninhabited. Few archaeological sites are known in Upper Egypt before ca. 21,000 B. P. By 12,500 B. P. rainfall increased while temperatures rose slightly.38

As early man's intellectual capacity and reasoning capabilities increased dra-

:5H Paul M . D o l u k h a n o v , " T h e P le i s tocene-Holocene Bounda ry . E n v i r o n m e n t a l Processes a n d Social Adap ta t i ons , " in From Kostenki to Clovis, pp . 189 96; St raus , ' ־ H u m a n G e o g r a p h y of the La te U p p e r Paleolithic in Wes t e rn E u r o p e , " pp . 2 5 9 7 8 ־ ; idem, " T h e Archaeo logy of the Pleis-t occnc -Ho locenc Trans i t ion in Sou thwes t E u r o p e , " in Humans at the End of the Ice Age. Lawrence G u y St raus , Berit Valent in Eriksen, J o n M . E r l andson , a n d Dav id R. Yesner , eds. (New York: P l enum Press, 1996), pp . 83 99; O f e r Bar-Yosef , " T h e Last Glacial M a x i m u m in the Med i t e r -r a n e a n L e v a n t , " in 77le World at 18000 BP. 2 Vols. O l g a Soffer a n d Clive G a m b l e , eds. (London: U n w i n H y m a n , 1990), 1: 5 8 77; idem, " T h e I m p a c t of La te Pleis tocene-Early Ho locene Cl imat ic C h a n g e s on H u m a n s in Southwes t Asia ," in Humans at the End of the Ice Age. L a w r e n c e G u y Straus ,


matically during the Upper Paleolithic he became more aware of his surround-ings and of himself and his relationship with other H. sapiens. He increased the quality and variety of useful tools and developed more efficient hunting methods to provide himself with more dependable sources of food and safer and warmer surroundings. The changing climate and a diversified food resource base encouraged a more settled life style. Nevertheless, man still remained essentially mobile, dependent, as he was, for many of his needs upon the seasonal availabil-ity of food resources, especially migratory animals, which provided not just food but also bone, antler, and ivory for tools, weapons, and non-utilitarian items, such as jewelry. Additionally, large animals, particularly mammoths, furnished bones to construct dwellings, hides with which to roof them, and fur for cloth-ing. With all this innovation, however, beyond improvements in hearth con-struction, there seems to have been little advancement in food processing tech-nologies before ca. 18,000 B. P.

Subsistence changes are among the most important developments of the Tunis, weapons, and

Upper Paleolithic, particularly in Europe during the Solutrean and Magdalen- changes in die1

ian periods when an increase in efficiency and versatility of blade tools gave added advantage to hunters. Of particular note is the development of composite tools by hafting large and small stone points onto wooden shafts or stone bladelets onto bone and ivory points to create spears and arrows.39 The use of

Berit Valen t in Eriksen, Jon M . Er landson , a n d David R . Yesner , eds. (New York: P l e n u m Press, 1996), pp . 61 78; a n d Angela E. Close, "Plus Ç a C h a n g e . T h e Ple is tocene-Holocene Trans i t ion in N o r t h e a s t Af r ica , " in ITumans at the End of the Ice Age, pp . 4 3 60.

39 O n ha f t ing in the Midd le Paleoli thic pe r iod , see Patr icia A n d e r s o n - G e r f a u d , "Aspects of Behav iour in the Midd le Palaeoli thic: Func t iona l Analysis of S tone Age Too l s f r o m Southwes t F r a n c e , " in The Emergence of Modern Humans. An Archaeological Perspective. Paul Mel lars , ed . (I thaca: Corne l l Univers i ty Press, 1990), pp . 406 10. Recen t finds at Schön ingcn , G e r m a n y , ca. sixty miles east of H a n n o v e r , of worked b r a n c h e s hav ing a d iagonal g roove at o n e end , possibly for the insert ion of a flake tool, m a y indicate the use of compos i te tools d u r i n g the Re insdor f Interglacial level 1 of Schön ingen II du r ing the Midd le Pleistocene. T h e tools were found iη context with m a n y m a m m a l bones , such as s traight- tusked e lephan t , rh inoceros , red deer , bea r , a n d horse, some showing signs of hav ing been bu t che red . Addit ional ly , in Re insdor f Interglacial level 4 exca-vators found th ree w o o d e n spears a n d a n o t h e r w o o d e n in s t rumen t s h a r p e n e d at bo th ends , per -haps a thrus t ing stick, all m a d e f rom the spruce tree. T h e spears , s h a r p e n e d at the end with the greatest weight a n d t ape red t he r e f rom, seem to have been used for th rowing ra the r than for thrust ing. Da ted to ca. 400 ,000 B. P., they would be the earliest spears yet known , a n t e d a t i n g the th rus t ing spear found at Leh r ingen by over 275 ,000 years. T h e s e finds a re at this po in t un ique , a n d so the quest ion of the earliest use of compos i te tools a n d h u n t i n g spears must r e ma i n an open one . If con f i rmed , they would alter significantly the received op in ion on the h u n t i n g capabili t ies, as well as the intellectual capacit ies, of Lower Paleoli thic hominids . See H a r t m u t T h i e m e , " L o w e r Palaeoli thic H u n t i n g Spears f r o m G e r m a n y , " Nature 385 (27 Feb. 1997): 807 10. For a similar c la im for Midd le S tone Age homin ids of Sou th Afr ica , see R i c h a r d G . Milo , "Ev idence for H o m i n i d P réda t ion at Klasies River M o u t h , Sou th Afr ica , a n d its Impl ica t ions for the Behav iour of Early M o d e r n H u m a n s , " JAS 25 (1998): 9 9 - 1 3 3 .

CHAPTER THREE 5 0

throwing spears and the bow and arrow allowed hunters to stand of!" at a safe distance while attacking large, swift, or dangerous prey.40 Although the evidence is open to varied interpretation, it seems that there was a shift from hunting sev-cral large species to a more specific selection among gregarious herd animals, such as red deer, various bovids, and, for France and Molodova V, particularly, horses and reindeer.41 Besides the hunting of individual animals, usually the very young or very old, of these species, animal drives or stampedes into ravines or over cliffs allowed Upper Paleolithic hunters working cooperatively to kill more animals at a time, including prime-age adults.42 In addition to large animals, such as mammoth and rhinoceros, which they had consumed during the Middle Paleolithic, they also hunted small mammals, such as wild pig, the smaller deer, ibex, and fox. Archaeological evidence for the consumption of birds, fish, partie-ularly salmon, and swift mammals implies that late Upper Paleolithic hunters developed nets, weirs, and traps. The proportion off ish in relation to meat and plants consumed by inhabitants of France, for example, was initially small, but by late Magdalenian times became more substantial, perhaps reaching sixteen per cent. Likewise, bird, fish, limpets, and tortoise entered the diet of the inhabi-tants of Late Stone Age Africa.43

Consumption of Tha t H. sapiens sapiens ate plants seems certain, but how much of his diet was plant foods devoted to them is unknown, since plant remains continue to be found rarely in

archaeological sites.44 As earlier, Upper Paleolithic man probably continued, where and when available, to rely on plant parts, such as fleshy fruits, flowers, and non-toxic seeds, immature leaves, shoots, tubers, enlarged roots, and bulbs,

40 W e n k e , Patterns in Prehistory, p. 176; S t raus , " H u m a n G e o g r a p h y , " p . 268; M a r y C. St incr , " M o d e r n H u m a n Or ig ins — Fauna l Perspectives, ' AnnRevAnthr 22 (1993): 69 70; Sh י imkin , " U p p e r Paleoli thic in N o r t h - C e n t r a l Euras ia , " p p . 2 6 6 - 6 7 ; Kle in , Human Career, pp . 3 7 4 - 7 6 .

41 Mellars , " C h a r a c t e r of the M i d d l e - U p p e r Palaeoli thic T r a n s i t i o n , " pp . 2 6 0 - 6 4 ; Straus, " H u m a n G e o g r a p h y , י pp י . 2 6 9 - 7 0 ; Luis Abel O r q u e r a , "Special izat ion a n d the M i d d l e / U p p e r Paleolithic Trans i t ion , ' CunAnthr 25 (Feb. 1984): 73 98; Sh י imkin , " U p p e r Paleoli thic in N o r t h -Cen t r a l Euras ia , " pp . 235 45; Gowle t t , Ascent to Civilization, pp . 150-51 . But cf. Randa l l Whi t e , " R e t h i n k i n g the M i d d l e / U p p e r Paleoli thic T r a n s i t i o n , " p p . 170 71.

42 R i c h a r d G . Kle in , " S t o n e Age P réda t ion o n La rge Afr ican Bovids," JAS 5 (1978): 195-217; Sh imkin , " U p p e r Paleolithic in N o r t h - C e n t r a l Euras ia , " p. 245; Dixie West , Hunting Strategies in Central Europe During the IMSI Glacial Maximum. B A R In te rna t iona l Scries 672 (Oxford : British Archaeologica l Repor t s , 1997).

4:i Mel lars , " C h a r a c t e r of the M i d d l e - U p p e r Palaeol i thic T rans i t i on , " pp . 2 6 0 - 6 4 ; Brian Hay-den , Br ian Ch i sho lm, a n d H e n r y P. Schwarcz , "F ish ing a n d Foraging: M a r i n e Resources in the U p p e r Paleoli thic of F r a n c e , " in Pleistocene Old World, p p . 2 7 9 - 9 1 ; Klein, "S tone Age Prehis tory of S o u t h e r n Afr ica , " pp . 175 77; Straus , " H u m a n G e o g r a p h y , " p. 268; Denne l l , European Economic Prehistory, pp . 87 89; Dickson, Ancient Preludes, p. 233.

44 In Dwel l ing 4 at Mezh i r i ch in the Ukra ine , excava tors have found microscopic evidence of berr ies a n d seed plants . SofFer et al, "Cu l tu ra l S t ra t ig raphy at Mezh i r i ch , " p. 59.


gathered and consumed in their raw state without any further processing.45 A few plants did require some technological application. Microwear analysis on the teeth of Neanderthal and both archaic and anatomically modern human specimens, for example, reveals that the latter two hominids possessed teeth that show wear typical of what one would expect from a diet consisting proportional-ly of more vegetable matter than meat. T h e teeth of Neanderthals showed teeth consistent with a more carnivorous diet.46 Analysis of toothwear or tooth mor-phology, however, can only distinguish in general terms whether a hominid has eaten a diet based primarily on meat or on plants; it cannot determine which plants were consumed or whether they were always eaten in raw or processed form. Some plants, because of high concentrations of cellulose and starch, are hard to digest in their raw state or else contain harmful toxins and must be cooked before eaten. Since Upper Paleolithic man apparently expanded his abil-ity to make longer-lasting and hotter fires and to cook animal foods in prepared or stone-lined hearths, some of which were excavated to allow for roasting spits, and perhaps to boil water, it seems likely that many plants earlier avoided or lit-tie consumed assumed a larger role in an expanding omnivorous diet. In this regard the find at Dolni Vêstonice II in the Czech Republic of what has been interpreted as a "plant-food mush" of indeterminate ingredients is particularly interesting.47

Some plant foods required labor-intensive processing to render them more Motives behind food

palatable, safer, or more easily digestible, all of which effect the dietary value of processing

the food. This involved pounding, grinding, and grating to meet any one or a combination of three goals. The first goal is to separate desired from unwanted elements, such as shells, husks, skins, and certain fibrous matter. This allows access to the edible parts of some plants and the removal of indigestible fiber, and so lengthens the time food remains in the digestive tract thereby increasing absorption of nutrients. Second, by altering the physical form of the food through crushing it into the desired coarseness, these processes serve to increase

45 Stahl , " H o m i n i d Die ta ry Selection Before Fire ," pp . 1 5 1 6 ־ 8 . Soficr suggests that berries, etc. could be opportunis t ical ly c o n s u m e d but , in genera l , the h igher the lat i tude, a n d so the colder the cl imate, the less plant food would be c o n s u m e d a n d the m o r e rel iance had on an ima l resources. G r i n d i n g stones a n d slabs have been found at var ious sites in the Russ ian plain, but n o n e can conclusively be associated with process ing plants . Sec S offer, Upper Paleolithic of the Central Russian Plain, pp . 2 5 1 - 5 3 .

46 Car les Lalueza , A le j and ro Pérez-Pérez , a n d Danie l T u r b o n , "Die ta ry Inferences T h r o u g h Buccal M i c r o w e a r Analysis of Midd le a n d U p p e r Pleistocene H u m a n Fossils," AJPA 100 (1996): 3 6 7 - 8 7 .

47 S a r a h L. R. M a s o n , J o n G . H a t h e r , a n d G o r d o n C . Hi l lman , "Pre l iminary Investigation of the Plant M a c r o - r e m a i n s f rom Dolni Vestonice II, a n d its Implicat ions for the Role of Plant Foods in Palaeoli thic a n d Mesoli thic E u r o p e , " Antiquity 68, no. 258 (March 1994): 48~57.

CHAPTER THREE 5 2

exposure of starches to digestive enzymes and so to facilitate the efficiency and speed of digestion. And finally, they render plant foods into a form that will assist the effects of various detoxification processes, such as leaching and soak-ing, designed to remove any harmful or ill-tasting toxins. Although these processes may result in the removal of some nutrients, the overall gain usually outweighs the loss.48

Techniques of plant Paleolithic, tools used to process foods were not specialized, so it remains dif-food processing: ficult to distinguish a pounding tool from one used for grinding.49 Indeed,

pounding some tools served more than one function. T h e percussion technology employed in tool making to produce a flake, for instance, could also serve to process plants. Pounding is a percussion process and required a lower stone, called by archaeologists an anvil or mortar , upon which the food to be processed was placed. T h e actual work was performed with a handstone, termed variously a pestle, pounder , percussion muller, hammer-anvil , or "pit-ted" anvil stone. Wooden mortars and pestles, if used at all, have left no evi-dence in the archaeological record and are not attested before the Graeco-Roman period.5 0 T h e earliest evidence for pounding in general, as discussed in the previous chapter , probably goes back beyond the appearance of the earli-est hominid to the great apes, who used sticks or stones to crush nuts. T h e use in Africa by early man , Paranthropus or more likely H. habilis, of Oldowan tools to process plants, however, remains controversial.51 Microwear analysis of stone tools can only indicate that they worked plant material; it cannot deter-mine for what purpose — whether to create a path through underbrush, to fell small trees and shrubs to make wooden tools, to build a dwelling, to start a fire, or to convert a plant part into a more edible form. Simple processing, nevertheless, can reasonably be assumed to have occurred in ways similar to

IH A n n B. Stahl , "P lan t - food Processing: Impl icat ions for Die ta ry Qua l i ty , " in Foraging and Farm-ing. The Evolution of Plant Exploitation. Dav id R. Har r i s a n d G o r d o n C . Hi l lman , eds. (London: U n w i n H y m a n , 1989), pp . 172-75 .

49 O n e impor t an t t r end in recent scholarship in food technology has been in the direct ion of c rea t ing a classification system for p o u n d i n g a n d g r ind ing tools. See especially N a n c y Kraybi l l , "Pre-agr icul tura l Tools for the P repa ra t ion of Foods in the O l d W o r l d , " in Origins of Agriculture. Char l e s A. Reed , ed. (The H a g u e : M o u t o n Publishers, 1977), pp . 4 8 5 - 5 2 1 ; Cole t te R o u b e t , " M e t h o d s of Analysis of G r i n d i n g Imp lemen t s , " in 77te Prehistory of Wadi Kubbaniya. Vol . 3: I Ate Paleolithic Archaeology. Angela E. Close, ed. (Dallas: S o u t h e r n Me thod i s t Universi ty Press, 1989), pp . 4 7 0 - 7 2 ; idem, " T h e G r i n d i n g Stones of Site E-78-3, W a d i K u b b a n i y a , " in ibid., pp . 4 7 3 - 8 2 ; a n d K a t h e r i n e Wr igh t , "Classif ication System for G r o u n d S tone T o o l s f rom the Prehistoric Lev-a n t , " Paléorient 18, no . 2 (1992): 5 3 - 8 1 .

50 Kraybi l l , "Pre-agr icul tura l Too l s , " pp . 4 8 7 - 9 2 . .Ibid יי , pp . 4 9 4 95; J o h n T r o e n g , Worldwide Chronology of Fifty-three Prehistoric Innovations. Acta

Archaeo log ica Lunens ia No . 21 (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell In te rna t iona l , 1993), pp . 4 0 - 4 1 .


activities known to be engaged in by modern apes and present-day hunter-gatherer societies.52

Grinding is a more sophisticated process and appeared later than did pound- dividing ing. Most early grindstones were associated with the preparation of pigments, such as ochre, to decorate cave walls with drawings or to place on dead bodies for burial, and with the working of bone to create tools. Many stones, however, did not show traces of pigment, so their use remains unknown. The earliest grindstones come from Florisbad, South Africa and date to ca. 48,900 B. P. They appear in Europe in Mousterian levels at Molodova I and V, dating to before 40,000 B. P. Examples are numerous in Mousterian levels in France and Spain, as well as in Upper Paleolithic sites in Upper Egypt (ca. 17,000 B. P.) and Nubia (ca. 14,000 B. P.).53 Of particular interest in the use of grinding tools is the appearance ca. 18,000 B. P. in Ein Aqev, central Negev, Palestine, of "basined" grinding slabs. Their appearance may reflect a frequent and extended use of grinding and an increased use of foods requiring extensive processing.54

Perhaps the best single place to study the use of pounding and grinding technol-ogy and what it says about the diet of Upper Paleolithic man is at Wadi Kub-baniya in Upper Egypt.

Wadi Kubbaniya lies west of the Nile Valley in Upper Egypt between Kom Plant food processing

O m b o to the north and Elephantine (modern Aswan) ca. 12 kilometers to the at Wadi kubbaniya

south. During the Late Pleistocene Nile floods periodically inundated an area characterized by marshlands and meadows. Numerous sites have been excavated, but only four, each located on dunes above the floodplain, have yielded charred evidence of plant foods. Carbon-dated to ca. 18,000 B. P., the remains constitute the earliest clear evidence for plant foods in the diet of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers and imply the early development of broad-spectrum subsistence. 55 Of more than twenty-five different type plants isolated, over one-half have been identified. These include soft vegetable types, such as tubers of wild nut-grass {cyperus rotundas)ר dorn palm fruit (Hyphaene thebica), nutlets of the club rush (Scirpus mantimus/ tuberosus), and

M Sept , "Beyond Bones," pp . 2 9 5 - 3 2 0 . 53 Kraybil l , "Pre-agr icul tura l Too l s , " pp . 495 97. Gr inds tones f r o m the T r a n s v a a l in Sou th

Afr ica (ca. 4 7 , 0 0 0 - 4 3 , 0 0 0 B. P.) a n d M o l o d o v a V (ca. 40 ,000 B. P.) in the Ukra ine showed traces of ochre . Ibid., p p . 497 , 513.

54 Kraybil l , "Prc-agr icul tura l Too l s , " pp . 5 0 0 - 0 1 , esp. Fig. 1, p. 500, a n d 513. 5 5 W i l m a Wet t e r s t rom, "Forag ing a n d F a r m i n g in Egypt : the Trans i t ion f r o m H u n t i n g a n d

G a t h e r i n g to Hor t i cu l tu re in the Nile Val ley ," in Hie Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals and Towns. T h u r s t a n Shaw, Paul Sinclair, Bassey A n d a h , a n d Alex O k p o k o , eds. (London: Rout ledge , 1993), pp . 170 79; G o r d o n Hi l lman , E w a Madeyska , a n d J o n a t h a n H a t h e r , "Wi ld Plant Foods a n d Diet at Late Palaeoli thic W a d i K u b b a n i y a : the Ev idence f r o m C h a r r e d R e m a i n s , " in The Prehisto-ry of Wadi Kubbaniya. Vol . 2: Stratigraphy, Paleoeconomy, and Environment. Ange la E. Close, ed. (Dallas: Sou the rn Method i s t Univers i ty Press, 1989), pp ־16263 . .

CHAPTER THREE 5 4

some as yet ill-defined seeds of the chamomile type. Contrary to earlier reports, no evidence for cereal cultivation at Wadi Kubbaniya exists.56

Evidence for various plant foods imply two important points. First, the most abundant tubers of nut-grass were transported from areas near water to the dunes, where they were found in combination with remains of other food items. Second, their charred condition implies use of fire to cook or process them in some fashion.57 Since nut-grass tubers are high in fiber and contain certain tox-ins, they need some form of processing before consumption. Modern hunter-gatherers process tubers in a number of ways. They can be roasted, then ground down to remove the fibrous skin or, alternatively, pounded in mortars. Once reduced to a smaller size, they can then be sifted to remove the harder, inedible parts. T h e flour thus formed can be cooked and eaten as a cakc or in the form of a mush.58

The Kubbaniyan sites where plant foods have been found are also sites where grinding stones are abundant . Scientific analyses of the stones, however, are inconclusive in proving that they were used to process tubers on the site. Much of the processing may have been accomplished in wooden mortars, which would have left no archaeological remains. O n the other hand, processing in stone mortars cannot be ruled out since there is evidence that at least one of the stones was used to process a plant rich in starch and low in protein. These characteris-tics would encompass tubers of nut-grass and club-rush but would exclude the seed foods.59 Tha t tubers were processed for human consumption derives sup-port from charred remains of human feces found on the living areas of the sites. Some smooth-textured fecal specimens imply infant origin, since it seems best explained as a finely ground mush, perhaps not unlike that suggested for materi-al found at Dolni Vêstonice II (ca. 26,000 Β. P.). Other fecal matter contained coarser material, but still apparently partially ground. In the leafy material, club-rush tubers and club-rush and chamomilc-type seeds were found. The club-rush seeds had apparently been roasted before eaten. And finally, there appears to have been a preference for root foods over seeds, probably because

Sf> Cf . Fred W e n d o r f a n d R o m u a l d Schild, " S o m e Impl icat ions of Late Palaeoli thic Cerea l Exploi ta t ion at W a d i K u b b a n i y a (Uppe r Egypt) ," in Origin and Early Development 0J Food-Producing Cultures in North-eastern Africa. Lech Krzyzan iak a n d Micha l Kobusicwicz , eds. (Poznan: Polish A c a d e m y of Sciences, 1984), pp ־11827 . , a n d A n n S temler a n d R i c h a r d H . Falk, "Evidence of G r a i n s f r o m the Site of W a d i K u b b a n i y a (Uppe r Egypt) ," in ibid., pp . 129-36 .

57 G o r d o n C . Hi l lman , "La te Palaeoli thic Plant Foods f r o m W a d i K u b b a n i y a in U p p e r Egypt: Die tary Diversity, In fan t W e a n i n g , a n d Seasonal i ty in a River ine E n v i r o n m e n t , " in Foraging and Fanning, pp . 2 1 5 - 1 6 .

5» Hi l lman et al, "Wi ld Plant Foods , " pp . 182-90 . C י9- . E. R o l a n d Jones, "Archaeochemis t ry : Fact o r Fancy?" in Prehistory of Wadi Kubbaniya, 2:

2 6 0 - 6 6 ; Hi l lman et al, "Wild P lan t Foods , " pp . 190-91 .

UPPF.R PALEOLITHIC AND NEOLITHIC PERIODS 85

the former demanded less work to process.60 Nevertheless, the inhabitants did gather and consume some seeds.

Evidence for grinding and pounding processes is clearer at Wadi Kubbaniya Processing tools:

than anywhere else at this early period. Both processes require two parts — a mortar and pestle

stationary lower stone (wood will do, but it will not last), either a slab or a mor-tar, and a moveable upper handstone or pounder. T h e material is placed on the lower stone so that the upper one can be used to crush, bruise, break, or pulver-ize it into ever decreasing sizes. Pounding accomplishes this through forces delivered vertically or, in the case of a hammerstone used to make stone tools, at an oblique angle. Where a mortar served as the lower stone the activity of the upper stone, or pestle, involves pounding and circular motion within a depres-sion, which at Wadi Kubbaniya varied in depth between 3.50 cm. and 6.50 cm. (Pl. 1). Depth-to-diameter ratios ranged from 1:3 to 1:6. Grinding on a slab, although it may include some pounding, depends primarily upon back-and-forth or circular motions to produce shear forces and friction wear to reduce the material. The grinding slabs at Wadi Kubbaniya were made of locally available Grinding slabs

sandstone or quartzite roughed out at a nearby workshop site (PI. 2). They var-ied in size from 18 cm. to 50 cm. in diameter and from 9.0 cm. to 24 cm. in thickness. Shapes varied from circular, oval, and triangular to irregular. Sitting on a flat base, though probably elevated at the nearer end to provide a slope for easier working, the grinding surface generally followed the shape of the base, but was usually oval. Frequent use created a slight concavity, or basin effect, to the surface. T h e longer axis was shorter than an arm's length with a rather narrow-er width, implying a lengthwise and sideways rubbing, rather than a circular motion, effected with downward directed pressure.61 Wha t was ground on these stones is unknown, but it has been suggested that large items, perhaps plants, were ground on the larger areas, whereas small, concave areas were created by circular motion to grind hard, dry materials, such as ochre or salt.62

The upper or hand stones, whether used as grindstones or pounders, were Handstones

also made of locally available sandstone, quartzite, or granite, and varied in size,

60 Hi l lman , " L a t e Palaeoli thic Plant Foods f r o m W a d i K u b b a n i y a , " pp . 219 30; Hi l lman et al, "Wild Plant Foods , " pp. 164-66 , esp. Fig. 7.2.

61 Cole t te R o u b e t , " R e p o r t on Site E-82-1: A W o r k s h o p for the M a n u f a c t u r e of G r i n d i n g Stones at W a d i K u b b a n i y a , " in Prehistory of Wadi Kubbaniya, 3: 588 608; idem, " T h e G r i n d i n g Stones of Site E-78-3, W a d i K u b b a n i y a , " in ibid., pp . 4 7 3 8 2 ־ , esp. Figs. 2 5 . 2 - 4 , p. 476 , a n d Fig. 25.5, p. 478. R o u b e t is also work ing to c rea te a s t anda rd me thodo logy for s tudying g r ind ing imp lemen t s in genera l . See Cole t te R o u b e t , " M e t h o d s of Analysis of G r i n d i n g I m p l e m e n t s , " in ibid., pp . 4 7 0 - 7 2 . See also K. M o r g a n Banks, " T h e G r i n d i n g Imp lemen t s of W a d i K u b b a n i y a , " in Loaves and Fishes: the Prehistory of Wadi Kubbaniya. Fred W e n d o r f , R o m u a l d Schild, a n d Angela E. Close, eds. (Dallas: D e p a r t m e n t of Anthropology׳ , S M U , 1980), pp . 2 3 9 . 4 4 ־

62 R o u b e t , " G r i n d i n g Stones of Site E-78-3 ," p . 481.

CHAPTER THREE 5 6

with most ranging from 10 cm. to 15 cm. in diameter. Apparently unworked and chosen to lit comfortably in one or both hands, they came in various shapes, including oval or disc-shaped, circular, and amygdaloid. Those stones showing a convex, flat, oblique, or slightly concave surface profile were probably used for grinding, whereas those with a wide, convex or Hat area more likely functioned as pounders. T h e pestles, made of sandstone, were apparently shaped to fit the mortars.63

T h e ancient Wadi Kubbaniyan population had a broad-based diet, which included, besides plants, large and small animals, such as hartebeest, wild cattle, dorcas gazelle, aurochs, birds, hare, frogs, and especially fish that were caught by bone fishhooks. T h e variable diet was apparently in tune with the changing level of the Nile River. Spawning catfish (Clanas cf. gariepinus) could be caught at the beginning of the flood season in July and August in shallow areas, while tilapia {Tilapia sp.) and small catfish could be caught in isolated residual pools in October and November. Whether the fish were preserved in any way, such as drying, smoking, or salting, is unknown. T h e large herbivores, although appar-ently a small part of the Kubbaniyan diet, could be hunted at the height of the flood season, while birds were available from late autumn to early spring. Plant foods, predominately tubers of nut-grass and club-rush, and perhaps rhizomes of reeds, rushes, and water lilies as well, could be processed into edible form between December and August.64

T h e evidence at Kubbaniya and in other places in Egypt and in Nubia, dating to ca. 15,000 B. P. or later, points to the development of a kind of proto-agricul-tural technology along the Nile. At Isna and K o m Ombo , for example, blades perhaps served to harvest wheat-like grasses and wild barley, and grinding slabs and handstones processed seeds into edible form. In Nubia at Tushka, finds of hearths located near the Nile bank in close proximity to numerous remains of catfish skulls and the anterior parts of the skeleton imply the smoking of fish for later consumption. This technological experiment, if such it was, went nowhere, since, for unknown reasons, perhaps associated with Nile flooding, these tools seem to have disappeared from the evidence by ca. 10,500 B. C.65

63 Ibid., pp. 482 88, esp. Figs. 25 .10-12 , pp. 48283־ ; Banks, Loaves and Fishes, p. 242. (i4 Achilles Gaut ie r and W i m Van Neer , "Animal Rema ins f rom the Late Paleolithic Sequence

at Wadi Kubban iya , " in Prehistory of Wadi Kubbaniya, 2: 1 19 61־; H a n n a Wieckowska, "Repor t on Site E-78-4: A Later K u b b a n i y a n Site in the D u n e Field," in Prehistory of Wadi Kubbaniya, 3: Fred W ;־־53687 e n d o r f a n d R o m u a l d Schild, " S u m m a r y and Synthesis," in Prehistory of Wadi Kub-baniya, 3: 799-802 ; Angela E. Close a n d Fred Wcndor f , "Nor th Africa at 18000 BP," in World at 18000 BP, 2: 41 57; and Wet ters t rom, "Foraging a n d Farming in Egypt," pp. 170-79.

6 Animals: Achilles Gaut י ier , " Q u a t e r n a r y M a m m a l s and Archaeology of Egypt and the Sudan: a Survey," in Origin and Early Development of Food-producing Cultures, pp . 46-47, and Wetter-


C. The Epipaleolithic Period and the Rise of Agriculture

T h e determination of the factors leading to the rise of agriculture has engen- Rise of agriculture

dered a lively debate, unresolved at present. General consensus places the earli-est origin for the development of agriculture in Southwest Asia, probably in the area of the Jo rdan Valley, though some prefer the marginal areas or the hills of the Zagros Mountains of Iran. The preconditions for agriculture developed gradually during the Late Paleolithic period, wherein modern Homo sapiens sapi-ens populations began to develop a more sedentary lifestyle. From ca. 10,500 B. P. the pace toward the domestication both of plants and animals quickened until by ca. 9,000 B. P. many populations were engaging in village agriculture. Vari-ous, often conflicting, theories have been propounded to explain how and why this occurred. Some stress climatic change, others human factors, still others a combination of both. Included among these theories are the "oases," or "prop-inquity," theory of V. Gordon Childc, the "hilly-flanks" of Robert J . Braidwood, the "dump heap" of Edgar Anderson, the "population increase" of Mark N. Cohen, the "broad-spectrum analysis" of Kent Flanncry, the "cultural dynam-ics" of Fekri Hassan, and the "adaptive plateaux" of Charles A. Reed, to name only a few. Some approaches seek to take into consideration differences in envi-ronment, including seasonal stress (Joy McCorriston and Frank Hole), or geog-raphy, such as differences between lowlands and highlands (Charles Redman), while others arc variants to one degree or another of an earlier theory or seek to combine elements of previous theories into new ones.66 Some of these proposals

s t rom, "Forag ing a n d F a r m i n g in Egypt ," pp . 179-82 . Plants: Michae l A. H o f f m a n , Egypt Before the Pharaohs (New York: Dorset Press, 1990 [1979]), pp . 87 90; Wil l iam J . Da rby , Paul Gha l ioungui , a n d Louis Grivett i , Food: the Gift of Osiris. 2 Vols. (London: Academic Press, 1977), 2: 460; Ad ina K a b a k e r , "A R a d i o c a r b o n Chrono logy Relevant to the Or ig ins of Agricul ture ," in Origins ofAgricul-ture, pp . 9 6 0 - 6 1 ; a n d W e n k e , Patterns in Prehistory, p. 376. W a d i Kubban iya : W e n d o r f a n d Schild, " S o m e Implicat ions of La te Palaeoli thic Cerea l Exploitat ion at W a d i K u b b a n i y a (Uppe r Egypt) ," pp . 127; a n d Ix-ch Krzyzaniak , "La te Prehistory of Egypt , " in History 0J Humanity. Vol. 1: Prehistory and the Beginnings of Civilization. S . J . De Lact , ed. 5 Vols. (London: Rout ledge, 1994), p. 399.

6(i S u m m a r i z e d in R i c h a r d S. MacNe i sh , The Origins of Agriculture and Settled Life ( N o r m a n : Un i -versity of O k l a h o m a Press, 1992), esp. pp . 3 - 1 0 ; I . J . T h o r p e , 77le Origins of Agriculture in Europe (London: Rout ledge , 1996), pp . 1 - 2 1 ; Patty Jo W a t s o n , "Exp la in ing the Trans i t ion to Agricul-tu re , " in Last Hunters-First Farmers. T . Douglas Pr ice a n d A n n e Birgitte G e b a u r , eds. (Sante Fe, Ν. M . : School of A m e r i c a n Research Press, 1995), pp . 21 37; Cha r l e s A. Reed , "Or ig ins o f A g r i c u l -ture: Discussion a n d S o m e Conclus ions ," in Origins of Agriculture, pp . 8 7 9 - 9 5 3 ; Fekri A. Hassan , " T h e D y n a m i c s of Agricul tura l Or ig ins in Palestine: A Theore t i ca l M o d e l , " in ibid., pp . 5 8 9 - 6 0 9 ;

J o y M c C o r r i s t o n a n d F rank Hole, " T h e Ecology of Seasonal Stress a n d the Or ig ins of Agricul-ture in the N e a r Eas t ," AmerAnthr 93, no. 1 (March 1991): 4 6 - 6 9 ; a n d D o n a l d O . H e n r y , From Foraging to Agriculture. The Levant at the End of the Ice Age (Philadelphia: Universi ty of Pennsylvania Press, 1989), esp. p p . 5 - 2 5 . H e n r y (ibid., p. 1 1) compla ins tha t " the c o n t e m p o r a r y \־iew of the adapt ive changes occur r ing at the e n d of the Pleistocene is based m o r e upon the logical relat ion-ship of ideas t h a n o n the critical evaluat ion of ev idence . "

CHAPTER THREE 5 8

relate specifically to Southwest Asia, while others, though focusing on a specific area, seek to explain agriculture's rise generally. Discussion, even in summary fashion, of these numerous approaches is beyond the scope of this work and is not particularly germane, except where the development of agriculture and food technology intersect. In order to provide a framework for discussion of food technology in this period, I propose instead to follow generally the scenario espoused by Ofer Bar-Yosef and his co-authors, who stress the effects of climatic change on population numbers and densities and, in turn, how this promoted a sedentary lifestyle and changes in subsistence strategies. I shall, however, indi-cate in a few places where others prefer a different line of argument. My discus-sion will center on a point upon which most scholars concur, the importance of technology to the rise of agriculture.67

The Fertile Crescent The Fertile Crescent extends in an arc from the Zagros Mountains of western Iran, through the southern steppes of Turkey's Taurus Mountains, across north-ern Iraq and Syria, and into the Jo rdan Valley and the Sinai Peninsula. T h e area encompasses a variety of topographical features, such as coastal and inland mountain ranges, valleys, plateaus, and arid desert areas. It includes, in whole or in part, the modern countries of Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Israel. T h e earliest evidence for agriculture derives from extensive archaeo-logical and archaeobotanical research conducted in the western ranges of the Zagros Mountains and especially in the region known as the Levant, an area of about 1,100 kilometers long by 250-350 kilometers wide, stretching from north-ern Syria into the Sinai Peninsula.68

Epipaleolithic period The transition from hunter-gatherer to farmer had its beginnings during the late Pleistocene in the period sometimes called the Epipaleolithic, emerging about 20,000 B. P. and extending down to roughly 10,500 B. P.69 This era saw

67 O f c r Bar-Yosef a n d M o r d e c h a i E. Kislcv, "Ear ly F a r m i n g C o m m u n i t i e s in the J o r d a n Val-ley," in Foraging and Farming, pp . 6 3 2 4 2 ־ ; O f e r Bar-Yosef a n d A. Be l fe r -Cohen , " F r o m Forag ing to F a r m i n g in the M e d i t e r r a n e a n Levan t , " in Transitions to Agriculture in Prehistory. A n n e Birgitte G e b a u e r a n d T . Douglas Price, eds. (Madison, Wise.: Prehistory Press, 1992), pp . 2 1 4 8 ־ ; O f e r Bar-Yosef, " T h e I m p a c t of late Pleis tocene-Early Ho locene Cl ima t i c C h a n g e s on H u m a n s in Southwest Asia ," in Ilumans at the End of the Ice Age. The Archaeology of the Pleistocene-Holocene Transi-lion. L a w r e n c e G u y Straus , Berit Valen t in Eriksen, J o n M . Er landson , a n d David R. Yesner , eds. (New York: P l e n u m Press, 1996), p p . 6 1 - 7 8 ; O f e r Bar-Yosef a n d R i c h a r d H . M e a d o w , " T h e Or ig ins of Agr icul ture in the N e a r Eas t ," in Last PI unters-First Farmers, pp . 3 9 - 9 4 .

<iB Bar-Yosef a n d Be l fe r -Cohen , " F r o m Forag ing to F a r m i n g , " pp . 2 1 - 2 2 ; a n d Brian F. Byrd, " F r o m Early H u m a n s to F a r m e r s a n d H e r d e r s — Recen t Progress on Key Trans i t ions in South-west Asia " JArchRes 2, no . 3 (Sept. 1994): 2 2 2 . 2 3 ־

69 A. M . T . M o o r e , " T h e Trans i t ion f r o m Forag ing to F a r m i n g in Southwest Asia: Present P r o b l e m s a n d Fu tu re Direct ions , י in Foraging and Fanning, p. 624. See also N י a o m i F. Miller , "Seed Eaters of the Ancien t N e a r East: H u m a n or He rb ivo re , " CurrAnth 37, no. 2 (June 1996): 521; R o m a n a U n g e r - H a m i l t o n , " T h e Epi-Palaeol i thic S o u t h e r n Levan t a n d the Or ig ins of Cul t iva-


fluctuating climate changes, which in ways not fully understood affected the transition to an agricultural way of life.70 T h e period from roughly 20,000 to 14,000 B. P. was dry and rather cool. T h e Kebaran population of the Levant Kebaran culture

practiced a mobile, but rather geographically restricted hunter-gatherer lifestyle and subsisted on gazelle, fallow deer, wild boar, fish, and other animals, and probably seasonal plant foods, such as fruits, nuts, berries, and seeds. Archaeo-logical evidence indicates, for example, that by 19,000 B. P. inhabitants of Oha-Ιο II, located on the Sea of Galilee, were gathering seasonal foods, including wild barley, wheat, and other fruits and plants. Fish also played a small role in their diet.71

Beginning ca. 14,500 B. P. temperature and rainfall increased and for ca. two millennia the Levantine population, termed Geometric Kebaran, increased not only in size but also in numbers of settlements within what is termed the Mediterranean vegetational belt of the Jo rdan Valley and beyond into outlying semi-arid areas. In Mediterranean areas essentially small hunter-gatherer bands employed various pounding tools, stone mortars, and bowls, to process plant foods, probably of the kinds found in carbonized form at Ohalo II, cereals, legumes, various seeds, berries, and fruits.72 Likewise, to the south, the Mushabi-

t ion ," CurrAnth 30, no. 1 (Feb. 1989): 8 8 - 8 9 ; a n d D e b o r a h I. Olszewski, "Subsis tence Ecology in the M e d i t e r r a n e a n Forest: Implicat ions for the Or ig ins of Cul t ivat ion in the Epipaleol i thic South-ern Levant , ' AmerAnthr 95, no. 2 (June 1993): 4 י 2 0 - 3 5 . S o m e scholars object to the use of the t e rm Epipaleol i thic for a distinctly identif iable t ime pe r iod character is t ic of the Levant , a rgu ing that the microli thic industr ies associated with the K e b a r a n d o not const i tute a significant b reak f r o m wha t wen t before . See Isaac Gi lead , "Is the T e r m 'Epipalaeol i th ic ' Re levan t to Levant ine Prehis-tory?" CurrAnth 25, no. 2 (April 1984): 2 2 7 . 2 9 ־

70 M o o r e , " T h e Trans i t i on F r o m Forag ing to F a r m i n g in Southwes t Asia," p. 621; W e n k e , Pat-terns in Prehistory, p. 235; Bar-Yosef a n d Kislev, "Ear ly F a r m i n g C o m m u n i t i e s in the J o r d a n Yal-ley," p. 633; Bar-Yosef a n d Be l fe r -Cohen , " F r o m Forag ing to F a r m i n g 111 the M e d i t e r r a n e a n Levan t , " pp . 21 22. T h a t there were cl imatic changes is secure; how to in terpre t the effects of those changes , however , is open to dispute. Cf . Ei tan T c h e r n o v , " E n v i r o n m e n t a l a n d Socioeco-nomic Background to Domes t ica t ion in the S o u t h e r n Levan t , " in Before Farming: Hunter-Gatherer Society and Subsistence. M A S C A Resea rch Papers in Science a n d Archaeology. Supp l emen t to Vol-u m e 12, 1995. Douglas V . C a m p a n a , cd. (Philadelphia: Universi ty of Pennsylvania M u s e u m of Archaeo logy a n d Anthropo logy , 1995), pp . 3 9 - 7 7 , a n d Paul Sanlaville, " C h a n g e m e n t s c l ima-tic]ues dans la région Levant ine à la fin du Pléistocène Supé r i eu r et au débu t de l 'Holecène . Leurs relat ions avec l 'évolution des sociétés h u m a i n e s , " Paléorient 22, no. 1 (1996): 7 - 3 0 .

71 M . E. Kislev, 1). Nade l , a n d I. C a r m i , "Epipa laeol i th ic (19,000 BP) Cerea l a n d Fruit Diet at O h a l o II, Sea of Galilee, Israel ," RevPalaeobotPalynology 73 (1992): 161-66; D. Nadc l a n d I. H e r -shkovitz, " N e w Subsis tence D a t a a n d H u m a n R e m a i n s f r o m the Earliest Levant ine Epipalae-oli thic," CunAnth 32, no. 5 (Dec. 1991): 6 3 1 - 3 5 ; Phillip C . Edwards , " K e b a r a n O c c u p a t i o n at the Last Glacial M a x i m u m in W a d i a l - H a m m e h , J o r d a n Val ley ," in The World at 18000 BP, 2: 9 7 - 1 1 8 ; Bar-Yosef a n d Bel fer -Cohen, " F r o m Forag ing to F a r m i n g in t he M e d i t e r r a n e a n Lev-an t , " pp . 2 3 - 2 5 .

72 W e n k e , Patterns in Prehistory, pp . 2 3 8 3 9 ־ .

CHAPTER THREE 6 0

an complexes extended into the Negev desert and northern Sinai from the Nile Valley region of Egypt. Grinding stones and both lined and unlined hearths appear at a few sites in the Negev, such as Ein Aqev and Mushabi V. Burnt stones associated with some hearths may imply cooking. Storage facilities, how-ever, have not been confirmed for this period.73

Natufian culture and Beginning ca. 11,500 B. P., dramatic and abrupt changes to a cooler and drier increased sedentism climate precipitated a retrenchment of settlement patterns back toward areas of

water, such as lakes and rivers. Here the populations, now termed by archaeolo-gists, Natufian, and known from sites as old as ca. 12,800 B. P., took up a more sedentary lifestyle, where occupations lasted for nine months and more.74 Seden-tism, the continuous occupation for most of each year of a site characterized by well-built structures, storage facilities, and commensalism, was a necessary pre-requisite for cereal cultivation and animal husbandry. It changed the food resources available in the area surrounding the settlements and necessitated an alteration in the subsistence strategies of the inhabitants.75

Early Natufian settlements of various sizes are fairly widespread but concen-träte in the central Levant. Excavations at Ain Mallaha, located near Lake Huleh in Israel, and Wadi H a m m e h 27 revealed rock-lined, semisubterranean circular huts, storage facilities, hearths, and the usual processing tools, such as mortars, pestles, and mullers, though without evidence for querns.76 Sickles,

73 A. N . Gor ing -Mor r i s , " T r e n d s in the Spatial O r g a n i z a t i o n of T e r m i n a l Pleistocene H u n t e r -G a t h e r e r O c c u p a t i o n s as V iewed f r o m the Negev a n d Sinai ," Paléorient 14, no. 2 (1988): 2 3 1 - 4 4 .

74 If N a t u f i a n cul ture h a d deve loped p r io r to a significant cl imatic change , its origin must owe some o f t h a t deve lopmen t to o t h e r factors . T h o r p e , Origins of Agriculture in Europe, p. 20.

75 Ei tan T c h e r n o v , "Biological Evidence for H u m a n Seden t i sm in Sou thwes t Asia D u r i n g the Natu f i an , י in The .Natufian Culture in the Levant. O י f e r Bar-Yosef a n d François R . Valla, eds. (Ann Arbor : In te rna t iona l M o n o g r a p h s in Prehis tory, 1991), pp . 3 1 5 - 4 0 ; Bar-Yosef a n d M e a d o w , "Or ig ins of Agr icul ture in the N e a r Eas t ," p. 44. T h e view that sedent ism was a necessary ele-m e n t in the rise of agr icul ture is general ly accep ted ; a g r e e m e n t on wha t const i tutes sedent ism in a par t icu la r locality, however , is a m a t t e r of some controversy. Bar-Yosef a n d Bel fe r -Cohen , " F r o m Forag ing to F a r m i n g in the M e d i t e r r a n e a n Levan t , " p. 24; Byrd , " F r o m Early H u m a n s to F a r m -ers a n d H e r d e r s , " pp . 2 2 8 - 3 1 . See also T c h e r n o v , " E n v i r o n m e n t a l a n d Soc ioeconomic Back-g r o u n d to Domes t i ca t ion , " pp . 4 5 - 4 7 ; bu t cf. G . Wyncol l a n d D . T a n g r i , " T h e Or ig ins of C o m -mensal i sm a n d H u m a n Seden t i sm," Paléorient 17, no. 2 (1991): 157-59 , a n d D. T a n g r i a n d G . W yncoll , "Of Mice a n d M e n : Is the Presence of C o m m e n s a l Animals in the Archaeological Sites a Positive Cor r e l a t e of Seden t i sm?" , Paléorient 15, no. 2 (1989): 8 5 . 9 4 ־

7fi Early Natuf ian huts at J e r i c h o likewise had processing tools a n d storage pits. Phillip C . Edwards , " W a d i H a m m e h 27: An Early Natuf ian Site at Pella, J o r d a n , י -in Natufian Culture in the Lev יant, pp. 123-48; Wenke , Patterns in Prehistory, p. 243; Bar-Yosef a n d Belfer-Cohen, " F r o m Foraging to F a r m i n g in the M e d i t e r r a n e a n Levant , " p. 29. Archaeologists at an Early Natuf ian site (No. 2), n e a r the W a d i M a t a h a in J o r d a n , have uncovered seven bcdrock mor ta r s cut into limestone. T h e depressions are conical in shape a n d have varying depths. See Dav id J . J o h n s o n and Joe l Janetski , in Virginia Egan a n d Patricia M . Bikai, "Archaeology in J o r d a n , " AJA 102, no. 3 (July 1998): 5 7 8 - 7 9 .


hafted onto wooden handles for use in harvesting wild grains, are commonly found in Natufian sites, in addition to mortars (both fixed and portable), lime-stone slabs with a depression (cuphole) for processing materials, pestles, and pounders. The bone industry includes tools for fishing, basket making (perhaps used for storage), and the working of hides.77 Evidence for various cereals, legumes, and fishing equipment implies that, with the area for gathering animal foods now reduced, the Natufians took up a broad-spectrum diet by consuming various plant foods, large and small animals, including gazelle, deer, cattle, equids, goats, waterfowl, and fish.78 Some scholars, such as Donald O. Henry, however, stress evidence for a specialization in food choice, not diversification. He argues that, although small animals, fish, and wildfowl were consumed, fau-nal evidence indicates a concentration in a few species, especially the gazelle, combined with intensification of the collection of plant foods, especially nuts, and cereals.79 Others, such as Deborah Olszewski, maintain that acorns, not cereals, formed the basis of the Natufian diet, and that these were processed with tools, such as leaching basins, baskets, and wooden bowls, items not likely to leave evidence in the archaeological record. Romana Unger-Hamilton, on the other hand, thinks that the Natufians relied on cultivation of wild cereals for their food, and cites as evidence results of microwear analysis of gloss found on Natufian sickles compared to information drawn from experimentation with modern knapped blades.80

77 Bar-Yosef, " T h e I m p a c t of La te Pleis tocene-Early Ho locene Cl imat ic Changes , ' in Humans יat the End of the Ice Age, pp . 61 78; Bar-Yosef a n d Be l fe r -Cohen , " F r o m Forag ing to F a r m i n g in the M e d i t e r r a n e a n Levan t , " pp . 2 8 . 2 9 ־

78 Bar-Yosef a n d M e a d o w , "Or ig in s of Agr icul ture in the N e a r East, '5 p. 59; Edwards , " W a d i H a m m e h 27 ," pp . 144-46 . H o w m u c h of the Na tu f i an diet c a m e f r o m m a r i n e an imals is o p e n to quest ion. It seems that in the Late Na tu f i an pe r iod , a n d p robab ly earlier, it was min imal . See A n d r e w Sillen a n d J u l i a A. L e e - T h o r p e , "Die ta ry C h a n g e in the La te Natufian, '" in Natufian Cul-lure in the Levant, pp . 3 9 9 - 4 1 0 .

79 H e n r y , From Foraging to Agriculture, pp. 14-20 ; W e n k e , Patterns in Prehistory, p. 239. Phillip E d w a r d s a rgues that the N a t u f i a n strategy of b r o a d spec t rum subsistence marks no significant d e p a r t u r e f r o m wha t h a d been prac t iced for tens of thousands of years. Phillip C . Edwards , "Revis ing the Broad S p e c t r u m Revolut ion: a n d Its Role in the Or ig ins of Southwest Asian Food P r o d u c t i o n , " Antiquity 63, no. 239 (June 1989): 2 2 5 - 4 6 . T c h e r n o v argues bo th for a b r o a d e r diet, par t icular ly in p lant foods bu t also inc luding smaller an imals , a n d a specialization in the larger an ima l species, par t icular ly the gazelle. See T c h e r n o v , " E n v i r o n m e n t a l a n d Soc ioeconomic Back-g round , ' pp י . 5 4 - 5 9 .

80 Olszewski, "Subsis tence Ecology in the M e d i t e r r a n e a n Forest , י pp י . 4 2 0 - 3 5 . But cf. J o y M c C o r r i s t o n , "Acorn Ea t ing a n d Agricul tura l Or ig ins : Cal i forn ia E thnog raph i e s a n d Analogical In fe rence in the Anc ien t N e a r East ," Antiquity 68, no . 258 (March 1994): 9 7 - 1 0 7 . O n cereal culti-va t ion , see U n g e r - H a m i l t o n , "Epi-Palaeol i th ic S o u t h e r n Levan t a n d the Or ig ins of Cul t iva t ion ," pp . 8 8 - 1 0 3 , a n d idem, " N a t u f i a n Plant Husband!׳(־ in the S o u t h e r n Levant a n d C o m p a r i s o n with that of the Neol i thic Periods: the Lithic Perspective, ' in Natufian Culture in the Levant, pp י . 4 8 3 - 5 2 0 ;

CHAPTER THREE 6 2

Abu Hureyra Late Natufian (ca. 11,000-10,300 B. P.) sites show a wider distribution, reach-ing into the Negev, the Jordanian plateau, and the middle Euphrates. Some groups, such as the Harifian in the Negev, remained essentially mobile, though at times they occupied semisubterranean dwellings and used cupholed grinding slabs. They eventually ceased to exist, however, but others, faced with reduced geographical areas suitable for collecting food resources, opted to settle down into more permanent situations where hunting, fishing, and gathering of plants supplied their diet.81 This was also true for some sites in northern Iraq, south-western Turkey, and western Iran. A case in point is Abu Hureyra, in the hilly flanks of northern Syria on the Euphrates River, inhabited during the Epipale-olithic period from ca. 11,100 to 10,600 B. P., inexplicably abandoned, and then reoccupied by a Neolithic population a few hundred years later. During the Late Natufian period it was occupied nearly year round and its inhabitants apparently subsisted on a wide range of plant and animal foods. Although con-centrating on gazelle, they also consumed wild cattle, sheep, and goats along with lesser amounts of pig, bird, and fish. Around one hundred and fifty differ-ent species of wild edible plants have been identified from carbonized seeds found in charred remains of feces thought to be primarily human.8 2 Most had been consumed as food or medicines and were probably exposed to fire to allow for easier processing with pounders, grinders, and querns, or for detoxification to render them safer and more palatable or digestible. Among the seeds were wild einkorn wheat and possibly annual rye. Other foods, not accounted for archaeologically but likely available in the riverine area, included root foods (tubers and rhizomes), which had formed the bulk of the Wadi Kubbaniyan diet in Egypt over 7,000 years earlier. There is no evidence that the plants were cul-tivated nor, unlike the Natufian sites in the Levant, that the inhabitants stored

but see Patr icia C . Ande r son , " H a r v e s t i n g of Wi ld Cerea l s D u r i n g the Na tu f i an as Seen f r o m Expe r imen ta l Cul t iva t ion a n d Harves t of Wild E inkorn W h e a t a n d M i c r o w e a r Analysis of S tone Tools , י in Natufian Culture in the Levant, pp י . 5 2 1 - 5 6 , a n d Byrd, " F r o m Early H u m a n s to F a r m e r s a n d H e r d e r s , " p. 233.

Hl Nigel Gor ing -Mor r i s , " T h e Har i f i an of the S o u t h e r n Levant , י ,in Natufian Culture in the Levant יpp. 173-216 ; Bar-Yosef a n d Kislev, "Ear ly F a r m i n g C o m m u n i t i e s in the J o r d a n Val ley," pp . 6 3 3 - 3 4 ; Bar-Yosef, " I m p a c t of Late Pleis tocene-Early Ho locene Cl imat ic Changes , 5 ' p. 71.

82 A. M . T . M o o r e , " A b u H u r e y r a 1 a n d the Anteceden t s of Agr icul ture on the Midd le E u p h r a t e s , " in Natufian Culture in the Levant, pp . 2 7 7 - 9 4 ; G o r d o n C . Hi l lman , Susan M . Col ledge, a n d D a v i d R . Harr i s , "P lan t - food E c o n o m y D u r i n g the Epipalaeol i thic Per iod at Tel l Abu H u r e y r a , Syria: Die ta ry Diversity, Seasonali ty, a n d M o d e s of Exploi ta t ion, ' -in Foraging and Farm יing, pp . 2 4 0 - 6 8 ; D o m i n i q u e de Moul ins , Agricultural Changes at Euphrates and Steppe Sites in the Mid-8"' to the Θ'' Millennium B. C. B A R In te rna t iona l Series 683 (Oxford : British Archaeological Repor t s , 1997), pp . 7 7 - 1 4 4 . N a o m i Mil ler considers the r e m a i n s gazelle d u n g used for fuel a n d discounts its value as a guide to food c o n s u m p t i o n in Epipaleol i thic Abu H u r e y r a . See Miller, "Seed Eaters of the Ancien t N e a r Eas t ," pp . 5 2 1 - 2 8 .


Interrelated human

adaptations leading

to agricultural

communities

Development of a

sense of hierarchy

Climatic changes and

increased food

resources

their food. The transition from an incipient agricultural society proceeded more rapidly in the Jo rdan Valley and led to the creation of Neolithic societies.

T h e rise of agriculture in the mid-11th millennium B. P. cannot be attributed to new technological innovation or to an increase of knowledge about plants or even to the discovery of new food resources. Rather, this development arose over a long period of time during which certain adaptations appeared first of all in the Levantine corridor. Interrelated in ways still only vaguely understood, these adaptations created the situation where Late Pleistocene hunter-gatherer-fisher societies rapidly shifted to Neolithic communities subsisting on cultivated and ultimately domesticated crops and employing domesticated animals.83

These adaptations fall into three areas. First, the intellect of Homo sapiens sapiens underwent further development

toward what Stephen Mithen calls cognitive fluidity. This was manifested by an alteration in the way man viewed his natural surroundings. He began to see control of plant and animal resources as a base for acquiring social prestige and for exercising power within his community. A hierarchic structure, for example, may be implied in the apparent close spatial relationship of storage facilities for meat with certain houses in the Upper Paleolithic communities of the central Russian Plain. Whereas at Radomyshl ' there was apparently a sharing of a cen-tral pit between dwellings or at Dobranichevka pits were distributed around each dwelling, at Mezin, Gontsy, and Eliseevichi most pits were distributed around a single dwelling, ! here was a propensity of hunter-gatherers in the Near East to claim ownership of certain territories or water supplies.84 Humans also began to see that they could develop mutually bénéficiai social relationships with plants, when they came under cultivation, as well as with animals, dogs first and later, after agriculture was in place, cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs. The human mind also developed the idea of manipulating plants and animals in a technological sense, such as selective burning of forests to manage, in a rudi-mentary way, the environment, and using tools and fire to harvest and process certain plants, especially cereals and roots.85

Second, climate changes following the end of the Last Glacial Maximum and extending down to the late Epipaleolithic period increased the availability of cereals. As evidenced from finds at Abu Hureyra and Mureybit on the Middle Euphrates River in northern Syria, a wide variety of plants were available and

83 Cf. , e. g., Hassan , " D y n a m i c s of Agricul tura l Or ig ins , " pp . 5 9 9 - 6 0 5 . 84 M i t h e n , Prehistory of the Mind, pp . 222 '24; SofTer, Upper Paleolithic of the C!entrai Russian Plain,

pp . 2 5 3 - 5 8 , 4 5 9 - 6 3 ; Bar-Yosef a n d M e a d o w , "Or ig in s of Agr icul ture in the N e a r East, , .p. 50 י85 M i t h e n , Prehistory of the Mind, pp . 2 2 2 - 2 6 ; M c C o r r i s t o n a n d Hole , "Ecology of Seasonal

Stress a n d the Or ig ins of Agr icul ture in the N e a r Eas t , " pp . 5 7 - 5 8 .

CHAPTER THREE 6 4

eaten well before any were cultivated. These included wild cereals, root foods, various wild legumes, fruits, and berries. So also many different kinds of animal resources were available, including wild gazelle, cattle, goats, sheep, numerous small animals, birds, and fish.86 When agriculture came, these were the same foods consumed, though some animals received special attention for domestica-tion and certain plants were selected for cultivation. These trends were strength-ened by the growing sedentism practiced by formerly mobile hunter-gatherer societies. T h e changes, therefore, derived more from social and economic fac-tors than from the introduction of new foods.87

Technological The third area of adaptation was technological. As subsistence strategies innovation in tools changed to include a greater variety of plants and smaller animals, fish, and birds,

and weapons the tools and weapons to gather, kill or capture, and process them changed. From a reliance on stabbing spears, for example, man developed throwing weapons, such as javelins and the bow and arrow.88 Traps, weirs, fishhooks, and net sinkers increased the availability of small animals, fish, and birds. Development of storage facilities for meat and cereals allowed for delayed consumption of foods and the creating of a reserve for times of want. Plants assumed an increased proportion of the diet as those previously difficult to get at became more readily available and those considered inedible in their natural state were rendered palatable or digestible with processing. Roots could be gathered by digging sticks and wild cereals could be harvested by sickles, while both could be rendered edible by use of pounding and grinding tools, such as querns, stone vessels, mortars, and pestles. Processing of seeds and roots could be assisted by treatment with fire, such as by roasting, and all foods, plant and animal, made more palatable, even delicious, through efficient cooking in hearths or pits.89 All of these intellectual, environmen-

See, e. g., W י',8 . van Zeist a n d J . A. H . Bakker-Heeres , "Archaeobo tan ica l Studies in the Lev-an t . 3. Late-Palaeol i thic M u r e y b i t , " Palaeohisloria 26 (1984): 171-99 ; Hi l lman et al, "P lan t - food E c o n o m y D u r i n g the Epipalaeol i thi ic Per iod at Tel l Abu H u r e y r a , Syr ia ," pp . 2 4 0 - 6 8 ; N a o m i F. Miller , " T h e Or ig ins of Plant Cul t iva t ion in the N e a r Eas t ," in The Origins of Agriculture. An Interna-tional Perspective. C . Wesley C o w a n a n d Patty J o W a t s o n , eds. (Washington: Smi thson ian Institu-tion Press, 1992), p. 48.

87 M a r g a r e t J . Schoeninger , " T h e Agricul tural 'Revolut ion5: Its Effect on H u m a n Diet in Prehis-toric I ran a n d Israel," Paléorient 7, no. 1 (1981): 7 3 - 9 1 ; Hen ry , From Foraging to Agriculture, pp. 2 3 2 - 3 3 . Th i s would exclude short per iods of local climatic change that could render cer ta in plants, such as cereals, less available a n d so precipi ta te a r e tu rn to a m o r e mea t -based subsistence. T h i s has been suggested for the Late Na tu f i an per iod , which may have felt the effects of a cooler per iod related to the Y o u n g e r Dryas. See Sillen a n d L e e - T h o r p e , "Die ta ry C h a n g e , ' pp י . 3 9 9 - 4 1 0 .

88 See, e. g., Pierre Cat te la in , " H u n t i n g D u r i n g the U p p e r Paleolithic: Bow, Spea r th rower , or Bo th?" in Projectle Technology. Heidi K n e c h t , cd . (New York: P l enum Press, 1997), pp . 2 1 3 - 4 0 .

89 W e n k e , Patterns in Prehistory, pp . 2 3 1 - 3 4 ; H e n r y , From Foraging to Agriculture, p . 231; Miller , "Or ig ins of Plant Cul t ivat ion in the N e a r Eas t ," pp . 4 3 - 4 4 ; a n d M c C o r r i s t o n a n d Hole , "Ecology of Seasonal Stress a n d the Or ig ins of Agr icul ture in the N e a r Eas t , " p. 50.


tal, and technological adaptations were in place before the first plant or animal (except the dog) was domesticated in the new Neolithic community.

D. Neolithic Perì0d

1. Southwest Asia

T h e Neolithic period of Southwest Asia conveniently falls into two sub-periods he-pottery Neolithic

distinguished by the absence or presence of pottery. T h e early Neolithic, usually period

denominated Pre-pottery Neolithic, terminology derived from Kathleen Kcnyons's work at Jericho, likewise has two distinct parts, designated Pre-pottery Neolithic A (PPNA), dating ca. 10,500-9,300 B. P., and Pre-pottery Neolithic Β (PPNB), ca. 9,300 to 8000 B. P. T h e Neolithic period seems to have resulted from the effects of climatic change associated with the onset of a colder and drier climate, correlated with the Younger Dryas, which ushered in the Holocene Era. According to this "punctuated equilibrium" interpretation, the climatic change imposed increased stress on the population resulting from the need to obtain food from smaller areas of productive land. The change from reliance on gathering to the cultivation of cereals may have derived its impetus from the women who in a hunter-gatherer society doubtless performed most of the gathering and process-ing.90 Although the evidence for cultivation and domestication is strongest for the PPNB, it may have begun a little earlier. Unfortunately, fewer PPNA sites have been excavated, and so knowledge of this period is less well known.

PPNA sites vary in size but focus on areas near water having alluvial fans suit-able for sowing seeds. This also provided mud for their unbaked mud houses, usually oval in shape, partially subterranean, and equipped with fireplaces inside and out. T h e hearths, such as at Netiv Hagdud, loeated slightly north of Jericho, were oval-shaped, basin-like structures with cobble floors. Cooking was proba-bly done on heated stones. Storage facilities consisted primarily of small bins, sometimes lined with stone, mud-built silos, and probably baskets.91

90 Bar-Yosef a n d Be l fe r -Cohen , " F r o m Forag ing to Fa rming , י p י p . 3 8 - 4 0 ; Sanlaville, " C h a n g e -men t s C l ima t iques , " pp . 2 4 - 2 5 , esp. Fig. 5; T c h e r n o v , " E n v i r o n m e n t a l a n d Soc ioeconomic Back-g r o u n d , " p. 60; Bar-Yosef a n d M e a d o w , "Or ig in s of Agr icu l tu re , " p. 50. O n the role of w o m e n in hun te r -ga the re r societies, see M a r g a r e t E h r e n b e r g , Women in Prehistory ( N o r m a n : Universi ty of O k l a h o m a Press, 1989), pp . 50-62 , ' 8 0 - 9 0 .

91 O f e r Bar-Yosef, Avi G o p h e r , Ei tan T c h e r n o v , a n d M o r d e c h a i E. Kislev, "Net iv H a g d u d : An Ear ly Neoli thic Village Site in the J o r d a n Val ley ," J FA 18, n Ū . 4 (Winter 1991): 4 0 5 - 2 4 ; Bar-Yosef a n d Be l fe r -Cohen , " F r o m Forag ing to F a r m i n g , " pp . 3 4 - 3 8 ; Bar-Yosef a n d Kislev, "Ear ly F a r m i n g C o m m u n i t i e s , " pp . 6 3 4 3 6 ־ ; Bar-Yosef a n d M e a d o w , "Or ig ins of Agr icu l ture ," pp . 6 2 - 6 4 ; J a m e s Mel laar t , " W e s t e r n Asia D u r i n g the Neoli thic a n d the Chalcol i th ic (About 12 ,000-5 ,000 Years Ago)," in History of Humanity,' 1: 4 2 7 - 2 8 .

CHAPTER THREE 6 6

Plant domestication The diet, besides those items typical of the Natufian period, such as gathered fruits and nuts, hunted animals, birds, and fish, probably began to include the so-called "Neolithic founder crops," that is, the cultivated cereals, such as emmer wheat, barley, and, to a lesser extent, einkorn wheat, and four pulses: lentil, field peas, bitter vetch, and chick pea. Which of the cereals and pulses were first domesticated, and where, and whether they were domesticated at dif-ferent places at different times or each once at a single location with the requi-site knowledge spreading from there remain contentious questions.92

PPNB certainly saw the spread of the knowledge of cultivation and domestica-tion if not its first appearance. There were also significant changes in society and technology. So, for instance, for some as yet unknown reason the usual oval houses of the PPNA give way to rectangular or square ones made of mud-brick, sometimes with stone foundations, such as at Bouqras, in Syria. Some floors were made of a plaster derived from crushed and burnt limestone, an invention traceable to the Geometric Kebaran and used by the Natufians in architecture. Significant changes in house shape, organization, and decoration, the appearance of non-domestic buildings and religious structures, elaboration of burial customs, use of metals to make jewelry, and the employment of baked-clay counters for rudimentary accounting, all point to an increasingly complex social structure possessing differen-dation based on wealth.93 This period may as well have seen the beginnings of a craft industry7 where tools and weapons were created by different flaking techniques and sickles were securely hafted with a kind of asphalt. The use of lime and gypsum plasters, made in kilns capable of reaching temperatures of 800°-900° C, spread rapidly during the PPNB. The end of the period saw also the beginnings of pottery making, an innovation with important ramifications for food technology.94

92 Byrd ("From Early H u m a n s to F a r m e r s a n d H e r d e r s , " pp ־23233 . ) would a d d a fifth pulse, b r o a d b e a n , to the list. See also Danie l Z o h a r y a n d M a r i a H o p f , Domestication of Plants in the Old World. 2nd ed. (Oxford : C l a r e n d o n Press, 1993), pp . 2 2 8 - 2 9 ; a n d Danie l Z o h a r y , " T h e M o d e of Domest ica t ion of the F o u n d e r C r o p s of Southwes t Asian Agr icu l ture , " in The Origins and Spread of Agriculture and Pastoralism in Eurasia. David R. Harr i s , ed. (London: Universi ty College L o n d o n Press, 1996), pp. 142-56 ; a n d idem, "Domes t i ca t ion of Southwes t Asian Neoli thic C r o p Assem-blage of Cereals , Pulses, a n d Flax: T h e Evidence f r o m the Living Plants ," in Foraging and Farming, pp . 3 5 8 - 7 3 . T h e most recent c laim has located the first domest ica t ion of e inkorn whea t in the K a r a c a d a g M o u n t a i n s of southeas t T u r k e y . S e e j a r e d D i a m o n d , "Loca t ion , Locat ion , Locat ion: T h e First F a r m e r s , " Science 278 (14 Nov. 1997): 1243-44 , a n d M a n f r e d H e u n , Ral f Schäfer-Pregl , Die ter K l a w a n , R c n a t o C a s t a g n a , M o n i c a Accerbi , Basilio Borghi , a n d Francesco Salamini , "Site of E inkorn W h e a t Domest ica t ion Ident i f ied by D N A Fingerpr in t ing , " in ibid., pp . 1312-14 .

93 Wenke , Patterns in Prehistory, pp . 2 4 4 - 4 5 ; Bryd, " F r o m Early H u m a n s to Farmers and Herders , " pp. 2 3 5 - 3 9 ; Bar-Yosef a n d M e a d o w , "Or ig ins of Agriculture in the N e a r East ," pp. 73 ־78.

94 Bar-Yosef a n d M e a d o w , "Or ig in s of Agr icu l ture ," pp ־7680 . ; Mel laar t , "Wes te rn Asia ," pp . 4 2 9 - 3 2 ; W . David Kingery , P a m e l a B. Vand ive r , a n d M a r t h a Prickett , " T h e Beginnings of Pyro technology , Par t II: P roduc t ion a n d Use of L ime a n d G y p s u m Plaster in the Pre-Pot te ry Neol i thic N e a r Eas t ," JFA 15, no. 2 ( S u m m e r 1988): 2 1 9 - 4 4 .


The Pre-pottery Neolithic period generally saw a continuation of the same technological processes to prepare food as were used in the Epipaleolithic, but some innovation did appear. Two illustrative sites whose processing tools have formed the object of study are Zawi Chemi Shanidar, a late Epipaleolithic and early Neolithic site in the Zagros Mountains of northern Iraq, and Jericho, a site located near the Dead Sea in the Jo rdan Valley and occupied from the Epipalc-olithic Period through the pottery Neolithic period and later.

The Zawi Chemi Shanidar populace, dating from ca. 8,500 B. C., were semi- Tool specialization

sedentary hunter-gatherers who probably processed collected wild barley, ein- in food processing

korn and cmmer wheat, nuts, and acorns. Although some stone mortars have been found, various types of querns predominate. The latter show some sophis-tication and may express a degree of specialization. Four types of quern have been identified: trough querns, fiat querns, bifacial querns, and a combination of quern and mortar. Trough querns, which can be rather large, ranging up to 58 cm. long, 33 cm. wide, and 15 cm. thick, are most commonly found. They represent an improvement over the flat, or "basined," grinding slab, such as those found at Wadi Kubbaniya in Egypt and dated as early as ca. 18,000 B. P. T h e troughs, usually v-shaped or more openly u-shaped, are always closed and vary in depth from 1.0 cm. to 10 cm. The flat quern and bifacial quern, having a trough on both surfaces, are quite scarce. The combination quern-mortar , reminiscent of the cuphole slabs of Ramat Harif in the southern Levant and of PPNA Netiv Hagdud, Nahal Oren, and Gilgal, is quite interesting as it obvious-ly served double service of pounding and grinding.95 These querns were rather large and have a small circular hole at one end of the trough. Rose Soleki, citing as comparanda the California Indians, who used a basket as a hopper on a pounding slab, suggests that the trough may have served the same purpose vis-à-vis the hole in which grain was pounded.9 6 She also points out that the v-shaped trough was unsuitable for back-and-forth grinding, and so the mullers, or grinders, were worked in an elliptical orbit to pound the material in the trough. Two conclusions may be warranted. First, the process used here was mainly crushing and pounding rather than grinding, and so the grains processed were probably the wild husked grains harvested early in the season. And second, the variety of querns, four in all, may suggest a degree of specialization of food type or process.97

95 Gor ing -Mor r i s , " H a r i f i a n of the S o u t h e r n Levant , , p. 184; Bar-Yosef et al, "Net י iv H a d g u d , " pp . 4 0 9 - 1 Í.

96 Rose L. Solecki, "Mil l ing Too l s a n d the Epi-palaeol i thic in the N e a r East ," Etudes sur le Q1ta-ternaire dans le Monde. Vol . 2 (Paris: C e n t r e Na t iona l de la R e c h e r c h e Scientif ique, 1969): 993.

97 Ibid. , p. 992.

CHAPTER THREE 6 8

Jericho Jer icho provides a better look at the development of food processing tools in the Pre-pottery Neolithic period since the site was continuously occupied from the Epipaleolithic Period through the PPNB. PPNA processing tools include mainly stone vessels and some pestles, made of such stones as basalt, limestone, quartzite, and sandstone (PI. 3). T h e PPNB levels have yielded several trough 3 querns, which apparently replaced the flat heavy mortar-like vessels of the previ-ous period.98 Made of similar materials as the vessels, they were all fairly consis-tent in size. Slightly larger than those found at Zawi Chemi Shanidar, their troughs were open at one end while at the other there was a flat area or apron, which normally took up on average ca. thirty-nine per cent of the quern's length.99 Apparently the grinder knelt with the apron end of the quern between her knees and pushed the grain from the apron into the trough, where it was ground with a roughly elliptical muller. By tilting the quern forward the flour could then be emptied through the open end of the trough. The number of pes-ties found is fewer than in PPNA levels and may represent a shift to processing naked-grain cereals with tough rachis, which were collected later in the season. For these grains pounding and crushing were not so necessary; efficient grinding sufficed.

Domestication of O u r understanding of animal domestication in the late Pleistocene-Early animals Holocene is even less secure than that of plant domestication, but in most areas

it is generally agreed that the former followed the latter. Animal resources dur-ing the Kebaran period of the Epipaleolithic included various ungulates, gazelle, wild cquids, various species of deer, and wild cattle, goats, and sheep. There was, however, a tendency to concentrate on a few species. This trend strength-ened over time until by the Natufian period, gazelle was the predominant meat eaten. Evidence in some areas suggests that the Natufians managed undomesti-cated herds of gazelle, selectively culling when needed and perhaps at times favoring females to allow for replenishing of the herd.100 Only in PPNB does clear evidence for domestication of animals appear.

98 P. G . Dorrel l , " S t o n e Vessels, Tools , a n d Ob jec t s , " A p p e n d i x A to Excavations at Jericho. K. M . K e n y o n a n d T . A. Hol land , eds. Vol . 5 (London: British School of Archaeology in J e r u s a l e m , 1983), p. 521.

9 9 Ibid., p . 536, a n d esp. Fig. 227, p. 535 a n d Plate 16. 100 S i m o n J . M . Davis, " W h e n a n d W h y Did Prehis tor ic People Domes t ica te Animals? S o m e

Evidence f r o m Israel a n d C y p r u s , " in Natufian Culture in the Levant, pp . 3 8 1 - 9 0 ; A n d r e w N. G a r -ra rd , " T h e Selection of Sou th -Wes t Asian An ima l Domest ica tes , " in Animals and. Archaeology: 3. Early Herders and Their Flocks. Ju l ie t C lu t ton-Brock a n d Caro l ine Gr igson , eds. BAR In te rna t iona l Series 202 (Oxford : British Archaeologica l Repor t s , 1984): 1 1 7 - 3 2 ; M o o r e , " T h e Trans i t ion f r o m Forag ing to F a r m i n g in Southwest Asia ," pp . 6 2 0 - 3 1 ; Bar-Yosef a n d M e a d o w , " T h e Or ig ins of Agr icul ture in the N e a r East ," pp . 3 9 9 4 ־ ; a n d T c h e r n o v , " E n v i r o n m e n t a l a n d Soc ioeconomic Background to Domes t ica t ion , י pp י . 3 9 - 7 7 . Recen t studies of subsistence pa t te rns in Israel have


Animals best suited to domestication are those that are susceptible to being tamed, are adaptable to a lifestyle alteration, and are controllable by humans. T h e herding animals, sheep, goats, cattle, and pigs, best fit this description. Why these were domesticated when they were has not been conclusively shown. It probably relates to dwindling resources of gazelle due to depletion by increasing numbers of essentially sedentary populations who were accustomed to having dependable supplies of meat in their diet.101 Where and when these animals were first domesticated is also hard to pinpoint, as it is difficult to determine conclusively whether a particular find of bones in a specific area constitutes proof of domestication. Evidence for animals outside their known customary range, for abrupt changes in numbers of animals relative to others attributable to no obvious natural causes, and for morphological changes in animals (e.g. horn shape, body size, and so on) resulting from altered lifestyle has been used to identify early animal domestication.102

Why animals were domesticated remains an unanswered question, but the shift from hunting animals for food to managing them in loosely controlled herds to eventually raising them in securely controlled environments may be linked to an ever-increasing sedentary lifestyle in two ways. First, the population increased. Second, access to wild animals within a restricted geographical area decreased. The need to utilize food resources, both plant and animal, within a smaller area may have led to cultivation and ultimately domestication of plants, but also to the maintenance of a ready supply of animal foods, a sort of "storage on the hoof."103

Although some animals were eaten, others were kept within easy reach to utilize certain animal by-products, such as milk, butter, cheese, and blood, in addition to other non-food uses of animals, such as for wool and for transport. Exactly when animal by-products became common is unknown, but it probably did not precede full domestication. The earliest evidence for the use of milk in the Near East, for instance, comes from the scene impressed on a cylinder seal of the late-4th millennium B. C. during the Uruk period of ancient Iraq.104

shown n o dif ferent ia t ion in subsistence strategies be tween the K e b a r a n a n d Na tu f i an per iods . See G u y B a r - O z a n d T a m a r D a y a n , " T h e Epipalaeol i thic Fauna l Sequence in Israel: a V iew f r o m Neve David , י JArchSci 26 (1999): 6 י 7 - 8 2 .

101 G a r r a r d , "Select ion of Sou th-Wes t A n i m a l Domest ica tes , " pp . 117 32; Bar-Yosef a n d M e a d o w , "Or ig ins of Agr icu l ture ," pp . 91 92; S a n d o r Bökönyi, "Domes t i ca t ion of Animals f r o m the Beginnings of Food Produc t ion U p to A b o u t 5 ,000 Years Ago. An Overview, , in History of יHumanity, 1: 3 8 9 - 9 1 .

102 W e n k e , Patterns in Prehistory, pp . 240; Bökönyi , "Domes t i ca t ion of Animals , " p. 391. 103 Davis, " W h e n a n d W h y Did Prehistoric People Domes t ica te Animals?" pp . 3 8 1 - 9 0 . A י׳10 n d r e w Sher ra t t , Economy and Society in Prehistoric Europe. Changing Perspectives. (Ed inburgh :

E d i n b u r g h Universi ty Press, 1997), pp . 174-80; G a r r a r d , "Select ion of South-west Asian Animal Domest icates , , pp י . 1 17 32; a n d W e n k e , Patterns in Prehistory, p. 238.

CHAPTER THREE 7 0

Although domestication could occur simultaneously in different areas, it seems fairly secure that the earliest domesticate was the goat (some favor the pig), an animal that arose during the late tenth or early ninth millennium B. P. in various places in Southwest Asia. Domesticated sheep and pigs appeared first in the hilly flanks of the Zagros ranges in the mid-to late 9th millennium B. P., while cattle were first domesticated in central Anatolia a little later.105 Although some scholars believe, at least with respect to pigs, that domestication appeared at different places independent of appearance elsewhere, others believe that, once developed, animal domestication spread rather rapidly to other areas, probably as a result of exchange networks between agricultural societies of the Levant and the areas of the Zagros and Taurus ranges. As domesticated cereals went northward into the Zagros area, domesticated goats, sheep, and cattle came to the Levant.106 T h e spread of animal cultivation southward into the western Negev and northern Sinai was slow. No sure signs of it have been found that antedate the Bronze Age, though its appearance in the Nile Valley by ca. the seventh millennium B. P. may imply its existence in the dry steppes of the southern Levant at this time or a little before.107

Diet and health in T h e transition from a subsistence strategy based on scavenging to one ground-prehistoric man ed primarily on hunting to one rooted in hunting and gathering can be traced in

the effects of dietary change on the physical development of prehistoric man. For example, the tooth and j aw size and to some extent tooth wear were earlier discussed for Australopithecus and early Homo populations. Dental studies on Mousterian populations (H. sapiens neanderthalensis and early H. sapiens sapiens) in the Near East showed few caries, only moderate wear caused by attrition, and

105 Bökönyi, "Domes t i ca t ion of Animals , " pp . 3 9 1 - 9 3 ; A n d r e w G a r r a r d , Susan Col ledge, a n d Louise M a r t i n , " T h e E m e r g e n c e of C r o p Cul t iva t ion a n d C a p r i n e H e r d i n g in the 'Marg ina l Z o n e ' of the S o u t h e r n Levan t , " in The Origins and Spread of Agriculture and Pastoralisrn in Eurasia. David R. Harr is , ed. (London: L C L Press, 1996), p p . 2 0 8 - 1 0 ; T c h e r n o v , " E n v i r o n m e n t a l a n d Soc ioeconomic B a c k g r o u n d , " pp . 6 4 - 6 8 ; W e n k e , Patterns in Prehistory, pp . 2 4 0 - 4 2 ; Bar-Yosef a n d M e a d o w , "Or ig ins of Agr icul ture in the N e a r Eas t ," pp . 84—90; Ken t V . F lannery , "Ear ly Pig Domes t i ca t ion in the Fertile Crescen t . A Retrospect ive Look," in The Hilly Flanks and Beyond. Essays on the Prehistory of Southwestern Asia. T . Cuy le r Young , J r . , Phil ip E. L. Smi th , a n d Peder M o r t e n s e n , eds. Studies in Ancien t Or i en t a l Civil ization No . 36 (Chicago: T h e Or i en ta l Insti tute, 1983), pp . 163-88 ; a n d Miller , "Seed Eaters of the Ancien t N e a r Eas t ," p. 521.

106 pjgS : F lannery , "Ear ly Pig Domes t i ca t ion , " pp. 182-83 ; Brian F. Byrd, " T h e Dispersal of Food Produc t ion Across the Levan t , " in Transitions to Agriculture in Prehistory. A n n e Birgitte G e b a u e r a n d T . Douglas Price, eds. (Madison , Wise.: Prehis tory Press, 1992), p. 55; idem, " F r o m Early H u m a n s to F a r m e r s a n d H e r d e r s , " p. 234; T c h e r n o v , " E n v i r o n m e n t a l a n d Soc ioeconomic Backg round , " p. 68. At A b u H u r e y r a , as well as at Çayôn t i in southeas te rn T u r k e y , the shift f r o m rel iance on gazelle to the h e r d i n g of domest ic sheep a n d goats occur red within a short per iod of t ime. See M o o r e , "Trans i t i on f rom Forag ing to F a r m i n g in Southwes t Asia ," p. 628.

107 G a r r a r d et al, " E m e r g e n c e of C r o p Cul t iva t ion ," pp . 2 0 4 - 2 6 .


rare cases of tooth loss. T o judge from results of relatively few studies on the health of prehistoric man, overall Paleolithic populations appear to have enjoyed fairly good health. By the Upper Paleolithic period life expectancy was about thirty-five years for males and thirty years for females. T h e trend during the Epipaleolithic period toward sedentism with its resultant decrease in stresses incident to frequent migrations proved beneficial to general health and longevi-ty, especially for females.108 Although Natufian teeth showed increased rates of caries, attrition, and tooth loss, the population as a whole was rather healthy. Nevertheless, the deterioration of the tooth surface and the increase in dental disease seen among the Natufians has been linked with a change of diet and of food processing techniques.109 The transition from a hunter-gatherer-fisher lifestyle, or an essentially semi-sedentary one involving the gathering and pro-cessing of wild cereals, to an agricultural lifestyle centered on the raising of domesticated plants and animals, however, involved not only dietary changes but significant technological developments in food processing. T h e use of ground-stone grinding and pounding tools and later cooking in clay vessels had physiological effects of a different nature and ones that were clearly unintended. This can best be seen at Neolithic Abu Hureyra, in northern Syria.

The hunter-gatherer inhabitants of Epipaleolithic Abu Hureyra subsisted on Unintended

gathered cereals, such as einkorn wheat and barley, berries, and seeds, as well as consequences to food

hunted game, especially gazelle. After an unexplained lapse in occupation processing

between ca. 10,000 and 9,800 B. P., the Neolithic populace consumed various cultivated cereals, all requiring processing, in addition to gathering other plant foods and hunting game.110 Recent study by Theya Molleson of the skeletal evi-dence of the Neolithic population revealed some interesting facts. The bones showed specific injuries attributable to the position assumed by the worker while laboring long hours over a quern to grind grain for consumption.111 The worker,

1 0 8 J . Lawrence Angel , " H e a l t h as a Cruc ia l Fac to r in the C h a n g e s f rom H u n t i n g to Deve loped F a r m i n g in the Eas te rn M e d i t e r r a n e a n , " in Paleopathology at the Origins of Agriculture. M a r k N a t h a n C o h e n a n d G e o r g e J . Armelagos , eds. (Or l ando : A c a d e m i c Press, Inc., 1984), pp . 5 8 - 6 0 . By the Epipaleol i thic per iod the average life span was ca. thirty years, rising to thi r ty-four by the Neol i th-ic Per iod. Female life expec tancy averaged ca. fou r years beh ind that for males. See Patr icia Smi th , O f e r Bar-Yosef, a n d A n d r e w Sillen, "Archaeologica l a n d Skeletal Evidence for Die tary C h a n g e D u r i n g the La te P le i s tocene /Ear ly H o l o c e n e in the Levan t , " in ibid., p. 120.

109 A. Be l fe r -Cohen , L. A. Schepar tz , a n d B. Arensburg , " N e w Biological D a t a for the Na tu f i -an Popula t ions in Israel ," in Natufian Culture in the Levant, pp . 4 1 1 - 2 4 ; a n d Patr icia Smi th , " T h e Den ta l Evidence for Nut r i t iona l Sta tus in the Na tu f i ans , " in ibid., pp . 425 32.

110 O n Epipaleol i thic A b u H u r e y r a , see H i l lma n et al, "P lan t - food E c o n o m y D u r i n g the Epi-palaeol i thic Per iod at Tel l A b u H u r e y r a , Syr ia ," pp . 2 4 0 - 6 8 ; M o o r e , " A b u H u r e y r a 1 a n d the Anteceden t s of Agricul ture on the Midd le E u p h r a t e s , " pp . 277 94.

111 T h e y a Molleson, " T h e Eloquent Bones of A b u H u r e y r a , " Scientific American 271, no. 2 (Aug. 1994): 7 0 - 7 5 .

CHAPTER THREE 7 2

from skeletal evidence identified usually as a woman or young girl, situated the quern on the ground, knelt down, and placed the grain on it. She then, as con-ccivcd by Molleson,

holds the rubbing stone with both hands. On her knees. . . , with toes bent for-ward, she pushes the stone toward the far end of the quern, ending the stroke with her upper body almost parallel to the ground so her arms are al or near the level of her head. On reaching the far end of the quern, she jerks back to her starting position. I call this part of the grinding action the recoil. The movement that raises the arms as the grinder pushes forward employs the deltoid muscles of the shoul-der. During this stroke, the arms also turn, a motion accomplished by the biceps muscles.112

T h e position and movements contributed to overdeveloped muscles of both arms, enlarged knee joints, and injured vertebrae of the lower back. The toes, naturally curled to support the kneeling grinder, in some individuals developed enlarged metatarsal joints, cartilage damage, and osteoarthritis.

Injuries were not confined just to the workers. They also fell upon consumers, as teeth received severe wear patterns and sometimes breaks or chips from the rock powder or the incompletely ground kernels of grain, which could be quite hard. One evident plus derived from this diet, however, is that it produced little or no tooth decay. This was not the case, however, after the advent of pottery.

Impact of pottery on Although pottery making may have begun in the mid-tenth millennium B. P. food processing in the southern central Sahara of Egypt, it appeared at many places throughout

Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and the Levant almost simultaneously around 8,000 B. P. T h e earliest pots were merely cups, vases, and dishes, probably sun-dried or heated in bon-fires or ovens rather than fired in kilns; later more sophisticated and larger vessels were made in kilns. Although used earlier by mobile popula-tions engaged in hunting and gathering, pottery proved a boon for sedentary life styles. With the domestication of plants and animals clay pots provided a way to store milk, processed cereals, and other foods, and especially offered the oppor-tunity to boil water and to cook. W h o first invented the clay pot is unknown, but its creation was most likely associated with women who carried much of the bur-den of gathering, processing, and cooking.113

112 Ibid. , pp . 7 1 - 7 2 . 113 Egypt: Ange la E. Close, "Few a n d F a r Between . Ear ly C e r a m i c s in N o r t h Afr ica ," in The

Emergence of Pottery. Technology and Innovation in Ancient Societies. Wil l iam K. Barnet t a n d J o h n W . Hoopes , eds. (Wash ing ton a n d L o n d o n : Smi thson ian Inst i tut ion Press, 1995), pp . 2 3 3 7 ־ ; Wes te rn Asia: A. M . T . M o o r e , " T h e Incept ion of Pot t ing in W e s t e r n Asia a n d Its Impac t on E c o n o m y a n d Society," in ibid., pp . 3 9 5 3 ־ ; Cha r l e s Kei th Maisels, The Emergence of Civilization from Hunting and Gathering to Agriculture, Cities, and the State in the Near East (London: Rou t l edge , 1990), p. 88. Sim-pie kilns, c apab l e of raising t e m p e r a t u r e s to ca. 800" C . , we re by the mid-n in th mi l lennium B. P.


The use of clay pots to cook cereals brought significant change to the human Cooking

diet. T h e ability to heat food at high temperatures, especially to boil liquids, opened up a wider range of potential foods that were safer, tastier, and, because heat releases carbohydrates from the grains, easier to digest. Cooked foods, such as porridges, were softer and so kinder to the teeth. This fact may have had at least one physiological effect on the development of Homo sapiens sapiens. Softer foods may have arrested any tendency of human teeth to develop high crowns, a condition typical of animals that eat an abrasive diet.114 Molleson et al attribute other long-range effects to the development of cooking in pottery vessels. The consumption of cooked foods, such as porridge, they contend, increased women's fat reserves thus allowing for a higher conception and more successful birth rate. Additionally, softer foods made early weaning of infants more prac.ti-cable and so shortened potential times between pregnancies. Both of these effects led to increased populations. These benefits, however, did not come with-out their price. Concomitant with the increased birth rate may have been an elevated infant mortality rate, although the reasons for the elevated numbers of infant burials are unclear. And finally, since cooked foods are softer, they tend also to be stickier and so to adhere to the teeth. This allows for the growth of bacteria and results in an increase in tooth decay over the previous period.115

Pots facilitated not only cooking and boiling but also detoxification and prob- Wine making

ably fermentation. Archaeologists have recently claimed to have discovered at the Neolithic site of Hajji Firuz Tepe, located in the northern Zagros Mountains of Iran, a pot, dating to ca. 5400-5000 B. C., that contained a yellowish residue. A series of scientific tests on the remains confirmed the presence not only of the calcium salt of tartaric acid, a strong indication of wine, but also traces of tere-binth resin, an additive used in later times to inhibit the transformation of wine into vinegar. This residuum provides the earliest chemical evidence for wine-making. T h e technological process by which wine was made during the sixth millennium B. C., however, remains unknown.116

be ing used to m a k e lime f r o m l imestone o r chalk. See ibid., p. 45. For w o m e n a n d pot tery , see Wil l iam A. Longacre , " W h y Did T h e y Invent Pot tery A n y w a y ? " in ibid., pp . 2 7 7 - 8 0 , a n d E h r e n -berg , Women in Prehistory, pass im.

114 T h e y a Mol leson, K a r e n Jones, a n d S t ephen J o n e s , "Die t a ry C h a n g e a n d the Effects of Food P repa ra t ion on M i c r o w e a r Pat terns in the La te Neol i th ic of A b u H u r e y r a , N o r t h e r n Syr ia ," JHumEvol 24 (1993): 465. Mou l ins {Agricultural Changes at Euphrates and Steppe Sites, pp (־8789 . , on the o t h e r h a n d , quest ions some of the conclusions of Mol leson et al.

115 Mol leson, "E loquen t Bones , " p. 73. Studies of e n a m e l hypoplasia in teeth of popu la t ions liv-ing in the Levan t also t end to conf i rm earl ier w e a n i n g of infants a n d so decreased intervals be tween births. See Smi th et al, "Archeological a n d Skeletal Ev idence ," p. 124.

110 For the resinated wine f rom I ran , see Pat r ick E. M c G o v e r n , D o n a l d L. Glusker , L a w r e n c e J . Exner , a n d M a r y M . Voigt , "Neol i th ic Res ina ted W i n e , " Mature 381 (6 J u n e 1996): 4 8 0 - 8 1 . For a detai led discussion of anc ient vinicul ture, see be low C h a p t e r Four .

CHAPTER THREE 7 4

2. Europe

Spread of agriculture General consensus reigns over the proposition that, beginning ca. 9000 B. P., into Europe agriculture spread from Anatolia into a Europe already predisposed to a seden-

tary, farming lifestyle. The precise mechanism by which it spread, however, remains a source of endless debate. In general, the protagonists range them-selves into two camps. T h e first adheres to the idea of diffusion, or "Wave of Advance," which states that the knowledge of plant and animal domestication spread from southwestern Asia by colonists who slowly, irregularly, but inex-orably moved westward. T h e plants introduced into cultivation included the various wheats (einkorn, emmer, club, common, durum, and bread), barley, and legumes; animals included sheep, goat, pigs, and cattle.117 T h e second group favors "acculturation" by indigenous populations. They attribute the earliest expansion of farming to the introduction of the knowledge of agriculture by Aegean sailors returning from Anatolia and then to the imparting of this knowl-edge to other Europeans. Although some proponents allow for some coloniza-tion, they all maintain that expansion of farming across the continent was essen-tially through transference of the information from one indigenous population to another.118 Whatever the precise mechanism, the spread of European agricultur-al communities can be traced from east to west.

Once established in Anatolia, the knowledge of agriculture spread across the Aegean to Greece. Farming, for example, can be documented in the late 9th millennium B. P. at Franchthi Cave in the Peloponnese, at several sites in Thes-saly in northern Greece, and at Knossos on Crete.119 From there farmers, or at least the knowledge of agriculture, spread to Italy, Sardinia, Corsica, and into

117 Albert J . A m m e r m a n a n d L. L. Caval l i -Sforza , The Neolithic Transition and the Genetics of Popu-lations in Europe (Princeton: Pr ince ton Universi ty Press, 1984), esp. pp . 6 3 8 4 ־ ; Col in R e n f r e w , " L a n g u a g e Families a n d the Sp read of Fa rming , י ,in Origins and Spread of Agriculture and Pastoralism יpp. 7 0 - 9 2 ; T . Douglas Price, A n n e Birgitte G e b a u e r , a n d Lawrence H . Keeley, " T h e S p r e a d of f a r m i n g into E u r o p e N o r t h of the Alps," in Last Hunters-First Farmers, pp . 9 5 - 1 2 6 ; a n d T j e e r d H . V a n Andel a n d Cur t i s N. Runne l s , " T h e Earliest F a r m e r s in E u r o p e , " Antiquity 69 (1995): 4 8 1 - 5 0 0 .

118 T h o r p e , Origins of Agriculture in Europe; R a n d o l p h E. D o n a h u e , "Despera te ly Seeking Ceres: A Crit ical E x a m i n a t i o n of C u r r e n t Mode l s for the Trans i t ion to Agricul ture in M e d i t e r r a n e a n E u r o p e , " in Transitions to Agriculture in Prehistory, pp. 73~80; R o b i n W . Dennel l , " T h e Or ig ins of C r o p Agricul ture in E u r o p e , " in Origins of Agriculture. An International Perspective, pp . 7 1 - 1 0 0 ; Ju l i an T h o m a s , " T h e Cul tu ra l Con t ex t of the First Use of Domes t ica tes in Con t inen t a l Cen t r a l a n d Nor thwes t E u r o p e , " in Origins and Spread of Agriculture and Pastoralism, pp . 3 1 0 2 2 ־ ; Alasdair Whit t le , Europe in the Neolithic. The Creation of New Worlds (Cambr idge : C a m b r i d g e Universi ty Press, 1996).

Paul Ha יי" l s t ead , " T h e D e v e l o p m e n t of Agr icul ture a n d Pastoral ism in Greece : W h e n , H o w , W h o a n d W h a t ? " in Origins and Spread of Agriculture and Pastoralism, pp. 2 9 6 - 3 0 9 ; Chris tos D o u m a s , " T h e Aegean D u r i n g the Neol i th ic ," in History of Humanity, 1: 5 0 1 - 1 0 .


the Franco-Iberian Cardial during the eighth millennium B. P.120 At about the spread of animal

same time farming spread into the Balkans, probably via the Dardanelles and domestication

the Bosphorus, reaching the Carpathians and the Ukraine by the late 8th mil-lennium B. P. From the Balkans and northern Italy farming moved into central Europe in the 7th millennium B. P. This earliest farming culture of central Europe, termed Linearbandkeramik, or LBK, (5400-3800 B. C., cal.) spread rather rapidly from the Hungarian plain westward into northern France.121 111 the 6th and 5th millennia B. P. agriculture became established in southern Scandinavia and in Britain and Ireland during the following millennium or a little after. Both contending camps agree that the spread of farming into northern Europe was by adoption of the practices by indigenous populations rather than by colonization.122

Agriculture in Europe came at different times in different places but generally Spread of food

can be said to have had its earliest appearance in eastern and southeastern processing tools

Europe and its latest in northern Europe and Britain. The same can be said of the spread of animal domestication. T h e caprovinc-bascd animal husbandry of Southwest Asia spread along with the knowledge of farming, though its arrival in any one place may not exactly coincide with the beginning of plant cultiva-tion and some areas may have concentrated in a different mix of animal species. Central Europe, for example, raised more cattle than sheep and goats. In any case, all five caprovine species were domesticated in every part of Europe by the end of the 6th millennium B. P.123

As the knowledge of plant and animal domestication swept across Europe, it also carried with it the knowledge of food processing. In Greece, for instance, excavations have yielded examples of pestles, pounders, grinders, and querns. Hearths in and outside houses include those that were pebble-lined and plas-tered, raised on platforms, or constructed in oven-like shapes. Although Early Neolithic remains included few coarse pottery used for cooking, later stages yielded an abundance of cooking vessels. In the Late Neolithic large terracotta jars were used for storage, and there is evidence that communities in the Argolid

120 J e a n Gui la ine , "Wes te rn M e d i t e r r a n e a n Cul tu res D u r i n g the Neol i th ic , " in History of Humanity, 1: 5 1 1 - 1 5 ; D e Laet , " E u r o p e D u r i n g the Neol i th ic ," in History of Humanity, 1: 4 9 0 - 9 1 .

121 Peter Bogucki a n d Ryszard Grygiel , " T h e First F a r m e r s of Cen t r a l Eu rope : A Survey Arti-cle," J FA 20, no . 4 (Winter 1993): 3 9 9 - 4 2 6 ; Price et al, " S p r e a d of F a r m i n g into E u r o p e N o r t h of the Alps," pp . 9 5 - 1 0 7 ; T h o m a s , "Cul tu ra l C o n t e x t of the First Use of Domest ica tes ," pp . 3 1 0 - 2 2 ; Whi t t le , Europe in the Neolithic, pp . 144-77 .

122 Price et al, " S p r e a d of F a r m i n g into E u r o p e N o r t h of the Alps," pp . 107-14 ; Dennel l , " O r i -gins of C r o p Agricul ture in E u r o p e , " pp . 8 4 - 8 7 ; T h o r p e , Origins of Agriculture in Europe, pp . 6 3 - 1 8 1 .

123 Bökönyi, "Domes t i ca t ion of Animals , " pp . 394; Bogucki a n d Grygiel , "First F a r m e r s of Cen t r a l E u r o p e , " p. 409

CHAPTER THREE 7 6

were importing andésite millstones from the island of Aegina.124 In eastern Europe, in areas of Bulgaria, one-room houses of the Late Neolithic frequently had a section set aside for quern, hearth, and oven. In the Eneolithic (ca. 4200-2800 B. C.) saddle querns were sometimes dug into the floor near an oven. Ovens varied between horseshoe-shaped, square, or dome-shaped, depending on location and culture.125

Cereal processing implements, such as sickles and saddle querns, also charac-terize LB Κ communities of central Europe and bear witness to cereal cultivation as their primary subsistence strategy. They apparently also engaged in the herd-ing of animals, primarily cattle. While some of the animals were raised for their meat, there is strong evidence that dairy products formed a significant part of their diet, although lactose intolerance may have limited their intake of milk. Milk by-products, however, have little or none of the offending agent. If the ceramic sieves found in many small LBK sites were used for making cheese, and possibly yogurt, as has been suggested, they would constitute the earliest evi-dence known for dairying, predating that from Uruk in Mesopotamia by over two millennia. These ceramic sieves, small terracotta vessels with numerous holes about two or three millimeters in diameter, may have been used to strain curds from the whey of milk to make cheese. Similar vessels are known from other Neolithic cultures, such as the Lengyel, Rössen, and Funnel Beaker cul-tures. They also bear a strong resemblance to similarly-shaped vessels from Ear-ly Bronze Age cultures, especially in the Apennine Mountains of Italy, which have been identified as milk-boilers or cheese strainers.126 Cheese comes in a form convenient to transport and to store for a significant period of time. Conse-quently, it can serve as a supplement to a grain diet as well as provide a hedge against a period of grain deficiency.

This combination of herding and cereal cultivation by some of the Neolithic

Linearband-

keramik (LBK)

culture and daily

products: cheese

1 2 4 J e a n - P a u l D e m o u l e a n d C a t h e r i n e Perlés, " T h e Greek Neoli thic: A N e w Review," JWorld-Prehist 7, no. 4 (Dec. 1993): 3 5 5 - 4 1 6 ; K a r e n D . Vitelli, " W e r e Pots First M a d e for Foods? D o u b t s f r o m F r a n c h t h i , " WorldArch 21, no . 1 J u n e 1989): 17-29 .

125 R u t h T r i n g h a m , Hunters, Fishers and Farmers of Eastern Europe, 600(h3000 Β. C. (London: H u t c h i n s o n Univers i ty Library , 1971), pp . 112-13 , 156, 162, 184.

12(1 Pe ter I. Bogucki, " C e r a m i c Sieves of the L inea r Pot tery Cu l tu r e a n d T h e i r E c o n o m i c Impli-ca t ions ," Of A 3, no. 1 (1984): 15 30; idem, " T h e Ant iqui ty of Da i ry ing in T e m p e r a t e E u r o p e , " Expedition 28, no. 2 (1986): 5 1 - 5 8 ; Pr ice et al, " S p r e a d of F a r m i n g in to E u r o p e N o r t h of the Alps, י p. 99; A י n d r e w Sher ra t t , " T h e Secondai־)· Exploi ta t ion of Animals in the O l d W o r l d . " (1983, revised), in Economy and Society in Prehistoric Europe (Ed inburgh : E d i n b u r g h Universi ty Press, 1997), pp . 205 08. Barker c o m p a r e s the "milk boi lers" to me ta l versions used by m o d e r n Italians to m a k e cheese. See G r a e m e Barker , Prehistoric Farming in Europe (Cambr idge : C a m b r i d g e Univer -sity Press, 1985), pp . 8 0 - 8 1 , esp. Fig. 30. See also Haskel J. Greenf ie ld , " T h e Or ig ins of Milk a n d W o o l P roduc t ion in the O l d W o r l d , " CurrAnth 29, no. 4 ( A u g . - O c t . 1988): 5 7 3 - 9 3 .


populations of Europe was brought out in stark reality by the discovery in 1991 The ״iceman״

of the body of the " iceman/ ' a Late Neolithic itinerant herder who met his death in the Ötztaler Alps on the border between Italy and Austria ca. 3300 and 3200 B. C.127 Items found with him included small pieces of Hint, one of which was perhaps a sickle, some grains of barley and wheat, materials for lighting a fire, a copper axe, and a bow and arrows.

3. Egypt

Beginning around 12,500 B. P. increased rainfall in the highlands raised the vol-ume of water in the Nile, causing greater flooding and initiating the so-called "Wild Nile" period. Between the tenth and ninth millennia B. P. the Arkinian and Shamarkian cultures of the Middle Nile region in Nubia subsisted on a vari-ety of hunted mammals, various plants, and particularly fish, including deep-water fish caught perhaps from boats with nets or harpoons.128 Excavations at Site E-75-6 at Nabta, in the eastern Sahara, yielded remains of four houses. One of them, dating to 8550 B. P., had six hearths and seventy-four "cooking holes," each ranging from ca. ten to twenty centimeters in diameter. T o cook the food, it appears that hot ash had been gathered around (apparently at Nabta, non-ceramic) vessels placed in the holes. Various seeds of diverse grasses and herbs have been found in conjunction with these holes. Excavations have also yielded grinding stones and remains of wild sorghum grains and seeds of other wild grasses. Barley can be dated to ca. 7900 B. P.129

In general, the subsistence strategies of Late Pleistocene populations of the Nile Valley, such as the Nubian cultures, the El kabian and Tarifian populations of Upper Egypt, and the Qarunian inhabitants of the Fayum, between the ninth and seventh millennia B. P., centered on seasonal consumption of such staples as fish, root foods, and a broad base of other plant and animal foods as necessary. At K o m O m b o , Isna, Edfu, and El Kab, and in Nubia, at Wadi Haifa, evidence

127 K o n r a d Spindler , The Man in the Ice (New York: H a r m o n y Books, 1994), esp. pp . 186-254 . 128 R a n d i H a a l a n d , "Seden t i sm, Cul t ivat ion, a n d Plan t Domest ica t ion in the Ho locenc M i d d l e

Nile Region , , ) J FA 22, no. 2 י S u m m e r 1995): 157-74 ; We t t e r s t rom, "Forag ing a n d F a r m i n g in Egypt , ' pp י . 183-85; Doug las J . Brewer a n d R e n é e F. F r i e d m a n , Fish and Fishing in Egypt. Vol . 2 of T h e N a t u r a l His tory of Egypt (Warmins ter : Aris a n d Phillips, 1989), pp . 6 - 7 .

129 W e n d o r f a n d Schild, " S o m e Implications, '" pp . 117-27 ; Fekri A. Hassan , " T o w a r d a M o d e l of Agricul tural D e v e l o p m e n t s in Prcdynast ic Egypt , " in Origin and Early Development of Food-Produc-ing Cultures, p. 222; Ange la E. Close a n d Fred W e n d o r f , " T h e Beginnings of Food Produc t ion in the Eas tern S a h a r a , " in Transitions to Agriculture in Prehistory, p. 69; Fred W e n d o r f a n d Angela E. Close, "Ear ly Neol i thic Food-Economies in the Eas te rn S a h a r a , " in The Followers of Horus. Studies Dedicated to Michael Allen Hoffman, 1944-1990. R e n é e F r i e d m a n a n d B a r b a r a A d a m s , eds. (Oxford : O x b o w , 1992), pp . 155 -62 .

CHAPTER THREE 7 8

of animal bones document the availability of wild cattle, jackals, hyena, gazelle, antelopes, the wild ass, and various birds, along the river and at the edge of the desert. The river itself yielded fish and turtles. Fayum inhabitants relied heavily on fish from the lake and river. Most popular among shallow water species was the catfish (clarìas sp.); deep-water fish included the Nile perch (.Lates niloticus). Fish also formed a significant part of the Neolithic diet at Merimda and el-Omari .

Plant foods consumed by people living near wetlands were probably similar to those eaten at Wadi Kubbaniya ten thousand years earlier, although there is lit-tie evidence for grinding tools used to process them. Two technological innova-tions, however, may be attributed to this time period: deep-water fishing, and, during "Wild Nile" periods to make up for decreased availability of fish and plant foods, controlled burning. T h e latter would have served to attract game animals and, perhaps as an unintended consequence, to stimulate tuber growth and so to increase plant resources as well. T h e unpredictability of Nile flooding, however, would have always left hunter-gatherers unsure of their food supply; one year might bring feast, the next could bring famine. Constant insecurity made Egyptian inhabitants receptive to plant and animal domesticates entering Egypt from Southwest Asia during the late sixth millennium B. C.130

spread of agriculture While the climate in Egypt from ca. 12,000 B. P. had alternated between dry into Egypt and wet periods, the period between 7,000 and 6,000 B. P. was particularly dry.

It is at this time, perhaps ca. 5200 B. C., that agriculture, probably via colonists from Southwest Asia, makes its appearance in the Nile Valley at the western Delta site of Merimda.131 The settlement patterns of Neolithic Merimda in its earliest phase were seasonal and temporary. In the later phases, however, the Merimdans show an increasing shift from foraging to farming. So, for example, heavy mortars set in mud were used to process foods, pits lined with mud served for storage, and hearths seem to have been used over a long period of time for cooking food. In Phase V, they employed storage pits made of large baskets sunk into the ground, plastered with mud, and protected by woven lids. These basket silos, measuring on average ca. 60-135 cm. in diameter and 60 cm. in depth, probably served as communal storage facilities. Large vessels, or pithoi, with a

130 VVctterstrom, "Fo rag ing a n d F a r m i n g in Egypt , " pp . 192-98; Gau t i e r , " Q u a t e r n a r y M a m -mais a n d Archaeo logy of Egypt a n d the S u d a n , " pp . 4 6 - 4 7 ; H o f f m a n , Egypt Before the Pharaohs, pp . 8 7 - 9 0 ; D a r b y et al, Food: the Gift 0J Osiris. 2: 460; a n d W e n k e , Patterns in Prehistory, p. 376.

131 Close, "Plus Ç a C h a n g e , " pp . 4 3 - 6 0 ; R a n d i H a a l a n d , "Seden t i sm, Cul t ivat ion, a n d Plant Domes t ica t ion in the Ho locene M i d d l e Nile R e g i o n , " pp . 157-74 ; We t t e r s t rom, "Fo rag ing a n d F a r m i n g in Egypt , " pp . 198 -204 , 2 1 2 - 1 4 ; Fekri A. Hassan , "Predynas t ic of Egypt , " pp . ' 140-44 , 150-52 ; a n d idem, "Deser t E n v i r o n m e n t a n d Or ig ins of Agr icul ture in Egypt , " Norwegian Archaeo-logical Review 19, no. 2 (1986): 6 3 - 7 6


llw Fayum

capacity of ca. 60 kg. of grain, and in-ground bins also served for food storage. Spread of animal

T h e Merimdans were a mixed farming-herding population that cultivated, har- domestication into

vested, and processed domesticated wheat and barley as well as raised domestic cattlc, sheep, goats, and pigs. The cereals, as well as the goat and sheep, neither of which were indigenous to Egypt, probably arrived from the Levant. Cattle, native to Northeast Africa, had probably been earlier domesticated in the east-ern Sahara, while pigs may also have been domesticated locally.132 Increased reliance upon these domesticates led to the establishment of the permanent agri-cultural communities that one finds in the Egyptian Prcdynastic period.

Soon after its appearance at Merimda agriculture spread westward into the Fayum oasis. There it combined perhaps with elements of the "Saharan Neolithic" from farther south already present.133 T h e Neolithic population of the Fayum, called Fayum A, subsisted on herding animals, cultivated cereals, and both shallow and deep-water fish. At the Kom W site excavators found shallow "fire-holes," excavated into the rock between 15 cm. and 30 cm., which had apparently been used as hearths. T h e inhabitants set cooking pots into the holes and placed combustible material around them. Some of the extant pots contained fish bones.134 Among tools found were sickles, sticks probably for threshing grain, and stone querns. Storage was also an important part of life in the Fayum, as evidenced by underground "silos," most of which were lined with plaited straw or reeds.

At Kom K, two areas contained storage facilities as well as "lire-holes." O n e Granaries

sector, the "Upper Granaries," yielded fifty-six or more pits. O n e granary held up to 364 kg. of grain, both of wheat and, especially, barley. Averaging between three and four feet in diameter and between one and two feet in depth, they were probably covered by straw mats. An oval basket was found in one silo.

132 A b b a s S. M o h a m m e d - A l i , "Ev idence of Early Food Produc t ion in Nor theas t Afr ica : an Al ternat ive M o d e l , " in Origin and Early Development of Food-Producing Cultures, p. 68; Gau t i e r , " Q u a r -tenary M a m m a l s , " p. 52; Krzyzan iak , "La te Prehis tory of Egypt , " p. 403. Egypt ian cattle m a y have been domes t ica ted as early as the tenth mi l l enn ium B. P. by hun t e r -ga the r e r colonists f r o m the Nile Valley w h o subsisted on small m a m m a l s , plants , a n d the by-produc t s of cattle, such as milk a n d blood. T h e cattle themselves were p r o b a b l y not c o n s u m e d . T h e a r g u m e n t for the ind igenous domest ica t ion of cattle is ecologically based . Ange la E. Close, "Plus Ç a C h a n g e , " p. 55; Angela E. Close a n d Fred W e n d o r f , " T h e Beginnings of Food Produc t ion in the Eastern S a h a r a , " in Transitions to Agriculture in Prehistory, pp . 6 3 - 7 2 ; Bökönyi, "Domes t ica t ion of Animals , " p. 395; Achilles Gau t i e r , "Archaeozoo logy of the Bir Kiseiba Reg ion , Eas tern S a h a r a , " in Cattle-Keepers of the Eastern Sahara: The Neolithic of Bir Kiseiba. Fred W e n d o r f , R o m u a l d Schild, a n d Ange la E. Close, eds. (Dallas: S o u t h e r n Method i s t Universi ty , 1984), pp . 4 9 . 7 2 ־

133 Z a h i Hawass , Fekri A. Hassan , a n d Achilles Gau t i e r , " C h r o n o l o g y , Sediments , a n d Subsis-tence at M e r i m d a Beni S a l a m a , " JEA 74 (1988): 3 1 - 3 8 ; Krzyzan iak , "La te Prehis tory of Egypt , " p. 399; a n d Hassan , "Prcdynas t ic of Egypt ," p. 141.

134 Wet t e r s t rom, "Fo rag ing a n d F a r m i n g in Egypt , " pp . 2 0 4 - 1 1.

CHAPTER THREE 8 0

Nearby were threshing sticks, grindstones, a saddle quern, a quartzite grain-rub-ber, sickles, and wide-mouthed vessels used, it has been surmised, for parching the grain before grinding.135 T h e Fayum A population had no permanent struc-tures, and may have moved seasonally in harmony with the fluctuations of Lake Fayum (mod. Birket Qarun) which, prior to the 1st millennium B. C., was con-nected to the Nile River and so was affected by the annual flooding of the river. Farming only became established in the upper and middle-Nile areas during the following millennium in what is usually designated the Predynastic period.

133 G e r t r u d e C a t o n - T h o m p s o n a n d E. W . G a r d n e r , The Desert Fayum. 2 Vols. (London: Royal Anthropolog ica l Insti tute, 1934), Vol. 1, pp a ,־54 41 . n d Vol. II, Plates X X I V X X X I ; R o b e r t J . W e n k e , J a n e t E. Long , a n d Paul E. Buck, "Epipaleol i th ic a n d Neol i th ic Subsis tence a n d Settle-m e n t in the Fayyum Oas is of Egypt , " JFA 15, no. 1 (Spring 1988): 2 9 5 1 ־ ; Krzyzan iak , "La te Pre-history of Egypt , " p. 403. A fu r the r o n e h u n d r e d a n d n ine granar ies were found a short d is tance away. W e t t e r s t r o m , " F o r a g i n g a n d F a r m i n g in Egypt , " pp. 2 0 5 - 0 6 .

8 1

S U M M A R Y AND C O N C L U S I O N S T O P A R T O N E

Developments in food technology during the Prehistoric period went, almost literally, hand in hand with the evolution of man. Efficient processing tools were not possible before man had the manual dexterity to manipulate them, and the food processes themselves were inconceivable until m a n possessed the intellectual capacity to conceptualize them and to plan ahead. The first devel-opment came only with the appearance of Homo habilis, or possibly Australopethi-eus gahri, at ca. 2.5 mya, while the second finds its greatest practitioner in Homo sapiens sapiens nearly 2.4 million years later. In between lay a long, slow process.

Between the invention of stone tools, most likely by H. habilis, and the appear- Two major advances:

ance of H. sapiens sapiens in ca. 100,000 B. P. one can only point to two major butchery tools

advances in food technology. First is the use of stone tools to butcher meat. Aus-tralopithecine diet was probably overwhelmingly vegetarian, perhaps subsidized by insects, grubs, small animals, and the like. What tools were used were no more than what modern chimpanzees and capuchin monkeys employ in the wild. Stone tools, however, gave man the capability of extending his diet to include meat, at first scavenged and later hunted. Thei r use made processing more efficient and more rapid in face of dangers from carnivores and other competitors. T h e sharp flakes facilitated the process of quickly removing the meat from the bone for immediate consumption or transport, while the cores enabled him to break the bones to extract the marrow. Butchery was further improved at ca. 1.6 mya with the invention by II. erectus of the hand axe and by Neanderthal man of the more efficient Mousterian tools.

T h e making and control of fire, the second advance in food technology, may Fire

have appeared as early as 1.6 mya in South Africa. Its use in cooking food prob-ably occurred no earlier than ca. 500,000 B. P. in China and most likely not before the appearance of hearths in Mousterian contexts in Europe. Whether any of the Lower and Middle Paleolithic toolkits and fire were used to process plant foods is unknown, though it is prima facie likely. At the end of the Middle Paleolithic, therefore, it remains difficult to speak of food technology in any meaningful sense. It is clear, however, that the prerequisites for technical advancement in the processing and preparation of food were being laid and that these advances in food technology were inextricably linked with the pace of human evolution.1 Tha t pace quickened significantly in the Late Paleolithic.

1 Richard G. Milo, in a recent study of Middle Stone Age finds in the Klasies River M o u t h of South Africa, suggests that hominids in this a rea were skilled hunters w h o wielded composite

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS TO PARI' ONE 82 8 2

Advances attributable With H. sapiens sapiens came not only the ability to fashion better tools, particu-to H. sapiens larly blades, but to use those tools to create other tools made of different materi-

sapiens als, such as bone and antler. Tools, such as throwing spears and the bow and arrow, made man a more effective hunter, while increased intellectual capacity, which allowed him to understand the habits of animals and to cooperate with other men, made him a more efficient hunter. Although, even among the earli-est hominids, the very act of making tools could have fostered cooperation and communication among individuals, the advanced intelligence of modern man allowed him not only to envision future needs and events, and so to plan ahead for them, but also to conceive of himself and his relationship with his fellow man and his environment. This set man on the road to more complex social interac-tions and to an increased ability not just to survive in a hostile environment, par-ticularly during the Ice Age, but also to some extent to control his environment.

He began to build better living quarters, whether in the caves of France or in temporary structures in open areas, such as houses made of mammoth bones in eastern Europe and Russia. These accommodations also included more sophisti-cated hearths to provide heat, light, and the possibility to cook food. Food resources broadened to include both plants and animals to ensure a more varied and more dependable diet. He hunted large and small animals, birds, and fish, and gathered plants, some of which, such as at Wadi Kubbaniya in Egypt at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum, were transformed through basic ground-stone tools into a form more readily digestible and palatable. Little advancement in technology was made over the next 10,000 years, even though mortars, pes-ties, and querns became slightly more elaborate, for instance, with the develop-ment of trough and saddle querns. In the Neolithic period cooking and boiling of water in clay pottery broadened the kinds of foods eaten and the forms in which they were consumed. O n e major innovation attributable to this period is the development of the ability to ferment grape juice into wine.

Homo sapiens sapiens began to store cxccss food, as seen in the case of mammoth meat arranged in pits in the cold climates of eastern Europe and Russia or dry cere-al placed in lined or plastered silos in Egypt, either because of over-production or as a hedge against future shortages. Ultimately, man progressively took up a more sedentary lifestyle, beginning especially with the Natufian culture of the Levant,

weapons and adopted sophisticated and varied hunt ing strategies based on planning and coopéra-tion within a social f ramework. Milo concludes that, in hunting at least, Middle Stone Age early Homo sapiens in the Klasies River Mouth exhibited behaviors more advanced than their technolo-gy would suggest them capable. Since much of the evidence for this conclusion is circumstantial and is at odds with evidence f rom elsewhere, the conclusion must remain tentative. See Richard G. Milo, "Evidence for Hominid Prédation at Klasies River Mouth , South Africa, and its Impli-cations for the Behaviour of Early Modern Humans , " JAS 25 (1998): 99-133 .

8 3 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS TO PARI' ONE

and shortly after began to control both plants and animals for his benefit through domestication. This occurred first in Southwest Asia in the 9th millennium B. P., and by 3000 B. C. the Neolithic lifestyle was dominant throughout the Old World.

By the end of the Neolithic period society had become more complex. Agri-culture was being practiced from the Fertile Crescent of Southwest Asia to Spain and from Egypt to northern Europe and Britain. Houses were being con-structed of more permanent materials, such as mud brick and in some places, at least in part, stone, and becoming more organizationally complex with areas specifically set aside for food processing and cooking. Architecture, especially in Greece and western Europe, was tending toward the monumental with religious and non-domestic buildings becoming more common.2 Although it is quite like-ly that a sexual division of labor developed within the hunter-gatherer societies of the Upper Paleolithic, it can be clearly seen in Neolithic communities, where the processing of foods, such as grinding grain and cooking, became the domain of women. In fact, they may have played the major role in developing the tech-nology itself.3 The egalitarianism of late Epipaleolithic and early Neolithic soci-ety was, by the Bronze Age, giving way to stratification. As populations increased and societal structures became more hierarchical village communities were beginning to develop into larger population centers and ultimately into for-mal states encompassing much wider areas.

Throughout the prehistoric period man's subsistence strategies modified as his Prehistoric

preferences for certain types of foods changed with his capabilities to acquire subsistence strategies

more and different kinds. So, for instance, the essentially vegetarian diet of the australopithecines gave way to the more carnivorous diet of H. habilis and subse-quent hominids who, either individually or in cooperative groups, began to scav-enge and hunt large animals for food. Middle and Late Paleolithic hunter-gath-erers subsisted on a more omnivorous diet, which included both meat and plants. Both foods required varying degrees of processing, meat in the form of butchery, while some plants were inedible or unsafe without basic processing with simple tools. By the Epipaleolithic period the diet had broadened from sev-eral mainly large animals to concentration on a few specific species and to a wide variety of small animals, plants, fowl, and fish.4 At the transition to the

- Sec, e. g., P ie r re -Ro land Giot , "Atlant ic E u r o p e d u r i n g the Neol i th ic ," in History of Humanity, 1: 570 88; Gui la inc , " \Vestern M e d i t e r r a n e a n Cul tu res , " pp . 5 1 9 2 ־ 2 ; D é m o u l e a n d Perlés, "Greek Neol i th ic ," pp . 390; Sher ra t t , Economy and Society in Prehistoric Europe, pp . 333 71.

;i See, e. g., H a a l a n d , "Seden t i sm, Cul t iva t ion , a n d Plant Domes t i ca t ion , " pp . 157 74; E h r e n -berg , Women in Prehistory, pp . 50 62, 77 107.

4 A rock pa in t ing , found in La A r a n a shelter in eas te rn Spa in a n d da t ing to the Mesoli thic per i -od , ca. 6000 B. C. , shows the ga the r ing of honey a n d const i tutes the earliest ev idence for this food in the h u m a n diet. See Eva C r a n e , The Archaeology of Beekeeping (I thaca: Corne l l Universi ty Press, 1983), pp . 19-22 , esp. Fig. 4.


Neolithic and to a more sedentary lifestyle, the gathering of cercals, such as wheat and barley, from wild stands and then the cultivation of those grains and of pulses set the stage for the final development, the domestication first of plants and then of animals.

Advances in food technology down through the Neolithic period were a mixed blessing. Long hours spent by women and girls in a kneeling position pounding grain with mortar and pestle or grinding it on a quern placed great strain on their back, legs, and feet, frequently causing injury to muscles, joints, and bones. The use of ground-stone tools often left small portions of the stone among the kernels, some of which were incompletely ground or crushed, poten-tially resulting in chipped or broken teeth. T h e introduction of pottery led to an increased consumption of cooked, and so softer, foods, some of which adhered to the teeth. Consequently, from PPNB on caries and probably other periodon-tal diseases, abscesses, and tooth loss increased.5 And finally, greater reliance on cereal foods in the Neolithic period allowed for an increased birth rate, while, at the same time, contributing to higher infant mortality.

Before proceeding to discuss developments in food technology during the his-torical period, it will be helpful to summarize what processes and which tools were already in place by the end of the Neolithic period:

Milling Milling. Milling is the process whereby plant material, such as roots and seeds, are reduced in size and appearance into a form more readily usable as a food. This can be done essentially in two distinct ways: pounding and grinding. Speci-fying that a tool is a pounder rather than a grinder is not easy, since a stone could be used in one way at one time and in another way at another time. Indeed, sometimes the two processes proceed in tandem, as, for instance, pounding and crushing in a mortar is often preparatory to the grinding of cere-als into flour. Nevertheless, it will be convenient to discuss them separately since they use different methods and forces.

Pounding, crushing, Pounding, crushing, and, chopping are the processes of reducing food through per-and chopping cussion force from a larger to a smaller form to aid digestion. Though unprov-

able, it is a prioii likely that australopithecines used wooden sticks and unmodi-lied stones to crush nuts and other plant foods, much as modern great apes do. In a general sense, teeth, especially the posterior molars, worked by strong jaw muscles, such as that possessed by P. hoisei and other robust australopithecines, can be considered a tool. They made excellent food processors as they could easily crush, grind, and tear the food, whether plant or animal. Mixed with sali-

Smi י' th et al, "Archaeologica l a n d Skeletal Evidence ," pp ־12425 . .


va the resulting material could be easily consumed. But over time, as diet changed and the teeth and jaws of genus Homo became smaller, teeth ceased being so effective. By 2.5 mya, however, Homo habilis, at Olduvai Gorge and elsewhere in Africa, knew about pounding and crushing through experiences in stone-knapping (or bi-polar flaking) to alter cobblestone into choppers and other tools typical of the Oldowan toolkit. When employed in butchery the hand-held cores, often of basalt or quartz, could be used to crush bones to extract marrow. This was done with a forceful blow delivered vertically on the bone placed on a hard surface. A major and long-lasting innovation came with the introduction of the Acheulian hand-axe by / / . erectus.

One can assume that some of these tools were used on plants, but information derived from wear analysis is inconclusive at best. Even in the Late Paleolithic when mortars and pestles appeared among the tools of H. sapiens their use on plants is only conjectural, as they are often found in relation with red ochre, which was reduced to a powder through pounding. Nevertheless, that some pounding and crushing was performed on plant materials too fibrous or too tox-ic to be eaten in their natural form, such as roots, tubers, and rhizomes, can be assumed. Pounding of plant material in a stone mortar with a stone pestle was probably done from a kneeling position. Long, wooden pestles, unlikely to have survived the millennia, may have been used from a standing position with deep mortars, similar to Natufian limestone or basalt mortars from the Levant, which have depths ranging up to 50.5 mm. Stone mortars and pestles have been found in Neolithic sites throughout the Old World.6

Grinding is the reduction through shear forces of small pieces of food into even Grinding smaller and finer ones between two hard surfaces. This was accomplished by the use of two stones, a lower grinding slab, or quern, and an upper hand stone, or muller.7 Sometimes the quern could be portable, but most often it was too heavy and was left in situ for use later upon return to the same place. The object of grinding is achieved by placing the plant material, such as grain, seeds, or nuts, on the bottom stone and rubbing it with a muller back and forth or in a circular motion. There is some indication that the type of wear on a quern might indi-cate the type of plant processed, at least in a general fashion.8 The process was

Bruce Sch י, roede r , " N a t u f i a n in the C e n t r a l B é q a a Valley, L e b a n o n , " in Natufian Culture in the Levant, pp . 7 2 - 7 3 . Cf. also Edwards , " W a d i H a m m e h 27 ," pp . 129-36 .

7 T e r m i n o l o g y of these two stones used in m o d e r n l i terature can vary widely. So, for example , a m o n g the te rms used to refer to the lower s tone a r e g r a in - rubbe r , g r ind ing s tone, q u e r n , o r mill ing stone; for the u p p e r stone, muller , r u b b e r , o r g r inder . F o r the var ious t e rms see Kraybil l , "Pre-agr icul tura l Tools for the P repa ra t ion of Foods , " p . 488 .

fi Kraybil l , "Pre-agr icul tura l Too l s for the P repa ra t i on of Foods , " pp . 5 0 7 - 0 9 ; R o u b e t , " G r i n d -ing Stones of Site E-78-3, W a d i K u b b a n i y a , " p. 481.


practiced perhaps as early as 130,00 B. P. in Egypt, but clearly in Florisbad, South Africa by ca. 49,000 B. P., and in Eastern Europe at Molodova I in the Ukraine a few thousands of years later. Evidence for grinding as part of food processing, however, is, like that for pounding and crushing, difficult to interpret archaeologically.9 Grinding slabs of the Late Paleolithic, found in Egypt, South-west Asia, and Europe, can be grouped into various types, including flat, basined, trough, and saddle querns. T h e earliest basined grindstones comc from the Late Paleolithic at Ein Aqez, in the central Negev of Israel. Cuphole slabs, such as those found at Netiv Hadgud, combined the pounding and crushing of the mortar and pestle with the grinding capabilities of the quern. Stone querns of various types, mortars, and pestles spread with agriculture into Europe and into Egypt.10

Bu1che1y Butchery. The dismantling of an animal carcass into smaller pieces preparatory to transportation, consumption, or preservation of the meat is called butchery. The first documented man-made tool used in food processing was probably created for this purpose and began with the Oldowan toolkit about 2.5 mya. Two gener-al types of butchery implements can be identified. First were the larger, core ele-ments. T h e blunt edges were useful for breaking bones to extract the marrow, while the sharper ones, particularly beginning with the Acheulian handaxes and cleavers of H. erectus, were handy for separating pieccs of meat at the joints to dismember the animal into small pieces for easier transport to a home-base or central place. The smaller and sharper flakes served to skin, scrape, and slice the meat from the bone. The Lower and Middle Paleolithic toolkits were general, all-around tools as each one could be used for several purposes. One can only conjecture a specific use for a particular tool, except in the few cases where microwear analysis of some kinds of stone in combination with a study of cut-marks on animal bones can indicate, though usually in a broad sense only, that certain tools were indeed used to butcher animals. Crushing and breaking of bone with blunt force or cutting off fleshy parts with sharp flakes remained the basic food-processing value of stone tools for thousands of years, though the effi-ciency of the tools improved over time, such as with the development of Mous-terian backed knives and side scrapers.

!l T r o e n g , Worldwide Chronology, pp . 4 4 - 4 5 . 10 Kraybi l l , "Pre-agr icu l tura l T o o l s for the P repa ra t ion of Foods ," p. 513; Bar-Yosef et al,

"Net iv H a d g u d , " 409 11; T r i n g h a m , Hunters, Fishers and Fanners, passim; H a w a s s et al, " C h r o n o l -ogy, Sediments , a n d Subsis tence at M e r i m d a , י p. 36; W י e n k e et al, "Epipaleol i th ic a n d Neol i thic Subsis tence ," p. 39; C a t o n - T h o m p s o n a n d G a r d n e r , Desert Fayum, I: 3 1 - 3 2 , esp. Vol II: Pl. VII .2 ; a n d Sher ra t t , Economy and Society in Prehistoric Europe, pp . 3 2 2 3 0 ־ , esp. Fig. 12.4


The next important innovation came with the standardization in shape and specialization of use characteristic of Late Paleolithic blade tools of H. sapiens sapiens. Tanged and knotched blades, side and end scrapers, and burins were typical. Appearing also at this time was the use of antler and bone tools, and especially the process of hafting worked stone onto wooden or antler shafts to create spears, javelins, and arrows for hunting and axes and knives for butchery. Neolithic sites frequently yield a wide variety of lithics, both of flint and of stone, useful for axes, some hafted onto wood or bone handles, as well as flint knives and scrapers in wooden sleeves."

Storage. Storage of food was not possible until man had the intellectual capacity Fond storage

to plan ahead and was sedentary enough to establish necessary facilities to which he could return periodically.12 This can be seen first archaeologically during the Late Paleolithic in the northern climes of eastern Europe and Russia where mammoth meat was stored in underground pits. In Southwest Asia storage appears with the need to conserve cereals in a dry place until they could be processed, cooked, and eaten. Storage facilities could take the form of stone ves-sels or baskets. By the Neolithic period man was using pits lined with stone, straw, or plaster, so-called silos, to store wheat and barley. From the late PPNB and after pottery, both large and small, was used to store foods of various kinds.

Fire. T h e use of fire to cook meat may go back to 0.5 mya to the campfires o f / / . Fire

erectus in his cave at Zhoukoudian in China. He may have gotten his fire through natural means and cooked as the opportunity allowed. T h e first major advance came in the late Middle Pleistocene with the use of controlled campfires and hearths by Neanderthal man. H. sapiens sapiens in the Late Paleolithic and Epipa-leolithic may have been raising temperatures of fires by draft-trenches. Temper-atures reached by campfires and hearths, particularly those with draft-trenches, are sufficient for any food processing required. T h e real problem was finding a container to hold the food or liquid while being heated. Ostrich eggs or wet

11 O f e r Bar-Yosef, "S tone T o o l s a n d Social C o n t e x t in Levant ine Prehis tory ," in Perspectives on the Past. Geof f rey A. Cla rk , ed . (Philadelphia: Univers i ty of Pennsylvania Press, 1991), pp . 371 95; Barker , Prehistoric Fanning in Europe, pp . 1 18 20, esp. Fig. 43; T h o r p e , Origins of Agriculture in Europe, pp. 109 14; Whi t t le , Europe in the Neolithic, pp . 276 82; T r i n g h a m , Hunters, Fishers and Farmers, pp . 7 5 - 7 8 , esp. Fig. 11.

12 For a theoret ical a p p r o a c h to quest ions r ega rd ing why s torage b e c a m e a subsistence strategy, a n d what were the ramif ica t ions of s torage, see Pe ter R o w l e y - C o n w y a n d M a r e k Zvelebil, "Sav-ing it for La te r : S torage by Prehis tor ic H u n t e r - G a t h e r e r s in E u r o p e , " in Bad Year Economics. Cultur-at Responses to Risk and Uncertainty. Paul Ha l s t ead a n d J o h n O ' S h e a , eds. (Cambr idge : C a m b r i d g e Universi ty Press, 1989), pp . 40 56. T h e y stress p l ann ing , technology, a n d behaviora l flexibility.


leaves folded to hold water, placed on hot coals or a low fire, may have served the purpose. T h e temperature of water placed in wooden containers or in natur-al depressions in stone might he raised with rocks heated in a nearby fire. Pot-boilers, that is, hot stones placed in water, served to heat water in the Perigor-dian cave of Abri Pataud in southwest France, and boiling pits have been sug-gested for the settlement at Dolni Vêstonice at ca. 25,000 B. P. By the PPNB man had the ability to construct kilns to create temperatures up to 800° C., hot enough to lire pottery. Pottery was the perfect container with which to cook. It could withstand high temperatures; it was also water tight, portable, and with some due care easily handled. As such it generated even more ways to cook food of different kinds.

Cooking was at first restricted to the roasting of meat, perhaps thrown into the fire or skewered on a stick and held over an open flame. Later, a stationary spit, such as found at Mezhirich in the Ukraine, could be built to perform the same task. At Late Paleolithic Noshra I and in Epipaleolithic Mureybit in Southwest Asia, archaeologists have identified pits that may have been used to roast meat. Some plants require heat to reduce them to a softer consistency to make them palatable and digestible, while others require detoxification to render them safe to consume. Still others, particularly cereals, become brittle when roasted and so easier to process with a pounding or grinding tool. Identifying where these activ-ities occurred is difficult since few plant remains have been identified archaeo-lofficallv from before the end of the Last Glacial Maximum. Evidence from ο / Wadi Kubbaniya in Egypt shows that some plant-food processing was taking place by 18,000 B. P. By the Neolithic Period, cooking and boiling bccamc more common since pottery could withstand high temperatures.

Preservation Fermentation. T h e presence of tartaric acid in residue in a ceramic pot found in the Zagros Mountains of Iran provides chcmical evidence for wine. By implica-tion this confirms also that inhabitants of this part of the Near East by the mid-sixth millennium B. C. understood the technological processes for fermenting grape juice. Several important questions, however, remain to be answered: what was first fermented into an alcoholic drink, how was it done, how early did this first appear, and where? Speculation on the first two questions includes honey, collected perhaps as early as the last Glacial Maximum, left standing in the rain, and bruised berries or fruit with a high sugar content gathered but not immedi-ately eaten. Both of these would ferment naturally into an intoxicating wine. T h e earliest man-made fermented drink may have been a kind of beer similar to those made today by some inhabitants of South America and Africa who chew various plants or, particularly, grains, to mix the pulp with saliva. Saliva serves as an amylolytic agent to hydrolize the starch, creating sugars that would then


ferment into alcohol. The discovery may have arisen from the need to prechew grains before feeding them to children, the sick, or the aged.13

Conjectured Processes. Several processes, often necessary for the consumption of Conjectured processes

certain foods known or assumed to have been eaten, cannot be verified archaeo-logically. Soaking in warm or cold water, for example, can be used to soften plant material, such as seeds, before processing to detoxify it by removing harmful chemicals, such as tannins, to remove indigestible starches, and to assist fermen-tation.14 The downside of soaking is that through leaching some important vita-mins and minerals will be lost. Plants known or conjectured to have been eaten in prehistory, such as at Wadi Kubbaniya, which would have required soaking before consumption, include fibrous roots, rhizomes, tubers, and some nuts.

During the late Epipaleolithic and the following Neolithic period, as the human diet grew more dependent on cereals and less on meat, nutrients nor-mally obtained from the latter had to be gotten elsewhere. One source was fish, which had to be eaten soon after catching as it spoils quickly following death. T o prevent this fish can be preserved for a period of time through drying, smoking, and salting. Meat can also be preserved in this fashion and stored away. Outside of freezing, practiced in northern climes, the exact process by which meat and fish were rendered storable is difficult to confirm, since the apparatus necessary to dry, smoke, and salt the materials were probably made of wood or basket materials and so are unlikely to have survived over time.

Food technology by the end of the Neolithic is a technological and cultural phe-nomenon separate from crafts and agriculture, though all of these developed out of the physical and intellectual evolution of H. sapiens sapiens throughout the Old World. T h e distinction between food technology and craft is fairly clear. Craft , by definition, is a skilled activity often associated with products having nothing to do with food, such as the making of pots and gold and silver jewelry. In gen-eral, craft is confined to identifiable specialists employing a narrowly focused tal-ent. Food technology, on the other hand, includes activities that everyone can do, and often does, on a daily basis. Of course, some were better at doing these things, like grinding seeds, than others, and by the Neolithic period many activi-

13 Kei th H . Ste inkraus , "Nutr i t ional ly Significant Indigenous Foods Involving a n Alcoholic F e r m e n t a t i o n , " in Fermented Food Beverages in Nutrition. Cl i f ford F. Gas t ineau , Will iam J. D a r b y , a n d T h o m a s B. T u r n e r , eds. (London: A c a d e m i c Press, 1979), pp . 3 7 4 ־ 3 ; D o n Brothwell a n d Patricia Brothwell , Food in Antiquity. E x p a n d e d Edi t ion (Balt imore: T h e J o h n s H o p k i n s Univers i ty Press, 1998), pp . 164-65; Forbes , Studies, 3: 6 1 - 6 2 ; C r a n e , Archaeology of Beekeeping, pp. 19 20.

14 Stahl , "P lan t - food Processing," pp . 175 76.


tics concerned with food processing were performed specifically by women. But not all were. As will be seen, individuals engaged in food processing, particularly from the late Neolithic on, were often men who were organized into identifiable groups, but the activity itself remained one that was basically independent of specialized skills.

Information on ancient food technology, both archeological and literary, from the Bronze Age on grows at an ever increasing rate. A detailed study of the phe-nomenon everywhere during antiquity, therefore, would make for a book of greater length than allowed. From this point on, therefore, our focus will narrow to developments in food technology during the historical periods of three major cultures: the Ancient Near East, Greece, and Rome. The ancient Near East is not a monolithic area; it contains two quite distinct cultures, Egypt and the Asi-atic־ Near East. The latter, broadly speaking, encompasses a wide geographical area, including Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Syria, and areas bordering them, and contains many different cultures. Since agriculture and the domestication of animals began in areas of the Asiatic Near East, technologies associated with food processing for the most part appeared there earlier than in Egypt where these innovations lagged behind by at least 1000 years. However, the extant archaeological and literary evidence for ancient Egypt is far greater and more varied. This derives from a number of factors revolving around geographical, ecological, and cultural differences, which contributed to the preservation (or the lack of it) of artifacts, plus the degree and frequency of modern excavations of the respective areas. It will, therefore, be more beneficial to our understand-ing of food technology to study its development in Egypt first, since the informa-tion derived from the abundant Egyptian material will enable us to interpret and to understand better the less extensive Near Eastern evidence.

P A R T T W O

E G Y P T AND T H E NEAR EAST

C H A P T E R T H R E E

E G Y P T I

From as early as ca. 4000 B. C. two areas defined Egypt geographically and its Geography people culturally. Ancient Egypt per se began in the south near Elephantine (modern Aswan) at the First Cataract (going upstream; that is, south) and extended northward to Memphis, just below Cairo. This area forms the Nile Valley proper, or Upper Egypt. T h e inhabitable land extends only a short dis-tance on either side of the river in some places up to perhaps fifteen miles in each direction, in others less.1 Its boundary with the desert is sharp. North of Memphis extends a small portion of the valley and the great expanse of the fer-tile Delta region. This area, called Lower Egypt, extends to the Mediterranean Sea. In the Delta, where flood levels, and so also the corresponding levees, arc significantly lower than farther south, the Hood plains tend to form swampy areas. Nevertheless, exccpt for its northernmost regions, the area was not unin-habitable even in prehistoric times. T h e vegetation and land use mirrored that in the Nile Valley.2

T o the west, the freshwater lake area, called el Fayum, was sparsely inhabited in the Predynastic period, but the population of this region expanded somewhat during the Twelfth Dynasty and particularly later, during the third century B. C., when Ptolcmaic rulers greatly extended the cultivable land.3 T o the cast and west of the Nile desert oases supported a small, essentially nomadic population. O n the whole, however, life concentrated along the Nile banks.

During its course of about 700 miles, the Nile River from Elephantine north- Nile River

ward has, over the millennia, scoured out a deep and narrow valley, and during its annual overflowing deposited clay and silt along its route. This sediment the "Black Land" in sharp contrast to the "Red Land" of the desert is the source of the fertility of the earth which supported the population and gave rise to Herodotus ' famous dictum that Egypt was "the gift of the river."4 Before the

1 M a x C a n ׳ , The Geographic Background of Greek and Roman History (Oxford: O x f o r d University Press, 1949), p. 207; Wet te rs t rom, "Foraging and F a r m i n g in Egypt ," p. 167.

2 Kar l W . Butzer, Early Hydraulic Civilization in Egypt. A Study in Cultural Ecology (Chicago: Univer-sity of Chicago Press, 1976), pp. 2 2 9 H ;־25, 93 6 o f f m a n , Egypt Before the Pharaohs, p. 27.

:i Butzer, Early Hydraulic Civilization, pp . 92 93. 1 Herodo tus 2.5.1: δώρον του ποταμού. Cf. Arr ian Anab. 5.6.5.

CHAPTER THREE 9 4

Aswan dam was constructed in 1970, annual flooding regulated life along the river. T h e melting of the snows in the mountains and the spring rains sent tor-rents of water into the Nile. T h e increasing volume of water reached Elephan-tine by July and steadily raised the Nile height until its banks overflowed. T h e flood reached the lower Nile valley by early to late September. Because the year's food supply as well as the safety of the inhabitants and their possessions depended upon knowing when the Nile was beginning to flood and, based upon records from previous years, how much water might be expected, the ancient Egyptians established Nilometers at various places along the river's course, such as at Elephantine, Memphis, and elsewhere, to measure the height of inunda-tion. Figures recorded in the Fifth Dynasty on the Palermo Stone indicate that during Dynasties I V (ca. 30502360־ B. C.) the rise of the Nile near Memphis averaged ca. 4 cubits, or about 7 feet, but over the years in question there seems to have been a steady decrease in the average amount . 5 Literary testimony of the Graeco-Roman period proclaims that a flood height of 14-16 cubits (20.5-23.4 feet) brought a good crop; anything below 812־ cubits (11.7-17.6 feet) produced a famine.6 The uncertainty today of what point served as the base of reference to measure the inundation renders any interpretation of the num-bers somewhat difficult. T h e large increase of Nile heights recorded between pharaonic and R o m a n times probably relates to the rise in the bed of the river as silt continually built up over the centuries, as well as to the level of the estab-lished zero point used for the Nilometers. This was no doubt true in Predynastic times as well.7 Wha t is certain about the archaeological record and literary evi-dence is that, although there was a regularity in the timing of the floods, there was no guarantee of the amount of water which the Nile from year to year would bring. T h e Egyptian farmer had no way to predict whether the year's floods would bring feast, famine, or something in between. T o the ancient

5 H e r m a n n Kees, Ancient Egypt. A Cultural Topography (London: Faber and Faber , 1961), p. 50; Barbara Bell, " T h e Oldest Records of the Nile Floods," Geographical Journal 136 (1970): 5 6 9 - 7 3 .

(i He rodo tus 2.13; S t rabo 8.1.3, 17.1.3 [C788]; Pliny H N 5.10, 58; 18.47; 36.11; Plutarch De Is. et Osir. 43. In that same per iod the Ni lometer at Elephant ine measured record floods of up to 26 cubits (38.1 feet). See IG R R 1.1290 (late 2nd cent . Α. I).). T h e R o m a n cubit was about 17.57 inches, roughly equivalent to the c o m m o n Egypt ian cubit of 17.72 inches. For PMich. Inv. 5795 (late 2nd cent. A. D.), see O r a s m u s Merrill Pearl , " T h e Inunda t ion of the Nile in the Second C e n t u r y A.D. , " T A P A 87 (1956): 5 1 - 5 9 .

7 Hof iman , Egypt Before the Pharaohs, p. 29. T h e differences in measurements probably lie in exactly where the Hood is measured , since the height can vary considerably between Elephant ine , where the river flows in a na r row channel , a n d the Delta where it spreads out considerably. Addi-tionally, it mat ters whe the r one is speaking of a rise above a fixed point on a Nilometr ic scale or above the " n o r m a l " height of the Nile at a par t icular place. Cf. Pearl, " Inunda t ion , " 11. 7, pp. 56 -57 ; Kees, Ancient Egypt, pp . 4 8 - 5 2 .

9 5 EGYPT II

Egyptian the river presented a paradox: predictable floods brought unpre-dictable results.

The Nile formed a convex floodplain, characterized on either side by natural levees, which marked out older low-water channel banks and which rose above the alluvial flats created by the deposition of sediment during floods. These areas became lower the farther they were from the main watercourse. The levees and the large and small secondary Nile channels cut through the flats creating dis-tinctive flood basins.8 It was in these various basins that Egyptian farmers pro-duced the food to feed a growing population. Floodwaters would rise above the river banks, overflow or breach levees, and inundate successively lower basins. T h e alluvial flats accommodated an average water depth of about 1.5 meters. Low floods, however, would fail to inundate some basins or do so only partially, resulting in periods of want or famine.9 Following the receding of the waters in October and November, the land was planted, giving rise to the harvest in late spring and early summer. This annual recurrence of events created an Egyptian year of three divisions or seasons: inundation, cultivation, and harvesting (drought).10

The exact process and route by which agriculture spread throughout Egypt The Predynastic remains debatable, but it seems certain that the first fully developed agricultural cultures, ca. society was established along the upper (southern) and middle Nile valley by ca. 4000 3000 B. C. 4000 B. C. T h e period defined by the appearance of a series of societies leading to the development within the space of a single millennium of a centralized state, and so conventionally treated separately from the Neolithic cultures, is called the Predynastic period." The first culture, denoted the Badarian culture from its appearance at El-Badari, was characterized by a mixed agricultural and Badarian herding lifestyle that was still somewhat seasonal in settlement pattern. Typical artifacts included pottery, flint sickles in straight hafts, fishhooks of bone and

H Butzer, Early Hydraulic Civilization, pp. 15 18. O n natural irrigation in Egypt, see Chris topher J . Eyre, " T h e Agricultural Cycle, Farming, and Water Managemen t in the Ancient Near East," in Civilization of the Ancient Near East. Jack M. Sasson, John Baines, Gary Beckman, and Karen S. Robinson, eds. 4 vols. (New York: Charles Scribner 's Sons, 1995), 1: 178 80.

9 Butzer, Early Hydraulic Civilization, pp. 51-53 . O n famine in Egypt, see Etienne Drioton, "Une représentation de la famine sur un bas-relief égyptien de la V׳׳ Dynastie," Bulletin de l'Institut d'E-gypte '25 (1942-1943): 45-54 , and J . Vandier , IM famine dans l'Égypte ancienne (Cairo: l'Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, 1936).

10 Herodotus 2 .20-25; Kees, Ancient Egypt, p. 48; Barry J . Kemp, Ancient Egypt. Anatomy of a Civi-lization (London: Routledge, 1989), pp. 7 11; William C. Hayes, The Scepter of Egypt. 2 Vols. rev. (New York: Metropoli tan Museum of Art, 1990): 1: 3 -5 ; Allan Chester Johnson , Roman Egypt. Vol. 2 of An Economic Survey of Ancient Rome. Tenney Frank, ed. 6 Vols. (Baltimore: T h e J o h n s Hop-kins University Press, 1936), pp. 15-19.

11 See esp. Fekri A. Hassan, " T h e Predynastic of Egypt," JWorldPrehist 2, no. '2 (1988): 135-85.

CHAPTER THREE 9 6

1. Pelusium 2. Tell el-Dab'a 3. Buto 4. Lake Mareotis 5. Merimda 6. Heliopolis 7. Abu Ghurab 8. Giza 9. Cairo 10. Maadi 11. Memphis 12. Saqqara 13. Helwan 14. Medum 15. Abusir 16. Kahun 17. Crocodilopolis 18. Lake Fayum/Moeris 19. Nile River 20. Beni Hasan 21. Amarna 22. Deir el-Gebrawi 23. Hemamieh 24. Panopolis 25. Abydos 26. Dendera 27. Deir Ballas 28. Naqada 29. Thebes

(iricl. Medinet Habu, Deir el Bahri, Deir el-Medina, Malkata)

30. Armant 31. Luxor 32. Isna 33. El Kab 34. Kom Ombo 35. Kubbaniya

: 36. 1st Cataract 37. Elephantine 38. Wadi Haifa

: 39. 2nd Cataract 40. Mirgissa

I 41. Nabta Playa j 42. 'En Besor

UPPER EGYPT

LOWER EGYPT

3. Egypt and Southwest Asia

9 7 EGYPT II

flint, bows and arrows, and spears. T h e Badarian subsistence strategy centered on wheat, barley, cattle, sheep, goats, and fish. Animals were kept in enclosures, while grain was stored in basket silos similar to those found at Merimda, although some could be quite large, with a capacity of 1.9 m3.12

The Amratian (also called Naqada I) culture, which succeeded the Badarian Amratian

ca. 3900 3650 B. C., is somewhat similar to it in its artifactual remains. It intro-duced gold and copper working, however, and apparently began to participate in long-distance trade. Above ground circular mud-huts, such as those found at Hemamieh, served for food-storage. Although their original height is unknown, these mud-huts apparently exceeded the storage capacity of earlier in-ground storage pits and basket silos.13

T h e third period, called the Gerzean (or Naqada II and III), spread from Gerzean (Naqada)

Upper Egypt to the Delta between ca. 3500 B. C. and the beginning of the Ear-ly Dynastic period in ca. 3050 B. C. This period saw a population increase, the development of extensive long-distance trade with Nubia to the south and with Syria and Palestine to the cast, and innovations in pottery and lithics. Kilns capable of temperatures of ca. 1200 C allowed for high-quality pottery and the mass production of smelted, cast, and hammered products in copper, silver, and gold. Tools, such as knives, maceheads, and adzehcads, were made of copper and flint.14 Rectangular houses began to replace the oval huts of the Badarian and Amratian cultures. Naqadan culture relied more heavily on domesticated cereals, cattle, goats, pig, and sheep than on wild foods, though fish remained common to their diet. Site M A 21, situated between Gurna and Armant, yielded oven pits and both flat and shallow hearths. O n e oven pit, measuring 70 cm. χ 20 cm., had stone-lined walls and floor. Storage pits were above ground, where-as in other places, such as in the Naqada region, they tended to be small and in ground. Livestock pens seem characteristic of this latter area as well.15

Great change characterized the Gerzean period, particularly at such centers Rise of the state

as Hierakonpolis, Naqada, and Abydos. Scholars generally agree that by 3050 B. C. a bona fide unified state had been formed encompassing both Upper and

12 Wet ters t rom, "Foraging and Farming in Egypt ," pp . 214 17; Brewer and Fr iedman, Fish and Fishing, p. 7.

13 Hassan, "Predynastic of Egypt ," pp. 153 54; Wet ters t rom, "Foraging and Farming in Egypt ," pp. 2 1 7 - 2 0 . י

14 Krzyzaniak, "Late Prehistory of Egypt ," pp. 404 10. Prentiss S. De Jesus, " C o m m e n t s on the Development of Pyrotechnology in Early Societies," in Origin and Early Development of Food Pro-ducing Cultures, pp. 283 85. See also HolTman, Egypt Before the Pharaohs, passim; for a recent sum-mary of the archaeological evidence relating to the Predynastic cultures, see Ka th ryn A. Bard, " T h e Egyptian Predynastic: A Review of the Evidence," JFA 21, no. 3 (Fall 1994): 265 88.

15 Hassan, "Predynast ic of Egypt ," pp. 154-57; Wet te rs t rom, "Foraging and Farming in Egypt," pp. 220 24; Brewer and Fr iedman, Fish and Fishing, pp. 7 9.

CHAPTER THREE 9 8

Lower Egypt. How this developed remains a topic of active debate. Kathryn Bard, recently summarizing the various positions, concludes that the state was ultimately based on the control of irrigation agriculture, which provided for a surplus of food to support a large population and which required an increasingly complex system of workers, artisans, and elites. T o Bard, the Egyptian state evolved out of the Predynastic mortuary cult of Upper Egypt, particularly as seen at Naqada.1 6 She identifies several areas of social change during this period that contributed to the growth of a complex society: a growing class differentia-tion and the emergence of elites, increased economic interaction, and the propensity of cemeteries to become foci for status symbolism and competition and for the development of mortuary cults encompassing acceptance of an ide-ology requiring the participation of the whole community. She also recognizes that other factors, political and military, played a role in the unification of Egypt as well. Other scholars believe the impetus for a unified Egypt arose in Hier-akonpolis, where the Scorpion macehead and the Narmer palette were found.17

Archaic period The Early Dynastic, or Archaic, period, conventionally encompassing Dynas-ties I and II, was a period of political consolidation, socioeconomic integration, and cultural assimilation between Upper and Lower Egypt. Egyptian history is a record of the fortunes and vicissitudes of a series of rulers divided into dynasties that form the five major periods, the Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, New Kingdom, Late period, and Ptolemaic period, interspersed with intermediate eras, down to its incorporation into the Roman Empire. Since our purpose is not to follow the political, military, and social history of ancient Egypt but to investigate specifically the role of food technology in Egyptian society, the fol-lowing discussion will center a round particular foods, or groups of foods, which underwent processing, keeping in mind four questions. First, what role did food processing and processed foods play in Egyptian society? Second, what techno-logical processes did the Egyptians utilize? Third, what innovations in food tech-nology can be attributed to the ancient Egyptians? And fourth, can changes over time be detected? The remainder of this chapter focuses on two integrally relat-ed products, bread and beer, while wine and oil production, processing of fish,

16 Ka th ryn A. Bard, From Fanners to Pharaohs. Mortuary Evidence for the Rise of Complex Society in Egypt (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1994), esp. pp. 1 - 5 ; Robert J . Wenke , " T h e Evolution of Early Egyptian Civilization: Issues and Evidence," JWorldPrehist 5, no. 3 (Sept., 1991): 279-308 . See also Lech Krzyzaniak, " T r e n d s in the Socio-economic Development of Egyptian Predynastic Societies," in Acts of the First International Congress of Egyptology, Cairo, October 2-10, 1976. Walte r F. Reineke, ed. (Berlin: Akademie , 1979), pp. 4 0 7 - 1 2 .

17 Bard, From Fanners to Pharaohs, pp. 111-18; R. T . Ridley, 77le Unification of Egypt (Deception Bay, Australia: Shield Press, 1973), pp. 60 62; Michael Rice, Egypt's Making (London: Routledge, 1990), pp. 82 -168 ; Hassan, "Predynast ic of Egypt ," pp. 154-75.

9 9 EGYPT II

beef, and pigs, and the secondary products associated with them, form the topics of the subsequent chapter.

A. Cereal Processing

1. Storage

Egyptians planted cereals in the fall after the receding of floodwaters and har-vested them in the late spring or early summer. Numerous wall paintings from all periods show workers in the fields harvesting grain with sickles. Other labor-ers, sometimes with the assistance of oxen, thresh the grain, which is then win-nowed. Loaded into sacks or baskets the cereals are carried to the granary for storage, redistribution, or processing.18 Granaries held only grain that had been threshed and winnowed. Archaeological evidence indicates that stored cereals included predominantly two-row (Hordeum distichum L. emend. Lam.) or six-row (H. vulgare L.) barley and emmer wheat (Trìticum dicoccum Schübl.), in the form of emmer spikelets or hulled barley grains, not cleaned grains.19 There seems to be no evidence for the storage of ilour, the end product of grinding grain.

Storage in pits lined with straw has already been noted for the Neolithic peri- Pits and silos

od in the Fayum at Kom K, where the large number of pits in closely arranged formations bespeaks a communal storage system. Whereas in the Delta at Pre-dynastic Maadi large terracotta vessels and silos indicate either communal stor-age or the warehousing of trade items, grain storage sites in Upper Egypt seem suited to the small group or individual level, at least so far as the archaeological evidence indicates. It has been plausibly conjectured, however, that as the Pre-

18 See, for example , scenes f rom the Old Kingdom T o m b s of Asa in Deir El Gebrawi and of Re ' - em-Kuy , of Akhethetep, and of N i a n c h c h n u m and C h n u m h o t e p in Saqqara . See N o r m a n de G a ri s Davies, Tin׳ Rock Tombs of Deir El Gebrawi. Part II: Tomb of %au and Tombs of the Northern Group (London: Egypt Explorat ion Fund , 1902), pp. 1 9 2 ־ 7 , and Pis. X V I I (Asa); Hayes, Scepter of Egypt, 1: 9 4 - 1 0 2 , Figs. 54, 57 (Re ' -em-Kuy); N o r m a n dc Garis Davies, The Mastaba of Ptahhetep and

Akhethetep at Saqqareh. Part II: The Mastaba. 'The Sculptures of Akhethetep (London: Egypt Explorat ion Fund , 1901), pp. 13-14, Pis. V I I - V I I I ; A h m e d M . Moussa and Har twig Altenmüller , Das Grab des Nianchchnum und Chnumhotep (Main a m Rhein : Philipp von Zabe rn , 1977), Ta f . 58 59 (Nianchch-n u m and Chnumho tep ) . For Middle K i n g d o m examples, sec the T o m b s of A m e n e m h e t at Beni Hasan and of Antefoker in Thebes . Percy E. Newberry , Beni Hasan. Part 1 (London: Kegan Paul, French , T r ü b n e r & Co. , 1893), pp. 9 - 3 8 , Pl. XI (Amenemhet) ; N o r m a n de Gar is Davies, The Tomb of Antefoker, Vizier of Sesostris /, and of His Wife, Senet (No. 60) (London: George Allen & Unwin , 1920), pp. 910 ־ , Pl. III. For a New K i n g d o m example , see the T o m b of Paheri at El K a b . J . J . Ty lor and F. LI. Griffi th, The Tomb of Paheri at El Kab (London: T h e Egypt Explorat ion Fund , 1894), pp. 13 15, Pl. III.

19 Delwen Samuel , "Ancient Egyptian Cereal Processing: Beyond the Artistic Reco rd , " CArchJ 3, no. 2 (Oct. 1993): 278.

CHAPTER THREE 1 0 0

dynastic period came to a close and the areas of Upper and Lower Egypt moved toward integration under a centralized authority, control of surplus grain for the benefit of the community at large increased.20

Early granaries T h e appearance, size, and capacity of the granaries are difficult to estimate. Grain-storage facilities excavated in Early Dynastic Hierakonpolis were made of mud and provided cool, dry places for grain, but as extant the walls do not reach to their full height and lack a roof. Excavations from First and Second-Ο Dynasty royal tombs at Helwan, located across the Nile River from Saqqara, yielded models of clay granaries as well as actual granaries, in the latter of which some wheat, barely, and lentil seeds still remained. O n e of the models represent-ed a cluster of four granaries surrounded by a low wall. A similar arrangement of small granaries appears in Saqqara as a hieroglyph in the T o m b of Ptah-het-ep, in a wall painting in the T o m b of Ti, as well as in conjunction with a servant statue, all dating to the Fifth Dynasty. These early granaries appear in the shape of large vessels, rounded at the top with a raised mouth through which to pour the grain and a small rectangular opening near the bottom from which to extract it (PI. 4).21 T h e size of these granaries is difficult to ascertain since con-vendons of scale in Egyptian painting allow for a wide variation depending upon what or who is being highlighted in the sccnc and the importance attached to

20 C a t o n - T h o m p s o n , 77te Desert Fayum, pp. 41 54; Ibrahim Rizkana and J ü r g e n Seeher, Maadi III. The Non-lithic Small Finds and the Structural Remains of the Predynastic Settlement (Mainz: Philipp von Zabe rn , 1989), p. 76; J a m e s O . Mills, "Beyond Nutri t ion: Antibiotics Produced T h r o u g h Gra in Storage Practices, The i r Recognition and Implications for the Egyptian Predynastic," in Followers of Moms, pp. 29 -30 . Gra in silos, measur ing 2.70 m. in d iameter and up to 3.0 m. in depth and dat ing to the Badarian Period, have been found at Deir Tasa . See Hassan, "Predynastic of Egypt ," p. 153.

21 Zaki Youssef Saad, Royal Excavations at Saqqara and Helwan (1941-1945) (Cairo: L'Institut Français d 'Archéologie Orientale , 1947), pp. 26 and Pl. XI , 109-12 and Plates X L I X and LVII; idem, Royal Excavations at Helwan (1945 1947) (Cairo: L'Institut Français d 'Archéologie Orientale , 1951), pp. 40 41 and Pl. LVIIb; idem, The Excavations at Helwan. Art and Civilization in the First and Second Dynasties (Norman: University of O k l a h o m a Press, 1969), pp. 6263־ , and Pis. 22 ־23,86 87. No measurements were given either for the small or large pottery granary models found at Helwan. For model granaries f rom a Fourth-Dynasty t o m b at El Kab , see T h o m a s F. Strasser, "Storage and States on Prehistoric Crete : the Function of the Koulouras in the First Minoan Palaces," JMA 10, η ύ . 1 (1997): 84 86, esp. Fig. 10. For the T o m b of Ti see Lucicnc Épron , François Daumas , and Georges Goyon , Le Tombeau de Τι (Cairo: L'Institut Français d 'Archéologie Orientale , 1939), Pis. L X V I and L X X ; N o r m a n de Garis Davies, The Mastaba of Ptahhetep and Akhethelep at Saqqareh. Part I. The Chapel of Ptahhetep and the Hieroglyphs (London: Egypt Exploration Fund, 1900), Pl. XII , no. 239. See also Moussa and Altenmüller, Das Grab des Manchchnum and Chnumhotep, pp. 126-28, Taf . 54a, and Fig. 24. T h e tomb dates to ca. 2 3 6 0 - 2 3 5 0 B. C. For the servant statue, sec J a m e s Henry Breasted, Egyptian Servant Statues (New York: Pantheon Books, 1948), p. 10 and Pl. 9A. Breasted also notes that Saqqara T o m b 2105 (Second or T h i r d Dynasty) had an actual g ranary built into its mas taba . It took the form of a double row of thirty unbaked m u d jars , no doub t represent ing real g ranary bins. Ibid., p. 12.

101 EGYPT II

the scene itself by the artist. Within registers small, relatively unimportant items, such as vessels, tools, birds, and so on, are usually rendered to scale; houses, on the other hand, are frequently represented proportionally smaller. How this relates to granary size is difficult to discover. Evidence of small and large pottery granaries found in tombs at Helwan compare favorably with similarly shaped granaries represented in Old Kingdom paintings and, so, implies that the latter accurately reflect the proper scale.22

O n the other hand, an ivory model f rom a First-Dynasty tomb at Abydos has been thought to represent a granary. If accurate, it would represent what was in reality a rather tall structure, since it is shaped like a tower with a ladder leading up to a window just below a platform. At Helwan excavators have also uncov-erccl a rectangular compound containing five circular structures whose walls were made of mud-brick. They may have originally reached three meters high and had a base wider than the top. As extant, the diameters vary between 1.10 m. and 1.20 m. Located in proximity to a First-Dynasty tomb they have been tentatively identified as part of a granary court for use by the deceased in the afterlife. This identification gains support from the appearance in the late Fifth or early Sixth-Dynasty T o m b of Unas-Ankh at Thebes of a painting that shows five rather large granaries having domed-roofs and small doors about chest high from which a worker appears to be extracting grain. Unas-Ankh carried the title of "Overseer of the T w o Granaries." In sum, then, it appears that there were both small and large granaries at the beginning of the historical period.2 '

Middle and New Kingdom granaries present a much different appearance. Middle and New

Those shown in tomb paintings, such as in the Middle-Kingdom Tombs of Kingdom granaries Antefoker at Thebes and of Amenemhet and of Khety at Beni Hasan as well as in the New-Kingdom T o m b of Paheri at El Kab, appear quite large.24 They seem to be rectangular structures with flat, or sometimes dome-shaped, roofs

22 Heinr ich Schäfer , Principles of Egyptian Art. E m m a Brunne r -Trau t , ed., and J o h n Baines, ed. and trans. (Oxford: C la rendon Press, 1974), pp. 230 34; G a y Robins, Egyptian Painting and Relief (Aylesbury: Shire Publications Ltd., 1986), p. 19; J a c q u e s Vandie r , Manuel d'Archéologie Egyptienne. T o m e IV: Bas-Reliefs et Peintures Scènes de la Vie Quotidienne (Paris: A. and J. Picard and Co. , 1964), pp. 13-29.

23 Abydos: H. Z. Levinson and A. R. Levinson, "Storage and Insect Species of Stored Gra in a n d T o m b s in Ancient Egypt," Zeitschrift für angewandte Entomologie 100, no. 4 (Nov. 1985): 325, Fig. 1. Helwan: Saad , Royal Excavations at Helwan (1945-1947), p. 20 and PI. X V I I I b and X l X a . Thebes : M o h a m e d Saleh, Three Old-Kingdom Tombs at Thebes (Mainz a m Rhein : Philipp von Zabe rn , 1977), pp. 14-15 and Pl. 3. Levinson and Levinson ("Storage and Insect Species," p. 324) estimate that dome-shaped granar ies measured ca. 5.0 111. high and 2.0 m. in d iamete r at the base. T h e y do not, however , indicate the basis for these figures.

24 Davies, Tomb of Antefoker, p. 10 and Pl. X V ; Percy Newberry . Beni Hasan, 1: Pl. XI I I (Amen-emhet) and ibid., 2: Pl. X V I I (Khety); a n d Ty lo r a n d Griffi th, Tomb of Paheri, p. 15 a n d Pl. III.

CHAPTER THREE 1 0 2

domed granaries. From Fig. 6. Drawing of wall painting from Theban tomb, depicting Egyptian Wilkinson, Maimers and Customs, 2: 136, No. 122.

1 0 3 EGYPT II

reached by ladders (Fig. 6). Paintings and reliefs often show workers, under the watchful eye of a scribe, carrying sacks of grain up ladders to the roof where they empty them through holes in the ceiling.25 T h e painting from the T o m b of Khety, for example, depicts just such a scene within a large area surrounded by a wall that has a single entrance and encloses two rows of ten dome-shaped gra-naries. Mudbrick granaries insulated the grain from the hot sun and provided an environment of low-humidity and cool temperatures for the threshed grain. Its crevices, however, offered refuge for insects that could infest the grain. T h e Egyptians developed several types of pest repellents, such as smoke from burn-ing gazelle dung or mice dung and urine smeared on the granary walls and floor. Nevertheless, grain spoilage rates may have reached ten percent.26

T h e appearance of the interiors of granaries can be gathered from a series of Granary models

models found in First-Intermediate and Middle-Kingdom tombs, especially from the early Twelfth-Dynasty T o m b of Meket-re at Thebes. Although contro-versy remains over whether the models represent granaries open to the sky or not, the interior arrangements are essentially consistent from one granary model to another. T h e grain was stored in bins, which are sometimes shown equipped with sliding hatches at ground level and surrounded by a central area in which granary workers and grinders busy themselves at their jobs, while a scribc docu-mcnts receipts and withdrawals. Some models have staircases leading to the roof.27

T o m b models seem to represent granaries associated with large well-to-do,

25 Cf. the relief on the exterior of the Eleventh-Dynasty sarcophagus of Ashait f rom Thebes , now in the Egyptian M u s e u m in Cairo . M o h a m e d Saleh and Hour ig Sourouzian , The Egyptian Museum Cairo. Peter Der Manuel ian and Helen Jacquc t -Gordon , trans. (Mainz a m Rhein : Philipp von Zabern , 1987), Pl. 69b. See also the T o m b of Antefoker at T h e b e s Davies, Tomb of 'Antefoker, Pl. XV).

26 Levinson and Levinson, "Storage and Insect Species," pp. 334-35 ; Papyrus Ebers, in Cyril P. Bryan, Ancient Egyptian Medicine. The Papyrus Ebers (1930. Repr in t Chicago: Ares Publishers Inc., 1974), p. 166; P. B. Adamson, "Problems over Storing Food in the Ancient Near East," WO 16 (1985): 7, 11-12.

27 H. E. YVinlock, Models of Daily Life in Ancient Egypt from the Tomb of Meket-re at 'Thebes (Cam-bridge, MA: H a r v a r d University Press, 1955), pp. 25 -27 , 87 88, and Pis. 20 -21 , 24. O n the date of this t omb and funerary models generally, see most recently Doro thea Arnold, " A m e n e m h a t I and the Early Twelf th Dynasty at Thebes , " Metropolitan Museum Journal 26 (1991): 5 48. See also Breasted, Egyptian Servant Statues, pp. 1 0 1 ־ 6 ; Mi r i am Snead, Egyptian Life (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1986), p. 30, Fig. 39 (Middle Kingdom granary). For the roof controversy, cf. YVinlock, Models, p. 25, with B a r r y J . Kemp , "Large Middle Kingdom G r a n a r y Buildings (and the Archaeology of Administration)," S 113 (1986): 121. Middle K i n g d o m granary models have also come from Saqqara , Asyut, Mir , and el Lisht. See Hayes, Scepter of Egypt, 1: 264-65 ; Cecil M. Firth and Batt iscombe G u n n , Ted pyramid Cemeteries. 2 Vols. (Cairo: L'Institut Français d 'Archéologie Orienta le , 1926), pp. 5 2 - 5 4 , and Pl. 30 (Tomb of Gcmni) , and Levinson and Levinson, "Storage and Insect Species," p. 326, and Fig. 4.

CHAPTER THREE 1 0 4

perhaps urban, homes. Barry Kemp argues that the models are abbreviated ver-sions of the type of large-roofed, multi-chambered storage facilities found at Middle Kingdom Kahun in the Fayum and several military forts, such as Uronart i and Mirgissa, located along the Nile River in the area of the Second Cataract in Nubia. From archaeological remains, he estimates the storage capacity of the granaries and the number of people who could be fed annually from them. So, for instance, all granaries connected to large houses at Kahun had a combined capacity of 2,636.7 cubic meters, a volume that could feed from 5,273 to 9,092 people per year depending upon the size of the distribution. Kemp concludes that the granary evidence indicates the lack of a single central-ized granary; instead, the larger houses acted as redistributive centers for the communities.28

During the New Kingdom, dome-shaped granaries predominate over the flat-roofed type, and appear in paintings in groups of three to five located in court-yards or on the roofs of homes. T h e capacities of granaries in this period varied and could be quite large. Two silos at Amarna , for example, had base diameters of ca. 8.0 m. The large central granary of Rameses II in the Ramesseum at Thebes was composed of many separate vaulted storage rooms arranged in

series. Each room measured between ca. 4.0 m. and 6.0 m. in height, while a distance at ca. 6.50 m. intervened between each roof opening.29

Little can be said about the locations of state granaries or the details of their operation, but the importance to the Egyptian state of their proper management appears clearly in the persistence of the title "Overseer of the Double Granary" (;imy-r snwty), that is, for the granaries throughout Egypt, and in the fact that the vizier often assumed this position himself.30 Literary sources and tomb scenes provide information on bureaucratic titles that seem to proliferate as the Egypt-ian bureaucracy increased over time. These titles refer not only to administra-tors of the granaries, such as the scribe and counter of grain from Thebes, but also to those who managed the bread and beer supplies at various levels in soci-ety, both on private estates and for state or religious entities. Among the multi-

Bureaucratic

oversight of granaries,

grain, and grain

products

-H K e m p , "Large Middle K ingdom G r a n a r y Buildings," pp . 120 36; idem, Ancient Eg)pt, pp. 149-57. T h e figures for Uronar t i are 770.37 m.3 with a feeding capacity of f rom 1541 to 2656 people; those for Mirgissa are 1063.69 m.3, for be tween 2127 and 3668 individuals. Epigraphic evidence found at Uronar t i and Mirgissa conf i rms the presence of granaries there. Interestingly, the height of the granaries at K a h u n , Uronar t i , and Mirgissa, est imated at a little over 3.0 m., is similar to the est imated height of the five First-Dynasty circular granaries at Helwan.

29 Levinson and Levinson, "Storage and Insect Species," pp. 325 28, and Figs. 8 10. 30 Nigel Strudwick, Hie Administration of Egypt in the Old Kingdom. The Highest Titles and Their Hold-

eis (London: KPI , 1985), pp. 251 75. Twenty- two of the thirty-seven M e m p h i t e overseers were also viziers.

1 0 5 EGYPT II

plicity of titles associated with production, record keeping, and disposition of these commodities are references to those who actually performed the work of processing the grain, such as miller (male and female), baker, and brewer (male and female). Some titles seem more specific or explanatory, such as Brewer of the Vizier, Brewer W h o Makes Bread, and Brewer of Divine-offerings of Sobk of Crocodilopolis. Other titles appear to designate those in administrative posi-tions superintending the processing of grain into bread and beer, such as Over-seer of the Bakeries for the Ov erseer of the Workhouse, Overseer of the Bakery, Overseer of the Bakery of Amun, and Overseer of the Bakery of Ptah, as well as helpers, scribes perhaps, in the storerooms and, no doubt, hangers-on who seem to find positions in every bureaucracy. Among these occur references to store-keepers, attendants, and butlers of the beer or bread pantry, a counter of loaves of bread, and the hall-keeper of the bakers.31

2. Bread and Beer

In 1953 Robert Braidwood posed a question predicated on the idea that domes- Priority of bread or

tication of cereals was related to the making of bread and beer. He asked which beer

came first, bread or beer, to a group of eight archaeologists and anthropolog-ists.32 For various reasons, some favored beer, others bread, still others opted for food in the form of a gruel or mush first and then bread and beer, in that order. In general, the latter idea prevailed. T h e question was reopened thirty-four years later by Solomon Katz and Mary Voigt who accepted the priority of gruel but, arguing from what Katz termed "biocultural evolution," favored the prece-dence of beer over bread.3 3 They, as did earlier Braidwood and his colleagues generally, assume that this occurred where agriculture began, that is, in South-west Asia in areas where cereals occur naturally. T h e earliest extant evidence pointing to beer consumption includes a s tamp seal from Tcpc Gawra, in north-eastern Iraq, dating to ca. 4000 B. C., which seems to show two individuals sip-

31 T h e list was taken f rom Will iam A. W a r d , Index of Egyptian Administrative and Religious Titles of the Middle Kingdom (Beirut: Amer ican University of Beirut, 1982), passim; John C o l e m a n Darnell , " T h e Chief Baker ," JEA 75 (1989): 216-19 ; and Lisa M a n n i c h e , Lost Tombs. A Study of Certain Eighteenth Dynasty Monuments in the Theban Necropolis (London: Κ PI, 1988), p. 7 (counter of b read loaves), 136-57 (scribe and counte r of grain). O n the female brewer , see also William A. W a r d , Essays on Feminine Titles of the Middle Kingdom and Related Subjects (Beirut: Amer ican University of Beirut, 1986), pp. 121 22, and Gay Robins , Women in Ancient Egypt (Cambridge: H a r v a r d Univer-sity Press, 1993), pp. 118-19.

32 Rober t J. Braidwood, "Symposium: Did M a n O n c e Live by Beer Alone?" AmerAnthr 55, no. 1 (1953): 5 1 5 - 2 6 .

33 So lomon H. Katz and M a r y M . Voigt, "Bread and Beer: T h e Early Use of Cereals in the H u m a n Diet ," Expedition 28, no. 2 (1987): 23 34.

CHAPTER THREE 1 0 6

ping beer through a straw, and, from the following millennium, beer residue from a pottery vessel from Godin Tepe , in the Zagros Mountains of Iran, and Sumerian texts that contain recipes for beer production.34 Although the first clear evidence for beer, and probably bread as well, derives from Mesopotamia, the best and most abundant archaeological and art historical evidence for the technological processes are found in Egypt. Consequently, we will turn first to the Egyptian material and return later to the Mesopotamian evidence.

T h e amount of grain to be processed was retrieved from the granary and tak-en to the place selected for processing; baking and brewing were apparently often carried out in different parts of a single location, as indicated, for example, in the bakery-brewery model from the Middle Kingdom Tomb of Mcket-re. Following pounding in the mortar to separate the grains from the chafT, the cereal was sifted to remove the latter. T h e clean grain was then ground to the desired fineness on a hand quern. Dough was made by mixing the flour with water and other desired additives, and then kneading. At this point, the process of bread and beer making diverged. If flat bread were the object, the dough would be shaped and baked in the ashes or, as shown in the New Kingdom T o m b of Rameses III (Fig. 10), in an oven.35 If leavened bread were required, yeast in the form of barm (the frothy portion of fermenting beer) could be added to the dough and the mixture placed into bread molds that were then heated in the oven. For beer production, the dough, probably made from the flour of malted grain and perhaps mixed with the juice of dates and pomegranates, was partially baked into loaves. After being mixed with water and allowed to ferment for a period of time, they were broken up and mashed by hand through a mesh screen placcd over a vessel that caught the expressed liquid. T h e beer was next placed in jars to ferment further; soon afterward, it was decanted into amphorae and sealed.

T h e earliest recognizable breweries in Egypt come from Sites Hk-24A (the "Platform Site") and Hk-25D (the "Vat Site") on the Nile floodplain near Hier-akonpolis, excavated by Je remy Geller in 1988-89, and dated to ca. 3500-3400 B. C.36 Geller suggests that evidence from these sites, plus other similar ones pre-

.S'ummary of bread

and beer production

Predynastic bakeries

and breweries at

Hierakonpolis

34 Ibid., p. 29, esp. Fig. 10; Rudolf H . Michel , Patrick E. M c G o v e r n , a n d Virginia R. Badler, "Chemica l Evidence for Ancient Beer," Nature 360 (5 Nov. 1992): 24.

G י•3 a r d n e r Wilkinson, The Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians. 6 Vols. 2d ed. (London: J o h n M u r r a y , 1841-42), 2: 385; Wilson, Egyptian Food and Drink, p. 13, Fig. 10 (after Rosellini).

3 6 J e r e m y Roge r Geller, "Predynast ic Beer Product ion at Hierakonpolis , U p p e r Egypt: Archae-ological Evidence a n d Anthropological Implicat ions," Ph .D . diss. Washing ton University, 1992; idem, " F r o m Prehistory to History: Beer in Egypt ," in Followers of Horns., pp. 1926־; and idem, "Bread and Beer in Four th-Mi l lennium Egypt ," Food and Foodways 5, no. 3 (1993): 255 -67 . Previ-ously, the earliest archaeological evidence for Egyptian bread and beer -making actually came

1 0 7 EGYPT II

viously excavated but unrecognized as breweries, such as at Ballas, Mahasna, and Abydos, implies that beer production was widespread during the Predynas-tic era. How far back into this period this might be true is unknown. The eight facilities at Abydos, for instance, had been excavated in the early twentieth cen-tury and tentatively identified as kilns used to parch grain.37 Each kiln was com-posed of two rows of bell-shaped jars, ca. 50 cm. or more deep, sunk into the ground about 15 cm. and supported by a coating of clay and mudbricks. The tops of the jars remained open to the sky. O n e kiln contained thirty-five jars. Although openings were made to allow fuel to be added to the lire banked around each jar , a low wall of mudbrick enclosed the kilns. Finds of wheat gave rise to the conjecture that the kilns were used to parch grain, something not readily identified in Egyptian artistic or literary evidence.38 Geller's interpreta-tion of the Abydos installation as a brewery ultimately derives from his work at Hierakonpolis.

The Hierakonpolis sites (Hk-24, or " T h e Big Mound ," but especially Hk-24A and Hk-25D) consist of a combination of brewery, granary׳, and pottery kiln installations located within 100 meters of each other. Site Hk-25D supported a bakery, composed of six small hearths made of mud, straw, and pottery sherds. Measuring ca. 1.0 m. in diameter, they are poorly preserved. Site Hk-24A con-sisted of six clay vats, identified as "mash tuns," each with a capacity of about sixteen gallons of beer. Crudely made and conical in shape with flat bottoms, the vats measured ca. 50 cm. in diameter at their widest point and ca. 60 cm. in depth (as extant). They were partially inserted into a platform and supported by mud and sherds. The platform, 2.0 m. χ 7.0 m., and vats were apparently enclosed by a rectangular structure that left the tops of the jars accessible. A heavy coating of mud on the jars ' exteriors shielded them from the fires in the kiln and allowed the liquid to warm slowly and evenly, a process essential in mashing prior to fermentation. Residue found in the vats contained spikelets and grains of emmer wheat (Triticwn dicoccum), a little barley (Hordeum vulgare), and carbonized sugar and carboxylic acids, which typically form in the mashing and fermentation processes. T h e combined capacity of the excavated vats

f rom an Egyptian outpost at 'En Besor, in the nor thwestern Negev. Da t ing to the First Dynasty, bread molds and beer j a r s provide evidence for the prepara t ion and consumpt ion of both food items. R a m G o p h n a and D a n Gazit , " T h e First Dynasty Egyptian Residency at Έ η Besor,5' Tel. Aviv 12, no. 1 (1985): 9 - 1 6 .

T ל3 . Eric Peet and W . L. S. Loat , Vie Cemeteries of Abydos. Part III. — 1912-1913 (London: T h e Egypt Explorat ion Fund , 1913), pp. 1 - 7 , and Plate 1. For Ballas and Mahasna , see Geller, "Pre-dynastic Beer Production at Hierakonpolis, U p p e r Egypt ," pp. 135 40.

38 Delwen Samuel , "The i r Staff of Life: Initial Investigations on Ancient Egyptian Bread Bak-ing," Amarna Reports V. Barry J . Kemp , ed. (London: Egypt Explorat ion Society, 1989), p. 258.

CHAPTER THREE 1 0 8

approached ca. 100 gallons. If one assumes a two-day fermentation period for each batch, typical for bouza, a modern locally produced Egyptian beer, the capacity may have approached 300 gallons per week, or more. The brewery probably supplied several families, since this amount of beer would clearly exceed what one would expect for household usage. In addition to site Hk-24A, evidence for six other vat sites have come to light in and around Hierakonpolis. Geller hypothesizes that the predynastic bakery-brewery-pottery kiln complex may represent a prototype of the later Pharaonic bakery-brewery system operat-ed by specialist brewers and bakers for an elite.39

Identification of the sites at Hierakonpolis as breweries and bakeries rests heavily on information derived from the literary and archaeological data of the Pharaonic period. These include tomb paintings and models, which show in detail the processes as they were apparently performed in historical times, and on knowledge of the technology of modern brewing and baking. The available evidence is abundant for all periods of Egyptian history and comprises a wide variety of materials. Before turning to the details of ancient Egyptian baking and brewing, however, we must first understand the role of beer and bread in Egypt-ian life.

Bread and beer in The importance of bread (t) and beer (fingt) can be seen in the Egyptian lan-Egyptian hieroglyphs guage, which in its written form employs pictures or hieroglyphs. The origin of

hieroglyphs is hidden in the Egyptian Predynastic or Archaic periods, and prob-ably derives from pictorial "property" marks incised on pottery before firing. These marks came to represent ideas; then, the ideas were associated with words, speech, and communication. T h e system was not static and so incorpo-rated new signs when needed and discarded others when no longer valued. A basic set, however, persisted, and changed little over time, though variations did occur. Among the signs included in Gardiner 's list of Middle Kingdom hiero-glyphs, some of which extend back to the Old Kingdom, we find several relating to the preparation of beer and bread (Fig. 7).40 For example, A34 shows a man pounding with a pestle in a mortar . A36 represents a man working beer mash

39 Geller, "Predynast ic Beer Product ion at Hierakonpolis , U p p e r Egypt," pp. 168 73, esp. p. 171: "Large breweries such as those at Hierakonpolis and Abydos reinforce the inference of directed product ion and selective redistribution by powerful individuals or institutions — chief-dorn or temple dur ing the Predynastic." Sec also idem, "Bread and Beer in Fourth-Millenni-urn Egypt," pp. 261 65.

10 William S. Arnct t , The Predynastic Origin of Egyptian Hieroglyphs. Evidence for the Development of Rudimentär}׳ Forms of Hieroglyphs in Upper Egypt in the Fourth Millenium (sic) B. C. (Washington: Univer-sity Press of America , 1982), [ ) 5 - 2 -W. V. Davies, Reading the Past. Egyptian Hieroglyphs (Berke ; כן. 1ley: University of California Press, 1987), pp. 4 - 5 ; Alan Gard ine r , Egyptian Grammar. 3rd ed. (Oxford: Griffith Institute, 1957), pp. 1 10.

1 0 9 EGYPT II

Φ A 3 7: A36: A34:

0 U28 T29: *1 m

M43:

W21: U32: U31:

a X2: Ω XI: W22:

Fig. 7. Hieroglyphic symbols associated with food technology. From Gard ine r , Egyptian Grammar.:i

CHAPTER THREE 1 1 0

on a sieve placed over a vessel, while A37, actually a more common sign, seems to show a man kneading mash in a vat. Sometimes the products themselves, or a container holding the product, form the hieroglyph. So, for instance, XI repre-sents bread, X2 a loaf of bread, and W22 a beer-jug. Among other hieroglyphs associated with food processing are U32, the mortar and pestle, and U31, an instrument thought to be used in baking, perhaps a rake used to remove embers from the baking floor.41 T h e fact that a combination of the bread-loaf and beer-j u g ideograms formed a generic sign for "food" emphasizes the fundamental val-ue that these two products assumed in the Egyptian mind.4 2

Bread and beer in T h e notion that bread and beer formed staples of life appears also in mortu-art, mythology, and ary art, mythology, and literature. Utterances in the Pyramid texts of the Old

literature Kingdom frequently include references to bread and beer, often in combination. So, for example, Utterance 373 from the T o m b of Teti implores the pharaoh, when he arrives at the gate of heaven, to gather himself together and "Take your bread that rots not , / Your beer that sours not" and pass through the gate. In Utterance 406 the speaker asks the god Re to bring certain things for Teti, including "Life, prosperity, health, and joy , / Bread, beer, and clothing,/ Things on which Teti may live!"43 T h e representation of bread and beer as symbolic of the basic sustenance of life itself is seen as well in the representation of these items in paintings on the walls of many tombs, or engraved on stelae and other monuments not only of pharaohs but of lesser mortals as well. In addition, sometimes inscriptions referring to bread and beer as emblematic of all food in general arc included with the illustrations. For example, the stela of Count Indi, who lived during the Eighth Dynasty, includes above the carving of Indi and his wife this entreaty: "A thousand of bread, a thousand of beer, a thousand of oxen, a thousand of fowl, a thousand of ointment jars, a thousand of clothing, a thousand of everything good, for the revered Indi."44 T h e expression "thousand

41 Hilary• Wilson, "Pot -baked Bread in Ancient Egypt ," Varia Aegyptica 1 (1988): 95. 42 T h e sign for b read was also used in combina t ion with o ther hieroglyphs to form basic con-

cepts. So, the combina t ion of the ideogram for "crossroads" or "village," " t ree ," and "b read" ren-ders the concept of "Egypt" itself. Arnet t , Predynastic Origin of Egyptian Hieroglyphs, pp. 8 - 9 .

43 Q u o t e d f rom Mi r i am Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature. A Book of Readings. 3 Vols. (Berke-ley: University of Cal i fornia Press, 1973), 1: 4 1 - 4 2 (Ut terance 373), 43 (Utterance 406). Cf. also Samuel A. B. Mercer , The Pyramid Texts. 2 Vols. (New York: Longmans , Greene and Co. , 1952), 1: 137 (Ut terance 406); L o r e d a n a Sist, "Le bevande nei Test i delle Pi ramidi ," in Drinking in Ancient Societies. History and Culture of Drinks in the Ancient Near East. Lucio Milano, ed. History of the Ancient N e a r Eas t / S tud ies -VI (Padua: Sargon srl, 1994), pp . 133-35.

44 Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, 1: 8485־ . Cf. also the stela of the t reasurer Tje t j i (ibid., pp. 90-91) , and , particularly, the stela of King W a h a n k h Intef II (ibid., pp. 94-96) , w h o is also shown offering j a r s of beer and milk to the gods. For similar stelae, see Hayes, Scepter of Egypt, 1: 3 3 0 - 3 4 . Cf. also Mercer , Pyramid Texts, 1: 136 (Utterance 400), 288 (Utterance 667), 297 (Utter-ance 675), and 300 (Utterance 676).

EGYPT I

of (beer and bread)" represents the wish that Indi have all the food he wants in abundance. The offering list engraved on the mortuary temple of the Twen-tieth-Dynasty pharaoh Rameses III at Medinet Habu at Thebes lists bread and beer as its most numerous offering, 5500 loaves of bread and 204 jars of beer daily. And finally, it seems that in one mythological story, found in several New Kingdom tombs but probably derived from a Middle Kingdom text, beer was the implement for the salvation of mankind. T h e god Re entices the "Eye of Re" (the goddess Hathor) to drink beer colored with ochre so that she would become drunk and stop her slaughter of humans.4 5 Post-pharaonic inscriptions in the temple at Dendera refer to Hathor as "the intoxicated one," while else-where she is referred to as "the inventress of brewing." Often associated with her is Menqet , "the goddess who makes beer."46

The importance of bread and beer in mortuary cult, mythology, and art Bread and beer in

reflects their status in Egyptian daily life. So, for instance, lacking money the the Egyptian

Egyptians based their economy on a system of barter. Often the value of items economy

being bartered was expressed in terms of a weight of copper or of a quantity of grain. A study of commodity prices paid by necropolis workers in New King-dom Thebes shows that mats and baskets could be valued in terms of barley. Wages were also usually set in terms of numbers of food items, such as fish or vegetables, but particularly bread-loaves or jars of beer. Often it is clear that at least a portion of the particular commodities was not actually being distrib-uted.47 A laborer, for example, received for a day's work a standard wage valued in bread and beer or a quantity of grain to make them, while a higher-ranked administrator might receive a multiple of this wage, sometimes far more than he could possibly consume.48 Apparently, the amount of bread and beer was not seen as an actual amount of the commodities, but as an abstraction, which as a

45 Rameses III: Barry J . K e m p , Delwen Samuel , and Rosemary Luff, "Food for an Egyptian City: Tell e l -Amarna ," in Whither Environmental Archaeology? Rosemary Luff and Peter Rowley-Con-wy, eds. (Oxford: O x b o w Books, 1994), p. 146; "Eye of Re" : Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, 2: 197-99.

46 H. F. Lutz, Viticulture and Brewing in the Ancient Orient (Leipzig: J . C . Hinrichs 'sche Buch hand-lung, 1922), pp. 110-13; Wolfgang Hclck, "Bier ," in LÄ, col. 791.

47 J a c . J . Janssen , Commodity Prices From the Ramessid Period. An Economic Study of the Village ofNecrop-olis Workmen at Thebes (Leiden: E . J . Brill, 1975), pp. 12225־ (prices in terms of barley), 4 5 5 - 9 3 (wages). See also Barbara S. Lesko, "Rank , Roles, and Rights," in Pharaoh's Workers. The Villagers of Deir el Medina. Leonard H. Lesko, ed. (Ithaca: Cornel l University Press, 1994), pp. 15 39.

48 K e m p , Ancient Egypt, pp . 124-28, indicates that the s tandard wage for a laborer consisted of ten loaves of bread and a measure of beer, usually between 1 / 3 and 2 full jars . Cf. Janssen , Com-modity Prices, pp . 460 -74 , w h o says that at T h e b e s in the Ramessid period, a laborer received a monthly wage for himself and his large family of 3 3 / 4 liters of barley and wheat combined to be m a d e into b read and beer by the laborer himself. He might also receive dur ing the mon th deliv-eries of bread, cakes, and vessels of beer.

CHAPTER THREE 1 1 2

wage implied the relative importance of the individual.49 What was done with the amounts in excess of what could actually be eaten or easily stored away is unknown, but they were probably kept as a recorded "value" which could be used to "purchase" other items. The form this "value" might take may be implied in the wooden tokens carved in the shape of bread and bearing numbers referring to amounts of grain or numbers of bread-loaves, such as those given to soldiers in the Nubian fort at Uronarti .5 0

Wages in bread and beer paid to workers consumed the attention of a number of bureaucratic scribes who carefully supervised the removal of grain from the granary and its conversion into flour. Through precise mathematical calculation they computed the ratio of grain used to bread and beer produced, while always being careful to keep track of the portion lost during the milling and baking. Distributed rations would be valued according to how many loaves of bread or jugs of beer could be produced per hekat (= 4.78 liters) of grain. This baking val-ue, called a pesu, figures prominently in various mathematical papyri which illus-träte the Egyptian penchant for pure mathematical manipulation as well as for practical problem solving.51

T h e technological processes necessary to convert wheat and barley to bread and beer are illustrated in great detail in paintings (Fig. 8) and reliefs as well as with wooden models, but care must be taken in interpreting the scenes repre-sented. So, for instance, Egyptian artists ignored foreshortening and perspective and focused on profile views of participants who appear in scenes that are essen-tially two-dimensional. Gay Robins notes,

From the Early Dynastic Period, artists began to divide the drawing surface into horizontal registers placed vertically above one another. The surface was, howev-er, neutral in relation to space and time, and the system of registers was purely a method of ordering the material placed upon it. It was never developed to indicate spatial relationships between the different registers or pictorial depth by placing objects further away from the viewer in higher registers. Nor did the system give any information about the relationship of the different scenes in time. Although scenes are often loosely linked by theme or location either horizontally within a

Conventions in

Egyptian art and

understanding scenes

of bread and beer

making

K י׳9 e m p (.Ancient Egypt, p. 117) calls this "abstract ion disguised by concrete terminology." 50 See, e. g., George Andrew Reisner and Noel F. Wheeler , in Uronarti, ShalJ'ak, Mirgissa. Vol. 2

of Second Cataract Forts. 2 Vols. (Boston: M u s e u m of Fine Arts, 1967), pp. 34—35, esp. Pl. X X V I I ; K e m p , Ancient Egypt, p. 124, and Fig. 44.

51 Char les F. Nims, " T h e Bread and Beer Problems of the Moscow Mathemat ica l Papyrus," JEA 44 (Dec. 1958): 5665־ ; Gay Robins and Char les Shute , Vie Rhind Mathematical Papyrus. An Ancient Egyptian Text (New York: Dover Publication, Inc., n.d. [London, 1987]); Anthony Spalinger, "Baking Dur ing the Reign of Seti I ," BIFAO 86 (1986): 307 52; and K e m p , Ancient Egypt,, pp. 117-28.

1 1 3 EGYPT II

CHAPTER THREE 1 1 4

register or in different registers in sequences up and down the wall, the same basic set of scenes may exist in different versions which arrange individual scenes in varying order, making it plain that their position on the wall and the placing of one scene in relation to another does not itself give information about the order in which to read them.52

Delwen Samuel has recently stressed that to understand Egyptian technological processes archaeological, archaeobotanical, ethnographic, and modern experi-mental evidence must be used in conjunction with artistic representations, since the latter stressed the iconography of the activity over its accurate or complete rendering. Incorporating modern cereal processing techniques and experimen-tal archaeology, for example, she argues that, in opposition to the usual inter-pretation of grain processing scenes in wall paintings, sieving occurred after pounding in mortars and before grinding on the quern.5 3 With these caveats in mind, we can now turn to a detailed discussion of technological processes involved.

a. Milling Pounding Milling, or the transformation of cereal into flour, involved three separate

processes. First, the emmer spikelets were pounded and crushed to separate the grain from the chaff. As shown in numerous paintings and models, usually two individuals at a time, generally men, held long (perhaps one meter in length), undoubtedly wooden, pestles and in rhythm struck the spikelets placed in a mor-tar, which, to judge from actual examples, were often made of limestone. The workers pounded in an up-and-down or roundabout motion depending on whether the mortar was deep or shallow.54 T h e hieroglyphic determinative for

52 Robins, Egyptian Painting and Relief, p. 18. Cf. also Schäfer, Principles of Egyptian Art, pp. 163-66, 193-96; Vandier , Manuel, 4: 1329־; Whi tney Davis, The Canonical Tradition in Ancient Egyptian Art (Cambridge: Cambr idge University Press, 1989), pp. 35 -37 .

Delwen Samuel י׳3 , "Ancient Egyptian Bread and Beer. An Interdisciplinary Approach , " in Bio-logical Anthropology and the Study of Ancient Egypt. W . Vivian Davies and Roxie Walker , eds. (London: British M u s e u m Press, 1993), p. 156; idem, "Ancient Egyptian Cereal Processing," pp. 276.83־

E.g. one man י4 : model f rom T o m b of Meket-re (M. K..); two men: T o m b of N i a n c h c h n u m and C h n u m h o t e p (C). K.), Antefoker (M. K.), Rekh-mi-re (N. K.). YVinlock, Models, Pis. 2223־ ; Moussa and Altenmüller , Das Grab des Nianchchnum und Chnumhotep, Ta f . 23; Davies, Tomb of Ante-

foker, Pl. XI ; and N o r m a n dc Garis Davies, Tomb of Rekh-mi-rē' at Thebes (New York: Metropol i tan M u s e u m of Art, 1944), Pl. L. See also J o h n Storck and Wal ter Dorwin Teague , Flour for Man's Bread (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1952), pp . 43 -47 . T h e coordination between two m e n with pestles is shown in a paint ing in the T o m b of Antefoker where the man holding the upright pestle calls a cadence, " D o w n . " T h e other, whose pestle has come down into the mor tar , replies, "Right . " Davies, Tomb of Antefoker־, p. 15. A relief f rom the mastaba of K a e m r e h u , in Saqqara , dat ing to the late Fifth Dynasty, shows three individuals, two men and one woman , pound ing grain in a tall mor tar . See Saleh et al, The Egyptian Museum Cairo, no. 59. Hil lman notes

1 1 5 EGYPT II

the word "pound" is the mortar and pestle (Fig. 7). Modern archaeological test-ing with mortar and pestle has shown that the process of pounding is helped by slightly wetting the grain beforehand. This aids in separating the grain from the chaff and produces a mixture of whole and broken grains, small and large pieces of chaff, and some remaining spikelets.55 Although it seems likely, there is, how-ever, no conclusive evidence, literary or archaeological, that the Egyptians actu-ally soaked the grain just before milling. Parching or roasting grain before pounding, a process used later by the Romans, not only assisted in separating the grain during milling but also sweetened the flour and promoted fermenta-tion, a step important in beer-making. But, as with soaking, it is difficult to prove that Egyptians parched their grain prior to pounding, as there is no sign of it in the paintings or models.56 Exposure to the hot Egyptian climate may have rcn-dercd the grain sufficiently dry and brittle to facilitate milling.

The next step in milling involved grinding the grain to produce flour, a process Grinding

represented in most paintings and by servant statues and models. The instru-ment, found in tombs and workmen's villages, was a flat or saddle quern made of granite, limestone, basalt, or other hard stones. Rotary querns were unknown in Egypt until just prior to the Ptolemaic period. As seen in many Old Kingdom tomb paintings, such as found in the T o m b of Re'-em-Kuy (Fig. 8), at Saqqara,

6 as well as servant statues (PI. 6), the common quern was a flat stone behind which the grinder, usually a female, knelt down and with a short spherical or ovoid stone worked a few grains at a time in a back-and-forth motion to reduce them to flour.57 Whether the Egyptians intentionally added sand to the cereal before grinding to aid the production of flour, as sometimes thought, is questionable,

that modern farmers in Turkey and elsewhere prefer wooden mor tars and pestles as the s tandard tools to dehusk glume wheats, such as e m m e r , einkorn, and spelt. See G o r d o n Hil lman, "Trad i -tional Husbandry and Processing of Archaic Cereals in Recent Times: the Opera t ions , Products and Equipment Which Might Feature in Sumer ian Texts. Part I: T h e G lume Wheats , " BullSumA-gri 1 (1984): 129-30.

55 Delwen Samuel , "Cereal Food Processing in Ancient Egypt, A Case Study of Integrat ion," in Whither Environmental Archaeology? Rosemary Lull" and Peter Rowley-Conwy, eds. (Oxford: O x b o w Books, 1994), pp. 155-56; idem, "The i r Staff of Life, pp. 259-70 ; idem, "Ancient Egypt-ian Cerea l Processing," p. 280. Cf. also Darby et al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, 2: 506.

56 As noted above (p. 107), the Predynastic "parch ing kilns" of Abydos have been lately inter-preted as mash tuns in a brewery. Da rby et al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, p. 506; Samuel , "The i r Staff of Life," p. 258. O n the practical value of parching , see below, C h a p t e r Five, p. 200.

57 Cf. the paint ing in the T o m b of Ti (Epron et al, L· Tombeau de Τι, Pis. LXVII) . For a saddle quern and gr inding stone found in the T o m b of T u t a n k h a m o n , sec Darby et al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, Fig. 12.2. For the saddle quern , see C h a p t e r Five, p. 183. A Middle Kingdom wooden ser-vant statue, now in the Ca i ro M u s e u m , shows a m a n gr inding grain, as does also a stone ushebti figure of the New Kindgom. Breasted, Egyptian Servant Statues, pp. 21, 23. See also Robins, Women in Ancient Egypt, pp . 118-19.

CHAPTER THREE 1 1 6

since modern archaeological experiments have shown that it is unnecessary. The mortar and pestle worked quite well to reduce the cereal grains and spikelets.58

Although Samuel argues that sieving occurred between the pounding and grind-ing steps, nothing prevents sieving following each activity.

By the Middle Kingdom, the usual grinding instrument was the saddle quern, which was not only more efficient than the flat stone but, when raised on a base, also more comfortable for the grinder. T h e worker could kneel or, if the quern-stone was raised high enough, as shown in tomb paintings and models, stand behind it. Wooden models of bakeries and breweries commonly show grinders arranged side-by-side or facing each other. T h e Meket-re bakery-brewery model shows dual querns, that is, two querns arranged side-by-side on a single base (PI. 7). T h e stones sloped down and away from the worker so that as the grain was 7 ground the flour would fall naturally into a basin where it could be scooped up and placed in another container to await the next step. Servant statues from all periods usually represent the grinder wearing a cloth cap to prevent dust from covering her hair.59 Modern archaeological experimentation has verified the efficiency of the saddle quern, particularly when the quern emplacement afford-ed a wall to the miller's back against which she could place her feet or lower back to provide more leverage and so exert a more powerful thrusting stroke in the grinding process. This seems, in fact, to be represented in the bakery-brew-ery model from the T o m b of Meket-re and in the positioning of the quern emplacements in some of the houses in the workmen's village at Amarna.6 0

Repetitive grinding of the grain, a process called today "gradual reduction," to provide finer grades of flour, therefore, was usually unnecessary, though it could have been done. T h e texture of the flour ultimately depended upon the skill and persistence of the miller.61

Sieving T h e cereal was next "cleaned" by passing it through a circular wicker sieve made of reed, rush, or palm (PI. 5). The sieving process can be seen in paintings 5 from the Old Kingdom Tombs of Ti and of Khenty as well as through servant statues of the same period, which show women seated and sieving flour into a basket tray.62 T h e process was labor intensive and rather inefficient, since the reed mesh was somewhat coarse and trapped only the largest particles. The

58 Samuel , " T h e i r Staff of Life," p. '268. 59 See, e. g., T o m b s of Antefoker (M. K.) and of Rekh-mi-re c (N. K.); Winlock, Models, Pis.

־2223 ; Breasted, Egyptian Servant Statues, pp .־1725 .·i() Winlock, Models, PI. 22; Samuel , "The i r Staff of Life," pp. 2 6 7 - 6 8 . ßl Samuel , "The i r Staff of Life," pp. 267-69 ; idem, "Ancient Egyptian Cereal Processing," p.

281 ; Storck and Teague , Flour, p. 53 Ép י2' ron et al. L· Tombeau de Ti, Pis. LXVII ; Saleh, Three Old-Kingdom Tombs, p. 20, and Pl. 1 1

(Sixth-Dynasty T o m b of Khenty). For statues, see Breasted, Egyptian Servant Statues, p. 25.

1 1 7 EGYPT II

number of repetitions and fineness of the mesh used determined the cleanness of the flour.63 T h e intended use of the bread also probably influenced the degree of sieving performed. Flour for bread to be consumed no doubt was more carefully sieved than that earmarked for symbolic or ceremonial use in tomb or temple. Bread found in tombs was often contaminated by incompletely ground or whole kernels, stone flakes detached f rom the mor tar or quern during pounding or grinding, or pieces of sand blown into the mix by the wind. Tha t lack of care in sieving might have grave consequences can be seen in the story of a chief baker to the Pharaoh. Imprisoned, he was ultimately executed because of gritty bread served to the ruler.64 Even so, the quality of bread consumed was probably less than would be considered acceptable today. Studies on human teeth from bod-ies found in tombs dating from Predynastic to Hellenistic times have shown that Egyptians often suffered from dental abscesses due to wear on the biting surface that had given rise to infection of the exposed pulp.65

b. Bread Making Once the grain had been pounded, sieved, and ground to the desired fineness, the Dough

next step was to make the dough. T h e baker added water to the flour that he had placed on a low, flat stone surface, on a table, or in a bowl. He then kneaded the dough until it reached the desired consistency. Kneading was performed either by hand, as shown in paintings in the Tombs of Rec-em-Kuy (O. K.), Antefoker (M. K.), and Ken-amum (N. K.), or by standing in a large vat and treading with the feet, as illustrated in an Old Kingdom relief from Saqqara and now in the Cairo Museum.6 6 Centuries later, the latter process drew the condemnation of

e:i Samuel , "Ancient Egyptian Cereal Processing," p. 281. For examples of sieves recovered f rom tombs, see Wilson, Egyptian Food and Drink, p. 12, Fig. 9; J o h n K.. M c D o n a l d , Egypt's Golden Age. The Art of Living in the New Kingdom 1558 1085. Ca ta logue of T h e Exhibit ion (Boston: M u s e u m of Fine Arts, 1982), p. 138, no. 135.

frt Samuel , " T h e i r Staff of Life," pp . 256 58, 269 70; F. Filce Leek, " T e e t h and Bread in Ancient Egypt ," JEA 58 (1972): 132. Leek at tr ibutes to the Talmud the story of the chief baker and the Biblical Jo seph , a l though D a r b y et al (Food: the Gift of Osiris, p. 508) note that this is uncon-firmed in the Bible.

65 Leek, " T e e t h and Bread in Ancient Egypt ," pp. 126-32; J a m e s E. Harris , Paul V . Ponitz, and Brian K. Ingalls, "Den ta l Heal th in Ancient Egypt ," in Mummies, Disease and Ancient Cultures, 2d ed. (Cambridge: C a m b r i d g e University Press, 1998), pp . 5 9 - 6 8 .

N o r m a n de Garis Davies, The Tomb of Ken-amun at Thebes (New York: Metropoli tan Museum of Art, 1930), p. 51 and PI. ΙΛΊΙ1 . For the relief (CG 1561) in the Ca i ro Museum, see Yvonne H a i p u r , " T h e Identity and Positions of Relief Fragments in Museums and Private Collections," JEA 71 (1985): 39-40 , and Fig. 9. It is often difficult to distinguish whether servant statues represent servants kneading dough or grinding grain. Sec, e. g., Breasted, Egyptian Semant Statues, pp . 26 27. Cf. also the bakery-brewery model f rom the T o m b of Meket-rc, which shows servant statues in the bakery par t kneading dough by hand , but by feet in the brewery section. Winlock, Models, p. 28, and PI. 22 23.

CHAPTER THREE 1 1 8

Herodotus who accuses the Egyptians of his own day of kneading dough with their feet but gathering mud and dung with their hands.67 A concave platform uncovered at Middle Kingdom Merimda in the Delta, in the context of a baker's oven and bread molds, has been tentatively identified as a kneading trough.68

Sourdough Dough received different t reatment depending upon its ultimate use. At the very least water and perhaps salt were added to the flour to produce the dough. This could be formed into flat cakes of various shapes for cooking in a pan, on embers, or, as in the New Kingdom, in an oven. Milk, eggs, spices, honey, dates, figs, and ground tiger-nuts might also be added, particularly if sweet cakes and the like were being prepared. If the bread were to be made in molds or if it were desired that the bread or pastry rise, then leaven was necessary. Wet dough, if left to stand overnight, begins to ferment on its own, since naturally occurring microorganisms, or wild yeasts, can initiate the fermenting process. This pro-duces sourdough, which can function as a "starter" for the next day's batch.

Yeast Yeast might also be added. So, for instance, a variety of wild yeast, called Sac-charomyces winlocki, has been detected in dried residues of Egyptian beer dating between the Predynastic period and New Kingdom times. An Eighteenth-Dynasty specimen was found to be almost pure.69 Its use in bread would follow naturally since breweries and bakeries often operated under the same roof. Recognition of an illustration in which leaven is added to the dough is difficult. Vandier, following Montet , however, identifies just such a scene in the T o m b of Ti, where one worker adds wet dough to bedja-molds while another pours some-thing into a differently shaped container. He also cites a frequently occurring scene in which a worker mixes with his hands a material in a large vat standing near a fire that will heat the molds. T h e term designating this material is héza, which Vandier identifies as the Old Kingdom word for leaven.70

Texture of the dough Whether Egyptians, like the Greeks, added lichens to bread dough to sweeten it or to render it more porous, or even added it at all, remains a matter of con-troversy.71 T h e texture of the dough probably depended upon its intended use,

67 Herodo tus 2.36: Θυρώσι το μεν σταΐς τοΐσι ποσί, τον δέ πηλόν τησι χερσί, και την κόπρον αναιρέονται. S t r abo (17.2.5) four centuries af ter He rodo tus confirms the observat ion.

68 H j a l m a r Larsen, " O n Baking in Egypt Dur ing the Middle Kingdom. An Archaeological Con t r ibu t ion , " ActaArch 7 (1936): 52.

09 Hilary Wilson, "A Recipe f ü r Of fe r ing Loaves Γ JEA 74 (1988): 214 -17 ; idem, "Pot-baked Bread," pp. 9 5 - 9 6 ; idem, Egyptian Food and Drink, pp. 14-15; Da rby et al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, pp . 5 0 9 - 1 2 ; Winlock, Models, p. 28; Vandie r , Manuel, 4: 273 74; Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials, pp. 15-16; Katz and Voigt, "Bread a n d Beer ," p. 30.

70 Vandie r , Manuel, 4: 286 88. T h e scene eited by Vand ie r comes f rom Giza. Cf. also Salch et al, Egyptian Museum Cairo, no. 59.

71 Cf. Wilson, Egyptian Food and Drink, pp. 14-15, and idem, "Pot-baked Bread," pp. 9 6 - 9 7 , with F. Filce Leek, "Fur ther Studies Conce rn ing Ancient Egyptian Bread,'5 J FA 59 (1973): 201-02 .

EGYPT I

but may have varied according to the type of mold being used. In the Old King-dom T o m b of Ti the dough being poured into bedja-molds seems quite liquid, but in the Middle Kingdom T o m b of Antefoker it appears much thicker and was apparently pre-shaped before being inserted into the conical molds.72 A recent study of starch residues in New Kingdom bread samples from Amarna and Deir el-Medina using scanning electron microscopy indicates that at least these particular examples were baked using a dough that was only coarsely kneaded and that was quite moist when baked.73

Once the dough was ready, it had to be formed into the desired shape and Types of breads and baked. Literary, epigraphic, and archaeological sources account for numerous pastries

8 kinds of Egyptian bread (PI. 8). Estimates range from twelve to fifteen different types of breads, cakes, biscuits, and pastries made during the Old Kingdom to between thirty and fifty for the New Kingdom.7 4 T h e identity and nature of some breads can be understood from finds of actual examples in tombs, while others are recognized solely from their forms represented in the paintings. Most, however, are recorded only in literary sources, and many of these are known by name alone. So, for example, among the breads found in the hieratic text of Papyrus Anastasi IV, a list of preparations for a Pharaoh's arrival, are listed ssrt-loaves, known from tomb paintings as a round loaf or cake, and krst, a "festival bread" called kyllestis-bread by the Greeks. This was probably a sour barely-cake, specifically mentioned by Herodotus, Hecataeus, and Nicander. O n the other hand, the exact nature of tt- and ^/-loaves, among others listed, remains a mystery.75

T h e differences among all these grain products undoubtedly revolve around type of flour used, shape and color of final product , method of baking, ingredi-ents, and religious or secular purpose.76 Bread could be made from barley or

72 Épron et al, Le Tombeau de Ti, Pl. LXVII7; Davies, Tomb of Antefoker, Pl. IX. 73 Delwan Samuel , "Investigation of Ancient Egyptian Baking and Brewing Methods by Cor-

relative Microscopy,1"Science 273 (26 Ju ly 1996): 489' 74 M a x Währen , Brot und Gebäck im Isben und Glauben der alten Ägypter (Bern: Schweizerischen

Archiv für Brot- und Gebäckkende Institut zur wissenschaftlichen Bearbeitung und Förderung der Brot- und Gebäckkunde, 1963), p. 55; Strouhal , Life of the Ancient Egyptians, p. 127; Henr i Wild, s.v. "Backen," LÀ, col. 594. Barry Kemp, considering various subcategories, has recently placed the number of New Kingdom breads and cakes as high as eighty-one! See K e m p et al, "Food for an Egyptian City," p. 146.

75 Ricardo A. Caminos , iMte-Egyptian Miscellanies (London: Oxford University Press, 1954), p. 199. Herodotus 2.77; Hecataeus and Nicander , in Athenenaeus 3.114.C-D. O n Kyllestis as a for-eign word, see K e m p et al, "Food for an Egyptian City," p. 146.

76 Pierre Monte t , Everyday Life in Egypt in the Days 0J Ramesses the Great. A. R. Maxwell-Hyslop and Margare t S. Drower, trans. (1958; reprint, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1981), p. 86; K e m p et al, "Food for an Egyptian City," p. 146.

CHAPTER THREE 1 2 0

emmer wheat.77 Some breads were soft; still others had fruits added before cook-ing. O n e example was composed of a layer of mashed dates between two layers of dough, while another was made from figs. Breads seem to differ most in shape, with round, oval, and triangular being the most prevalent. Round ones were sometimes scored to allow for the escape of gases during fermentation or baking. Flat, pancake-like bread occasionally had a raised edge, while others came a little thicker and with a central concavity, probably to receive a garnish when served and eaten. O the r forms included semicircles, indented squares, and cones. The last shape was made from molds and can be seen most often in paintings of bread-making activities, such as in the T o m b of Antefoker, or in the many scenes of offerings to the deceased or to the gods. In the latter instances, they appear most often sitting on tabletops, stylistically represented in blade-like fashion, as if the conical-shaped mold-baked bread has been cut in half length-wise. In the New Kingdom, breads also appear as long or round rolls and in ani-mal and human form, as in the T o m b of Rameses III (Fig. 10).78

Methods of baking T h e Egyptians baked bread in a number of different ways. T h e simplest, and bread probably the oldest, method was to preform the dough by hand, usually as a

round, flat pancake, and place it directly on ashes, as shown in the Old King-dom T o m b of Nianchchnum and Chnumho tep at Saqqara and the Middle Kingdom T o m b of Antefoker at Thebes.7 9 A second straightforward method, as seen in the T o m b of Khenty and represented by several servant statues, was to construct a simple open oven. O n top of a base formed by three stones erected on edge was placed another stone laid flat. T h e fire between the uprights turned the horizontal stone just above it into a hot griddle on which the dough could be placed.80 Exactly how the Egyptians created the fires to bake bread and to cook

77 According to Davies, the pa in t ing in the N e w K i n g d o m T o m b of Rekh-mi-rec shows cakes be ing m a d e f rom pulses, which, like grain, have been p o u n d e d , sieved, kneaded, and the dough placed into conical molds. See Davies, Tomb of Rekh-mi-repp. 4 3 - 4 4 , and Pis. X L I X L.

7H Sal ima Ikram, "Food for Eternity. W h a t the Ancient Egyptians Ate & Drank . Part 2: Greens , Bread, and Beer," KMT. A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt 5, no. 2 (Summer 1994): 57; Ludwig Borchardt , "Ein Brot ," £ĀS 6 ־7379 :(1932) 8 , esp. Taf . I l l ; J o h a n n e s Grüss, "Un te r -suchung von Broten aus der Ägyptischen S a m m l u n g der Staatl ichen Museen zu Berlin," in ibid., pp. 79 80; W ä h r e n , Brot und Gebäck, pp. 17 29; Da rby et al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, ])p. 515 26, esp. Figs. 12.12-14; St rouhal , Life of the Ancient Egyptians, p. 127; Wild, "Backen ," LÀ, cols. 5 9 5 - 9 6 ; Wilson, Egyptian Food and Drink, p. 15-18; a n d Samuel , "Ancient Egyptian Bread and Beer," p. 157. T h e interpreta t ion of bread in offering scenes in Middle Kingdom and later representat ions is not without some controversy. Sec Char les E. W o r s h a m , "A Reinterpre ta t ion of the So-called Bread Loaves in Egyptian Of fe r ing Scenes ," JARCE 16 (1979): 7 - 1 0 .

79 Moussa and Altenmüller , Das Grab des Nianchchnum und Chnumhotep, p. 153, and Ta f . 76; Davies, Tomb of Antefoker, p. 14, and Pl. VII I .

H0 Saleh, Three Old-Kingdom Tombs, Pl. 1 1 ( T o m b of Khenty); Breasted, Egyptian Servant Statues, pp. 28 -29 . See also Samuel , " T h e i r Staff of Life," p. 254; Wild, " B a c k e n , " / J , col. 596; D a r b y et

121 EGYPT II

is uncertain. O n e hint comes from hieroglyphs identified as "fire-drills" (Fig. 7). Better evidence comes from Middle Kingdom Kahun where excavators have uncovered a complete firestick apparatus, composed of a drill cap, wooden matrix, firestick, and how. Inserting one end of the firestick into a hole in the matrix and holding the drill cap firmly on the other while exerting downward pressure, the operator moved the bow horizontally back and forth to rotate the firestick. T h e friction generated sparks which would ignite any combustible material, such as leaves and twigs. How early this system of fire making began is unknown, but hieroglyphs of the fire drill appear as early as the First and Sec-ond Dynasties (Fig. 7: U28).81

The most frequently represented method of forming and baking bread Bread molds

involved bread molds. Bread baked in terracotta molds appeared as early as the beginning of the Old Kingdom, and their use may have extended back into the late Predynastic period. T h e frequent appearance of these hand-formed vessels has been taken by one scholar to indicate increasing social and state complexity at this early date.82 T h e obvious advantage of molds is that they facilitate baking in large quantities and provide some degree of standardization of size or weight. Used throughout the Old Kingdom, these early molds, called bedja (bbd.?), were rather thick containers measuring 1323־ cm. high, 18-25 cm. in diameter, 7 -14 cm. deep, and weighing between ca. 3.30 kg. and 6.50 kg. Rough on the exteri-or they were coated on the interior with thin fine-grained clay. Found in houses they probably represent the common container for baking daily bread. They are also depicted in Old Kingdom tombs, such as the Tombs of Ti, of Nianchch-num and Chnumhotep , and of Rec-em-Kuy (Fig. 8) in Saqqara and the T o m b

9 of Asa at Deir el-Gebrawi, and by various servant statues (PI. 9).83 T o judge

al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, Fig. 12.6; Vandier , Manuel, 4: 274; Ludwig Borchardt , "Die Dienerstat-uen aus den G r ä b e r n des alten Reiches," £ Ä S 35 (1897): 124 (No. 240); and Ursula Verhoeven , Grillen, Kochen, Backen im Alltag und im Ritual Altägyptens. Ein Lexikographischer Beitrag. Rites Egyptiens IV (Brussells: Fondat ion Egyptologique Reine Elisabeth, 1984), pp. 155-68.

H1 Hilda Petrie, Egyptian Hieroglyphs of the First and Second Dynasties (London: Quar t i ch , 1927), nos. 8 3 1 - 3 4 , and Gard ine r , Egyptian Grammar, p. 519 (U 28). Forbes (Studies, 3: 58) notes that Egyptian texts refer to a "br inger of the flame w h o rubs the drill." For the fire-drill at K a h u n , see A. R. David, The Pyramid Builders of Ancient Egypt. A Modem Investigation of Pharaoh's Workforce (London: Rout ledge & Kegan Paul, 1986), pp . 151-52.

82 Wenke , "Evolution of Early Egyptian Civilization," p. 307; T h o m a s von de r W a y , "Investi-gâtions Conce rn ing the Early Periods in the Nor the rn Delta of Egypt," in The Archaeology of the Nile Delta, Egypt: Problems and Priorities (Amsterdam: Ne ther lands Foundat ion for Archaeological Research in Egypt, 1988), p. 247; Michael C h a z e n a n d M a r k Lehner , "An Ancient Analogy: Pot Baked Bread in Ancient Egypt and Mesopo tamia , " Paléorient 16, no. 2 (1990): 27.

83 C h a z a n and Lehner , "An Ancient Analogy," pp. 21 -35 ; N o r m a n de Gar is Davies, The Rock Tombs of Deir El Gebrawi. Part II. Tomb of ^'au and Tombs of the Northern Group (London: Egypt Explo-ration Fund, 1902), pp. 2 5 - 2 6 , and Pl. X X ; Breasted, Egyptian Servant Statues, pp. 27 29, PI.

CHAPTER THREE 1 2 2

from paintings, a rather fluid dough was poured into the flat-bottomed "flower pot-shaped" bowl that had been preheated. A conical-shaped lid was then placed on top, and the bread allowed to bake without further heat. 111 this sense, the covered mold served as its own self-contained oven. T h e large mouths would have assisted in extracting the baked bread, but the molds may have been tem-pered with grease to create something akin to a non-stick surface.84 T h e bread was extracted by removing the lid, using sticks, if necessary, to separate the bread from the sides of the mold, and turning the bottom bowl over onto a flat surface to allow the bread to fall out.

Fourth-Dynasty Recent archaeological excavations near the pyramids of Giza supplement the bakeries of Giza art historical evidence for baking bedja-bread. South of the pyramids and near a

large rectangular structure, denoted the "Pedestal Building" and tentatively identified as a granary, excavators have uncovered a series of twelve bakeries abutting against a second large mudbrick edifice. T o judge from finds of fish remains, this second building appears to have been devoted to food processing.85

Evidence of recovered seals date this complex to the Fourth-Dynasty reign of Menkaure. Each bakery, measuring ca. 17 ft. in diameter and 8 ft. wide, con-tained broken bread-molds ranging up to 14 in. in diameter and 14 in. deep, a hearth for heating the molds, and three vats that probably contained the sepa-rate materials used to make the dough: water, flour, and ferment. O n e bakery contained a fourth vat that may have served for kneading the dough. A low wall surrounding the interior of the rooms provided storage and workspace. The rooms also contained a trench that had once accommodated a double row of pots in which the bread was baked. According to experiments carried out on a replica pat terned after the Giza bakeries, the dough, made with both emmer wheat and barley, was placed into bread molds that were then inserted into a shallow trench and surrounded by hot coals. T h e lids, heated in a hearth, were placed on top of the molds. T h e result was an edible bread loaf that was large, rather heavy, and capable of feeding several people. T h e excavator suggests that liquid dough that had been allowed to ferment for a while would probably have produced a lighter product.8 6 T h e context of the bakery and food processing building, whether an a t tachment to some great household yet to be discovered or part of the workmen's village, remains to be determined.

2 8 a - b . Th i s bread mold is denoted T y p e Λ in Helen J a c q u e t - G o r d o n , "A Tenta t ive Typology of Egyptian Bread Moulds ," in Studien zur altägyptischen Keramik. D o r o t h e a Arnold, ed. (Mainz am Rhe in : Philipp von Zabc rn , 1981), pp. 11-12. See also Wild, "Backen," LÀ, col. 595.

84 C h a z a n and Lehner , "An Ancient Analogy," p. 29. 85 Zahi Hawass and M a r k Lehner , "Builders of the Pyramids ," Archaeology 50, no. 1 (Jan.-Feb.

1997): 30 -38 . 86 M a r k Lchner , "Repl ica t ing an Ancient Bakery," Archaeology 50, no. 1 (Jan.-Feb. 1997): 36.

1 2 3 EGYPT II

Between the Old and Middle Kingdoms the bread mold underwent alter- Conical bread molds

ation. Now longer than the bedja-mold, it was conical in shape, incapable of standing on its own, and had thin walls. This last characteristic would have ren-dcred it less capable of retaining heat and so less likely to have been preheated. Width-to-height ratios varied from 2:5 to 1:5. Those found at Merimda in the Delta, for example, had internal measurements that would have produced bread measuring ca. 20 cm. tall and 68־ cm. wide."7 The baking scene from the T o m b of Antefoker shows women molding thick dough into a conical shape to be placed into the similarly shaped bread mold. Nearby is a low hearth on top of which have been placed molds. Apparently the bread mold was heated in the fire to bake the bread.88 The molds, usually from nine to thirteen at a time, are piled in layers lying head-to-foot one atop the other. T h e lire was lit and the dough baked. Servant statues and paintings in tombs representing this particular process frequently show a man or woman squatting nearby and tending the lire. He holds his hand to his face to shield it from the heat.89 After the bread had cooked and then been allowed to cool, the molds were removed from the stack one at a time and the bread extracted. Removal of the bread from the slender narrow-mouthed mold would have been rather difficult unless the interior sur-face had been tempered with grease before baking. Consequently, many were probably broken to extract the bread. The expendable nature of these easily made conical molds, however, can be seen in the numerous fragments of bread molds that are strewn over various sites, for example Middle Kingdom Merimde and, particularly later, New Kingdom Amarna.9 0

A trough-shaped mold was also found at Merimda. It had a fiat bottom with a Trough-shaped bread

diameter, in at least one example, reaching 60 cm. Its use is uncertain, but it mold

may have been an oven-cover of the type shown in the T o m b of Antefoker from Thebes. Here the cover is being placed on top of a horizontal slab, or bake-stone, which is being heated by a fire placed underneath.9 1

87 C h a z a n and Lehner , "An Ancient Analogy," p. 27; Larsen, " O n Baking in Egypt ," p. 54. 88 Larsen, " O n Baking in E g y p t / ' pp. 5155־ ; Samuel , " T h e i r StaiT of Life," pp. 254-55 , cont ra

Wild, "Backen," LA, col. 595. For conical molds, see also Newberry , Beni Hasan, 1 : Pl. XII (Tomb of A m e n e m h e t , XI I Dynasty); Davies, Tomb of Antefoker. Pl. XI IA; Winlock, Models, PI. 65, no. 12 (basket of b read from model of bakery-brewery f rom the T o m b of Meket-re). Middle Kingdom conical bread molds constitute Types Β and C of J a c q u e t - G o r d o n ' s typology. See J acque t -Gor -don , "Tenta t ive Typology, '5 pp. 12-19, Figs. 4—5.

89 Ka te Bosse-Griffiths, "A Baker 's Posture ," JEA 59 (1973): 219-20 ; Vandier , Manuel, 4: 275; Breasted, Egyptian Semant Statues, Fig. 28; Davies, Tomb of Antefoker, Pl. XIB.

90 Wilson, "Pot-Baked Bread in Ancient Egypt ," pp. 87 -91 ; Larsen, " O n Baking in Egypt ," p. 52.

91 Larsen, " O n Baking in Egypt ," pp. 5 1 - 5 7 , and Fig. 9; Davies, Tomb of Antefoker, Pl. IXA; Wil-son, "Pot-Baked Bread in Ancient Egypt ," pp. 94~95.

CHAPTER THREE 1 2 4

Although the width-to-height ratios of New Kingdom molds ranged from 2:5 to 1:5, the length tended to vary considerably, from 10 cm. to 30 cm. They are found primarily in temple environments, occasionally in tombs, but apparently not in private houses, except at Amarna.9 2 Excavators have uncovered bread molds and ovens at Amarna both in private homes in the workmen's village and in the main site near the Great and Small Aten temples. A new type of mold, found thus far only in Chapel 556 in the workmen's village at Amarna, is hemi-spherical in shape and characterized by the presence on the base of a projection, or "toe." Barry K e m p also detected this feature on bread molds illustrated in a painting from the T o m b of Ken-amun at Thebes.9 3

Food processing at The intense excavations conducted at Amarna throughout the twentieth cen-Amarna tury makes it one of the best archaeological sites at which to study the baking

process in the New Kingdom. This fact has recently sparked the creation of a project designed specifically to recover and plot artifacts relevant to bread and beer production in the city and to conduct experiments to understand better the technological processes employed. A survey of over 700 mortars and quern emplacements shows that many were associated with private houses as well as with large buildings connected with nearby temples. This was particularly the case in the workmen's village, located less than a mile from the main city. Here mortars and querns are common artifacts found in houses.94 Grain was ground either in a courtyard or small room at the front of the house, and bread was baked in a small round oven located in the kitchen sited to the rear of the house or in a small domed room in the courtyard separate f rom the main house. The wives and female children usually did most of the grinding and baking; in work-men's villages, such as at Amarna and Deir el-Medina, however, the govern-ment sometimes provided female slaves to relieve the workmen's wives from this onerous task. Grinding of grain associated with temples was no doubt entirely performed by temple slaves.95 Kitchens may also have been sited on the roof of

92 J a c q u e t - G o r d o n ("Tentat ive Typology,5 ' pp . 19-21), w h o classifies this mold as T y p e D , notes its f requent appea rance a m o n g temple foundat ion deposits, such as at Deir el-Bahari, El K a b , and Karnak .

93 Barry J . K e m p , "Prel iminary Repor t on the El-1 A m a r n a Survey, 1978," JE-1 65 (1979): 10; Davies, Tomb of Ken-amun, Pl. LVIII; P a m e l a J . Rose, "Description of the Bread Moulds , " in Amar-na Reports IV, pp ־7677 . , esp. Figs. 6.6 -6.8

94 Samuel , "Cerea l Food Processing in Ancient Egypt,55 p. 157; idem, "The i r Staff of Life," pp. 253 -90 .

Evidence of "Soul Houses,55 models of houses that apparent י•9 ly had been placed on the g round above the grave of the deceased and that reflect the appea rance of the ordinary Egyptian house of the late Middle Kingdom, may indicate that this held true earlier as well. Figurines of w o m e n gr inding grain begin at this time to be included in these models. T h e y particularly appea r placed in the cour tyard beneath the stairs leading up to the roof where domed granaries were

1 2 5 EGYPT II

the usually one-story structures. In the city, houses of the prosperous population had a similar design, but were larger and usually had one or more circular brick granaries, ca. 3.50 m. in diameter, located to the rear of the house.96

In the annex to Chapel 556 in the workmen's village near Amarna excavators Ovens

found two types of oven. T h e first, a "box oven," apparently operated as a kiln to make bread molds. An experimental replica based on the one found in the annex was able to reach a temperature of 540° C within twelve minutes. The second type of oven, round in shape, served to bake bread which was used in rit-ual meals served in the chapel.97 T h e combination of a box and round oven found in the same establishment, as in the annex to Chapel 556, is likewise seen in the wooden bakery-brewery model f rom the T o m b of Meket-re (Fig. 9).9ί!

T h e round ovens are of two general types. O n e is a free-standing clay oven liner, such as that found in the annex of Chapel 556; the other is a ceramic liner encased in mud-brick, illustrated by the one discovered in a room in the Main Chapel of the workmen's village.99 T h e interior diameter of the former oven measured ca. 29 cm. T h e top was open to the sky, while at the bottom there was a small hole to stoke and feed the fire inside.100 An experimental replica based on the encased oven from the Main Chapel was used to bake bread in molds formed in imitation of ancient ones. Filled with dough the replica molds were

installed. See YV. M . Flinders Petrie, Gizeh and Rifeh (London: British School of Archaeology in Egypt, 1907), pp. 14-20, esp. Pis. X V I I I , no. 118, and X I X , no. 43, X X I I ; N o r m a n de Gar is Davies, " T h e T o w n House in Ancient Egypt ," MMS 1 (1928-29): 2 4 9 - 5 0 . For government -pro-vided female workers, see Morr i s Bierbricr, The Tomb-Builders of the Pharaohs (1982; reprint edition, Cairo: T h e Amer ican University in Ca i ro Press, 1989), pp. 70 -71 .

96 K e m p et al, "Food for an Egyptian City," pp. 149-51; J o h n D. Cooney , Amarna Reliefs from Hermopolis in American Collections (New York: T h e Brooklyn M u s e u m , 1965), pp. 73-74 . For a dis-cussion of the Egyptian house and its a r r angemen t , especially at Thebes , see Davies, " T o w n House in Ancient Egypt ," pp. 233 55. For the A m a r n a house, see K e m p , Ancient Egypt, pp . 2 9 4 - 3 0 5 , and Ian Shaw, "Ideal H o m e s in Ancient Egypt: the Archaeology of Social Aspira t ion," CArchJ 2, no. 2 (1992): 147-66.

97 Paul T . Nicholson, "Exper imenta l De te rmina t ion of the Purpose of a 'Box O v e n ' , " Amarna Reports V. Barry J . K e m p , ed. (London: T h e Egypt Explorat ion Society, 1989), pp. 241 52. O n the funct ion of private chapels a n d their annexes, sec Ann H. B o m a n n , The Private Chapel in Ancient Egypt. A Study of the Chapels in the Workmen 's Village at El Amarna with Special Reference to Deir el Medina and Other Sites (London: Kegan Paul Internat ional , 1991), pp . 57 79.

9H Barry J . K e m p , "Repor t on the 1986 Excavations. Chape l 556," in Amarna Reports V, pp . 6 3 - 7 6 ; Winlock, Models, pp. 2 7 - 2 9 , esp. Plates 22, 23, 64, a n d 65.

99 Lisa He idorn , "Repor t on the 1986 Excavations. T h e Comple t ion of the Main Chape l and Fur ther Examina t ion of Animal Pens 300," in Amanta Reports IV, p. 56.

10(1 K e m p , "Repor t on the 1986 Excavations. Chape l 556 ," p. 73. Wild ("Backen,"·Li, col. 597) gives exterior dimensions of circular ovens generally as 0.75 m. in d iameter at the base, narrow-ing to ca. 0.50 m. at the top. T h e height reaches ca. 0 .75 m. T h e example of a cylindrical oven housed in the Staatliches M u s e u m in Berlin measures 61 cm. high. See W ä h r e n , Brot und Gebäck, p. 21, Abb. 6.

CHAPTER THREE 1 2 6

Bread-making tables

Dough cakes in circular strainer or screen

Fermentation vat

Mixing tray

g Walls removed for perspective

Fig. 9. Drawing of the bakery-brewery model from the Twelfth-Dynasty T o m b of Meket-re at Thebes. Based on Kemp, Ancient Egypt, p. 121, Fig. 42. Courtesy of Routledge.

1 2 7 EGYPT II

placed around the interior of the test oven and baked to over 600" C for forty-six minutes. After cooling, the mold had to be broken to extract the intact bread loaf.101

Paintings from the Tombs of Rameses III (Fig. 10) and of Ken-amun indicate that flat breads were also baked in round ovens. T h e baker shown in the paint-ing from the latter tomb seems clearly to be removing bread from inside the oven, but in the illustration of the court bakery in the T o m b of Rameses III the dough appears to have been placed on the outside of the oven to bake. Although Erman, apparently accepting this scene as an accurate representation, believes the dough was placed on the outside, recent scholars, citing methods used in tannur ovens in modern Arab countries, argue that the bread was baked by arranging the dough along the curved wall inside the oven.102 W h a t appears to be dough attached to the exterior of the oven is most likely an artistic conven-tion to indicate to the viewer the bread baking on the inside of the oven and so hidden from view.

Houses and bakery-brewery establishments were not the only place where Kitchen boats

beer and bread could be made. T h e Middle Kingdom T o m b of Meket-re has also yielded models of boats, two of which were kitchen boats. They may rcpre-sent two different boats that accompanied the vizier on his river travels to pro-vide him and his attendants with food. But since one boat (designated "S" by Winlock) illustrates bread-making while the other (Model "R") shows beer pro-duction, and, keeping in mind the close relationship of these two activities else-where, the boats may actually represent two aspects of a single tender. 103 Out-side the cabin of Model S two women grind grain into flour, four men mix dough and shape it into bread, and one man kneads dough in a vat while anoth-er tends the oven. T h e oven, tall and square in shape, resembles the box ovens shown in the bakery-brewery model and those found in the workmen's village at Amarna. Inside the cabin one man kneads dough in a vat with his feet while simultaneously shaping dough into bread; other men arc shaping dough into bread as well. All these activities recall scencs in tomb paintings and models of

101 Samuel , " T h e i r Staff of Life," pp. 270 -77 . 102 Exterior of the oven: Adolf E r m a n , Life in Ancient Egypt. H. M . T i r a r d , trans. (London:

Macmi l lan and Co. , 1894), p. 191; and Wilson, Egyptian Food and Drink, p. 13, Fig. 10. Interior of the oven: Samuel , " T h e i r Staff of Life," p. 255, esp. Fig. 12.1; Wild, "Backen," LÀ, col. 597; Dar -by et al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, p. 512, and Figs. 12. 8a-b. Storck and T e a g u e (Flour, p. 69, Fig. 35) believe that the oven shown in the T o m b of Rameses III had shelves on the inside on which the dough was placed to bake. Cf. also the pa in t ing f rom the T o m b of N e b a m u n dat ing to the reign of Thu tmos i s III, in Wal te r Wreszinski, Atlas zur altägyptischen Kulturgeschichte (Leipzig: J . C. Hin-richs'sche Buchhand lung , 1923), Taf . 125. For t a n n u r ovens, see below, C h a p t e r Five, p. 207.

Winlock, Models, pp גסי . 5 7 - 5 9 , 9 6 - 9 7 , Pis. 4 0 - 4 4 , 75-76 ; Hayes, Scepter of Egypt, 1: 269. Model R resides in the museum in Cairo , while the Metropol i tan M u s e u m houses Model S.

CHAPTER THREE 128

\ | > י י י

Fig. 10. Bakery scene from T o m b of Rameses III. After I. Rosellini, I Monument! dell Egitto e della Nubia (Pisa, 1834), II, Pl. LXXXV. From Darby et al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, Fig. 12.14. Courtesy of Academic Press.

1 2 9 EGYPT II

bakeries and artifacts from archaeological excavation in workmen's villages and elsewhere. Wha t makes the kitchen boat unusual is that both querns on which the women grind the grain and the box oven used to bake the bread are portable. Ra ther than the broad base of the dual querns shown in the bakery-brewery model, these are single querns raised on a platform supported by four legs. T h e oven rests on a similar number of legs. Baking and brewing aboard ship on long journeys was probably not uncommon. Sinuhe, an exile during the reign of the Twelfth-Dynasty pharaoh Sesostris 1, for example, comments that on his trip back to Egypt from Syria, "I set sail, with kneading and brewing beside me, until I reached the harbour of Itj-tawi."104

T o this point discussion of baking has centered on paintings, models, and Large-scale baking

sculpted reliefs illustrating scenes of small-scale bakeries. Methods used in these establishments consist either of a small fire to bake bread on coals or to heat bed-

jfi-molds, or a few conical molds placed in a fire or oven, or a small oven around whose interior walls Hat breads were placed for baking. How did the Egyptians feed large populations? Old Kingdom bakeries recently excavated near the Giza pyramids and Middle Kingdom bakeries connected to wealthy households act-ing as distribution centers, such as at Kahun , or associated with military forts, as at Uronart i , have been previously remarked upon. Numerical evidence provided by the bakery records of Seti I at Memphis and archaeological discoveries of bakeries near palaces at Malkata and Deir el-Ballas provide information on New Kingdom establishments.105 T h e best site in which to study the physical remains of large-scale, state-run bakeries, however, is Amarna , a city built, occupied, and abandoned within a space of less than twenty years. Not built over subsequently, the remains allow investigation of the entire city. T h e royal palace, temples, and administrative buildings made up the Central City, to the north and south of which lay houses of all social classes. Outside the city to the south were various shrines, while to the east was the workmen's village.106 Large institutional bak-erics have come to light in the Central City near the Large and Small Aten tem-pies.

Near the Great Aten temple lay a building complex composed of a series of up to 110 separate baking chambers measuring ca. 11 m. χ 14 m. In the rear of each of these vaulted rooms was located from one to three oven installations

104 Trans la t ion f rom R. B. Parkinson, The Tale of Sinuhe and Other Ancient Egyptian Poems, 1940-1640 BC (Oxford: C la rendon Press, 1997), p. 39.

105 Peter Lacovara , The New Kingdom Royal City (London: Kegan Paul International , 1997), p. 46, and Figs. 6 and 21 ; Hawass and Lehner , "Builders of the Pyramids ," pp . 30 -38 ; Spalinger, "Baking D u r i n g the Reign of Seti I," pp . 307 -52 .

106 K e m p et al, "Food for an Egyptian City," pp. 136-38, esp. p. 135, Fig. 14.1.

CHAPTER THREE 1 3 0

composed of cylindrical interiors measuring ca. 60 cm. in diameter and set into a brick bcnch. At the bot tom was a small hole to allow a draft while lighting the oven. The re were also a few square ovens built of mud-brick. /VII total, the bak-ery comprised between 200 and 300 ovens. T h e estimated daily bread-produc-ing capacity, assuming the efficient use of 200 ovens for five bakings each day, comes to over 20,000 loaves per day.11)7 Thei r active use is suggested by numer-ous bread molds found scattered throughout the building and deposited in a d u m p outside the city.1"8

T h e operation of these bakery complexes — the one near the Small Aten tem-pie is a smaller version of the one near the large temple — can perhaps best be understood from a sculpted relief from Amarna , but found reused at Hermopo-lis, showing what appears to be the interior of two domed bakeries erected side-by-side (PI. 10).109 T h e baker on the left seems to be placing a bread pan on (removing it from?) the top of an oven; round bread loaves can be seen on a shelf to his rear. 111 the second bakery, a man, shielding his face from the heat of the oven, prepares bread in molds, some of which appear to be stacked vertical-ly in the oven. Although not represented here, working with these ovens was not without its dangers. A New Kingdom hieratic papyrus, which purports to be the boasting of a scribe about the superiority of his profession, offers this warning to anyone who might wish to be a baker:110

The baker regularly bakes and puts bread onto the fire, his head being inside the oven and his son holding fast his feet. In the event of slipping from his son's hand he thereby falls down into the oven's bottom. Be the scribe, he is ahead of all man-ner of work in this world.

Since, as the Amarna relief and many paintings and servant statues show, the lire was undoubtedly hot enough to require the shielding of one's face, the image of a baker actually getting into the oven, even if only partially, is clearly an exaggeration. Although bakers are often enough shown 111 paintings reaching into a, presumably, cool oven to retrieve the bread,111 the precarious maneuver described by the scribe is, to my knowledge, unattested in any painting, sculp-turc, or model.

107 Ibid., pp . 147-48. 108 Ibid., pp. 147-48; idem, "Pre l iminary Repor t on the E l - c Amarna Survey, 1978," pp. 5 - 1 2 . 109 Cooney , Amarna Reliefs, pp. 73 -74 ; Cyril Aldred, Akhenaten and JVefertiti (New York: Brooklyn

M u s e u m , 1973), no. 69. 110 Q u o t e d in Caminos , Late Egyptian Miscellanies, pp . 5 0 - 5 6 , repeated f rom a different papyrus

on pp. 3 1 7 - 3 1 9 . 111 So, for example , the T o m b s of K e n - a m u n (Davies, Tomb of Ken-amun, Pl. LVIII) and of

Rameses III (Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, 2: 385).

131 EGYPT II

T h e Amarna relief shows two general types of bread being produced, flat breads and mold-formed breads. T h e former was probably used primarily for consumption, while the latter especially served ceremonial purposes. 112 T h e fact that the king's house with its large granary and the bakeries lay side-by-side between the Great and Small Aten temples emphasizes the centrality of the king who ceremoniously distributed rations to his officials.113 It is worth noting, how-ever, that, to accommodate the need for large quantities of bread for both secu-lar and religious purposes, the ancient Egyptians, preferring what they knew best to the innovation of a new, more efficient solution, constructed not a single large bakery with huge ovens, but a series of small ovens each with a limited capacity. Barry Kemp concludes,

This cellular approach to a large-scale operation oilers a paradigm for the whole ancient system. It was a system based on a ready supply of cheap labour. This is why we can say that in organization the ancient Egyptians could be very effective, but we cannot say that they were at all efficient.

T h e appearance of two breweries in an incomplete register above the two bak-eries on the Amarna relief implies that the same condition held true for beer production as well.114

b. Beer Production Beer preparation involves a more complex process than making bread.115 Beer is Chemistry of beer

the end product of a two-step process in which barley, soaked in water, germi- making

nates to produce amylolytic enzymes, which break clown the starches of the grain into sugars (maltose). These, in turn, undergo fermentation through the action of yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), which produces other enzymes, particu-larly zymase, which convert the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide. T h e first step in this process is malting. Barley grains are soaked in water, traditional-ly for a period of two or three days, followed by a day of drying to initiate germi-nation, or the sprouting of roots. Then follows a lengthy period of from one to

112 K e m p , Ancient Egypt, p. 289. K e m p notes that b read molds are rarely found in residential sections of the city.

113 K e m p , Ancient Egypt, p. 288; idem, " "Food for an Egyptian City," p. 141, Fig. 14.4. 114 K e m p , Ancient Egypt, pp. 2 8 9 - 9 1 , esp. p. 291. See also Cooney , Amarna Reliefs, pp. 73 -74 ,

and Aldred, Akhenaten and Nefertiti, no. 69. 115 Haro ld M c G e e , On Food and Cooking. The Science and Lore of the Kitchen (New York: Char les

Scribner 's Sons, 1984), pp. 466 -81 ; W . A. Hardwick , " T h e Brewing of Beer ," in Fernented Food Beverages in Nutrition. Clifford F. Gast ineau, Will iam J . Darby , and T h o m a s B. T u r n e r , eds. (New York: Academic Press, 1979), pp. 133-40; E. Neige T o d h u n t c r , "A Historical Perspective on Fer-menta t ion Biochemistry and Nutr i t ion ," in ibid., pp ־8398 . ; and Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials, pp. 10-16.

CHAPTER THREE 1 3 2

three weeks during which the barley, having been piled to a depth of ca. six inches and stirred daily, dries in the sun at a constant temperature of ca. 15° C. In antiquity this necessarily restricted malting to the cooler parts of the year, usually October to April. The resulting material is called "green malt." T h e malt is then piled up to raise the temperature to a maximum of ca. 38 ' C., a temperature that kills the rootlets of the sprouting cereals arresting the enzymat-ic activity and halting further germination. Consequently, the enzymes (diastase) present in the aleurone surrounding the endosperm, which would otherwise begin to decline over time, remain at a high level. T h e malt can then, if desired, be roasted in an oven to "cure" it. T h e degree of kilning affects the flavor and color of the beer eventually produced. T h e higher the temperature, usually 80° C. and above, the deeper the color and stronger the taste. T h e malt can be stored for months, then ground in preparation for use in beer making."6

The second step, brewing proper, comprises three stages. T h e first stage, mashing, includes crushing the malt, perhaps mixing in some unmalted grain, and soaking it in a vat (tun) of hot water to reactivate the enzymes and to con-vert most of the starch to sugar, particularly maltose and glucose. T h e second stage entails lautering, or straining, the mixture to extract the clear liquid, called wort, which is then boiled and allowed to cool. T h e modern brewer then would have added hops, an ingredient unknown before the fourteenth century A. D. During the final stage the brewer adds yeast to the liquid and allows it to stand while fermentation, the conversion of sugars to alcohol and carbon dioxide, takes place. He then decants the beer into containers for storage and shipment.

Modem bouza Perhaps the best way to understand not only how the ancient Egyptians made beer and how that relates to bread-making — but also what that beer looked like is to review how modern Egyptians make a local brew, which apparently has been produced in Egypt for centuries. In the early 19th century J o h n Burch-hardt traveled to Nubia and, among other sights seen, describes how the inhabi-tants made a concoction that they called, and is still denoted today, bouza.uy

This beer-like drink has also been made the object of several scientific studies.118

116 M c G e e , On I-'ood and Cooking, pp. 4 7 0 - 7 3 ; Marv in A. Powell, " M e t r o n Ariston: Measure as a Tool for Studying Beer in Ancient Mesopo tamia , " in Drinking in Ancient Societies, pp. 9 4 - 9 6 ; Katz

and Voigt, "Bread and Beer ," p. 30; Hardwick , "Brewing of Beer," p. 134; Stahl, "Plant-food Processing," pp. 179-80.

" 7 J o h n Lewis Burckhardt , Travels in Nubia. 2nd ed. (London: John Mur ray , 1822), pp. 132-33, 201 202.

118 Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials, p. 11; Sabry R. Morcos , S. M . Hegazi , and Soraya T . El-D a m h o u g y , "Fe rmen ted Foods of C o m m o n Use in Egypt. II. T h e Chemica l Composi t ion of Bouza a n d its Ingredients ," 'Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 24 ( 1973): 1 157-61 ; a n d Keith H . Steinkraus, "Nutri t ionally Significant Indigenous Foods Involving an Alcoholic Fermenta-t ion," in Fermented Food Beverages in Nutrition, pp . 35 59.

1 3 3 EGYPT II

Wheat , less often barley or millet, is coarsely ground, mixed with water and yeast, kneaded, and formed into dough. T h e thick loaves are only partially baked to avoid killing the yeast. After breaking up the loaves, water and some moistened wheat, which has previously been allowed to stand in the open air for three to five days (that is, malted) and then coarsely ground, are added and the entire mixture allowed to ferment in a wooden barrel for twenty-four hours. A little bouza from a previous batch can be added to hasten the process. T h e mix-turc is then strained and any solid pieces of bread and grain are pressed by hand on a sieve to extract any remaining liquid. T h e resulting beer, ready for immedi-ate consumption, is rather thick and pale-yellow, having a sour, but agreeable, taste and an alcohol content ranging between four and seven per cent, depend-ing upon the length of the fermentation process. Perhaps as much as sixteen per cent of the liquid by weight is solid material not extracted through sieving. With modern production methods and products in mind we can now turn to ancient methods of beer making:.

Zosimos, an Egyptian from Panopolis in Upper Egypt of the late third or ear- </«״»״.« and beer

ly fourth century A. D., has left a short description of beer-making (Περί Ζύθων preparation

Ποιήσεως) in Egypt during the R o m a n period:119

Taking some white, clean, good-quality barley soak it for a day, then draw it off, or even lay it out in a windless place until early the next day and again soak it for five hours. Throw it into a perforated vessel with a handle and soak it. Dry it until il becomes like a lump. And when it becomes so, dry it in the sun until it falls. The dough (?) is pungent. Further, grind (it) and make loaves, adding leaven just as for bread. Bake (them) partially and when they turn light dissolve [them inj fresh water and strain (them) through a strainer or fine sieve. Others baking bread

1,9 T h e textual reading as well as how it is to be translated a n d unders tood present problems. Cf. , e. g., the Greek text given by Ch . G. G r u n e r (^psimi Panopolitani de Zythorum confectionefrogmen-tum [Sulzbach, 1814]) and the (English) translation of Lutz (Viticulture and Brewing, pp . 78 79, and note 3) with that (including a French translation) of M . Berthelot (Collection des Anciens Alchimistes Grecs. 3 Vols. [Paris: Georges Steinheil, 1887], 3: 372, 356). Cf. also the English translation of Lucas (Ancient Egyptian Materials, p. 14), w h o does not provide an ancient text. With one slight modif icat ion, 1 have adopted the Greek text given by Franz Olck, s. v. "Bier ," R E 3 (1899): col. 459, which agrees closely with that of Berthelot: Περί Zú0cov Ποιήσεως· Λαβών κριθην λευκην καθαρίαν καλήν βρέξον ήμέραν μίαν και ανάσπασον ή και κοίτασον έν ανηνέμω (ανειμένω) τόπω εως πρωΐ, καί πάλιν βρέξον ώρας πέντε· επίβαλε εις βραχιώνιον αγγειον ήθμοειδές και βρέχε· προανα-ξήρανε εως ού γένηται ώς τίλη (τύλη) · και ύτιγένηται ψύξον έν ήλίψ εωςού πέση, το μάλιον γαρ πικρόν · λοιπόν άλεσον καί ποίησον άρτους προσβάλλων ζύμην ώσπερ (προς) άρτον· και οπτα οψότερον και οταν έπανθώσιν διάλυε (εις) ΰδωρ γλυκύ καί ήθμιζε δια ίθμού ή κοσκινού λεπτού - άλλοι δε όπτώντες άρτους βάλλουσιν εις κλουβόν μετά ύδατος καί έψούσι μικρόν, ϊ να μη κοχλάστ! μήτε ןץ χ λ ι α ρ ο ν καί ανασπώσι καί ήθμ ί ζουσ ιν και περισκεπάσαντες (περισκευάσαντες) θερμαίνουσι καί ανακρίνουσιν (ανακλίνουσιν). I wish to thank my colleague, Bob Harr is , for his suggestions a n d enl ightening conversations over how to interpret the Greek text.

CHAPTER THREE 1 3 4

t h r o w t h e m i n t o a vessel a l o n g w i t h w a t e r a n d boi l it a l i t t le , so t h a t it n e i t h e r f r o t h s n o r is it l u k e w a r m . A n d t h e y d r a w it u p a n d s t r a in it. A n d h a v i n g c o v e r e d it t h e y h e a t it a n d lay it a s i d e .

T h e malting described by Zosimos (lines 1-6) recalls that for making modern bouza, as does also the fermentation and sieving of the material (lines 6-9). T h e process of adding yeast to the dough and only partially baking the bread also agrees with modern bouza making. T h e last part (lines 9-13) seems to be a quick way to make a beer that was probably not very alcoholic. But are we any closer to understanding the Pharaonic Egyptian method of making beer?

Problems inherent in interpreting bread making from tomb paintings apply as well to beer preparation, as do also the caveats. A case in point is the painted relief from the Fifth-Dynasty mastaba of Kaemrehu at Saqqara.1 2 0 Beer and bread making appear in one horizontal register. Near the center three people pound grain in a deep mortar . T h e scene to the right shows bread-making activ-ity (represented in order f rom left to right): forming dough to fit molds, sifting, grinding on a quern, kneading, and heating molds over a fire. T o the left of the three pounders is a beer-making scene (reading right to left): sifting, forming dough to fit molds, expressing liquid from the beer-bread through a strainer into a vat, adding water to flour to make dough, preparing jars to receive the beer, scaling jars after having filled them with beer. It is conceivable that all this activ-ity occurs in a single location, as shown in the bakery-brewery model from the T o m b of Meket-re (Fig. 9). T h e bread being baked at the far right of the register may have been prepared for the beer-making represented to the left of the three pounders. Nevertheless, Hour sifting, dough-making, and loaf-forming are shown both to the left and to the right of the mortar-pestle scene.121 It seems clear then that, as in bread-making scenes in other tomb paintings, 110 attempt has been made in the mastaba of Kaemrehu to show the steps in brewing in their proper sequence. Unfortunately, the ancient Egyptians have left no descriptions in writing of their beer-making process from which we can order the steps. Wooden models, servant statues, and tomb paintings and reliefs have often been recognized as illustrating various steps similar to those described in post-pharaonic and modern recipes for making beer. We are left then to try to construct f rom these sources a logical sequence followed by the ancient brewers. 111 addition, scientific analysis of the few remains of actual materials used in the

Ancient beer making

from art historical

and archaeological

evidence

120 Saleh et al, Egyptian Museum Cairo, no. 59. 121 It should he noted that in the bakery-brewery model f rom the T o m b of Meket-re querns are

shown in both bakery and brewery, but ovens a p p e a r only in the bakery side. Winlock, Models, Pis. 22, 23.

1 3 5 EGYPT II

process, such as dried residue of spent grain, beer, and its sediment, provide assistance in understanding the steps and the order in which they occurred.122

T h e Egyptian process of bread and beer making diverged at the point where dough was prepared. If beer was the end product desired, the grain, either emmer wheat or barley or a combination of both, would probably first be malt-ed. Unfortunately, this step has not been recognized in any tomb painting or model, but its employment in Pharaonic times is generally accepted. There may be some papyrological evidence for it in the Middle Kingdom, but when it ini-tially came into use is unknown.1 2 3

T h e first step represented in paintings is making dough to prepare the beer- Preparing beer-bread

bread. This entailed grinding the dried malt, adding water to create dough, and forming it into loaves to fit into the molds. So, for example, this can be seen in the T o m b of Antef oker, where the man mixing the dough says something about dates that may have been added. T h e reason for the dates is not given, but, besides imparting a sweet taste, it may have served as a pr imer to intensify fer-mentation by increasing the sugar content. Other additives to beer, such as bit-ter orange peel, resin, and safllower, have also been attested, but for what pur-pose has not been established in every instance.124 T h e dough was then placed in molds and baked lightly in an oven at about 50° to 55° C.125 This activity is frequently omitted from the paintings and may only be implied, as in the model from the T o m b of Meket-re and the relief f rom the mastaba of Kaemrehu , by the appearance of ovens in the adjacent bread-making scene.

Mashing, a process designed to reactivate the enzymes to continue the conver- Mashing

sion of cereal starches to sugar, follows. This step involves crumbling the beer-bread in water and letting it stand for a period of time, perhaps a week at most. Whether the water is hot when added or the material is heated in a vat is uncer-tain. In any case, the temperature could not exceed 70° C.; anything higher

122 See, e. g., Lutz, Viticulture and Brewing, 867 .קנן 2 ־ ; Wol fgang Helek, Das Bier im Alten Ägypten (Berlin: Gesellschaft für die Geschichte und Bibliographie des Brauwesens Ε. V. , 1971), pp . 15-42; Vandie r , Manuel, 4: 276-83 ; Monte t , Scènes de la Vie Privée, pp . 242 54. T h e earliest identi-fiable pictorial representat ion of b rewing in a relief f rom a private t o m b comes f rom the T h i r d -Dynasty mas taba of Mersyankh at Giza. See Dows D u n h a m and William Kelly Simpson, The Mastaba of Qiieen Mersyankh III. G7530 7540. Vol. 1 of Giza Mas tabas (Boston: M u s e u m of Fine Arts, 1974), pp. 190"2־, PI. X l l a and Fig. 11.

123 Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials, p. 14; Samuel , "Investigation of Ancient Egyptian Baking and Brewing Methods , " p. 488. Forbes (Studies, 3: 65) says that mal t ing developed pr ior to brew-ing w h e n the process served to make cereals more palatable .

124 Davies, Tomb of Antefoker, Pis. X I XII ; Geller, "Bread and Beer in Four th-Mil lennium Egypt ," pp. 261-62 ; Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials, pp . 14 15; D a r b y et al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, pp. 5 4 3 - 4 7 . See Darby ' s discussion for o ther interpretat ions of dates shown in this scene.

125 Forbes, Studies, 3: 66.

CHAPTER THREE 1 3 6

would deactivate the α-amylase.1 2 6 Gellcr interprets the containers at Predynas-tic Hierakonpolis as enclosed mash tuns heated by lires placed around them. For later periods heating of mash over a fire is difficult to identify, though it may be illustrated in the Amarna relief now in the Brooklyn Museum.1 2 7 Various vats shown in beer-making scenes may be mash tuns, though they cannot be readily differentiated from vats used in the final fermentation process. Breasted identi-lies figures shown in beer-making scenes standing inside a tall vat as kneading mash with their feet. This may also be reflected in the hieroglyphic ideogram or determinative for brewer, A37 (Fig. 7).128

T h e most frequently depicted activity, and the one which most clearly identi-fies the scene as beer-making, is manually working the mash on a circular strain-er to express the liquid through a sieve into a large vat (Pis. 11 and 13). This l appears in all beer-making scenes, is the representative hieroglyphic sign for brewer ( ) and brewing, and is frequently depicted by servant statues. T h e best examples come from the tombs of Ti, Re r -em-Kuy (Fig. 8), Khenty, Ante-foker, and Ken-amun, the model from the T o m b of Meket-re (Fig. 9), and numerous servant statues (PI. 12).129 Actual wicker strainers, though sometimes, 1 such as at Rifeh, in the form of a large conical bowl with a hole in the bottom,

Fermentation have been found in tombs.130 T h e strained liquid, callcd wort today, would then be decanted into another vat where yeast would be added to hasten the fermen-tation process. It may not be coincidence that some scenes, for which Vandier

Delwen Samuel י'־' , "Archaeology of Ancient Egyptian Beer "Journal of the American Society of Brewing Chemists 54, no. 1 (Winter 1996): 8.

127 Forbes says that a hea t ing t empera tu re of 50" C. initiates rapid conversion of the starch and assists the fe rmenta t ion later. See Forbes Studies, 3: 67; Geller, "Predynast ic Beer Production at Hierakonpolis , U p p e r Egypt ," pp. 104-11; ibid., "F rom Prehistory to History," pp. 21 -24 . For the A m a r n a relief, see Cooney , Amarna Reliefs, p. 74. Boat Model S f rom the T o m b of Meket- re shows a pot resting on the por table oven. W h a t it held is unknown. T h a t it held beer mash is a possibility, particularly if this model and Model R, the brewery boa t , which shows stowed beer jars , a large j a r possibly represent ing fe rment ing beer , a por table brazier , and baskets of (perhaps) bread , actually por t ray two different representat ions of one boat . Sec Winlock, Models, pp . 5 7 - 5 8 , and PI. 44.

120 Breasted, Egyptian Savant Statues, pp . 32 33; Davies, Rock Tombs of Deir El Gebrawi, p. 26, a n d PI. 20. Cf. the O ld K i n g d o m relief f r o m Saqqa ra which shows a similar scene in a register devot-ed to mak ing beer. H a r p u r , "Ident i ty and Positions for Relief Fragments , " ])p. 39 41, and Fig. 10.

129 É p r o n et al, L· Tombeau de Ti, Pis. L X V I , L X X ; Saleh, Three Old-Kingdom Tombs, Pl. 1 1 ( T o m b of Khenty); Davies, Tomb of Antefoker, Pl. XI ; Davies, Tomb of Ken-amun, Pl. LVIII ; Winlock, Models, Pis. 22, 23, 44; Breasted, Egyptian Servant Statues, pp . 3 0 - 3 5 , a n d Pis. 29b, 30 -31 . See also Strouhal , life of the Ancient Egyptians,127 .כן, Fig. 136 (Fifth Dynasty, Saqqara) .

130 Ghal ioungui , "Fe rmen ted Beverages in Antiqui ty ," p. 8, Fig. 4 (from the T o m b of T u t a n k h a m u n ) ; Petrie, Gizeh and Rifeh, p. 23 (Rifeh, Eighteenth Dynasty). T h e Rifeh bowl still conta ined a pressed cake of barley mash and grains.

1 3 7 EGYPT II

would identify an individual mixing leaven with dough to make bread, also show nearby a brewer expressing the mash through a strainer. This is the case, for instance, in the painting f rom the mastaba at Giza which Vandier specifically cites. In other words, if Vandier is correct, the leaven might also have been added to the wort in beer-making as well as to the dough to make leaven bread. Indeed, the yeast in the container used both to leaven bread and to prime the wort may have derived from barm produced in previous beer batches. T h e mass remaining on the sieve could be soaked and kneaded a second time to produce a lesser-quality beer, while the dregs left over could be eaten or fed to animals as fodder.'3!

Once the wort has fermented the desired length of time, as illustrated in the Storage

Tombs of Antefoker and of Nianchchnum and Chnumhotep , it would be decanted into amphorae or other types of vessels for storage until ready to be transported or consumed. As the model kitchen-boats f rom the T o m b of Mcket-re imply, and as Sinuhe indicates in his tale of exile and return, beer was often consumed immediately after production as par t of the daily meals. If warehous-ing or transportation was envisioned, storage vessels were prepared beforehand by having the insides coated with a thin layer of clay. This served to make the walls of the vessel impermeable and may have helped to clarify the fermented brew.132 O n e type of beer jar , the ώ-vessel, was the container in which beer was issued to workmen at Deir el-Medina. T h e term may have derived f rom metal-lurgy, in which ώ-vessels were used to hold slag skimmed off during casting. 111 this sense, ώ-vessels, as beer jars, held the wort transferred from the fermenting vat into smaller containers.133

Were Pharaonic beers always made with partially cooked bread in the man- Beer without beer-

ner implied by tomb paintings (at least, as understood f rom our interpretat ions bread?

of the depictions), as described by Zosimos, and as illustrated in making bouza? Delwen Samuel has recently subjected bread and beer remains to optical and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and has drawn some interesting conclu-sions.134 T h e material, found in workmen 's villages at Deir el-Medina and

131 Forbes, Studies, 3: 71. 132 Saleh, Three Old-Kingdom Tombs, Pl. 1 1 (Khenty); Davies, Tomb of Antefoker, Pl. XII ; and

Moussa and Altenmüller , Das Grab des Nianchchnum und Chnumhotep, Taf . 23. See also Da rby et al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, p. 547; Ghal ioungui , "Fe rmen ted Beverages in Antiqui ty," p. 7. Rober t L. Miller ("Z).v-Vessels, Beer Mugs , Cirrhosis and Cas t ing Slag," Göttingen Miszellen 115 [1990]: suggests that the Egyptians may have also used marsh plants and flowers to clarify their (־7579water and beer .

133 Miller, "Dj-vessels," pp. 63 -82 . Cf. Geller, "Predynast ic Beer Product ion at Hierakonpolis , U p p e r Egypt ," p. 145. O n beer jugs , see Helck, Das Bier, pp . 46 52.

134 Samuel , "Invest igat ion," pp. 4 8 8 - 9 0 .

CHAPTER THREE 138 Amarna , date to the fourteenth century B. C. All bread samples were made of e m m e r wheat , while the beer residues contained cither emmer or barley or a combinat ion of both. T h e bread samples showed evidence of fermentat ion, including some yeast cells, and so indicate that the bread was leavened. In the beer samples, the grain had been less efficiently processed since coarse husks remained. T h e SEMs showed two different microstructural patterns for the starch; some granules were pitted, while others were fused. From this, Samuel concludes that the Egyptians used a two-step process in making beer that did not utilize lightly baked bread. First, they malted some grain and heated it. T h e n , they added this malt to a container with water and sprouted, but unheated , grain. This sugar and starch concoction was strained into another vessel where yeast was added and fermentat ion allowed to proceed. Samuel, consequently, interprets the straining scenes in tomb paintings and servant statues as filtering out chaff f rom the mashed malt, not as expressing liquid from the soaked and crumbled bread.1 3 5 The residue in the vessels studied by Samuel, therefore, was apparent ly spent grain, that is, the strained chaff f rom a beer batch that had had the liquid decanted. The absence of evidence for yeast in the residue indicates that the grains did not come from leavened bread and that the yeast was added to the liquid after decant ing to allow the t ransformation to alcohol and carbon dioxide. M a n y questions remain, how-ever. So, for instance, were all New Kingdom beers made by this two-step process? Were Old and Middle Kingdom beers also processed in a manner similar to this variety, or does this indicate a change over time in how the Egyptians brewed beer?

Appearance and taste What ancient Egyptian beer looked like, how strong it was, and of what con-sistency it was remain matters of conjecture. From what we know about bouza, we can easily imagine that in appearance and consistency Pharaonic beer was a dark-yellow, thickish liquid, though some may have been more akin to a soup than a drink. T h e taste, dependent upon the type of grain used and the by-prod-ucts of yeast fermentation, was probably, like modern bouza, somewhat sour but pleasant. T h e use of only malted grain produces a rather heavy and full-flavored beer. Consequently, modern brewers add unmalted cereal grains to produce a lighter beer.136 O n e might assume, then, that beer prepared with partially cooked bread made of malt, as indicated in Egyptian tomb paintings, would dif-fcr somewhat in taste and flavor f rom that made by the two-step process described by Samuel for the New Kingdom variety.

Literary and epigraphic sources indicate that the Egyptians produced various

135 Samuel , "Archaeology of Ancient Egyptian Beer," p. 8. 1311 Hardwick, "Brewing of Beer ," pp . 134-38.

1 3 9 EGYPT II

types of beer.137 So, for example, seventeen different varieties appear in medical Types of beer

papyri alone, but, unfortunately, the names tell us little about how they were made or in what way they differ one from another. As early as the Thi rd Dynasty there was something called "sweet beer" (hnqt ndmt) mentioned on an offering stela, and the Pyramid Texts mention "dark,'5 "iron," and "garnished" beers. As with the medical papyri, however, nothing can be learned about the production, color, or taste of these products. Does "sweet" beer indicate that a sweetener, such as honey or dates, has been added? If so, when? During the pro-duction or after? T h a t the term refers to an additive at all remains mere conjec-ture. Does "dark" beer distinguish a separate process or imply ingredients differ-ent from a lighter beer. Wha t does one make of beers referred to as "the joy-bringer," or "the heavenly"? Does the "Nubian" beer of the Pyramid Texts refer to an import or to a beer prepared in a certain fashion? These questions must remain unanswered until more work can be done on the little archaeological remains available from excavation. Thus far tests on recovered beer lees have revealed no ingredients which would have given to the beer a distinctive taste.138

T h e strength of Egyptian beer, assuming it was similar to the four to seven per Drunkenness

cent alcohol typical of modern bouza, was probably not too strong, though taken in large enough amounts could cause drunkenness. T h e potency of the beer would probably depend upon the ratio of grain to water, the length of time giv-en to fermentation, and whether during fermentation the liquid was fortified with a sweet additive to increase the sugars.139 Excessive drinking did occur and attracted the condemnation of several writers. A teacher in the New Kingdom warns his student of the dangers of drinking too much beer, while a scribe of the same period issues a similar admonition to anyone who spends too much time in the beer shops.140

In what manner the ancient Egyptian consumed beer within the household Drinking of beer

setting is unknown, but a painted relief, possibly from Amarna, provides a hint at how it may have been done in the Eighteenth Dynasty. A Syrian sits in a

4 chair and drinks from a rather large beer siphon (PI. 14). Although he is the only one shown drinking, his wife sits opposite him while a youth helps him hold the

137 Cf. Lutz, Viticulture and Brewing, pp ־7274 . ; Helck, Das Biet, pp . 15-20. 138 Samuel , "Invest igation," p. 488. For "sweet beer ," found in a Th i rd -Dynas ty tomb at

Saqqara , see Geller, "F rom Prehistory to History," p. 21. Cf. also Forbes Studies, 3: 82, note 15. For " N u b i a n " beer , see Mercer , pyramid Texts, p. 48 (Utterance 151). Da rby et al (Food: the Gift of Osiris, p. 549) speak of ano ther possible beer impor t called " the beer of Ked i . "

139 Helck, "Bier ," LA, col. 790. Forbes (Studies, 3: 72) says that an alcoholic content of 12% was possible if sweet additives were employed.

140 N. e l -Guebaly and A. el-Guebaly, "Alcohol Abuse in Ancient Egypt: T h e Recorded Evi-dence , " The International Journal of the Addictions 16, no. 7 (1981): 1216-17.

CHAPTER THREE 1 4 0

siphon. An actual beer-siphon, found in a house also in Amarna , consists of two parts, each made of lead and connccted by a reed straw. T h e end of the siphon that was placcd inside the beer j u g has small holes in it to serve as a filter allow-ing only liquid to be drawn up into the siphon. This was joined by a reed straw to a reinforced right angle that was in turn fitted with another straw through which the drinker could draw the filtered beer from the jug into his mouth. The use of beer siphons may have been an innovation introduced during the New Kingdom and under foreign influence, since it cannot be confirmed for earlier periods. The use of straws to drink beer in many places in the ancient Near East, documented by scenes inscribed on cylinder seals (PI. 19) and by archaeological remains in Ur dating to the third millennium B. C. and before, however, make the earlier use by Egyptians quite likely.141 Drinking through a beer siphon also recalls the way modern bouza is consumed in Egypt today. Several individuals sitting around a vat of bouza drink the brew through long straws, which serve to filter out any solid material remaining in the beer.142 Communa l beer consump-tion may have played a major role outside the ancient Egyptian family as well, though there is little evidence to prove it. Anthropological studies have docu-mented the social role of alcohol consumption in strengthening communal ties and confirming social hierarchies in various cultures ancient and modern. Shared drinking would be important within the social context of the workmen's villages in much the same way as the pharaoh 's ostentatious disbursement of bread and beer to his retainers provides a potent symbolism of his primacy.143

Beer and nutrition Egyptian men, women, and children on a daily basis consumed beer more as a food than as a drink. Without knowing it, their penchant for consuming fresh, relatively unfiltered beer, as with bread, provided them with a nutritious food. If, as seems likely, ancient Egyptian beer resembled modern Egyptian bouza, it offered an excellent source of protein and many of the Β vitamins (for example,

141 Kar l -He inze Priese, "Stele eines syrischen Söldners ," in Ägyptisches Museum. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (Mainz: Philipp von Zabe rn , 1991), pp. 129-30; F. LI. Griff i th, "A Drinking Siphon f rom Tell E l -Amarnah , " JEA 12 (1926): 22 23; Stead, Egyptian Life, p. 30, Fig. 40. Syrian cylinder seals, da t ing to ca. 2000 1900 B. C. , show a single individual dr inking beer through a straw. See Beat-rice Teissier, Ancient Near Eastern Cylinder Seals from the Marcopoli Collection (Berkeley: University of Cal i fornia Press, 1984), pp. 200 03, Figs. 352 -60 . Cf., also, the seal design f rom T e p e G a w r a in nor the rn I raq, dat ing to ca. 4000 B. C. , which shows two individuals dr inking beer f rom a large vessel through bent straws. See Katz and Voigt , "Bread a n d Beer," p. 31, Fig. 10.

142 Cf. Ka tz and Voigt, "Bread and Beer," p. 28, Fig. 6a. 143 Geller, "Predynast ic Beer Product ion at Hierakonpol is , U p p e r Egypt ," pp. 32 -46 ; Michael

Dietlcr, "Driven by Drink: T h e Role of Dr inking in the Political Economy a n d the Case of Early Iron Age France ," JAnthArch 9 (1990): 352 -406 ; Alexander H . J o f f e , "Alcohol and Social C o m -plexity in Ancient Western Asia," CurrAnth 39, no. 3 (June 1998): 297 -300 ; and K e m p , Ancient Egypt, p. 288.

141 EGYPT II

niacin, thiamine, riboflavin, and pyridoxine) that contribute to a healthful diet. Additionally, there is some speculation that Predynastic and Early Dynastic grain storage in mud-brick silos under some conditions may have fostered the growth of the Strept07nycetes microbe that produced antibiotic tetracyclines that would have been consumed in the form of bread and beer. This may have served to provide consumers with some degree of immunity against infection, although grain storage conditions may have also encouraged fungal growth and development of mycotoxins harmful to humans and animals alike.144

Beer was not the sole fermented drink made and consumed by ancient Egyp-tians, nor were bread and alcoholic beverages the only foods processed. These other foods and drinks form the subject of the following chapter.

144 As alcoholic beverages arc filtered, clarified, or distilled nutr ient content decreases. T h e nutr ients in Egyptian beer would stem primari ly f rom the cereals, any additives, and yeast. Geller, "Bread and Beer in Four th-Mil lennium Egypt ," p. 259; T o d h u n t e r , "Historical Perspec-tive on Fermenta t ion Biochemistry and Nutrition, '" pp . 95 96; Darby , "Nutr ient Cont r ibut ions of Fe rmen ted Beverages," pp. 61 -79 ; Stahl, "Plant-food Processing," pp. 178-81. For the nutritive value of bread , see Lord Horclcr, Char les Dodds , and T . M o r a n , Bread. The Chemist1y and Nutrition of Flour and Bread, with an Introduction to Their History and Technolog)) (London: Cons table and C o m p a -ny Ltd., 1954), pp. I 3 2 5 ־ l ; for tetracyclines, see Mills, "Beyond Nutr i t ion," pp. 27 -35 ; for myco-toxins, see Adamson , "Problems over Stor ing Food ," pp . 7 - 1 5 .

C H A P 1 E R F O U R

E G Y P T II

B. wine (irp)

Origin of Egyptian T h e grapevine ( Vitis vinifera L.) is not indigenous to Egypt. Its precise origin is winemaking open to dispute, but it seems to have developed from a wild progenitor (sylvestris),

which grows naturally in areas stretching from southern Europe through por-tions of the Near East to as far east as Turkmenis tan and Tadzhikistan. Charred seeds of the cultivated grape have been documented at Tell esh-Shuna in the J o r d a n Valley in levels datable to the mid-fourth millennium B. C. Later fourth millennium finds of grape pips have come from Jericho, Arad, and Lachish.1

T h e grape, therefore, was probably first cultivated in southern Anatolia and spread southward into the Levant; from there it made its way into the Egyptian Delta certainly by the Early Dynastic period, and probably earlier.2

T h e best evidence for a southwest Asian origin for wine in Egypt comes from recent archaeological finds at Abydos. Three rooms of a royal tomb — perhaps to be ascribed to Scorpion I and dated to ca. 3150 B. C. — contained numerous whole or fragmented wine jars, originally perhaps representing up to 700 con-tainers having a combined capacity of ca. 1,200 gallons of wine. Analysis of the clay indicated that the bottle-shaped jars, with narrow mouths that had been sealed, came from the southern Levant. T h e clay seals, however, were made of Egyptian mud. It remains possible that the Levantine jars had been previously imported, emptied of its contents, and used, then refilled with wine made in Egypt and sealed with Egyptian clay. If so, this would indicate Egyptian wine production at this early date. It remains more likely, however, that the vessels constitute archaeological evidence for early trade in wine from the southern

1 T h e wild progeni tor bears the botanical n a m e Vitis vinifera L. subsp. Sylvestris (C. C. Gmelin) Berger. Daniel Zohary , " T h e Domest icat ion of the Grapev ine Vitis Vinifera L. in the N e a r East ," in The Origins and Ancient Plistoty of Wine. Patrick E. M c G o v e r n , Stuar t J . Fleming, and Solomon H. Katz , eds. (Philadelphia: G o r d o n a n d Breach Publishers, 1995), pp. 24 -28 ; Z o h a r y and Hopf , Domestication of Plants in the Old World, pp . 144-50.

2 Lawrence E. Stager, " T h e Firstfruits of Civilization," in Palestine in the Bronze and Iron Ages. Papers in H o n o u r of O lga Tufnel l . J o n a t h a n N. T u b b , ed. (London: Institute of Archaeology, 1985), p. 173; Patrick E. M c G o v e r n , "Wine ' s Prehistory," Archaeology 51, no. 4 (July-Aug. 1998): 32 -34 .

1 4 3 EGYPT II

Levant to Egypt. As Patrick McGovcrn suggests, the jars with their wine were probably imported into Egypt from the Levant where they were restoppered and sealed before being placed in the tomb.3

Several pieccs of circumstantial evidence also point to the southern Levant as the origin for Egyptian knowledge of viticulture. First, in historic times the most esteemed vineyards concentrated in the Delta, in desert oases to the southwest, and in the Fayum, becoming scarcer as one traveled upstream along the Nile Valley. Upper Egypt did not acquire vineyards until the Ptolemaic Period.4 Sec-ondly, the Egyptian word for vine and vineyard, kanou or kamou, apparently derives from Semitic, and probably goes back to ca. 3000 B. C. Third , the origi-nal home of Ssm.w (Shesmu), the winepress god whose hieroglyphic sign was the sack press, may have been the Memphi te city of Letopolis in Lower Egypt.5

Finally, workers in the Egyptian wine industry were traditionally associated with foreigners, a situation that may also imply an origin outside of Egypt for viticul-turc.6

The Abydos wine jars also provide early evidence for the importance of wine Abydos wine jars

to Egypt's rulers. Early Dynastic pharaohs, for example, associated wine with

Patrick E. M c G o v c r n , "Wine for Eterni ty," Archaeology 51, no. 4 (July-Aug. 1998): 30 -31 ; G ü n t e r Dreyer , "Rccent Discoveries at Abydos Ceme te ry U , " in The Nile Delta in Transition, 4"'-3"< Millennium B. C. Proceedings of the Seminar Held in Cairo , 21 24 O c t o b e r 1990, at the Nether -lands Institute of Archaeology a n d Arabic Studies. Edwin C. M. van den Brink, ed. (Tel Aviv: Edwin C . M . van den Brink, 1992), pp. 2 9 3 - 9 9 .

4 Dimitri Meeks, "Oléiculture et viticulture dans l 'Egypte pharaon ique , " in La Production du Vin et de l'Huile en Méditerranée. BCH Suppl. X X V I . Marie-Claire Amourct t i and Jean-Pier re Brun, eds. (Paris: De Boccard, 1995), p. 14; Christine Meyer , "Wein ," LA, col. I 169; Kees, Ancient Egypt, pp . 81-82 ; and Wilson, Egyptian Food and Drink, pp. 27 28. Annet te Lerstrup suggests that the vintage sccne f rom the Old Kingdom T o m b of N ianchchnum and C h n u m h o t e p at Saqqara represented wine making in the Eastern Delta. See Annet te Lerstrup, " T h e Making of Wine in Egypt," Göttinger Miszelleη 129 (1992): 63. Geller notes the find of grape pips in residue f rom the Vat Site at Predynas-tic Hierakonpolis in Upper Egypt, which he dates to ca. 3500-3400 B. C. T h e y probably arrived as a trade item, however whether in the form of raisins or as part of wine residue is unknown. Geller, "Predynastic Beer Production at Hierakonpolis, U p p e r Egypt," pp. 110-11. Grape pits have also been identified in fourth-millennium B.C. El O m a n , located slightly southeast of Cairo, but their interpretation and dat ing remain contentious. T . G. H . J a m e s , " T h e Earliest History of Wine and its Impor tance in Ancient Egypt," in Origins and Ancient History of Wine, pp. 199-200; Stager, "Firstfruits," p. 182, note 1. T h e a rgument by D a r b y et al that wine first entered Egypt through Nubia and central Africa seems unlikely. Sec Da rby et al, Food: the Gift of the Nile, p. 552.

5 Kamou or kanou: Dimitr i Meeks, "Migra t ion des plantes, migrat ion des mots dans l 'Egypte anc ienne ," in Des hommes et des plantes. Plantes méditerranéennes, vocabulaire et usages anciens. Cah ie r d 'Histoire des Techniques , 2 (Aix-en-Provence: Université de Provence, 1993), p. 75; Ssm.w: M a r k Ciccarello, "Shesmu the Letopolite," in Studies in Honor of George R. Hughes. Studies in Ancient Or ienta l Civilization, No. 39 (Chicago: T h e Or ien ta l Institute, 1976), pp. 52 54.

6 Leonard H . Lesko, "Egypt ian Wine Product ion dur ing the New K i n g d o m , " in Origins and Ancient History of Wine, pp. 224, 227-29 ; M c G o v e r n , "Wine for Eterni ty," p. 31.

CHAPTER THREE 1 4 4

Horus, with one king referring to it as "the Beverage of the Body of Horus." T h e vessels also presage the common practice in dynastic times of supplying wine for the funerary requirements of the royal family. Texts from early dynastic tombs vaunt the wines from the royal vineyards of the Delta region rather than imported wines. T h e Pyramid text of Unas, last king of the Fifth Dynasty, for example, listed among five varieties of wine "wine of the north," "Buto wine," and "Pelusium wine."7

In sum, then, it seems likely that in the fourth millennium B. C. Egypt learned about wine and winemaking f rom inhabitants of the southern Levant with whom they engaged in trade for the beverage and probably for the vine itself. This trade was driven by the desire of the elite for the drink, especially as a major commodity to be stored in the tomb for use in the afterlife. T h e populari-ty of wine among the rulers led ultimately, by the First Dynasty, to the establish-ment in the Delta of royal vineyards, probably operated by foreigners. This dat-ing may find support in the possible identification of the hieroglyph for the wine-press on a seal dated to the reign of the First-Dynasty Pharaoh Den. T . G. H. James , however, has recently questioned this attribution. He prefers to identify the hieroglyph as an oil press and to associate the earliest hieroglyph clearly indicating vine cultivation — a grape vine on a trellis — to the Second Dynasty at the latest.8

Wine in religious life Wine assumed a place of honor in religious and funerary rites. The gods themselves were seen as drinkers of wine. T h e Pyramid Text of Pepi I, for exam-pie, describes the gods as "clad in red linen, living on figs, drinking wine, anoint-ed with unguent ." Priests could count on wine to be part of their daily ration, and rulers offered huge quantities of the beverage to the temples of the gods.

7 Da rby et al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, p. 555 (Horus); Alexander PiankofT, The !3yramid of Unas (Princeton: Pr inceton University Press, 1968), p. 92 (Utterances 153-57).

8 J a m e s , "Earliest History of W i n e , " pp . 200 01. J a m e s bases his suggestion not on perceived differences between oil presses and winepresses bu t on the shape of the j a r that appears below the press in the seal impression and that he believes should be in terpreted with the press. H e com-ments that this type of jar with wide m o u t h and two handles has no parallel in the archaeo-logical evidence and so canno t be connec ted with wine. H e suggests that the j a r may be an oil j a r , and , hence, the press is an oil press. For m o r e on the close connect ion between wine and oil presses, sec below, C h a p t e r Five. W i n e press hieroglyph: W. M . Flinders Petrie, The Royal Tombs of the First Dynasty. 2 Parts (London: Egypt Explorat ion Fund , 1900), 1: 44, and Pl. X X I I I , nos. 37 38. Petrie identifies the sign as "possibly" a winepress. Vine trellis: idem, The Royal Tombs of the Earliest Dynasties. 2 Parts (London: Egypt Explorat ion Fund , 1901), 2: 54, a n d Pl. X X I I I , nos. 191-93, 196; Pl. X X I V , nos. 202, 204 (seal of Khasekhemwy) . See also Hilda Petrie, Egyptian Hieroglyphs of the First and Second Dynasties (London: Quar i t ch , 1927), Pl. X X V I I , no. 644 (wine press), and Pl. X V I I , nos. 3 9 9 - 4 0 0 (vine trellis). Cf. also Stager, "Firstlruits," p. 174; Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials, p. 16: Lutz, Viticulture and Brewing, pp . 46 48; and Kees, Ancient Egypt, p. 185.

1 4 5 EGYPT II

Rameses III, for example, in the Papyrus Harris boasted of providing over 156,000 jars of wine to temples in Thebes, Heliopolis, and Memphis.9 T o m b paintings and offering stelae often show the king offering jars of wine to the gods or exhibiting the food and drink he will enjoy in eternity. Paintings frequently depict banquets in which wine is prominently served and wine jars are conspicu-ously displayed. Sometimes diners appear to imbibe a little too much.1 0

Wine also played a conspicuous role in various areas of daily life. It appears Wine in daily life

prominently as a medicine in the medical papyri, such as the Ebers Papyrus, which frequently cites it, along with beer, as a vehicle for the delivery of different kinds of medicines to cure a variety of internal and external ills. Wine itself in some instances was probably seen as the primary medicine, or at least was felt to possess efficacious powers." Wine also receives mention in various literary gen-res, such as love poems and wisdom literature, in the latter instance often because of wine's intoxicating powers.12 Lesko thinks that wine did not present the prob-lern that beer did in regard to over-consumption, because, unlike beer, which was consumed daily, wine was probably drunk less often, primarily during special occasions such as jubilee years and festivals. Besides, the expense of wine proba-bly rendered it a scarce commodity among those of the lower classes.13

While beer was a staple in the diet and was issued as part of a workman's dai- Wine, the beverage of

ly wage, wine remained the drink of the upper class throughout Pharaonic the elite

times. T h e Egyptian word for vineyard ( k?nw) also signifies an orchard or gar-den. In several tomb paintings, such as in the Eighteenth-Dynasty T o m b of Ken-amun at Thebes, grapevines along with other plants can be seen arranged

9 Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, 1: 4 4 4 Ut) ־ 5 terance 440); Da rby ct al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, p. 574; Meyer , "Wein , " LA, cols. 1173 77. For wine in the Pyramid Texts , sec Sist, "Bevande nei Testi Pi ramidi ," pp. 130-33.

10 Depletions of drunkenness and even vomit ing appea r in some t o m b paintings. See, e. g., D a r b y et al, Food: the Gift of 'Osiiis, pp . 579 87, esp. Figs. 14.13 (fragment f rom Brussels M u s e u m , No. E. 2877); Newberry , Bern Hasan, 2: Pl. X V I ( T o m b of Khety); Tylor and Griffi th, Tomb of Paheri, Pl. VII ; and Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, 2: 167 68 (drunkenness), 393 (banquet). See also Meyer , "Wein , " LA, cols. 1173-74; Leonard H. Lesko, King Tufs Wine Cellar{Berkeley: B. C . Scribe Publications, 1977), pp. 1 2 1 ) ־ 3 T o m b of Horemheb) , 35 (Theban T o m b 49); J a m e s , "Ear -liest History of Wine , " pp. 2 0 2 - 0 3 ; J e r e m y A. Black, "Ancient Egypt ," in The Oxford Companion to Wine. J anc i s Robinson , ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), p. 356. O n wine in Egyptian society, especially in religion, see M u - C h o u Poo, Wine and Wine Offering in the Religion of Ancient Eg}׳pt (London: Kegan Paul Internat ional , 1995).

11 Da rby et al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, pp. 579 -87 ; Lesko, "Egypt ian Wine Product ion ," pp. 229-30 ; Poo, Wine and Wine Offering, pp . 30 31.

12 Cf., e. g., Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, 1: 4 4 4 5 Pyramid Tex) ־ t of Pepi I, Ut te rance 440); Ik ram, "Food for Eternity. W h a t the Ancient Egyptians Ate a n d Drank . Par t 2," p. 58.

1:5 Lesko, "Egypt ian Wine Product ion ," p. 229; Janssen , Commodity Prices, pp. 350-52 ; Poo, Wine and Wine Offering, pp . 27 29.

CHAPTER THREE 1 4 6

about a large pond. This relationship between wine and gardens highlights the close association between wine consumption and elite status, since few individu-als would be wealthy enough to own sufficient land to support a garden capable of sustaining even a modest orchard. Possession of vineyards and wine served as a symbol of high rank and royal favor. Metjen, overseer of the royal estates of the Fourth-Dynasty Pharaoh Snefru, for example, boasts that his estate included a large pool with fig trees and grapevines planted around it. He goes on to brag that his vines produced large quantities of wine.14

The wine hieroglyph T o m b paintings exhibiting one or two trellised vines loaded with grapes depict daily work in vineyards. T h e Fifth-Dynasty T o m b of Ptahhotep in Saqqara, for example, shows a grapevine trained on a crossbar supported by two forked poles at each end. T o the left a worker pours water from a vessel onto the ground at the base of the vine. A rim of mud or plaster, which has often been mistaken for a pot, maintains water around the roots. Not until the Eighteenth Dynasty were vines watered by irrigation, and even then this method was limited to temple or royal estates. Apparently the trellising was rather low, since scenes usually show men kneeling to pick grape bunches from the vine.15 This basic form of arbor apparently went back to the beginnings of viticulture in Egypt, as it is the hiero-glyph for wine and forms the determinant for hieroglyphic words associated with grapevine and grape (Fig. 7: M43).16

Technology of No literary source describes the technological process that the Egyptians used modem wine making to produce wine, nor have wooden models or servant statues portraying any

aspect of winemaking come to light. W e must, therefore, rely on the little archaeological material available, such as wine jars, and the fairly abundant art

14 Meeks, "Oléicul ture et vit iculture," p. 19; Lesko, King Tut's Wine Cellar, p. 15; Davies, Tomb of Ken-amun, Pl. X L V I I ; J a m e s , "Earliest History of W i n e , " p. 204; Stager, "Firstfruits," p. 174; Ler-strup, " M a k i n g of Wine in Egypt ," pp . 6 3 - 6 4 . Cf., also, Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, 2: 173 (Papyrus Lansing, Twentieth Dynasty).

15 Davies, Mastaba ofPtahhetep and Akhethetep at Saqqareh, 2: Pl. X X I , and Paget and Pirie, Tomb of Ptah-hetep, Pl. X X X I I I ; J a m e s , "Earliest History of W i n e , " p. 205; Meeks, "Oléicul ture et viticul-ture ," p. 19; Lesko, King Tut's Wine Cellar, p. 13. T h e paint ing in the E igh teen th-Dynas ty T o m b of Paher i at El K a b shows a similar a rbo r with banked roots, but the vines obscure the trellising. Tylor and Griffi th, Tomb of Paheri, Pl. IV. For an interpretat ion of the vineyard scene in the T o m b of T i at Saqqara , see J a m e s , "Earliest History of W i n e , " p. 206. Cf. similar scenes f rom Eigh-t een th -Dynas ty tombs of Khaemwase t (Theban T o m b No. 261), illustrated in Snead, Egyptian Life, p. 31, Fig. 41, and o f W a h , found in Wreszinski, Atlas, Taf . 68. Cf. also the a rbor scene in the T o m b of Nakht (Theban T o m b No. 52), which lacks the m u d rim a round the roots. N o r m a n de Gar is Davies, The Tomb of Nakht at Thebes (New York: T h e Metropol i tan M u s e u m of Art , 1917), Pl. X X V I .

16 Gard ine r , Egyptian Grammar, p. 484 (M43); Petrie, Egyptian Hieroglyphs, Pl. X V I I , nos. 399 -400 . For different types of trellising, see Lerstrup, "Mak ing of Wine in Egypt ," pp. 6 2 - 6 3 , esp. Fig. 1, p. 78.

1 4 7 EGYPT II

historical evidence.17 For the same reasons as explained earlier for bread and beer, however, due caution must be exercised in interpreting these artistic repre-sentations. Even so, a firm understanding of the technology involved is possible.

Modern wine making involves three basic steps: crushing of the grapes, fer- Crushing

menting of the grape juice, and aging or maturing of the wine.18 Since grapes have naturally occurring yeasts (especially Saccharomyces ellipsoideus) on their skins while still in the orchard, they will begin to ferment within a few hours of being picked and placed in containers where the bottom ones may become crushed. For this reason processing usually occurs in facilities near the orchard. Although some cultures may still initially crush grapes by treading in wooden vats, today machines perform most of the work. T h e crushed material is composed of grape skins, seeds, and a liquid called must. Crushing the grapes allows the yeasts, which in nature reside on the surface of the grape skin, to come in contact with the sugar found on the inside. Water comprises up to eighty per cent of the lat-ter, while sugars, such as glucose and fructose, and various acids (particularly tartaric and syringic acid), tannins, minerals, and amino acids make up between twelve and twenty-seven per cent. At this point, modern vintners commonly add sulfur dioxide to assist fermentation and prevent spoilage and either sugar or acid as necessary to ensure a balance of the two during the fermentation process. If white wine is the desired result, the skins and seeds are immediately removed to reduce the tannic material that gives wine its color. Color deepens and taste sharpens the longer the seeds and skins remain.

Fermentation can be tricky, as the vintner tries initially to allow the liquid suf- Fermentation

ficient oxygen so the yeast can multiply, but later to restrict the air so the yeast will excrete more alcohol as it reacts with the sugars and amino acids in the must. Additionally, the fermenting liquid needs a cool environment (ca. 2 Γ C, or below) to encourage the yeast to make more alcohol and to imbue the liquid with a stronger aroma. T h e fermentation process varies as well according to whether white or red wine is being made. White wine requires a must free of seeds and skin and kept at a low temperature; red wine can take higher temper-

17 Lers t rup (" Mak ing of Wine in Egypt ," p. 61) has identified seventy-five tombs and one tern-pie with wine-making scenes: one temple and twenty-nine tombs of the Old Kingdom (primarily f rom Giza and Saqqara) , eight Middle K ingdom tombs, forty-two N e w Kingdom tombs (all f rom Thebes) , three Late-period tombs (also Theban ) , and one G r a e c o - R o m a n tomb.

18 M y discussion of the technological aspects of m o d e r n wine making follows M c G e e , On Food and Cooking, pp. 4 4 6 - 5 7 , Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials,17 .כן, Lesko, King Tut's Wine Cellar, p. 20;

J a n Lee Prickett, "A Scientific and Technological Study of Topics Associated with the G r a p e in Greek and R o m a n Antiqui ty," Ph .D. Diss. University of Kentucky, 1980, p. 50; and Ve rnon L. Singleton, "An Enologist 's C o m m e n t a r y on Ancient Wines ," in Origins and Ancient History of Wine, pp. 67 -70 .

CHAPTER THREE 1 4 8

atures (up to 27° C) and longer exposure to skin and seeds (between four and fourteen days). T he skins, once removed, arc pressed again to obtain more must, which, however, is not added back to the liquid squeezed out earlier, though small amounts can be added to other wines.

Following fermentation the wine is clarified and aged to produce a smooth wine with an alcohol content ranging from ten to fourteen per cent. Aging involves racking the wine, that is, repeatedly separating the liquid from the sedi-ment. During this period care is taken to allow C 0 2 gases formed from residual fermentation to escape the container in order to avoid an explosion. At this point some wines are blended with other varieties. When the wine has aged suf-ficiently, it is decanted into bottles and corked to prevent exposure to air and bactcria that initiate production of vinegar. T h e corks are also covered with foil to assist in producing an airtight seal.

Ancient Egyptian wine processing began with crushing the grapes to extract the juice.19 T w o methods appear prominently in the art historical evidence: treading with the feet and squeezing in a sack press. Lutz observes that tomb paintings that depict treading concentrate in Thebes or south of the city, while squeezing in a sack press is confined to tombs located north of the city, but prof-fers no explanation. T h e reason for the apparent distribution remains unknown, but may derive from the accident of preservation.20 This fact does, however, raise the question of the coexistence of the two techniques.

Since mechanical squeezing in a sack is a more efficient and sophisticated process than treading with the feet, it is logical to conclude that the latter appeared earlier than the former. T h e evidence upon which to decide the point, however, is scant, apparently contradictory, and subject to diverse interpréta-tion. T h e earliest artistic evidence for any kind of wine processing, for example, involves the sack press. Although a fragmentary painting in the T o m b of Nefer-mat and Atet at Medum, dating to the reign of Snefru, first king of the Fourth Dynasty, lacks the complete motif common to scenes involving sack presses, clearly visible are two men manipulating a pole at one end of a sack.21 T h e appearance of the hieroglyph of the winepress god Ssm.w in the Pyramid Text f rom the T o m b of Unas at Saqqara argues for an even earlier date for the emer-gence of the sack press. Although the tomb dates to the end of the Fifth Dynasty,

Aging

The ancient process:

a question of

technique

19 Lers t rup (" Mak ing of W i n e in Egypt ," pp. 65 67) includes vine tending, grape picking, and t ranspor t ing the grapes to the vats as pa r t of the process. Since these do not involve food technol-ogy as I have defined it, I have for the most par t omit ted discussion of these steps.

20 Lutz, Viticulture and Brewing, p. 56. 2' W. M . Flinders Petrie, Medum (London: David Nut t , 1892), pp. 2 6 - 2 7 , and Pl. X X V . For a

detailed discussion of sack presses, sec p. 154-60.

1 4 9 EGYPT II

internal evidence dates the text itself to an earlier time. Ssm.w's hieroglyph appears in Spell 403a-b of Utterances 273 274, within that portion of the Pyra-mid Text called the "Cannibal Hymn," which probably dates to the Third Dynasty or before.22 And, finally, the hieroglyph appearing on a First-Dynasty cylinder seal — whether representing a winepress, an oil press, or a combination of the two is debatable — clearly resembles sack presses erected on wooden frames illustrated in Middle and New Kingdom tombs.23 Artistic depictions of treading, sometimes in addition to squeezing with a sack press, on the other hand, appear only in tomb paintings or reliefs and no earlier than the Fifth Dynasty.24 Little more can be said on the subject without additional evidence.

Contradictions also appear in regard to the sack press itself. T h e hieroglyph appearing on the First-Dynasty cylinder seal, as well as the hieroglyph of Ssm.w, the winepress god, takes the form of a sack press erected on a wooden frame. This setup imparts to the sack a stability lacking in the process whereby two groups of men, one at each end, hold the sack off the ground while twisting each end with poles. T h e technique employing the f rame is clearly more efficient and, logically, should date later than the technique without the frame. T h e evidence, however, points otherwise. 111 Old Kingdom tomb paintings where pressing is represented the technique shown is that without a frame, while the earliest tomb representation of a sack-press in a f rame does not appear before the Eleventh Dynasty T o m b of Baqt III at Beni Hasan.2 5 T h e questions of whether treading chronologically preceded squeezing as a technology in grape processing, and, in regard to squeezing, whether the sack press with a f rame antedates the one with-out it cannot be securely answered with the evidence presently at hand. T h e sack press without a frame and the one with it may have come into Egypt together, or, alternatively, the former may have entered first, followed soon after

22 Piankoff, Pyramid of Unas, p. 45, and Plate 29; Merce r , Pyramid Texts, 2: 182. Forbes (Studies, 3: 76) dates the earliest sack press to the T h i r d Dynasty.

2:5 Hieroglyph as wine press: Petrie, Royal Tombs of the First Dynasty, p. 44; as oil press: J a m e s , "Earliest History of Wine , " pp. 200 01. Meeks ("Oléicul ture of viticulture," p. 21, and note 122) suggests that winepresses may have also served to process o ther food items, such as olive oil. For sack press in a f rame , see esp. the Middle K i n g d o m T o m b s of C h n u m h o t e p and of Baqt III, at Beni Hasan . Newber ry , Beni Hasan, 1: Pl. X L V I , and 2: Pl. VI. For the Eighteenth-Dynasty T o m b of Puyemre at Thebes , see Wreszinski, Atlas, Taf . 13; and Vandie r , Manuel, 5: Fig. 115.2. See discussion on oil, below pp. 164 65.

24 Fif th-Dynasty tombs with scenes of t reading and squeezing include the T o m b of Nefer and Ka-hay, P tah-hotep , and N i a n c h c h n u m and C h n u m h o t e p , all at Saqqara . A h m e d M. Moussa and Har twig Altenmüller , 'The Tomb of Nefer and Ka-hay (Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Z a b e r n , 1971), p. 24, and Pis. 8 9 ־ ; Davies, Mastaba of Ptahhetep and Akhethetep at Saqqareh, 1: Pl. X X I ; Paget and Pirie, Tomb of Ptah-hetep, Pl. X X X I I I ; and Moussa and Altenmüller , Das Grab des Nianchchnum und Chnumhotep, Taf . 39.

25 Newberry , Beni Hasan, 2: Pl. VI.

CHAPTER THREE 1 5 0

by the latter. The fact that no extant evidence exists for the sack press in the ancient Near East further complicates the matter. In any case, this much can be said. The sack press without the frame was operating by the Fourth Dynasty, while the arrangement with a wooden frame was known by the early Eleventh Dynasty and probably much earlier.26

Treading If, as seems to be the case, treading and pressing together appear earlier and more often north of Thebes, both technologies may have came into Egypt when viticulture arrived in the Delta from Southwest Asia in the first half of the third millennium B. C. Since deciding whether treading or pressing came first does not appear to be possible at this time, most scholars prefer to see the two tech-niques as sequential steps in a single process, and interpret the scenes according-ly.27 Both treading with the feet and squeezing in a sack press were contempora-neous technologies by the Fifth Dynasty at the latest.

Treading vats Workers processed the grapes as soon after picking as possible in facilities loeated near the vineyards.28 In the paintings from the T o m b of Paheri, for example, one part of the register shows a group of two men and one woman picking grapes from an arbor and placing them into baskets. T o their right, two males carry full baskets of grapes toward a vat into which another worker is dumping his load of grapes. Lack of archaeological material and difficulty in interpreting the paintings render difficult any attempt to determine the con-struction and shape of the treading vats. Although Lutz thinks that the vats were made of wood, and Montet favors stone, Lesko supposes mud brick coated with

26 Both technologies for squeezing grapes were p robab ly opera t ing contemporaneous ly with the development of the hieroglyphic script. T h e (probably later) press with f rame , possessing a concrete form and so be ing easier to express as a p ic tograph, was readily adopted as a hieroglyph. T h e (probably older) press without a f rame, a l though less suited to abbrevia ted pictorial represen-tation, was probably a more well-known and so m o r e recognizable me thod to process grapes into wine. As a result, it became the canonical artistic expression in t o m b painting. Only in the Middle K i n g d o m did the sack press with f r ame make its appea rance on Egyptian walls. Artists had a reluctance, once established, to make radical changes in convent ional ways of depict ing scenes of daily life a n d a propensi ty to copy basic representat ions f rom one t o m b to ano ther , though f rom time to time inserting or changing some elements of detail for artistic variation. Like the essential-ly conservative development of Egyptian hieroglyphs, artistic representat ion of the older sack press t ended to survive long after , in reality, the technique it represented had been superceded by a newer, more efficient one. For tradit ion a n d innovat ion in Egyptian art, see Schäfer , Principles of Egyptian Art, esp. pp. 149-53; for a discussion of the relationship between the Egyptian script and artistic change , see ibid., pp. 255 58.

27 J a m e s , "Earliest History of W i n e , " p. 206; D a r b y et al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, p. 560; Meeks, "Oléicul ture et vit iculture," p. 21; Wilson, Egyptian Food and Drink, p. 31; and Forbes, Studies, 3: 75 -77 .

28 Ty lor and Griffi th, Tomb of Paheri, Pl. IV. Cf. also the Eighteenth-Dynasty T o m b of Intef (Theban T o m b 155), illustrated in Lesko, "Egypt ian Wine Produc t ion ," p. 2, Fig. 14.1.

151 EGYPT II

plaster.29 Treading troughs of the Old Kingdom, such as shown in the T o m b of Nefer and Ka-hay, seem to have been raised only slightly above ground level and so were not very deep. Many New Kingdom tombs, however, such as the Tombs of Khaemwaset and o f N a k h t (Fig. 11), show vats raised fairly high and apparently deeper.30 Although shape is difficult to discern from two-dimensional tomb paintings, treading vats in all periods were probably circular. Since period-ic cleaning of the vats would have been necessary to remove grape skins and seeds, a round shape would have made the work easier to accomplish and would have assured that none of the grapes slipped into a corncr of the vat and escaped being crushed.

Several individuals, the cxact number doubtless determined by the size of the Treading: the art

trough, trod the grapes with their feet. The purpose of crushing the grapes in this historical evidence

fashion is to squeeze out the juice without damaging the skins and seeds that, when bruised, secrete an astringent fluid and impart to the must a dark color and bitter taste. Treaders steadied themselves in the slippery vat by holding onto ropes attached to a horizontal pole above their heads (Fig. 12). Forked poles secured in a vertical position on the outside of and at each end of the vat supported the cross-bar. Sometimes the men grasped only the rope, at other times only the horizontal pole. 111 some scenes they hold onto the rope with one hand and the waist of a companion with the other.31 Some paintings, such as in the Old Kingdom Tombs of Mereruka and of Nefer and Ka-hay at Saqqara, show figures kneeling near the vat and striking sticks or clappers together in a rhythmic fashion to assure that treaders kept in step. In the New Kingdom T o m b of Rekh-mi-rēC workers appear to chant as they tread the grapes. As in the case with marching soldiers, random treading could potentially create chaos and result in someone tripping.32

29 Lutz, Viticulture and Brewing, p. 53; Pierre Monte t , Everyday Life, p. 106; J a m e s , "Earliest Histo-ry of Wine , " p. 206; Lesko, King Tut's Wine Cellar, p. 17; Davies, Tomb of Nakht, Pl. X X V I ; Black, "Ancient E g y p t / ' p. 356. Lers t rup ("Making of Wine in Egypt ," pp. 69-70) , citing the installation found at Tell e l-Dabca, believes that some treacling vats were indeed m a d e of stone, but cites a Ptolemaic vat m a d e of mudbr ick covered with a kind of cement . She also notes vats in Nub ia m a d e of sandstone covered with cement . For Tell e l -Dab 'a , see below p. 153.

30 Moussa and Altenmüller , Tomb of Nefer and Ka-hay, PI. 9; Wilson, Egyptian Food and Drink, p. 29, Fig. 28; Davies, Tomb ofNakht, Pl. X X V I . Cf. also Black, "Ancient Egypt ," p. 356.

31 Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials, p. 17; Ghal ioungui , "Fe rmen ted Beverages," p. 10; Davies, Tomb of Rekh-mi-rē', Pl. X L V . Cf. the T o m b of Userhet , where treaders a p p e a r to hold on to grapevines tied to the horizontal pole (Wreszinski, Atlas, Taf . 12). Horizontal pole only: Newber-ry, Beni Hasan, 1: Pl. XII ( T o m b of Amenemhet ) , 2: Pl. X V I ( T o m b of Khety); pole and c o m p a n -ion: Paget a n d Pirie, Tomb of Ptah-hetep, Pl. X X X I I I . and Moussa and Altenmüller , Tomb of Nefer and Ka-hay, PI. 9. O t h e r variat ions appea r as well. See, Lutz, Viticulture and Brewing, pp . 53 -54 .

32 Moussa and Altenmüller , Tomb of Nefer and Ka-hay, PI. 9; Darby et al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, Fig. 14.2 ( T o m b of Mereruka); Davies, Tomb of Rekh-mi-re', p. 42, and PI. X L V ; Lerstrup, "Mak-ing of Wine in Egypt ," p. 70; J a m e s , "Earliest History of Wine , " p. 206.

CHAPTER THREE 1 5 2

Fig. 11. Wall painting f rom the Eighteenth-Dynasty T o m b of Nakht at Thebes. At top, treading grapes to make wine; wine amphorae appear at upper right of treading vat. Note the spout placed high up on vat. At bottom, catching and processing of birds. From Davies, Tomb of Nakht, PI. XXVI . Courtesy of the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries.

1 5 3 EGYPT II

Old Kingdom tomb paintings show vats lacking any sj30uts, so workers at that time may have allowed the crushed grapes, seeds, and must to remain together in the vat for a period of time, perhaps a week, during which fermentation would have begun. Only then would the liquid have been drawn off and fer-mentation allowed to proceed. This would naturally have created a rather strong red wine. New Kingdom vintage scenes, such as in the T o m b of Nakht (Fig. 11), show treading vats constructed with spouts that allowed the must, while treading was underway, to drain out into a small vat. When full, workers transferred the must into jars for fermentation. Since the holes seem to have been placed high on the vats, one can assume that the must drawn off was treat-ed differently from what remained in the vat. T h e latter material would have remained with the skins and seeds and would have required bailing out and scp-arating later. Perhaps the first must drawn off went into making a white wine, or at least a lighter red wine, while the last portion was destined for a darker red wine. In the New Kingdom, a more substantial roof-structure, supported by pil-lars, protected workers from the sun while they trod the grapes.33 Following treading and drawing off the must, the remaining material was removed from the vat and strained through a cloth; at least, that seems to be what is represent-ed in the painting from the Middle Kingdom T o m b of Baqt III.34 Paintings from tombs of the Late period, of which there are very few showing vintage scenes, take as their model the simple, shallow treading vat typical of the Old Kingdom. They appear to show the vats as somewhat wider at the top than at the bottom, though it has been doubted that this was necessarily so. T h e painter of the treading scene depicted in the T o m b of Petosiris, which dates to the early Ptolemaic period, however, took as his model the deep New Kingdom vat with spouts.35

Archaeological evidence for treading vats has not been forthcoming, although Treading: the

remains of a Pharaonic treading vat of the Eighteenth-Dynasty may have been archaeological

found at Tell el-Dab'a in the northeastern part of the Delta. T h e identification evidence

remains tentative, but its location in a temple precinct in an area perhaps associ-atcd with a known Nineteenth-Dynasty vineyard lends credence to the sugges-

33 T h a t the ancient Egyptians knew white wine before the G r a e c o - R o m a n period is question-able. See below p. 163. For New K i n g d o m roof structures, see Davies, Tomb of Nakht, Pl. X X V I , and Black, "Ancient Egypt ," p. 356.

34 Davies, Tomb of Nakht, PI. X X V I ; J a m e s , "Earliest History of Wine , " p. 206, 212; Lesko, King Tut's I Vine Cellar, p. 18; Newber ry , Beni Hasan, 2: Pl. V I ( T o m b of Baqt). As pressing, not t reading, is shown in the T o m b of Baqt , whose paintings do not survive in their entirety, the sieving may refer to a step following pressing. See below p. 160.

35 Lerstrup, "Making of Wine in Egypt," p. 69; Gustave Lefebvre, Le tombeau de Petosiris. 3 Vols. (Cairo: L'Institut Français d 'Archéologie Orientale , 1923-24), 3: Pl. XII (late fourth century B. C.).

CHAPTER THREE 1 5 4

tion.36 With room only for one or two treaders, the shallow, rectangular vat, cut into the limestone and measuring ca. 1/28 m. χ 0.62 m., inclined slightly to allow the must to run off. This created a depth at its upper end of ca. 2.0 cm., and ca. 7.0 cm. at the other end. At the lower level an overflow channel, ca. 5.0 cm. wide and 1.6 m. long, conducted the liquid toward the bottom of the incline where it divided into two channels, each of which led to a reservoir (not extant). T h e capacity of the single vat was ca. thirty-five liters. Neither in size, shape, nor construction does this pressing establishment correspond to evidence from art historical sources. If the vats illustrated in tombs represent actual treading troughs made of perishable materials, wood or plastered mud brick, and located in the open near the vineyard, they would be less likely to endure the centuries. T h e survival of this emplacement, if it is a winemaking installation, however, gives reason to hope for subsequent discoveries.

Mechanical Once the grapes had been pressed and the must drawn off and placed into squeezing: the sack open vessels to ferment, workers turned to the crushed skins and seeds to extract

press any liquid not expressed by treading. This was performed through torsion with a linen or cloth sack in a process that the Egyptian termed "wringing out the linen." As found in many Old Kingdom tombs, such as the T o m b of Ptah-hotep and of Nianchchnum and Chnumhotep , the sack press operated on a rather basic principle, but its actual manipulation may have been anything but sim-pie.37

T h e preparation of the sack to receive the grape skins does not appear in any tomb painting and so is open to various interpretations. T h e crushed grape skins and seeds were apparently placed onto a long piece of cloth or linen, which was then wrapped around them to create a bag or sack to enclose the material.38

Then, each end was knotted and a long pole slipped through the knot. What happens next constitutes the canonical representation of pressing employed by all tomb artists. Although there are problems with the interpretation of some

36 Meeks, "Olé icul ture et vit iculture," p. 22, a n d Fig. 4. Lesko ("Egyptian W i n e Product ion, י י

pp . 228-29) , while accept ing the identification as a winemaking installation, does not exclude the possibility that it had been an abattoir .

37 Cf. also some Middle K i n g d o m tombs, such as the T o m b s of A m e n e m h e t and of Khety at Beni Hasan (Newberry, Beni Hasan, 1: Pl. XII ; 2: Pl. X V I , respectively) and Tehut i -he tep at El Bersheh (Percy E. Newberry , El Bersheh [London: Egypt Explorat ion Fund , n. d. (1894)], 1: Pis. X X V and X X X I ) . T h e reference to "wringing out the l inen" comes f rom the latter tomb. See Pierre Monte t , Scenes de la vie privée dans les tombeaux égyptiens de l'Ancien Empire (Strasbourg: Librairie Istra, 1925), p. 269.

3H Paget and Pirie (Tomb of Ptah-hetep, p. 28) believe that the bag came ready p repared with loops on the ends. Moussa a n d Altenmüller think that the bag was tied at each end and split lengthwise to receive the grape skins. See Moussa and Althenmüller , Tomb of Nefer and Ka-hay, p. 24.

1 5 5 EGYPT II

Fig. 12. Drawings of painted scenes of grape processing from the walls of three different Egyptian tombs at Thebes. From top to bottom: (1) treading in a large treading vat, (2) treading in a shallow treading vat, (3) squeezing grapes with a bag press without a frame. Note the methods used by treaders to keep their balance while treading. From Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, 2: Plate X.

CHAPTER THREE 156

details of the scene (discussed below), the general procedure for squeezing the grapes is clear. T w o or more individuals composing a team and placed at each end of the sack grasp the pole and, holding the sack over a large bowl, begin to rotate them in opposite directions. As the men twist the pole, they exchange ends and continue to turn. This action twists the sack, drawing it up and squeez-ing the grape skins, thereby expressing any remaining must, which falls into the bowl. Although the maneuver would naturally be rather unwieldy, it does work.

T h e artistic rendering of the pressing scene raises several interesting questions, however. In some examples one worker of each team seems to float above his companion, while in others the top worker appears to stand upon the other (Fig. 12).39 A fifth person in this scene, and in many other instances as well, compli-cates matters further. He appears between the two teams of workers and seems to perform a feat of acrobatic virtuosity. While his companions twist their poles, the center figure appears to place both feet on one pole, or one foot on one pole and another on the other, all the while pushing the poles apar t with both hands. His actions and those of his companions have drawn much attention from schol-ars who have yet to agree on their interpretation.

Vandier interprets the scene in terms of Egyptian artistic convention, explain-ing that the artist renders the workers in the same plane though in reality they are not. Schäfer adds that the different versions illustrate the gradual coming together of the two figures over time, as artists ". . . rendering the schema of their predecessors gave in to the temptation to place the figures on top of one another; it should not be thought that the upper pair actually stand on their companions ' backs."1" T h e fifth worker, in this view, actually stands behind the sack press (from the viewer's perspective) and attempts to keep the poles from coming together, which they would naturally do as the sack, twisted tighter and tighter, draws up. He is shown above the scene, because to depict him naturally would partially obscure him behind the sack and bowl. His other duty was prob-ably to make any adjustments to the sack as necessary and to ensure that the must fell into the bowl and not onto the ground.41 It is difficult to imagine the four workers, two on each end, twisting the full sack, which must have been heavily laden with grape skins and must, supporting the weight of the fifth work-

;!i) Floating: Newber ry , Beni Ilnsan, 1: Pl. XII ( T o m b of Amenemhet ) ; s tanding on compan ion : ibid., 2: Pl. X V I ( T Ū m b of Khety).

40 Schäfer , Principles of Egyptian Art, pp . 200 02. 41 Vandie r , Manuel, 4: 2324־ ; Mon te t , Scenes de la vie privée, pp. 26973־ ; idem, Everyday Life, pp .

106-07; J a m e s , "Earliest History of W i n e , " pp. 206-07 ; Lutz, Viticulture and Brewing, p. 55; and D a r b y et al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, p. 560. Lei s t rup ("Making of Wine in Egypt ," p. 71, and Fig. 14) believes that two men , one on each side of the sack, worked to keep the poles apar t . T o my knowledge, however, no artistic representat ion shows two men in this position.

1 5 7 EGYPT II

er and maintaining the sack directly above the jar . Nevertheless, it is hard to clis-miss the idea that there was something to the representation as portrayed.4 2

T h e artist of the pressing scene in the T o m b of Ptah-hotep, for example, uses overlapping figures to imply a depth of field. T h e two background work-ers hold the poles about midway up while the workers in the foreground grasp the poles near the top. T h e scene appears to represent the point in time at which the twisting has ended and the poles are being held still to allow the fifth worker, seemingly standing with one foot on each pole, to push them apart . T h e sack is shown tightly twisted as must pours out into the bowl. T h e pressing scene in the T o m b of N ianchchnum and C h n u m h o t e p provides a more elaborate parallel. Using overlapping individuals, the artist represents eight workers: three on one side working a pole, four on the other, and one in the usual high-wire position. O n e worker on the left side has one foot braced against the shoulder of a companion, while a worker on the right side places his foot on the thigh of a fellow worker who is kneeling. Additionally, on the right side, the fourth worker has wrapped a rope a round the high end of the pole and pulls down in unison with his companions. Sccnes from these two tombs clearly have much in common , as well as with similar scenes f rom other tombs. T h e most obvious similarity is the degree of acrobatic contort ion engaged in by the workers.

This athleticism apparently caught the attention of the artist in the T o m b of Nefer and Ka-hay. O n e worker standing at each end of the sack holds his end of the pole down toward the ground, while the other, seemingly bracing his foot on the back of his companion, rises up while at the same time pulling his end of the pole down to twist the sack.43 T h e artist, however, has replaced the fifth human worker with a baboon. He braces one foot on one pole, while the other appears to rest on the sack itself. With both hands grasping one of the poles, he strains to keep the two poles apart . Clearly, this particular artist, who elsewhere in the relief portrays a baboon in a boat-building scene, has a sense of humor . T h e suggestion has been made that the baboon represents a linguis-tic joke. Th rough paronomasy the baboon (jrn) stands for the descriptive word rn, meaning "to turn ," alluding to the twisting of the poles. Although there may be a hint of a pun here, the same association seems incongruous in the scene

42 Paget and Pirie (Tomb of Ptah-hetep, p. 28) believe that the representat ion is t rue to reality; to them the fifth figure really docs use his entire body to keep the poles separated.

43 T h e pressing motif f rom the New K i n g d o m T o m b of Puyemre shows a similar scene. Here , on both sides, o n e worker kneels and holds his end of the pole down, while the second grasps the pole and , b rac ing one foot against the pole nea r his compan ion , pulls down to tighten the sack. See Wreszinski, Atlas, Taf . 13.

CHAPTER THREE 158 with the baboon standing on the ship where the idea of turning is less obvi-ous.44

The artist must have known (or heard) that operation of the sack press required several people at a time, and that in manipulation of the poles to its greatest efficiency the workers had to perform some rather interesting maneu-vers. It can be doubted that the precise positions shown in the illustrations were in all instances performed in reality. T h a t a worker stood on the shoulder of his standing companion seems unlikely, but to brace himself he may have placed a foot on the back or on the upper part of the leg of one who was kneeling and holding his end of the pole down. Likewise, it is improbable that the fifth worker actually stood on the poles or on the sack itself, though it is a reasonable conjec-ture that he may have used one foot in his efforts to force the poles apart, while placing his other foot on the ground to steady himself.45 These feats were possi-ble, but they required agile individuals. T h e innovative artist of the T o m b of Nefer and Ka-hay, therefore, inserted a baboon, a very deft animal, in his scene as a humorous variation on a common theme. Within the limits of Egyptian artistic convention, adherence to a canon, and his understanding of the proce-dure, therefore, the artist may be attempting to represent, however inadequate-ly, what actually occurred, or what he thought to have occurred, in operating the sack press.46 T h e difficult maneuvers required the cooperation of several strong individuals, one of whom had to be light and considerably spry. It comes as no surprise, then, that the Egyptians looked for a better way to squeeze grapes.

The stationaiy sack Although some Middle Kingdom tombs illustrate the previously described press method of squeezing grape skins, two from Beni Hasan depict a more efficient

version, which required fewer workers and was easier to operate (Fig. 13). It allowed for greater leverage in twisting the sack while at the same time prevent-ed the sack from contracting when twisted. In the Eleventh-Dynasty T o m b of Baqt III the sack is shown supported by a wooden f rame built of two uprights strengthened by a horizontal beam at the top and anchored in a platform where

14 Paget and Pirie, Tomb of Ptah-hetep, Pl. X X X I I I ; Moussa and Altenmüller , Tomb of Nefer and Ka-hay, p. 24, n. 137. For the pressing scene, see ibid., Pl. 12; for boat scene, PI. 19. Lerstrup ("Making of W i n e in Egypt ," p. 71) links the baboon on the ship with the twisting of ropes. Baboons appea r in o ther t o m b paintings as well, such as in the T o m b of N i a n c h c h n u m and C h n u m h o t e p , but do not play an integral par t in the activity por t rayed. See Moussa and Alten-müller, Das Grab des Nianchchnum und Chnumhotep, Ta f . 24, and Abb. 10.

45 Wilkinson (Manners and Customs, 2: 152, note) previously m a d e this suggestion. For a discussion of the artistic canon and the a י'4 r t i s t s relationship to it, see Whi tney Davis,

The Canonical Tradition in Ancient Egyptian Art (Cambridge: C a m b r i d g e University Press, 1987), esp. p p . 5 9 - 1 1 5 , 198-224.

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Fig. 13. Drawing of wall painting from T o m b 15, at Beni Hasan, depicting Egyptian bag press in a frame. From Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, 2: 153, No. 140.

CHAPTER THREE 1 6 0

they are further braced at the bottom. O n e end of the bag is tied and then anchored by a rope to the post on the right side of the frame, while the second end is tied off with a rope that is then fed through a hole in the left upright. A pole is placcd through a loop tied in this latter rope. Three men twist the pole while a fourth worker tends to the sack to ensure that the must falls into the jar placed beneath it. By this means, the necessity of the middle worker having to force the poles apart during squeezing is eliminated. T h e scene in the Twelfth-Dynasty T o m b of Chnemhotep , although closely following this arrangement, shows a variation in the manner of securing the bag to the uprights. O n the right side, the sack seems to be anchored to a knob-like projection on the post. O n the left side — the painting is heavily damaged here — it appears that the sack itself has been inserted through the hole in the upright and tied into a knot through which the pole has been inserted.47 A painting on the wall of the Nine-teenth-Dynasty temple of Seti I at Abydos shows a sack press in a frame. Here the pole is short and stubby, and is operated by one person. If, as has been sug-gestcd, this press was used to squeeze water f rom animal fat, as part of a fat-ren-dering proccss, the amount of pressure required 011 the sack, and so the number of people necessary to operate it, would be significantly reduced.48

Straining and Following pressing, workers strained the must through a linen cloth to remove fermentation any seeds or other residue still remaining, and then set the liquid aside in open

containers to ferment. These two steps are not clearly represented in the paintings, although this appears to be the purpose of workers shown to the left of the sack press in the T o m b of Baqt π ι . While three (four?) companions hold a linen cloth taut, a fourth pours a liquid through the cloth into a small jar. T o their left, a sin-gle worker stirs a large open container. What this j a r holds is unknown, but must in the early stage of fermentation is a reasonable guess.49 Not all paintings repre-sent this activity, showing instead workers pouring a liquid directly into jars. There is no way to distinguish the liquid as must or wine that has already fermented.

47 Wi thou t f rame: T o m b s of A m e n e m h e t a n d Khe ty at Beni Hasan (Newberry, Beni Hasan, 1: XII; 2: XVI) , and of Tehu t i -he tep at El Bersheh (Newberry, El Bersheh, 1: Pl. X X X I ) . Wi th f rame: T o m b of Baqt (Newberry, Beni Hasan, 2: Pl. VI) and of C h n e m h o t e p (ibid., 1: Pl. XLIV) , both at Beni Hasan . See also Wreszinski, Atlas, Taf . 13, for a New Kingdom example of a f rame that has port ions of the sack inserted th rough both uprights. T w o individuals on each end twist the sack with a long pole.

48 Sal ima Ikram, Choice Cuts. Meat Production in Ancient Egypt (Louvain: Uitgeverij Pccters, 1995), pp. 177-78, and Fig. 55.

49 Newber ry , Beni Hasan, 2: Pl. VI ( T o m b of Baqt). Cf. also T o m b of Khe ty (ibid., Pl. XVI) . Lucas (Ancient Egyptian Materials, p. 27) notes that the scene with the m a n stirring the pot (over a fire?) might represent the product ion of g rape syrup. See also Albert Neuburge r , The Technical Arts and Sciences of the Ancients. Hen ry L. Rose, trans. (New York: Macmil lan C o m p a n y , 1930), p. 106, Fig. 170; D a r b y et al, Pood: the Gift of Osiris, 1: 440.

161 EGYPT II

After initial fermentation in open vessels, the wine was presumably racked Wine jars

(there is no clear evidence for this) and then transferred to wide-mouthed jars, which were sealed with a bung made of clay and straw, and allowed to ferment further. It is unknown if the must expressed by pressing was added to what had already been obtained by treading. Questions also exist over whether the jars had been lined with resin or some similar sealant to assist in the fermentation process and to affect the taste. T h e fact that wood, and so resin, was a scarce commodity in Egypt, and so would be less likely to have been utilized for this rather mundane function, and the fact that wine jars were fanned to keep them cool imply that they were not coated. Wine jars coated with resin are not secure-ly identified until the Graeco-Roman period.50

J a r s containing wine in the final stages of fermentation presented a practical problem. Any residual fermentation would produce gases that, unless vented, would crack the jars, if not produce an explosion. Egyptian vintners solved this problem by creating a small hole in the stopper to allow the gases to escape.51

T h e problem with accumulating gases was also solved by using what Lesko calls a "secondary fermentation lock."52 This took the form of a saucer with a small hole in the bottom, which was seated into the mouth of the vessel and sealed around the edges with clay. When fermentation ceased — how the vintner knew this is unknown, perhaps by odor — the hole in the bung was filled. T h e final sealing of the wine jar prevented the organism Mycoderma aceti, which naturally occurs in the air, f rom reacting with the wine to convert the alcohol to acetic acid, or vinegar.53

50 D a r b y et al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, p. 567; Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials, p. 19. Coa ted : Lutz, Viticulture and Brewing, pp. 56 57; Wilson, Egyptian Food and Drink, p. 31. Uncoa ted : Monte t , Everyday Life, p. 88; Ghal ioungui , "Fe rmen ted Beverages," p. 11, Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials, p. '20. Fann ing wine jars: N o r m a n de Garis Davies, The Rock Tombs of El Amarna. 6 Vols. (London: Egypt Explorat ion Society, 1903-1908), 6: Pis. IV (identified as the T o m b of Parennefer) , X I X ( T o m b of Tutu) , X X V I I I ( T o m b of Ay); Ty lor a n d Griffi th, Tomb of Paheri, Pl. I l l ; Lise Mann iche , Lost Tombs, A d d e n d u m 269, no. 1 16. Scenes of p repa r ing vessels to receive the wine and sealing them can be found in the T o m b s of A m e n e m h e t (Newberry, Beni Hasan, 1 : Pl. XII), N ianchch-n u m and C h n u m h o t e p (Moussa and Altenmüller , Das Tomb of Nianchchnum and Chnumhotep, Ta f . 16), T h e b a n T o m b No. 155 (Lesko, "Egypt ian W i n e Produc t ion ," Fig. 14.2), and T h e b a n T o m b No. 261 (idem, King Tut 's Wine Cellar, p. 20). See also Lers t rup, " M a k i n g of Wine in Egypt ," p. 75.

51 Lesko, King Tut's Wine Cellar, pp. 20 -21 . 111 some vessels, the hole had been m a d e into the side of the vessel's neck. See Da rby et al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, p. 561; Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Mate-rials, p. 18. Since not all wine j a r s thus far found have this hole, Lers t rup ("Making of Wine in Egypt ," pp. 73-74) doubts that inserting a hole in the sealing or in the neck of the jar was a neces-sary step. The re fo re , she hesitates to ascribe a specific purpose to the holes.

52 Lesko, King Tut's Wine Cellar, p. 20; J . E. Qiiibell, The Ramesseum (London: Bernard Qua r i t ch , 1898), p. 8.

53 Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials, pp. 18-19. T h e vintner did not always accurately estimate when fermenta t ion ceased, as the cracked wine j a r in the T o m b of T u t a n k h a m u n attests. Sec Lesko (King Tut's Wine Cellar, p. 21) for o ther explanat ions of the broken j a r .

CHAPTER THREE 1 6 2

Some wines were blended with others, but it is unknown at what point during the production process that would have occurred.54 T h e vintner made doubly sure of an airtight seal by covering the entire top of the j a r with a complete coating of clay. While the clay was still wet, the vintner made an impression in the stopper that identified the estate that made the wine. O n the shoulder of the vessel, he inscribed in ink a hieratic label that gave various facts about the wine, such as quality, the year in which it was made (distinguished by regnal year), and location of the vineyard. T h e wine was then stored until ready for use. Amphorae from Tutankhamun 's tomb (PI. 15) were made of red clay and whitewashed, and had 1 two small handles and a pointed toe. This last characteristic rendered the vessel stronger and so more resistent to rough handling and more capable of holding the heavy liquid but incapable of standing upright unsupported. Storage scenes in tomb paintings often show them placed in wood racks or stone rings or merely leaning against each other or against the wall of the wine cellar. When empty, the jars could be reused.55

Varieties of wine O u r knowledge of the varieties of Egyptian wines derives from epigraphic and archaeological sources. From Early Dynastic times sealed wine jars often carried labels that, besides the year of vintage, estate location, and name of the wine-maker, might also indicate other information that can distinguish varieties of wine. A list carved on the wall of the Old Kingdom T o m b of Khentika lists five wines displayed on the offering table of the vizier. These wines, which essentially became the canonical wines found on subsequent offering lists, all appear to have come from the Delta. T h e best examples of labeled wine jars come from the T o m b of Tu tankhamun and from the cities of Amarna and Thebes.5 6 So, for example, wines distinguishable by their origin include varieties from Buto, Hurseka (near Lake Mareotis), the "Western River," the Marshes (i. e. Lower

54 Blending dur ing winemaking finds conf i rmat ion in several wine j a r s at Malka ta that bore labels identifying the contents as "b lended . " Exactly wha t the term signifies, however, is uncer-tain. Blending just pr ior to drinking, however , is illustrated in a scene f rom T h e b a n T o m b No. 113, in which an individual at a b a n q u e t by means of long straws siphons off wines f rom three dif-ferent jars into a single large wine vessel. Ano the r m a n appears to replenish the wines being mixed. See Lesko, King Tut's Wine Cellar, p. 31. For ano the r possible example , see Mann iche , Lost Tombs, p. 183, and PI. '58, no. 89.

55 Lesko, "Egypt ian Wine Product ion ," p. 223; Lutz, Viticulture and Brewing, pp . 58 -59 ; Lesko, King Tut's Wine Cellar, p. 2; Davies, Rock Tombs of El Amarna, 6 ( T o m b of Parennefer): Plate IV; M a n n i c h e , Lost Tombs, PI. 44. Al though Bryant W o o d notes that a few wine vessels found at Malkata had been reused, with a second label added , he doubts that reuse of wine a m p h o r a e was generally followed. Bryant G. W o o d , "Egypt ian A m p h o r a e of the New Kingdom and Ramessid Periods," BiblArch 50, no. 2 (June 1987): 82, note 5. Bryant (p. 76) also discusses the value of the poin ted toe for Egyptian a m p h o r a e a n d notes (pp. 7879־) that Egyptian a m p h o r a e lacked the two handles until the late Middle K ingdom.

Lesko, King Tut's Wine Cellar,'p. 1 1, 22 33; idem, "Egypt י6 ian W i n e Product ion ," pp. 220 -28 .

1 6 3 EGYPT II

Egypt), and the South (i. e. Upper Egypt).57 Some wines were noted as "sweet" as opposed to dry, while other terms indicated wines made from fruits other than grapes, such as dates or palms. Pharaonic evidence for wine made from pomegranates or figs is controversial.58 Wines were also distinguished by appellatives referring to quality. "Good" was a common description, but some were labeled "very good" and a few "very, very good."5 9

T h e most controversial question concerns the color of Egyptian wine. Three Red versus white

colors are attested in literature: black, white, and red. Darby et al note that color wines

designations for wine may have connotations totally divorced from the grape itself. Black, for instance, may identify nothing more than a generic term for Egyptian wine, since another name for Egypt is black (Km.t), referring to the black land. T h e term red might refer to wines from Lower Egypt, usually signi-fied by the Red Crown, while white could denote the White Crown of Upper Egypt.60 T h e question, however, as Darby et al indicate, is not that simple. Grapes shown in tomb paintings frequently appear in dark colors, but some-times in red, green, pink, white, and blue or violet. Although Athenaeus (1.33) in the second century A. D. notes that Mareotic wine of Lower Egypt was white, little can be said about wine color of the Pharaonic period. Since the color of the grape and the presence of skins during fermentation determine the color of wine, several scholars believe that the Egyptians had both red and white wines.61

Vernon Singleton, apparently accepting the proposition that Pharaonic Egyp-tians had white wine, further argues that their wine-processing technology would have required white grapes to produce white wine. Since, as he notes, wild grapes are naturally red and a mutant gene is necessary for a white grape, he concludes that the Egyptians selected for the white variety by planting cut-tings from mutant vines.62 This is, of course, speculation, based on the assump-tion that they had white wines to begin with. Not all scholars accept this point,

57 J a m e s , "Earliest History of W i n e , " pp. 2 0 3 - 0 4 (Khentika); Will iam J . M u r n a n e , Texts From the Amarna Period in Egypt (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995), pp. 9 5 - 9 7 , 223

Lesko, "Egyptian Wine Product י־8 ion ," pp. 225. For various Egyptian wines ment ioned in sources dat ing as late as the G r a e c o - R o m a n per iod, see D a r b y et al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, pp. 5 9 7 - 6 1 2 , and Lutz, Viticulture and Brewing, pp. 7 19. Cf. also Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials, pp. 2 2 - 2 4 .

59 Quibell , Ramesseurn, p. 16; M u r n a n e , Texts, pp . 9 5 9 7 ־ ; Lesko, "Egypt ian W i n e Produc t ion ," p. 225; Ik ram, "Food for Eternity: W h a t the Ancient Egyptians Ate. Part 2 ," p. 58.

60 Darby et al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, p. 608. 61 Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials, pp. 17-18. D a r b y et al (Food: the Gift of Osiris, pp . 556-57)

refute the idea of Lutz (Viticulture and Brewing, p. 51) who, basing his conclusion on the colors of grapes in t o m b paintings, goes so far as to conclude that Egyptian grapes took on a variety of col-ors.

62 Singleton, "An Enologist 's C o m m e n t a r y on Ancient Wines ," p. 74.

CHAPTER THREE 1 6 4

and some that do concede that from present archaeological evidence it is inca-pable of proof.63

C. Oil

Olive oil Pharaonic Egyptians, in addition to medicinal uses, employed various kinds of vegetable oils, such as ben, safflower, and sesame, for cooking or as part of their diet. T o produce them the nuts or seeds would have had to have been crushed in some fashion, most likely with a mortar and pestle, as was done for plant materials used to make perfumes. If the suggestion of T . G. H . J a m e s that the hieroglyph on the First-Dynasty cylinder seal of Den was an oil press rather than a wine press is correct, then mechanical oil processing can be traced back to Early Dynastic times. The re is little evidence for this, however, beyond a Fifth-Dynasty tomb representation showing an unspecified plant material being squeezed in a sack press. T h e kind of oil requiring a sack press is unknown, but olive oil would be one among several candidates.64

Misinterpretation of the Egyptian word for moringa tree (bag) as referring to the olive has caused some scholars to see an early use of olive oil. Nevertheless, the word for olive or olive tree, djoeit, is borrowed from Canaanite , and does not appear before the reigns of Seti I and Rameses II. T h e earliest physical evidence for olives does not antedate the Twelfth Dynasty, artistic rendering of the olive tree is unattested before the Amarna Period, and literary references to olive oil appear only in the Nineteenth Dynasty.65 Finds of olive pits in workmen's vil-lages at Amarna and Deir el-Medina imply that olives were eaten, although archaeological evidence proving that the Egyptians processed the oil themselves is lacking. A usual step before pressing involves crushing the olives. There is,

ü;i Black, "Ancient Egypt ," p. 356; Meeks, "Oléicul ture et viticulture," p. 23; Lesko, King Tut's Wine Cellar, pp . 17 19; Meyer , " W e i n , " LA, col. 1171. D a r b y ct al (Food: the Gift of Osiris, pp . 556 57), while accept ing the probabil i ty that the Egyptians had both red a n d white wines, admi t the lack of archaeological evidence for it.

64 Meeks, "Oléicul ture ct viticulture," p. 10; Ikram, "Food for Eternity, י ,p. 60; Darby et al יFood: the Gift of Osiris, pp . 780-89 ; Wilson, Egyptian Food and Drink, pp . 4 8 - 4 9 . For mor ta r and pes-tie used to crush plant materials in p e r f u m e making, see Lefebvre, Tombeau de Petosiris, 1 :15 , and 3: Pl. XI (late four th century B. C.).

6 M י a r y Anne M u r r a y , in Lisa L. Giddy a n d 1). G . Jc l f reys , "Memphi s , 1990," JEA 77 (1991): 5; D a r b y et al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, pp . 718 21, 784-85 ; Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials, pp . 333 35; Meeks, "Olé icul ture et vit iculture," pp. 4 - 5 ; idem, "Migra t ion ," p. 81; Shmue l Ahituv, "Observa t ions on Olive Oil in Ancient Egypt ," in Olive Oil in Antiquity. Israel and Neighbouring Coun-tries from the JVeolthic to the Early Arab Period. David Ei tam and Michael Holtzcr, eds. History of the Ancient N e a r E a s t / Studies־Vol . VII (Padua: Sargon srl, 1997), pp. 4 1 - 4 3 .

1 6 5 EGYPT II

however, no archaeological, literary, or art historical evidence for this prelimi-nary stage of olive oil production. It is possible that what olive oil production took place did so in conjunction with wine processing. T h e close connection between oil and wine can be seen in the fact that Ssm.w was the god both of the oil press and of the winepress, and his hieroglyph took the form of the latter. Pyramid Texts mention him in both capacities, though the oil referred to at this time may be from the moringa tree rather than the olive.66 T h e vast olive groves bestowed upon various temples by Rameses III imply quantities of olives far in excess of what could be eaten. Some of it must have been processed into oil. It is interesting to note that during the New Kingdom oil production was entrusted to the kamou, or vintner.67 Regardless of the fact that a close relationship existed between wine and oil processing in later periods, especially during the Graeco-Roman era, and that the same affinity is implied by the dual aspects of Ssm.w, there is little evidence to show that olive oil was anything more than an import-ed item in Pharaonic Egypt. Little can be said beyond this until further informa-tion, literary or archaeological, is forthcoming.

I). Animal Processing

1. Butchery

Scenes of butchery of cattle, fish, and fowl arc probably more frequently depict- Cattle ed in tomb paintings and wooden models than any other scenes of food process-ing, except possibly the preparation of bread and beer.68 Pharaonic Egyptians ate meat, though the amounts and kinds probably correlated to class. Since it was expensive and time consuming to raise cattle, beef consumption was a pre-rogative primarily of the upper classes. Indeed, ownership of livestock, particu-larly cattle, was for the ancient Egyptians a mark of prestige and wealth. T o m b paintings and wooden models frequently illustrate inspection of herds of cattle or cattle being led in ceremonial procession.69 Butchery of cattle, its related

Ghalioungi, "Fermented Beverages in Antiquity," p. 5, Fig. 1; Mercer , Pyramid Texts, I, p. 93 (Spell 403a-b of Utterances 114,( 273-274׳ (Spell 545b of Ut terance 334), 242 (Spell 1552a of Ut te rance 581); II: 187, 262; III: 752. Ciccarello ("Shesmu the Letopolite," p. 46), however, argues that Ssm.w's connection with oil does not appear before the Eighteenth Dynasty, when his association with wine almost disappears.

67 Darby et al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, p. 785; Meeks, "Oléiculture et viticulture," p. 5. (iB Most of the discussion on butchery of animals is based on Salima Ikram's exhaustive study of

butchery in Pharaonic Egypt, Choice Cuts: Meat Production in Ancient Egypt (Louvain: Uitgeverij Peeters, 1995).

69 Food of the wealthy: Monte t , Eveiyday Life, p. 89; cattle: Davies, Mastaba of Ptahhetep and Akhethetep, 1: Pl. X X X ; 2: Pl. XIV; idem, Tomb ofKen-amun, Pl. X X X I I I ; Newberry, Beni Hasan, 1:

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activities, and the display of the butchcred parts, particularly the leg, were favorite religious and ceremonial motifs in tomb paintings dating from the late Thi rd or early Fourth Dynasty, and remained so until the New Kingdom.7 0 O n e commonly represented scene preliminary to butchery was force-feeding animals in order to fatten them up. Additionally, most animals destined for the slaugh-terhouse had probably been castrated at an early age, although the process has not been recognized in any art historical source. Besides creating a more easily handled animal, castration has a favorable effcct on the texture and flavor of the meat.71

Regardless of comments by classical authors and prohibitions common to Muslim countries today, the ancient Egyptians did eat pork. Pigs rarely appear in scencs in tomb paintings before the Eighteenth Dynasty, while archaeological excavations have recovered only sparse remains of pig bones for periods prior to the New Kingdom. Nevertheless, it seems likely that domesticated pig formed part of the diet as early as Neolithic times.72 Ongoing studies of evidence from sites dating to the New Kingdom indicate that pork was an important item in the diet of the common people. Nakht, the temple weaver of the Twentieth-Dynasty Pharaoh Sethnakhte, at Deir cl-Bahri, for example, apparently enjoyed pork, although, as the autopsy of his m u m m y indicates, he had contracted trichinosis f rom the undercooked meat. Inhabitants of the workmen's villages at Amarna and Deir el-Medina raised pigs and goats in pens for their own con-sumption and, perhaps, for sale.73

Pl. X X X ( T o m b of Chnemho tep ) ; idem, El Bersheh, 1: Pl. XI I ( T o m b of Tehut i-hetep); Winlock, Models, pp. 19-22 (Model C), and Allan S. Gilbert , "Zooarchaeological Observat ions on the Slaughterhouse of Meke t re , " JEA 74 (1988): 70 -73 .

70 Ikram, Choice Cuts, pp. 41, 82. For a list of tombs conta in ing paint ings displaying butchery of cattle, in part icular , see ibid., T a b l e I, pp . 2 9 7 - 3 0 3 . See also Winlock, Models, pp . 2 3 - 2 5 (Model E), and Gilbert , "Zooarchaeological Observat ions ," pp. 78-89 .

71 Force feeding: Newberry, Beni Hasan, 1: Pl. X X X (Tomb of Chnemhotep) ; Davies, Tomb of Ken-amun, Pl. LXI ; Saleh, Three Old Kingdom Tombs, PI. 10 (Tonil) of Khenty); Torgny Säve-Söderbergh, The Old Kingdom Cemetery at Hamra Dom (El-Qasr I Va Es-Saiyad) (Stockholm: T h e Royal Academy of Letters, History, and Antiquities, 1994), PI. 10; Winlock, Models, pp. 2223־ (Model D). Artistic rep-resentations of stabled cattle apparently lacking a scrotum has suggested to some the habit of cas-trating cattie, and so the presence of oxen in Pharaonic Egypt. Not every scholar has accepted this inference. See Gilbert, "Zooarchaeological Observat ions," pp. 73-77 , esp. note 25, p. 75.

72 Herodo tus 2.47. O n pigs in Egypt, sec Vandie r , Manuel, 5: Fig. 1 12; Ikram, Choice Cuts, pp . ־2933 , especially T a b l e IV, p. 305, in which arc listed tombs where pigs appea r pictorially repre-sented. See also H . M . Hecker, "A Zooarchaeological Inquiry into Pork Consumpt ion in Egypt f rom Prehistoric to N e w K i n g d o m T i m e s , " JARCE 19 (1982): 5 9 - 7 1 , esp. T a b l e 1, pp. 6 3 - 6 4 ; Rober t L. Miller, "Hogs and Hygiene, ' 5 JEA 76 (1990): 125-40. Large quanti t ies of pig bone have also been recovered f r o m Middle K i n g d o m K a h u n . See Wilson, Egyptian Food and Drink, p. 35.

73 T h e evidence for trichinosis comes f rom the discovery of a Trichinella spiralis cyst in muscle fiber. Detect ion of t apeworm ova also implies the consumpt ion of meat . Nicholas B. Millet,

1 6 7 EGYPT II

Used as hieroglyphic symbol, included in offering lists, depicted frequently in Fowl

relief, sculpture, and painting, and associated with certain deities, such as Horus, birds played a major role in Egyptian life. Poultry, including pigeons, doves, quail, partridges, ducks, geese, and various other aquatic birds, along with their eggs, was eaten by members of all social orders.74 As with fish, the trapping of birds and processing them were often depicted in tomb paintings. So, for exam-pie, birds are frequently shown being trapped with nets in marshy areas along the Nile. Like cattle, the Egyptians also force-fed some of the larger birds, such as geese, before butchering.75

T h e slaughter of cattle — butchery of pigs has yet to be recognized in any Butchery of cattle

artistic representation — almost invariably followed the same sequence, though various steps in the process are often omitted in painted scenes from one tomb to another.7 6 T h e animal was led either directly to the abattoir from the field where the herd was kept or first to a stable where it was force-fed and fattened, and then conducted to the place of slaughter where it was tied to a tethering stone.77 T h e butcher ' assistants felled the animal by lassooing his legs and trip-ping it, tied up its legs, and held it still. T h e butcher first slit the animal's throat, while an assistant held a bowl to catch the first blood that !lowed out. This he presented to a temple priest for inspection.78 Whether the examination was to

Gera ld D. Har t , Theodore A. R e y m a n , Michael R. Z i m m e r m a n , and Peter K. Lewin, " R O M I: Mummif ica t ion for the C o m m o n People," in Mummies, Disease, and Ancient Cultures. Aidan Cock-bu rn , Eve Cockburn , a n d T h e o d o r e A. R e y m a n , eds. 2״<l ed. (Cambridge: C a m b r i d g e University Press, 1998), pp. 9 1 - 1 0 5 . For workmen ' s villages, see K e m p et al, "Food for an Egyptian City," pp. 143-45; K e m p et al, Amarna Reports, 1: 4 0 - 5 3 ־3459 :3 ; ; and 4: 4 7 - 5 0 , 56 ־62.

74 Ikram, Choice Cuts, pp. 2.3 29; Gard ine r , Egyptian Grammar, pp. 467 74; Petrie, Egyptian Hiero-glyphs of the First and Second Dynasties, Figs. XII X V .

75 See, e. g., Newberry , Beni Hasan, 1: Pl. X X X ; idem, El Bersheh, Pis. X V I I and X X I ; Davies, Tomb of Ken-Amun, PI. LI; and H a r p u r , "Identi ty a n d Positions of Relief Fragments , " pp. 35 -36 . T r a p p i n g birds: Vandie r , Manuel, 5: 307 98; force-feeding birds: Darby et al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, 1: Fig. 6.17 ( T o m b o f M e r c r u k a ) ; Newber ry , El Bersheh, 1: Pl. X X I I ( T o m b of Tehut i -he t -ep); Breasted, Egyptian Servant Statues, pp. 4 4 - 4 5 ; Wilson, Egyptian Food and Drink, p. 39, Fig. 42 ( T o m b of Kagemni , Sixth Dynasty). O n the purpose of scenes of t rapping a n d processing birds in t o m b paintings, see commen t s in regard to fishing scenes in note 103, p. 174.

70 See esp. Vandie r , Manuel, 5: 128 306, w h o describes in detail the butchery process shown in various tombs dat ing f rom the Old to the New Kingdoms. Cf. , as well, Ikram, Choice Cuts, pp. 4 1 - 5 4 ; Monte t , Scenes de la vie privée, pp. 150 79; and Strouhal , Life of the Ancient Egyptians, p. 130.

77 Although several t o m b paint ings illustrate force-feeding, the best representat ion of this phase of the process can be seen in the early Middle K i n g d o m model (Model C) f rom the T o m b of Meket-re . T h e stable has its front half open to the sky, while the back par t is a covered stall where a t tendants force-feed three animals to fa t tened them. Winlock, Models, pp. 22 23, and Pis. 17, 59; Gilbert , "Zooarchaeological Observat ions ," pp. 73 78.

78 Truss ing the animal: Vandie r , Manuel, 5: Fig. 88. 3-4; slitting the animal ' s throat : Gilbert , "Zooarchacological Observat ions ," pp. 8386־ ; Vand ie r , Manuel, 5: Fig. 95.1; and Strouhal , Life of the Ancient Egyptians, Fig. 139; inspection of blood: Paget a n d Pirie, Tomb of Ptah-hetep, Pl. X X X V I ;

CHAPTER THREE 1 6 8

ascertain its purity or to determine f rom its look and smell if the animal were healthy is unknown. Likewise, besides as an additive to medicines, it is uncertain for what purpose the blood was later used, whether employed in some ritual or prepared in some fashion as a food. In several paintings, near the butchery scene workmen attend to a kettle placed over a fire. What the cauldron contains is uncertain, but some scholars identify it as blood being boiled to make a pud-ding. Next, the butcher ceremoniously removed the foreleg, flayed the animal, and set about butchering the rest of the carcass, either there or in another part of the abattoir. T h e portions of meat were processed into various prescribed cuts or shapes.79

Abattoir Remains of an abattoir in the Old Kingdom funerary temple of Raneferef near Abusir show a two-story building, 15.0 m. χ 27 m., possessed of an unroofed front room equipped with three tethering blocks. Three other rooms, one of which still possessed a mud-brick chopping block, served for subsequent butchering. Signs of burning in fireplaces indicate that the meat was cooked in the same rooms in which it was jointed. T h e abattoir contained several other rooms for storing the meat.80 Although numerous tomb paintings illustrate the butchery sccne, the wooden model of a butcher 's shop from the Middle King-dom T o m b of Meket-re (PI. 16) provides an excellent visual conception of the l complete process and offers a close structural parallel with the abattoir at Abusir.81 T h e shop is divided into two parts. T h e front room has a tall ceiling with the front wall open near the top to allow circulation of air. T h e back room is divided into two stories, but with a ceiling shorter than the one in the front room. In the latter room attendants arc in the act of butchering two trussed-up animals lying on the floor. O n e man wields the knife; another holds a bowl to catch the blood.82 Butchered meat already hangs on ropes stretched across the

Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, 2: 375. See also references in H e n r y George Fischer, " 'Milk in Everything Cooked ' (Sinuhe Β 91-92) , " in Varia. Egyptian Studies 1 (New York: T h e Metropol i -tan M u s e u m of Art , 1976), note 14, pp . 98 99.

79 Ik ram (Choice Cuts, pp . 180 82) doubts that, as of ten thought , blood was used in foods, such as pudding . But, cf. Wilson, Egyptian Food and Drink, p. 41; Winlock, Models, p. 24; and Gilbert , "Zooarchaeological Observat ions ," pp. 79 -80 . R e m o v i n g foreleg: Vandie r , Manuel, 5: Fig. 86, 2 - 3 .

80 St rouhal , Life of the Ancient Egyptians, p. 130; Ik ram, Choice Cuts, pp. 91 93, a n d Fig. 19. Archaeological remains of three o ther Old Kingdom abat toirs have been uncovered at the cult temples of Userkaf, Neferirkare, and Niuserre. Ibid., pp. 93~94.

81 Winlock, Models, pp . 2 3 - 2 5 , a n d Pis. 18, 19, 21, 24, 6 0 - 6 1 (Model D). For the place of butchery, see also Ikram, Choice Cuts, pp . 8 1 - 1 0 8 , and Gilbert , "Zooarchaeologieal Observa-tions," pp. 78 82.

82 Ikram (Choice Cuts, pp. 46 48) suggests, based on her observations of mode rn Egyptian butchery, that the bull 's foreleg was p u m p e d back and forth to facilitate the blood flow so that the blood would spurt into the bowl ra the r than flow down the animals neck.

1 6 9 EGYPT II

mezzanine level of the back room. T h e cuts of meat come in various sizes and shapes. Those in the model of Meket-re included rib sections cut into large flat pieces, round and shoulder cuts in circular shape, and, most frequently, limb muscles cut into the shape of equal-sided triangles.83 New Kingdom abattoirs functioned in funerary temples at Thebes (Seti I and Rameses III), Abydos (Seti I), and Amarna (house of Panehsy, Overseer of the Cattle of the Aten, in the city, and various chapels in the workmen's village).84

Butchery technology shows clear improvements over what had been practiced Butchery tools

in the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods, both in terms of well-constructed tools and more elaborate preservation techniques. Flint knives, used in the Predynastic period and earlier, continued to be used until the First Dynasty when the Egyp-tians developed copper blades. From then on they employed both copper and flint knives, although, due to a shortage of flint, most New Kingdom knives were primarily made of metal.85 Knives came in numerous shapes, not all of which can be associated with a particular type of butchery, however. A few New Kingdom knives have the shape of the foreleg of a bull, and so were probably used most often for butchering cattle, although fishermen are shown using this type of knife in the T o m b of Puyemre at Thebes. Microwear analysis on Egyptian knives has shown that at least one form, called the "fish-tail" blade, was used to cut meat.86

T h e Egyptians also had a metal "chopper" useful for cutting through bone. T h e butchery offish and fowl used knives similarly shaped but smaller than those used to butcher cattle. Fishermen, for example, processed fish with a triangular-shaped blade, more like a cleaver, and at least four other similarly shaped knives, includ-ing the "fish-tail" blade. The same types of knives served to cut up birds.87

83 Gilbert , "Z00archac01Ūgica1 Observat ions ," pp. 80 82, 86 88; VVinlock, Models, pp . 2 4 2 ־ 5 . Cf. Davies, Tomb of Antefoker, Pl. IX; Wreszinski, Atlas, 3: Ta f . 255a. A paint ing f rom the T o m b of D jhu tno fe r at T h e b e s shows workmen carrying jo in ts of meat and ja rs up stairs to a room where a w o r k m a n sits at a table; in the background cuts of meat h a n g f rom a rope. Sal ima Ikram, "Did the Ancient Egyptians Eat Biltong?" CArchJ 5, no. 2 (Oct. 1995): 288.

Ik י־8 ram, Choice Cuts, pp. 9 6 - 1 0 6 . 85 Ik ram, Choice Cuts, pp. 66-69. H,i Leg-shaped knives: Susan K. Doll, in Egypt's Golden Age, p. 50, Figs. 20 21; Fish-tail knife: Ikram,

Choice Cuts, p. 66. Butchers of cattle shown in the Old Kingdom T o m b of Ti wield knives similar to Ikram's Type G. Sec Epron et al, L· Tombeau de Τι, 1: Pl. L. For a list of twelve Egyptian knives arranged by shape, see Ikram, Choice Cuts, Fig. 14, page 64. T h e "fish-tail" knife is listed as Type J .

87 Ikram, Choice Cuts, pp . 65-66, esp. Fig. 14. Ikram (p. 65) postulates that the t r iangular-shaped knife (Fig. 14K) may have been used to scale fish. Al though Ikram lists the knife shapes used by fishermen as 14C, D, I, J , and K. fishermen in the T o m b of T i use a knife similar to her T y p e G. See H e n r i Wild, Le Tombe de Τι (Cairo: L'Institut Français d 'Archéologie Orienta le , 1953), 2: Pl. C X X I I I ; Tylor and Griffi th, Tomb of Paheri, Pl. IV (triangular blade); Brewer and Fr iedman, Fish and Fishing, p. 14, Fig. 1.8 ( T o m b of Urarna) . For birds, see Ty lor a n d Griffi th, Tomb of Paheri, PI. IV; Davies, Tomb of Antefoker, Pl. VII I ; Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, 2: 388, Fig. 278.

CHAPTER THREE 1 7 0

Through the period of the Old Kingdom, blades and handles were made of the same material, but in the Middle Kingdom handles were wrapped in leather strips. This made grasping more comfortable for the user, and also allowed for a stronger grip when manipulating it to cut tough hides and bones. Scholars have yet to devote serious study to Egyptian knives, and a typology of shapes remains a significant lacuna. Modern archaeological experimentation, however, has shown that flint knives were sharper and held their edge longer than metal ones. Some paintings show butchers with knife sharpeners, apparently wooden or per-haps basalt sticks, hanging from their belts or being used to retouch a dull blade.88

O n e interesting sidelight comes from excavations at the workmen's village near Amarna.8 9 A study of cut marks on cattle, pig, and goat bones found that butchers carefully used small, sharp knives, or sometimes choppers, on the smaller animals but clcavers or axes wielded rather bluntly on the large ones. Rosemary Luff has suggested that the care and skill utilized for butchery of the smaller animals s temmed from a desire to obtain the greatest amount of the meat from animals that had been raised in pens in the village. She goes on to state that cattle bones, unlike those for pig and goat, received rough treatment, and showed signs of rude force imparted with heavy axes or cleavers. She pro-poses that this might have resulted from unskilled and less careful butchers who formed part of a work gang engaged in large-scale butchery for a temple inside the city. Following the initial butchery, the meat was probably carried to the workmen's village where villagers processed it further using knives.90

Cooking meat T h e dry Egyptian heat required that animal foods be eaten soon after slaugh-ter or the meat preserved in some fashion. If immediate consumption was desired, the animals could be cooked in a variety of ways. Meat animals, such as cattle, hogs, wild game, and the larger birds, could be roasted on a spit.91 Meat was occasionally grilled, and possibly, fried, though again the evidence is sparse. In a New Kingdom house at Deir el-Medina excavators found a limestone grill bearing on its surface traces of grease and evidence of burning. T h e bottom had

H8 Ik ram, Choice C u t s , 7 קנן. Breasted, Egyptian Servant Statues,.36~35 ;קנן. 70 389 Rosemary Luff, "Butchery at the W o r k m e n ' s Village (WV), Tel l -e l -Amarna, Egypt," in

Whither Environmental Archaeology? Rosemary Lull" and Peter Rowley-Conwy, eds. (Oxford: O x b o w Books, 1994), pp. 158-70.

90 For the raising of pigs for food in the workmen ' s village at A m a r n a , see esp. J a n e t Richards, Linda Hul in , Ian Shaw, and Barry K e m p , Amama Reports III, pp . 6 0 - 7 9 . See also K e m p , "Food for an Egyptian City," pp for the conveyance of meat in j ,־13945 . a r s to the village and for rais-ing pigs a n d goats.

91 Vand ie r , Manuel, 4: 2 6 5 - 7 1 , a n d Fig. 121; D a r b y et al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, Fig. 6.24; Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, 2: 388, Fig. 278.3.

171 EGYPT II

been hollowed out to allow it to be placed over hot coals to cook the food placed on top. Fowl, which had been split open and cleaned in a manner similar to a process called spatchcocking, were found in an Eighteenth-Dynasty tomb at Deir el-Medina, but whether they had been grilled is debatable. Fish may have also been prepared in this manner , but examples are lacking.92 T h e most fre-quently represented cooking motif for a variety of animals was boiling. A relief from the Old Kingdom T o m b of Nianchchnum and Chnumhotep shows cooks boiling fish in a cauldron placed over an open fire, while a painting from the T o m b of Rameses III depicts meat being similarly prepared. Paintings from the T o m b of Ken-amun show a similar scene, but here the cauldron rests on top of a box oven.93

If any delay in consumption were anticipated, then the meat would have to be Meat preservation

preserved and stored. Although the prevalent method of preserving meat was by drying, methods of preparation and storage varied according to the size of the animal and to the type and amount of meat to be processed. Large animals, such as cattle, pigs, sheep, and goats, were butchered and the meat cut into smaller pieces; most fish and fowl were preserved essentially whole. The model

6 slaughter house of Meket-re (PI. 16) possessed a tall ceiling and clerestory open-ing in the front room that provided for an airy enclosure that served to cool the hanging meat and to facilitate its drying94.־ Meat cut into various joints and hanging on ropes to dry forms a common motif in butchery scenes in numerous tomb paintings.95 At Amarna and Malkata, excavators have found jars with a wide mouth and belly, measuring ca. 65 cm. tall and 25 cm. wide and bearing painted inscriptions identifying the contents as "preserved meat."9 6 Although cattle are the usual animals shown in butchery scenes, it is a safe assumption that other large animals were preserved in a similar fashion.

Among the hanging joints of meat pictorially represented in several tomb paintings are what appear to be long, narrow strips of'dried meat. Salima Ikram identifies them as biltong, and from this argues that the Egyptians not only dried

92 D a r b y et al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, p. 758 (frying); Sa l ima Ikram, " F o o d For Eterni ty . W h a t the Ancient Egypt ians Ate & Drank . Par t 1: M e a t , Fish, Fowl," KMT 5, no. 1 (Spring 1994): 32; idem, Choice Cuts," p. 161; J o h n K. M c D o n a l d , in Egypt's Golden Age, p. I l l , Nos. 9 2 9 3 ־(grills).

93 Catt le: Wreszinski, Atlas, 2: Taf . 93b; 3: Taf . 255A; Vandie r , Manuel, 4: 260 -62 , a n d Figs. 116-18; D a r b y et al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, 6.24; Davies, Tomb of Ken-amun, Pis. LIX, I .XVII; Moussa and Altenmüller , Das Grab des Nianchchnum und Chnumhotep, Taf . 37b; Davies, Tomb of Ante-

foker, Pl. VIII . See also, Newberry , Beni Hasan, 1 : Pl. XII . 94 Gilbert , "Zooarchaeological Observat ions ," p. 79, and note 35. 95 See, e. g., Ikram, Choice Cuts, Fig. 18; Vandier , Manuel, 4: Figs. I 16-18. 96 K e m p , "Food for an Egyptian City," pp. 139-43.

CHAPTER THREE 1 7 2

their meat, but also salted and spiced it.97 Conclusive evidence for processes oth-er than drying, however, is mostly lacking. T h e best archaeological evidence comes from victual mummies, joints of meat wrapped in linen and known pri-marily from New Kingdom tombs, such as those of Amenhotep II and Tu thmo-sis III. Although testing on several examples of biltong-like slabs and "steaks" yielded no evidence for spices, it did discover that the meat had been salted. The best evidence for salting and drying comes f rom the preservation of smaller ani-mais, birds and fish.

Tomb paintings frequently depict birds being plucked and gutted, with heads and feet sometimes removed. They are represented at one time hung up to dry and at another time being placed into amphorae (Fig. 11). Wha t was in the amphorae is unknown, but an amphora found in the T o m b of Kha contained plucked, beheaded, and eviscerated birds which showed signs of having been salted.98 Drying and possibly salting (whether by kenching, layering, or brining is unknown), therefore, are the only two preservation techniques for which strong evidence exists." T h a t the Egyptians used combinations of these two processes plus other methods commonly employed today in the area and conceivably known by the ancient Egyptians, such as smoking, is at present incapable of proof.

Fat rendering Cooking and preservation of the animal itself was not the only source of ani-mal foods that required processing. Animal byproducts were also important. In addition to meat and blood, cattle and other large animals provided two impor-tant byproducts: fat and milk. Fat was used as a food, a medicine, and a fuel for lamps, and the creating of fat was one of the purposes of castrating and force-feeding some animals. T h e art historical evidence for fat rendering, that is the removal of water f rom fat by boiling and then pressing, is ambiguous at best. T w o scenes, identified as depicting fat rendering appear on the walls of a room in the temple of Seti I at Abydos. An inscription on one scene specifies that fat is being chopped up. But, since both scenes show sack presses at work, an instru-ment unnecessary to render fat and unparalleled either in ancient or modern

97 Ikram, "Did the Ancient Egyptians Eat Biltong?" pp. 283 89. Ikram (Choice Cuts, pp. 145-74) discusses numerous ways the Egyptians could have preserved meat , though, she concludes, cvi-dence is lacking for some of the possibilities.

98 Ikram, Choice Cuts, p. 157. O n page 159, Ikram seems less sure of the evidence. See, e. g., Ty lor and Griffi th, Tomb of Paheri, Pl. IV; Davies, Tomb of Nakht, Pl. X X V I ; idem, T o m b of Rekh-mi-rë ' , Pl. X L V I . For art historical evidence for poultry processing, see Ikram, Choice Cuts, Figs. 16-17, and esp. T a b l e II, p. 303. Pigeon and quail were served in the meal found in the First-Dynasty T o m b 3477 at Saqqara . T h e quail had been gut ted and cooked, but the head and wings remained . See Emery , Funerary Repast, p. 6.

99 Detai led discussion of the various methods of salting will be postponed until the R o m a n Peri-od when evidence for it is unequivocal a n d more plentiful.

1 7 3 EGYPT II

contexts of fat rendering, Ikram calls the entire interpretation into question. She does, however, reinterpret a scene in the model of the slaughterhouse from the T o m b of Meket-re, usually interpreted as boiling blood for pudding, as render-ing fat. Archaeological evidence for the process is not forthcoming, but vessels identified by labels as having held ox, sheep, pig, or goose fat have been found at Malkata, Amarna , and Deir el-Medina.100

2. Daily products

T h e Egyptians butchered primarily oxen, reserving cows for breeding and for Butter and cheese

producing milk. Artistic representations of milking cows, such as appear on the wall of the O l d - K i n g d o m chapel of Akhethetep and in sunk relief on the Eleventh-Dynasty sarcophagus of Kawit, are not uncommon. Milk was used as a food and medicine, and strong, but inconclusive, evidence indicates that Pharaonic Egyptians processed milk into butter and cheese.101 Chemical analysis of the contents of two jars found in the First-Dynasty T o m b of Hor-Aha at Saqqara concludcd that the vessels held cheese, but the type of animal from which the cheese came was undeterminable. A wall painting from the New Kingdom T o m b of Ipy at Thebes shows what appear to be balls of cheese being exchanged in a barter scene. This cheese may have come from goats, since sev-eral of the animals appear to the left within the same register and in the one just below it. Since no Egyptian word has been unequivocally connected with either cheese or butter and the interpretation of the physical and art historical evi-dence continues to be challenged, the question of the existence of either byprod-uct before the Ptolemaic period must remain open.102

3. Fish

Egyptians of all classes consumed fish. Although fish rarely appear in food offer- Fish in daily life

ing lists or among painted offerings, they are frequently artistically represented

1()() Ik ram, Choice Cuts, pp . 175-80, esp. Fig. 55; YVinlock, Models, p. 24; Gilbert , "Zooarchaco-logical Observat ions ," p. 79, note 36.

101 Davies, Mastaba ofPtahhetep and Akhethetep, 2: Pl. X V I I ; Saleh et al, Egyptian Museum Cairo, No. 68. See also, N o r m a n De Gar is Davies, The Rock Tombs of Deir el-Gebrawi. Part IP Tomb of^au and Tombs of the Northern Croup (London: Egypt Explorat ion Fund , 1902), Pl. X I X ( T o m b of Asa). O n milk generally, see D a r b y et al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, pp . 760 72; Fischer, '"Milk in Everything Cooked1, י p. 97; a י n d Sist, "Bevande nei Testi dclle Pi ramidi ," pp. 135-37.

11)2 A h m e d Zaky a n d Zaky Iskander , "Ancient Egypt ian Cheese , " ASAE 41 (1942): 295 313. Acceptance of Pharaon ic milk processing: Ikram, "Food for Eternity. Par t I ," P· 32; Wilson, Egyptian Food and Drink, p. 47, Strouhal , Life of the Ancient Egyptians, p. 132. Denial of Pharaonic milk processing: D a r b y et al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, pp . 772 75.

CHAPTER THREE 1 7 4

in fishing and fowling scencs set in the marshes along the Nile. T h e apparent disconnect between these two facts may be attributable, as Brewer and Fried-man suggest, to the fact that fish were food for common people whose supply in eternity, as in life, was a concern of the deceased in whose tombs the fishing scenes appeared. T h e avoidance of fish by some upper class Egyptians may be attributable to individual taste or to local prohibitions, less likely to a general aristocratic aversion to fish.103 Λ cleaned, dressed, and cooked fish, for example, was included in the funerary meal found in a Second-Dynasty tomb at Saqqara, and fish consumption by the upper classes, even the Pharaoh, in the Middle and, particularly, New Kingdoms is substantially documented. Fish was includ-ed in rations supplied to workmen at Deir el-Medina, formed a significant part of royal gifts to temples and of supplies to soldiers, and was consumed by temple priests. T h e fish, particularly the catfish (cla?ias), appears as hieroglyphic symbol from Predynastic times, and in the New Kingdom was venerated to the extent that one large area of the cemetery at Gurob was devoted to fish burials.104

Included among the species o f f i sh identified in tomb paintings are, in addition to the catfish, the mullet, or mugil (most frequently represented), tilapia, and Nile perch (Lates niloticus). Fresh water varieties, of which there were upwards of fifty-six species available, made up most of the fish consumed. Fishing techniques included harpoon, bident, hook and line (both hand held and with a pole), hand and cast nets, seine, and various types of traps, such as barricades, weirs, and baskets.105

Fish processing Since fish begin to spoil almost immediately following removal from water and subsequent death, immediate processing is necessary. Typical fish process-ing motifs appear in close proximity to marsh scenes, but this need not always be the case. If kept moist fish could be transported short distances. Excavators

103 It should be kept in mind that the fishing scenes probably had primarily religious or magical purposes , and were not meant to record historical events. Nevertheless, Egyptians were clearly close observers of daily life and would natural ly incorpora te m u c h that was characteristic of their world. Cf. Brewer a n d F r i edman , Fish and Fishing, pp w ,־117 . h o suggest tha t the s trong smell of fish may have played a par t , and , in the case of O l d K i n g d o m nobles at Memphis , there may have been some taboo associated with fish.

104 See also Emery , Funerary Repast, p. 6 ( T o m b 3477); Brewer a n d Fr iedman, Fish and Fishing, pp. 15 17; Gard ine r , Egyptian Grammar, pp. 4 7 6 - 7 7 ; Petrie, Egyptian Hieroglyphs of the First and Sec-ond Dynasties, Figs. X V X V I .

100 Types o f f i sh : Brewer and Fr iedman , Fish and Fishing, pp. 4781־ ; fishing techniques: Vandi -er, Manuel, 5: 5 3 2 - 6 3 5 ; Ikram, Choice Cuts, pp . 36 39; Brewer and Fr iedman , Fish and Fishing, pp . 21 -46 . See, e. g., Newberry , Beni Hasan, 1: Pis. XI I , X X I X , X X X I I , and X X X I V ; idem, El Bersheh, 2: PL. X V I ; Moussa and Altenmüller , Das Grab des Nianchchnum und Chnumhotep, Taf . 31; and Davies, Tomb of Ken-amun, Pl. LXI . An old, but still useful work is Or i c Bates, "Ancient Egypt-ian Fishing," Harvard African Studies 1 (1917): 199-271, esp. pp. 199-203, for references to fishing scenes.

1 7 5 EGYPT II

have uncovered a food processing installation near the pyramids at Giza. Finds of numerous fish bones, gills, and fins alongside flint blades imply that fish were processed in this building, which abutted a series of bakeries. Art historical evi-dence, such as that found in the T o m b of Rec-em-Kuy (Fig. 8), provides the clearest understanding of how fish were processed. T h e fisherman placed the fish down on its stomach onto a fiat surface or inclined table, and cut it from head to tail nearly through its body. He then eviscerated the fish, sometimes beheading it, and splayed it. Whether he scaled the fish before processing is unknown. He then hung the fish, as was done with meat, on a line to dry. Some fish found in tombs were neither gutted nor slit, but apparently preserved whole.106 Whether salt was used is unknown. Some evidence exists to indicate that Egyptians produced a product similar to caviar called botargo, but its nature is imperfectly understood. Herodotus in the fifth century B. C. says that Egyp-tians ate fish either raw, sun-dried, or preserved in brine, and operated fish pro-cessing factories, called ταριχεια, at Pelusium and Canopus. When these fish salting factories first appeared is unknown.107

No evidence has appeared to indicate that fish provided any byproducts Botargo

except roe. Fish eggs, particularly extracted from mullet, have been identified in several Old Kingdom tomb paintings, such as the Tombs of Ptah-hotep and of Ti, interspersed among gutted and splayed fish or hung up to dry alongside them. Whether the eggs underwent processing beyond drying, such as salting to create a product similar to modern botargo, is unknown. It is also difficult to know the role of fish eggs in Egyptian society since they do not appear in tomb paintings after the Old Kingdom.1 0 8

106 Ik ram (Choice Cuts, 65 .כן) postulates that the t r iangular-shaped knife (Fig. 14K) may have been used to scale fish. O n drying fish, see Ikram, Choice Cuts, pp. 148 49. Cf. Moussa and Alten-müller, Das Crab des Nianchchnum und Chnumhotep, Ta f . 31, 37b; Paget and Pirie, Tomb of Ptah-hetep, Fig. X X X I I ; Tylor and Griffith, Tomb of Paheri, Pl. IV; Newber ry , Beni Hasan, 1: Pl. XII . For art historical evidence for fish processing, see Ikram, Choice Cuts, Fable III, pp. 304 05. O n the fish at Giza , see Hawass, "Builders of the Pyramids ," p. 34, and pho tographs on p. 37. T h e fish found in the First-Dynasty T o m b 3477 at S a q q a r a had been gut ted and head removed before being cooked. See Emery, Funerary Repast, p. 6.

107 L. Ke imer , "La bou ta rgue dans l 'Egypte anc ienne , " ΒΙΕ 21 (1938-39): 215 4 3 ; J Ū h n P. Hughes and R. G o r d o n Wasson, " T h e Etymology Ūf Botargo," AJPh 68 (1947): 4 1 4 - 1 8 ; Georga-cas, Ichthyological Terms, pp. 146-48, 179-87. T h e preserved fish listed in the Har r i s Papyrus, dat-ed to the reign of Rameses III (1198 1166 B. C.), may have been dried ra ther than salted fish, as was pe rhaps the preserved fish ment ioned in the report o f W e n a m o n , in ca. 1 100 B. C . J a m e s H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt. 5 Vols. (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1906), 4: nos. 243, 380, 394, 582.

108 Brewer a n d Fr iedman , Fish and Fishing, p. 12. For a discussion of fish eggs and a list of Egyptian tombs in which they appear , see Ke imer , "La bouta rgue dans l 'Egypte anc ienne ," pp . 215-43 ; Vandie r , Manuel, 5: 6 4 3 - 4 8 , and esp. Fig. 263 (Mastaba of Nebkaouhor) . T h e term

CHAPTER THREE 1 7 6

Ε. Sweeteners

Iloney T h e Egyptians used several sweeteners, such as dates and figs, but the most important , especially among the upper classes, was honey. It served as a sweet-ener in its pure state, as an ingredient in pastries, as an additive to prime beer and wine, and as part of medicines. Honey also appears in lists of provisions, daily rations, and tribute. It has been identified in tombs as early as the Middle Kingdom — although the identifications have been challenged — and honey-combs appear among food offerings in an Eighteenth-Dynasty tomb at Thebes. T h e earliest evidence for beekeeping anywhere comes from Egyptian tomb paintings, including the Fifth-Dynasty sun temple of Niuserre at Abu Ghurab , the Eighteenth-Dynasty T o m b of Rekh-mi-rēC at Thebes, and the Twenty-fifth-Dynasty Tomb of Pabesa.109 T h e construction of Egyptian hives seems clear f rom the art historical evidence. Unfortunately, no actual hive has been found, although a model of a hive has been tentatively recognized in a Fifth-Dynasty rock-cut tomb at Mcmi, at El-Hawawish.110 Egyptian hives consisted of horizon-tal tubes made of unbaked mud or clay stacked one atop another. A detailed dis-cussion of beekeeping per se, like that of raising cattle, sheep, and goats, belongs properly to animal husbandry. The question here is whether the honey made by bees was further processed by the keepers. For this little unambiguous evidence exists.

O n e step in gathering honey was removing part of the honeycomb from the hive. Most of the honey would easily drain out, but to get all of it required press-ing the comb. This was probably done by hand, possibly through a sieve over a honey jar . No clear artistic representation for this, however, has been found. After extraction f rom the hives, the honey was stored in variously shaped jars made of baked clay. They were later transferred to small, biconical containers

"bo ta rgo" dates only as far back as the third century B. C. , and stems f rom the Greek phrase ωά τάριχα, "salted fish eggs." Sec Diphilus of Siphnos, in Athenaeus 3 .121C. See also Hughes and YVasson, "Etymology of Botargo," pp. 4 1 4 - 1 8 .

109 A total of five apicul ture scenes have come to light. Eva C r a n e , The Archaeology of Beekeeping (Ithaca, Ν. Y.: Cornel l University Press, 1983), pp. 3 5 - 4 4 ; Eva C r a n e and A. J. G r a h a m , "Bee Hives of the Ancient Wor ld . 1," Bee World 66, no. 1 (1985): 23 27; F. Filce Leek," " S o m e Evidence of Bees and H o n e y in Ancient Egypt ," Bee World 56, no. 4 (1975): 141-48; E d w a r d Neufeld, "Api-cul ture in Ancient Palestine (Early and Middle I ron Age) Within the Framework of the Ancient N e a r East ," Ugarit-Forschungen 10 (1978): 225 37; Forbes, Studies, 5: 79-85 ; G. Kuény, "Scenes apicoles dans l ' anc ienne Egypte ," JNES 9 J a n . - O c t . 1950): 8 4 - 9 3 . O n the uses of honey, see Lucas, Ancient Egyptian !Materials, pp. 25 26; St rouhal , Life of the Ancient Egyptians, p. 133; Wilson, Egyptian Food and Drink, pp . 49 52; Da rby , Food: the Gift of Osiris, ])p. 4 3 0 - 3 9 : Jean Leclant , "Biene," LA, cols. 786-89 .

110 Eva C r a n e and A . J . G r a h a m , "Bee Hives of the Ancient World . 2 ," Bee World 66, no. 4 (1985): 148-49. Cf. also, C r a n e , Archaeology of Beekeeping, p. 39.

1 7 7 EGYPT II

and sealed. What , if anything beyond pressing, happened to the honey between hive and biconical jars is unknown. O n e suggestion has been made that honey underwent different stages of pressing — a first pressing of the comb, a washing with water, and a final pressing of the comb — resulting in three "grades" of honey. And finally, the Ebers Papyrus mentions a "fermented" honey used in a medicinal concoction, but its meaning is unclear.111

111 Neufeld ("Apiciulture," pp. 232-33) suggests that pressing may have been the activity shown in the heavily d a m a g e d part of the paint ing f rom the sun temple of Niuscrrc. For biconical honey pots, see C r a n e , Archaeology of Beekeeping, pp. 37 -39 ; Davies, Tomb ofRekh-mi-rē', Pl. X L V I I I . See also, Kucny , "Scènes apicoles," pp. 9 1 - 9 3 (grades of honey), Darby et al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, p. 438 (fermented honey).

C H A P T E R F I V E

T H E A N C I E N T N E A R EAST

Geography T h e term "Near East" is an inexact expression. It encompasses a wide geo-graphic area, roughly defined by the term "Fertile Crescent," but embracing as well certain areas bordering upon but outside of it. T h e Fertile Crescent embod-ied an arc bounded on the southeast by the Persian Gulf, along the eastern side by the Zagros Mountains of western Iran, on the north stretching in an east-west direction across northern Iraq and Syria by the southern steppes of Turkey's Taurus Mountains, on the west by the Mediterranean Sea, and on the southwest by Egypt. This belt incorporates a variety of topographical features, such as coastal and inland mountain ranges, large and small rivers, valleys, plateaus, and arid desert areas.

Between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers lies the region the Greeks termed Mesopotamia, or the land "between the rivers."1 Although both rivers arise in the mountains of Armenia, the Euphrates makes a wide swing toward the west, and then turns south-southeast. Cutt ing rather deeply into the ground along its northern stretches, the Euphrates runs more slowly south of Mari and creates natural levees along its banks as it meanders toward the Persian Gulf. The Tigris, on the other hand, flows out of the Zagros Mountains and moves more directly south. During the spring melting snow in the mountains to the east feeds into major tributaries and augments the river's carrying capacity. T h e steep gra-dient and increased volume of water create a deep riverbed and render its flow more violent prone than that of the Euphrates. Consequently, the earliest human settlements in southern Mesopotamia concentrated along the more docile Euphrates and its tributaries where irrigation agriculture was possible. This tendency was also strengthened by the fact that as one travels southward the climate becomes drier and hotter. Only in the northern reaches of the rivers

Syria, Palestine, and northern Mesopotamia — can farmers, relying on rain-fall to support their crops, engage in dry farming. Farmers of lower Mesopotamia protected their fields with levees, since both rivers flooded in late spring. Sometimes the inhabitants built large canals that paralleled the main riv-er. Farmers farther away f rom the river cut branch canals to divert water to

1 T h e earliest use of the term Mesopo tamia is found in the history of Polybius (5.44.6), wri t ing in the mid-second century B. C. Cf. also S t rabo 11.12.2

1 7 9 TIIE ANCIENT NEAR EAS T

—

ο

CHAPTER THREE 1 8 0

their fields. Water control also involved a system of sluices and water flow regu-lators, plus frequent dredging to clear canals of silt. Following flooding, farmers prepared the ground with ploughs and sowed their seeds. At various times over the next few months they irrigated their fields by diverse means, including shadufs, water-lifting devices designed to transfer water from one side of the dike to the other. Evaporation during the summer months and changes in the water table in the alluvial plain often led to rapid salinization of the soil, ever decreas-ing crop yields, and ultimately abandonment of some fields. T h e need to coordi-nate and oversee construction, maintenance, and management of a system of canals and levees designed in a controlled fashion to conduct water from the rivers towards farmers ' fields, and then to harvest, store, process, and redistrib-ute the food, led ultimately to the creation of organized central authorities.2

A. Prehistoric Period

Chalcolithic period The Chalcolithic period in the ancient Near East developed out of the Pottery Neolithic period, and extended from about 5500 B. C. to roughly 3400 B. C. T h e transition from Neolithic to Chalcolithic at one end and f rom Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age at the other, however, varied from one region to another. During this period, Neolithic settlements, such as at Teleilat el-Ghassul and Shiqmim in Palestine, grew into large farming villages. 111 some places, such as at Tell Halaf in Syria and Ubaid in southern Mesopotamia, farming villages

Halaf culture began to emerge as urban centers. These sites gave their names to two of the most important and widespread pottery cultures of the Prehistoric period. Halaf culture sites extend from the Mediterranean area of northern Syria, such as at Ras Shamra, across upper Mesopotamia to the Zagros Mountains. Primarily farmers, Halaf inhabitants also raised sheep, goats, and some cattle. Using mor-tar and pestle and querns, they processed emmer wheat and barley. Homes, until the Late Halaf period, were generally circular in shape, topped by a domed roof and an attached rectangular anteroom. Examples excavated at Tell Turlu, in Turkey, show the tholos equipped with a hearth and bell-shaped storage pits. Late Halaf structures, such as at Arpachiyah and Yarim Tepe in northern Iraq,

2 Maisels, Emergence of Civilization, pp . 45 54; O d e d Borowski, "Ir r igat ion," in The Oxford Ency-clopedia of Archaeology in the Near East. Eric M . Meyers , ed. 5 Vols. (New York: Oxfo rd University Press, 1997), 3: 181 84; A. Leo O p p e n h e i m , Ancient Mesopotamia. Portrait of a Dead Civilization (Chicago: T h e University of Ch icago Press, 1964), pp. 35 42; I). T . Potts, Mesopotamian Civiliza-tion. The Material Foundations (London: T h e Athlone Press, 1997), pp. 642־ ; K a r e n R h e a Ncmct -Neja t , Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia (Westport , Conn . : Greenwood Press, 1998), pp. 253 56; Eyre, "Agricultural Cycle, Farming , a n d W a t e r M a n a g e m e n t , " pp. 180 82.

181 TIIE ANCIENT NEAR EAS T

assumed a rectangular shape. Excavations in the latter site yielded small tholos-shaped structures, ca. 2.0 m. or less in diameter, which were apparently grain storage facilities shared by inhabitants of surrounding houses.3

T h e Ubaid culture originated in southern Mesopotamia and spread northward Ubaid culture

and westward overlaying the earlier Halaf areas.4 This pottery culture is especial-ly known from sites in southern Mesopotamia at Eridu, Ur, Ubaid, and Uruk, from northern Mesopotamia at Yarim Tepe, Tepe Gawra, and Arpachiyah, and from Syria at Ugarit (Ras Shamra). Ubaid farmers at Tell el-'Oueili, in lower Mesopotamia, grew barley and einkorn wheat on irrigated land. During the late Ubaid period, they harvested cereals using clay sickles, sometimes fixed with large flint teeth, and processed the grain with clay pestles. They stored grain in granaries whose superstructure, unfortunately, is unknown due to poor préserva-tion. Additionally, they raised cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs, and to a lesser extent hunted and fished for their subsistence. Carbonized olive and date stones found at Teleilat el-Ghassul in Palestine confirms the presence of these fruits in the Lev-ant during the fourth millennium B. C.5

Ubaid dwellings were generally made of light materials, with only clan dwellings or granaries reaching significant size. In the Negev desert at Shiqmim, farmers in the mid-fifth millennium B. C., lacking a floodplain on which to live, survived in underground complexes of interconnected tunnels and chambers, and tilled the surface above. They planted barley, wheat, and lentils, and raised cattle, sheep, and goats, and supplied their subterranean living quarters with hearths, stone tools, and storage pits. Eventually, by ca. 4300 B. C., they moved

3 N. Ya. Merpe r t and R. M . M u n c h a e v , "Yar im T e p e III: the Halaf Levels," in Early Stages in the Evolution of Mesopotamian Civilization. N o r m a n Yoffee a n d j e f f r e y j . Clark, eds. (Tucson, Arizona: T h e University of Ar izona Press, 1993), pp. 168 71, esp. Fig. 9.2.1 ; J a m e s Mellaar t , in CAM1 1, 1 (1970), pp . 276—90; H a n s J . Nissen, "Prehistoric Mesopo tamia , " in Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East, 3: 477; Rudol f H . D o r n e m a n n , "Halaf , Tel l ," in ibid., 2: 460; Stuart Campbel l , " T h e Ha la f Period in Iraq: O ld Sites and New," BiblArch, 55, no. 4 (Dec. 1992): 182 87.

1 Ubaid culture apparent ly developed indigenously in southern Mesopo tamia f rom the earlier Er idu and Hajji M u h a m m a d cultures. Some scholars argue , however , that these two cultures show affinities with the Susiana culture in the Zagros Moun ta in s of southern Iran. See Mellaar t , in CAH3 1 ,1 : 2 8 4 - 8 9 , and Nissen, "Prehistoric Mesopo tamia , " in Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East, 3: 477.

5 M a x E. L. Mal lowan, CAW 1, 1 (1970), pp . 327 421; H a n s J . Nissen, "Prehistoric Mesopo tamia , " in Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East, 3: 47778־ ; N. Ya. M e r p e r t and R. M . M u n c h a e v , "Yar im T e p e III: the Uba id Levels," in Early Stages in the Evolution of Mesopotami-an Civilization. N o r m a n Yoffee and Je f f rey J . Clark, eds. (T ucson, Arizona: T h e University of Ari-zona Press, 1993), pp. 225 -40 ; Jean-Lou i s Huo t , " T h e First Fa rmers at Ouei l i ," BiblArch 55, no 4 (Dec. 1992): 188 95, esp. plate on page 195; idem, " U b a i d , " in Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East, 5: 251-52 ; T h o m a s E. Levy, " T h e Chalcoli thic Period: Archaeological Sources for the History of Palest ine," BiblArch 49, no. 2 J u n e 1986): 103-04 .

CHAPTER THREE 1 8 2

their dwellings above ground and used the tunnels and chambers for storage and processing of grain. Grinding stones and pottery storage vessels have been found in situ in chambers ranging in size up to thirteen feet by twenty-six feet and reaching eight feet high. O n e room, dating ca. 4200-4000 B. C., contained a grain silo and an alcove supplied with grinding equipment. At Tell Mefesh, in central Syria, the small mud-brick house had a courtyard with above-ground storage bins containing barley. At Uruk, whose origins go back to the late Ubaid period, large public structures, such as temples, make their appearance by the mid-fourth millennium B. C., during the subsequent Uruk Period of southern Mesopotamia. At Yarim Tepe , in northern Mesopotamia, Ubaid dwellings, made of sun-baked mud bricks, possessed of a rectangular ground plan, and with walls and floors plastered with mud, contained numerous storage rooms and living rooms equipped with grinding stones to process foods. So also at Tepe Gawra and Arpachiyah rectangular buildings subdivided into many rooms were the norm. At Tepe Gawra a temple of tholos design, similar to earlier Halaf structures but dating to the early Uruk period, was used at least partially as a dwelling. Exhibiting an external diameter of between eighteen and nineteen feet and a wall thickness of approximately a meter, it contained several rooms, one of which apparently served as a granary.6

Kilns Craf t specialization was also an important innovation of the Chalcolithic peri-od. Pottery production expanded such that mass-produced ceramics came in greater varieties of shape and size, some of which were made using an early form of the wheel. Controlled firing in pottery kilns allowed for variations in lus-ter and color. Halaf kilns have come to light at sites near Carchcmish, at Yarim Tepe II, and especially at Arpachiyah. Excavations at the Ubaid site of Tell Abada, in the Hamr in region of east central Iraq, for example, have revealed six different types of pottery kilns varying according to shape and size. Some were of rather simple construction, while others display greater development and spe-cialization. Ubaid kilns reached temperatures higher than could Halaf kilns. T h e expansion of metallurgy to include the manufacture of ritual objects from copper, recent scholarship argues, implies a shift from an egalitarian society where production was based on a household economy to a stratified society where manufacture, spurred by an increase of specialist artisans who catered to

6 Ra iner Michael Boehmer , " U r u k - W a r k a , " in Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East, 5: 294; T h o m a s E. Levy, Alan J. Wi t ten , and David /Mon, "Denizens of the Desert , י Archaeology י49, no. 2 (March-Apri l 1996): 36 40; and Mal lowan , in CAW 1, 1 (1970), pp. 3 7 8 - 7 9 (Tepe Gawra) , 411 (Tell Mefesh); M e r p e r t a n d M u n c h a e v , "Yar im T e p e III: the Uba id Levels," pp. 2 3 3 - 3 5 . O n the nomenc la tu re for late fourth mil lennium B. C . cultures in southern Mesopo tamia , see note 23.


a social elite, exceeded domestic needs. Economic expansion can also be seen in the appearance of specialist workshops in pottery and flint tools and in the pro-duction of ivory figurines and basalt statues and bowls. Some places became centcrs for long-distance trade in these items or in the raw materials needed to produce them. At Yarim Tepe , in northern Iraq, for example, archaeologists have uncovered a complex of rooms dating to the Ubaid Period, ca. 4500 B. C. O n e room yielded hundreds of querns and mullers shaped from local sandstone, far too many for local use alone. Fliese were probably trade items awaiting transport elsewhere.7

By the late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age I periods, the following crops were being cultivated in the ancient Near East: cereals (barley and wheat, both einkorn and emmer), various pulses, such as peas, lentils, chickpeas, and bitter vetch, and five fruit types, olive, grape, fig, pomegranate, and date.8 Of these, those requiring processing include the cereals, to remove the tough outer cover-ing, the olive, to separate the pit f rom the meat and then to extract the juice from the latter, and the grape and date, to preserve them in dried form or to press out their juice to produce syrup or wine. T h e fourth millennium B. C. saw technological improvements over the Neolithic practice in processing each of these products.

1. Cereal Processing

Processing of cereals during the fourth millennium B. C. followed the basic pro- Saddle quem

cedures used during the Neolithic period. After the harvest, the cereal was threshed, then in some places stored in shallow pits lined with stone or plaster or in others in above-ground silos whose original shape remains uncertain. When ready for processing, individuals used a pestle to pound the grains placed in mortars or they ground them on querns. At Jer icho during the Early Bronze

7 Age, however, it seems that the saddle quern (PI. 17), made of basalt, sandstone, or limestone, replaced the Neolithic trough quern. In general, the length of the saddle quern exceeded its width by fifty per cent. Lengthwise the working sur-face is flat or slightly concave, while across its width the surface is flat or slightly

7 Postgate, Early Mesopotamia., p. 207, esp. Fig. 11.1; Levy, "Chalcoli thic Per iod," pp . 87—96; A. M. T . Moore , "Prehistoric Syria," in Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East, 5: 126; Bochmer , " U r u k - W a r k a , " in Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East, 5: 295; Sabah A b b o u d Jas im, '77ie Ubaid Period in Iraq. Recent Excavations in the Hamrin Region. 2 Vols. BAR Interna-tional Series 267 (Oxford: British Archaeological Repor ts , 1985), 1: 53 54; 2: Figs. 31 40; M o o r e , "Incept ion of Pot t ing in Western Asia," pp . 48 49.

B Z o h a r y and Hopf , Domestication of Plants in the Old World, pp. 15-31 (cereals), 86 88־ (pulses), and 134-37 (fruits); Stager, "Firstfruits," pp .־17273 .

CHAPTER THREE 1 8 4

convex. T h e grinder, or muller, usually has an oval or sub-rectangular shape, and is slightly shorter than the quern is wide. Although stone vessels continued in use, the mass production of pottery made the cooking of gruels and other types of foods more readily possible, and flat breads were made in small ovens similar to the modern Arabic tannurs.9

2. Wine

First evidence of Grape and olive processing changed significantly during the fourth millennium wine production: B. C. As noted in Chapte r Two, the earliest evidence for wine comes from sixth-

Hqjji Firuz Tepe millennium B. C. Hajji Firuz Tepe in the northern Zagros range of western Iran. T h e Neolithic inhabitants produced wine probably from the wild progeni-tor (Vitis vinifera L. subsp. Sylvestris [C. C. Gmelin] Berger) of the domesticated variety of grape.10 This wine, known from its residue found in a jar , additionally contained resin from the Pistacia tree. Further evidence comes f rom fourth-mil-

Godin Tepe lcnnium B. C. Godin Tepe, lying in the central Zagros Mountains of western Iran. Room 18 (Early Period V, ca. 3500 3100־ B. C.), the largest room of the complex, contained jars and carbonized material identified as lentils and barley. T h e residue of beer has been confirmed for one jar , while others contained a wine residue, corroborated by the presence of tartaric acid detected by infrared spectroscopy. 1'he containers, with long narrow necks, had apparently been stored on their sides." Clay stoppers, found not in situ but elsewhere in other rooms of the complex, may have served to seal jars of this type. Excavators have surmised from this material that Room 18 functioned during Early Period V as a storage area where food items were exchanged or distributed. Room 20, a pri-vate room dating to Late Period V, ca. 3100-2900 B. C., on the other hand,

!l R . S. Ellis, "Mühle . Β. Archäologisch," RIA (1995), 8: 401; K e n y o n and Hol land, Excavations at Jericho, 5: 553 62, esp. Fig. 230, No. 11, and PI. 2 1 ; J a s i m , Ubaid Period in Iraq, 1: 54. Levy ("Chalcolithic Age," p. 88) uses the term t abun to indicate the small oven at Teleilat el-Ghassul. For the distinction between the t abun and t annur , see Forbes, Studies, 6: 62 63, esp. Fig 7; and Char lo t t e Scheifer , Cooking and Cooking Stands in Italy, 1400-400 B. C, Vol. 2, Pt. I of Acquarossa (Stockholm: Svenska Institutet i R o m , 1981), pp. 80, 106, note 359, and 107, note 365.

10 M c G o v e r n et al, "Neoli thic Resinated Wine , " pp. 4 8 0 - 8 1 . T h e wild grape is indigenous to southern Europe , the N e a r East, and the southern Caspian belt. Collection of grapes long prcced-ed cultivation, which can be conf i rmed only as early as the Chalcoli thic period, o r the Early Bronze I period, of the Levant . Z o h a r y and Hopf , Domestication of Plants in the Old World, pp . 143 50; Zoha ry , "Domest ica t ion of the Grapev ine Vitis Vinifera L.," pp. 2 4 - 3 0 , and Stager, "Firstfruits," p. '173.

11 Virginia R. Badler, " T h e Archaeological Evidence for Winemaking , Distribution and C o n -sumpt ion at Proto-Histor ic Godin T e p e , I ran ," in 771e Origins and Ancient History of Wine. Patrick E. M c G o v e r n , Stuart J . Fleming, and So lomon H. K a t z eds. (London: G ״ o r d o n and Breach Pub-Ushers, 1995), pp. 4 5 - 5 3 ; Patrick E. M c G o v e r n and Rudolph H. Michel , " T h e Analytical and


presented evidence for wine consumption. O n e of its wine jars had a small hole drilled into it near the bottom after it had been fired. The puipose of the hole is unknown, but may have served to allow for easy pouring from the mouth, or permitted the liquid to be drained without disturbing the sediment which had accumulated at the bottom.1 2

Items that may have served in winemaking come from Room 2 and date to Late Period V. They include a large funnel, which was perhaps used to hold the grapes while being pressed with a heavy, circular "lid," also found in close prox-imity. And finally, in the same room with the funnel, lid, and jars similar to those in Rooms 18 and 20, though lacking any wine residue, was a (partially excavated) mud-brick construction of ca. 6.0 cm. in depth that may have served as a treading vat. Uses for these elements are for now suppositions, but excava-tors citc comparative material found in winemaking contexts elsewhere and at later periods, such as in the Transcaucasia!! area (lids), Iron Age II Gibeon (fun-nels) in Jordan, and Minoan Crete (jars with holes drilled near the bottom). Nev-ertheless, lack of archaeobotanical evidence for grapes anywhere in the complex casts doubt on the conclusion that this wine was processed locally. Wine was stored and consumed here; that it was processed on site is less certain. Since there is little evidence to prove that the wine was a local product, identification of its origin remains an open question.13

Godin Tepe sits astride the Great Khorasan Road leading from lower Mesopotamia into Iran, and may have been a Sumerian or Elamite trading post. Chemical evidence for wine in southern Mesopotamia has been found in a spouted j a r in Uruk dated to the Late Uruk period (3500 3100־ B. C.). Consider-

Archaeological Chal lenge of Detect ing Ancient Wine : T w o Case Studies f rom the Ancient N e a r East," in ibid., pp. 5 8 - 6 3 ; Virginia R. Badler, Patrick E. M c G o v c r n . and Rudolph H. Michel , "Dr ink and Be Merry! In f ra red Spectroscopy a n d Ancient N e a r Eastern Wine , " in Organic Contents of Ancient Vessels: Material Analysis and Archaeological Investigation. William R. Biers and Patrick E. M c G o v c r n , eds. M A S C A Research Papers in Science and Archaeology, Vol. 7 (Philadelphia: T h e University M u s e u m of Archaeology and Anthropology, 1990), pp. '25-36; Rudolph H. Michel , Patrick E. M c G o v c r n , and Virginia R. Badler, " T h e First Wine & Beer. Chemica l Detec-tion of Ancient Fe rmen ted Beverages," Analytical Chemistry 65, no. 8 ( 1 5 April 1993): 412A 413Λ; Rudolf H. Michel , Patrick E. M c G o v c r n , and Virginia R. Badler, "Chemica l Evidence for Ancient Beer," Nature 360 (5 Nov. 1992): 24.

12 Badler, "Archaeological Evidence for Winemak ing , " pp. 4954־ . Its position on the vessel makes it unlikely that the hole served to allow gasses to escape dur ing fermenta t ion .

13 Excavators refer to the mudbr ick construct ion as a "b in . " T h e funnel measures ca. 0.50 m. in d iameter ; the lid weighes ca. 1.0 kilogram. Funnels have also been found in Late U r u k period contexts at Tell Brak in Syria a n d several sites in Anatolia. Badler, "Archaeological Evidence for Winemak ing , " pp . 5 1 - 5 2 ; Michel et al, "First Wine & Beer," pp. 4 0 9 A - 4 1 2 A . Badler et al ("Drink and Be Merry!" pp. 33 34) think that the wine may have been p roduced locally, since the vessels with tartaric acid deposits arc thus far un ique to God in T e p e .

CHAPTER THREE 1 8 6

ing the great distance from the area where the grape naturally grows, the late appearance in the cuneiform record for the word for the vine (Sumerian GEŠTUÎ), and the early literary evidence not only for the Sumerian word for beer (kaš) but also for the clear preference of that particular beverage by the inhabitants of Mesopotamia, this wine was probably imported as well. A likely source for the wine of Godin Tepe lies to the north in the area called Transcaucasia, with which Godin Tepe had contacts by the mid-fourth millennium B. C. Some scholars, therefore, lean toward assigning to that area the distinction of originat-ing the art of making wine. Others , however, prefer an area more to the west, in southeastern Anatolia.14 T h e wild grape grows naturally along the northern and southern boundaries of Anatolia, and Biblical tradition (Genesis 8-9) claims that Noah planted vineyards (and then got drunk from the wine) on Mt. Ararat in eastern Turkey. Wild grape collection and, no doubt, consumption in fresh form or as raisins extend back at least to the Neolithic period, such as at ninth-millen-nium B. C. Çayônii. Cultivation, and perhaps processing, may date as early as the late fourth millennium B. C. in southern Turkey, in Kurban Höyük, for example.15

Wine trade T h e cultivation of the vine had spread from Anatolia as far as the southern Levant by the late Chalcolithic or Early Bronze Age. Archaeobotanical evidence for grapes has been found at Jer icho, Lachish, Arad, and in Jo rdan at Tell Shu-na North. Indirect proof for winemaking in the southern Levant comes from evidence for trading contacts between that area and Egypt, which date to the Levantine Early Bronze Age and the Egyptian Predynastic and Early Dynastic periods. An Egyptian trading post operated during this period in the northwest-ern Negev at 'En Besor. Excavations at North Sinai settlements have yielded Egyptian and Palestinian ceramics, bread molds, and baking trays, and in one Palestinian site containers were found with Nile mollusk shells and catfish spikes similar to ones found in Maadi . Maadi imported Levantine ceramics, copper implements, beads, and other items. Wine apparently formed an important part of Egyptian-Levantine trade f rom as early as ca. 3150 B. C., the date of Levan-

14 Virginia Renke Badler, Patrick Ε. M c G o v e r n , and Dona ld L. Glusker, "Chemica l Evidence for a W i n e Residue f r o m W a r k a (Uruk) Inside a Late U r u k Period Spou ted Jar," MDAI(B) 27 (1996): 39 -43 ; Michel et al, "First Wine & Beer," p. 412A; Badler, "Archaeological Evidence for Winemak ing , " pp. 5 4 - 5 5 .

15 Z o h a r y and Hopf , Domestication of Plants in the Old World, pp. 144-48; Zohary , "Domest icat ion of the Grapev ine Vitis Vinifera L. ," p. 28; R icha rd L. Zett ler and N a o m i F. Miller, "Search ing for W i n e in the Archaeological Record of Ancient Mesopo tamia of the T h i r d and Second Millennia B. C . , " in Origins and Ancient History of Wine, p. 126; Rona ld L. Gorny , "Vit iculture and Ancient Anatol ia ," in Origins and Ancient History of Wine, pp . 133-45. Gorney , in a rguing strongly for the p r imacy of Anatol ian viticulture, explicitly rejects a Transcaucas ian connect ion.


tine wine jars found in the burial chamber of Scorpion I at Abydos. Strong evi-dence also exists to suppose that viticulture and winemaking came into Egypt through these early contacts with the southern Levant.16 In addition to wine and other agricultural products, Levantine-Egyptian trade included olive oil.

3 . Oil

Inhabitants of Palestine gathered the wild olive {()lea europaea L. var. Oleaster [Hoffmanns and Link]) for food and lighting during the Chalcolithic period. When they began to cultivate the olive {Olea europaea L.) and to process its oil is unknown, but evidence for both has been claimed for many sites in the Jo rdan Valley ranging from the early to late fourth millennium B. C. Among these are Teleilat el-Ghassul, Lachish, Pella, Tell Shuna North, Tell Abu Hamid, Shoam, Tel Megiddo, and particularly on the Golan Heights.17 T h e latter site has yielded the earliest evidence for olive oil processing, dating to the Chalcolithic period.

Oil processing embodies three basic steps: grinding or crushing the fruit and Chalcolithic olive

removing the pit, pressing the meat and skins to extract the liquid, and separat- processing

ing the oil from water also contained in the meat. At its most primitive level, this can be done by pressing olives placed on a flat or inclined surface with a large stone and catching the liquid as it runs off. There is some evidence that at Shabbe, on the Golan Heights, olives were crushed in cup mortars cut from the rock. At Rasm Harbus and elsewhere, also on the Golan Heights, however, a more elaborate system was used. Excavators have recovered from private homes

16 Zohary and Hopf. Domestication of Plants in the Old World, pp . 148-49; T i m o t h y P. Harr i son , "Economics with an Entrepreneur ia l Spirit: Early Bronze T r a d e with Late Predynast ic Egypt ," BiblArch 56, no. 2 (June 1993): 8 1 - 9 3 ; Suzanne R icha rd , " T h e Early Bronze. T h e Rise a n d Col-lapse of U r b a n i s m , " BiblArch 50, no. 1 (March 1987): 30; M c G o v c r n , "Wine for Eternity, י pp י . ־2832 ; G o p h n a and Gazit , "First Dynasty Egyptian Residency at 'En Besor," pp. 9 16. O n wine imports into Early-Dynastic Egypt, see above, C h a p t e r Four, pp . 142-143 .

17 Wild olives differ f rom cultivated forms by possessing smaller fruit and yielding less oil. Levy, " T h e Chalcoli thic Per iod," p. 103; Nili Liphschitz, R a m G o p h n a , Moshe H a r t m a n , and Gideon Biger, " T h e Beginning of Olive (Olea europaea) Cult ivation in the O ld World: A Reassessment ," JArchSci 18 (1991): 4 4 1 - 5 3 ; Nili Liphschitz, R a m G o p h n a , Georges Bonani , and Ami r Feldstein, "Wild Olive (Olea Europaea) Stones f rom a Chalcoli thic Cave at S h o h a m , Israel and T h e i r Impli-cat ions," Tel Aviv 23, no. 2 (1996): 135-41; Z o h a r y a n d Hopf , Domestication of Plants in the Old World, pp. 141-43; Stager, "Firstfruits," p. 176. David Eitam would place the cultivation of the olive tree in Israel as early as the sixth mil lennium B. C. , a n d the use of its oil for food in the Pot-tery Neolithic period. See David Ei tam, ' "Between the [Olive] Rows, Oil Will be Produced , Presses Will be T r o d , ' (Job 24, 1 1)," in La production du vin et de l'huile en Méditenannée. Mar ie-Cla i re Amoure t t i and Jean -P ie r r e Brun, eds. BCH Suppl . 26 (Athens: École Française d 'Athènes , 1993), p. 65. By Palestine, I m e a n the region south of Syria, ex tending f rom Phoenicia to the b o r d e r of Egypt, including all of Israel. For the definition of ancient Palestine and its relationship with Israel, see David M . J a c o b s o n , "Palestine and Israel," BASOR 313 (Feb. 1999): 6 5 - 7 4 .

CHAPTER THREE 1 8 8

in excess of fifteen elongated basin-shaped vessels, which are similar to querns except that they possess upturned rims. While all basins arc fragmentary, their extant measurements range f rom thirty to sixty-seven centimeters in length and from twenty-six to forty-eight centimeters in width. T h e elevated rims probably served to keep the moveable olives within the working area of the basin while being pounded and ground with small oval stones or flint choppers. Once the olives had been pounded and the pit removed, the liquid was apparently trans-ferred, by pouring or ladling, into pottery containers possessing two handles and a pouring spout. Here the oil was allowed to separate from the water, after which the former was transferred to another container ready to use.18

At Tel Megiddo, olive processing involved a small, smooth, slightly inclined area for crushing and pressing the olives and a shallow depression cut into the rock for collecting the oil, which flowed into it through a channel from the work surface. Workers apparently crushed the olives either by treading on them with their feet or by rolling a large stone back and forth over them. If the workers treaded the hard olives, they may have worn some protective covering over their feet, as was apparently done later by Boeotian Greeks in the second century A. D.19 T h e crushed olives were then gathered up; it is unknown if the pits were removed before pressing. T h e olives — and this is only conjecture — may have been placed into a basket or laid out on a piece of cloth that was then wrapped over them. Large rocks placed on top expressed the liquid, which drained through channels cut into the rock into the collecting vat. They could then skim the oil off the top and place it into terra-cotta containers.20

Only small, smoothed areas accompanied by shallow depressions or cup holes cut into the rock betray processing sites; wooden pestles, foot coverings, baskets, and cloth, if used at all, have long since disappeared. Yet some confidence can be placed in designating these finds as olive oil processing sites. T h e ease of con-

18 Claire Epstein, "Oil Product ion in the Golan Heights dur ing the Chalcoli thic Period," Tel Aviv 20, no 2 (1993): 133 46; Stager , "Firstfruits ," p. 177. O v e r forty-five Chalcoli thic rock-cut installations, found at Khal let e -Phaq iah and Khallet e -Gazaz , in the Do than Valley, nor theast of m o d e r n Tel Aviv, included small shallow cup marks, mortars , and oblong basins. T h e est imated olive oil capacity at the latter site, which conta ined seven mor ta r s and six cup marks, has been est imated at 160 liters p e r year. See Ei tam, ' "Between the [Olive] Rows' , ' pp י . 68 -69 .

19 Pausanias G r a m m a t i c u s (fr. 239) ment ions a i κρουπέζαι, wooden sandals, worn to crush olives with the feet: κρουπέζαι- Βοιωτία υποδήματα ξύλινα, έν όις τάς έλαίας πατοΰσιν. Ha r tmu t Erbse, Untersuchungen zu den attizistischen Lexika (Berlin: Adademie-Ver lag , 1950), p. 191, no. 48. Cf. also Pollux Onomasticon 7.87; 10.153; Cra t inus I I .225M (=fr . 31 OK). T h e Bible contains a single reference to t reading olives, Micah 6:15.

20 Rafae l Frankel, Shmuel Avitsur, a n d Etan Avalon. History and Technologγ of Olive Oil in the Holy Land. Edited by Etan Ayalon and transi, by Jay C. Jacobson (Arlington, VA: Oléar ius Editions, 1994), pp. 2 8 - 3 1 , esp. Figs. 16 19


struction and use of these basic facilities guaranteed their continued use even when more complicated apparatus were developed. Small, "portable," examples with depressions and channels cut into stone slabs and designed to produce small amounts of oil, for example, were found at Megiddo. All these simple pre-industrial methods for processing oil remained almost unchanged in Israel into the twentieth century.21 That these ancient sites only processed olive oil cannot be taken for granted, as the simple facilities could also process grapes to make wine. Finds of olive pits around or near the site can serve to distinguish the product processed, but lack of any botanical evidence leaves the question open. Nevertheless, since the grape did not appear in the Levant before the Early Bronze period, Chalcolithic installations probably served to process olive oil. Although olive oil was included among trade items with Egypt and perhaps else-where, processing apparently remained essentially a domestic operation until the Late Bronze or Iron ages.

B. The Historical Period

Over a long expanse of time, stretching f rom the beginning of the fourth millen- Ancient Near East

nium B. C. to the death of Alexander the Great , the ancient Near East saw the defined

rise and fall of many empires, some of which coexisted at various times. Unlike Egypt, the area as a whole at no time corresponded to a single political entity with clearly defined borders. T h e diverse parts of the Near East developed dif-ferently, often along divergent lines, while their inhabitants evolved distinctive lifestyles. O u r discussion, therefore, will focus on three areas and populations. T h e first will include those who inhabited the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers: the Sumerians and Akkadians to the south and the Assyrians to the north. T h e Hittites of Asia Minor, to the north of the Fertile Crescent per sc, form the second group, while the third includes the various inhabitants of Syria and Palestine. T h e chronological boundaries to be followed correspond generally to the rise and fall of empires in the three areas down to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B. C. Of necessity, some overlap from one area to another is unavoidable, and some places discussed, such as Mari , on the middle Euphrates, properly belong to none of the contending states. The political and military fortunes of empires, however, are not the focus of this study.

T h e development of food technology belonged neither to one empire or cul-ture nor to a single time period. For a number of reasons, evidence available for

21 Ibid., pp. 28 -29 .

CHAPTER THREE 1 9 0

the study of food technology in the ancient Near East is scattered over a wide geographic area and chronological range. T h e political and financial conditions of modern countries in the area have severely limited archaeological work, and over the millennia climatic conditions and encroachments of modern life have taken their toll on the fragile ancient remains, constructed more often of clay than of stone. Additionally, uniformity of ev idence varies significantly. For one time and place the amount of literary evidence may exceed the archaeological material; at another date and location the reverse may hold true. Non-literary evidence relating to food technology in the ancient Near East exists in far less volume than for Egypt. T h e archaeological material includes houses and build-ings, particularly palaces, where food was prepared, tombs, and paleobotanical and paleozoological remains, while art historical evidence embraces primarily a few sculpted reliefs and cylinder seals depicting food preparation and consump-tion.22

1. Food Technology and the Rise of the State

Stamp and cylinder T h e earliest evidence for true cities is found in southern Mesopotamia in the city seals of Uruk during the Uruk and J e m d e t Nasr periods of the mid and late fourth

millennium B. C.23 Here, besides monumenta l architecture and art, the develop-ment of record keeping using impressed tablets heralded the appearance of writ-ing and of emerging political and economic organization. Stamp seals of varying designs, such as geometric patterns, had been used in Chalcolithic times for apotropaic or decorative purposes; in the Halaf period they filled the more prac-tical purpose of sealing containers. Ubaid seals expanded their decorative reper-toirc to include human figures. Some clay tablets of the Uruk and Jemde t Nasr periods bore impressions made by cylinder seals fashioned of different kinds of stone. These impressions employed varied designs of decorative, symbolic, or narrative significance, and depict plants and animals, including humans engaged in diverse activities both secular and religious. T h e motivation behind their use is unknown, but they probably served as marks of ownership of items bearing clay sealings. Cylinders seals of the Uruk period and later are particular-ly helpful in investigating food technology, as some motifs include grain storage

22 Rosemary Ellison, " M e t h o d s of Food Prepara t ion in M e s o p o t a m i a (c. 3000 600 BC)," JESHO 27, no . 1 (Jan. 1984): 89.

23 Whereas in Palestine the chronological nomencla ture refers to the period between ca. 3400 and 3000 B. C. as the Early Bronze Age, in southern Mesopo tamia it is divided between the Uruk per iod (ca. 3400 3200), n a m e d for the city of Uruk , and the J e m d e t Nasr per iod (ca. 3200- 3000 B. C.), called such f rom the central Mesopo tamian city of J e m d e t Nasr , located about sixty miles south of Baghdad .


structures and banquet scenes illustrated with seated figures in the act of drink-ing.24

How writing per se developed remains a mat ter of some controversy. Denise Food technology and

Schmandt-Besserat, for example, contends that it began as early as Neolithic the development of

times in places like Mureybit III (ca. 8000-7000 Β. C.), which had a need to writing

record accounts of grain harvested and stored, and, perhaps, numbers of ani-mais maintained. This need increased as production capacity expanded and developed in tandem with changes in social structure, the formation of an elite class, and the rise of a bureaucracy to oversee storage and distribution of surplus products. At first, record keeping involved a system of concrete counting with simple clay tokens of various geometric shapes. O n e token shape, for example, indicated one measure of a specific commodity, such as oil, while a token of another shape designated a second item. Some tokens were apparently linked together on strings. Later, in the fourth millennium B. C., complex tokens bore various kinds of linear and punched markings. Signs began to replace three-dimensional tokens when these counters were sealed within a clay envelope that bore an imprint of the shape of the enclosed tokens. Then , solid clay tablets replaced entirely the token and envelope, when abstract counting could be indi-catcd by the use of impressed and incised signs and pictographs. Schmandt-Besserat's thesis has not achieved universal acceptance. Some scholars counter that direct correspondence between tokens with impressed or incised signs and actual products being counted cannot be reliably shown. They would attribute the origin of writing to the nature of the spoken language, wherein monosyllabic utterances were given a specific pictogram and ultimately the logosyllabic form found in cuneiform.25

24 Henr i Frankfor t , Cylinder Seals. A Documentary Essay on the Art and Religion of the Ancient Near East (London: Macmi l lan and Co. , 1939), esp. pp. 1 141, and Pis. Ill and XV; Bonnie Magness -Gar -diner , "Seals,5' in Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East, 4: 5 0 9 - 1 2 ; Holly Pi t tman, "Cyl inder Seals and Scarabs in die Ancient N e a r East ," in Civilizations of the Ancient Near East. J a c k M . Sasson, J o h n Baines, Gary Beckman, a n d K a r e n S. Rubinson , eds. 4 Vols. (New York: Char les Scr ibner 's Sons, 1995), 3: 1589-1603; Beatrice Teissier, Ancient Near Eastern Cylinder Seals from the Marcopoli Collection (Berkeley: University of Cal i fornia Press, 1984), pp . 3 - 1 1 0 , cf. esp. Ca t -alogue Nos. 63, 88, 89, a n d 352.

25 Boehmer , "Uruk-Warka , " in Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East, 5: 29495״ ; Denise Schmandt-Besserat , Before Writing. Vo lume I: From Counting to Cuneiform (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1992), esp. pp. 157-99; M a r c V a n de Mieroop , The Ancient Mesopotamiaη City (Oxford: C la rendon Press, 1997), pp. 36 37; H a n s J . Nissen, Peter D a m e r o w , and Rober t K. Englund, Archaic Bookkeeping. Early Writing and Techniques of Economic Administration in the Ancient Near East (Chica-go: the University of Chicago Press, 1993), esp. p p . 1 1 - 2 4 ; Peter T . Daniels, "Wri t ing a n d Wri t ing Systems," in Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East, 5: 352 58; Postgate, Early Mesopotamia, pp. 51 -70 . Clay seals, found at Arpachiyah , which may have been used to mark possession of goods, appea r as early as the late Halaf period. Sec Campbel l , "Ha la f Period in I raq ," pp. 185-86.

CHAPTER THREE 1 9 2

However writing developed, the earliest true form of writing, called proto-cuneiform or Archaic script, has been found at Uruk during the late fourth mil-lennium B. C. It derived from the need of an elite, in this case the temple bureaucracy, to maintain accounts of goods gathered and produced and to control their redistribution within society. Protocuneiform tablets found at J e m d e t Nasr, dating immediately after the Uruk tablets and written in a lan-guage perhaps related to Sumerian, record various economic transactions, such as the management of human labor forces, appor t ionment of land, cereal pro-cessing, distributions of food, and maintenance of animals. So, for example, one Archaic text from Uruk discusses the delivery of malt and barley groats, ingredients used to produce beer. T h e official (KU.ŠIM) signing the document has been identified as the chief administrator of a granary. T h e content of these Protocuneiform texts resembles the more advanced Sumerian and Akkadian cuneiform documents of a millennium later, which discuss the work of millers, the distribution of cercal, or the production of bread and beer. T h e careful attention to details registering precise amounts of grain and flour used to pro-duce specific quantities of beer is reminiscent of the similar care taken by Egyptian scribes. It also emphasizes the thoroughness exercised by administra-live officials to control the ingredients and final products that constitute an important par t of the food supply.26

In the ancient Near East, therefore, development of agriculture and food pro-cessing, evolution of writing, and the rise of urban centers exercising political and economic control were interconnected. T h e Archaic texts, however, pro-vide only basic relationships between signs and products; they list the commodi-ties but do not describe the technological processes. T h e evolution of the logo-syllabic cuneiform script during the Early Dynastic period allowed the expres-sion of simple and complex ideas and thoughts in prose and poetic forms. It is, then, at the beginning of the historical period that the study of food technology in the Ancient Near East can begin to be studied in detail. T h e vast numbers of cuneiform tablets found at numerous places, such as at Bogazköy (Hattuša), Nimrud, Ur , and Mari , written in the languages of various cultures, such as Hit-tite, Assyrian, Sumerian, and Akkadian, and dealing with administrative, busi-ness, and commercial records provide valuable documentary evidence for food, food production, and food technology. These documents take the form of eco-

26 p C ( C r D a m e r o w , "Food Product ion and Social Status as D o c u m e n t e d in Proto-cuneiform Texts , " in Food and the Status Qi/est. An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Polly Wiessner and Wulf Schiefen-hövel, eds. (Providence: Berghahn Books, 1996), pp. 150-51; Roger ]. Mat thews, "Jemdet Nasr: the Site and the Period," BiblArch 55, no. 4 (Dec. 1992): 196-200; J ö r a n Friberg, " N u m b e r s a n d Measures in the Earliest Wri t ten Records , י .Scientific American 250, no. 2 (Feb. 1984): 110-18 י


nomic texts, such as ration lists, records of labor and food distributions, income and expenditure notations, and inventories. Messenger texts list provisions for couriers, while lexicons provide an equivalent Akkadian vocabulary for Sumer-ian terms. Of particular value are the ur--ra = hubullu texts f rom Ur, and the "forerunner lists" f rom Nippur. Although Sumerian documents and the Hebrew Bible supply few, if any, recipes, the Yale Culinary Texts of ca. 1700 B. C. do.27

Literary texts, for example, narrative stories, such as that of Gilgamesh, or of deities, such as Dumuzi , also provide important insight into food and food tech-nology in the ancient Near East. Although most evidence for food technology in the ancient Near East, outside of Syria and Palestine, derives from written sources, where available archaeological and art historical material will be used to supplement the evidence.

T h e yield attributable to the elaborate system of dikes and canals, the over- Diet of the ancient

sight of their construction, operation, and repair, and the central control of the Near East

harvest, processing, and redistribution of food created a diet that was for the most part varied and dependable. T h e cereals (barley and wheat) accounted for various porridges, over three hundred different types of bread, and beer. Grapes provided raisins, wine, vinegar, and honey, a term signifying more often date or grape juice reduced over a fire than the product of apiculture. Sweeteners also included fruit juices. Among the numerous vegetables were onions, chickpeas, mushrooms, and diverse roots; nuts included almonds and pistachios. Besides the grape, fruits included apples, dates, figs, and pomegranates. Olives may have been eaten raw, but most frequently were processed into olive oil used in cook-ing or as additives applied during food preparation. Among meats consumed were beef, sheep, lamb, deer, pigs, and fowl. Animal byproducts included eggs, milk, butter, and between eighteen and twenty different types of cheese. Fish included both fresh and saltwater varieties, but especially those raised in ponds. T o judge from finds of tunny bones at Ur, preserved fish was included in Sumerian trade in food. All inhabitants had access to most of these foods, though some seem confined to the diet of the elite. Among these are wine, hon-ey from bees (probably imported for the most part), beef, and sheep. T h e Nco-Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 B. C.), when he dedicated his new palace at Nimrud, located on the Upper Tigris River north of Nineveh, boasted that for ten days he feasted 69,574 people with such food items as bread, beer,

2 7 J e a n Bottéro, Texts culinaires Mesopotamiens. Mesoptamian Culinary Texts (Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 1995), pp . 3 - 1 6 ; Henr i Limet, " T h e Cuisine of Ancient Sumer , " BiblArch 50 (Sept. 1987): 138; J e a n Bottéro, " T h e Cuisine of Ancient Mesopo tamia , " BiblArch 48, no. 1 (March 1985): 37 38; Rosemary Ellison, "Diet in Mesopotamia : the Evidence of the Barley Rat ion Texts (c. 3000 1400 B. C.) ," Iraq 43, no. 1 (Spring 1981): 35 -45 .

CHAPTER THREE 1 9 4

wine, honey, nuts, various vegetables, birds, fish, and meat animals. Ancient Near Eastern cuisine included soups, broths, and stews highly seasoned with herbs, spices, and even beer. Fruits, vegetables, and nuts could be eaten raw, while meat was grilled, roasted, broiled, and boiled. These dishes were prepared in cooking pots, for which lexica document a large vocabulary. Males did most of the cooking, certainly among the elite, who employed a professional staff, though one suspects that among the common people women more often than not performed that role.28

Tale Culinary Recipes for ancient Near Eastern foods are almost totally lacking from the Tablets record. Much of our knowledge of food preparation comes from art historical evi-

dence, literary sources, and lexica. O n e major exception is the collection of three tablets written in Old Babylonian and dated to ca. 1700 B. C., which goes under the collective name of Yale Culinary Tablets. The three tablets constitute thirty-five recipes primarily for boiled meats. More a description of foods eaten by the elite than a cookbook, the tablets depict a cuisine at once varied and sophisticated. These short recipes show an elite diet characterized by the frequent consumption of meat of various kinds, such as stag, kid, lamb, mutton, and birds, in dishes sea-soned with onions, garlic, leeks, and perhaps mustard, cumin, and coriander. Cer-tain dishes have foreign connections, such as "Elamite stew" or "Assyrian stew," referring perhaps to dishes prepared in a specific ethnic fashion.29

2H Limet , "Cuis ine of Ancient S u m e r , " pp. 132-41; Bottéro, "Cuisine of Ancient Mesopo tamia , " pp. 3 6 - 4 7 ; Ellison, "Die t in Mesopo tamia , " pp. 3545־ ; L. R . Ar l ington , "Foods of the Bible," Journal of the American Dietetic Association 35 (Aug. 1959): 816 20; Nemet -Neja t , Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia, pp . 157-62; A Kirk Grayson , Assyrian Rulers of the Early First Millennium B. C. 2 Vols. (Toronto: University of T o r o n t o Press, 1991), 1: 288-93 ; Rosemary Ellison, J a n e Renf rew, Don Brothwell, a n d Nigel Seeley, " S o m e Food Offerings f rom Ur , Excavated by Sir Leonard Woolley, and Previously Unpub l i shed , " JArchSa 5 (1978): 167-77; J a n e M. Renfrew, "Vegetables in the Ancient N e a r Eastern Diet ," in Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, 1: 191-202; Brian Hesse, "Animal H u s b a n d r y and H u m a n Diet in the Ancient N e a r East ," in Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, 1: 213; H a r r y A. Hof fner , J r . Alimenta Hethaeorum. Food Production in Hittite Asia Minor. Amer ican Or ien ta l Series, Vol. 55 (New Haven: Amer ican Or ienta l Society, 1974), pp. 53 -128 ; and Ellison, " M e t h o d s of Food Prepara t ion in Mesopo tamia (c. 3 0 0 0 - 6 0 0 B.C)," pp. ־8998 . O d e d Borowski argues that olives were not eaten raw until at least Hellenistic times w h e n pickling and salting were in t roduced . As indicated below, however, salting and probably pickling, o f f i s h at least, was pract iced well before the Hellenistic per iod. O d e d Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel (Winona Lake, Indiana : Eisenbrauns , 1987), pp. 123-24.

29 It is difficult to de te rmine the role of meat in the diet of Mesopo tamians at large. See Henr i Limet , "La consommat ion de v iande en Mésopo tamie anc ienne (vers 2000 av. J . -C. ) ," in L'animal dans l'alimentation humaine: les critères de choix. Liliane Bodson, ed. Anthropozoologica Special No . 2 (Paris: J e a n - D e n n i s Vigne , 1988), pp. 5 1 - 5 8 ; J e a n Bottéro, " K ü c h e , " in RIA (1980-83), 6: 292 -93 ; J e a n Bottéro, " T h e Most Ancient Recipes of All," in Food in Antiquity. J o h n Wilkins, David Harvey , and Mike Dobson , eds. (Exeter: Exeter University Press, 1995), pp. 248 55; Bot-téro, Texts culinaires Mesopotamiens, passim; Bottéro, "Cuis ine of Ancient Mesopo tamia , " pp. 39 -44 .


Many of these foods required cooking before being eaten, ! his could be done Cooking

in a number of ways. So, for example, roasting could be done in simple installa-tions consisting only of a shallow hole, trough, or ditch. An open hearth delimit-ed on three sides by brick structures provided a place for roasting or for support-ing cooking pots suspended over a fire. T h e ability to boil foods in pots over a fire gave rise to the preparation of innumerable dishes, such as stews, soups, and so on, to add great variety to the diet. Excavations at Abu Salabikh, in southern Iraq, yielded several types of third-millennium B. C. fire installations within domestic contexts, many of which were contemporaneous with each other. These include cooking pits, troughs, and rectangular or sub-rectangular open hearths. Also found were numerous bread ovens, or tannurs (discussed below), and some unusual two-story ovens that may have been used to prepare bread for use in making beer. T h e hearths and ovens were able to reach temperatures up to 850° C. The large kitchen (Room 167) of the royal palace o f Z i m r i Lim, at Mari , dated to the early second millennium B. C., included a rectangular brick structure designed to provide cooking facilities to feed a large population. Here a side-by-side arrangement of five ovens, one being quite large, consisted of near circular depressions cut into the upper surface of a continuous platform. Below each depression was a firebox accessible by an opening on the front. This arrangement is reminiscent of three narrow rooms (216 to 218) in the same palace, with long double rows of ovens set into platforms, perhaps open to the sky, which the excavator, although conceding that they could have served for cooking food, concluded that they were used in metal working. Similarities with structures identified as lire ditches from Uruk and dated to the Early Dynastic period, however, argue in favor of these being ovens to cook food.30

2. Cereal Processing

A. Storage Notwithstanding all these food resources, famine always remained a potential problem.31 Anticipation of this threat accounts for the high degree of concern felt by state and temple authorities to maintain a consistent and sufficient supply

30 Bottéro, "Küche , " RIA (1980 83), 6: 283-86 ; Harr ie t Crawford , "Some Fire Installations f rom Abu Salabikh, I raq ," Paléorient 7, no. 2 (1981): 105 14; M . S. Tite, A. P. Middleton, and J . N. Post-gate, "Scientific Investigation of Fire Installations at Abu Salabikh," Sumer 47, no. 47 (1995): 4651־ ; André Parrot , Mission Archéologique du Mari. II :Le Palais. Architecture (Paris: Libraire Orientaliste Paul Geuthner , 1958), pp. 2 4 - 2 6 (kitchen), 288 92 (kitchen?); Marie-Thérèse Barrelet, "Dispositifs a feu et cuisson des aliments a Ur , Nippur , Uruk," Paléorient 2, no. 2 (1974): 250-63 , 276-81 .

:51 See, e. g., the Sumer ian "Lamenta t ion O v e r the Destruct ion of S u m e r and U r , " translated by S. N. K r a m e r , in ANET, pp . 6 1 1 - 1 9 , esp. p. 616, lines 307 10.

CHAPTER THREE 1 9 6

of food from the hinterland and to insure proper storage and distribution of any surplus. Pivotal to this centralized food supply were the cereals. Harvested in the fields, the cereals were taken to the threshing floors nearby, where they were threshed, winnowed, and sieved under the watchful eyes of palace or temple authorities. T h e grain probably went first to regional storage installations. Archaeological evidence for rural storage facilities, however, is sparse, although excavations in the middle K h a b u r area of northeast Syria have yielded several small communities stretching along the Euphrates River at about two kilometer intervals. These third-millennium B. C. sites, such as Tell 'Atij, Kerma, and Ziyadah, constitute centralized grain storage and processing facilities overseen by an elite who probably shipped the grain, primarily barley, to urban centers, in this case Mari . T h e best preserved site is Tell al-Raqa'i , where, in its early-third millennium B. C. level, a "Rounded Building" with surrounding structures

Semi-subterranean possessed over a dozen semi-subterranean doorless "silos." One , excavated to a silos in Syria depth of four meters, also had a square window near its top; enough of the roof

exists to show that it was vaulted. These silos bear a remarkable resemblance to grain silos shown on cylinder seals of the Uruk and J e m d e t Nasr periods found in southwestern Iran and to silos represented in Egyptian tomb paintings, such as have been found in the Tombs of Antefoker and of Unas-ankh at Thebes. In addition to silos, storage facilities had basalt grinding stones to process grain, ovens for drying grain or baking bread, and cooking pots to prepare cereal-based foods similar to modern burghul, or bulgur.32

Urban storage of Much of the threshed grain was transported by boat or hauled in carts by Shuruppak pack animals to urban storage sites, such as palace or temple magazines, and

millhouses. Some rooms in palaces can be identified as storage rooms, but the best evidence for urban storage centers comes from Shuruppak, in central Baby-Ionia. Here over thirty grain silos (<vr/f7), dating to the mid-third millennium B. C., have come to light. Averaging ten meters deep and four meters in diameter, they held an estimated 125 m.3 of grain. Although unconfirmed, they may have

32 Glenn M. Schwartz, "Rura l Economic Specialization and Early Urbanizat ion in the K h a b u r Valley, Syria," in Archaeological Views from the Countryside. Village Communities in Early Complex Societies. Glenn M. Schwartz and Steven E. Falconer, eds. (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994), pp. 19-36; Glenn M . Schwartz and Hans H. Curvers, "Tell al-Raqa' i 1989 and 1990: Further Inves-tigations at a Small Rural Site of Early U r b a n Northern Mesopotamia," AJA 96, no. 3 (July 1992): 397-419; Microop , Ancient Mesopotamien! City, pp. 142 50. For Egyptian domed granaries, see Chap te r Three , esp. pp. 100-104. For burghul, see Ellison, "Methods of Food Preparation," p. 89; Gordon Hillman, "'Traditional Husbandry and Processing of Archaic Cereals in Recent Times: the Opera -tions, Products and Equipment Which Might Feature in Sumerian Texts. Part I: the Glume Wheats ," BullSumAgri 1 (1984): 133 40. O n famine, see Adamson, "Problems over Storing Food in the Ancient Near East," pp. 8 - 9 , esp. note 23; Mar t in Levy, Chemistry and Chemical Technology• in Ancient Mesopotamia (Amsterdam: Elsevier Publishing Company , 1959), pp. 4546־ .


been roofed. Tha t they were domed, seems a good guess, judging from silos found in the middle K h a b u r area of Syria and from archaeological remains of Palestinian beehive granaries from the Bronze Age.33 Documentary evidence indicates that most grain was distributed from these storehouses as rations to dependants, who had to process them at home.

Beehive granaries, whose capacity clearly exceeded that needed for private Abovegrowd beehive-

domestic purposes, have come to light at Bronze Age Arad (ca. 3000-2800 B. granary complexes in

C.), Beth Yerah (2800-2400 B. C.), and Bir cl-' Abd (1400 1300 B. C.). Circular Palestine

or elliptical in shape and averaging from four to nine meters in diameter, these above-ground storage facilities rest upon a stone foundation. At Beth Yerah, nine (or ten) silos set into a wall form a rectangular structure surrounding a central enclosure approached by a corridor. The complex, situated in a prominent posi-tion in the city, measures ca. 40 m. χ 30 m. This rectangular arrangement of silos recalls the granary complexes represented in Egyptian tomb paintings, but espe-cially the Bronze Age steatite vessel from Melos, which takes the form of seven cylindrical containers sitting on a raised base and arranged in a u-shaped forma-tion about an open central area. The height of the Palestinian silos is unknown, as most exist only at foundation level. T h e four brick silos at Bir el-' Abd, site of an Egyptian fort, however, had walls ca. 50 cm. thick existing up to a height of ca. 1.80 meters. One of these has still preserved a section of the corbelled dome. The rows of bricks slightly inclined toward the center as they increased in height, giving the appearance of a dome. Whether the individual silos were filled through the roof and emptied by way of a door near the bottom, as represented in Egypt-

:î:! Mie roop , Ancient Mesopotamian City, pp. 151 53; Har r ie t P. Mar t i n , Fara: A Reconstruction of the Ancient Mesopotamian City of Shuruppak B i rmingham, England: Chr i s Mar t in & Associates, 1988), pp. 42 47, 110 12. Mar t in (ibid., p. 47) notes that Early Dynast ic tablets f rom Fara ment ion large rat ion distr ibutions f rom grain silos. O n e room (No. 1 16) in the Royal Palace at M a r i con-taincd eleven huge cylindrical terra-cot ta conta iners seated slightly into a p la t form of bricks. Reminiscent of the large dolia found at Knossos on Cre te , these vessels apparen t ly once con-taincd provisions for the palace. W h a t foods they held a rc unknown, but , since the interior of the vessels were unl incd, solid mater ials such as grain a rc more likely. Parrot , Mission Archéologique de Mari. Le Palais, 2: 9 4 - 9 7 , a n d Figs. 98 99, and Pl. X X V I . See also ibid., pp. 2 9 9 - 3 0 5 , for o th-er s torerooms in the palace . For s torerooms in palaces in Ebla, see Rita Dolce, " S o m e Aspects of the P r imary Economic St ructures of Ebla in the T h i r d & Second Mi l lenniums B. C.: Stores and Workplaces , " in Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft von Ebla. H a r t m u t Waetzold t and Hara ld H a u p t m a n n , eds. Heide lberger Studien z u m Alten Or i en t , Band 2 (Heidelberg: Heidelberger Or ientver lag , 1988), pp. 35 45; in N i m r u d , see Grayson , Assyrian Rulers, p. 291. For cylinder seals showing large granar ies similar to those in Egypt, see Axel Steensberg, Hard Grains, Irrigation. .Numerals and Script in the Rise of Civilisations (Copenhagen : Royal Danish A c a d e m y of Sciences and Letters ' Commiss ion for Research on the History of Agricultural Implements and Field Structures , 1989), p. 44, Fig. 12.

CHAPTER THREE 1 9 8

ian paintings, cannot be ascertained, though it is likely. T h e interior of the silos, floors and walls, was covered with plaster. T h e four silos, arranged in a square formation but not surrounding a central courtyard, as at Beth Yerah, could have held ca. forty tons of grain. T h e origin of the beehive granary silo remains unknown, though one suggestion has this architectural feature arising in Egypt and spreading to Palestine and ultimately to Mesopotamia. Other sites, such as Beth Shemesh, Hazor, and Megiddo, possessed large underground silos attached to public buildings. T h e one at Megiddo, for example, measured seven meters deep, and contained two winding staircases. This unplastered silo held over 12,800 bushels of grain. These above and below ground silos must have stored public or communal grain controlled by palace or temple authorities.34

Rectangular storage Excavators in Israel have also uncovered separate storehouses or storerooms facilities in Israel attached to larger structures in which grain, wine, oil, olives, and other commodi-

ties were stored loose or in terracotta containers for easy distribution by palace or temple authorities. At Tell el Ifshar the Middle Bronze Age grain storage bin attached to a larger storage complex had a rectangular floor plan and, like Egypt-ian silos, an opening near the bot tom to allow access to the grain. Its roof config-uration is unknown. T h e bin once contained mostly loose emmer wheat stored as clean grain, and probably served as a central storage facility for a community elite. T w o types of Iron-Age storehouses have been identified. The first, found, for example, at Jericho, Lachish, Megiddo, and Tell Beit Mirsim, takes the form of a building with long narrow rooms, whose shape and thick walls served to keep grain cool and to prevent moidering. T h e second type of storeroom, apparently unique to Israel and uncovered at various places, such as Megiddo, Beer-sheba, Hazor, and Dothan, was a long rectangular building with thick exterior walls. T w o rows of stone pillars divided the interior into three long rooms, the central one used for movement in and out of the building. Storerooms, smaller than storehouses because they form part of larger public or religious structures, have been found at Dothan, Ta 'annek, Tell Dan, and Samaria.35

34 J o h n 1). Cur r id , " T h e Beehive Buildings of Ancient Palestine,'" BiblArch 49, no. 1 (March 1986): 20 -24 ; Eliezer D. O r e n , " N o r t h e r n Sinai ," in The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excava-lions in the Holy Land. E p h r a i m Stern , Ayelet Lewinson-Gilgoa, and Jo seph Aviram, eds., 4 Vols. (New York: S imon & Schuster , 1993), 4: 1389; Borwoski, "Granar i e s and Silos," p. 431.

35 See Mi r i am C. Che rno f f and Samuel M. Paley, "Dynamics of Cereal Product ion at Tell el Ifshar, Israel dur ing the Middle Bronze Age," JFA 25, no. 4 (Winter 1998): 397 -416 . Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, pp . 73 -75 , 78 81. D u r i n g the Middle Bronze Age, terra-cotta jars , at least those f o u n d at Te l Nami , had thick layers of plaster on their exterior, presumably to prevent oxidat ion of the oil conta ined in them. After that t ime a thick wash on the exterior provided even better protect ion and helped prevent b reakage in t ranspor t . See Micha l Artzy, " O n the Storage of Olive Oil in Antiquity, , in Olive Oil in Antiquity. David Ei י tam and Michael Heltzer, eds. (Padua: Sargon srl, 1996), pp. 4 5 - 4 8 .


Private Iron-Age houses in Israel also possessed storage areas, most frequently small pits either plastered or lined with stones. Those found at Dothan, for example, included underground chambers located in a domestic area of the town. Cylindrical in shape they measured five feet in diameter and reached down more than three feet. At Shechem the house contained a small grain pit in its main living room. Its kitchen also contained a pit along with a saddle quern and grinding stones to process the grain. Some houses had separate storerooms both for storing food and processing it.36

b. Milling T h e necessity of milling is dictated by the degree of protection afforded to the grain according to the particular species. Cereal stalks are composed of ears made up of spikelets arranged along the rachis. Cereals that possess glumes that hold the grain tightly to the spikelet, such as einkorn and emmer, are called glume wheats. These cereals require intensive processing beyond threshing, such as pounding and grinding, sometimes preceded by parching, to release the endosperm from the surrounding bran, or husk. Cereals, such as du rum wheat, having weak glumes and, so, easily release the grain from the spikelet during threshing, are called free-threshing cereals. Barley is classed among the hulled cereals, because its grains have fused to it a double protective layer. T h e most important cereals available to inhabitants of the ancient Near East included two glume wheats, einkorn (Triticum monococcum L.) and emmer (T. turgidum L., subsp. Dicoccum), a free-threshing cereal, durum wheat (T. turgidum L·., subsp. Durum), and hulled 6-row barley (.Hordeum vulgare L.). O the r cereals, such as bread wheat (T. aestivum L., subsp. vulgare), spelt (T. aestivum L.), rye (Secale cereale L.), and oats (Avena sativa L.), though grown, never achieved favor; millet (Panicum miliaceum L) has not been substantiated in the ancient Near East before ca. 700 B. C.37

When required the grain was removed from storage and taken to the place Parching

where it was processed. T h e purpose of pounding grain with mortar and pestle is to break the hard case surrounding the endosperm. It is uncertain whether the inhabitants of the ancient Near East parched grain before processing it. Parch-

36 Storage pits have also been found at 1 ell el Ifshar, in both Bronze and Iron Age levels. See Chernof f and Paley, "Dynamics of Cerea l Product ion ," p. 408. S o m e houses, such as at Tell J e m -meh , da t ing to the seventh century B. C., may have had be low-ground storage cellars a t tached. See Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, pp. 72 76, 82.

37 O n the construct ion of the wheat grain, see H o r d e r et al, Bread, pp. 2 9 - 3 1 . Sec also W . Nagel, "Get re ide , " RLi (1957-1971), 3: '308 18; Hopkins , "Cerea ls ," pp. 4 7 9 - 8 1 ; Zoha ry and Hopf , Domestication of Plants in the Old World, pp . 15-85; Ellis, " M ü h l e , " RIA (1995) 8: 394; Steens-berg, Hard Grains, pp. 2 4 - 3 0 ; Nesbitt, "Plants and People in Ancient Anatolia, '" pp. 74—76; Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, pp . 8 7 - 9 3 .

CHAPTER THREE 2 0 0

ing at about 200° C. has the advantage not only of rendering the glumes brittle, and so making it easier to break by pounding, but also of converting the starch to sweet-tasting dextrins.38 Although the glume wheats (emmer and einkorn, especially) and barley might benefit from roasting before grinding, free-thresh-ing wheat would not necessarily need it. Certain vocabulary terms, such as ŠE-M ("roasted barley") and DABLX-SA ("toasted-barley flour"), indicate that barley did undergo this process. Additionally, literary texts attest certain types of oven or grill {UDUN-ŠE-SA-A = Ι Arn ) that served to roast grain. Following sieving to sepa-rate the bran from the endosperm, grinding on a quern reduced the latter to flour. T h e efficiency of grinding, length of time engaged in the activity, and

Flour number of repetitive grindings interspersed with sieving determine the fineness of the flour. Mesopotamian documents record various qualities and grades of flour, called in Sumerian <7(/j), ranging from coarsely ground to finely ground. Flour could be made from emmer (<Λζ) or barley (.$/·;). ^ì-au, for example, was a fine-grained barley flour; DABLX was a coarse-grained one. Some terms for flour betray their purpose in producing a specific product. So, for example, ZÌ-BA-BA refers to "flour for porridge." Z1-MumJ3 is a mixture of flour and malt, used to make beer. Since flour spoils more quickly than unprocessed grain, cereal rations were most commonly issued in the latter form. Processing occurred in the domestic setting, and the flour was probably used almost immediately after-ward. If some storage time was necessary, it could be kept in sacks or terra-cotta containers in which it could be transported short distances, if necessary.39

Grinding tools Grinding tools found in private houses, palaces, and temple annexes indicate that cereal processing technology showed no significant advances beyond what was typical of Neolithic and Chalcolithic times, although the tools themselves

38 Hi l lman ("Tradi t ional Husbandry . Part I: the G l u m e Whea t s , notes that in areas (כן. 129 "with hot and dry envi ronments pa rch ing is not always necessary before processing. H e also notes that the type of e m m e r used probably played a decisive role in choosing to omit roasting. T h e varieties of e m m e r grown in the ancient N e a r East, however , a re unknown. Maisels (Emergence of Civilization, 86 .גן) suggests that finds of mortars , pestles, and millstones in proximity to fire-pits in Mureybi t on the uppe r Euphra te s River in contexts datable to ca. 8 2 0 0 - 8 0 0 0 B. C. indicate that grain pa rch ing m a y have been a no rma l pa r t of cereal processing as early as the PPN A . See also Powell, " M e t r o n Ariston," p. 100.

39 Lucio Milano, " M e h l , " RIA (1993), 8: 2 3 - 2 4 (roasted barley). See also ibid., pp. 2 4 - 2 7 (dif-ferent types of Hour), and 2 9 - 3 0 (storage). For food rations, see below note 44. For an oven or grill to roast grain, see A r m a s Salonen, "Die Ö f e n der alten Mesopo tamie r , " AIDAI (Β) 3 (1964): 104-06. For Biblical references to pa rch ing grain, see Leviticus 2:14 and 16; 1 Samuel 17:7; 2 Samuel 17:28; and Ruth 2:14. See also Arr ington, "Foods of the Bible," p. 817, and Hopkins , "Cereals ," p. 481. For the purposes of roast ing gra in , see G o r d o n Hi l lman, "Tradi t iona l H u s b a n d r y and Processing of Archaic Cereals in Recent Times : the Opera t ions , Products a n d Equ ipmen t T h a t Might Feature in Sumer ian Texts . Part II: the Free- threshing Cereals ," BullSumAgri 2 (1985): 12. For milling in Hittite l i terature, see Hof fne r , Alimenta Hethaeonnn, pp . 134—36, 143-45.


showed some development. So, for example, in Bronze Age levels of Jer icho mortars varied between heavy in-situ types and light, portable ones. Some of the latter type had slightly rounded bases and shallow depressions with rounded walls; others were formed from blocks of varying shape. O n e portable mortar had a lug handle and boss on opposite sides, either for ease of carrying or to afford a griping point to impart greater stability to the mortar while the worker

3 pounded grain with a pestle. Basalt tripod mortars (PI. 3), carved with a base consisting of three feet, have come to light in Bronze Age contexts in Jericho and Ebla. T h a t they were used to process grain or some other substance is unclear. Querns, for the most part made of basalt, sandstone, or limestone, found in Jer icho in Bronze Age levels were all of the saddle type, though some in the Middle Bronze period possessed a flat base rather than a rounded one. Typ-ical grinding tools — limestone mortars, pestles made from stone, and basalt saddle querns — have also come from Iron Age contexts in Palestine, such as Dothan, Shechem, and Tell Halaf.40 Sumerian literary texts, such as the epic Lugale and Disputation Between the Millstone and the gul.gul-stone, provide additional information on materials used for grinding equipment. Mar ten Stol suggests that these texts, when studied in the light of archaeological finds and lexical evi-dence, indicate that lower millstones were typically made from basalt, often imported f rom northern Mesopotamia, while the upper stone, or muller, which need not be as hard, could be made from red sandstone, available, for example, from the mountain called Gebel Sinjar, or "mountain of millstones." Although baked clay, wood, or plaster may have at times substituted for stone pounding and grinding equipment, little evidence for them remains. "

T h e development of centralized control of the food supply and its distribution Large-scale

by temple and state led to the creation of large grinding enterprises, operating mitlhouses

either as part of the palace to provide flour for chefs to cook food for the king,

40 Kenyan and Hol land, Excavations a! Jericho, 5: 553 75, esp. Fig. 231, no. 14, Fig. 233, and Plates 21 and 24; Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, pp. 87 91, and note 5; Her r , " I ron Age II Per iod," p. 119; Ebla. Alle origini delta civiltà urbana. Paolo Mat th iae , Frances Pinnock, and Gabriel-la Scandone Mat th iae , eds. (Milan: Electa, 1995), p. 493, nos. 434 35. For Biblical references to cereal processing, see Exodus 1 1:5, Deuteronomy 24:6, Job 31:10, Isaiah 47:2, Lamentations 5:13, Num-bers 11:8, 2 Samuel 17:19, and Proverbs 27:22. '

41 M a r t e n Stol, On Trees, Mountains, and Millstones in the Ancient .Near East (Leiden: Ex Or ien te Lux, 1979), pp. 8 9 - 9 8 ; Lucio Milano, "Mühle . A. I. In Mesopo tamien , " RIA (1995), 8: 394 -95 . For an e thnographic study of cereal processing in m o d e r n T u r k e y as an aid toward unders tand-ing related Sumer ian terms, see Hi l lman, " Traditional Husbandry . Part I: the G l u m e Whea t s , " pp. 114-52, esp. pp. 129-40; idem, "Tradi t iona l Husbandry . Part II: the Free- threshing Cere -als," pp. 1 31, esp. pp . 10 23. At a l -Hiba in southern Iraq women today construct mor ta rs and (in this case, rotary) grain mills of sun-dried m u d coated with b i tumen. T h e pestles a re also of b i tumen , or of wood. See Edward Ochsenschlager , " M u d Objec ts f rom al-Hiba. A Study in Ancient and M o d e r n Technology," Archaeology 27, no. 3 Ju ly 1974): 171.

CHAPTER THREE 2 0 2

his attendants, and palace personnel, or as separate millhouses employed to pro-vide flour for distribution to the populace generally. Palaces at Ebla, in Syria, provide two such installations. Three rooms within the central complex of Royal Palace G, dated to ca. 2300 B. C., contained a row of saddle querns embedded into a slightly raised platform running parallel with three walls. The platform was so constructed that the querns sloped down and away from the worker. This allowed the flour to fall into a container placed on the floor in front of the plat-form beneath each quern. A shallow, raised trough (1.70 m. χ 1.80 m.) nearby probably held grain to be worked on the querns by grinders. A better preserved, but later (1800-1600 B. C.) room in the Western Palace possessed sixteen saddle querns resting on top of a long bench. In a situation similar to that seen in bak-ery models f rom Egypt, such as that of Meket-re (Fig. 9), or the workmen's vil-läge at Amarna , workers in the grinding rooms of both palaces apparently knelt behind the quern in the space between platform and wall, t his position permit-ted workers to brace their back or feet against the wall for support when extend-ing their body during grinding or when resting in an upright position. This working environment constituted a distinct improvement over the plight of workers grinding grain in Neolithic Abu Hureyra.4 2

T h e second type of large-scale grinding workshop is that devoted to providing processed cereals for distribution by the state or temple. Cuneiform tablets doc-ument several millhouses throughout southern Mesopotamia, such as at U m m a , Ur, and Lagash and its surrounding district. In the latter area the best known is perhaps the state-run Sagdana millhouse. Daily rosters, dating to the Third Dynasty of Ur (2100-2000 Β C.), record the occupations of workers, male and female, either drafted through compulsory corvée service or else selected as unskilled workers belonging to the state and assigned to the millhouse in various capacities, such as carpenters, basket weavers, boatmen, and scribes.43 Those connected specifically with cereal processing include bakers, flour carriers, and millers. Females, often listed as weavers as well, apparently served as millers and

n Dolcc, " S o m e Aspects of the Pr imary Economic Structures of Ebla ," pp. 34 -45 ; Paolo Mat th iae et al, Ebla, pp. 107 (Royal Palace G) and 173 (Western Palace). A similar installation has been excavated at Tell Brak, and gr inding workshops also opera ted in Iron Age Gord ion in Phrygian Anatolia. See Ellis, " M ü h l e , " RIA (1995), 8: 4 0 1 - 0 2 .

43 Rober t Κ. Englund, " H a r d W o r k — W h e r e Will it Get You? Labor M a n a g e m e n t in U r III M e s o p o t a m i a , " JNES 50 (Jan.-Oct. 1991): 258: " [ T ] h e central organizat ion of the U r III state required strict control of its resources to ensure an even flow of goods and services to the crown a n d servants of the c rown in U r and in the provinces, including the military services and adminis-n ative personnel governing the per iphery of the realm, to the managers in charge of product ion , and to the centrally organized depots f rom which the system of redistribution to the working classes was m a n a g e d . " See also Nissen et al, Archaic Bookkeeping, pp. 70-88 , esp. pp. 8 4 8 5 .and Fig ־69.


ground the cereal into (lour. How large these establishments were is difficult to know. Ration lists from Lagash, however, indicate that the millhouse there may have utilized 950 workmen. Temples, such at that to Inanna at Nippur, also used teams of millers to process cereal to prepare Hour for use in food offerings or for food for temple priests and attendants. Hittite millhouses apparently oper-ated in a similar fashion, employing primarily women as millers. Millhouses also operated in Palestine, as Judges 16:21 says that Samson, after being blinded, was put to work grinding in the Philistine prison mill.44

Assyrian reliefs on architectural monuments , such as the bronze bands erected Milling by Assyrian

on the palace gate of Shalmaneser III (858824־ B. C.), son of Ashurnasirpal II, soldiers

at Nimrud, located on the Tigris River south of Nineveh, often include a forti-fied camp as a common motif. Within a rectangular or circular f rame camp scenes represent activities typical of soldiers. It is significant that prominently displayed in nearly all such views are soldiers depicted grinding grain on saddle querns. The choice of this scene to possess iconographie value for military life generally highlights this activity as a basic duty of all soldiers on campaign. Sim-ilarly, in the palace of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh appears a relief showing Baby-Ionian prisoners at work grinding (in this instance, their fathers' bones) on a sad-die quern.4 5

Although grinding appears frequently in art historical representations, and processing tools are a common find in archaeological contexts, the end results of grinding and the products made from them have left few physical remains. Excavators at Beth-shemesh, for example, found a j a r of finely ground cereal similar to semolina and probably destined for use in making bulgur. In the T o m b of Queen Puabi, of Early Dynastic Ur, were found bits of unleavened bread also consisting of finely ground flour.46 Most flour, breads, and beverages made from cereals, however, have not survived, so our knowledge of them must rely upon the written records and scattered physical and art historical materials.

44 Alexander Uchitel , "Daily Work at S a g d a n a Mil lhouse," Acta Sumerologica 6 (1984): 75 98; Englund, " H a r d Work - W h e r e Will it G e t You?" pp. 255 -80 ; Milano, "Mühle . A. I. In Mesopo tamien , " RIA (1995), 8: 395 -400 ; Harry׳ Α. ΗϋΠ־ηει־, J r . "Mühle . Α. II. Bei den Hct-hi tern," RIA (1995), 8: 400 -01 ; HofTner, Alimenta Hethaeorum, pp. 132 36. T h e s tandard ration sys-tern involved the distribution of oil, wool, and especially barley (ŠF.-HA). E m m e r (<:/<-/{•!) or the processed products , b read (MLWA-BA) and Hour (ζ/υ-BÀ), might serve as a substitution for barley, or might even become par t of the s tandard rations themselves. See esp. I. J . Gelb, " T h e Ancient Mesopo tamian Rat ion System," JNES 24 J a n - O c t . 1965): 230 43.

45 L. W . King, Bronze Reliefs from the Gates of Shalmaneser, King of Assyria B. C. 86(h825 (London: Longmans & Co. , 1915), Plates VI , XI I , X I X , LI, LIII , L X X I , L X I I , and LXXII I ; Ellis, "Mühle . Β. Archäologisch," RL l (1995), 8: 402, a n d Fig. 3, p. 403.

46 Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, p. 90; Ellison et al, " S o m e Food Offer ings f rom Ur , " p. 172.

2 0 4 CHAPTER THREE

Fig. 14. Gypsum relief of an Assyrian fortified camp, from T h r o n e Room Β of the N W Palace of Ashurnasirpal. From Georges Perrot and Charles Chipiez, Histoire de l'art dans l'antiquité, 10 Vols. (Paris: Hachette, 1882-1914), 2: 342, Fig. 155, from Layard, Monuments, l׳־׳ series, pl. 30.


c. Bread Making T w o general types of bread , called NINDA in Sumer ian (Fig. 15), character ize the Types of bread

ancient Near East. T h e first, unleavened, required only that a mixture of flour, water , and a little salt be kneaded into dough a n d then placed on the inside of an oven, similar to mode rn Arabic t a n n u r ovens, on a hot stone, or directly on ashes in a fire. Th is p roduced flat b read that did not keep well. T h e second type b read was a leavened product made , as described earlier in the Egyptian context , f rom the addit ion of yeast to the dough. T h e yeast might come f rom sourdough, that is dough left to fe rment overnight, or f rom brewer 's yeast pro-duced in beer making. Little evidence exists for the kneading process, but exca-valors have recovered f rom Iron Age remains at Achzib, located nor th of Acco on the Medi t e r ranean coast, a terra-cotta figurine of a w o m a n standing behind a kneading t rough suppor ted by legs and kneading dough.1 7 Most bread seems to have been m a d e f rom barley, though e m m e r wheat may have often served to p roduce flat breads. As m a n y as three h u n d r e d different kinds of breads and pastries have been documented , differing in the specific type of grain employed, quality, color, additives, baking process, size, geographic origin, or in tended use.48 So, for instance, writ ten sources record barley bread (MKDA-SE), bread for ritual purposes {.NINDA-SIKII), and b read of first (MYDA-SA(Ì) and second (MVDA-UŠ) quality. Hittite sources ment ion white bread (NINDA.KUR4.IIA BABBAR) and dark bread (NWDA.KUR4.RA GEwhich may indicate breads m a d e f rom finely milled and coarsely milled grain, respectively. Additives included ghee, dates, milk, chccse, fruits, and sesame oils, a m o n g others. As in Egypt, breads and pastries came in different sizes and shapes, such as circles, crescents, or in the form of a hand , an ear, or a head. Evidence for these forms comes f rom images on cylinder seals, the vocabulary of economic and literary documents , includ-ing Biblical passages, and archaeological contexts. Pottery molds found in the

17 Moshe W . Prausnitz and Eilat M a z a r , "Achz ib ," in New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excava-lions in the Holy Land, 1: 34. Al though some areas within houses and in proximity to ovens have been identified as areas for kneading dough , they remain only conjectures. See, e. g. Maur i t s V a n Loon, "1974 a n d 1975 Prel iminary Results of the Excavations at Selenkahiye near Meskene, Syr-ia," AASOR 44 (1979): 108 (late third mil lennium B. C.); Schwartz and Curvers , "Tell a l -Raqa ' i 1989 a n d 1990," p. 403 (mid-third mil lennium B. C.). For references to kneading found in Hitti te sources, see Holfner , Alimenta Hethaeorum, pp. 136 37. K n e a d i n g and baking appea r frequently in Biblical passages, such as Exodus 12:13, 34, and 39; 2 Samuel 13:8; and Isaiah 44.15. Arl ington ("Foods of the Bible,' p. 817) provides a longer list, including N י e w Tes t amen t references.

tH Hol fne r points out that a m o n g the Hittites the t e rm NINDA refers not jus t to bread but to any-thing which contains flour. He goes on to identify one h u n d r e d and forty-eight p roduc t names , writ ten phonetically or logographically, which possess this determinat ive. See Holfner , Alimenta Hethaeorum, pp . 147 211. Howard Berman augment s this list in his review of Hof fne r , Alimenta Hethaeorum, in J C S ' 2 8 (1976): 2 4 3 - 4 6 .

Fig. 15. Sumerograms for (a) AJI.V, (b) SIM, and (c) MWA. After Forbes, Studies, 3: 67.


palace kitchen at Mari , for example, imparted not only shape to the bread, such as that of a fish, but also designs, geometric and animal-shaped, onto its surface.49

Although hot coals or a heated stone could be used, the earliest type of oven Tannur ovens

employed in the ancient Near East to bake flat bread coincides with the type shown in Egyptian tomb paintings being utilized for the same purpose. This oven, called tannur in modern Arabic, is still utilized in the Near East today. It has been found in kitchens and courtyards of private houses in Yarim Tepe as early as the Halaf and Ubaid periods, and in numerous other buildings dating from historical times, such as the third millennium B . C . cooking ovens found at Abu Salabikh, located near Nippur in southern Iraq, and at Khirbet Iskander in Palestine. Constructed of a clay and gypsum mixture the tannur oven was an upright, beehive-shaped structure of large enough proportion to be essentially immobile, although there were smaller, portable ones, sometimes called today a tabun. These ovens had thick walls with an outer diameter at the bottom of between ca. 1.00 m. and 1.90 m., and a height of ca. 0.60 m.; those in Assyria tended to be larger. A large opening at the top allowed access to the inside of the oven where the cook would stick moist dough, shaped into circular pancakes, to the walls. She would then seal the opening with clay. T h e fire, fed with grass and reeds through a smaller opening near the bottom, baked the bread. Tem-perature ranges reached in tannur ovens usually do not exceed 850° C. Some tannurs at Abu Salabikh were reinforced with baked brick to allow pots to be placed over the hole at the top to cook or boil the contents.50

49 S tephanie Dalley, Mari and Karana. Two Old Babylonian Cities (London: L o n g m a n , 1984), p. 88, esp. Fig. 32; Postgate, Early Mesoptamia, p. 146, Fig. 7.7 (pastry molds). Bottéro ("Cuisine of Ancient Mesopo tamia , " p. 38) thinks the "molds" are actually serving dishes. Sec also Milano, "Meh l , " RIA (1993), 8: 28 -29 ; Ellison, " M e t h o d s of Food Prepara t ion in Mesopo tamia , " p. 91; Nemet -Ne ja t , Daily Life, p. 158; Limet, "Cuisine of Ancient S u m e r , " pp. 133 34; Milano, "Food and Diet in Preclassical Syria," pp. 219 20; Hof fner , Alimenta Hethaeorum, pp. 149-211; Lev׳(׳, Chemistry and Chemical Technology, pp. 48 50; G a d d , "Table t s f r o m C h a g a r Bazar and Tall Brak," p. 29. Biblical references include Exodus 29:23; Judges 7:13 a n d 8:5; a n d Proverbs 6:26. Arl ington ("Foods of the Bible," pp. 8 1 9 2 ־ 0 ) refers to manna, the food of the J e w s dur ing their wander ing in the desert, as "resembling cor iander seed, and it was g round in the mills or beat in mor tars , boiled in pots, and m a d e into cakes." H. I . B. C o m p s t o n a n d William Duff M c H a r d y ( " M a n n a , " Dictionary of the Bible. Rev. Ed. J a m e s Hastings, Frederick C . Gran t , and H. H. Rowley, eds. [New York: Char les Scribner 's Sons, 1963], 617), however , a rgue that manna was most likely a sticky liquid exuded by insects. M a n y substances have been identified with m a n n a . Cf. S. ( λ Harr i son , " M a n n a and its Sources," Kew Bulletin 3 (1950): 407 17, esp. p. 409: "It is possible tha t the m a n n a of the Bible was actually more than one substance, the description being of a conspicuous type and symbolic of the whole ."

50 M e r p e r t and M u n c h a e v , "Yar im T e p e III: the Halaf Levels," pp. 192-94; Merpe r t and M u n c h a e v , "Yar im T e p e III: the Ubaid Levels," pp.231 33; Richard , " T h e Early Bronze," pp. 3 7 - 3 8 ; Crawford , " S o m e Fire Installations f rom Abu Salabikh, I raq ," pp. 108 09, esp. Figs. 4 - 5 ;

CHAPTER THREE 2 0 8

Domed ovens T a n n u r ovens continued in use even when, by the third millennium B. C., the Mesopotamians were utilizing a domed oven (UDU.\) that allowed leavened bread to be baked.51 These ovens were round in shape, made of brick, and capped by a dome at the top. Although chimneys were known to Mesopotamians, these ovens lacked any way to vent the heat and smoke. Fire, built in the baking chamber accessed through an opening on the side of the oven, heated the interi-or walls, floor, and ceiling. When sufficiently hot, the ashes were removed and dough placed inside. T h e opening was then sealed. Inside the humid chamber the dough rose to form a bread loaf lighter than flat bread. Early examples have been found in Uruk; later circular examples, large in size, were found in the Royal Palace at Mari. A small variant version of this type oven also appears in a gypsum relief from the Northwest Palace of Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 B. C.), in Nimrud. T h e decorative scene showing the royal kitchen (Fig. 14) includes at lower right a baker using a paddle either to remove bread from the oven or to place the dough into it. Here the roof is flat, and apparently removable, since there seems to be two handgrips on top.52

T i t e et al, "Scientific Investigations of Fire Installations at Abu Salabikh," p. 48; Valent in Mül ler , "Backofen ," in RIA (1928), 1: 388; Salonen, "Die Ö f e n , " pp. 101 04; Bottéro, " K ü c h e , " in RIA (1980-1983), pp. 2 8 1 - 8 2 . See also Bottéro ("Most Ancient Recipes of All," p. 253), who translates one of the Yale Cul inary Table t s as direct ing in b read making, "when cooked remove f rom the wall of the oven ." It has also been suggested that the so-called "husking trays" f rom Hassuna in nor the rn Mesopo tamia , da ted to the early sixth mi l lennium B. C. , may have been por table ovens to bake flat b read . See C h a z a n and Lehner , "An Ancient Analogy," p. 27, esp. Fig. 2.1, p. 23. M o d e r n t a n n u r ovens range between eighty a n d one h u n d r e d cent imeters in height and have an open ing at the top of ca. thirty to forty centimeters . See Ochsenschlager , " M u d Objec ts f rom al-H i b a , " p. 168. See also Schefler , Acquarossa. 2,1: esp. pp. 80, 106, note 359, and 107, note 365.

51 D o m e d ovens may go back to the late Neoli thic per iod in nor thern Syria. Excavations at the late sixth-millennium B. C. "Burn t Village" at Tell Sabi Abyad have revealed not only t a n n u r ovens but d o m e d ones as well. A m o n g several ovens in Building III, one, designated as " S " and described as a "beehive-shaped fea ture ," stood almost 1.50 m. high and had much of its d o m e d roof still extant . M a d e of layers of clay mixed with straw, it was oval in shape and measured 2.90 m. in d iamete r at its widest. O n one of its long sides it had for inserting food an opening that tapered toward the top. T h e r e was considerable evidence of heat on the interior walls. Excavators found m a n y ovens of various types in or nea r Building III. See Peter M . M. Ci. Akkermans and M a r c Verhoeven , "An Image of Complexi ty: the Burnt Village at Late Neolithic Sabi Abyad, Syria," AJA 99, no. 1 (Jan. 1995): 13-14, esp. Fig. 5.

T h e oven may be a por table type. Bottéro, " K ü c h e , " RIA (1980-83), 6: 282, 284; Max . E. L. Mal lowan, Nimrud and its Remains. 2 Vols. (London: Collins, 1966), 1: 99, Fig. 44; Bottéro, "Cui -sine of Ancient Mesopo tamia , " p. 39. Bot téro illustrates an exact copy of this baking scene found in the seventh-century B. C. palace of Ashurbanipa l in Nineveh. For udun in Hittite records, see Hof fne r , Alimenta Hethaeorum, pp. 137 39. See also Parrot , Mission Archéologique du Mari. II: Le Palais, pp. 230 35, and Barrelet, "Dispositifs à feu et cuisson des al iments ," pp. 267 -76 . A late four th-mil lennium B. C . bui lding at J e m d e t Nas r also conta ined several large circular ovens in wha t was probably the kitchen. See Mat thews , " Jemdet Nas r , " p. 198.


Molds were used to hold the dough while baking in an oven. Although the Bread molds

suggestion is not without controversy, the earliest Near Eastern bread mold, in the form denoted "bevellecl-rim" bowl, may go back to the mid to late fourth millennium B. C.53 Dating to the Uruk period, these hand-made, mass-pro-duced vessels have appeared in connection with kitchens and ovens throughout Mesopotamia, such as at Eridu and Uruk, and in such widely dispersed sites as Jcbcl Aruda in Syria, Samsat in southern Turkey, and Godin Tepe in Iran. They commonly measured about ten centimeters high, and tapered downward from top, which had a diameter of ca. eighteen centimeters, to bottom where the diameter was ca. nine centimeters. With smooth interior and rough exterior, these vessels closely resemble Egyptian bedja bowls, the typical Old Kingdom bread mold. Additionally, in form they also resemble the early Sumerian picto-graph for bread {NINDA), which in cuneiform also appears within a square to indi-cate an oven. If they were molds for baking bread in an oven, they constitute strong evidence for the use of yeast to produce leavened bread well before the process can be documented in Egypt, ca. 3100 B. C. T h a t the Egyptians adopt-ed from the ancient Near East the use of yeast to make bread in molds is unlike-ly, and in any case is as yet incapable of proof. It is impossible as well at this point to trace further development of Near Eastern bread molds, although it has been suggested that it generally paralleled, in pattern if not in chronology, the development in Egypt from the hand-made bevellcd-rim bowl to a wheel-made conical-shaped or "!lower pot" type to a goblet-shaped container. While bev-cllcd-rim bowls have come to light in domestic contexts, such as at H a b u b a Kabira a n d j e b e l Aruda, both in Syria, and Ghoga Mish in Iran, their ubiquity in ancient Near Eastern cities and temple sites, such as at Godin Tepe, in cen-tral western Iran, and in the Syrian site of Tel Brak indicates that the bevelled-rim bowl and its successors were frequently associated with large-scale bread baking for or by central authorities and for redistribution as rations to individu-als.54 ״

Old Babylonian tablets found in Ur refer to a businessman named Dumuzi- Large-scale bakeries

gamil who dealt in silver, wool, and bread. He apparently was not a baker him-

53 O t h e r suggestions for the use of this vessel include a votif offering, a ration container , a food bowl, a bowl for making yogurt , and a salt mold. See A. R. Mil lard, " T h e Bevellcd-rim Bowls: T h e i r Purpose and Significance," Iraq 50 (1988): 49 57; Giorgio Buccellati, "Salt at the D a w n of History: T h e Case of the Bevelled-rim Bowls," in Resurrecting the Past. Paolo Mat th iae , Maur i t s V a n Loon, and Harvey Weiss, eds. (Istanbul: Neder lands Historisch-Archacologisch Instituut, 1990), pp. 17 -40 .

54 Millard, "Bevelled-rim Bowls, pp. 5 4 - 5 7 , esp. Figs. 1 a n d 2, pp . 49 -50 ; C h a z a n and Lehner , "Ancient Analogy," pp. 21 35. For coarse ware perhaps used to bake b read in third-mil lennium B. C. Abu Salabikh, see Crawford , " S o m e Fire Installations," p. 111.

CHAPTER THREE 2 1 0

self, but a private citizen who organized the procurement and delivery of grain to be made into bread to supply the demands of both palace and temple. Amounts of cereal mentioned in the texts are quite large and imply that he coor-dinated the work of several bakers and bakeries in the city. O n e such bakery whether connected with Dumuzi-gamil is unknown — may have been found at a house labeled with the modern designation No. IB Baker's Square, although the excavator of the site does not believe that the large furnace installed there functioned to bake bread. Dumuzi-gamil may have supplied other customers, but finds of bread ovens in private houses in the city make it more likely that he concentrated on supplying central authorities who chose to purchase the bread rather than process the grain and bake it themselves. This was not the case everywhere, as the roughly contemporaneous grinding rooms and ovens located in the palace at Mari indicate.55 Additionally, a large-scale oven has come to light in Lagash near the Bagara of Ningirsu, a secondary building of the large temple precinct. A building to the east of the temple, dating to the late Early Dynastic III period, contained a large domed oven made of mud brick and mea-suring about five meters in diameter. Also found in proximity to the oven were large vats and a tablet referring to a brewery and a brewer. This installation, therefore, was a combination bakery-brewery, an association, also common to Egypt, that derives naturally from the fact that grain processing led to the pro-duction not only of bread but also of beer.56

d. Beer Production Early brewing Chemical analysis of organic residue adhering to the sherd of a Late Uruk pot

found at Godin Tepe in the Zagros Mountains of western Iran detected remains of calcium oxalate, a major element comprising beerstone, the scaly precipitant formed during fermentation of barley. T h e inside of the sherd had been scored, probably to facilitate collection of the sediment on the interior wall. This residue would serve to promote fermentation of the next batch of wort poured into the vessel. Although no other material relating to beer production has yet emerged from the site, this residuum, dating to the late fourth millennium B. C., consti-

55 A m o n g personnel of the palace at C h a g a r Bazar, listed in documents con tempora ry with the palace at Mar i , were bakers. G a d d , "Table ts f rom C h a g a r Bazar and Tall Brak," pp. 29, 57, 59. Bakers and confect ioners were also listed a m o n g the N i m r u d Wine lists as recipients of a wine rat ion dur ing the Neo-Assyrian period. See Cf. Fales, "Fresh Look at the N i m r u d Wine Lists," p. 380. See also D. Cocqueri l la t , " H a n d w e r k e r , " RIA (1972-1975) ־9899 :4 , . For a private house with bread oven excavated in ninth-century B. C . N i m r u d , see Mal lowan, Nimrud, pp. 186-87.

56 M a r c V a n de Mieroop , Society and Enterprise in Old Babylonian Ur (Berlin: Dietrich Re imer Ver-lag, 1992), pp . 1 3 2 1 6 0 - 6 Fo .־36, 2 r the bakery-brewery at Lagash, see D. P. Hansen , "Lagash. B. Archäologisch," in RIA (1980-1983), 6: 430.


tutcs the earliest chemical evidence for beer so far discovered. T h a t beer making first occurred here may be doubted. Godin Tepe had close ties with the Sumeri-ans of lower Mesopotamia, for whom beer served many uses.57

Beer was a popular drink throughout Mesopotamia during all eras. Proto- Beer in

cuneiform economic documents dating from the beginning of writing itself, that Mesopotamian life

is the Late Uruk period, already contain the Sumerian logogram (Fig. 15) for beer (Sum. A>1.S׳; Akk. sikam).58 Although the pictographs show some variation in shape and decorative pattern, they probably ultimately derive f rom a beer j a r of that period that had a wide mouth, narrow neck, and bulging shoulders tapering to a point. Often the vessel seems to be shown with a spout projecting straight up from the shoulder.59 References to beer appear in a variety of literary texts, historical documents, and private letters from the third through the first milieu-nium B. C. During the third and early second millennia B. C., the word beer carried metaphoric value for drink, an equation subsequently assigned to water. Additionally, beer and its consumption often represented happiness and a civi-lized life. Along with wine, grain, water, and fields, beer was considered "the life of people." A Sumerian proverb equates beer with pleasure, and in the lamenta-tion Over the Destruction of Sumer and Ur the palace at Ur was judged unfit in which to live since both bread and beer were lacking. In the Old Babylonian version of fable t II of the Epic of Gilgamesh a harlot introduces to Enkidu the pleasures of

civilization, including the eating of bread and drinking of beer. After eating his fill and becoming drunk on seven jugs of beer, Enkidu took a bath, anointed himself with oil, and "became human." 6 0

57 Michel ct al., "Chemica l Evidence for Ancient Beer,'5 p. 24; Michel et al, "First W i n e & Beer," pp . 412A 13A. For the origin of beer making, sec below note 72.

Sikam (= KAŠ) to the end of the Old Babylonian per י8 iod deno ted an alcoholic dr ink m a d e f rom barley. By the Neo-Babylonian period, it deno ted a bee r m a d e f r o m barley, e m m e r wheat , or dates. 111 the H e b r e w Bible, šēkār referred to any alcoholic dr ink o ther than wine. See Powell, " M e t r o n Aris ton," p. 92; Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel p. 92; Stol, "Beer 111 Neo-Babylon-ian T i m e s , " pp. 160-61.

59 Mil lard, "Bevcl lcd-Rim Bowls," p. 56, and Fig. 5; Potts, Mesopotamian Civilization, pp . 140-43, esp. Fig. VI.2; O p p e n h e i m , On Beer and Brewing, p . 8. T h e p ic tographic representa t ion of a vessel depicts generally a clay conta iner ; the vessel with hash marks s tands for beer . See K a t z and Voigt, "Bread and Beer," p. 29. O n Archaic texts conta in ing references to beer , sec D a m e r o w , "Food Product ion and Social Status as D o c u m e n t e d in Pro to-cune i form Texts , " p. 158, Fig. 5; Nissen et al, Archaic Bookkeeping, p. 20, Fig. 21, and pp. 4 3 . 4 6 ־

60 J e a n Bottéro, "Ge t r änke . Α. N a c h sumerischen und akkadischen T e x t e n , " in RIA (1957-1971) , 3: 3 0 3 - 0 4 ; Jean Bottéro, "Le vin dans une civilisation de la bière: la Mésopo tamie , " in In Vino Veiitas, pp. 2 1 - 2 4 ; Lutz, Viticulture and Brewing, 17 1 .כן; ΑΛΈΤ, p. 616 (Lamentation Over the Destruction of Sumer and Ur); J e f f rey H. Tigay , The Evolution of the Gilgamesh Epic (Philadelphia: Uni-versity of Pennsylvania Press, 1982), pp. 2 0 6 - 0 8 , esp. note 42; The Epic of Gilgamesh. M a u r e e n

CHAPTER THREE 2 1 2

Although water was doubtless the primary liquid consumed, beer played an important role in the daily life of people of all social classes. During the Ur III dynasty, a monthly dole of barley served as the basic ration issued by the state or temple to workers in compensation for labor rendered. The worker could then make his own beer. A tablet f rom the Inanna temple in Nippur, for example, lists among daily chores to be performed the preparation of the necessary ingre-dients to brew beer. Notations in ration lists from Ebla and messenger texts from Girsu (= Tello) and U m m a show that military leaders, palace officials, messen-gers, and other designated groups of workers received beer along with other spe-cial items. Although Hans Neumann argues that beer itself was only irregularly issued, along with oil, meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, and milk products, as part of extraordinary rations or as a special reward for officials and other individuals connected with the palace or provincial government, Piotr Michalowski, citing Presargonic texts, believes that it was much more commonly and widely distrib-utcd, though not always recorded. Banquets of the upper classes, including those of the king, offered beer and wine, and literary texts frequently indicate that the gods brewed and enjoyed the beverage. Iii Mari texts, the logogram for ban-quet, K1.KAŠ.N1NDA, literally means "place of beer and bread," and one of the Sumerian words for banquet , KAŠ-DE-A, denoting "pouring of beer," carried with it both religious and secular connotations.61

Brewers Brewers (Sum. LU.ŠIM62; Akk. sirašu) worked for state or temple and received

Gallery Kovacs, transi. (Stanford: S tanford University Press, 1989), p. 16, note 2; Hans Neu-m a n n , "Beer as a M e a n s of Compensa t ion for W o r k in Mesopo tamia Dur ing the U r III Per iod," in Drinking in Ancient Societies. History and Culture of Drinks in the Ancient Near East. Lucio Milano, ed. (Padua: Sargon srl, 1994), p. 324 (proverb); Piotr Michalowski, " T h e Drinking Gods: Alcohol in Mesopo tamian Ri tual and Mythology," 111 Drinking in Ancient Societies, p. 28; Nissen et al, Archaic Bookkeeping, pp. 30 -54 .

61 N e u m a n n , "Beer as a M e a n s of Compensa t i on , " pp. 321 31; Rosemary Ellison, "Diet in Mesopotamia : the Evidence of the Barley Rat ion Texts (c. 3 0 0 0 - 1 4 0 0 B.C.)," Iraq 43, no. 1 (Spring 1981): 35 -45 ; Michalowski, " T h e Dr inking Gods ," pp . 2 7 - 3 8 ; Miguel Civil, "Daily Chores in N ippur , " JCS 32, no. 4 (Oct. 1980): 229-32. O n beer drinking, see Wolfgang Rollig, Das Bier im allen Mesopotamien (Berlin: Gesellschaft für die Geschichte und Bibliographie des Brauwesens Ε. V., 1970), pp. 6477־ . For deities making beer , see M a r t e n Stol, "Beer in Neo-Babylonian T imes , " in Drinking in Ancient Societies, pp . 156 (Enki's Return to Nippur), 181-82 (delivery and distribution of da te beer in the Neo-Babylonian Period); Miguel Civil, "A H y m n to the Beer Goddess and a Dr inking Song ," in Studies Presented to A. Leo Oppenheim, June 7, 1964 (Chicago: T h e Or ien ta l Insti tute of the University of Chicago , 1964), pp. 6 7 - 8 9 (Hymn to Ninkasi). For the elabo-rate banque t of Ashurnasi rpal II, see A. Kirk Grayson , Assyrian Rulers of the Early First Millennium B. C. 2 Vols. (Toronto : University of T o r o n t o Press, 1991), 1: 28893־ .

(>- N e u m a n n , "Beer as a M e a n s of C o m p e n s a t i o n , " p. 324. T h e S u m e r o g r a m SIM (Fig. 15) probably represented a series of a romat ic plants generally. Its connect ion with beer can be seen 111 that its symbol was the beer j a r (KAŠ) with a small square placed on the bot tom of the pointed foot. Its use to form the word for b rewer p robab ly implies the brewer ' s use of additives, such as


their pay in the form of barley, land, or livestock. Their social status could be quite elevated, since several were known to have owned slaves. According to Presargonic temple accounts from Girsu, capital of Sumerian Lagash, the tem-pie monthly issued barley and emmer wheat to brewers to make beer. Beer was also available for a price at any local tavern, which was registered and licensed by the state and compelled to pay a tax to the central authority. Many tavern owners (SABITU), who also brewed their own product , were women. A unique Sumerian drinking song seems to have been composed in praise of the opening of a new tavern by a sabitu. T h e close association of women with brewing is also apparent in the fact that brewing was the only Mesopotamian profession which functioned under the protection of a female deity. In fact, two goddesses watched over brewers, Siris and Ninkasi.63 T h e association of beer and brewing with sexual passion, implied in the scene between Enkidu and the harlot in the Epic of Gilgamesh and represented on some reliefs and cylinder seals, applied as well to female tavern owners, who apparently were often also madams. T h e combination of strong drink and loose women apparently made these taverns shady haunts of criminals and other ne'er-do-wells, which, according to the Code of Hammurab i , had to be closely regulated and may have contributed to the disappearance of female brewers following the Old Babylonian period.64

Archaeological evidence for breweries account for only three examples, one in Breweries

southern Mesopotamia and two in Syria. T h e brewery part of the Early Dynas-tic bakery-brewery at Lagash is identified as such only by a tablet which refers to a brewer and a brewery, called the É-BAPPIR, a term derived from the Sumerian

spices, to give certain beers a distinctive taste. O p p e n h e i m suggests that the processor of a romat ic materials m a y have at some point in t ime taken on the product ion of beer with these additives. T h e small square, he suggests, represented the oven used to heat the wort and aromat ic plant concoct ion. See Louis F. H a r t m a n a n d A. L. O p p e n h e i m , On Beer and Brewing Techniques in Ancient Mesopotamia. Supplement to the J o u r n a l of the Amer ican Or ienta l Society, No. 10 (Baltimore: T h e Amer ican Orienta l Society, 1950), pp. H 9. For the appcance of this S u m e r o g r a m in the Archaic per iod to designate the g ranary adminis t ra tor (KU.SIM) in charge of ingredients for beer p roduc-tion, see, for example , D a m e r o w , "Food Product ion and Social Status," pp. 157-59; Nissen et al, Archaic Bookkeeping, pp . 36 ־46.

6:i Röllig, Das Bier, pp . 4 4 - 6 3 ; Albrecht Goetzc , " T a v e r n Keepers and the Like in Ancient Babylonia, , -in Studies in Honor of Benno Landsberger on his Seventy-fifth Birthday April 21, 1965 (Chiea יgo: T h e University of Ch icago Press, 1965), pp. 211 -15 ; Laws of Eshnunna 15 and 41 (Reuven Yaron , The Laws of Eshnunna. 2ml revised cd. [Jerusalem-Leiden: 'Flic Magnes Press, 1988], pp. 52 53, 6 8 - 6 9 , 160, 234-35) ; Civil, " H y m n to the Beer Goddess ," pp . 67 68; H a r t m a n and O p p e n h e i m , On Beer and Brewing Techniques, pp. 12 and 41, notes 25 -28 ; Powell, " M e t r o n Aris-ton ," pp. 91 -93 ; Bottéro, "Le vin dans une civilisation de la bière ," pp. 24 -27 .

64 Code of Hammurabi 108-09, 111 (AJVET, p. 170). O n the relationship between bee r a n d tavern owners with sex and prosti tution, see Stefania Mazzon i , in Alexander H. Jof fe , "Alcohol and Social Complexi ty in Ancient Western Asia," CunAnthr 39, no. 3 (June 1998): 313; Michalowski, " T h e Drinking Gods , " pp. 38 -40 ; Lutz, Viticulture and Brewing, pp. 127 31.

CHAPTER THREE 2 1 4

word BAPPIR found in lexica and referring to an ingredient in making beer. Vats, one of which was found with numerous conical bowls in it, located in vicinity of the particular room where the tablet was found have, consequently, been associ-ated with beer making.65 Of the two Syrian breweries, the one at Tell Hadidi is better known.66 T h e so-called "Tablet Building,'5 dating to the Late Bronze IB period (early 15,h century B. C.), consisted of seven or eight rooms on three sides of an open courtyard. Documents discovered in one of the rooms indicate that the owner was a certain Yaya. Finds of carbonized cereal, grinding stones, numerous large storage vessels, and various cups, jars, and pitchers, in several rooms, and an oven in the central courtyard, point to some sort of food process-ing activity. Its association with beer making comes from finds of a strainer and numerous vessels with holes in their bottoms. Marie-Henriet te Gates suggests that the perforated vessels correspond to the lexical term, 0"0NÍG.DÚR.B(JR (AKK. namzitu) defined as the container used in brewing beer, the mash tun. T h e capacities of these vessels varied. Small portable ones ranged from twenty-three liters up to 175 liters, while larger, stationary vessels had capacities between 300 and 350 liters. T h e number and sizes of the vessels indicate that Yaya brewed beer on a large scale. How he brewed his beer, however, is more difficult to dis-cern. An understanding of ancient Near Eastern brewing technology derives pri-marily from written sources.

Brewing beer Although beer finds mention in numerous written sources from various gen-res, very few provide information on brewing technology. Only one beer recipe has come to light, and it is too fragmentary to be of much help in understanding the details of brewing. Lexica include many technical terms, but most are fre-quently individual words or short phrases whose meaning is unclear or open to varied interpretation. Literary texts arc little better at giving full, clearly under-standable descriptions of the process. A few exceptions, separated by a consider-able period of time, however, do exist. T h e first is a group of economic texts, sometimes called "recipes," but which arc actually temple accounts from mid-third millennium B. C. Girsu, documenting cereal issued to brewers and beer received back. These documents tell us only what goes into beer and in what ratios. T h e second is the Hymn toJVinkasi, dated to ca. 1800 B. C. It is not a "how

65 Hansen, "Lagaš," (1980-83), 6: 430; Pelio Fronzaroli, "Osservazioni sul lcssico delle bevande dei testi di Ebla," in Drinking in Ancient Societies, pp. 124-27. O n iwm and beer making, see below p. 216.

fi(i Mar ie -Henr ie t t e Gates, "Dialogues Between Ancient N e a r Eastern Texts and the Archaeo-logical Record: Test Cases f rom Bronze Age Syria," BASOR 270 (May 1988): 6 6 - 6 8 . T h e second possible brewery, found at Early Bronze III Selenkahiye, consists of a small house with an oven in the cour tyard . T h e house conta ined two square tubs (to hold wort while fermenting?) placed side-by-side, into each of which a liquid of some sort was allowed to drain f rom a round , sherd-lined basin (mash tun?). V a n Loon, "1974 and 1975 Prel iminary Results," p. 108.


to" text, but a polished composition whose literary requirements dominate its technical precision. Some steps in the brewing process, such as malting, for example, have been left out. T h e final source is Tablet XXII I of the lexical series Har.ra = hubullu, dating from the fifth or fourth century B. C. but appar-ently copied f rom a much earlier text (PI. 18). This provides a lengthy list of 140 entries whose technical meaning has been treated in detail by Louis F. Ha r tman and A. L. Oppenheim. Thei r treatment has formed the basis for subsequent dis-eussions of beer technology in the ancient Near Last.1'7

Steps in Mesopotamian beer making apparently paralleled those followed in Malting

Egypt. T h e first stage involved malting. Mesopotamians always used barley to prepare malt (Sum. MUMJ; Akk. buqlu). Processed emmer wheat (Sum. <7<>1λ) may have been added at times to produce an emmer beer. Malting involved soaking of barley to initiate germination of the grains, and then drying in the sun at a constant temperature for up to three weeks to halt the conversion of starch into maltose. This produced a "green" malt. Further heating in an oven killed the enzymes (diastase) resident in the layer surrounding the endosperm and produced "cured" malt, which could be stored for a lengthy period of time. M. A. Powell thinks that the Sumerians either sun-dried malt or else oven-dried it at low tem-peratures, and so produced a pale malt with a highly active enzyme level. Wha t follows after this point is filled with scholarly controversy. Most scholars, relying upon comparative material from Egypt, believe that the dried malt was crushed, mixed with various aromatic materials, such as honey, dates, herbs, and spices, and water, formed into a dough, and then placed into a domed oven (UDUN.BAP-PIR) to bake into a kind of bread. T h e result is a type of beer-bread called in Sumerian BAPPIR (Akk. bappiru).68 Recently, Powell has argued that bappir was not

67 D i sagreement a m o n g m o d e r n scholars persists on the details of M e s o p o t a m i a n beer mak-ing, pr imar i ly arising f rom the var ied in te rpre ta t ions of t e rms a p p e a r i n g in the anc ien t wri t ten sources. T h e descript ion that follows is my best de t e rmina t ion of the process based upon the Egypt ian evidence discussed earl ier and the a r g u m e n t s p resen ted in H a r t m a n and O p p e n h e i m , On Beer and Brewing Techniques, passim; Civil, " H y m n to the Beer Goddess , " pp. 6 7 - 8 9 ; Powell, " M e t r o n Aristo!!," pp . 9 1 - 1 1 9 ; Röllig, Das Bier, esp. pp . 19-43; H u b e r , "Bier u n d Bierbere-i tung in Babylonien, ' in RIA (1938), 2: 2 י 5 2 8 ־ . For o the r sources, sec Β. Landsbe rge r and Κ. Balkan, "Die Inschr i f t des Assyrischen Königs Ir isum, g e f u n d e n in Kü l t epe 1948," Belleten 14, no. 54 (April 1950): esp. pp. 2 4 4 - 4 8 ; M a r t e n Stol, " M a l z , " in RIA (1987-1990) , 7: 3 2 2 2 9 ־ ; J . J . A. van Dijk, "Tex tes Divers du Musée de B a h g d a d , II ," Sumer 13 (1957): 66, a n d 1 13, Pl. 23A.

68 T h e Sumer i an sign for BAPPIR was the beer j a r (κ,-iš) conta in ing the sign for b read (.mm). Cf. Mil lard, "Bevellcd-rim Bowls," p. 57, esp. Fig. 5b. T h e au tho r of the Hymn to Mnkasi indicates that a flavoring called Š1M was added to BAPPIR before it was cooked. Its use in making BAPPIR

b e c a m e so s tandard that, a l though the Sumer ian sign for beer was KAŠ, the brewer himself was designated as LV.SIM. Wha teve r it was, Š1M was not hops. See Powell, "Me t ron Ariston," p. 98; Lev-ey, Chemistiy and Chemical Technology, p. 56. T h e appea rance of ŠIM in the term for brewer repre-

CHAPTER THREE 2 1 6

bread at all, but various unspecified types of concentra ted "malt products ," dif-fcrent in some way f rom green malt. H e bases his conclusion on the fact that in beer "recipes" the te rm BAPPIR seems to describe a loose product measurable in units of dry capacity that can be used to make bread.6 9

MASHING AND T h e next step involves mixing green malt, crushed BAPPIR, and hulled barley, fermentation sometimes with e m m e r added (or, if Powell is correct, malt, flour-like BAPPIR,

and hulled barley), with water to p roduce a liquid referred in the Hymn to Mnkasi as sújv. Hea t ing it slowly and stirring occasionally p roduced the mash.7 0

T h e mash was allowed to cool, a n d various sweeteners, such as honey, wine, or date juice, were added to hasten and intensify the conversion of sugars into alcohol dur ing fermenta t ion . T o brew a s tandard beer required the consistent use of the same variety of yeast. Th is quality control was at ta ined in two ways. Since fe rment ing beer leaves in the crevices of the mash- tun (namzitu) a residue that grows the same variety of yeast, fe rment ing a new batch of mash in a tun that had been used earlier for the same purpose would provide the identical type of yeast. T h e second m e t h o d is to add some dregs of a previous batch of beer , which contains the yeast, ei ther to dough used to make BAPPIR or to the new mash. At this point various sweeteners, such as date juice, could be added to augment the process of conversion or fe rmenta t ion . T h e mash was stirred periodically. O n e type of mash- tun , called "' <\Ní(;.DÚR.BÙR (Akk. namzitu) sat in a wooden rack (KANNU). T h e vessel had holes in the bot tom to allow the wort to fil-ter through into a receiving vessel (lahtan; in Neo-Babylonian times, namharu)

sents for some scholars an indication of possible changes in beer p roduc t ion techniques over t ime. Ellison ( "Methods of Food P repa ra t ion , " p. 92) argues that a change in the word for brewer , f r o m LU.Š1M + CAR/LV.BAPPIR, where GAR respresents M\DA, or b read , in the third mil lennium B. C. , to just /./ JIM, in the Kassitc Per iod (ca. 17001300־ B. C.), implies a shift in b rewing technology away f rom using b r e a d to make beer . She does not , however , believe that there was a comple te cessa-tion of the pract ice. O p p e n h e i m (On Beer and Brewing, pp. 9 - 1 2 ) notes o the r pa léographie changes to the A.1.vsign, a n d c o m m e n t s on their possible association with changes in bee r mak ing technolo-gy. Lutz (Viticulture and Brewing, p. 88, note 4) does not believe that mal t ing was pa r t of the process of beermaking .

69 Powell, " M e t r o n Aris ton," pp . 96 100. For BAPPIR as bee r -b read , see H a r t m a n a n d O p p e n -he im, On Beer and Brewing, p. 15; So lomon H. Ka tz and Fritz May tag , "Brewing an Ancient Beer ," Archaeology 44, no. 4 (July-Aug. 1991): 2 4 - 3 3 . Ka tz a n d M a y t a g (p. 32) believe that BAPPIR was baked twice to p r o d u c e a dry, crispy cake similar to I tal ian biscotti. Civil ( "Hymn to the Beer Goddess , " pp . 76 78) believes that BAPPIR was m a d e into loaves, bu t that it was m a d e f rom unmal t ed grain.

7,1 Soaking the b read in wa te r a n d al lowing it to f e rmen t would have p r o d u c e d a p roduc t simi-lar to m o d e r n kvass, a mildly alcoholic beverage. T h a t a dr ink of this kind, distinct f rom the m o r e potent beer , was m a d e is likely but not susceptible of proof . O n kvass, see N e u b u r g e r , Technical Arts, pp. 101 03; Powell, " M e t r o n Aris ton," pp. 9 1 - 9 2 . Civil identifies the mash before hea t ing as si:\, a n d the cooked mash as TITAB. T h i s identif ication of 77TAB is no longer accepted. Civil, " H y m n to the Beer Goddess , " p. 76; Powell, " M e t r o n Aris ton," p. 101.


placcd underneath.7 1 Fermentat ion continued for a period of time, following which the beer was transferred to storage or transport vessels, such as the MUD, a two-handled vessel with a capacity of ca. thirty to sixty liters, known from documents from Presargonic Girsu.72 As in the case of Egypt, what happened to the remaining mash is unknown. It could have been used to produce a weak-er or inferior product , known to exist f rom literary sources, by adding water, heating again, and straining.

At particular points in the beer-making process the brewer had the option of Filtered and.

straining the liquid to remove residue. So, for example, a Neo-Babylonian tablet unfiltered beer

lists among tools of the brewer a sieve, a tool also found in the fifteenth-century B. C. brewery at Tell Hadidi. Oppenhe im suggests that sieving may have taken place immediately after the malt was crushed. If straining were omitted, the resulting beer would have had solid indigestible elements in it, even if the ""MG.DÚR.BÙR, which probably had larger holes than a sieve did, were used to lil-ter the mash. Tha t both filtered and unfiltered beers were produced can be seen in the art historical evidence. If filtered, the beer could be consumed from a hand-held drinking vessel, such as the KUU of Presargonic Girsu. If unfiltered, the beer would have required a method of preventing the solid residue from entering the drinker's mouth.7 3 Numerous cylinder seals have been found that show usually two or more individuals communally drinking through straws from

71 Landsberger (Landsberger and Balkan, "Die Inschrift ," p. 245) says that the brewer used his hands to squeeze the mash in the namzitu. Cf. also Civil, " H y m n to the Beer Goddess ," pp. 73, HI. T h e scene of a brewer squeezing mash on a sieve and allowing the wort to drain into a receiving vessel below is the canonical representation for the Egyptian brewer. Sec above, C h a p t e r T h r e e , pp. 136-37. O n racks see, Stol, "Beer in Neo-Babylonian T imes , " pp . 170-71. See also Potts, Mesopotamian Civilization, pp. 171 73.

72 Civil ( "Hymn to the Beer Goddess ," pp. 76, 81) interprets the meaning of the word DIDA

(Akk. billatu) as sweetwort. See also Röllig, Das Bier, pp. 24—25. T h e r e were other types of vessels associated with beer making, many of which are listed at the end of the Hymn to Ninkasi. These include the gakkul-val, a fat clay or metal pot with a nar row mouth , the lahtan and the ',"•1AS1.S.Ì.RE, both collection vats, and the IAM.RE. Civil notes that this latter te rm is of foreign origin, "like prac-tically all the technical terms of the Mesopotamian brewer ." If he is correct, then the origin of brewing itself may have to be looked for elsewhere than in Mesopotamia . Civil, " H y m n to the Beer Goddess ," pp. 83 -85 . He also suggests (p. 87) that vessels used in beer making need not be m a d e of metal or wood, but could have been basketwork coated with b i tumen. Stol suggests that the namzitu may have been specifically used to p roduce date beer. Sec Stol, "Beer in Neo-Baby-Ionian T imes , " pp. 167-74; Landsberger and Balkan, "Die Inschrift ," pp . 245 48; Potts, Mesopotamian Civilization, pp. 140-43; M. A. Powell, "Masse und Gewichte ," in RIA (1987 1990), 7: 505 -08 .

73 Ell isons ("Methods of Food Prepara t ion," p. 92) suggestion that the difference between unfiltered and filtered beer represents a change in beer making technology in the mid-third mil-lennium B. C., with a lengthy period in which both processes were used, seems unlikely, unless by this she includes use of a sieve. Cf. H a r t m a n a n d O p p e n h e i m , On Beer and Brewing, p. 12. For the KUU, see Powell, "Masse und Gewichte ," RIA (1987-90), 7: 505.

CHAFFER FIVE 2 1 8

a single container (PI. 19). These scenes arc reminiscent of the Eighteenth- 1 Dynasty painted relief f rom Egypt showing a Syrian drinking beer through a straw. Beer or a beer-like drink, such as kvass, is surely the beverage being con-sumed, as one would not need a strainer to drink wine. Although reed straws would not have survived the millennia, three examples of drinking tubes were recovered from the tomb of Queen Puabi at Ur (Royal Tomb PG 800): one of reed (not extant) covered with gold and found still inserted in a silver jar , one of copper encased in lapis-lazuli, and one of silver fitted with gold and lapis-lazuli rings. T h e silver drinking tube measured 1.0 cm. in diameter and, as extant, measured 93 cm. in length. T h e L-shaped end, which was probably the end inserted into the beer j a r since it was found inside a j a r nearby, was 19 cm. long plus the bent portion, which measured 14 cm. Unlike the beer siphon found at Amarna in Egypt, the end did not possess an attached filter.74

Phrygian beer T h e Phrygian inhabitants of Gordion, in central Anatolia, during the late eighth and early seventh centuries B. C., probably also used straws, but the wealthier among them used two special types of pottery vessel to drink their beer. O n e type, the so-called side-spouted sieve jug, made of ceramic or bronze and sometimes highly decorated, came in three variations but all possessed one handle placed at right angles to a single spout, always favoring a right-handed drinker. T h e long spout, trough-like or open for part of its length, was affixed to the body of the j u g at a point in which small holes in the vessel's wall created a sieve. Rarely found outside Iron-Age Gordion, certain subtypes of this vessel possess some parallels with side-spouted jars of second-millennium B. C. Anato-lia and Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Syria and Palestine. T h e second type, called a "sipping bowl," which may go back to the Old Assyrian period, is rarely found. This terra-cotta vessel has built into its wall on one side a tube, like a straw, projecting above the lip and having an opening at the top and another on the inside bottom of the vessel. Sometimes the tube pierces the wall before reaching the top; in this case the vessel wall at that point is perforated to form a sieve. T h e rarity of sipping bowls has led the excavators to surmise that they were "novelty" items, created to amuse. For unknown reasons neither the sip-ping bowl nor the side-spouted sieve jug continued to be made beyond the third century B. C. Explanations for this vary among a decline in the economic for-

74 Meta l dr inking tubes have been found in Syria as well. H a r t m a n and O p p e n h e i m , On Beer and Brewing, p. 15; Frankfor t , Cylinder Seals, pp . 77 78, esp. PI. 15; Teissier, Ancient Near Eastern Cylinder Seals, Nos. 63, 88, 89, 352 (a Syrian seal); Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur. Richard L. Zett ler and Lee H o m e , eds. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 1998), pp. 139-40, esp. Pis. 1 15-16 (Queen Puabi). Sec also Lutz, Viticulture and Brewing, pp . 139-40. For the Egyptian evidence, sec above C h a p t e r T h r e e , pp. 1 3 9 4 ־ 0 .


tunes of Phrygia, a change in beer making technology which included straining during brewing, or the strong influence of Greeks who preferred wine to beer.75

Mesopotamian beer, at least the unfiltered kind, must have been similar to Types of beer

Egyptian beer: thick and cloudy with sediment, low in alcoholic content, and high in sugars and protein, rendering it a nutritious supplement to the diet.70

Numerous different types of beer are attested in the written sources over the mil-lennia, though it is often difficult to determine from the name alone what differ-entiates them. T h e types of beer fall generally into six categories: those deriving from quality, such as prime beer, first quality, third quality; processing, such as strained beer; ingredients, such as emmer beer and date beer; color, such as golden beer, dark beer, and, what is probably the natural color of Mesopotami-an beer, reddish-brown; taste, such as honey sweet; and beers whose names are at present indecipherable. T w o crushed and sieved malt products, probably pro-duced by drying malt at elevated temperatures in an oven, went into producing dark beers: NINDA KUMA and 7/7:1 Λ (Akk. titapu). T h e latter produced a dark beer; the former, a "sweet" dark beer. Mari apparently had a bittersweet beer called alappanu, made from pomegranates, while the best Hittite beer was called šeššar.77

3. Wine

No wine processing facilities have been clearly identified in Anatolia, the area in Wine in Hittite

which winemaking most likely originated. T h e detection of tartaric acid in one Anatolia

room of a building excavated in Titris Höyiik and dated to ca. 2300-2100 B. C. may imply the processing of grapes into wine. T h e extant apparatus, however, consists only of an oval basin and drain, and so offer little information on the process itself.78 Archeobotanical evidence for grape pits, stems, and pressed grape fragments found in Mid-Late Bronze Age levels at Kurban Höyük, how-

75 G . Kenne th Sams, "Beer in the City of Midas ," Archaeology 30, no. 2 (March 1977): 1 0 8 1 ״ 5 ; idem, The Early Phrygian Pottery. 2 Vols. T h e Gord ion Excavations, 1950-1973: Final Repor ts , Vol. IV (Philadelphia: T h e University Museum, 1994), 1: 6 7 - 7 0 , and 2: Pis. 9 4 - 1 0 0 , and Fig. 30 (side-spouted sieve jugs); 1: 74-76 , and 2: Pis. 104 05, and Fig. 32 (sipping bowls).

76 R o m a n o Zito, "Biochimica nutr izionale degli a h m e n d liquicli," in Drinking in Ancient Societies, pp. 72-73 . For Egyptian beer, see C h a p t e r T h r e e , pp. 138-39.

77 Bottéro, "Ge t r änke , " in RLl (1957-71), 3: 303 -04 ; Michalowski, "Dr inking Gods , " p. 33; Röllig, Das Bier, pp. 28 -43 ; Stol, "Beer in Neo-Babylonian T imes , " pp. 162 67; Powell, "Met ron Aris ton," pp. 100-01 (NINDA KI;MA and TITAB). For a different interpretat ion of the mean ing of T1TAB, see Civil, " H y m n to the Beer Goddess ," p. 76. See also, Mi lano , "Food and Diet in Pre-classical Syria," pp . 2 1 8 - 1 9 (alappanu); Hol fner , Alimenta Hethaeorum, pp . 37, 144; G. Steiner, "Get ränke . Β. N a c h hethit ischen T e x t e n , " in RIA (1957-1971) , 3: 307.

78 Gui l lermo Algaze, in Mar ie -Henr ie t t e Gates , "Archaeology in Tu rkey , " AJA 100, no. 2 (April 1996): 2 9 0 9 ־ 1 ; J a m e s Wiseman , " T o Your Heal th!" Archaeology 49, η ϋ . 2 (Mar.-April 1996): 23.

CHAPTER THREE 2 2 0

ever, suggest grape-pressing activity.79 Likewise, Hittite sources have yielded no texts describing winemaking processes. Even so, Anatolian viticulture receives prominent place in Old Assyrian records at Kiiltepe in central Anatolia, dating to the early second millennium B. C., and Hittite records from Bogazköy men-tion vineyards and irrigation in contexts suggesting a prominent role for wine in the Hittite palace economy. T h e records indicate that wine was the beverage of the elite, while the masses consumed primarily water, beer, and milk. Wine and bread together seem also to have had symbolic importance to the Hittites who associated them with good fortune, high status, and divine favor. Indeed, most situations where wine received mention have religious contexts, such as libations and supplications. Certain types of vessels, such as animal head-shaped rhytons and shallow bowls, found in excavations, such as at Kültepe, seem often to be associated in Hittite texts with religious ceremony. Likewise, huge terra-cotta storage jars, holding from 900 to 1750 liters, and small "grape cluster" vessels, found in the palace at Bogazköy, as well as other small containers, may be examples of wine jars mentioned in the documentary records. Nevertheless, these vessels cannot be categorically associated with wine, since they can be linked to no archaeobotanical evidence for the grape.80

T h e Hittites indicated various types of wine by modifying the Sumcriogram for wine by qualitative or descriptive adjectives, such as "good." The Hittites made a "red" wine; whether they made a white variety as well is uncertain. Dried grapes, or raisins, could be used as a food, but also probably went into making a "sweet" wine. Besides a "pure" wine, the Hittites also mixed their wines with honey, beer, certain types of fine oil, and possibly water. Although Anatolian wine cannot be associated with a particular type of transport vessel, it seems likely that some Hit-tite wine did make its way along the Euphrates River into Mesopotamia and Syr-ia. Grapes and other fruits were grown in southern Mesopotamia at least down to the end of the third millennium B. C. and then seem to disappear from the writ-ten records. Wine (Sumerian r;/׳;.vr/\; Akk. karanu) and vinegar receive mention in Sumerian texts by the mid-third millennium B. C., but most wine consumed in Mesopotamia came from areas to the north and northwest. The expression "intoxicating drink (or beer) of the mountain" may allude to this fact. Types of wine were fairly numerous, and received various appellatives, such as strong, sweet, clear, and, in one instance, royal. Origin, particularly places in Assyria,

79 Zett ler a n d Miller, "Search ing for W i n e , " p. 126; Gorny , "Vit iculture and Ancient Anato-lia," 162 .ין; N a o m i Miller, "Vit icul ture," in Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Ancient Near East, 5: 305.

80 Gorny , "Vit icul ture and Ancient Anatol ia ," pp . 162 71; Hof fne r , Alimenta Hethaeorum, pp. 39 41, 113.


Λiesopotamian wine

trade

Wine, an elite

beverage

Syria, and Palestine, such as Tu ' immu, Simmina, and Hebron, became the most frequent designations for wines in the first millennium B. C. In addition to grapes, wine was also made from raisins, plumes, pomegranates, and dates.81

Sources for wine and winemaking in Mesopotamia proper are rare before the first millennium B. C. This is true even for archaeological sites, such as Mari on the Middle Euphrates, where of numerous storerooms only three have been ten-tatively identified as wine cellars. Physical evidence for winemaking is entirely lacking. Documentary evidence from Mari dating to the eighteenth century B. C. indicates that, although some wine was produced at this time, much was imported from areas to the north and west and stored. Some wines came by overland routes from Aleppo, which may have gotten it from sources in north-ern Syria on or near the Mediterranean Sea. Some of the wine was consumed, primarily by the upper classes as a luxury item, while the bulk of it was trans-shipped down the Euphrates River. Other cities known to have been associated with the wine trade in the second millennium B. C. included the Hittite city of Carchemish, located on the Upper Euphrates, and Sippar, situated on the river just north of Babylon. T h e method of transporting wine was usually by clay jars of about thirty liters capacity, although Herodotus (1.193-94) indicates that in the sixth century B. C. boats floated down the Euphrates River carrying wine stored in containers made of date-palm. Wines from Syria, particularly around Damascus, continued to supply the markets of Babylonia during the first millen-nium B. C.82

Near Eastern art historical evidence often depicts vineyards or scenes where wine [)lays a prominent role. Individuals are shown being served wine by various attendants or enjoying a banquet . Typical examples of this type of evidence include the mid-third millennium B. C. mosaic, called the "Standard of Ur,"

Gorny י" , "Vit icul ture in Ancient Anatol ia ," pp . 145 -59 ,169-70 ; Steiner, "Ge t r änke , " RLi (1957-71), 3: 306; Bottéro, "Ge t ränke , " in RIA (1957 71), 3: 303-05 ; Bottéro, "Le vin dans une civilisation de la bière ," pp . 28 -30 ; J e r e m y Black, "Mesopo tamia , " in Oxford Companion to Wine, pp. 618 -19 ; !)alley, Mari and Karana, pp . 9 0 - 9 1 ; Broshi, " W i n e in Ancient Palestine," pp. 2 4 2 ־ 7 ; Potts, Mesopotamiaη Civilization, p. 70; Limet , "Cuis ine of Ancient Sumer , " p. 136. For wine f rom H e b r o n , sec Ezekiel 27:18. Powell ("Wine and the Vine in Ancient Mesopo tamia , " pp. 112 13) docs not believe that white wine was known in Mesopo tamia , and strongly denies that any cvi-dcnce exists f rom cunei form sources for wine mixed with water .

82 Powell, "Wine and the Vine in Ancient Mesopo tamia , " pp. 100-14; Zettler and Miller, "Search ing for W i n e , " pp. 123-31; Bottéro, "Le vin dans une civilisation de la bière ," p. 30; Philippe T a l o n , Archives Royales de Mari XXIV. Textes Administratifs des Salles "T et du Palais de Mari. 2 Vols. (Paris: Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations, 1985), 1: 3 9 2 1 2 - 1 ־ 49, 6 ; Lucio Mi lano , "Food a n d Diet in Pre-classical Syria," in Production and Consumption in the Ancient Near East. Car lo Zaccagnini , ed. (Budapest: University of Budapest , 1989), pp. 229-31 ; Fronzaroli , "Osser -vazioni sul lessico delle bevande , " pp . 122 24.

CHAPTER THREE 2 2 2

depicting a Sumerian feast complete with wine and entertainers. Assyrian bas-reliefs, in particular, often depict banquet scenes that suggest parallels with later Greek symposia.83 Although distinguishing wine consumption from beer drink-ing in the art historical record is problematic, alcoholic consumption was clearly an important part of Near Eastern social relations. Among gypsum reliefs found decorating Throne- room Β of the Northwest Palace of Ashurnasirpal II, in Nim-rud, was one that depicted domestic scenes associated with food preparation for the king (Fig. 14). T h e setting portrays a walled enclosure (as seen from above) subdivided into four parts, each representing a scene of food preparation. T h e upper left picture shows a woman opening what appear to be wine jars sitting in a rack. Reminiscent of scenes in tomb paintings in Egypt, the attendant seems to hold in her left hand a fan, perhaps to cool the wine. In the text of an inscription found in the same palace, Ashurnasipal II boasts that he irrigated the fields along the Tigris River, established fruit orchards, and pressed wine.84 Bronze reliefs once erected on the gates of a palace of Shalmaneser III carry scenes from several of the king's military campaigns. Two, in particular, show Shal-maneser receiving tribute from foreign kings.85 Clearly delineated is the king's pavilion, under which appear items of food for the monarch and presumably his guests. Displayed prominently on the left is a stand supporting a wine jar . In a wine cellar of the fort built by the same Shalmaneser, besides huge wine jars, excavators uncovered dozens of clay tablets dated to the early eighth century B. C. The tablets apparently record distributions of wine to palace personnel for a special feast, which occurred annually. Listed among those who attended to the king's table was a "wine manager."8 6 Although these materials lack any informa-

83 Limet, "Cuis ine of Ancient S u m e r , " figs, on pp . 134 and 136; Lutz, Viticulture and Brewing, pp. 69 -71 ; Ju l i an Edgewor th Reade , " T h e Symposium in Ancient Mesopotamia : Archeological Evi-dcncc ," in In Vino Veritas, pp ־3556 . ; Frances Pinnock, "Considera t ions on the 'Banque t T h e m e ' in the Figurative Art of Mesopo tamia and Syria," in Drinking in Ancient Societies, pp. 15 26; Wal te r Burkert , "Or ien ta l Symposia: Contras ts and Parallels," in Dining in a Classical Context. William J . Slater, ed. (Ann Arbor : T h e University of Michigan Press, 1991), pp. 7 - 2 4 . For Assyrian bas-reliefs showing vineyards, see Paul ine Albenda, "Grapev ines in Ashurbanipa l ' s G a r d e n , " BASOR 215 (Oct. 1974): 5 17; Lutz, Viticulture and Brewing, pp. 27, Fig. 2; 70-71 , Figs. 13-14.

84 Mal lowan, Mmrud, 1: 99, Fig. 44. Bottéro illustrates an exact copy of this scene found in the seventh-century B. C . palace of Ashurban ipa l in Nineveh. Bottéro, "Cuisine of Ancient Mesopo tamia , " p. 39. For f ann ing wine in Egypt, see C h a p t e r 4, p. 161. For the inscription, see Grayson , Assyrian Rulers, 1: 290.

85 King, Bronze Reliefs from the Gates of Shalmaneser, pp . 2 5 - 2 6 , esp. Pis. X I X and X X X V . 8(' J . V. Kinn ie r Wilson, The Mmrud Wine Lists (London: British School of Archaeology in Iraq,

1972); Frederick Mar io Fales, "A Fresh Look at the N i m r u d Wine Lists," in Drinking in Ancient Societies, pp . 361 80, esp. pp. 373 and 380. O n e s toreroom at N i m r u d could a c c o m m o d a t e ca. 4 ,000 gallons. Black, "Mesopo tamia , " in Oxford Companion to Wine, p. 619. See also Lutz, Viticulture and Brewing, pp . 6 9 7 ־ 1 .


Wine production in

Syria and Palestine

Grape processing in

Bronze Age Israel

tion on the technology of winemaking, they do imply the importance of wine to the elite. Perhaps the best sources for Near Eastern wine technology can be seen in Syrian and Palestinian sites dating to the Iron Age.

Written evidence from Syria and Palestine shows that, as in other parts of the Near East, wine played a significant but limited role in society. Administrative texts indicate that winemaking and consumption was an important part of life in and around Ugarit (mod. Ras Shamra) between the fourteenth and twelfth cen-turies B. C. As elsewhere in the Near East, it was the drink of the elite, was offered to special, particularly foreign, guests as a mark of hospitality, and, if it played any role in the export trade, it did so as a luxury item.87 Viticulture and wine find frequent mention in the Hebrew Bible. T h e vine, the grape, or wine had figurative and symbolic value in wisdom literature. They played a role in religious ritual, and narrative sections illustrate their daily social value.88 But, like the economic documents of Ugarit, Mari , and elsewhere, little technical information on winemaking can be garnered from the literature. However, whereas archaeological and art historical evidence is lacking in other parts of the ancient Near East, Syria and Palestine have yielded much important physical material.

Installations devoted to winemaking are rarely attested before the Iron Age. Two exceptions stand out. A grape treading facility, dated by potter)׳ to the ear-ly Bronze II III period, operated near the bottom of the south slope of Tell Tacannek. Rectangular in shape and averaging ca. twenty centimeters deep, the treading vat was cut into bedrock. At the foot of the sloping vat were two holes serving as a conduit to conduct the grape juice at a 53° slope into a large collect-ing basin. T h e basin and channels were at one time apparently lined with plas-ter; the vat itself may have also been covered, but no evidence for it remains. T h e association with winepressing derives from its close parallels with Iron Age treading vats. An installation more clearly devoted to winemaking comes from Late Bronze Age Aphek-Antipatris, lying in the Sharon Plain on the River Yarkon in Israel. Excavators have found near the palace two plastered treading vats, each with a capacity of ca. 3.0 m.3 Thei r association with wine is implied

87 Milano, "Food a n d Diet ," pp. 235 38; Michael Hcltzcr, "Royal Economy in Ancient Ugar -it," in State and Temple Economy in the Ancient Near East. 2 Vols. (Leuven: Depa r tmen t Oriëntalistiek, 1979), 2: 4 5 9 - 9 6 .

88 Rafae l Frankel, Wine and Oil Production in Antiquity in Israel and Other Mediterranean Countries. J S O T / A S O R M o n o g r a p h Scries, 10 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999), pp . 198 99; J a c k M. Sasson, " T h e Blood of Grapes . Viticulture and Intoxication in the H e b r e w Bible," in Drinking in Ancient Societies, pp . 399-419 ; Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, pp . 101-10; Arring-ton, "Foods of the Bible," p. 816. M a g e n Broshi ("Wine in Ancient Palestine — Introductory Notes ," The Israel Museum 'journal?! [1984]: 21) says that the Bible ment ions wine 141 times.

CHAPTER THREE 2 2 4

by the discovery in the vats of Canaani te jars, similar to those found in Egypt that held wine, and of a large mound of grape skins and pits near the palace.89

Iron Age u!ine T h e Early Iron Age II site of Tel Michal, located on the Medi te r ranean installations at Tel coast north of where the River Yarkon empties into the sea, has yielded evi-

Michal dence for winemaking.9 0 He re excavators uncovered in close proximity to each other two complexes of similar plan excavated into the soil, lined with bricks and stones, and coated with plaster. Each complex measures ca. 5.0 m. χ 7.0 m. and dates to the tenth century B. C. T w o rectangular t reading vats (ca. 2.0 m χ 3.0 m.), each with two round receiving vats of different sizes located at the same end, define a single complex. T h e t reading vats themselves are of differ-ent sizes, the largest measuring 2.30 m. χ 3.50m. A drain connects the tread-ing surface to the receiving vats, which are not interconnected. All receiving vats have a depression in the bottom to assist in cleaning. Between the tread-ing vats of each complex is a rectangular basin measuring 1.00 m. χ 3.50 m. T h e purpose of the central basin is unknown, but it was probably where the grapes were placed before being transferred into the t reading vats. Small channels allow grape juice oozing out of the stacked-up grapes to drain into the t reading vats.91

T h e operation of this grape processing installation seems clear. Grapes brought to the installations were placed on the rectangular area between the treading surfaces. T h e grapes were transferred to the vats and trod by foot. Art historical evidence for treading is lacking, so one cannot know if, like the Egyp-tians, workers held onto ropes or poles suspended above them. T h e Bible, how-ever, does indicate that, as in Egypt, music and singing did accompany treaders in their work. T h e juice drained from the treading surface into the circular vats

89 Aphek-Antipatr is : Moshe Kochavai , " T h e History & Archaeology of Aphek-Antipatr is , Bib-lical City in the Sha ron Plain," BiblArch 44, no. 2 (Spring 1981): 80; Tell T a ' a n n e k : G . W . Ahlst röm, "Wine Presses and C u p - M a r k s of the Jen in-Megiddo Survey," BAS OR 231 (Oct. 1978): 46, and P. W. L a p p , " T h e 1968 Excavations at Tell T a ' a n n e k , " BASOR (Oct. 1969): 12 14, esp. Fig. 8, p. 13. T h e most complete study of wine and oil processing in Israel and o ther areas bor-der ing the Med i t e r r anean Sea is that of Frankel, Wine and Oil Production. Its chronological limits extend f rom the Bronze Age up to the Early M o d e r n per iod.

90 Ze 'ev Herzog , "A Complex of Iron Age Winepresses (Strata X I V XIII) ," in Excavations at Tel Michal, Israel. Ze 'ev Herzog, Goerge Rapp , J r . , and O r a Ncgbi, eds. (Minneapolis: T h e University of Minneso ta Press, 1989), pp. 73 75; Ze 'ev Herzog , "Tel Micha l , " in New Encyclopedia of Archaeo-logical Excavations in the Holy Land, 3: 1038. A similar construct ion has also come to light in three rooms of a large bui lding in Iron Age II Ashkelon. See Samuel R. Wolff, "Archaeology in Israel," AJA 100, no. 4 (Oct. 1996): 746.

91 The large receiving vats measure ca. 1.5 m. in d iamete r and 1.30 m. deep; the small one measures ca. 0.9 m. in d iameter and 0.8 m. deep. Herzog, "A Complex of Iron Age Winepress-es," p. 73. T h e depth of the t reading vats and rectangular basin is not indicated, but are appar -ently only a few cent imeters .


where it underwent fermentation for a short time before being transferred to storage containers.92

Another Iron Age II installation, found at Gibeon, located just north of Gibeon

Jerusalem and dating to the eighth and seventh centuries B. C., may have served to make wine, though again archaeobotanical evidence is lacking to prove it.93

T w o areas of the site contain sixty-three rock-cut, jug-shaped cellars, each aver-aging ca. 2.0 meters in diameter. All but five are unplastered. In close proximity to many of the cellars appear shallow basins that may have served as treading vats. Wine seems a more likely product for three reasons: the appearance of the basin areas seems more fitted to expressing liquid from grapes than f rom olives, finds of inscribed j a r handles suggest wine, and the combined capacity of the six-ty-three cellars (ca. 1500 gallons each), yielding a total storage volume of ca. 25,000 gallons, is an amount far in excess of what one would expect for olive oil production. T h e excavator suggests that the winemaking facility functioned in the following fashion. T h e grapes were trod in the shallow basins, which could accommodate two individuals, and the juice collected and transferred to plas-tered cellars for initial fermentation and filtering. T h e juice was then placed in storage vessels, which were arranged inside the unplastered cellars. Covers fitted over the openings allowed continued fermentat ion at a constant temperature of ca. 65° F.94 After a sufficient time, the wine was again decanted into smaller stoppered jars for subsequent transport.

T h e Bible uses three expressions for wine processing i n s t a l l a t i o n s , ^ ^ ׳ , gat, Wine making in the

and pûrâ. These have been identified variously as synonyms for a winery as a Bible

whole or terms distinguishing different parts of a single winemaking complex. O n e suggestion sees the terms as designating three types of installations differing

92 T h e excavator surmises that winemaking took place in the four t reading vats used in succès-sion. W i n e was p repa red in one installation and allowed to fe rment in its receiving vats for three days. D u r i n g this t ime t read ing began , in turn , in each of the o ther vats until all receiving vats were in use. T h e n , on the four th day, the two receiving vats of the first t reading vat were empt ied a n d the process begun anew. In this way two receiving vats daily yielded their supply of wine, while vats in the o the r installations conta ined expressed juice in varying stages of fermenta t ion . Herzog , " C o m p l e x of I ron Age Winepresses ," p. 74. In most cases, apparent ly , the receiving vat served to fe rment the juice into wine. Following fe rmenta t ion , the wine was t ransfer red to o ther vessels. See Ei tam, ' "Between the [Olive] Rows ' , " p. 66. O n references in the Bible to t reading, see Amos 9:13; Isaiah 63:2; for singing while t reading, see Isaiah 16:10; Jeremiah 25:30 a n d 48 :32-33 .

93 James B. Pr i tchard , Winery, Defenses, and Soundings at Gibeon (Philadelphia: T h e University M u s e u m , 1964), pp . 1 -27 ; Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, .112 .גן

94 For Biblical references listed in Sasson, "Blood of Grapes , " pp. 413 14, to the process o f f e r -menta t ion , see Psalms 75:8; Jeremiah 48:1 1, and Job: 32.19; to fe rmenta t ion in vessels, see Jeremiah 48:11; to filtering, see Isaiah 25:6; to bott l ing af ter fe rmenta t ion , see 1 Samuel 1:24; 10:3; Jeremiah 13:12-14; Joshua 9:13; Job 32:19.

CHAPTER THREE 2 2 6

according to location and c o n s t r u c t i o n : ^ ^ , an emplacement hewn from the rock; gat, an urban winery made from stones and mortar; and pûrâ, a portable stone or wooden apparatus. Frankel, on the other hand, does not believe that the Biblical texts can support such distinctions. He prefers to see bothyeqeb and gat as designating the complete winery made up of treading floor and collection vat. In the case of yeqeb, at least, the term can also designate an oil installation. T h e Bible, for example, notes that " T h e threshing floors shall be full of grain, and Ûìcyêqûbîm shall overflow with wine and oil."95

Although field surveys have yielded evidence for treading wine, none offer clear evidence for presses per se. T h e excavator at Tel Michal has conjectured that a large limestone rock, containing two holes of different sizes and found near one of the tenth-century B. C. winemaking installations, may have support-ed one end of a wooden beam used to press the grapes. As a close connection between grape and olive processing existed during the Graeco-Roman period so it should elicit no surprise that it did so as well during the Bronze and Iron Ages. Numerous locations have yielded presses frequently shown by archaeobotanical remains to have expressed oil f rom olives. Since many, if not all of these presses, probably served to press grape skins as well, an investigation of the oil press will also clarify the workings of the winepress.

4 . Oil

Olive oil, an import T h e olive tree grows naturally in Medi ter ranean climates of coastal Syria and into Mesopotamia Palestine and in western and southern Anatolia. With proper irrigation and

care, the cultivated variety can be grown in other places, though apparently not very well in southern Mesopotamia where the temperature is too high. Most of the oil in Mesopotamia, therefore, was imported by trading contacts, through Ebla and Mari , for example, with areas to the nor th and west.96 Although writ-

95 Joel 2.24. T h e t ransla t ion is that of Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, p. 111. For yeqeb, see Isaiah 5:2, Haggai 2:16, J e r m e m i a h 48:33; gat, see Joel 3:13, IMmentations 1:15; Isaiah 63:2; pûrâ, see Isaiah 63:3, Haggai 2:16. See also Frankel , Wine and Oil Production, p. 185; Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, pp. 111-12; Sasson, "Blood of G r a p e s , " p. 413, note 40; Lutz, Viticulture and Brewing, pp. 66 67; A. R . S. K e n n e d y a n d J . Paterson, " W i n e and S t rong Dr ink , " in Dictionary of the Bible, pp. 1038 39; G . W . Ahls t röm, " W i n e Presses a n d C u p - m a r k s of the Jen in -Megiddo Survey," BASOR 231 (Oct. 1978): 19-49. .

96 Z o h a r y a n d Hopf , Domestication of Plants in the Old World, pp ־ 140 137 . ; Frankel et al, History and Technology of Olive Oil in the Holy iMnd, pp Alfonso Archi ;־23 21 . , "Cu l tu r e de l'olivier et p ro-duct ion de l 'huile à Ebla ," in Marchands, Diplomates et Empereurs. Etudes sur la civilisation mésopotami-enne offertes à Paul Garelli. I). C h a r p i n a n d F. J o a n n è s , eds. (Paris: Édi t ions Reche reche sur les Civil-isations, 1991), pp . 2 1 1 - 2 2 ; M e i r Malul , " Z e / i r t u (Se/ i rdu) : T h e Olive T r e e a n d its Produc ts in Ancient M e s o p o t a m i a , " in Olive Oil in Antiquity, pp . 9 1 - 1 0 0 .


Uses of olive oil

Bronze Age oil

installation at Ugarit

Expressing oil from

olives

ten sources in Mesopotamia and elsewhere provide little or no information on processing olive oil, they do indicate its applications. Besides its value in cooking, food preparation, and consumption, oil was used for illumination, as an ingredi-ent in making perfumes and medicines, and in various rituals, such as anointing and food offerings. T h e cultic importance of oil is strikingly seen in Israel in the frequent discovery of oil presses in close proximity to religious buildings, such as at Ta ' anach, Dan, and Farah.97

Excavations at Ugarit have yielded a late Early Bronze III installation that archaeobotanical finds prove was an olive oil press. T h e construction was sim-pie, composed of two stone slabs on which the olives were crushed. Each slab had a sloping channel that conducted the expressed oil from the {)latform toward two plastered receiving basins. Olive pits found in one of these basins confirm the product processed here. In the other basin was discovered a perfo-rated piece of limestone, which may have served to crush the olives directly, as in Chalcolithic times, or was used as a weight to press a wooden beam down onto the olives. If the latter conjecture is accurate, this installation would consti-tute the earliest evidence for a beam press, dating to ca. 2300 B. C.98

Oil could be obtained from olives in several ways. It could be "rendered" by leaving ripe olives out in the sun to dry on a cloth of some kind. T h e oil would saturate the cloth, which was then washed. Washing removed the oil, which, naturally separating from the water, could be skimmed off. T h e application of this process is only conjectural, since it would leave no physical remains. Λ sec-ond method involved pounding olives 111 a portable or rock-cut mortar , to col-lect small volumes of oil, probably for immediate use. A third technique entailed pressing large numbers of olives with a stone on a flat slab, then placing the crushed olives in a plastered vat. When water, particularly hot water, is added, the oil floats to the top where it can be skimmed off. This method, which has some lexical evidence for it, could produce a greater amount of oil, which was stored for later use or trade. These last two methods probably characterized

97 Malul , " Z e / i r t u (Se/ i rdu) ," pp. 99100־ ; Har ry A. Hoi fner , J r . , "Oil in Hittite Texts , " BiblArch 58, 11θ. 2 J u n e 1995): 1 0 9 1 ־ 3 ; M Ū s h e Weinfeld, " T h e Use of Oil in the Cult of Ancient Israel," in Olive Oil in Antiquity, pp . 125-28.

98 T h e stone slabs measure 1.95 m. χ 1.25 m χ 0 .18 m and 1.70 m. χ 1.30 m. χ 0.1 1 m. T h e plastered basins measure ea. 0.80 m. wide and 0.65 m. deep. Frankel ( Wine and Oil Production, p. 66) does not believe that a lever-and-weight press opera ted this early. He does accept that this type press funct ioned in Late Bronze Age Ugarit . O t h e r Bronze Age oil presses, but of the simpler type similar to Chalcoli thic installations, have come to light at Tell 'Areini (Early Bronze II), and T a a n a c h (Early Bronze II / III) . Stager, "Firstfruits," p . ' 176 ; Milano, "Food and Diet," p. 212. Frankel (Wine and Oil Production, p. 66) leans toward the suggestion that the per fora ted stone was used as a crusher , not as a weight for a beam press. For olive oil at Early Bronze Age Ugari t , see Michael Heltzer, "Olive Growing and Olive Oil in Ugar i t , " in Olive OH in Antiquity, pp . 77 89.

CHAPTER THREE 2 2 8

installations at various Chalcolithic, Bronze Age, and early Iron Age sites, such as Tel Beit Mirsim, Bethel, Khallct c-Gazaz, and on the G o l a n . "

The lever-and- T h e fourth method constitutes a major technological innovation in food pro-weight, or beam, cessing, the development of the lever-and-weight press. T h e use of a lever

press increases mechanical advantage by multiplying the force applied by humans pulling down the free end of the beam or by stone weights. W hen and where this first occurred is unknown. The re may be evidence for it at late Early Bronze Age Ugarit, and on Cyprus, in Room 4 of the Ashlar Building from Maroni , dated to the Late Cypriote IIC period (ca. 1300 B. C.). Clear examples of this type press, however, have been unearthed at numerous Iron Age II (tenth to mid-sixth cent. B. C.) sites in Israel, such as at Shiqmona, Tell Dan, Hazor, Tell Beit Mirsim, Tel Gezer, Tel Batash, Beth-Shemesh, Khirbet Jemac in , and Khir-bet Zibdi. U p to forty eighth-century B. C. sites in the Samarian hills and else-where, such as Tell Tsaiit and Tirat Yehuda, had rock-cut installations, while other sites had presses cut f rom stone blocks.100

Tel Miqne-Ekron Since so many installations have been found, many of which show local varia-lions, not every site can receive full t reatment, nor is it necessary for our purpos-es. T h e seventh-century B. C. site of Tel Miqne-Ekron, in southern Israel, will serve as an illustrative example for two reasons. First, it constitutes the largest oil production facility thus far discovered in the ancient Near East, whose installa-tions have been intensively excavated and studied. All total, the site comprised at least 105 oil-pressing complexes of uniform arrangement potentially yielding an estimated 290,000 gallons of oil annually and capable of supporting a work

99 Malul, " Z e / i r t u (Se/ irdu) ," ])p. 98 99 (rendering); Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, p. 120 (Tell Beit Mirsim and Bethel); Epstein, "Oil Production in the Golan Heights, י ;pp. 133-46 יEitam, " 'Between the [Olive] Rows' ," pp. 6 8 - 8 0 (Khallct e-Gazaz); Frankel et al, History and Tech-nology of Olive Oil, pp. 28 31. For the use of hot water, following pounding, to extract sesame seed oil, see Levey, Chemistry and Chemical Technology, pp. 90 92.

100 In addition to the Early Bronze Age finds at Ugari t , see the discussion of Late Bronze Age oil presses in Ugarit and on Cyprus, dat ing f rom the fourteenth to the twelfth centuries B. C., in Olivier Callot, "Les huileries ct l 'huile au Bronze Récent: Quelques examples Syriens et Chypri-oites," in IJI production du vin et de l'huile, pp. 55 64; and Sophocles Had j i sawas , "An Introduction to Olive Oil Production in Cyprus ," in Olive Oil in Antiquity, pp. 64 65. For Israel, see Frankel ct al. History and Technology of Olive Oil, pp. 35 50; Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, pp. 122-23; Gorge Kein! and Amihai Mazar , "7lh Century B. C. Oil Presses at Tel Batash, Biblical T i m n a h , " in Olive Oil in Antiquity, pp. 243 48. T h e installations at Tell Beit Mirs im at first identified as "dye plants" arc now considered to have been oil-pressing facilities. David Eitam, "Olive Presses of the Israelite Period," Tel Aviv 6, nos. 3 1 5 0 - 5 Seymour Gitin, "Tel Miqne-Ekron in the 7,h ;־4 (1979): 2

Cen tury B. C. E.: the Impact of Economic Innovation and Foreign Cultural Influences on a Neo-Assyrian Vassal City-state," in Recent Excavations in Israel. A View to the West. Seymour Gitin, ed. Archaeological Institute of America Colloquia and Conference Papers, No. 1 (Dubuque, Iowa: K e n d a l l / H u n t Publishing C o m p a n y , 1995), p. 77, note 32.


force of ca. 2,000 individuals. T h e size of olive groves necessary to supply such a large industry has been estimated at 12,500 acres. Almost every building con-taining an oil installation follows a consistent tripartite pattern: an anteroom, storage room, and workroom. Since oil production was seasonal, the presses were in use for only about four months of each year. During the rest of the time, the building, or at least its anteroom, was given over to textile activity. Each workroom had two oil presses flanking a large, rectangular crushing basin, all formed from local stone. T h e second reason to choose Tel Miqne is that, situât-ed on the Inner Coastal Plain between the Philistine Coastal Plain and the hills of t h e j u d e a n Shephelah, Ekron was for three-quarters of the seventh century B. C. a Philistine city-state in vassalage to the Neo-Assyrian Empire. T h e extensive nature of the installations illustrates the development of specialized, large-scale industrial production within a wider context of expanding Near Eastern and Mediterranean economy and trade initiated during the pax Assy1iaca.m

Each olive pressing installation at Tel Miqne was comprised of two freestand-ing pressing vats flanking a rectangular crushing basin (Fig. 16). Examples found in the industrial quarter measured on average 0.70 m. χ 1.10 m. χ 1.50 m., and had an average volume of 300 liters. Of the installations uncovered at Ekron, the best preserved is located in Building One, Room 15. This particular example uti-lized two types of press, a "preliminary" type and the standard "Ekron" type.102

T h e former press type, small, round in shape, and measuring 0.60 m. in diameter and 0.80 m. in height, may represent an earlier stage in lever-and-weight press technology. The narrow pressing surface slopes inward to conduct the expressed oil into a straight-sided collecting vat holding about twenty-five liters. The larger and more sophisticated Ekron type is square, with a large pressing surface having radial grooves to channel the oil into a bell-shaped collecting basin capable of holding between fifty and one hundred liters. T h e collecting vats of both type

1(11 Since no evidence has arisen to substantiate an oil industry at Ekron pr ior to the seventh century B. C. , it seems probable that Assyrians initiated the p lanning and construct ion of the extensive facilities. T h e same can be said for Te l Batash, located ca. four miles f rom Ekron. David Ei tam, "Ol ive Oil Industry at Te l Miqne-Ekron , " in Olive Oil in Antiquity, pp . 167 96; Gitin, "Tel Miqne-Ekron in the 7,h Cen tu ry B. C . E. ," pp. 61 79; Keim and M a z a r , "7111 Cen tu ry B. C. Oil Presses at Te l Batash," pp. '243-48.

102 On ly six examples of the "pre l iminary" type have been found in Ekron, a l though others have been found at Tel Batash. An eighth-century B. C . example was found at Tell Beit Mirsim. A study of fifty-four presses at Ekron shows that "pre l iminary" type presses varied in capacity between twenty and forty liters. T h e Ekron type came in two sizes, med ium and large, and varied between forty-one and one hundred and forty liters in capacity. T h e med ium size presses, whose capacities range f rom forty-one to eighty liters, m a d e up sixty-three percent of those studied. Ei tam, "Olive Oil Industry at Te l Miqne -Ekron , " pp. 169 70. In Tel Batash the pressing vats were sunk completely into the floor. Keim and M a z a r , "7, h C e n t u r y Oil Presses at Te l Batash," p p . 2 4 4 - 4 5 .

CHAPTER THREE 2 3 0

Fig. 16. Drawing of a lever-and-weight press to process olive oil, from Ekron, Israel. From Gitin, "Tel Miqne-Ekron in the 7,h Century B. C. E.," p. 64, Fig. 4.3. Courtesy of Seymour Gitin, W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, Israel, and the American Institute of Archaeology.


presses had a shallow basin scooped out of the bottom to facilitate emptying the vat of its oil. Each press utilized a long wooden beam, no longer extant, which had one end inserted into a stone niche in the wall behind the vats. The niche was constructed to allow the beam to be raised or lowered, probably with wood-en blocks, to adjust to different size containers holding crushed olives. T h e press-ing force came from four pyramid-shaped and horizontally perforated stones, weighing ca. ninety kilograms each, suspended by ropes in a line or in two groups of two stones from the free end of the beam. There were several variations to this scenario. Northern presses, such as at Tell Balata, Tel Shiqmona, Tell Dan, Tel Hazor, and Rosh Zayit, utilized lateral collection vats rather than vats placed underneath the press, as was done in central and southern Israel.103

Since perishable items, such as baskets, ropes, and wooden apparatus, will Steps in processing

not have surv ived to the present day, our understanding of how the lcvcr-and- olives: crushing

weight presses at Tel Miqne and elsewhere functioned must rely upon interpre-tation of the extant stone structures in comparison with pre-industrial olive {Dresses that in many places survived into the twentieth century.104 T h e olive

103 For central and lateral collection simple lever-and-weight presses, see esp. Frankel, Wine and Oil Production, pp . 6 2 - 6 7 . For Ekron, see esp. Ei tam, " T h e Olive Oil Industry at Tel Miqne-Ekron ," pp. 1 6 9 7 ־ 4 ; Gitin, "Te l Miqne-Ekron in the 7,h Cen tu ry B. C . E." p. 63; Seymour Gitin, "Te l Miqne-Ekron in the 7lh Cen tu ry B. C . City Plan Development a n d the Oil Industry, ' in יOlive Oil in Antiquity, p. 223; Seymour Gitin, "Tel Miqne -Ekron : A Type-Si te for the Inne r Coastal Plain in the Iron Age II Per iod," in Recent Excavations in Israel: Studies in Iron Age Archaeology. Scy-m o u r Gitin and William G. Dever , eds. T h e Annua l of the Amer ican Schools of Orienta l Research, Vol. 49 (Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 1989), pp. 29 32. T h e length of the beam used at Ekron is unknown, a l though one at Te l Batash has been est imated at 5.5 m. Ke im and M a z a r , "7t h C e n t u r y Oil Presses at Tel Batash," p. 245. T h e effective pressing force increases the closer the load of olives is to the fu lc rum, in this case the back wall. A mode rn reconstruct ion of the Ekron type press had a pressing force of 1,680 kg, with an average pressing-surface of 0.4 m.2 T h e rock-cut presses f rom Samar ia consisted of a shallow bowl, ca. 2 5 - 3 0 cm. in depth , scooped out of the l imestone near a rock wall into which was carved a niche about 30 to 40 cm. above g round level. Olives placed in these bowls were crushed by rolling a stone over them. T h e crushed olives, placed in baskets and covered with a stone, were then pressed with a b e a m fixed into the stone wall. T h e beam pressed out the oil, which dra ined through a channe l to ano the r basin at a lower level. For possible Biblical references to rock-cut olive presses, cf. Job 29:6 and Deuteronomy 32:13. Most weights found in Iron Age Israel were per fora ted field stones or stones fashioned into bell-shapes and perfora ted horizontally. A few were doughnut - shaped , that is, field stones with vertical bore. Frankel, Wine and Oil Production, pp . 9 9 - 1 0 0 . See also Ei tam, "Olive Presses of the Israelite Per iod," pp. 146 49, 154; Frankel et al, History and Technology of Olive Oil, pp. 36 -38 ; Rafael Frankel, "Olives," in Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Ancient Near East, 4: 180.

104 T h e most thorough study of ancient N e a r Eastern olive presses is that of Frankel et al, Histo->y and Technology of Olive Oil in the Holy Land. M y indebtedness to this work will be obvious. For a convenient list of olive oil and wine installations in Israel dat ing be tween the Chalcoli thic a n d Crusade r periods, see David Ei tam, "Selected Oil and Wine Installations in Ancient Israel, י in IM יproduction du vin et de l'huile, pp . 9 9 - 1 0 3 .

CHAPTER THREE 2 3 2

pressing installations at Tel Miqne-Ekron probably functioned in the following manner . Olives brought to the building were taken to the pressroom where they were placed in the large crushing basin between the two presses. A worker crushed the olives by rolling a heavy cylindrical stone over them. A forked-shaped staff affixed to the stone facilitated the pushing and pulling required to manipulate the roller. O n e example found in Ekron measured 0.6 m. in length and 0.22 m. 111 diameter. This operation expressed the finest quality oil. T h e crushed olive pulp was then transferred to a container of some sort, probably a

Pressing straw basket measuring ca. 0.3 m. in diameter (only smaller ones would fit on the "prel iminary" type press). T h e basket, or series of baskets, was placed on top of a perforated wooden plank set over the opening of the collection vat. Some installations elsewhere used a collection vat with a wide, shallow depres-sion on top into which a wooden plank or stone slab was fitted. O n top of the basket was placed a wooden board or stone on which the wooden beam applied the pressure. T h e pressing force came f rom weights suspended from the free end of the beam. A workman grasping the beam and pulling down could add additional force. When the olives were squeezed, the oil drained into a peripheral groove, which channeled the oil to a small hole leading to the collec-tion vat.105

Separating oil from Once pressing was complete, the second step in the process, separation, fol-water lowed. Although separation may have occurred in the collection vats, better

efficiency dictated removal to other containers in a separate room so fur ther pressing could continue. T h e oil was removed from the collection vat with ladles of some sort and transferred to clay jars placed in the separation room. Here the oil, naturally separating from the water, formed a layer on top. Col-lection of the oil could be accomplished in two ways, both of which were apparently used at Tel Miqne. O n e large vessel, with eleven handles, had two small circular holes bored into its midsection. Dur ing separation, these holes were plugged. When the plugs were removed, the oil at the top of the container (with probably a small amount of the water) drained out. Another jar , termed "Ekron" type, had a hole near the bottom, which allowed the water to be drained off, leaving the oil in the container. Each type of container probably

105 Ei tam, "Olive Oil Industry at Te l Miqne -Ekron , " pp . 171-73; Git in, "Te l Miqne-Ekron : A Type-Si te for the Inne r Coastal Plain," 32 .גן; Frankel et al, History and Technology of Olive Oil, pp. 3 6 - 4 0 , esp. Figs. 29A, 29B, 31B. At Te l Batash rollers were also used in crushing basins, and col-lection vats were constructed in a fashion similar to those at Tell Miqne . T h e square collection vats varied between 0.64 m and 0.40 m. deep , and had the depression in the bot tom. Keim a n d M a z a r , "7 , h Cen tu ry Oil Presses at Te l Batash,'" pp. 244 45. For w o r k m e n add ing extra force on a b e a m press, cf. the paint ing on a sixth-century B. C. Greek vase in the M u s e u m of Fine Arts, Boston. See PI. 23.


required repeated drainage to separate all of the oil and to obtain oil of the highest quality.106

5. Animal Processing

a. Butchery T h e major food animals in the ancient Near East, sheep, goats, cattle, and pigs, had been domesticated during the Neolithic period, but by the fourth millenni-um Β. C. the focus of animal husbandry had shifted from domestic to communi-ty needs. This was particularly true as an expanding bureaucracy, made up of managers, workers, soldiers, and craft specialists, created large populations con-centrated in or near urban centers, which did not produce their own food. Hence, the managing and redistribution of food animals, in the same way as for agricultural products, became a state or temple concern. In the late third milieu-nium B. C. at Ur, for example, animals served as tax payments supplied to the central authority from outlying areas. Early in the following millennium B. C., the palace at Mari employed two individuals whose j o b was to fatten animals, such as oxen, sheep, and pigs, for religious offerings and for food. M a n y animals were selected for particular traits, such as milk production, meat yield, or wool supply. For these and other reasons, geographic and social, distinct breeds of domesticated animals began to appear.107

Literary references to "slaughterhouses," such as operated at Lagash, and Meat animals

finds of sheep bones bearing cut marks, such as those excavated at Ur, dating to the Th i rd Dynasty, indicate that butchery was practiced to provide meat. A Neo-Assyrian relief from the Palace at Nimrud shows a sheep, placed on a table and about to be butchered by two individuals, one of whom (wearing a tall hat) may be the king's chef (Fig. 14).108 Some administrative documents from Drehem, near Nippur, Lagash, and Ur indicate that sheep, lamb, and cattle

106 Ei tam, "Olive Oil Industry at Te l Miqne -Ekron , " pp . 173-74; Gitin, "Te l Miqne-Ekron in the 7th Cen tu ry B. C . E." p. 64, esp. Figs. 4.4 and 4.6; Gitin, "Tel Miqne-Ekron in the 7,h C e n t u -ry B. C . City Plan Deve lopment and the Oil Indust ry ," p. 224. Borowski (Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, p. 120, and Fig. 19) briefly discusses an Iron Age II "olive oil ref inery" at Beth Shemesh . T w o stone vats had collection vessels a r r anged o n ei ther side and set into masonry . He docs not explain how the "ref inery" funct ioned, but one can speculate that workers sat or knelt next to the vats a n d scooped up the oil at the top of the vat and transferred it into the clay jars .

107 Hesse, "Animal Husbandry , " pp. 203 22; O d e d Borowski, Every Living Thing. Daily Use of Animals in Ancient Israel (Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press, 1998), pp. 59 -81 ; Dalley, Man and Karana, p. 80 (animal-fattener).

108 Limet, "Cuis ine of Ancient Sumcr , " p. 136; Ellison et al, " S o m e Food Offer ings ," pp. 173-74; Mal lowan, Nimrud and its Remains, 1: 9 8 - 9 9 . For meat product ion in Biblical sources, see Borowski, Eveiy Living Thing, pp . 57 -58 .

CHAPTER THREE 2 3 4

were raised in herds and delivered, alive or dead, to various places for consump-tion by people of all classes. T h e meat could be roasted, grilled, boiled, or cooked in broths or stews of various sorts. T h e Yale Culinary Tablets, for exam-pie, mention diverse kinds of broth using goat, lamb, mutton, and even gazelle.109 Birds also appear in recipes, but not pig. Although there are famous prohibitions in the Bible against the consumption of pigs, this attitude was prob-ably a late development for a number of different reasons. Pork was consumed, although in comparison with the other three ungulates it played a minor role in the diet. Pig bones and teeth, discovered at Ur, Tell Asmar, and Nuzi, were probably the remains of pork consumption. Some of the bones found at Ur had been split, apparently to extract the marrow. Pig consumption was apparently significant in the Chalcolithic and Bronze ages, and declined in importance as time passed.110

b. Daily Products Milk Processed animal by-products also formed an impor tant part of the ancient

Near Eastern diet. Chief a m o n g these products was milk. Infants, in particu-lar, drank fresh milk f rom ewes, goats, and cows. Scenes of herds of cattle, some shown being milked, and milking sheds appear on cylinder seals as early as the late fourth millennium B. C. in southern Mesopotamia. Since milk spoils soon after exposure to air in the hot climate, it probably did not form a significant par t of redistributive stores. It rarely appears in administrative texts, but does find frequent ment ion in Sumerian literary sources, which indi-cate that milk was often drunk by the lower classes. It was used as an offering to gods, and Biblical sources indicate that it had symbolic value when com-bined with honey to represent prosperity. Milk was also used for cooking. Its greatest value, however, derived f rom products that could be made from it and would keep for a considerable period of time: yogurt, ghee, and cheese. Additionally, milk is difficult for adult humans to digest in the absence of the enzyme lactase, which is necessary to break down the lactose of milk. Milk

/ 7 /

l()<' Borowski, Every Living Thing, p. 58; Ar l ing ton , "Foods of the Bible, י p. 818; Bottéro, Textes יculinaires Mesopotamiens, pp . 8 1 1 ; Limet , "Cuis ine of Ancient S u m e r , " pp. 136-37; Bottéro, "Cui -sine of Ancient Mesopo tamia , " pp. 44; Nemet -Ne ja t , Daily Life, p. 159. See also Ellison, "Me th -ods of Food Prepara t ion , " p. 93. For grills used to p repa re mea t , see Salonen, "Die Ö f e n , " pp. 104-06.

110 Caro l ine Grigson, "Plough a n d Pasture in the Early E c o n o m y of the Southern Levant , " in Archaeology of Society in the Holy Land, pp. 251 -55 ; Hesse, "Animal Husbandry , , pp. 214-16 י ; Ellison, " M e t h o d s of Food Preparat ion, , p. 93; Limet י , "Cuis ine at S u m e r , " p. 137; Nemet -Neja t , Daily Life, p. 159; Postgate, Early Mesopotamia, p. 166. For Biblical references to prohibit ions against eat-ing pork, see Leviticus 11, Deuteronomy 14, Isaiah 6 5 - 6 6 .


byproducts, however, contain lactose in significantly lower amounts and so are more readily tolerated.1"

T h e inhabitants of the ancient Near East fermented milk, primarily of cows Butter

and goats, rarely of sheep. Fresh milk (Sumerian (;A), sometimes heated, allowed to stand overnight curdles and becomes sour. This product, the rough equiva-lent of yogurt, forms the base for the other milk byproducts, butter (more prop-erly ghee) and cheese. Detailed record keeping of the productivity of dairy herds by the Sumerians has allowed the calculation that milk from both cows and goats was expected to yield butter and cheese in a ratio of 2:3.1,2 Raw butter is the product of churning sour milk. This process may be represented on the mosaic frieze from the temple of Ninhursag at Ubaid dating to the Early Dynas-tic III period, or mid-third millennium B. C. (Fig. 17). Divided into three parts, the activities shown include a procession of bulls, milking of cows, and manufac-ture of butter. In the third scene several individuals are engaged in processing milk coming from cows shown in a nearby stall. O n e individual (a) holds a large sealed earthenware j a r tilted to one side. His j o b is apparently to churn the sour milk into buttermilk. This can be done by constantly rocking the j a r about on its base for an extended period of time, as is apparently shown here in a scene per-haps paralleled by others on cylinder seals. There is also some evidence for an upright churn in which the sour milk is beaten with a wooden dasher. According to Sumerian literary texts, churning was often accompanied by singing, proba-bly because the work required to manipulate the vessel over a long period of time was repetitive and so could be quite boring.113 The results of churning are liquid buttermilk and solid droplets of raw butter floating on top. The butter can be separated from the buttermilk by skimming it off or, as seems to be represent-ed on the Ubaid mosaic (b), by pouring it through a strainer, which captures the

111 Ph. Gouin , "Bovins et laitages en Mesopo tamie mér id ionale au 3CIW millénaire. Que lques commenta i res sur la 'frise a la laiterie' de E l - 'Ôbe id , " Iraq 55 (1993): 138; M a r i a G i o v a n n a Biga, "Il latte nclla documentaz ione cune i forme del III e II mil lennio," in Drinking in Ancient Societies, pp. 333 -45 ; Fronzaroli , "Osservazioni ," pp. 121-22; M a r t e n Stol, "Milk, Butter, and Cheese ," Bull-SumAgri 7 (1993): 100; M a r t e n Stol and H. A. H o f f n e r , J r . , "Milch (produkte)," in RIA (1994), 8: 189-205; Borowski, Every Living Thing, pp . 52 54; Fischer, ' "Milk in Everything Cooked ' , " pp. 9 7 - 9 9 ; Potts, Mesopotamian Civilization, p. 144.

112 T o h r u G ù m i , " O n Dairy Productivity at U r in the Late U r III Per iod," JESHO 33 (April 1980): 1 -42 ; Stol, "Milk, Butter, a n d Cheese ," pp. 100 02; Stol, "Milch (produkte)," RLA (1994), 8: 192-93; Borowski, Eveiy Living Thing, p. 55.

113 Stol, "Milk, Butter, and Cheese ," pp. 100 02; Stol, "Milch (produkte)," RIA (1994), 8: 192-97; Gou in , "Bovins et laitages," pp. 141-42, esp. note 42; Ar l ing ton , "Foods of the Bible," p. 818; Frankfor t , Cylinder Seals, P Ì X X I V g; Thork i ld J acobsen , "Lad in the Desert ," JAOS 103 (1983): 197-98. Milk is sometimes churned today by bounc ing a goatskin filled with milk held on the knees, but no ancient coun te rpar t has been attested.

CHAPTER THREE 2 3 6

c b a Part III

Fig. 17. Frieze from the Temple of Ninhursag at Ubaid, dated to Early Dynastic III Β (ca. 2500-2400 B. C.): Part I: procession of cattle, Part II: milking scene, and Part III: butter making. Drawing based on a east in the British Museum from the original in the Museum of Baghdad. T h e original measures 115 cm. in length χ 22 cm. in height. From Gouin, "Bovins et laitages en Mésopotamie· Méridionale," p. 136, Fig. 1. Courtesy of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq.


thick butter while collecting the pure buttermilk in another vessel. A final indi-vidual (c) pictured in the mosaic seems to be either cleaning the churn or filling the vessel with raw butter.114 T h e Ubaid mosaic does not seem to show what was the next required step. Raw butter does not keep long; it must be clarified to form what is called today ghee (Sumerian / jVLW), produced by boiling the raw butter and allowing it to cool down. Ghee, essentially a liquid, was used espe- Ghee

cially as an offering to gods and as an ingredient in numerous food dishes, such as bread and cakes. Cream came primarily f rom cow's milk, and its close associ-ation with butter can be seen in the name of the dairy goddess, NLN-F-IÀ-GÂR-KA, "the lady of the house of butter and cream." T h e sign for cream was a milk j a r shaded on the neck to represent the area where cream would adhere.115

Cheese (Sumerian GA-AR), known from numerous literary texts, dictionaries, Cheese

and administrative documents, came in many varieties, was widely consumed, and, along with ghee, formed an important offering to the gods. T h e process of cheese making finds no mention in ancient Near Eastern literary sources nor is it represented in the art historical evidence, although one cylinder seal may show small round cheeses placed on a mat to dry on the roof of a house.116 Using the literary records in combination with modern methods of cheese production, par-ticularly as traditionally practiced in the Middle East, two types of ancient cheese can be identified. First, similar to the modern product called kisk in Ara-bic, is that prepared from buttermilk, less often f rom sour milk, left over f rom making ghee. Mixed with salt, or perhaps cereals or various plants, buttermilk is allowed to stand in a cloth bag for several days. T h e solid residue remaining after the liquid has drained out or evaporated is rolled into small balls and allowed to dry further in the sun. In times of want, these balls can be pulverized and dissolved in water to reconstitute milk suitable for drinking.117

T h e second general category of ancient cheese, the "true" cheese, is more problematic for the ancient Near East. T h e manufacture of this type of ancient cheese is assumed from the prevalence of this product throughout the Middle

114 Gouin , "Bovins et laitages," pp. 141 44. Jacobson ("Lad in the Desert ," p. 199) interprets the Ubaid mosaic as showing the pour ing of milk into the churns, the churning itself, and the cleaning of vessels.

115 See, e. g., H. H. Figulla, "Accounts Concern ing Allocation of Provisions for Offerings in the Ningal-Temple at Ur , " Iraq 15 (1953): 88-121 , 171-92; Gouin, "Bovins et laitages," pp. 14243־; Stol, "Milk, Butter, and Cheese ," pp. 102-03; Stol, "Milch (produkte)," RLl (Ì994), 8: 189-90, 194-98; Jacobsen , "Lad in the Desert ," p. 198 99.

Frankfort יי" , Cylinder Seals, Pl. X X I V g. Jacobsen ("Lad in the Desert ," p. 197), prefers to inter-prêt the motif, not as drying cheeses, but as a cheese form to hold soft cheese.

Stol, "Milk, Butter, and Cheese ל" ," pp. 104-05; Stol, "Milch (produkte)," RIA, pp. 198-99; Borowski, Every Living Thing, p. 56; Holfner , Alimenta Hethaeorum, p. 121 ; Nemet-Nejat , Daily Life, p. 158.

CHAPTER THREE 2 3 8

East in modern times and f rom the interpretation of certain words appearing in Sumerian and Akkadian texts. Nevertheless, the association of these words with this type of cheese or with the process used to make it remains controversial. The Akkadian eqidum, later equated to Sumerian GA.AR, for example, may repre-

sent Mesopotamian true cheese.118 If true cheeses were produced in the ancient Near East, it remains unknown when they were first made. T h e process to pro-duce them would no doubt approximate the methods in use in modern times.

Three distinct steps define modern cheese making: formation of curds by pre-cipitating the protein casein in the presence of lactic acid and rennet, separation of the solid curds from the liquid whey, and ripening the curds. In the first step, a starter, in the form of bacteria designed to ferment lactose into lactic acid, is added to warm milk in order to reduce its pH. In antiquity, buttermilk left over from churning would serve this purpose. Next, the addition of rennet, the con-tents of or the membrane lining the stomach of an unweaned animal, especially a lamb, through the action of the enzyme rennin hastens the curdling of milk and over time precipitates the gel-like curd. Cutt ing the curd allows the liquid whey to drain out. T h e terms pinnaru and kabu, found in bilingual dictionaries, may refer to Kennet . T h e whey can also be further processed into cheese by curdling at high temperatures in the presence of an acid starter. Cutting, cooking, and again draining removes additional whey and further solidifies the curd. Follow-ing a period of "cheddaring," sitting to allow more whey to drain, the soft curd mellows into a stronger consistency. T h e curd is then milled, salted, and pressed into molds to remove still more whey; after which the curds arc allowed to ripen over a period of time. At various stages along the way in making modern cheeses, particular additives, range of temperature, degree of pressing, length of ripening, and other variables, define the kinds of cheese produced. Ancient Near Eastern sources document some eighteen to twenty kinds of cheeses, among which are those described as fresh, large, small, flavored, sweetened, sharp, crushed, round, and white.119

Steps in modem

cheese making and

their probable Near

Eastern counterparts

c. Fish T h e Tigris and Euphrates Rivers not only furnished water to nourish thirsty crops in the fields, but also yielded fish, which were easily caught in the marshy areas bordering the rivers and canals. Fishermen in southern Mesopotamia

Fish and fishing in

Mesopotamian

society

118 Stol, "Milk, Butter, and Cheese ," pp . 105-08; Stol, "Milch (produkte)," RIA (1994), 8: 198-200. For Hittite cheeses, see H O f fner , "Milch (produkte)," RIA (1994), 8: 203-04 , and Hoffn-er, Alimenta Hethaeorum, pp. 121-23. For cheese in the Bible, see Borowski, Every Living Thing, p. 56, and Arl ington, "Foods of the Bible,י .p. 818 י

1,9 M c G e e , On Food and Cooking, pp. 11-12, 40 -50 . For identification of a possible cheese mold represented on a cylinder seal, cf. above note 116.


caught both fresh and saltwater fish, using various means, for example hook and line, harpoon, and various kinds of net. Literary and art historical sources asso-d a t e important individuals, for example Gilgamesh, and certain deities, such as Ea and Dumuzi , with the catching of fish, while fishing plays a prominent role in several Mesopotamian mythological stories. Fish was an important food throughout the ancient Near East, and the control of fisheries quickly passed under temple or state control.120 Fishermen at Ur in the early second millenni-um Β. C., for example, leased from the N a n n a temple the right to fish in certain waters by handing over a portion of their catch to middlemen who, in turn, con-verted the fish into silver to pay the temple. How this transaction functioned in detail is unknown, but must have involved the processing off ish in some fashion and the selling of it to consumers. Since most of the fish would not have been consumed immediately and since fish begin to spoil soon after removal from the water and death, they would need to be preserved. Sumerian and Akkadian documentary sources include vocabulary terms identifying fish, both fresh and saltwater varieties, that were dried, or — if accurately interpreted salted, and possibly smoked. Fish eggs were apparently preserved separately, and fish were pressed (how is unknown, perhaps in sacks or baskets) to extract oil. There may also have been a fermented form of fish, called in Akkadian šiqqu, similar to the Roman gamm or modern Vietnamese nuoc-mam.12' Archeological evidence con-firming these processes, however, is scarce.

111 third-millennium B. C. Girsu (= Tello), in southern Mesopotamia, in an Fish processing

area known as the Region des Bassins, excavators have uncovered amid rubble installations

two large tanks of different sizes, measuring 10.5 m. χ 2.5 m and 5.5 m. χ 2.40 m., respectively. Lying side-by-side, they are connected by a channel at one end. T h e steeply sloping floors render one end considerably deeper than the other.

12(1 M e n d e l N u n , "Fishing," in Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East, 2: 316; Borowski, Every Living Thing, pp. 168-70; Bottéro, "Cuis ine of Ancient Mesopo tamia , " fig. on p. 38. For fish in Mesopo tamian l i terature, sec, e.g., M. Civil, " T h e H o m e of the Fish. A New Sumer ian Liter-ary Compos i t ion ," Iraq 23 (1969): 154-75. 111 this story the goddess Nanse appears as mother of the fish, and is called "queen of fishermen." For evidence of fishponds associated with palaces and temples, as well as private ponds, see Radcliife, Fishing', pp. 349-445 , esp. p. 378, and !)alley, Mari and K'arana, pp. 81 82.

121 Mieroop , Society and Enterprise in Old Babylonian Ur, pp . 8 9 - 9 1 , 181-83; A r m a s Saloncn, Die Fischerei im alten Mesopotamien nach sumerisch-akkadischen Qiiellen (Helsinki: Suomala inen Tiedeaka temia , 1970), esp. pp . 259 -64 ; Jean Bottéro, "Konserv ie rung von Lebensmit te ln ," in RIA (1980-1983), 6: 193-95; Bottéro, "Cuisine of Ancient Mesopo tamia , " p. 39; Ellison, "Metl i -ods of Food Prepara t ion , י ,Postgate, Early Mesopotamia ;כן. pp. 93 94; I )alley, Mari and K'arana, 82 יpp. 198-202. For the organizat ion and adminis t ra t ion of fisheries dur ing the T h i r d Dynasty of Ur , see Rober t K. Englund , Organization und Verwaltung der Ur III-Fischerei (Berlin: Dietrich Re imer Verlag, 1990). See also M . Lamber t and Erich Ebeling, "Fischer(ei)," in RIA (1957-1971), 3: 68 70. For garum, see below, C h a p t e r Eight, pp. 403 1 1.

CHAPTER THREE 2 4 0

Their purpose remains unknown, but the suggestion that they were fish tanks is strongly supported by finds scattered nearby of numerous bones of fish appar-ently at one time stacked in piles, remains of fish processing activity. Similar piles of fish bones were discovered in the nearby Tell de Maison des Fruits. These tanks and fish remains may constitute evidence for "fish houses," places for processing fish, known from documentary sources. At Uruk, in a room or courtyard associated with a temple precinct, excavators found numerous remains of fish bones. Earlier assumed to be the remains of fish offerings, they are now seen to represent residue from fish processing. T h e details of fish prepa-ration are unknown, but Sumerian and Akkadian terms refer to scaling, gutting, washing, and splitting fish. Gutt ing and splitting fish, prior to drying, form famil-iar motifs in ancient Egyptian tomb paintings. Documents f rom Girsu, in partic-ular, indicate that fish, doubtless processed in some form, made up a portion of long distance trade items between Girsu, Uruk, Nippur, and other cities of the region. Remains off ish found in Iron Age Jerusalem and Rosh Zait, in Western Galilee, included fresh and saltwater varieties, indicating trade in processed fish between these cities and areas throughout Palestine and perhaps Egypt.122

6. Sweeteners

Honey T h e primary sweetener used in the ancient Near East came in the form of fruit juices concentrated through boiling, especially the juice of grapes, where avail-able, and dates. These products were frequently denoted in the texts as honey (Akkadian di-špu), but should not be confused with the product of bees, which went under the same term. Beekeeping and the production of honey in Mesopotamia cannot be verified prior to the early eighth century B. C. Shamash-resh-usur, Assyrian governor of Suki and Mari , on the upper Euphrates River in Syria, boasted on a stele that he was the first to import bees and to establish hives in the area. He further proclaims that he knew how to sep-arate the honey from the wax by boiling the comb. This procedure is nowhere

122 H. E. W . Crawford , "Mesopotamia ' s Invisible Exports in the Th i rd Millennium B. C. ," WorldArch 5, no. 2 (1973): 233-35; Salonen, Fischerei, pp. 8 2 8 3 258 (fish p ,(fish houses) ־ répara-tion). O n fish processing in ancient Egypt, see Chap te r 4 above, pp. 174-75. Evidence for fish in Mesopotamian diet and economy nearly disappear from the literary record after the reign of H a m m u r a b i , though there is little doubt that it cont inued to play an impor tant role. For pre-served tunny imported into Ur dur ing the Neo-Babylonian period, see Ellison et al, "Some Food Offerings from Ur ," pp. 1 75 76. Assyrian sources note that processed fish formed part of the trib-ute coming from the Philistines. See Borowski, Every Living Thing, pp. 1 7276־ , and p. 181, note 11. Herodotus (1.200), writing in the mid-sixth century B. C., says that in Babylonia three tribes ate nothing but fish, which they had caught and dried in the sun.


else attested before this date. Even so, no unambiguous archaeological evidence for beekeeping has come to light in Mesopotamia before the Hellenistic period. Honey consumed before that time must have been imported, expensive, and confined to the upper classes.123 Shamash-resh-usur states that he imported the bees from the mountain areas of the Habha , probably to be identified with Hit-tite regions of the Taurus Mountains of southern Turkey. Apiculture was a long-standing activity among the Hittites, and bees find mention in the oldest Hatt ian literary texts. T h e proximity of Palestine to Egypt, where apiculture was firmly established early on, and their history of close commercial contacts makes it like-ly, though not at this time provable, that ancient Israel enjoyed honey f rom bees as well.124

As today, cultivated date palms (Phoenix dactylifera L.) grew throughout the Dates

ancient Near East, and can be archaeologically attested as early as the early fourth millennium B. C. in Eridu. They find frequent mention in cuneiform sources from the following millennium. They could be eaten, particularly in dried form, or, especially in the form of syrup, used as an ingredient in the preparation of bread, beer, and wine.125 Installations for date processing (Arabic madbasa), dating prior to the Islamic period, however, have not been identified until recently. Archaeologists have uncovered two installations on the Arabian Gulf, which, when considered together, give some insight into date processing technology. O n the Kuwaiti island of Failaka, not far f rom where the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates, having combined a little to the north, empty into the Gulf, a complex of buildings housed at least two rooms containing equipment possibly used for processing dates. T h e extant setup consists only of a plastered floor sloping toward one wall of the room, where a channel led to the outside and into an underground tank. O n e of the rooms (Room 1) had a screen to filter the liquid before it drained into the tank. Dat ing to between 1850 and 1500 B.

12:5 Ncufeld, "Apicul ture in Ancient Palestine," pp . 238 -47 ; Arr ington, "Foods of the Bible," p. 819; Ellison, " M e t h o d s of Food Preparat ion, , p. 94; Nemet י -Neja t , Daily Life, p. 160; Dalley, Mari and K'arana, p. 85. I regret that I was unable to consult the dissertation of Anne-Mar ie Debiesme, "Recherches sur l 'apiculture en Asie Antér ieure ancienne: Etude iconographique de l'abeille et essai de reconsti tution des anciennes techniques apicoles" (Louvain, 1975), summar ized in Revue des archéologiques et historiens d'art de Louvain 9 (1976): 2 6 4 - 6 5 .

121 For the Hittites, see Hof iner , Alimenta Hethaeorum, p. 123; Forbes, Studies, 5: 87. For Palestine, see Neufeld, "Apicul ture in Ancient Palestine," pp . 2 3 8 - 4 7 . For honey in Biblical references, see Arr ington, "Foods of the Bible," p. 819; for Egypt, sec C h a p t e r Four above pp. 176-77.

125 Axelle Rougeulle, "I)cs étuves' à dattes à Bahrain et en O m a n : le p rob lème de l 'appari t ion des techniques de t ransformat ion de la da t te ," Paléorient 8, no. 2 (1982): 71-74 ; Zoha ry and Hopf , Domestication of Plants in the Old World, pp . 157 62, 208 11; H a r t m a n and O p p e n h e i m , On Beer and Brewing, p. 42, note 29. O n date syrup, see also Stol, "Beer in Neo-Babylonian T imes , " pp. 156 57.

CHAPTER THREE 2 4 2

C., these installations are similar to constructions found at Ras al Qala 'a in Bahrain, farther south in the Arabian Gulf, dating slightly later, the mid-second millennium B. C. Here wooden logs placed on the floor parallel with each other and covered with plaster created channels between the logs. Mats and wooden frames placed on top of the plastered logs formed a raised support for a pile of dates. As the dates decomposed, the juice would drain through the matting into the channels, which conducted the liquid across the floor toward a collection tank, unexcavated at present but its existence presumed from the similar con-struction on Falaika. Near this building excavators found fireplaces and pots, which may have served to process further the date juice. Placing decomposing dates on the floor of a room constructed to convey the juice toward a storage tank is similar to modern date processing facilities in the area. T h e ancient equipment underwent evolutionary change. T h e earlier installation at Falaika employed wood for the f rame on which to sit the dates, while the later apparatus utilized a support made of logs covered with plaster. T h e next step, creating channels and support entirely out of plaster, did not come until the Islamic peri-od.126

Date-beer Dates were also used to produce beer. Oppenhe im thought that during the early first millennium B. C., an important change in the field of food technology had occurred when, without evidence for a transitional period, dates, not barley, appeared to have become the prime ingredient for beer. He associated this per-ceived change "solely with a concomitant shift in the consumer population, or, at least, in a predominant layer of a previously static population," and cited as additional support the occurrence in Neo-Babylonian texts of new terminology for economically important parts of the date palm.127 Stol, on the other hand, believes that the change is more apparent than real. Focussing on terms used for beer, he states that in the Neo-Babylonian period the Akkadian term, sikaru, indifferently denoted beer made from barley or from dates. Both types of beer continued to be made, although that from dates was apparently more popular. Billatu or biltu, a thickish mixture made from barley and sometimes called beer, was restricted to cultic purposes, but other barley beers did exist.128

12(ì F l emming Hoj lund , "Da te Honey Product ion in Di lmun in the Mid-2n<1 Mil lennium B. C.: Steps in the Technological Evolution of the M ad basa" Paléorient 16, no. 1 (1990): 77-86 .

127 A. Leo O p p e n h e i m , Letters From Mesopotamia (Chicago: T h e University of Chicago Press, 1967), p. 44. Cf. also H a r t m a n and O p p e n h e i m , On Beer and Brewing, p. 42, note 29.

128 Stol, "Beer in Neo-Babylonian T imes , " pp. 155-83, esp. p. 161: " W e have to live with the ambigui ty that sikaru (KAŠ) both stands for beer m a d e of barley a n d for the drink m a d e of the fruits of the date palm. Statistically speaking, the chance is ver)׳· high that date beer is meant as long as we are not reading texts deal ing with the cult ."

S U M M A R Y A N D C O N C L U S I O N S T O P A R T T W O

The rise of riverine civilizations in Egypt and Mesopotamia can be attributed to Food technology and

varying factors and can be seen to have developed in differing directions accord- the growth of the

ing to their own character, but each depended upon abundant water resources, state

through natural or artificial irrigation, to support a growing agricultural economy. But neither in river valleys nor in regions where rainfall provided enough water for dry farming, such as in Syria, Palestine, Anatolia, and northern Mesopotamia, was growing the food sufficient unto itself. The produce of the land had to be placed into the hands of the inhabitants, and a sufficient quantity stored as a hedge against famine. Controlling water resources, raising crops, organizing the harvest, transferring food from rural to urban centers, providing storage for excess food, and distributing rations to individuals required the planning and oversight of a central authority. The ability of central authorities, both secular and religious, to perform these functions well solidified their grasp on power.1

Not all food produced through agriculture could be stored for a considerable length of time, nor for various reasons could every crop be eaten in its natural form. This was particularly true for cereals, the plant that formed the base for the two most important foods in the diet, bread and beer. T o produce these products, and others besides, such as oil and wine, required processing in some fashion. Additionally, animal foods, such as fish and meat, if not eaten immedi-ately, had to undergo processing to preserve them for later consumption. Even animal by-products, such as milk, which could not be stored in their natural state, had to be transformed into storable form, such as butter and cheese, through processing. A sufficient and reliable food supply, therefore, in great part depended upon the development of both state and temple bureaucracies that managed the human resources and food processing. In pursuit of this, for instance, the bureaucracies of Egypt and Mesopotamia, attempting to enforce stringent quality controls on food supply, developed systems of writing and mathematical computation. T h e earliest form of writing involved record keeping to itemize stored items, to maintain a record of the efficient conversion of grain into bread and beer, and to record the distribution of rations. Food technology in Egypt and the ancient Near East, therefore, was integrally related to the growth of the state and to the development of writing.

1 See, in general , M a r i a DeJ. Ellis, Agriculture and the State in Ancient Mesopotamia (Philadelphia: University Museum, 1979).

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS TO PARI־ TWO 2 4 4

Processed foods in T h e ccntrality of food processing and its products in ancient society is reflect-society ed in various ways. Processed foods or the instruments of their production often

form the symbols used in early Egyptian hieroglyphic and Mesopotamian logo-graphic writing. They constitute a significant proportion of items specially offered to the gods, and some deities, such as Shesmu in Egypt and Ninkasi in Mesopotamia, are particularly associated with food technology. Both Egyptians and Mesopotamians considered bread and beer as the basic staples of their diet. T o Egyptians bread and beer represented prosperity; they spoke of them as metaphor for the good life, and used them as a medium of valuation for goods and wages. T h e Mesopotamians considered the consumption of the same items emblematic of humanity and civilization. Both considered wine as a preserve of the elite. They also included processed food and drink in tombs as sustenance for the dead.

Bureaucratic control led to the establishment of large-scale processing and storage installations to create a surplus sufficient to support a large population over a long period of time. This freed up many individuals for specialized work in return for food as wages or rations paid by the state or temple. Soldiers formed one group benefiting from this arrangement . T h e state apparently issued to them grain from the granaries, which they themselves had to process to make bread and other cereal-based foods. Indeed, for Assyrians a soldier grinding grain on a quern became the standard artistic motif to represent a military camp. Among other professions arising in society were also those associated with food processing itself, such as bakers, vintners, and brewers, and those perform-ing related activities. As in the Neolithic period, women performed most of the grinding work. In Mesopotamia down through the Old Babylonian period, they apparently also played a prominent , if not always respectable, role in making and selling alcoholic beverages. Private individuals made their living producing processed products, such as bread, beer, wine, and oil, for state authorities, engaging in private business, or conducting short and long distance trade in these items. Advances in food technology, such as the alteration of particular food products f rom an easily spoiled to a stable form, as in fish preservation, and the development of commercial containers, such as amphorae , to transport foods long distances did much to bolster the agricultural economy. They further stimulated trade, resulting in the acquisition of a variety of foods from farther afield.2

While expanding the availability, stability, and variety of the food supply, processed foods helped to increase the nutrient intake of man and so benefited

2 Cf. Ik ram, Choice Cuts, pp. 191-97.

2 4 5 SUMMARY A N D C O N C L U S I O N S T O PARI־ TWO

Impact of food

processing on liea/l/1

and nutrition

Organization and

efficiency in food

processing

his health and well-being. Readily obtainable processed foods and developments in processing techniques had unintended consequences, both harmful and bene-ficial, affecting health. Although evidence for health issues related to processed foods comes almost entirely from studies on Egyptian human remains, similar conditions no doubt prevailed in other populations throughout the ancient Near East. T h e increased tooth decay that had affected Neolithic populations who ate soft foods, such as porridges and cooked or boiled foods, continued to plague the ancient Egyptians. Additionally, bread containing gritty material tended to injure tooth enamel and so to promote dental abscesses when infection devel-oped in the underlying pulp. Positive effects, however, seem to outweigh nega-live ones. Although storage of grain, according to one study, may have encour-aged the development of harmful micotoxins, it also increased the amount of antibiotic tetracylines, which, consumed in processed form, such as bread, beer, and porridges, may have provided some resistance to disease infections. Bread and fermented liquids, such as wine and beer, as well as preserved fish, supplied to the daily diet several important nutritional elements, such as protein and the Β vitamins. And finally, improvements in working conditions for those involved in grinding cereals, if not those laboring in domestic settings at least those employed in large-scale processing centers run by state or temple authorities, eased the kinds of stress to back and feet that apparently beset grinders in Neolithic Abu Hureyra. This improvement involved the replacement of the trough quern by the saddle quern, but especially the raising of the quern to a level above the floor, in some instances high enough for the worker to stand, and tilting it slightly down and away. Additionally, situating the kneeling worker between quern emplacement and wall allowed her to support her feet or back while grinding or resting. T h e motivation for these essentially ergonomie changes probably had less to do with providing comfort and health benefits to workers than to increasing their efficiency, and so their output, through alter-ations resulting from some form of rudimentary motion analysis.3 They were probably not unrelated, however.

Increases in technology did not always bring with it increases in efficiency in the manipulation of that technology. So, for example, grinding showed little advancement beyond development of the saddle quern. Greater efficiency had to wait for the introduction of the hopper mill by the Greeks. In the meantime, increased flour output was not sought in devising better ways to raise grinding efficiency, rather they contented themselves, such as at Ebla, with creating large grinding rooms where numerous grinders worked side by side on their individ-

3 S t o r c k a n d l e a g u e , Flour, p . 4 9 .


ual saddle querns. T h e difference, therefore, between grinding on the domestic level and on the "industrial" level was only one of scale. Likewise, in Egypt, when increases in output of leavened bread was demanded, such as at Amarna, resort was had not to the creation of larger ovens but to constructing a series of small ovens under one roof. Although the improved bag press with fixed post did reduce the number of workers needed to squeeze grape pulp, that was prob-ably not the purpose for the innovation. Perhaps the best example of organiza-tion of labor for food processing comes in the s tandard combined workplace for producing bread and beer. T h e bakery-brewery complex was a standard motif in Egyptian funerary painting and models, and no doubt represented what was the usual arrangement in real life. T h e desire for increased production brought organization not necessarily more efficiency. T h e need to provide consistent work for a large workforce offered little incentive for the state to look for techno-logical improvements to reduce the numbers of workers to perform a specific task. Pounding cereals with mortar and pestle or grinding grain on a saddle quern persisted even to the present clay, although better, more efficient tools came into use.

Nevertheless, the historical period in Egypt and the Asiatic Near East, stretch-ing from ca. the fourth millennium down to the fourth century B. C., saw signif-icant advances in food processing technology over what had been achieved in the millennia encompassing the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods. Not all activi-ties showed the same degree of progress, however. Totally new methods trans-formed how some foods were processed, while refinements of earlier processes or the development of new or improved tools increased their efficiency. For still other areas, little or no improvement can be seen. T w o cautionary notes also need addressing. A major source for evidence of food technology comes from the interpretation of archaeological and art historical material found in Egyp-tians tombs. O n e must always keep in mind that the purpose of this material was religious or artistic and not didactic. Secondly, cuneiform lexica provide numer-ous technical terms associated with various aspects of food technology, not defi-nitions. T h e latter must derive from intelligent interpretation — sometimes, even guesses — of the meaning of the terms that may be unattested elsewhere or little understood.

Mechanical MECHANICAL INNOVATION. T h e early historical period brought the development of technology machines to process grapes and olives. No longer were the only tools human

hands. T h e preparation of wine required extracting the juice from grapes; pro-duction of olive oil necessitated the separation of the oil from the pulp and water. Treading with the feet crushed both grapes and olives, although rolling a heavy stone back and forth was most often employed for the latter. By the fourth millennium B. C., the Egyptians were practicing a more efficient means. Tread-

2 4 7 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS TO PARI־ TWO

ing grapes with the feet constitutes a form of pounding and so is only a variation of a technique already in use to process grain. T h e feet act in a way similar to a pestle. By the Fourth Dynasty, and probably earlier, Egyptians followed tread-ing with squeezing the grape pulp and skins with a bag press. This step intro-duced a new principle to food technology, torsion, and involves twisting each end of a bag containing previously treaded grape material. Under the twisting pressure the bag contracts, squeezing the grape material and expressing the grape juice into a receiving vessel. T h e Egyptian bag press itself also went through some development. At first, the bag press was free standing. T w o teams of two or more workers suspended the bag over a vessel and twisted each end with poles, while another individual in the center controlled the poles as they were twisted and supervised the bag to insure that the grape juice drained into the collecting vessel placed beneath. This labor-intensive arrangement proved unwieldy and difficult to manipulate. Later, though when is uncertain, came the innovation whereby one end of the sack was affixed to an upright post. This gave greater stability to the sack and so improved its efficiency in squeezing the material and increased the amount of juice collected. T h e change also reduced by almost half the number of workers necessary to operate the press.

In Syria and Palestine, the most common method used to squeeze grapes and, especially, olives involved the lever-and-weight press. When mechanical pressing first occurred is unknown, but probably was being used by the Early Bronze Age. The lever-and-weight press was in common use in Israel between the tenth and seventh centuries B. C. Workers first crushed olives by rolling a large stone or roller back and forth over them. They then filled wicker baskets and placed them beneath the beam at a point selected for the greatest pressing force. They anchored one end of the beam into a wall; the free end they weighed down with huge stone weights so that the beam, acting as a lever, pressed on the basket forcing the oil out of the meat and into collecting vats placed below the baskets or to the side. T h e raw oil was then placed in special vessels where the water was separated off. Some areas, such as at Neo-Assyrian Tel Miqne, engaged in large-scale production of olive oil by operating numerous beam presses throughout the city or a portion thereof.

Both bag presses and lever-and-weight presses could be used to squeeze grapes or olives. It is often difficult to differentiate one activity from the other unless some archeobotanical evidence can be found to distinguish the product being processed. It is interesting to note that bag presses are known only in Egypt and then only as portrayed in tomb paintings; lever-and-weight presses are known for Syria and Palestine only through archaeological finds. Although it appears likely that viticulture and winemaking came to Egypt from the southern Levant in the late fourth millennium B. C., bag presses cannot be confirmed for


any place outside Egypt. O n the other hand, notwithstanding the fact that numerous examples of the remains of beam presses have come f rom Syrian and Palestinian sites, neither archaeological nor art historical evidence vouches for Egyptian knowledge of this technology. O n e can only suppose that bag presses were known in the Asiatic Near East but have left no remains in the archaeolog-ical or art historical evidence. Likewise, although it cannot be confirmed archae-ologically, the Egyptians may have been familiar with lever-and-weight presses, but perhaps due to native conservatism in their tomb paintings chose to repre-sent only the simpler, and probably earlier, bag presses.

Fire FIRE TECHNOLOGE Advancements in food technology also derived from the appearance of new tools and from improvements in the efficiency of previously developed technologies. This was particularly true in the case of fire. M a n no longer had to rely upon the chance lightning strike to produce a ready-made fire when he learned to create a spark by striking two pieces of flint together. T h e invention of the fire stick fur ther increased the ready availability of fire, especial-ly in places lacking fire-making stones. Where and when the fire stick first devel-oped is impossible to know, but it was in use by the Egyptians in the Old King-dom. Fire, whether m a n m a d e or natural, as before continued to be used for direct heat in roasting meat in pits or on a spit or in cooking flat bread or other foods on hot cinders. Likewise, cooking through indirect heat, by heating rocks to create a griddle or by boiling water in a pot into which food was placed also continued in use. 111 the early historical periods, however, enclosed structures, or kilns, heated by fires made hotter through the use of drafts produced tempera-tures sufficiently high to fire pots and to extend the range of metallurgy. 111 between the low temperatures of campfires and the high ones of kilns, man also constructed ovens designed to cook his foods in new and wonderful ways. Tan -nur ovens, in use at least by the fourth millennium B. C. and still employed today in the Middle East, allowed for a quick and convenient way to prepare flat breads and other foods, f l ic hot fire prepared at the bot tom of the clay oven heated the sides while sending heat up through an opening in its top. Wet dough stuck to the inside walls would quickly bake into bread, or soups and other foods easily cooked in pots placed over the hole in the top. By the third millennium B. C., mud brick domed ovens provided enclosed chambers that, when heated by burning leaves and wood and the ashes removed, created a radiant heat produc-ing a moist environment in which dough, to which yeast had been added, placed into clay bread molds, produced leavened bread.

Brewing FERMENTATiox. Some technologies had their uses expanded beyond their first application. Fermentation was used to produce wine from grape juice as early as the sixth millennium B. C., and became widely known, probably first in the ancient Near East and later in Egypt. Linked to the expansion of fire technology


was the extension of fermentation to include the brewing of beer, first recog-nized in late fourth-millennium B. C. Godin Tepe in the Zagros Mountains of western Iran. W h o first made beer is unknown, but considering the ease with which grain ferments in water the technology may have arisen in several places contemporaneously. Cuneiform evidence, literary and economic, contains much information on the popularity of beer in the ancient Near East, but provides lit-tie beyond a technical vocabulary in helping us understand beer making tech-nology. Even then, the precise meaning of many terms remains doubtful. Beer making in Mesopotamia was similar to that in Egypt, where, as with wine mak-ing, the best evidence derives from art historical materials.

Although some doubts remain about the details of Egyptian beer making, it seems that the process most often began with the malting of barley, which was then made into bread. Malting, the soaking of hulled barley grains in water to initiate germination followed by drying, had probably been in use long before beer was invented to produce a sweet-tasting product capable of long-term stor-age and useful in making porridges and bread.4 Indeed, the question of which came first, bread or beer, remains controversial even today. T h e liquid pro-duced from soaking the barley-bread in hot water (wort), strained into a special vessel (tun), and augmented with yeast, underwent fermentation to produce alcohol. T h e Egyptians were apparently familiar with the action of wild yeasts, which occur naturally and which play the primary role in producing sourdough to make leavened bread. The massive number of extant bread mold fragments gives some idea of the scale of bread production in New Kingdom Egypt. By the Nineteenth Dynasty, Egyptians were using an almost pure form of yeast for beer production. The importance of yeast for fermentation in both bread and beer making helps to explain the standard pairing of baking and brewing establish-ments in Egypt. Comparison with a third century A. D. Egyptian recipe for beer and with production methods of modern Egyptian bouza provides some under-standing of the ancient process, but it does not answer all questions. So, for example, how long was barley allowed to sprout during the malting stage? For how long and at what temperatures did fermentation take place?

T h e care taken by Egyptian and Mesopotamian bureaucrats to insure a close Bureaucracy and

correlation between the amount of grain used and the quantity of bread and food technology

beer produced strongly implies the desire, even the necessity, to produce a con-sistent type of beer. Waste had to be avoided. Careful control of ingredients must have required standard processes to reproduce results measurable in quan-tity and quality. Use of additives in fermented drinks was not new, since the ear-

1 O p p e n h e i m , On Beer and Brewing Technology, 13 .גן.


liest known wine had added to it terebinth resin, probably to inhibit the wine from turning to vinegar and to create (or hide) a particular taste or odor. Beer makers regularly added sweet materials, such as dates or date juice, to hasten and intensify the conversion of sugars into alcohol. They also understood the need for yeast to strengthen the fermentation process. The question remains, however, to what extent their knowledge of these processes came from trial and error, and how much of it implies a real understanding of the chemical mecha-nisms involved. How the detailed knowledge of processing foods was passed from one person to another is also unknown. No technical treatises and few recipes for making bread, beer, or wine, are known today. Perhaps to ensure continuation of the knowledge from one generation to the next the technical details were imparted by word of mouth through an apprenticeship system. In any case, the knowledge did spread from one area to another and from one gen-eration to another.

Milling M11.1J.XG׳. Milling probably showed the least progress during this period. T h e development of the saddle quern certainly allowed for some increased efficiency in grinding cereals, though its most important impact probably came from the ergonomie advantages discussed above. Pounding with mortar and pestle showed little or no change, except possibly in certain places, such as Jericho, where size varied between large mortars and smaller ones that allowed for a cer-tain degree of portability. Pestles could be made of stone, wood, or clay. Although the reasons arc at present unknown, pounding may have played a smaller role in processing cereals in southern Mesopotamia than elsewhere. Lit-erary references to mortars and pestles are few and archeological evidence for them is also scant. T h e scarcity of wood and stone, particularly in Sumeria, may have rendered mortars made of those materials too expensive, so that other, perishable materials, such as clay, became normal. O n e suggestion envisions the abandonment of mortars altogether in favor of a completely different process, with modern Iranian parallels, whereby cereals, laid out on a mat, are beaten with wooden pestles to dehusk the grains.5 Parching, heating of the cereal grains to render them brittle and so easier to work in a mortar or on a grindstone, is not attested in Egypt. Lexical evidence from Mesopotamia, if correctly interpret-ed, however, indicates that at least barley could be parched before grinding.

Large-scale milling in millhouses, such as attested in cuneiform records for Sagdana, is associated with centralized control over food processing by state or temple. These millhouses probably functioned in a manner similar to the work-rooms established in palaces, such as at Ebla. Here, at least one room was pro-

5 J . N. Postgate, "Processing of Cereals in the Cune i fo rm Reco rd , " BullSumAgri 1 (1984): 107-08.

281 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS TO PARI־ TWO

vided with a series of quern emplacements sufficient for sixteen grinders to work at one time.

STORAGE״. Although small pits lined with stone or plaster, as in Neolithic times, Storage

continued to characterize many private storage facilities, the increase in size of granaries is the most significant advance in storage technology. T h e shift to large granaries reflected the growing centralization of the control of the food supply for redistribution by the temple, state, or, as at Middle Kingdom Kahun , by powerful individuals. 111 Egypt during the Archaic period, for example at Hel-wan, small terracotta, vessel-shaped storage containers rounded at the top are similar in shape to larger granaries represented in Old Kingdom tomb paint-ings. In the Middle and New Kingdoms tall, rectangular, fiat-roofed or domed granaries can be found, which were apparently filled through the roofs, which had to be reached by ladder, while grain was withdrawn from a door or window near the bottom. If Middle Kingdom granary models can be taken to represent the interior of these granaries, then the inside of granaries was subdivided into bins. Beehive-shaped granaries were usually built in groups of four or more silos arranged in a square or rectangular formation about a central courtyard. Egypt-ian granary shape may have influenced the beehive-shaped granaries so charac-teristic of Bronze and Iron Age Palestine and Mesopotamia. Israel had a uniquely shaped granary, long and rectangular subdivided by columns into three long rooms.

T h e size of granaries is often difficult to determine since most extant remains exist only at foundation level. More substantial, sometimes semi-subterranean, silos, such as at Shuruppak in southern Mesopotamia, reached several feet high, including the sunken part. T h e height of a few can be estimated. For example, a granary at Bir el-cAbd, an Egyptian fort in Palestine of the fourteenth century B. C., was apparently ca. 1.80 meters high. Granary capacity is likewise difficult to ascertain. T h e large granary at Amarna , for instance, had a diameter of 8.0 meters, and so would have held a huge amount of grain. Made of mud or mud brick, granaries provided the grain with a dark, cool environment of low humid-ity, though spoilage from moisture and rodents still took its toll.

Other types of storage facilities can be documented besides granaries. Cuneiform records, for example, refer to ice houses, which apparently main-taincd ice or snow for drinks, but it cannot be confirmed that they served as magazines for temporary storage of perishable food items, such as fresh vegeta-bles and fruits. Large rooms or a series of rooms in palaces also specially served for storage of processed food items, such as olive oil, dried (or salted?) fish, and wine. The Egyptians utilized underground vaulted cellars made of mud brick that maintained a cool, dry environment. Large wine amphorae either sat upright in wine racks or else leaned against the wall or other wine amphorae.


The Egyptians may have been knowledgeable of the problems of storing wine still undergoing fermentation. Some wine amphorae had small holes bored into them, later sealed, to allow the vessel to "breathe," that is, to permit the fermen-tation gases to escape. Amphorae served not only for storage but also for trans-portation of wine and other foodstuffs. T h e at tachment of two handles at the shoulders, an innovation of New Kingdom Egypt probably derived from Pales-tinian storage jars of the Middle Bronze Age, allowed for easier handling and carrying.6

/ Ο Butchery BUTCHERT. Amid an expansion of the diet through the increased practice of

agriculture, meat became just one of many choices of foods to eat. T h e expense of raising cattle for the most part confined beef eating to the upper classes. Oth-ers consumed smaller mammals, including pigs, birds, and especially fish. Butch-ery continued to play an important role in food technology not only preliminary to cooking the meat but also as a precursor to preserving it in some processed form. Tools used to butcher animals are depicted in painting and sculpted relief, and real examples are sometimes discovered in tombs, but few close studies of them have been undertaken. Microwear analysis of some Egyptian tools have shown that certain knives, identified by shape and size, can be associated with butchering specific types of animals, cattle as opposed to fish, for example. T h e blades were made of flint or copper, and some paintings show what appear to be blade sharpeners.

Preservation PRESERVATION. Hieroglyphic and cuneiform sources record the inclusion of meat and fish as part of long distance trade. T h e hot climate would not permit this without some form of preservation. T h e principle method of preserving the meat of cattle, pigs, fowl, and fish was through drying. Egyptian tomb paintings and, particularly, the model f rom the T o m b of Meket-re, give some idea of how beef was preserved. After butchering the animal and cutting the meat into vari-ous shapes, workers hung them in the upper story of the slaughter house where heat and wind would dry them out. Cuneiform documents also mention slaugh-ter houses, such as at Lagash, and processed meat has been found in the royal tomb at Ur. Egyptian tomb paintings also frequently depict a person preparing fish and birds for preservation. He first gutted the fish and then split it along its backbone, splayed it, and laid it aside to dry. Birds were plucked, gutted, and head and feet removed. In scenes of fish and bird preparation, in the back-ground hanging up to dry on racks or suspended by string appear already processed meat.

In their tomb paintings Egyptians sometimes show processed birds being

(i Ikram, Choice Cuts, pp . 188-91; W o o d , "Egypt ian A m p h o r a e , " pp. 78 79. Lutz (Viticulture and Brewing, p. 126) notes that E-k\š+.\1׳mi denoted a "brewery ," or "beer-cellar ,"


placed in amphora for storage or transport. O n e amphora found in the T o m b of Kha contained birds which may have been preserved in salt. If scientifically con-firmed, this would be the earliest physical evidence for salting. Although evi-dcnce for it is so far lacking, in light of the possible use of salting to process birds, it seems likely that they salted fish as well. O n e scholar identifies the long narrow strips of beef depicted in Egyptian tomb paintings and models as biltong, a dried, salted, and spiced product made today. Cuneiform documents, particu-larly lexica, list terms interpreted as meaning salted or even smoked fish, but no physical evidence substantiates the fact. Excavated fish-houses in Sumeria, such as at Girsu, have yielded skeletal remains of preserved fish stacked in piles, but it is unknown if the process used was anything other than drying. It seems, then, that salting (and less likely, smoking, because of the scarcity of wood and its val-ue for other uses) as a method of preserving food may have been introduced during the early historical period, but further scientific investigation of the phys-ical evidence is needed to confirm it.

REFRJGER/1 TION. Several other areas of food technology, identified in Egypt or Refrigeration

the ancient Near East, merit notice. T h e existence of some seem certain, while others, although they may appear likely, based on the evidence presently at hand must remain conjectural. First among conjectured principles is réfrigéra-tion. Cuneiform documents indicate that Mesopotamians and Hittites built ice-houses to store ice transported from mountainous areas. Although Zimri-lim (11. ca. 1 780 B. C.), ruler of Mari , claims in a boastful inscription that he was the first to build such a structure, at T e r q a on the Euphrates River, earlier letters between different rulers discussing: ice resources belie his claim. T h e icehouses apparently contained ice formed elsewhere. Evidence is lacking to show either that ice was made in the icehouse or that it served to refrigerate any food items. T o what purpose the ice was put remains unknown, but to judge f rom the close correlation of ice with wine in the Mari records, cooling drinks is a strong possi-bility.7

A second question is whether Egyptians and Mesopotamians understood the principle of evaporation for refrigeration. This seems to be what is going on in Egyptian paintings that show a servant fanning wine vessels in storage. Evapora-tion is the process by which moisture changes from a liquid state into a vapor state. For this to occur, heat is necessary. T h e evaporating liquid obtains the necessary heat through heat transfer from the amphora and its contents. Fan-

7 Dalley, Man and Karana, pp . 9 1 - 9 3 ; Hof ïne r , Alimenta Hethaeorum, p. 113; David L. Fiske, "Ref r ige ra t ion is N o t N e w , " Refrigerating Engineering 24, no. 4 (Oct . 1932): 201. N e u b u r g e r (Techni-cal Arts and Sciences, p. 122) in te rpre ts Proverbs 25 .13 as indica t ing tha t J e w s cooled their dr inks wi th snow.


ning hastens evaporation of any moisture on the vessels' exterior and serves to reduce the temperature of the wine, making it cooler. The question not answered by the painting is the source of the moisture on the vessels. Perhaps they poured water over them and then got out the fans. Conceivably, since wine containers were not lined on the inside, the porous walls may have permitted some degree of seepage of wine onto the exterior surface. The last possibility is that the air in the storage rooms was hotter than the wine and its vessel so that water from the atmosphere condensed onto the vessels' surface. If this last sug-gestion is accurate, does that mean that the Egyptians knew the principle of con-densation as well as evaporation?

Distillation D1ST11JAT10K. The suggestion that ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians knew and understood distillation continues to arise from time to time. So, for exam-pie, Alexander Joffe , in his 1998 article on alcohol, refers to "ceramic evidence for the distillation of liquids during the Uruk period," and references Martin Levey's 1959 study of chemical technology in ancient Mesopotamia.8 Levey dis-cusses a double-rimmed vessel, dating to ca. 3500 B. C. and found in Tepe Gawra, used, according to his interpretation, in the manufacture of perfume. He argues that the ancient perfume maker rested the pot on top of a hearth base, an example of which has also come from Tepe Gawra, in which was kindled a fire. He then placed water in the vessel and the raw material for the perfume in the trough formed between the two rims. Vapor from the boiling water condensed on the cooler rim, washed over the raw material in the trough, and rinsed out the perfume, which was wiped up with a cloth and expressed later. In support of this interpretation, Levey cites an Akkadian text of ca. 1200 B. C. that purports to describe a similar process for making perfume. He goes on to cite Alexander of Aphrodisias (fl. ca. A. D. 200), who describes boiling salt water to obtain fresh water by soaking up the condensed liquid with sponges, and methods practiced by Muslims of the early Medieval period. Levey cites no ancient evidence for the distillation of fermented liquids, neither archaeological, literary, nor art histori-cal.

Though it remains possible that some primitive method of distillation was known by the Mesopotamians, perhaps along the line of Levey's suggestion for the double-r immed pot, the earliest evidence for the knowledge of the principle comes probably no earlier than the writings of Aristotle (Meteorologiea 2.3). In dis-cussing the results of evaporation of seawater, he says that it gives fresh water upon condensation. He goes on to say that evaporated wine yields fresh water also when condensed. This latter statement is inaccurate, though Aristotle

11 Jofic, "Alcohol and Social Complexi ty ," p. 303; Levey, Chemist1y and Chemical Technology, pp . 31 -41 .


claims to have performed the experiment. He adds, however, that the taste depends upon what has been mixed with the water. It seems likely, therefore, that, although he did understand evaporation and condensation of fermented beverages, he did not see it as anything but water with a specific taste. Whether one can conclude from this that Aristotle or anyone else knew distilled spirits as a drink distinct from wine is debatable. T h e most one can say is that although the ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians may have known the principles of distillation in some rudimentary way, and the Greeks certainly did by the fourth century B. C., knowledge and enjoyment of distilled liquors had to wait until the Middle Ages.9

Knowledge of evaporation, condensation, and distillation may not have led the Greeks and Romans to distilled alcohol. Nevertheless, they did make clear and significant contributions to the development of food technology. What were their contributions occupies the next part of our discussion.

0 Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials, p. 24; Forbes, Studies, 3: 9; Darby et al, Food: the Gift of Osiris, p. 613; el-Guebaly a n d el-Guebaly, "Alcohol Abuse in Ancient Egypt ," p. 1209; Ghal ioungui , "Fe rmen ted Beverages in Antiqui ty ," p. 4. T h e earliest alcohol distillation f rom wine did not occur in the West before the mid-twelfth century A. D. , bu t may have been known in C h i n a m u c h earlier. See Lu Gwei-Djen , J o s e p h N e e d h a m , a n d Doro thy N e e d h a m , " T h e C o m i n g of Arden t Wate r , " Ambix 19, pt. 2 J u l y 1972): 6 9 1 1 ־ 2 .

P A R T T H R E E

M E D I T E R R A N E A N C I V I I J Z A T I O N S

CHAPTER SIX

T H E G R E E K W O R L D : B R O N Z E A G E T H R O U G H T H E H E L L E N I S T I C P E R I O D

A. Bronze Age

T h e Medi te r ranean area enjoys a generally consistent climate and vegetation, which, broadly speaking, apparent ly has changed little since antiquity. T h e win-ters, stretching between October and April, are generally wet and mild; the summer months, May through September , are hot and dry. Unlike in Egypt and Mesopotamia , where rivers seasonally provided (or not) ample water for irriga-tion agriculture, farmers throughout the Medi te r ranean region, like those in Mediterranean triad

Anatolia, Nor thern Assyria, Syria, and Palestine, predominant ly engaged in dry-fa rming and depended upon adequate supplies of rain for crops sown dur ing the au tumn and winter months. Cereals, legumes, and many fruits, vegetables, and nuts grow in abundance wherever fertile soil and moisture permit , while the lack of s u m m e r rains restricts the growth of most orchard crops. T h e notable excep-tions are the olive, fig, and grapevine, which need relatively little water to thrive. Indeed, the Medi te r ranean triad, that is the cereals, both wheat and barley, the grapevine, and the olive tree — though some would include the legumes as well

m a d e up the most important cash crops in the Bronze Age Aegean.1 T h e appearance of Bronze Age palace institutions on Crete and in southern Greece, according to some scholars, arose f rom the systematic exploitation of these and other crops predominant ly restricted to part icular regions. T h e palaces of the Minoans , and later the Mycenaeans who cont inued their bureaucrat ic system, served as redistributive centers for goods collected f rom surrounding rural areas and mainta ined in central storehouses. O t h e r scholars argue that there is insuffi-

1 Gary, Geographic Background, pp . 1 36; Sarah B. Pomeroy , Stanley M. Burstein, Wal te r D o n -lan, and Jenn i f e r Tolber t Rober ts , Ancient Greece. A Political, Social, and Cultural History (Oxford: O x f o r d University Press, 1999), pp. 1 4; Signe Isager and J e n s Erik Skydsgaard, Ancient Greek Agri-culture. An Introduction (London: Routledge, 1992), pp. 9 - 1 8 ; Anaya Sarpaki , " T h e Palaeoethnob-otanical Approach . T h e Med i t e r r anean T r i a d or Is It a Q u a r t e t , " in Agriculture in Ancient Greece. Proceedings of the Seventh Internat ional Symposium at the Swedish Institute at Athens, 1 6 1 ־ 7May , 1990. Berit Wells, ed. (Stockholm: Paul Aströms, 1992), pp. 6 1 - 7 6 ; A n d r e w Sherra t t , "Cash-crops Before Cash: Organ ic Consumables and T r a d e , " in The Prehistory of Food. Appetites for Change. Chr is Gosden and J o n H a t h e r , eds. (London: Routledge, 1999), pp. 13-34.

CHAPTER THREE 2 6 0

cient archaeological evidence for intensive exploitation of vines and olives before the Middle Bronze Age, and probably later. They contend that the rise of palace cultures rests upon other foundations, such as control of production.2

T h e records of the Minoan and Mycenaean bureaucracies, as recorded in the Linear A and Β scripts, respectively, are important sources for the palace econo-my, but they provide little information on rural economic activities. Likewise, they provide not a full record of the operations of the state bureaucracy, but shorthand notations on details of direct interest to the palace during a single year. T h e tablets record primarily receipt and disbursement of goods and inven-tories, and list most commonly such food items as cereals (both wheat and bar-ley), olives, honey, oil, figs, and livestock. Data gleaned from them, however, indicate that the state exercised little direct control over production of staple crops, such as grain and grapes, or products made from them, merely content-ing itself with receiving them from agricultural areas and redistributing them to dependents in the form of ration payments. It took a direct interest, however, in certain agricultural products and in their industrial processes, such as, for exam-pie, flax for textiles and oil for perfumes.3

1. Cereals

Grain needed storage facilities while awaiting distribution or processing into var-ious food products. Storage might take various forms, such as a large building that set aside a special storeroom for grain in loose form, a small building given entirely over to the same purpose, small clay or stone-lined shallow pits (both-roi), clay bins, and large terra-cotta vessels (pithoi) placed in select rooms or courtyards of palaces, such as Knossos, Phaistos, and Mycenae.4 Most of these

2 Colin Renf rew, The Emergence of Civilisation. The Cyclades and the Aegean in the Third Millennium B. C. (London: M e t h u e n & Co. , Ltd. , 1972), pp . 4 7 6 - 5 0 4 ; Harr ie t Blitzer, "Olive Cult ivation and Oil Product ion in M i n o a n Cre te , " in IM production du vin et de l'huile, pp . 163-75; Jul ie M . Hansen , "Agricul ture in the Prehistoric Aegean: Da ta Versus Specula t ion," AJA 92, no. 1 J a n . 1988): 3 9 - 5 2 ; Yannis Hamilakis , "Wine , Oil and the Dialectics of Power in Bronze Age Crete : A Review of the Evidence," OJA 15, η ΰ . 1 (1996): 1 -32 ; Cur t i s N. Runne l s and Ju l ie Hansen , " T h e Olive in the Prehistoric Aegean: the Evidence for Domesticat ion in the Early Bronze Age," OJA 5, no. 3 (1986): 2 9 9 - 3 0 8 .

:i Cyn th ia W. Shelmerdine , " T h e Palatial Bronze Age of the Southern and Cent ra l Greek Ma in l and , " AJA 101, no. 3 (July 1997): 5 6 6 - 7 0 ; Renf rew, Emergence of Civilisation, pp . 296 -97 . For Linear Β tablets, see esp. J o h n Chadwick , Documents in Mycenaean Greek. 21"׳ ed. (Cambridge: C a m -bridge University Press, 1973).

1 A case in point are the five rec tangular subdivisions identified as storage compar tmen t s for grain or pulses found in the villa at Ni rou Khan i . Likewise, the ten or eleven "pens" of late M i n o a n da te found in the nor theast qua r t e r of the palace at Knossos have also been identified as space for grain storage. Identification of this latter example , however , is debatable , as a pig pen

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CHAPTER THREE 2 6 2

would be difficult to recognize as grain storage facilities without some physical evidence that grain had been stored there. Storerooms in the Unexplored Man-sion at Knossos, for example, contained jars of emmer wheat, bread or maca-roni wheat, hulled barley, and some legumes and figs. T h e wheat and barley, stored as free or cleaned grains, were apparently awaiting final processing. Emmer spikelets found in mid-fourteenth-ccntury B. C. storerooms in Assiros T o u m b a , in Macedonia, however, had apparently been incompletely threshed. This practice not only obviated the need to process all the grain at one time, but also gave added protection against pests and fungal attack, and so was probably the preferred method for long-term storage.5

Storage Among the most interesting possibilities for large-scale grain storage facilities are the stone-lined circular pits, or koulouras, discovered in the West Court and Theatral Area of the early palace at Knossos and in a similar location in the palace at Phaistos. Not everyone agrees that these structures stored grain, how-ever. T h o m a s Strasser, for example, argues that these large, underground, and unlined pits were too large, once opened, to protect adequately from moisture any grain contained therein. They must have had another purpose. Paul Hal-stead, on the contrary, counters that they could have served to store grain, if sealed. T h e seals, if made of clay or some other perishable material, may not have survived. Additionally, he adds that the stone lining was sufficient to pro-tect the grain in the essentially dry climate of Crete, particularly when, as at Knossos, the pits were located in elevated locations. Finally, he notes that the size of the pits would be no hindrance to grain storage if the purpose was to store seed for the coming year or to maintain a long-term reserve.6 While the virtues of belowground grain storage in Crete may be open to interpretation, both Strasser and Halstead agree that the aboveground facilities at Mallia and elsewhere served the purpose effectively.

has also been conjec tured . See Sinclair H o o d , "Pigs or Pulse? T h e Pens at Knossos, ' ' AJA 89, no. 2 (April 1985): 3 0 8 - 1 3 ; J o s e p h W . Shaw, " T h e 'Pens ' at Knossos Again ," AJA 89, nŪ. 2 (April 1985): 313-14 ; K e n n e t h G. Byrd, "A C o n t e m p o r a r y Perspective on the 'Pens ' at Knossos," AJA 89, no. 2 (April 1985): 3 1 4 - 1 6 .

r> Renf rew, Emergence of Civilisation, pp . 288 96; Glynis Jones, "Agricultural Practice in Greek Prehistory," ABSA 82 (1987): 115 23; Glynis Jones , K e n n e t h Ward le , Paul Hals tead, and Diane YVardle, " C r o p Storage at Assiros," Scientific American 254, no. 3 (1986): 9 6 - 1 0 3 .

(i T h e koulouras at Knossos range in size f rom 5.1 m. to 6.7 m. in d iameter ; the depth of three pits a re known to measure ca. 3.0 m. T h e average capacity, assuming a 3.0 m. dep th for all, is ca. 112.71 m3. T h e five koulouras at Phaistos are smaller that those at Knossos and have an average capaci ty of 55.11 m 3 . T h o m a s F. Strasser, "Storage and States on Prehistoric Crete : the Funct ion of the Koulouras in the First M i n o a n Palaces," J MA 10, no. 1 (June 1997): 73-100 ; Paul Hal-stead, "Storage Strategies and States on Prehistoric Crete : a Reply to Strasscr (JMA 10 [1997] 73-100) ," J M 4 10, no. I J u n e 1997): 103-07.

26 1 THE GREEK WORLD: BRONZE AGE - HELLENISTIC PERIOD

T h e aboveground granary complex at the Middle-Minoan palace at Mallia Koulouras

possessed eight circular structures arranged in two rows of four granaries each and the whole surrounded on three sides by a wall. These circular, plaster-lined structures were smaller than the underground koulouras at Knossos and Phais-tos, varying in diameter between 3.7 m. and 4.0 m. T h e height of these struc-tures is unknown, but at least five possessed a central pillar that probably sup-ported a roof of some type. Strasser suggests a flat roof. If correct, the Mallia granary complex would constitute a granary type distinct from the usual domed, or beehive, granary common to Egypt, such as are represented in tomb paint-ings from Thebes, Beni Hasan, and Tell el-Amarna, as well as that found at the Palestinian site of Beth Yerah. T h e granary complex at Mallia, however, may be an exception to Bronze Age Aegean granaries that appear to reflect Egyptian and Near Eastern influence.7

Early examples of round, dome-shaped buildings, which may have served as Λ 4el0s vase

granaries, include the mainland "Rundbau ten" of Orchomenos and Tiryns, both dating to the Early Helladic II period.8 T h e round structures at Orchomenos may have served as granaries, but their numbers suggest to Ren-frew that they most likely were dwellings. T h e one at Tiryns may have also had a storage purpose, because it possessed plastered interior walls and was subdivid-ed into separate compartments. But even this suggestion has its detractors.9 T h e best example, and the one most closely parallel to eastern granaries, however, is an Early Cylcadic vessel from Phylakopi. M a d e of steatite, the Melos vase, as it is usually called, is a model of a granary complex composed of seven circular bins arranged on three sides of an open court and surrounded by a wall possess-ing an entrance and gateway. The granary compartments are open and so the exact shape of the roof is unknown. A dome-shaped roof seems probable, because in nearly all particulars the model closely resembles the granary com-plex at Beth Yerah in Palestine and the Egyptian granary complexes seen in tomb paintings and represented by models from, among others, the First and Second-Dynasty Royal tombs at Helwan and the Fifth-Dynasty model from Giza (PI. 4). In all save the appearance of a central pillar and possible flat roof, the Melos vase also reflects the structural design of the granaries at Mallia.10

7 Strasser, "Storage and States," pp. 7879־ ; Renf rew, Emergence of Civilisation, pp. 292 93. 8 T h e so-called hypogeum from E M III Knossos is excluded f rom this discussion because it is

entirely underg round and its use as a storage area , much less as a g ranary , is quest ionable. See Renf rew, Emergence of Civilisation, p. 288; Strasser, "Storage and States," pp. 7678־ .

!) Strasser, "Storage and States,5' pp. 8 3 - 8 4 ; Renf rew, Emergence of Civilisation, pp . 108 10, 288; M a r t h a Hea th Wiencke, " C h a n g e in Early Helladic II," AJA 93, no. 4 (Oct. 1989): 505; Sp. M a r -inatos, "Grenie rs de l 'Hel ladique anc ien ," BCH 70 (1946): 338 51.

10 F ranz O e l m a n n , "Das Kornspe ichermodel l von Melos," MDAI(A) 50 (1925): 1927־; Mar i -

CHAPTER SIX ׳ 2 6 4

Ground-stone Evidence for processing cercals in the Aegean is confined primarily to numer-processing tools ous finds of Neolithic and Bronze Age saddle querns and handstones and to a few

samples of stored grain, such as barley and wheat, for example at Troy, in the Thracian Chersonese, on Cos, Cyprus, and on Crete at Myrtos and Magasà, on the Cycladic island of Syros, and on the mainland at Mycenae, in various sites in the Argolid, such as Tiryns and Asine, and at Tsangli and Tsani in Thessaly. An intensive study of ground stone tools in the southern Argolid indicates that Bronze Age saddle querns were generally larger than their Neolithic predecessors and resemble closely those found at Lerna, Tiryns, and Asine to the north. T h e reasons for this arc unknown. Saddle querns, usually round, ovate, rectangular, or square in shape, were often made of a hard lava, such as andesite, with a pit-ted and abrasive surface, imported in raw or finished form from Aegina in the Saronic Gulf. Handstones, made usually of andesite or greenstone, came in a

ο / ׳·

variety of shapes, such as spherical, conical, ovate, and irregular, much as they did in the Neolithic Period. Small in size, averaging 0.10 m. in length, 0.09 m. in width, and 0.04 m. in thickness, they display little change over time. A study of ground stone materials from Mycenae dating between the Middle Helladic and Late Helladic III noted a slight change in shape of handstones to a longer and narrower form. T h e tripod mortars, often spouted, appearing at Late Bronze Age Mycenae and Tiryns, were probably intrusions from the Near East where they have been found at Jer icho (PL 3) and Ebla." 3

natos, "Gren i e r s de l 'He l lad ique anc ien , Strasser, "S ;כן. 342 " to rage a n d States ," pp . 8 3 9 0 ־ , esp. p. 86; R e n f r e w , Emergence of Civilisation, PI. 15, 1; C u r r i d , "Beehive Buildings," p. 23. O n Egypt ian granar ies , see C h a p t e r T h r e e , pp . 100-04 . S o m e Egypt ian g ranar ies of the Midd le K i n g d o m a p p e a r to have been r ec t angu la r s t ructures with flat roofs. O n the g r a n a r y at Beth Ye rah , see C h a p t e r Five, pp . 197 98. For a similarly recons t ruc ted g r a n a r y at O l d S m y r n a , see below, p. 278.

11 Most examples of que rns f rom the sou thern Argol id are f r agmen ta ry , so comple te measure-men t s a re difficult to obta in . T h e average width is ca. 0 .16 m ; those f rom elsewhere average be tween 0 .18 m. a n d 0 .20 m. C o m p l e t e examples f r o m Late Helladic Ermion i M a g o u l a averaged 0 .25 m. in length, 0.21 m. in width , a n d 0 .08 m. in thickness. Curt is Runnels , " T h e Millstones,'" 111 Well Built Mycenae. The 1lelleno-British Excavations within the Citadel at Mycenae, 1959-1969. W . 1). T a y -lour , Ε. B. F rench , a n d K. A. Ward l e , eds. Fasc. 27: Ground Stone (Oxford : O x b o w Books, 1992), pp. 35 41; P. Nick Kardul ias a n d Cur t i s Runne l s , " T h e Lithic Artifacts: Flaked Stone a n d O t h e r Non-flaked Lithics," in Artifact and Assemblage. The Finds fioni a Regional Survey of the Southern Argolid, Greece. Vol. 1: The Prehistoric and Early Iron Age Pottery and the Lithic Artifacts. Cur t i s Runnels , Daniel J . Pullen, a n d Susan L a n g d o n , eds. (Stanford: S t an fo rd Universi ty Press, 1995), pp . 112-21; Cur t i s Runnels , "A Diachron ie S tudy a n d Economic Analysis of Millstones f r o m the Argolid, Greece . " Ph .D . diss. I n d i a n a Universi ty, 1981, pp. 101 16. Runne l s (ibid., p. 110) speculates that the increase in size of millstones du r ing the Bronze Age over w h a t h a d been typical of the Neolithic per iod m a y indicate tha t g r ind ing was taking place o n a larger scale o r tha t a new substance (unnamed) was be ing processed. See also L. A. Mori tz , Grain-mills and Flour in Classical Antiquity (Oxford: C l a r e n d o n Press, 1958), p. 20; K. F. Vickery, Food in Early Greece ( U r b a n a , 1936; rpt . Chicago: Ares Publishers, Inc., 1980), pp. 15 44; Kei th Branigan , Pie-palatial. The Foundations of Palatial Crete. A Survey of Crete in the Early Bronze Age. 2״d ed. (Amste rdam: Adolf M . Hakker t , 1988), p. 69.


T h e best source to provide a context to processing apparatus comes from the Cereal processing on

Late Bronze Age West House at Akrotiri on the island of Thera . O n e room on Thera and Crete

the ground floor was apparently devoted to processing in a manner that recalls those at the palace at Ebla, but on a much smaller scale. O n one side was a raised platform on the top of which were embedded two saddle querns. Excava-tions in the house have yielded remains of processed legumes and cereals. This material included fragments of hulled barley that seems to have been pounded in a mortar , and samples of finely ground flour. Among the latter were propor-tionally small amounts made from einkorn wheat and larger volumes coming from legumes and, especially, barley. T w o other rooms on the ground floor served as storage areas, one for long-term storage of grain probably only threshed and then sieved to remove bulk contaminants. T h e second room yield-ed both wheat and barley flour, and so was probably a sort of kitchen where cleaned grain was processed into a form suitable for cooking and baking.12 Simi-larly, one section of the early palace at Phaistos comprised a complex of rooms fitted with benches. T h e bench of one room, in a manner similar to the installa-tion at Akrotiri, contained a cavity, which must at one time have supported the quern found next to it. 111 an adjoining room one bench associated with a drain and potstand and limestone basin built into another bench may indicate prepa-ration of some sort of liquid. T h e stoa of Building J / T at Kommos contained four contiguous three-sided bins each associated with a quern. Apparently, the worker — to judge from entries in Linear Β tablets, most likely a woman — sat or knelt behind the quern that was slanted so that ground flour fell directly onto the floor of the bin. These enclosures were apparently designed to contain flour to be made into bread products or gruels.13

Portable braziers and hearths appear frequently in Minoan houses and Cooking

palaces; fixed or permanent hearths and ovens are less common. Middle Minoan fixed hearths at Knossos and Mallia take the form of a clay or stucco foundation, circular in shape, in the middle of which is a shallow cavity. Phaistos

12 Anaya Sarpaki , "A Palaeoethnobotanica l Study of the West House , Akrotiri, T h e r a , " ABSA 87 (1992): 2 1 9 - 3 0 , esp. Pis. 12 and 13.

13 Several terra-cot ta figurines, da t ing to LH III and found at Mycenae , m a y represent a w o m a n gr inding on a quern . 111 this case, she s tands behind the quern , a position with parallels f rom Pharaonic Egypt and fifth-century B. C . Rhodes and Boeotia. See B. A. Sparkes, " T h e Greek Ki tchen ," J HS 82 (1962): 134. Pylos tablets contain ment ion of a female grain gr inder (me-re-ti-ri-ja) and grain measure r (si-to-ko-wo). Chadwick notes that identification of the cereal gr inder depends upon the correctness of the reading for flour (me-re-u-to), an interpreta t ion Chadwick himself calls into doubt . Sec Chadwick , Documents, pp . 123, 158, 392. Sec also M a r i a C . Shaw, "Late M i n o a n Hear ths and Ovens at K o m m o s , Cre t e , " in I/habitat Egéen préhistorique. Pascal Dar -cque and R e n é Treui l , eds. BGH Suppl . X I X (Paris: D e Boccard , 1990), pp . 242-45 ; Polymnia Metaxa Muhly , " M i n o a n Hear ths , " AJA 88, η θ . 2 (April 1984): 117 (Phaistos), 1 19 (Zakro).

CHAPTER THREE 2 6 6

and Mallia have yielded as well rectangular fixed hearths with a shallow cavity. Most Late Minoan hearths at Kommos are pi-shaped and constructed of fiat stones set on edge against a wall or in a corner. Only fragmentary examples of fixed hearths have appeared on the mainland. Although used as well for light, warmth, and focal points for social and religious gatherings, hearths also served to cook food. Various types of domestic cooking pots have come to light on Crete and on the mainland, such as triangular cooking pots, pans of various sizes and shapes, mixing bowls, jugs, and cups, made of pottery or bronze. Although size, shape, and decoration of cooking vessels varied somewhat over time, the uses of the various cooking utensils changed little. Bronze tripod pots and kettles allowed soups and stews to be cooked over a lire placed in a brazier or hearth, while spits served to roast meat.14

Large permanent cooking installations were once thought to have existed only on the outside of buildings. Discoveries on Crete at Zakro and Kommos imply otherwise. T h e central courtyard of the Late Minoan I palace at Zakro pos-sessed an elaborate kitchen. T h e room contained processing tools, such as a mortar , for preparing food, and a fixed hearth, portable braziers and grills, and various pots for cooking. Animal bones found in the area give a hint at some of the foods prepared here. 111 the North House at Kommos one structure may have been an oven similar to those of the ancient Near East. The thin layer of clay lining the interior of the stone slabs forming the side walls begins to curve upward and inward at the point above the top of the slabs. If it did form a dome, it is no longer extant. Evidence for indoor fixed cooking installations on the mainland is scant. Vickery notes a domed oven found in the Troad inside a house at Thermi , and suggests that structures discovered inside houses in Thes-saly at Dimini and Sesklo were also domed ovens.15

Bread T h e direct evidence for bread in the prehistoric Aegean remains meager. If the Mycenaean word a-to-po-qo, found on Linear Β tablets from Mycenae and Pylos, can be equated with the classical Greek word for baker, αρτοκόπος, then

14 Pi-shaped hearths have also been found at Mallia, Khania , Palaikastro, and Knossos. Shaw, "I .ate Minoan Hearths and Ovens," pp. 231 54; Muhly, "Minoan Hearths," pp. 107 22; Gerda Bruns, Küchenwesen und Mahlzeiten, Archeologica Homerica II, Q_ (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1970), pp. 1 8, 20-21; Vickery, Food in Early Greece, passim, esp. pp. 88~89; Branigan, Pre-palatial, pp. 70-73. For Minoan braziers, see also SchefFer, Cooking and Cooking Stands in Italy, pp. 80-81.

15 Vickery, Food in Early Greece, p. 49; Muhly , " M i n o a n Hear ths , " p. 1 19 (Zakro); Shaw, "Late M i n o a n Hear ths a n d Ovens , " pp . 2 3 8 - 4 5 (Kommos). Shaw (pp. 252-54) says that hear ths and ovens on the Greek main land were not "typically" located indoors, and suggests that the idea for indoor cooking installations was an impor ta t ion f rom the N e a r East, such as the Levant by way of Cyprus and Egypt, a n d cites recent finds at Minet el-Beida, the h a r b o r town of Ugari t , and Marsa M a t r u h , a small island off the coast of Libya. O n the difficulty in identifying Greek kitchens, sec SchefFer, Cooking and Cooking Stands in Italy, pp. 9 2 - 9 5 .

26 1 HELLENISTIC PERIOD THE GREEK WORLD: BRONZE AGE -

two conclusions reasonably follow. First, the Mycenaeans did bake bread; and second, bread making was for some individuals a profession. For the bread mak-ing process itself, we must rely on supposition from the little physical evidence found to date. Hearths and braziers could have been used to make flat breads by heating the dough directly on hot cinders. Alternately, dough might be placed on a stone or earthenware plate, covered in some fashion, and set on the ashes. T h e presence of a domed oven at Kommos perhaps implies the knowledge of yeast and so the ability to make leavened bread. In the same room as the oven in the North House at Kommos, for example, stood a layer of stones next to a three-sided enclosure similar to those in Building J / T . This may have formed a platform for processing foods, such as cereals. Although beer is sometimes listed as a possible drink known to Minoans and Mycenaeans, there is no evidence to support the claim.16

2. Wine and Olive Oil

T h e earliest evidence for the wild grape appears in the Franchthi Cave, in the Grapes in the Aegean

Argolid, dating to ca. 11,000 B. C. Although it is difficult to distinguish the wild grape from its cultivated form, grape cultivation, along with other fruits, may have arisen in eastern Macedonia, near Sitagroi, during the Late Neolithic peri-od, at least by ca. 2800 B. C. The best evidence for it, however, comes from southern Greece, at Lerna, dated to ca. 22002000־־ B. C. The Early Bronze Age finds grapes widespread throughout the Greek Mainland in Thessaly, Attica, and the Peloponnese, in the Cyclades, and on the island of Crete. In what man-ner they were consumed is open to question. Many were probably eaten raw, while others may have been dried into raisins, as was done in the days of Hesiod and Homer . T h e earliest archaeological evidence for wine comes from Early Minoan (ca. 2170 B. C.) sites of Myrtos, on Crete, and Early Helladic (ca. 2100 B. C.) Aghios Kosmas, in Attica. T h e former site yielded a pithos containing crushed grape skins and pips, finds suggestive to some scholars of fermented grape juice or wine. Colin Renfrew connects the appearance in the archaeologi-cal record of small cu}:>s and jugs of various shapes with the development of the new beverage in the Early Bronze Age.17

16 Vickery notes the unique find of a piece of bread at M a r m a r i a n i in Thessaly. Vickery, Food in Early Greece, pp. 4 9 - 5 0 , 189; Bruns, Küchenwesen und Mahlzeiten, pp . 15-16. For the term for baker in the Linear Β tablets, see Chadwick , Documents, pp . 123, 179 81, and Yves Duhoux , "Le boulanger et son pain: l 'étymologie d (χρτοκότιος et d 'άρτος ," AC 43 (1974): 3 2 1 - 2 4 .

1 7 J a n e M. Renfrew, "Palaeoethnobotanica l Finds of Vitis f rom Greece ," in Origins and Ancient History of Wine, pp . 255 -67 ; Ru th Palmer , Wine in the Mycenaean Palace Economy. Aegaeum 10 (Liège: Université de Liège, 1994), esp. p. 17; Renfrew, Emergence of Civilisation, pp. 2 8 1 - 8 5 , 290;

CHAPTER THREE 2 6 8

/ j r f Fig. 18. Cretan hieroglyphic form 1 16, for wine, rotated 180 .

Wine in Minoan T h e wine ideogram appears in early Cretan hieroglyphic and Linear A scripts and Mycenean texts in a form reminiscent of the Egyptian hieroglyph for wine. T h e long-standing

controversy over the connection between Egyptian hieroglyphs and Minoan texts, as well as later Mycenaean Linear Β documents, has largely subsided. The correlation of Cretan wine ideograms, that is, Minoan hieroglyphic sign 116 (Fig. 18) and Linear A and Β forms (*131), with the Egyptian hieroglyph (M43), however, remains debatable. Palmer, for instance, even though she agrees that the Minoans knew the Near Eastern writing systems and patterned their own bookkeeping system on them, concludes that the similarity can be explained as merely the identification by both peoples of the trellised vine with the processed product.1 8 This does not, however, address the question of how the Minoans learned the technical knowledge of viticulture and winemaking. An indigenous development of the winemaking process remains a possibility, though unproven. Otherwise, one can easily imagine that commercial contacts of Minoan mer-chants, cither directly or indirectly, with the products of Egypt and Syria-Pales-tine likewise brought to their attention knowledge of the processes used to pro-duce them, especially where those products derived from food plants already known in Crete. If so, then it also remains possible that the Minoan script may have incorporated similar ways of representing at least this particular product. A precise determination of when this may have occurred is beyond our reach, but it probably happened in connection with the development of the Cretan hiero-glyphic and Linear A scripts to organize and manage the resources of Minoan palaces early in the second millennium B. C.19

Zoha ry , "Domest ica t ion of the Grapev ine , " pp. 28 29 (contra Renfrew); Hamilakis, "Wine , Oil a n d the Dialectics of Power ," p. 10, Fig. 2. ()11 drying grapes, see Hesiod Op. 611 13 and H o m e r Od. 7 .121-25 .

18 Ru th Palmer , "Wine and Viticulture in the Linear Λ and Β Texts of the Bronze Age Aegean ," in Origins and Ancient History of Wine, pp. 269 85; idem, Wine in the Mycenaean Palace Econo-my, esp. pp. 5, 27 43.

19 O n M i n o a n contacts with Egypt and the ancient N e a r East, see below, note 20. O n Egypt-ian influence on M i n o a n scripts and wine, see Phillip V. Stanley, " K N U c 160 and Mycenaean Wines ," AJA 86, no. 4 (Oct. 1982): 5 7 7 - 7 8 ; Roger Brock, "Ancient Greece , " in Oxford Companion


T h e cultivated olive is a late comer to the Aegean, probably arriving from the Olive oil in Bronze

Levant sometime in the fourth millennium B. C. Some evidence for olives have Age Aegean

been found on Crete in Early Minoan (EM) Myrtos and Knossos and in a few Middle Minoan (MM) sites, but the material cannot be classified as wild or domesticated, since the two are difficult to distinguish. Whether the lack of evi-dence derives from the fact that the olive was little used during this time or, as Harr iet Blitzer argues, that excavators have not actively looked for evidence is debated. Blitzer suggests that olive oil processing instruments in the EM (3500-2100 B. C.) and M M (2100-1700 B. C.) periods were made of wood or of nondescript stone and so have not survived or are unrecognizable. Textual evi-dence from Linear A and Β tablets implies a significant importance attached to olive oil, not as a food item but in the form of perfume, an expensive and elite-oriented luxury commodity. Olive oil, probably transported in stirrup jars or pithoi, formed part of Aegean contacts, including trade, with the Levant and the eastern Mediterranean.2 0

T h e difficulties inherent in distinguishing oil from grape processing installa- Distinguishing wine

tions, seen in Syria and Palestine, make it difficult to identify the archaeological from oil processing

evidence for each in the Bronze Age Aegean as well. So, for example, large clay installations

tubs possessing a spout at the base, found in many places on Crete such as Myr-

to Wine, p. 464. T h a t there is no cor responding link to Egypt with olives and olive oil should elicit no surprise, since the Egyptians did not process much olive oil. O n the dat ing of the M i n o a n scripts, see Palmer , "Wine and Viticulture in the Linear Λ and Β Texts , " pp. 269 ־75.

Blitzer, "Olive Cult י,2 ivat ion," p. 169; Hamish A. Forbes and Lin Foxhall, " ' T h e Q u e e n of All Trees . ' Prel iminary Notes on the Archaeology of the Olive," Expedition 21, no. 1 (Fall 1978): 46, and Fig. 17; Lin Foxhall, "Bronze to Iron: Agricultural Systems and Political Structures in Late Bronze Age a n d Early I ron Age Greece , " A BS A 90 (1995): 241 42; F.R. Riley, The Role of the Tra-ditional Mediterranean Diet in the Development of Minoan Crete. Archaeological, .Nutritional and Biochemical Evidence. BAR Internat ional Series 810 (Oxford: BAR, 1999), pp. 36-55. Oil was also apparent ly used in lamps on mid- third mil lennium B. C . Naxos. See Vickery, Food in Early Greece, pp . 26, 51 52; Renf rew, Emergence of Civilisation, p. 285; Rober t Sallares, '!lie Ecology of the Ancient Greek World (Ithaca: Cornel l University Press, 1991), p. 306. O n Bronze Age contacts between the Aegean and elsewhere, esp. Egypt and the Levant , see Helene J . Kan to r , " T h e Aegean and the Or ien t in the Second Mil lennium B. C . , " AJA 51 (1947): Γ 103; R. S. Merril lees, "Aegean Bronze Age Relat ions with Egypt ," AJA 76 (1972): 281 94; William A. W a r d , Egypt and the East Mediterranean World, 2000-1900 B. C. (Beirut: Amer ican University of Beirut, 1971), pp. 71 125; Branigan, Pre-palatial, pp . 179 95, 245-47 ; A. Bernard K n a p p , "Spice, Drugs, Gra in and Grog: O r g a n i c Goods in Bronze Age East Med i t e r r anean T r a d e , " in Bronze Age Trade in the Mediterranean. Ν. H. Gale , ed. Studies in Med i t e r r anean Archaeology, Vol. 90 (Jonsered: Paul Aströms, 1991), pp. 21 -68 . O n the oil t rade specifically, see Sh lomo Bunimovitz , " M i n o a n - M y c e n a e a n Olive Oil Product ion a n d T r a d e . A Review of C u r r e n t Resea rch , " in Olive Oil in Antiquity, pp . 49 53; Hal-ford W. Haskell, " T h e Origin of the Aegean St i r rup Jar and its Earliest Evolution and Distribu-tion (MB III-LB I)," AJA 89, 11ΰ. 2 (April 1985): 221 -29 ; Cyn th ia W. Shelmerdine , Vie Perfume Industry of Mycenaean Pylos (Göteborg: Paul Aströms, 1985), esp. pp. 130 53; Renfrew, Emergence of Civilisation, pp . 290 91.

CHAPTER THREE 2 7 0

tos, may have served as oil separators, although their employment in winemak-ing and in washing vegetables or wool has also been suggested.21 A recent study has classified forty-one Minoan wine (or oil) installations into three types.22 Each facility had two parts, the upper structure, or λήνος, constituted the basin where the fruit was trod or pressed; the lower part, or receptacle, called the υπολήνιον, collected the liquid expressed by hand or feet. The most common type, Type I, comprising thirty-two examples, was of terra-cotta construction and took the form of a truncated cone with a trough-spout at the bottom that protruded over the collecting vessel.23 T h e receptacle was usually in the form of a terra-cotta pithos, ja r , or basin, usually fixed into the ground. Installations of this type, reported on Crete at Phourni, Knossos, Vathypetro, Mallia, Gournia, Myrtos, Palaikastro, Kato Zakros, and Epano Zakros, date f rom the prepalatial period of the third millennium B. C. through the Middle Minoan period. Finds of vats at Phourni stained with must (if correctly identified) and of carbonized grape seeds and raisins at Myrtos and Knossos imply that Type I installations processed grapes. O n the other hand, carbonized olive pits discovered in the vicinity of this type installation at Phourni, Myrtos, Knossos, and Kommos indicate that they could process olives as well.24

T h e other two types are extant in only a few specimens. Type II installations, of which only three examples have been identified, comprise a rectangular floor

21 Blitzer, "Ol ive Cult ivation, ' pp י . 166 69; Hamilakis, "Wine , Oil and the Dialectics of Pow-er ," p. 18. Forbes and Foxhall ("Qtieen of All Trees, '" p. 46) note the find of similar tubs in Late Bronze Age G o u r n i a a n d Hellenistic Praesos. See esp. Hamilakis , who lists find spots of olive remains ("Wine, Oil and the Dialectics of Power ," T a b l e 1, pp. 8 10) a n d of Bronze Age olive or grape presses or oil separators (ibid., T a b l e 3, pp. 1 5 1 ־ 7 ) on Crete .

22 Ka te r ina K o p a k a and Lefteris Platon, " λ η ν ο γ μ ι ν ω ι κ ο ι ' . Installations Minoennes de trait-men t des produi ts liquides, BCH 117(1993): 3 י, 5 1 0 ־ 1 . Pa lmer ( Wine in the Mycenaean Palace Econo-my, pp. 18 23־) had earlier recognized the three types of installation.

23 Size of spouted vats varied though the d iamete r usually exceeded the height. Most ranged in height f rom 0.24 m. to 0.29 m. and f rom 0.54 m. to 68 m. in width. See Palmer , Wine in the Myce-naean Palace Economy, p. 18. Twelve minia ture models of the same type have come to light at Akrotiri on T h e r a and f rom tombs at Apessokari and Porti on the Messara plain on Crete . See Kopaka and Platon, " λ η ν ο γ μ ι ν ω ι κ ο ι ," pp. 6 4 - 6 5 .

24 K o p a k a and Platon, " λ η ν ο ι ' μ ι ν ω ι κ ο ι ." pp . 7 5 8 T .־77, 81 2 h e y also indicate that T y p e I installations m a y have processed murex for dye. A Middle M i n o a n seal f rom Chrysolakkos shows a m a n s tanding in a T y p e I tub, apparent ly in the act of t reading grapes. N e a r b y stands a pithos. See ibid., pp. 8 6 - 8 7 , and Figs. 30. Hamilakis ("Wine, Oil a n d the Dialectics of Power ," pp. 14—19, esp. T a b l e 3) argues that these type vats were wine installations, if they were associated with collecting vessels, a rgu ing that receptacles were unnecessary for oil separat ion where there was no need to collect the water d ra ined f rom the tub. See also Palmer , Wine in the Mycenaean Palace Economy, pp. 18-20. R e n f r e w (Emergence of Civilisation, Plate 15, 2) concludes that the installa-tion at Va thype t ro served to process olives, since be ing raised on a pedestal, it "would not be con-venient for t reading grapes ." H e does allow for the possibility that both grapes and olives were processed here.


constructed above a fixed tcrra-cotta receptacle. The use to which Type II was put remains unknown, but its utilization for a liquid of some sort seems clear. Type III, with only six examples reported, is a shallow stone basin with narrow spout, forming a pear-shaped base, erected on a platform overlooking a receiv-ing vessel. This fixture may have processed both oil and wine, although the usu-ally shallow basin of this type is perhaps best suited to process olives. At Late Minoan Kommos, for example, two large installations probably operated to extract oil f rom olives. These emplacements take the form of a raised platform of stones supporting a circular spouted press-bed made of limestone. Exactly how the olives were crushed in the shallow basins is unknown. The flat rims could have supported a basket, and stone weights found nearby may have served to weigh down a wooden beam, in an arrangement similar to lever-and-weight presses used in Syria and Palestine. T h e oil would have flowed through the narrow spout and emptied into a collecting basin placed underneath.2 5

Establishing a chronological range for these processing installations is difficult. Chronology of Cretan

Type I, the most numerous, may have been developed as early as the prepalatial oil processing

period of the third millennium B. C., and flourished through the Middle installations

Minoan into the Late Minoan period. T h e other two types were not as wide-spread and appear later than Type I, with Type II found contemporaneous with Type I at a few places, such as at Epano Zakros and Kato Zakros. Type III, not found in connection with Types I and II, is a late innovation.26 Blitzer compares these installations, and others in Crete, with the contemporary stone press-bed found at Maroni on Cyprus, dated to ca. 1300 B. C., and sees them as indicative of an expansion of olive oil production by a centralized Mycenaean authority as part of a growing eastern Mediterranean trade. O the r scholars, however, note that although similar press-beds have been found in Crete, such as at Knossos and Palaikastro, none dating to the Bronze Age have been found on the Greek mainland.27

If the Type III press-beds at Kommos and elsewhere on Crete are remains of

25 S tone spouted press-beds have also been found at Phaistos and various farms th roughou t Cre te . Blitzer, "Olive Cult ivat ion," pp. 167-72, esp. Figs. 2 3, p. 168; Hamilakis, "Wine , Oil and the Dialectics of Power ," p. 19. Frankel ( Wine and Oil Production, p. 67) states that the pear -shaped press bed f rom K o m m o s , as well as examples f rom Va thype t ro and Praesos, were used to press olives.

26 K o p a k a and Platon, " α η ν ο γ μ ι ν ω ι κ ο ι ׳ , " pp. 7 0 - 7 1 , 7 8 - 7 9 , 8 2 - 8 3 , 8 9 - 9 1 , and the "Descriptive Tab l e , " pp . 68 69. Cf. the da t ing given in Pa lmer , Wine in the Mycenaean Palace Econo-my, pp . 18-20, esp. Tab les 1.1 and 1.2, pp . 24 -25 . Cf. Plate 24, below, f rom fourth century B. C. Olynthus .

27 Blitzer, "Olive Cult ivat ion," p. 172; Runne l s a n d Hansen , "Olive in the Prehistoric Aegean ," p. 305. Ma in l and Greeks probably did not know of the olive before the Mycenaeans conquered Cre te in the mid-second mil lennium B. C . See Sallarcs, Ecology, p. 306.

CHAPTER THREE 2 7 2

Origin of Aegean beam presses, the question of origin arises. An answer, however, is not forth-olive processing coming from the evidence on hand at present, but their similarity with presses

technology on Cyprus points to a Near Eastern origin for the technical knowledge for the lever-and-weight press. Although there may have been a lever-and-weight press operating in Ugarit as early as ca. 2300 B. C., the best physical evidence dates from the tenth through eighth centuries B. C. Fourteenth and thirteenth-century B. C. Ugaritic texts, however, refer to Levantine oil exports to Egypt and Cyprus, and the Ugaritic measure for both wine and olive oil, the kdyàr of ca. twenty-two liters, finds mention in Akkadian texts from other Near Eastern sites, such as Mari . T h e appearancc of the same measure in Linear A tablets and its possible mention in a Late Bronze Age Linear Β text may also indicate Ugaritic trade in these products with the eastern Mediterranean world. T h e fact that the first-millennium B. C. Phoenician word kd appears in Greek by the late seventh century B. C. in the form of a loan word, κάδος, as well as in a Cypro-syllabic Greek inscription of ca. 600 B. C. on Cyprus points in the same direction. T h e knowledge of how to process olive oil, therefore, may have also accompanied the oil itself as part of early trade contacts.28

Olive oil storage Several palace complexes have yielded storage rooms with vessels containing liquids of some kind. The magazine at Mallia takes the form of a room with six bays, each containing two rows of large pithoi. Furrows ran from each pithos into two central drains that caught any spillage f rom the vessels and conducted it to a j a r embedded in the floor. T h a t this storeroom held olive oil is rendered probable from similar finds at Mycenae and Pyios. T h e former palace had a comparable arrangement in the 1 'House of the Oil Merchant ," so named because of stirrup jars impregnated with oil also found there. T h e magazines at Pylos, with pithoi arrayed in like fashion to those at Mycenae and Mallia, yield-cd Linear Β tablets referring to olive oil.29

Aegean wine Grape-processing installations were located in and served predominantly rural areas; the finished product, that is wine, was transported to palatial centers. Mycenaean administrative tablets seem to reflect this scenario as well. Wine was a luxury item, locally produced in rural areas, but enjoyed primarily by the upper classes, except on occasion, usually religious, when it could be consumed

28 Michael Hel tzer , "Olive Oil a n d W i n e Product ion in Phoenicia and in the Med i t e r r anean T r a d e , " in La production du vin et de l'huile, pp Hel .־־4954 . tzer also argues his point by not ing the similarity in capacity of the kd vessel with that of j a r s f rom Salamis on Cyprus , dat ing between the seventh and fifth centuries B. C. , and of Greek a m p h o r a e of the sixth and fifth centuries B. C. f rom Chios, Lesbos, Samos, and in the C r i m e a at N y m p h a e u m . For the late third-mil lennium B. C. Ugari t ic lever-and-weight press, see C h a p t e r Five, p. 227.

29 Renf rew, Emergence of Civilisation, pp . 2 9 3 - 9 5 ; Vickery, Food in Early Greece, p. 20; Chadwick, Documents, pp . 4 7 6 8 3 ־ .


generally.30 No evidence exists to show that the Minoans or Mycenaeans mechanically pressed the grapes following treading, although the possibility remains, at least for Late Bronze Age Kommos, if the inhabitants knew of and utilized the lever-and-weight press for pressing olives. However, λήνοι have yet to be discovered at a Mycenaean site.

Wha t kinds of wines Minoans and Mycenaeans produced remain unknown. Although no evidence exists to show that they made both red and white wines, Philip Stanley has suggested that they did distinguish among qualities. In his dis-cussion of a Linear Β text f rom Knossos, he notes that ideogram *131, the deter-minative for wine, was sometimes augmented with the word de-re-u-ko, a term connected with later Greek γλεύκος and of uncertain meaning. He interprets de-re-u-ko as a word denoting high quality, and deduces that its connection with *131 identified a high grade wine. He concludes, then, that the Mycenaeans had three grades of wine. T h e best they denoted with the wine ideogram modified by the word de-re-u-ko. An unqualified *131 ideogram identified second class wine. Stanley further argues that *131 is a reduplicated version of *131b, a 1111-guistic pattern adopted from Egyptian hieroglyphic to distinguish differences of quality. Hence, the basic ideogram *131b by itself represented the lowest quality wine. It should be noted, however, that other scholars see *131b as designating not wine but a related liquid, either must or vinegar. While Stanley docs not explain the differences in grade, Palmer correlates quality of wine with a partie-ular stage in the winemaking process. She identifies de-re-u-ko as free-run must forced out of grapes by their own weight before treading. This juice left alone to ferment produces the wine denoted in the text as *131 qualified by de-re-u-ko. She asserts that ideogram * 131 denoted wine made only from trodden grapes, or a mixture of trodden and pressed grapes. She is less sure about ideogram *131b, though she leans toward identifying it as vinegar.31

Fermentat ion of wine probably took place in small receiving vats, or most Wine storage

probably in larger pithoi. Upon completion the wine-filled pithoi were most likely sealed and placed in large storage rooms of palaces or in separate maga-zines in surrounding districts along with vessels of oil and other commodities. Outside of the few remains of grape pips in EM Myrtos and EH Aghios Kos-mas, evidence for wine storage is meager. W h a t evidence there is, such as at

30 Palmer , " W i n e a n d Viticulture in the Linear A and B," pp. 277 83; idem, Wine in the Myce-naean Palace Economy, passim; Kopaka and Platon, " λ η ν ο γ μ ι ν ω ι κ ο ι ' , " pp. 89 96; Wal te r Burk-ert, "Or ien ta l Symposia: Contras ts and Parallels," in Dining in a Classical Context, pp . 7 8.

:tl T h e evidence for mechanical ly pressed grapes in the Bronze Age Aegean is quest ionable. Stanley, " K N Uc 160," pp. 577 78; Palmer , Wine in the Mycenaean Palace Economy, p. 16. See also Palmer , "Wine and Viticulture 111 the Linear A and Β Texts , " pp. 2 7 4 - 7 5 (vinegar); J o h n C h a d -wick, " M y c e n a e a n Wine and the Etymology of ΓΛΥΚΫς," Minos 9, no. 2 (1968): 192-97.

CHAPTER THREE 2 7 4

M M Phaistos, L M Monastiraki, and LH Orchomenos , is ambiguous, since wine storage can rarely be differentiated from preservation of raisins. T h e so-called "Wine Magazine" at Pylos acquired its designation from the discovery in two rooms of numerous large pithoi and clay nodules of which four bore an impressed wine ideogram. T h e estimated min imum capacity of the pithoi in the large inner room is 4,683 liters. Since many of the nodules bore no com-modity ideogram, products other than wine may have been stored there as well.32

3. Miscellaneous Processes

Butchery Methods of food processing practiced during the Aegean Bronze Age remain lit-tie understood today because of a lack of definitive archaeological material and the ambiguous nature of the linguistic evidence. Some of these processes may have arisen indigenously; others most likely developed under Near Eastern and Egyptian influence. This is particularly true for the production of olive oil and wine, as well as the storage and processing of cereals. Evidence for processing other food items is practically nonexistent. Finds of animal bones, such as those of sheep, goats, swine, cattle, and other small animals and fowl, plus artistic rep-resentations of various animals on cups and seals, imply the hunting of some and the domestication of other food animals. Although Homer 's epics and the Lin-ear Β tablets present a picture of a Mycenaean diet heavily weighted toward meat, archaeologists have little investigated cut marks on bones to confirm

Milk byproducts butchery methods, and no art historical material illustrates the process. Ε vi-dence for cheese production is little better. Cheese (tu-ro2) appears in a Linear Β tablet from Pylos, while Homer provides only scant notice of it. In Odyssey 9.218-49, Odysseus describes how Polyphemus milked his goats, then curdled part of it, and stored the whey in baskets. T his cheese would have been quite soft. No evidence at this period indicates that the curds were pressed in a mold to form a solid cheese, although Vickery suggests that conical strainers made of clay were used to produce cheese. He also notes the discovery of what may have been cheese in a house on the island of Therasia. Physical evidence for the

Fish dietary role of fresh fish, at least, includes fish hooks and fish bones, found on Cyprus, Faros, Crete at Phaistos, Tylissos, and Knossos (still in a cooking pot), and on the mainland at Thebes remains of edible shellfish. Paintings on walls and pottery as well as seals showing fish and fishermen supplement the archeo-

32 Pa lmer , Wine in the Mycenaean Palace Economy, pp . 17-18, 143-65. For a discussion of various containers for short and long-term storage of différent commodit ies , see Bruns, Küchenwesen und Mahlzeiten, pp ־2230 . .


logical material, at least for Minoans. Evidence for dried or salted fish, however, is totally lacking.33

B. Classical and Hellenistic Peú0ds

What transpired in the years between the end of Mycenaean civilization in the Greek ״Dark Age"

twelfth century B. C. and the rise of the Greek polis four centuries later, that is, during the transitional period usually termed the "Dark Ages," remains difficult to determine. Although scale of agriculture no doubt decreased and became no longer centered on a palace, nevertheless, the image of a complete destruction of the social and economic fabric of Mycenaean civilization may be too strong a scenario. Recent studies have suggested that the period saw more of continuity than of discontinuity, particularly in the area of agriculture. Significant, if not overwhelming, evidence implies a continuation in the types of crops grown and kinds of foods eaten. What changed most were, as Lin Foxhall suggests, areas of agricultural activity that required high levels of labor and capital, such as storage facilities and specialist processing skills and equipment.3 4 Nevertheless, archaeo-logical evidence and early literary sources, such as Hesiod's Works and Days, show that the succeeding Geometric period, dated to the ninth and eighth cen-

33 Vickcry, Food in Early Greece, pp . 27 (cheese), 61 73 (domesticated animals), 74 79 (sea food), 8 0 - 8 5 (hunting); Bruns, Küchenwesen und Mahlzeiten, pp . 14—15. Bronze knives, frequently found, could have been used to bu tcher meat . Ibid. , pp. 21 22־. Butchery of pigs may be implied at Knossos, if the "pens" were pig sties and not granaries . See Boyd, " C o n t e m p o r a r y Perspective," pp. 3 1 4 - 1 6 . O n the impor tance of meat in the Mycenaean diet, see also Tha l i a Phillies Howe, "Linear Β and Hesiod 's Breadwinners ," ΤΑΡΑ 89 (1958): 5 4 - 5 6 ; Chadwick , Documents, pp. 195-213 (livestock), 5 2 - 5 3 (cheese). Butter finds no ment ion in the documents . O n hunt ing and fishing, see Hans -Gün te r Buchholz, G e r h a r d J ö h r e n s , and I rmgard Maull , Jagd und Fischfang. Archaeologia H o m e r i c a I I , J (Göttingen: V a n d e n h o c c k & Ruprech t , 1973); Riley, Role of the Tra-ditional Mediterranean Diet, pp. 56117־ . J . Sakellarakis, "Le pêcheur dans l'art préhis tor ique Egéen," Athens Annals of Archaeology 7 (1974): 370 -90 ; Anne Gues t -Papamanol i , "Peche et pêcheurs minoens: proposit ion pour une recherche ," in Minoan Society. Proceedings of the C a m b r i d g e Col-loquium 1981. O . Krzyszkowska and L. Nixon, eds. (Bristol: Bristol Classical Press, 1981), pp. 101-10; E d m u n d F. Bloedow, "Mycenaean Fishing in T r o u b l e d Waters , " EMC 31 (1987): 179-85; for Greek zooarchaeology in general , see esp. the bibl iographic essay by David S. Reese, "Recen t W o r k in Greek Zooarchaeology," in Beyond the Site. Regional Studies in the Aegean Area. P. Nick Kardul ias , ed. (Lanham, Md. : University Press of Amer ica , Inc., 1994), pp. 191 221.

34 Foxhall, "Bronze to I ron ," pp . 239 -50 . Snodgrass, on the o ther hand , sees the centuries be tween the Bronze Age and Geometr ic per iod as a real Dark Age, with little evidence for agri-culture per se. H e character izes the M y c e n a e a n s as p redominant ly meat-eaters, and envisions the transition to arable fa rming and a grain-based diet as slow a n d late developing. A. M. Snodgrass, The Dark Age of Greece (Edinburgh: T h e University of Ed inburgh Press, 1971), pp. 378 80. Cf. also,

J . N. Colds t ream, Geometric Greece (New York: St. Mar t in ' s Press, 1971), pp. 312-13 ; Howe, "Lin-ear Β and Hesiod's Breadwinners ," pp. 44 65.

CHAPTER THREE 2 7 6

turies B. C., brought the first stirrings of intensive cereal farming and then rapid developments in food processing. Once established, or rather reestablished, the Mediterranean triad of grain, olive, and grape formed the basis of the Greek diet. T h e quantity and quality of archaeological, literary, and art historical evi-dence for ancient food technology during the Classical and Hellenistic periods far exceeds that of any period up to that time. This is due primarily to extensive archaeological excavations conducted in many places throughout the Mediter-ranean area, to the degree to which the results of those excavations have been documented, and to the wealth of extant literary sources written in a language well understood and bearing directly upon the subject.

1. Cereal Processing:

a. Storage Hesiod, in his Works and Days, suggests that, once threshed, grain should be stored in terra-cotta vessels in the house. Indeed, many Geometric houses, such as those excavated at Emporio on Chios, Zagora on Andros, Phaistos on Crete, and Thorikos in Attica, have stone benches with holes for resting clay vessels or stone-lined bins sunk into the floor.35 Hesiod's description of the poor Boeotian farmer of the late eighth century B. C., although presenting clear evidence for the growing importance of cereal agriculture, gives an incomplete picture of facilities devoted to grain processing at the end of the Dark Ages. The earliest and best evidence is the group of clay model granaries dating between the mid-ninth and late eighth century B. C., and found at Corinth and in many sites in Attica, such as Eleusis and Athens. Basing his conjectures on these models, Rod-ney Young has suggested that Geometric granaries were constructed on a circu-lar base. Flexible wooden branches inserted into the ground were interwoven with other branches up to a certain height to form a wall. At this point the tops of the branches were bent toward the center, gathered up, tied securely, and perhaps thatched.3 6 If so constructed, they have left no remains.

Geometric granary Among the most important of the Geometric model granaries is the terra-cot-mode! from the ta chest with lid discovered in Athens and bearing five granaries on its top (PI.

Aeropagus 20). Dating to Early Geometric II (ca. 850 B. C.), the granaries formed part of

35 Hesiod Op. 600; Colds t ream, Geometric Greece, pp. 308, 313 14. In a Geomet r i c house at Iolkos, in Thessaly, excavators found a layer of e m m e r whea t that had been incompletely threshed, leaving the seeds su r rounded by the glumes. T h e partially threshed cereals found in four theenth-century B. C. Asssiros T o u m b a , in Macedon ia , have already been ment ioned (above p. 262). See Sarpaki , "Pa laeoe thnobotan ica l Study," p. 225, note 18.

36 R o d n e y S. Young, Lite Geometric Graves and A Seventh Century Well in the Agora. Hesper ia Suppl . II (Athens: Amer ican School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1939), p. 186.


the tomb furniture belonging to a wealthy Athenian woman buried on the north slope of the Areopagus. Why they should have been placcd in a woman 's grave is unknown, though they probably arc emblems of wealth advertising the posi-tion of the deceased within society.37 T h e five granaries are reminiscent of those on the Melos vase, though with significant differences. Unlike the latter gra-Ο ο ο naries, the Geometric vessels are aligned single-file along the top of the lid, not seemingly grouped about an open court. T h e Areopagus granaries are com-plete, or nearly so, and show a round base and domed roof coming to a peak at the top. Just below the peak the potter has cut into each vessel a small trape-zoidal window, above which is a flap protruding at a right angle from the gra-nary wall. At the base of each granary is a pair of holes that do not penetrate to the interior of the vessel. Tha t the vessels represent granaries seems clear from their close resemblance to the Melos vase and similar ones known from the ancient Near East and Egypt.38 T h e function of real granaries, as reflected by the models, likewise parallels Near Eastern types. T h e grain was probably car-ried up to the window at the top by means of a ladder placed against the outside wall and dumped into the granary. It could be retrieved near ground level by a door or window, not shown. The function of the two holes located at the bottom of the granaries is unknown, but they seem to reflect construction similar to actual granaries at Lefkandi also dating to the Geometric period.

Stone foundations of what may have been three circular granaries have come Granaries 0/

to light near a Late Geometric house at Lefkandi. As the best preserved struc- Lejkandi

ture rises up only three courses, one cannot know the form of its superstructure. Nevertheless, the foundations show it to have been a stone building with a sub-structure of stone and rubble. Two parallel rectangular slots, bordered with large stones, penetrated all the way through the base from front to back. These slots recall the two holes seen at the base of the model granaries from the Are-opagus burial, and may have served to allow ventilation below a wooden floor on which the grain rested.39 If this suggestion is correct, it would constitute the first evidence for subfloor ventilation for grain storage so typical of R o m a n gra-

37 T h a t the n u m b e r of granar ies (five) conforms to five hundred bushels (one hundred bushels per granary) a n d so alludes to the w o m a n ' s h u s b a n d or fa ther as a pentakosiomedimnos may be an over- interpretat ion of these vessels. See Evelyn Lord Smithson, " T h e T o m b of a Rich Athenian Lady, ca. 850 B. C . , " Hesperia 37 (1968): 77-1 16, and Pis. 18-27. Con t r a , Ches ter Ci. Starr , Vie Economic and Social Growth of Early Greece, 800 500 B. C. (New York: O x f o r d University Press, 1977), p. 208, note 58. See also, Young, Late Geometric Graves, pp . 186 87; Colds t ream, Geometric Greece, p. 79.

38 T h e average size of the Areopagus granaries is 0.107 in. in height (one granary has its point missing) χ 0.077 m. in depth . See Smithson, " T o m b , " p. 94.

39 M . R. P o p h a m , L. H . Sackett , and P. G. Themel is , Lefiandi I. The Iron Age. 2 Parts (London: T h a m e s a n d H u d s o n , 1980), 1: Pis. 5 8, 1 1; 2: 2 4 - 2 5 .

CHAPTER THREE 2 7 8

naries. A similar circular structure, though without evidence for ventilation, dat-ing to the late eighth century B. C., was found in the yard of a house at Old Smyrna. Here the silo was partially sunk into the ground and lined with stone. At ground level was a door giving access to the inside. T h e top has been conjec-tured to have supported a domed wooden roof covered with thatch. There is also evidence for a central post, probably to help support the roof, which may have parallels with the Bronze Age granaries at Middle Minoan Mallia.40

Grain storage in Greeks during the Classical period appear not to have developed large-scale Attica grain storage facilities, in spite of the fear of famine and the growth of urban popu-

lations. Their economy was not a redistributive one typical of the Bronze Age, but one based on the small farmer who cultivated, processed, and stored grain and other products, such as wine and oil, on his farm and transported the product to the urban market. Unfortunately, even for places like Athens, which, in the fifth and fourth centuries B. C., imported huge amounts of grain, little evidence can be found for large urban, state-operated granaries. This does not necessarily mean that none existed, only that there are few indications for them. O n present evi-dence, it seems that the Athenians did not maintain a large central grain reserve; the state paid close attention to the acquisition of grain from Attica or abroad, through private traders, and sought to control its availability, primarily in an unprocessed state, in the markets. Most grain, perhaps even that imported from abroad and in excess of what could be sold within a short time in the markets of Athens or elsewhere in Attica, may have been stored in the countryside on farms or perhaps in cult centers, from which they could be called when needed.41

Remains of these country silos have yet to be conclusively recognized. John

40 Snodgrass, Dark Age, p. 380; Coldstream, Geometric Greece, p. 313, and Fig. 96b. See above p. 263. 41 X e n o p h o n (Oec. 9.3) notes that the well-ordered estate had specialty storerooms, such as a cool

room for wine and a secure one for valuable blankets. For grain he recommended a dry, covered storeroom. For on-the-farm processing, sec Victor Davis Hanson, The Other Greeks (New York: T h e Free Press, 1995), pp. 85 -86 . Attic population in the fourth century B. C. may have reached between 250,000 and 300,000, most of which probably lived outside of Athens. See Isager and Skydsgaard, Ancient Greek Agriculture, p. 69, and Michael Whitby, " T h e Grain T r a d e of Athens in the Four th Century B. C. , " in Trade, Traders and the Ancient City. Helen Parkins and Chris topher Smith, eds. (London: Routledge, 1998), pp. 114. O n famine, see Michael J a m e s o n , "Famine in the Greek Wor ld , " in Trade and Famine in Classical Antiquity. Peter Garnsey and C. R. Whittaker, eds. (Cam-bridge: Cambr idge Philological Society, 1983), pp. 6 - 1 6 . O n the grain trade and markets in the Greek world dur ing the Classical and Hellenistic periods, see Whitby, "Gra in T r a d e of Athens," pp. 102-28, Dominic Rathbone , " T h e Grain T r a d e and Grain Shortages in the Hellenistic East," in Trade and Famine in Classical Antiquity, pp. 45 -55 ; Peter Garnsey and Ian Morris, "Risk and the Polis: the Evolution of Institutionalised Responses to Food Supply Problems in the Ancient Greek State," in Bad Year Economics, pp. 103-05. For unprocessed grain (σίτος αργός) in the markets, see Ps-Aristo-tie Ath. Pol. 51 ; for grain inspectors (σιτοφυλάκες) w h o also supervised the sale in the market not only of cereals but also of Hour by millers, see also Ps.-Aristotle Ath. Pol. 51 and Lysias 22.16.


Young, in 1956, suggested that stone towers of Classical date, some of which had threshing floors associated with them, found in conjunction with farmhouse and court in places like Sounion, were granaries. Comparison with similar circular or rectangular silos, dating between the sixth and third centuries B. C., found at Megara and on the Cycladic islands of Siphnos, Keos, Naxos, and Andros, give a fairly clear picture of their original construction and use. Joists cut into the walls indicate that the towers had multiple stories with wooden floors. The lowest level was given over to farm work, while the upper floors served as storage areas. Access to the second floor was often through an opening approached by ladder on the outside. T h e interior of the upper floors, as was often the ground floor as well, was subdivided by cross-walls. Grain, following threshing, was probably stored in con-taincrs on the upper floors. The ground floor, in addition to providing ventilation for the upper stories, when needed could serve as the milling area. More recent studies, while not denying the possibility, however, have questioned the agricultur-al role of these towers, and have concluded that no one can say with certainty that any particular building type always possessed an exclusively agrarian function.42

b. Milling Roasting of grain prior to processing, common today, has been suspected for Parching

ancient cultures as old as the ΡΡΝΛ, but no clear evidence for it has been forth-coming. This is particularly true for barley, which is especially resistant to sépara-tion of grain from husk by simple threshing. T h e Greeks, however, had a dish, called the φρύγετρον, or "barley-roaster," which Sparkes has identified with a shallow dish held by a loop with the thumb while the fingers, spread out, support the base. This dish was probably used in home or religious settings rather than in any commercial establishment. Although the fifth-century B. C. author οϊ Regimen indicates that barley was roasted, there exist no descriptions of the process.43

4 2 J o h n H. Young, "Studies in South Attica. C o u n t r y Estates at Sounion," Hesj)eria 25 (1956): 122-46; Isager and Skydsgaard, Ancient Greek Agriculture, p. 68.

43 Regimen 2.40. Herodo tus (2.168) ment ions that the Egyptian king's bodyguards received spe-rial privileges, including a daily al lowance of two minae of "roasted g ra in" (όπτός σίτος). See also Sparkes, "Greek Ki tchen , " pp . 128-29; Mar ie-Cla i re Amoure t t i , Le pain et l'huile dans la Grèce antique (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1986), p. 135. A f ragmenta ry bar ley-parcher of the late four th century Β. C . was found in a dining room in the sanctuary of Deme te r and Kore at Cor in th . See Nancy Bookidis, Ju l ie Hansen , Lynn Snyder , and Paul Goldberg , "Din ing in the Sanctuary of D e m e t e r and K o r e at Cor in th , " Hesperia 68, no. 1 (1999): 15. For a late fifth or early four th-cen-tury B. C . example f rom the Athenian Agora, see Brian A. Sparkes and Lucy Talcot t , Black and Plain Potteiy. Vol. X X οϊ The Athenian Agora. 2 vols. (Princton: Amer ican School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1970), pp. 228 29, and PI. 96, No. 1987. Cf. also m o d e r n exper iments to process cere-als both with and without prior roasting, in L. Foxhall a n d H. A. Forbes, "Σιτομετρεία: T h e Role of Gra in as a Staple Food in Classical Antiqui ty ," Chiron 12 (1982): 75-78 .

CHAPTER THREE 2 8 0

Mortar and pestle Like millers of the ancient Near East and Egypt, the Greeks used the combi-technology nation of mortar and pestle to crush cereals to separate the grain from the chaff.

Both mor tar (δλμος) and pestle (ύπερος) could be made of stone, but were proba-bly more often fashioned of wood. As evidenced in vase paintings and terra-cot-ta figurines, the latter took the form of an elongated paddle-like shaft, perhaps five feet in length according to Hesiod, that tapered inward in the center to pro-vide a better grip. T he mortar was either a bowl made of wood or stone placed on a raised base or a tall hour-glass shaped platform, made of stone or perhaps clay and measuring, again according to Hesiod, about three feet, with a cavity at the top to hold the grain. Mortars found at Olynthus were made of stone, con-sisting of a bowl and a base, either in one piece or in two parts. No pestles were found. The process of pounding with mortar and pestle continued in use even after the development of hopper mills and, later, the appearance of the rotary mill because their purpose was different. Pounding separated grain from chaff, while milling reduced the grain into flour. T h e mortar and pestle served their function so well that they ceased to develop further during the Classical era.44

Developments in Saddle querns, found in Athens and Corinth and dating to the Geometric <7nern design period, arc similar to Bronze Age examples in shape and material. Little else is

known about them, beyond the few references to grinding stones (μύλαι) found in the Iliad and Odyssey. Although some translators treat these as rotary mills, Moritz has convincingly shown that this is not the case. Rotary grain mills did not appear in Greece until the R o m a n period. 111 the early seventh century B. C. the Bronze Age quern underwent some refinements. This new quern, dressed with a pointed iron tool, was thin and rectangular-shaped. Concomitant with the alteration in quern shape came a change in the method of working the upper stone. At Morgant ina on Sicily, for example, Archaic Greek saddle querns show a wear pattern that indicates that the miller worked in a back-and-forth pattern rather than in random somewhat circular movements evidenced

44 Robinson and G r a h a m , Hellenic House, pp. 3 3 5 3 ־ 6 , and PI. 79.8 10. Sec also, Amoure td , Le pain et l'huile, pp. 135-37, esp Fig. 20, and PI. 19; Blümner, Technologie und Terminologie, pp. 19-20, esp. figs. 35־ ; Sparkes, "Greek Ki tchen," pp. 125-26. For the mor ta r and pestle, see esp. D. A. Amyx, " T h e Attic Stelai. Part III: Vases and O t h e r Conta iners ," Hesperia 27 (1958): 235-39 . O n e scholar has suggested that Hesiod [Op. 423 26) describes a composite mechanical mor ta r and pes-tie apparatus , similar to one used later by the Chinese but run by water power. T w o men, stand-ing on either end of an axle to which perhaps four pestles were at tached turned wheels back a n d forth to raise and lower the pestles into the mortars. This suggestion lacks any ancient comparan-da and so has found little favor a m o n g other scholars. See W. Den Boer, "Hesiod's Mor ta r and Pestle (Works and Days, 423-426), , Mnemosyne 10 (1957): 1 10. Cont י ra , Amoure td , Le pain et l'huile, p. 137; Moritz , Grain-mills, 23 .כן, note 7. For a group of terra-cotta figurines representing various activities of baking, including pounding grain with a mor ta r and pestle, sec Amyx, "Attic Stelai," p. 235, and Fig. 50b.

26 1 THE GREEK WORLD: BRONZE AGE - HELLENISTIC PERIOD 311

on earlier querns. This resulted from increasing the length and thickness of the upper stone. T h e handstone, or metate, became heavier and so distributed the grinding pressure over a wider area of the lower stone. T h e upper stone had a narrow elliptical outline and pointed ends that facilitated grasping with the hands, a type dubbed by Storck and Teague as the "slab mill." T h e lower stone became flatter and less concave than the usual quern. By the fifth century B. C., toolmakers were dressing the grinding surface of both the lower and upper stones with parallel or herringbone-patterned grooves, which did not coincide but crossed at acute angles to each other, much as occurs in modern mills. These patterns were common to saddle-querns found at Olynthus and dated to the fifth and fourth centuries B. C. T h e striations mark a significant innovation in grinding efficiency. They increased the grinding surface, facilitated a better gripping of the kernels by the stones, and enabled the grains to be cut rather than crushed thereby ensuring larger pieces of bran for easier separation later.45

Saddle querns continued to be a popular grain processing apparatus through- M ill song

out the Classical and well into the Hellenistic periods. Their use can possibly be seen in various statuettes depicting women kneeling behind a flat platform and working by hand some material placed on its surface. Admittedly, it is often dif-ficult to distinguish between grinding grain and kneading dough. Grinding on a quern was for the Greeks what it had always been in other cultures, a boring labor-intensive activity. O n e way they sought to alleviate the tcdiousness of the work, as well as to coordinate the efforts of workers, was to sing a rhythmic "mill-song," called the ίμαΐος or έπιμύλιος ώδή, sometimes accompanied by the (lute, in the manner reminiscent of Pharaonic Egyptian grape treaders. A terra-cotta group of five figurines from Thebes shows just such a scene. Four women grind grain on saddle querns (or knead dough) placed on top of a raised plat-form while a musician plays the flute.46

45 T h e Olyn th ian querns show a s tandardized size of 18-24 inches in length, 12 18 inches in width, and between 2 and 2 3 / 4 inches in thickness. T h e hands tones measured between 15 1 /2 a n d 21 1 /2 inches in length, 5 1 / 4 and 8 inches in width, a n d 2 and 4 1 /2 inches in thickness. For development of the Greek quern , sec Runnels , "Diachron ic S tudy," pp. 1 17-19; Kardul ias and Runnels , Artifact and Assemblage, I: 116 21; Storck and Teague , Flour, pp. 72 73; Mori tz , Grain-mills, pp . 1 - 9 , 18 21, 29 -41 ; Donald Whi te , "A Survey of Millstones f rom Morgan t ina , " AJA 67 (1963): 200 -02 . For H o m e r i c references to millstones and grinding, see Od. 7.103 04, 20.105 11; / / . 7.270.

4(i Blümner Technologie und Terminologie, pp . 32, esp. notes 4 5, and 63, Fig. 25. See also Mort iz , Grain-mills, p. 31. Mill ing and singing was no d o u b t a natural resort of h u m a n s everywhere in all per iods to alleviate b o r e d o m and in some cases to r ender the activity more efficient. Cf. Athen. 14.618d and Plutarch Com!, sept. sap. 157E. For a mid-sixth century B. C . Boeotian lekythos with the representat ion of two figures possibly shaking sistra while two o ther women p o u n d cereal in a mor ta r , see Sparkes, "Greek Ki tchen ," p. 126, and Pl. VII ,2 .

CHAPTER THREE 2 8 2

The hopper mill T h e first significant innovation in grain milling since the appearance of the saddle quern arose somewhere in Greece, probably during the Archaic period. This tool — called variously the hopper mill, lever mill, or push mill — operates on reciprocal motion, as does the saddle quern, but the miller maneuvers the upper stone with a wooden handle. T h e oldest extant hopper mill, found in the Athenian Agora, dates to the late-fifth century B. C. But, since it conforms to this type mill in its developed form, the origin of the innovation no doubt dates to a much earlier time. How this new type mill developed is also little under-stood. In its simplest form, as seen in examples from Priene, Dclos, and Thera , it is merely a modification of the refined saddle quern. T h e thick handstone, or rubber, is widened and has cut into it a circular cavity, called a hopper, that can hold a large quantity of grain. T h e hopper-rubber , as it is often called, has in its bottom a narrow slit, running the length of the depression, that allows the grains to fall through onto the grinding slab where they are ground between the two stones when the upper stone is worked in a back-and-forth motion (PI. 21). T h e hopper also lightened the weight of the upper stone and so allowed 2 for an increase in its size. This increased the amount of grain available to be fed through the hopper and ground. Since the simpler hopper-rubbers cannot be dated precisely, the question of whether this type of hopper mill developed directly from the metate used with a saddle quern and so precedes the devel-oped hopper mill operated by a handle remains a point of controversy. Moritz, for example, postulates that the "earlier" hopper mill actually derived later from the developed form in an at tempt to provide portability.47 Whatever its origin, the hopper became an integral part of nearly all later mills whether operated by man, animal, or water power.

The Olynthian In the advanced hopper mill, the upper stone is no longer a hand stone. T h e hopper mill milling apparatus is for the first time a machine, though its motive power

remains human. T h e best examples come from Olynthus, in northern Greece, and so this type mill often receives the name Olynthian. When first discovered, their identification and use presented a mystery. But, comparison of these stones with the decoration on the so-called "Homer ic" bowls (Fig. 19) from Megara showed conclusively that they formed part of hopper mills. The developed hop-per mill resembles the refined saddle quern in that the lower stone is a thin, rec-tangular slab with parallel or herringbone striations etched on its upper surface. T h e rubber, now rectangular in shape as well, made of hard porous lava, and

17 Mori tz , Grain-mills, pp . 4 3 - 4 4 ; Whi te , "Survey of Millstones f rom Morgan t ina , " p. 202, note 25; Runnels , "Diachronie Study," pp. 121-22; David M. Rob inson a n d J . Wal ter G r a h a m , The Hellenic House. Vol. VIII of Excavations at Olynthus (Baltimore: T h e J o h n s Hopkins Press, 1938), pp. 331 32; Storck and Teague , Flour, p. 73.

2 8 3 THE GREEK WORLD: BRONZE AGE - HELLENISTIC PERIOD

Pig. 19. Megarian Bowl, found at Thebes and preserved in the Louvre (C. A. 936), showing a scene in a Greek Hour mill. At either end is a hand-mill of Olynthian type. From RostovtzefT, "Two Homeric Bowls in the Louvre," p. 88, Fig. 1.

CHAPTER THREE 2 8 4

etched with furrows on the bottom, has a rectangular or, less commonly, round hopper of varying depth surrounded by a narrow rim. T h e sizes of the two stones were fairly uniform, the bottom stone measuring between 17.7 and 23.2 inches in length and 11.8 and 1 7.7 inches in width and top stone falling between 16.5 and 22.4 inches in length and 14.2 and 18.5 inches in width. Cut into the narrow rims on each of the short sides of the rubber is a shallow socket designed to receive a wooden handle, which served as a lever (κώπη). Iron clamps held the handle tightly in the groove. As seen on the Megarian bowls, both upper and lower stones were then placed on a low table where an upright pivot fixed one end of the handle. This allowed the miller to push the free end from side to side in a short arc thereby sliding the upper stone across the surface of the lower stone. Because the handle increases the mechanical power available to move the upper stone, the rubber can accommodate heavier stones, which render the mill more stationary and less mobile. At Olynthus and elsewhere hopper mills have been found alongside saddle querns. T h e no doubt less expensive and more portable saddle querns were probably more common in households, while the hopper mills, as suggested by the Megarian bowls, which illustrate a commercial flour mill, operated in business establishments. Storck and Teague cite the increased size of the mill and so the increased strength needed to operate it as indicating a shift away from female millers to male professionals.48

operation of the Using the third-ccntury Β. C. Megarian bowls as a model, the operation of Olynthian hopper hopper mills becomes clear (Fig. 20). Raising the hopper mill, placing it flat onto

mill a table rather than on an incline, as with saddle querns, and securing it by the pivot allowed the miller to stand upright while working.49 This position is more comfortable than working with a saddle quern where the worker was required to bend over the quern while kneeling or standing. This had the added advantage of allowing the full weight of the upper stone to press down on the lower stone thereby relieving the worker of the necessity of bearing down on the rubber. T h e miller placed a quantity of grain into the hopper and moved the upper stone from side to side with the handle. T h e kernels worked themselves through

18 Storck and T e a g u e (Flour, pp . 74 75) see an in termedia te stage where the "push mill" oper-ated with a heavy, grooved, rec tangular lower stone resting on the g round and inclined away f rom the miller, and a lighter uppe r stone with hoppe r accommoda t ing a handle . T h e miller pushed the u p p e r stone back and forth over the lower one. T h e y call the mill raised onto a table, as shown on the Megar i an bowl, the "lever mill." Robinson and G r a h a m , Hellenic House, pp . Mori ;־30 327 tz , Grain-mills, pp . 44, 4 8 - 5 0 ; Runne ls , "Diachronie Study," pp . 120-21; Amoure t -ti, Le pain et l'huile, pp. 140-42; Michael Rostovtzeff, " T w o H o m e r i c Bowls in the Louvre," AJA 41, no. 1 (Jan.-Mar. 1937): 8 6 - 9 6 .

49 O p e r a t i n g the mill on a table seems to have given the n a m e of τράπεζα to the lower stone. Sec Robinson and G r a h a m , Hellenic House, p. 330. Cf. also Pollux Onom. 7.19.


Fig. 20. Olynthian hopper mill, based upon the illustration on a Megarian bowl. From Robinson and Graham, The Hellenic House. Part YIII of Excavations at Olynthus (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1938), Fig. 34.

CHAPTER THREE 2 8 6

the slot into the space between the stones where they were finely ground. T h e grooving on the working surfaces of the stones directed the flour outward and spilled it onto the table where it could be gathered and placed into another con-tainer. T h e skill and diligence of the worker became less important in determin-ing the fineness of flour produced. T h e Olynthian mill, therefore, begins to approach modern mills in that through the hopper, it controlled its own feed, and, through the grooves on the milling surfaces of both upper and lower stones, it automatically discharged the processed flour.50

T h e advantages of the hopper mill over the saddle quern are significant. T h e hopper mill accommodated larger quantities of grain. It was a laborsaving device since the pivot and lever rendered the mill operation easier for the miller, and he did not have to stop as often, as with a saddle quern, to add more ker-nels. Sweeping the upper stone back and forth with a lever allowed for a longer grinding stroke. This accommodated a larger lower stone. The lever itself increased the mechanical advantage of the worker over use of his arms alone, thereby allowing for use of a larger upper stone. T h e increase in size of both stones served to increase the grinding capacity still further. Accommodation of greater quantity of raw material, that is grain, ease of operation by the worker, and larger upper and lower grinding surfaces increased milling efficiency. This had the effect of raising the output without having to expand the number of mills in operation, as was apparently the practice earlier at Ebla and Crete. This necessitated fewer workers devoted to milling and so freed others to work else-where. All was not perfect, however. Hopper mills provided no way to remove the flour automatically, although the groove naturally tended to work it toward the periphery and so push it to the areas just beyond the grinding strokes. Sec-ond, since the upper stone rested directly on the lower one, no provision was available to adjust the fineness of the flour.51

Although where the hopper mill first appeared is unknown, it spread quickly throughout the Mediterranean, east and west, and was in common use down to the first century B. C., even after the introduction of the rotary mill. Examples have come from excavations throughout Greece, such as in the Argolid at Corinth and Halicis, on Delos, Thera , and Aegina. They have been found else-where in the Eastern Mediterranean in Greek and non-Greek cities of Asia Minor , such as Priene, in Phrygia at Gordion, at Tell Halaf in Syria, in the Lev-ant, and in the Egyptian Fayum, as well as in Greek or Phoenician areas of the

Advantages of the

Olynthian hopper

mill

Spread of the hopper

mill

50 Mori tz , Grain-mills, pp . 4 5 5 " ,RostovtzefT ; ־ 1 T w o Homcr i c Bowls," pp. 86 96. 51 Kardul ias and Runnels , Artifact and Assemblage, 1: 123; Runnels and M u r r a y , "Mill ing in

Ancient Greece , " p. 62; Storck a n d Teague , Flour, pp . 75 -76 ; Whi te , "Survey of Millstones," p. 202.


Western Mediterranean, such as southern Italy, on the island of Sicily at Mor-gantina, Selinunte, and Motya, and in Car thage in North Africa. Examples found in non-Greek locations are predominantly crudely made local imitations of the Greek type. T h e dissemination of the hopper mill came as a result of long-distance trade in the stone used to fashion the millstones and in the trade of the finished product by a few specialized production areas. So, for instance, hopper mills found in the southern Argolid came f rom andesite quarried on the Anato-lian island of Nisyros and in the Saronic Gulf on Aegina and Poros. T h e wreck of a fourth-century B. C. ship bound for Cyprus, found off Kyrenia, also con-tained numerous finished millstones cut f rom quarries on Nisyros. Interestingly, the ship held hopper mills of standard shape but in three different sizes. T h e basis for the size differentiation remains unknown. Another fourth-century B. C. ship foundered at Sec, off the coast of Mallorca, Spain. Its cargo included thirty-eight millstones of Olynthian type. O n e was cut f rom Nisyrian stone, while the others derived from basalt quarries on the island of Pantelleria located off the coast of North Africa opposite Sicily. Millstones from the Sec wreck constitute the farthest west that hopper mills have thus far been found. T h e wreck also contained two small hourglass, or Pompeian-type, rotary grain mills.52 These mills raise the question of the use of the rotary principle to process grain.

Those who have attributed to the Greeks a monopoly on intellectual inventive- The rotary grain mill

ness have been inclined to credit them with the invention of the rotary grain mill.53

52 Runnels , "Diachron ie Study," pp. 123 27; Kardul ias and Runnels , Artifact and Assemblage, 1: 121-24; Robinson and G r a h a m , Hellenic House, pp . 3 2 9 - 3 0 ; Mori tz , Grain-mills, p. 51; O . Wi l l iams-Thorpe and R. S. T h o r p e , "Millstone Provenanc ing used in T rac ing the Route of a Four th -Cen tu ry BC Greek M e r c h a n t Ship," Archaeometry 32, no. 2 (1990): 115-37. Since the rotary mill of Pompcian type is unknown in the Greek world before the R o m a n per iod, discussion of it will be pos tponed until C h a p t e r Seven. An early-third century B. C. wreck, located off the southwest coast of Asia M i n o r at Serçe Limani , conta ined, in addit ion to wine a m p h o r a e and oth-cr items, three millstones of the Olynth ian type. Sec C e m a l Pulak and Rhys F. Townsend , " T h e Hellenistic Shipwreck at Serçe Limani , Turkey: Prel iminary Repor t , " AJA 91, no 1 (Jan. 1987): 4 1 - 4 3 . Amouret t i (Le pain et l'huile, p. 142) points out that some of these mills may have had uses o ther than to process cereals, crushing ores f rom mines, for example .

53 Storck and Teague , Flour, p. 72: "It was the Greeks w h o first a t t empted to understand the world — to grasp it in terms of the rational what instead of the d ramat ic who that had governed m a n ' s previous thinking. By this app roach men would finally arrive at the skeptical, practical atti-tude essential to technological and scientific progress, which would regard noth ing as finished or final, bu t would exper iment constantly in search of improvemen t . " (Italics a re original to the text.) For the suggestion that the Greeks first developed the rotary principle for processing grain, see Storck a n d Teague , Flour, p. 78. T h e y also state (p. 77) that a stone, found near Lake Van and dated to the eighth century B. C., was an upper stone for a rotary mill, complete with provision, called a rynd, for separat ing the upper and lower stones to increase gr inding efficiency and to provide a means to adjust the fineness of the end product . If accurately interpreted, the innova-tion had no effect on subsequent milling practice in Mesopo tamia or the Greek East.

CHAPTER THREE 2 8 8

The trapetum certainly used rotary motion for crushing olives, perhaps as early as the late fifth century B. C., in Olynthus. But, as will be discussed in the chapter on Rome, the general consensus prevailing among scholars today holds that the use of the rotary principle in milling grain arose in the Western Mediterranean, specif-ically Spain, perhaps as early as the fifth century B. C. This earliest use was in the form of hand mills, or querns, and did not enter Greece in this form until the first century B. C. The Pompeian type rotary grain mill, sometimes referred to as the hourglass mill, has yet to be found in a dated context in Greece.54 A singular example of a rotary mill, however, has been uncovered on Delos.

77te Delian mill Dating to the third century B. C., the Delian mill is the oldest known rotary grain mill in the Eastern Mediterranean. Although fragmentary examples of the mill had been known earlier, in 1987 a complete installation was discovered in situ in the House of the Seals.55 What is unique about this mill is that both the upper and lower sections came in individual segments of andesite stone.56 A wooden frame raised the grinding stones ca. 0.80 m. off the ground. The lower, or stationary stone, composed of six specially cut pieces, sat in this framework. T h e separate pieces were arranged in a circle forming a hollow into which the upper, or turning stone, composed of eight separate pieces was inserted.57 An iron rod set in the top and bottom of each piece anchored them in a vertical position. T h e opposite end of the rods, in both top and bottom, connected to an iron sleeve, located both above and below the grinding stones. A thick wooden post seated vertically into a slot in the floor ran through the bottom sleeve, the axis formed by pieces of the turning stone, and the top sleeve. A horizontal wooden rod pierced the post above the top sleeve. Pushing the horizontal rod turned the vertical post, which, in turn, by way of the sleeve and iron rods rotat-

Cur יי'1 t is Runnels , "Ro ta ry Q u e r n s in Greece , " JRA 3 (1990): 147-54; Natal ia Alonso Mar t inez , "Or igen y expansion del mol ino rotativo ba jo en cl Med i t e r r âneo occidental ," in Tech-niques et économie antiques et médiévales: le temps de /,innovation. Dimitri Meeks and Domin ique Garc ia eds. T r a v a u x du Cen t r e Camille-Jullian, Vol. 21 (Paris: Editions Er rance , 1997), pp. 1 5 2 3 ־ 19, 5 . Mor i tz (Grain-mills, pp . 10 17, 218), con t ra Storck and T e a g u e (Flour, p. 80), has shown that, a l though the Greeks used the word donkey (ονος) to refer to the u p p e r millstone as early as the fifth century B. C. , it would be rash to assume the existence of a donkey-driven rotary mill at this early per iod. Mor i tz suggests, but does not commit to the idea, that the Greeks used the term to refer to the handles, or "ears ," on the non-ro tary r u b b e r for the saddle quern , t e rmed by Storck a n d T c a g u c (p. 73) as the "s lab" mill. Cf. Aristotle Problemata 964b .39 40; X e n o p h o n Cyr. 6.2.31.

55 Michèle Brunet , "Le moulin Délien, י in Techniques et économie, pp. 29 י -38 ; Runnels , "Diachronie S tudy ," p . 134; Mori tz , Grain-mills, p. 1 15.

Brunet א6 , "Moul in Dél ien," Figs. 2 3, p. 30. ' T ׳ h e ring fo rmed by the pieces of the tu rn ing stone had an uppe r d iameter of 0.60 m. and a

lower one of 0 .44 m. Its height measured 0 .33 m. T h e stat ionary stone fo rmed a ring 0.17 m. in height , with an uppe r d iameter of 0.58 m. and a lower d iamete r of 0.46 m. Brunet , "Moul in DéÌicn," pp. 30 -31 .

289 THE GREEK WORLD: BRONZE AGE - HELLENISTIC PERIOD

ed the assembled upper stone that sat inside the lower, or stationary, stone. How grain was fed into the mill is unknown, as is the means, animal or human, of applying the motive power. Adjustment of the space between the two stones was achieved by inserting wooden wedges between the lower stone and the frame in which it sat. Although the conical form of this mill vaguely recalls the hour glass mills of Pompeii, particularly in its early manifestation known from Morgant ina on Sicily, unlike them the upper stone of the Delian mill sat inside the lower stone, not on it. In this sense, the inventor may have had the trapetum in mind. T h e use of individual pieces fitted together to form the upper and lower mill-stones implies a certain degree of standardization in manufacture. Since the form of rotary grain mill found on Delos has no identifiable predecessors or descendants, it is difficult to prove this. Like the Neanderthal , the Delian mill seems to have been a branch of the evolutionary tree for grain mills that went nowhere. T h e size of the Delian mill implies a grain milling capacity that seems more appropriate to a commercial establishment than a domestic one.58

c. Bread Making Although the Homeric hero was basically a meat-eater, bread had its place in distinguishing m a n f rom beast and in defining the happy life. Odysseus, address-ing the Phaeacians, boasts that, except for Philoctetes, he exceeds all mortals presently alive and who eat bread (σιτόν εδοντες). In another place Homer dis-tinguishes bread from meat as foods making up a sumptuous banquet . Cereal agriculture and consumption play an even larger role in Hesiod's Works and Days. By the Classical period, the Greek diet was perhaps as much as 7075%־־ cereal-based, primarily in the form of the basic porridge (μάζα), consisting of coarsely ground barley (αλφίτα) mixed with water or milk and heated, bread (άρτος), and various cakes.59

The different kinds of Greek breads and cakes are legion, and can most conve- Types of breads and

niently be found listed 111 the Hippocratic. Corpus, which discusses their medicinal cakes

uses, and especially in the Deipnosophistae of Athenaeus, who records many types

58 Brunei , "Moul in Dél ien," p. 36; Whi te , "Survey Ūf Millstones," pp . 199-206. An example m a y have been found in Egypt at Clysma (Suez), dat ing to " l ' époque grecque ." See Dimitri Meeks, "Les meules rotatives en Egypte. Data t ion et usages," 111 Techniques et économie, pp . 20 28.

59 H o m e r Od. 8.222; 9.9; Hesiod Op. 590; Mar ie-Cla i re Amouret t i , "La t ransformat ion des ceréales dans les villes, un indicateur m é c o n n u de la personnal i té urbaine . L 'exemple d 'Athènes à l ' époque classique," 111 L'origine des richesses dépensées dans la ville antique. Philippe Le veau, ed. (Aix-en-Provence: Université de Provence, 1985), pp . 134-35; N a u m j a s n y , " T h e Daily Bread of the Ancient Greeks and R o m a n s , " Osiris 9 (1950): 247; Allaire Brumfield, "Cakes in the Liknon. Votives f rom the Sanc tuary of Deme te r and K o r e on Acrocor in th ," Hesperia 66, no. 1 (Jan.-Feb. 1997): 152 54; Foxhall a n d Forbes, "Σιτομετρεία," p. 71.

CHAPTER THREE 2 9 0

mentioned by Classical Greek authors, such as Archestratos (il. mid-fourth century B. C.). We can lament the loss of works written by Greek authors of the early Roman period and apparently devoted specifically to types of breads and cakes, such as Chrysippus of Tyana (il. mid-lirst century A. D.), who wrote a work end-tied "Pan-baked Bread" (Άρτοπτίκιος).60 Votive offerings, several dating to the early sixth century B. C., discovered in the sanctuary of Demeter and Kore at Corinth, give some idea of the appearance of a few of these cakes. Among these can be identified seven different flat cakes with round, spherical, or oblong shapes. Additionally, literary sources indicate that cakes, especially sacrificial ones, took various forms according to the deity being honored, including animal shapes such as goats and deer, those provided with "horns," and some in the image of a woman's breast. Others assume a name implying origin or ethnic style, such as "Cilician" or "Cappadocian," or resemblance to a small coin, the κόλλυβον.61

Many, however, have names that betray the method of baking, and so provide hints at Greek technology of bread making. So, for example, unleavened, or flat, breads (άρτος άζυμος) were baked on a brazier in ashes (έγκρυφίας and σποδίτης) or charcoal (απανθρακίς) — sometimes called simply "brazier-bread" (έσχάριτης)

, and even placed on a spit (οβελίας) extended over a fire. Breads leavened with yeast (άρτος ζυμίτης), some apparently quite large, were made in ovens (ίπνίτης) or pans (αρτοπτίκιος). Bread baked in a type of crock was called κλιβανίτης.62

Kitchens and baking Archaeology has yielded little evidence for Greek kitchens. So, for instance, utensils excavations in the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore at Corinth have uncovered

over thirty-six dining rooms and eight kitchens, dating between the sixth and fourth centuries B. C. The kitchens, however, show little more than hearths and signs of burning on the floors, while artifacts found in them have included a few mixing bowls, mortars, and storage jars, and even fewer stewpots and casseroles. Work in the Athenian Agora has yielded griddles to prepare flat-breads, bra-ziers, especially the eschara for brazier-bread, and dome-shaped covers (πνιγεύς) for leavened bread. T h e latter device, similar to the Roman testu, worked simply. The baker placed the cover over heated coals until it also grew hot. He then

tì0 Regimen 2 .40-44; Athenaeus 3 . 1 0 9 b ־ l 16a; 14.643e649־a . For Archestratus, see J o h n Wilkins and S h a u n Hill, Archestratus. The Life ofLuxuiy (Devon: Prospect Books, 1994), esp. pp. 40 -42 . For types of b read listed in Egyptian papyri of the Hellenistic and R o m a n periods, see Emanue la Battaglia, "Artos. " II lessico delta panificazione net papiri greet (Milan: Università del Sacro Cuore , 1989), passim.

61 Brumfield, "Cakes in the Liknon," pp. 147-72, and Pis. 4 6 - 5 2 . See especially the appendix of names of known sacrificial cakes (pp. 1 6 9 7 ־ 1 ) . See also Athenaeus 3.1 10d (Cilician), 1 12e-f (Cyprus), 1 12f (κολλάβος), 1 13b-c (Cappadocian) .

02 For different types of bread , see esp. Athenaeus 3 . 1 0 9 b - l 16a; Andrew Dalby, Siren Feasts. A History of Food and Gastronomy in Greece (London: Rout ledge, 1996), p. 91. For the R o m a n clibanus, see below, pp. 3 6 8 - 6 9 .


moved the ashes to one side, placed the dough down on the heated floor, and covered it with the lid. After gathering the hot coals a round the cover he let the bread bake. Epigraphic and, particularly, art historical evidence, on the other hand, help to provide a better view of baking activities. Attic stelae, dating to ca. 415-14 B. C., for example, record the sale of property confiscated from several individuals, including Alcibiades, convicted of mutilating Herms and profaning the Eleusinian mysteries. Among the items listed that were used in cooking and baking include an upper millstone, mortars, pestles, kneading bowls, sieves, and braziers.63 T o learn what these objects looked like and how they were used, however, we must turn to many small figurines, created both as individuals and in groups, found throughout Greece.

T h e best evidence derives from the series of terra-cotta statuettes found at Tanagrafigurines

Tanagra , locate near Thebes. Many figures, dating generally to the early fifth century B. C., represent both men and women in everyday activities, such as holding a cake-pan and cooking on a griddle. In one instance a woman kneads dough in a circular bowl (κάρδοπος) raised on a platform.64 O n the Megarian bowl a man holds a sieve over a similarly shaped kneading bowl. The typical Greek sieve (κόσκινον) was round in shape, perhaps between thirty and fifty cen-timeters in diameter, and commonly made of basketry. Rather shallow in depth, it usually had a low rim to contain the flour. T h e term κόσκινον probably referred to sieves generally, and included coarse-meshed types designed to sepa-rate grain from weed seeds or husks from grain before any grinding, as well as finer-meshed varieties used after pounding in a mor tar or grinding on a quern.6 5

63 YV. Kendr ick Pritchett , " T h e Attic Stelai. Par t II," Hesperia 25 (1956): 178; Amyx, "Attic Stc-lai," pp . 2 2 9 - 3 1 , esp. PI. 49b, c; Sparkes, "Greek Ki tchen , " pp. 128-31, esp. Pl. IV.2; Sparkes and Talcot t , Black and Plain Pottery, pp. 232 35, esp. Pis. 97 98; Foxhall and Forbes, "Σιτομετρεία," p. 81, note 133; Bookidis et ill, "Din ing , " pp. 14— 17; N a n c y Bookidis and Ronald S. S t roud, The Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore. Topography and Architecture. Vol. XVI I I , Part III of Corinth (Princeton: Amer ican School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1997), pp. 393-412 . O n Greek bra-ziers, see also Scheffer , Cooking and Cooking Stands in Italy, pp . 81-88.

Reynold Higgins, Tanagra and the Figurines (Princeton: Pr י4' inceton University Press, 1986), Fig. 89 (kneading), 90 (cake-pan), 93 (grill). For o ther examples of kneading tables f rom Cor in th , Pera-chora , Tiryns , Boeotia, Eretr ia , a n d Athens, see Sparkes, "Greek Ki tchen," p. 135, and Agnes Newhall Stillwell, Cor in th X V , Pt. 2: The Potters' Quarter. The Terracottas (Princeton: Amer ican School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1952), pp . 206 07, 210, and PI. 45, nos. xxxiii, 17 and xxxi-ii, 18. S o m e containers for kneading have an oblong shape and , so, conform to the usual transla-tion of " t rough" (μάκτρα). See Amyx, "Attic Stelai,5' pp . 239 -41 .

65 Mori tz (Grain-mills, pp. 159-63) discusses in detail the scant evidence for sieves designed specifically for flour. H e concludes that they were in use, if not described or p ic tured, by the fifth century B. C . at the latest. H e goes on to say that the mesh used in all Greek sieves was probably not very fine, a n d that flour p roduced with them was still fairly dark f rom the presence of small particles of b ran (πίτυρον) that penet ra ted them.

Fig. 21. Archaic Greek bakery model. From Dar.-Sag., Fig. 5694.


T h e κόσκινον also appears in the hands of a terra-cotta figurine forming part of Ovens

an Archaic group (Fig. 21) representing a baking scene. In front of the person with the sieve are two others bending over a kneading trough preparing the dough for the oven shown nearby. This oven (ίπνός) has a shape similar both to one associated with a Tanagra figurine from Thebes and to fragments of a large mid-sixth-century B. C. oven and a portable example dating to the late fifth cen-tury B. C. found in the Athenian Agora.66 Made with a vaulted roof and full-width opening, it sits on top of a firebox. Inside can be seen some oblong cakes. A figure kneels in front and tends to the baking. T h e baker placed charcoal in the firebox under the floor of the oven. T h e floor did not sit (lush on the base so as to allow air to enter the firebox. At the rear, the floor had a slit through which hot air passed into the baking chamber. T h e draft fed the hot charcoal, which, in turn, heated the floor and interior of the oven. A mid-sixth century B. C. Boeotian lekythos, which has painted on it scenes of pounding cereal with a mortar and pestle, grinding grain on a quern, and kneading of dough, also por-trays a similar type oven, but here the baking chamber rests on four legs with an open lire built under it.1'7

H u m a n figures found in the Archaic model are so crudely made that they Bakers and bakeries

cannot be identified as males or females. 1). A. Amyx suggests that, if they are men, this group may represent a commercial bakery. Aristophanes mentions a bakeshop (αρτοπώλιον), and an Attic inscription of perhaps the third century B. C. indicates that the state imposed a tax (αρτοπωλικόν) on bakeries. T h e bakery represented on the Megarian bowl is probably of this type. Although bakers were undoubtedly nameless members of the lowest classes, free and slave, yet one, Thear ion, a commercial baker of Athens, received due notice by name, while bakers of specific ethnic origin, such as Phoenica or Lydia, received partie-ular recognition for their baking skills. Female bakers, however, did exist, as Herodotus and Aristophanes attest. At least one received a special honor for ser-vices rendered. Croesus, king of Lydia, for example, reportedly honored his female baker by dedicating in the sanctuary at Delphi a gold statue molded in her image.68

66 Amyx, "Attic Stelai," pp . 2 3 3 - 3 5 (oven), 259 -61 (sieves); Higgins, Tanagra and the Figurines, Fig. 91; Sparkes and Talcot t , Black and Plain Pottery, p. 234 and Fig. 19, nos. 2026-27 ; Blümner , Technologie und Terminologie, pp. 62 64, and Fig. 24.

Sparkes, "Greek Ki י7' tchen ," p. 127, and Pl. VII .2 . Sparkes notes o ther terra-cot ta figurines with similar ovens. See ibid., Pl. VII1.2, 4. See also Higgins, Tanagra and the Figurines, p. 86, Fig. 91.

liH Thea r ion : Athen . 3.112e, quot ing lost works by Aristophanes, and Plato Gorgias 518b. Arche-stratus (Athen. 3.1 12b-c) praises the bakers of Lydia and Phoenicia. It was also apparent ly com-mon for Persian kings to take their bakers with them on campa ign . See X e n o p h o n Anab.

CHAPTER THREE 2 9 4

Beer d . Beer Production The Greeks knew of beer made from barley (termed variously βρΰτον, πίνον, and ζΰθος, or ζυτος in Egypt), but were apparently not very fond of it. Sopho-cles, for example, has a character in this play Tnptolemus comment that drinking inland beer (βρΰτον χερσαιον) was not pleasant. What he meant by "inland" or "mainland" is unknown, but, since Greeks usually associated beer drinking with non-Greeks, he probably was referring to the beer of Thrace or Asia Minor. T h e comment by Archilochus, writing in the seventh century B. C., speaking of Phrygians or Thracians drinking beer in parties, is the earliest extant Greek ref-erence to beer. Hecataeus of Miletus (il. late sixth or early fifth century B .C. ) and Hellanicus of Lesbos (il. 480-395 Β. C.) likewise associate Thracians, espe-daily Paeonians, with beer. The former author does the same in regard to Egyp-tians, who, as much during the Late and Ptolemaic periods as in Pharaonic times, produced and consumed beer. No Classical or Hellenistic Greek source discusses beer making, but its potency was widely recognized. A character in Aeschylus' Lycurgus, for example, gets drunk on strong beer (βρΰτον ακμαΐον) and becomes boisterous, and Aristotle, apparently quite impressed with the intoxi-eating power of beer (πίνον), relates that, while other intoxicants cause drinkers to fall over in any direction, those who imbibe too much beer always fall over backwards. Herodotus' comment that the Egyptians use a drink made from bar-ley (i. e. beer) in place of wine points up the Greek view that drinking alcoholic beverages meant drinking wine.69

4. Wine

Wine in Greek Panyasis, the fifth-century B. C. epic poet, says that wine was the "best gift of society the gods" (θεών πάρα δώρον άριστον). Greeks believed that drinking wine in

moderation and in diluted form distinguished them from barbarians. They also saw vineyards as symbolic of the good life and of the city-state at peace. T h e

4.4.21. He rodo tus (1.51) asserts that the Delphians themselves claimed that the image was of Croesus ' female baker . Hut, David Harvey believes that the Delphians mistook a statue of Cybele holding a t y m p a n u m for Croesus ' baking w o m a n . See David Harvey, "Lydian Specialities, Croe-sus' Golden Baking-woman, and Dogs' Dinners , " in Food in Antiquity, pp. 278 -81 . See also Aristo-phanes Ranae 112 (bake-shop), 858 (female baker); IG 11.860 (ca. third century B. C.). Amyx ("Attic Stelai," pp. 2 3 4 - 3 5 , and PI. 50b) notes a second similar Archaic terra-cotta g roup with fig-urines recognizable as w o m e n (two hold babies in their arms), which he suggests represents domestic b read making.

For Sophocles, Archilochus, Aristotle, Hecataeus י9' , and Hellanicus, see Athen. 10.447a-c; Herodo tus 2.77. For beer in Hellenistic Egypt, sec Michael Rostovtzeff, SEHHW, pp. 308 09. For the beer of Gord ion in central Anatolia , see Sams, "Beer in the City of Midas, pp. 108-15, and above, p. 218. See also Cla rence A. Forbes, "Beer: A Sober Account , " CJ 46, no. 6 (Mar. 1951): 281 85, 300; Olck, "Bier ," RE, 3: cols. 4 5 8 - 6 4 .


chorus of Attic farmers in Aristophanes Pax (308), for example, addresses the goddess Peace as "most loving of the vine" (θιλαμπελώτατη), and at line 520 Aristophanes has Trygaeus ("Vintage" or "Harvest"), a Greek farmer, greet Peace with the appellation " O Giver of Grapes" (ώ πότνια βοτρυόδωρε). This drink was for Classical Greeks a basic food item, not a luxury consumed almost exclusively by the upper classes, as in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Bronze Age Aegean. Also unlike areas of the Near East and Egypt, the small, independent landholder, personally engaged in agriculture, made up the bulk of the popula-tion of Greece. Many of these — the total is unknown — concentrated their efforts in winemaking. Victor Hanson has shown that viticulture was a labor-intensive activity requiring year-round maintenance of the vines, but with little capital outlay required if performed by family and slaves. This, he argues, devel-oped in Greek farmers an "ideology of viticulture,'" that stressed value of work and time spent doing it, to the point that the appearance of the land with its vines and the practice of a work ethic served to define the social status of the owner. Viticulturists provided the Greek markets with an abundance of different wines. Besides distinctions between red and white wines, discussed below, the Greeks produced wines that had been aged, perfumed, aromatized, resinated, blended, or salted with sea water or brine. Although vintage and estate were not distinguishing characteristics, origin of production was, so that markets boasted both local and imported varieties.70

T h e importance of wine to Greeks can be seen in the many uses to which they Vu• symposium

put the drink. Perhaps the most noted usage for wine was its pivotal position in the symposium, a drinking party held after the evening meal. T h e symposium was also a favorite motif for decorating drinking vessels, and even fostered a sep-arate literary genre, exemplified by works of Plato and Xenophon published under that title. Sympotic literature envisioned the symposium, a communal drinking party accompanied by discussions and entertainment, as symbolic of

70 Panyasis ap . Athen . 2.37a. Victor I) . Hanson , "Pract ical Aspects of Grape-growing and the Ideology of Greek Viticulture, י in Agriculture in Ancient Greece. Berit Wells, ed. (Stockholm: Paul יAströms, 1992), pp. 161-66; Pomeroy et al, Ancient Greece, p. 4. O n Aris tophanes Pax, a play given in 421 B. C . in Athens dur ing the Dionysia, a festival devoted to Dionysus, and one full of allu-sions to foods, see J o h n Wilkins, "Eat ing in Athen ian C o m e d y , " in Food in European Literature. J o h n Wilkins, ed. (Exeter: Intellect books, 1996), pp. 46 56. Aris tophanes treats a similar theme in Acharnians. For wine in comedy, see E. L. Bowie, "Wine in O ld C o m e d y , " in In Vino Veritas, pp . 113-25; in ritual, see François Lissarrague, " U n rituel du vin: la l ibation," in ibid., pp. 126-44. For modera t e dr inking of wine with water as a mark distinguishing Greeks f rom barbar ians , see Herodo tus 6.84; Mnesi theus ap. Athen . 2.36a-c, and Plato Leg. 637E. For references by Greek au thors to varieties a n d qualities of wine, see especially Broek, "Ancient Greece ," ]Dp. 464—67; Mar ie-Cla i re Amoure t t i , "L'originali té technique du vin grec et les tradit ions de la Médi te r ranée orientale ," M BAH 15 (1996): 4 3 - 6 6 ; Athenaeus 1.25f 2.40f, and Regimen 2.52.

CHAPTER THREE 2 9 6

the polis.71 Attendees at these gatherings may have drunk wine cooled by snow. This could take the form of adding snow directly to the wine or by drinking f rom a special double-walled vessel called a psykter, or wine cooler. T h e inner compar tment held the wine, while the outer, which wrapped completely around the inner one, held water cooled by snow. Holes at the top and bottom allowed for filling and draining the outer sleeve, respectively. These vessels date at least to the sixth century B. C.72

Wine also played an important role in medicine both for its own perceived curative qualities and for its use as the basic liquid for medicinal recipes. So, for instance, Regimen 2.52 attributes to wine qualities of hot and dry, and says that it acts as a purgative, while Mnesitheus (il. fourth century B. C.) says that Diony-sus, the patron god of wine and one of the twelve major deities, was called physi-cian (ιατρός). And finally, wine was an integral part of religious services in sever-al capacities, as a libation, the liquid used to quench burnt offerings on the altar, and an offering to the dead.7 3

Wine was a valuable item in Greek short and long-distance trade. Although literary sources offer little help in tracing the Greek wine trade, excavations throughout the Medi terranean have uncovered thousands of Greek transport amphorae in archaeological contexts, especially shipwrecks, dating from the Archaic to the R o m a n periods. T h e Greeks probably got the idea for the point-ed vessel f rom their early contacts with peoples of the Near East, especially the Canaanites, who developed the form as early as the second millennium B. C. T h e Greeks developed their own distinct shapes, some of which modern archae-ologists, through study of design characteristics, such as lip and handles, analysis

Snow-cooled wine

I Vine in medicine

and religion

Wine in the Greek

economy

71 Alcaeus, a poet f rom Myti lene on Lesbos, had identified Dionysus as the god of wine in a dr inking song of the early sixth century B. C . See Poetarum Lesbiorum Fragmenta. Ε. Lobel and D. L. Page, eds. (Oxford: C l a r endon Press, 1955), fr. 346. O n the symposium, see, for example , Sympot-ica. A Symposium on the Symposion. Oswyn M u r r a y , ed. (Oxford: C la rendon Press, 1990); four articles in William J . Slater, cd. Dining in a Classical Context, pp. 25 -120 ; J a m e s Davidson, Courtesans and Fishcakes. The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens (New York: St. Mar t in ' s Press, 1998), pp. 4 3 - 4 9 ; 1). B. Levine, "Sympos ium and the Polis," in Theognis of Megara: Poetry and the Polis, T h o m a s J . Figueira and G. Nagy, eds. (Baltimore: J o h n s Hopkins University Press, 1985), pp. 176-96; Oswyn M u r r a y , " T h e Greek Sympos ium in History," in Tria Corda. Scritti in onore di Arnaldo Momigliano (Como: Edizioni New Press, 1983), pp. 257 72; a n d T h o m a s H. Ca rpen te r , Dionysian Imagery in Archaic Greek Art. Its Development in Black-Figure Vase Painting (Oxford: C la rendon Press, 1986), pp. 1 1 5 1 7 .

72 For mixing wine and snow, cf. Athenaeus 3.124c.-d. In the fifth century B. C. and later the term psykter assumed a m o r e generic m e a n i n g not always associated with cooling drinks. See Rus-sel M . Geer , " O n the Use of lee and Snow for Cool ing Drinks," CW 29, no. 8 (16 Dec. 1935): 6 1 - 6 2 ; Forbes, Studies, 6: 1 10-14. For R o m a n refrigerat ion, see below .419 .כן

7:i O n uses of wine, see Prickett, "Scientific and Technological S tudy," pp. 72 78 (wine in med-icine), and Brock, "Ancient Greece , " p. 467.

2 9 7 HELLENISTIC PERIOD THE GREEK WORLD: BRONZE AGE -

of fabric and organic residues, and examination of stamps and painted inscrip-tions, have been able to identify as containers for wine coming from specific places in the eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea. Among the city-states known to have exported wine are Chios, Cos, Lesbos, Paros, Cnidos, Rhodes, and especially Thasos, among Aegean islands, Monde in Chalcidice, and Sinope on the Black Sea. Other places, such as Athens, were importers of wine. Some amphorae of Sinope bear an interesting stamp that emphasizes not only that city's participation in the wine trade but also in its manufacture. T h e stamp, apparently unique to a specific person, Phemius, son of Theopeithes, has the fig-ure of a man standing in a wicker basket in the act of treading grapes.74

Literary sources for processing grapes into wine are few. Homer, in Odyssey Grape processing:

7.121 25, describes the Phaeacians gathering grapes from the vineyard, drying treading

some to form raisins, and treading others to make wine. Hesiod (Op. 611-13) offers to his brother, Perses, advice on viticulture, specifying that in September he should dry grapes for ten days and then cover them for five more. After-wards, he can fill vessels with the "gifts of Dionysus." It is unknown if Hesiod describes the preparation of raisins or the drying of grapes to reduce the water content and to concentrate the percentage of sugar preparatory to making raisin wine. Drying in this fashion also induces chemical changes in the grape that affects the wine produced.7 5 Archaeological evidence is likewise scarce. Much can be learned about grape processing, however, from art historical evidence, particularly painted scenes on Attic black and red figure vessels dating between ca. 540 and 430 B. C.76 Although satyrs mostly populate the scenes and not

74 O n a m p h o r a e , see Carolyn G. Koehler , "Wine A m p h o r a s in Ancient Greek T r a d e , " in On-gins and Ancient History of Wine, pp . 323 -37 ; and Virginia R . Grace , Amphoras and the Ancient I Vine Trade. 2nd ed. (Princeton: Amer ican School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1979). For Thas ian wine a m p h o r a e , in part icular , see François Salviat, "Le vin de Thasos: amphores , vin et sources écrites," 111 Recherches sur les amphores grecques. B C H Suppl. XII I (Athens: Ecole Française d 'Athènes , 1986), pp. 145-96. For a recent study of the petrology of Greek a m p h o r a e , see I. K. Whi tb read , Greek Transport Amphorae. A Penological and Archaeological Study (Athens: T h e British School at Athens, 1995). For the s tamps of Phemius, sec Yvon Gar lan , " R e m a r q u e s sur les t imbres amphor iques de S inope ," CRAI( 1990): 4 9 9 - 5 0 3 , and Figs. 8 - 9 .

75 Hesiod Op. 611 13 (δώραΔίωνύσου). See esp. Prickett, "Scientific and Technological Study," pp. 4 9 - 5 0 . Brock ("Ancient Greece ," p. 464) sees this as pe rhaps a reference to dried grape wine, ra ther t han raisins. T h e most impor tan t Greek agricultural manua l extant is the Geoponica, a sixth-century A. 1). Latin compilat ion surviving in a tenth-century A. I). Greek copy. Books Four th rough Eight are devoted to viticulture. Because of its late date, I have not used the Geoponica for this chapter , even though much on winemaking by Greek authors whose works no longer exist p robably m a d e its way into Latin agricultural treatises.

7,' T h e grape- t reading motif appears rarely on non-Attic vessels, but can be found on a Cor in th ian co lumn-cra te r of the early sixth century B. C . and a few Boeotian lekythoi of slightly later date. See B. A. Sparkes, " T r e a d i n g the Grapes,5 ' Babesch 51 (1976): 47 49.

CHAPTER THREE 2 9 8

every example shows all the details, nevertheless, the basic technical process of treading grapes seems clearly represented. With one possible exception, dis-cussed later, mechanical pressing of grapes never appears in vase paintings, although the occasional press shown being used to process olives could have served to press grapes as well.

Treading depicted on T h e earliest Attic vase painter to use the treading motif, and to do so in a real-Greek vases istic fashion, was the Amasis Painter, who flourished in the sixth century B. C.

O n black-figure vases, such as the panel-amphorae now in museums in Basel and Würzburg, he defined the standard motif that, in general, shows little varia-tion over the next century. Typically included in the scenes are satyrs, some picking grapes from the vines, others carrying baskets full of grapes to be placed into the treading trough, while still others perform the treading itself. T h e tread-er, always singly though this may be only artistic convention, for support often holds onto grape vines, a pole set horizontally above his head, or straps extend-ing down from a pole or roof. Occasionally, the scene depicts a satyr playing on a double flute to help his comrade tread more efficiently, or perhaps to divert his mind from the repetitive labor. These characteristics indicate that, unless the painter wished merely to show a connection between the two activities, picking and processing, grape treading most often took place in or near the vineyard itself.77 For a closer look at Greek treading practices it will suffice to discuss in detail a single example and to note variations where necessary.

T h e Boston black-figure neck-amphora (PI. 22), decorated by a painter of the 2 Mastos Group, a younger contemporary of the Amasis Painter, shows a typical treading scene. T w o satyrs bring wicker baskets full of grapes to be trod. Thei r work recalls the vineyard scene decorating the shield of Achilles in which Homer (//. 18.561—72) describes boys and girls gathering grapes in wicker bas-kets (πλεκτοί τάλαροι). Between the two satyrs a third satyr stands inside another

77 These details recall scenes of t reading pa in ted in Egyptian tombs of the Pharaonic period. T o what extent, if at all, these Greek motives derive f rom Egypt remains unknown. Sparkes, " T r e a d i n g the Grapes , " pp. 4 9 - 5 6 , esp. Pis. 4 27. Isager and Skydsgaard (Ancient Greek Agriculture, p. 57) suggest that, considering the portability of most t read ing vats, when straps for the t reader 's use a p p e a r to h a n g down f rom a roof, the artist implies that t reading takes place indoors. O n the Amasis Painter , see also A n d r e w I*'. Stewart , "Narra t ive , Gen re , and Realism in the Work of the Amasis Painter ," in Papers on the Amasis Painter and His World (Malibu: J . Paul Getty M u s e u m , 1987), pp. 2 9 - 4 2 , and Dietrich von Bothmer , The Amasis Painter and His World. Vase-painting in Sixth-Century B. C. Athens (Malibu: J . Paul Get ty M u s e u m , 1985), esp. pp. 113-18 (Würzburg a m p h o r a , no. 265). Geoponica 6.2 describes the Header and his duties. He must work fully clothed and with clean feet to avoid con tamina t ing the must with sweat o r dirt. He cannot leave the vat often, and , when he does, he must cover his feet. While t read ing he must remove any leaves and o ther trash missed by those handl ing the grape baskets, and must also ensure periodically that no refuse restricts the flow of must into the channels leading to the collecting vat. See K. D. White , Roman Farming (Ithaca: Cornel l University Press, 1970), p. 46.


type of wicker basket, with handles. This basket sits inside a spouted trough (λήνος), reminiscent of those found at many sites on Minoan Crete, but with legs. The λήνος slopes down at the front to allow the must, squeezed from the grapes and strained through the wicker basket, to pour into a collecting vat -which has the shape of a large λεκάνη, a common house ,(υπολήνιον or τριπτήρ׳)hold container.78 T h e λήνος was probably made of wood, and so explains why none have come to light in excavations and why it is so difficult to identify loca-tions where grape processing was conducted.7 9 T h e treading satyr for balance holds onto a nearby grapevine.80 T h a t the grapes are placed inside the wicker basket for treading rather than directly into the λήνος may imply an important innovation in Greek wine technology.

Some red-figure vessels show a man or satyr merely standing in a large pithos, Red versus white

standing in the vat and bent over with hands down inside the vessel, or in the wines

act of treading in a vat while holding onto a loop. These scenes apparently rep-resent grape treading of a kind different f rom that shown on the Boston ampho-ra. Here the workers tread grapes directly inside a vessel that appears to provide no means to drain the must. Workers would have to bail it out with small ves-sels, leaving the skins and pips behind. Β. Λ. Sparkes suggests that grapes trod in a wicker basket, set into the λήνος in order to keep the must separate from the marc, were destined for white wines; grapes trod in the vat alone resulted in red wines.81 This idea is further strengthened by the appearance on other red-figure vases of scenes where both processes are shown side-by-side. The production of both red and white wines by Egyptian viticulturists is suspected f rom the colors of wine amphorae shown in wall paintings, but indications from scenes of viti-culture of any provision to separate must from marc are unclear. Evidence from

78 O n some vases, such as the Basel and W ü r z b u r g 265 a m p h o r a e , the υπολήνιον appears to be a pi thos half-buried in the ground. 111 addi t ion, sometimes, the υπολήνιον is covered by a filter to prevent any grape remains (seeds, stems, etc.) f rom falling into the must. See Sparkes, " T r e a d i n g the Grapes , " Fig. 5. For τριπτήρ, sec Amyx, "Attic Stelai," pp. 247 -49 .

79 A red-figure Attic a m p h o r a dat ing to the fifth century B. C., and now in Bologna, shows wha t appears to be a t reading basket sitting on a shallow stone λήνος without legs. See Sparkes, " T r e a d i n g the Grapes , " Fig. 27. Stone λήνοι ([λη]νο! λίθιναι) find ment ion in con tempora ry Attic stelae. See Amyx, "Attic Stclai," p. 242, and Isager and Skydsgaard, Ancient Greek Agriculture, p. 57.

80 T h e satyr in the W ü r z b u r g a m p h o r a (265) holds a grape vine with one hand and the handle of the basket with the other; satyrs on red-figure column-craters , now in Aleria a n d New York, both da ted to ca. 470 B. C., hold on to the handles of the basket. T h e satyr on the vessel found in Corsica grasps the handles even though he has h a n d loops above his head for that purpose. Per-haps he holds the rings while t reading normally with his feet, but grasps the sides of the basket w h e n he wants to impar t a heavier or more forceful t reading to the grapes. Sec Sparkes, " T r e a d -ing the Grapes , " Figs. 20 -21 .

81 Sparkes, " T r e a d i n g the Grapes , " p. 53, and Figs. 15-18. A black-figure vase, now in M u n i c h , appears to show a satyr s tanding in a vat. See ibid., Fig. 10.

CHAPTER THREE 3 0 0

Mesopotamia, entirely linguistic in nature, is no better. Greek literary sources, however, frequently distinguish both red and white wines. So, for example, Regi-men (2.52) says that sweet dark (i.e. red) wines (γλυκέες μέλανες [sc. οίνοι])) were moist, while white wines (oi λευκοί [sc. oivoij) give heat without drying. Mne-silheus praises the unique qualities of three wines distinguished by color, black (μέλας), white (λευκός), and a sort of brownish-yellow (κιρρός). T h e production of both red and white wines, therefore, may be a Greek innovation to food tech-nology.82

Fermentation T h e fermentation process does not appear in art historical sources, but scenes on a few Attic vases may hint at it. An Attic red-figure psykter, now in the Getty Museum in California, for example, bears a particularly interesting motif, the sale of recently produced grape juice. T h e tripartite scene shows a young man and an old man taking part in some still unclear fashion in the treading of grapes in a large vessel, filling a wineskin with the juice, and selling it. Wha t form the liquid took also remains uncertain. It could be merely grape juice, or γλεύκος. Henry Immerwahr , however, points out that this term could also refer to fermenting grape juice or freshly made wine. If so, then fermentation of wine might also have taken place in wineskins. Likewise, a red-figure vase, now in Bologna, shows under the treading vat what looks like a bell-shaped lid to cover a large container, perhaps a pithos. Sparkes suggests that it would cover a vessel used to ferment the must into wine. T w o other red-figure vases show amphorae near the λήνος, perhaps implying that the must would be transferred directly into them for fermentation. This idea is given some credence from finds in the Athenian Agora where excavators have recovered what appear to be clay stop-pers dating to the Hellenistic Period. T h e diameter conforms roughly to the interior diameter of the mouth of a typical amphora of the period. Projecting above and below the level of the stopper is a cylinder of clay, which gives the whole a spindle appearance. This central piece appears to have been perforated vertically so as to allow the escape of gases f rom the amphora.8 3

Following fermentation, the wine might be aged for a certain number of years. This step is better known from R o m a n sources, but it was not unknown to Greeks. Homer (Od. 2.340), for example, mentions a ten-year old wine, and Theocri tus (7.147) a vintage of four years old. Whether directly following fer-

!t2 Sparkes, " T r e a d i n g the Grapes , " Figs. 24 26; Mnesi theus ap. Athen . 1.32d. H o w the dark-b rown wine was m a d e remains unknown. It was pe rhaps related to the a m o u n t of t ime the must was left in contact with the marc , or was a wine m a d e f rom a second t reading of g rape pulp.

it:i Sparkes, " T r e a d i n g the Grapes , " Figs. 20, 23, 26; Koehler , "Wine A m p h o r a s in Ancient Greek T r a d e , " pp . 328 30; H e n r y R. I m m e r w a h r , " N e w W i n e in Ancient Wineskins. T h e Evi-dence f rom Attic Vases," Hesperia 61, no. 1 (Jan.-Mar. 1992): 121-32, and Pis. 2 9 - 3 2 .


mentation or after a period of aging wine would be decanted into transport Wine amphorae

amphorae and sent to an urban market, where it could be sold locally or placed on a ship for export. Greek commercial amphorae , such as those from Rhodes, held about twenty-six liters. Because they were made of fired clay, the amphorae had to be lined on the interior to prevent the wine from seeping out. This was accomplished with pitch obtained from heating the resin of the pine tree and smearing it on the interior walls of the vessel. Since the pitch tended to dissolve in the alcohol, the wine often took on a resinated taste. Some wines were imbued with resin during production to augment its keeping quality. After the amphorae were filled, the vessel was sealed with a stopper, usually of cork or clay, and placed on a ship for transport.84

Treading scenes appearing on Attic vases show portable apparatus, capable of Distinguishing wine being used in the vineyard or transported to a building at a distance f rom the from oil processing

vines and set up for use once again. Fixed, permanent grape processing installa- installations

lions, however, are difficult to recognize, since many probably accommodated olive processing as well, or perhaps even primarily, and their usually bad or incomplete state of preservation often makes a conclusive determination impos-sible. Identification of a wine, as distinct from an olive, processing site is based on several factors. These include local modern parallels to recognized ancient facilities and the absence of stone equipment, such as rollers or weights, typical of oil press installations. More specifically, some scholars argue that a large pressing floor, coated with waterproof plaster, characterizes installations for grape processing, since olives, being more difficult to press than grapes, require a harder, usually stone, surface 011 which to be squeezed. Additionally, they con-tinuc, the vat for collecting olive oil was typically far smaller than that necessary for grape juice. Based on these criteria, they conclude that Athens, Mycenae, Asine, and Olynthus possibly had fixed wine installations, while identification of sites on the islands of Crete, Thasos, and Delos seem more secure. These emplacements, particularly those on Delos and at Knossos on Crete, show close similarities to processing installations 111 the Black Sea area, especially at Olbia, Nymphaeum, Tyritake, and Mirmekion. Here in the high latitudes of the north shore of the Black Sea wine is the most likely product, since olives prosper only in Medi terranean climates.85

84 H o m e r [Od. 2 .349 53) ment ions a m p h o r a e fitted with covers (πώματα) of some sort. Koehler , "Wine A m p h o r a s in Ancient Greek T r a d e , " pp. 328 30. See also Carolyn G. Koehler , " H a n -dling of Greek T ranspo r t A m p h o r a s , " in Recherches sur les amphores grecques, pp. 5 0 - 5 5 , esp. Figs. 1 6, w h o notes pi tched vessels (κάδωπιττίνω) listed in Attic stelae of the late fifth century B. C.

For the growth range of the olive {()lea europaea), see Z י" o h a r y a n d Hopf , Domestication of Plants, p. 137. For Delos, see Phil ippe Bruneau and Philippe Fraisse, " U n pressoir à vin à Dolos,,י BCH 105 (1981): 127-53; Philippe Bruneau and Philippe Fraisse, "Pressoir à Dclos," BCH 108 (1984):

CHAPTER THREE 3 0 2

Wine processing in Among Greek cities established on the northern coast of the Black Sea, partie-the Black Sea region ularly in the Strait of Kerch, excavators have unearthed about seventy wineries

dating f rom the late fifth-early fourth century B. C. to the late fourth century A. D. These fall roughly into two general types. T h e first and oldest type, found, for example, at Nymphaeum and Tyritake, comprises those consisting only of a flat platform for treading grapes and a rectangular tank cut into the floor to col-lect the must. Type O n e installations were all basically similar in size. T h e treading platform of winery M 5 at Mirmekion, for example, measured ca. 1.4 m. χ 2.42 m.; its vat measured ca. 1.15 m. χ 1.54 m. χ 1.47 m. deep, and had a capacity of 1,800 liters. A low wall separated the treading surface from the vat to ensure that the marc did not fall into it. T h e must passed through a small hole in the wall and emptied into the tank through a stone spout. Like the treading floor, the collecting vat was coated with a waterproof mortar. At its bottom the tank had a small depression to aid in emptying it of the last of the liquid. Near the top, it had provisions for a cover, a characteristic not found in other vats. This particular tank, therefore, may have served to ferment the must into wine. Otherwise, one would have to assume that the wine was fermented in pithoi in an adjoining room.8 6

T h e second type seems to have appeared first in the second century B. C. at Mirmekion as part of a general expansion of the wine industry in the Bosphorus. Installation M 4 at Mirmekion includes two platforms, one for treading and a second, suggested by finds of stone weights and a stone base, for the operation of a mechanical press of the lever-and-weight type described above for pressing olives in ancient Israel. Each platform, coated with a layer of reddish plaster, had a channel for directing the must into a cistern, which likewise was covered with plaster. T h e cisterns had at the bottom a quarter-round in each corner to strengthen it and to keep any solid material from collecting there and making it difficult to clean. T h e wooden portions of the mechanical press no longer exist,

713-30 ; Michèle Brunei , "Vin local et vin de cru. Les exemples de Délos et Thasos , " 111 La produc-tion du vin et de l'huile, pp . 201 -12 . Mechanica l pressing will be discussed in detail under olive press-ing. For Cre te , see Jill Car r ing ton Smith , "A Late Hellenistic W i n e Press at Knossos," A BS A 89 (1994): 3 5 9 - 7 6 , a n d Pis. 4 9 - 5 2 .

8f> Zofia Sztetyllo, "Product ion et c o m m e r c e du vin à Mi rmek ion à l ' époque hellénistique," in Etudes et Travaux, IV, Vol. 10 (Warsaw: Cen t r e d 'Archéologie Méd i t e r r anéenne du l 'Académie Polonaise des Sciences 1970), pp. 9 6 - 1 1 6 ; Nicolas S a w o n i d i , "Wine -mak ing on the Nor the rn Coast of the Black Sea in Antiqui ty ," in IM production du vin et de l'huile, pp. 227 -35 . S a w o n i d i breaks down the wineries into four types. Types O n e and T w o are t reading installations only; T y p e T h r e e utilizes the lever press, while T y p e Four employed the lever-and-screw press. T h e latter type dates no earlier than the first century B. C . and will be discussed in C h a p t e r Seven below. See also V. 1־'. Gajdukevic , Das Borporanische Reich (Berlin: Akademie-Ver lag , 1971), pp . 119-23.


hut the stone base on which it rested does. T h e rectangular stone platform had a ring-channel cut into the stone surrounding the place where the grapes, proba-bly in a basket or sack, were set to be pressed. T h e must flowed along the chan-nel and through a stone spout that overhung the vat in which it was collected. T h e two collecting vats together had a capacity of ca. 4,000 liters.

T h e second-century B. C. emplacement at Knossos shows characteristics simi- Wine processing at

lar to these Black Sea installations. The treading floor, once covered with flag- Knossos

stones and of sufficient size to accommodate up to four workers, sloped toward a collecting tank, and had a rim preventing the marc from falling into it. Must trod f rom grapes on the floor would pass through the barrier by means of a small hole and flow through a stone spout into the vat. Several layers of a red-dish plaster coated the interior of the tank, which had in its floor a shallow cavi-ty to aid in periodic cleaning. T h e walls of the tank had two pairs of stepping stones that facilitated the efforts of workers to empty the vat of its liquid and to clean it later. Processing installations found on Delos also had similar character-istics, including some evidence for a mechanical press."7

T h e primary questions remain, however. Did the installations at Knossos and on Delos, similar to those in the Black Sea, process only wine? Or , did they function for olives as well? Likewise, did those emplacements with a stone bed for a mechanical press process only olives, or, could they have also processed grapes, like those in Mirmekion? T h e present state of the evidence for wine and olive processing in the eastern Mediterranean is such that the questions must remain open. Wha t is clear, however, is that advancements in olive pressing technology did take place during the Hellenistic Period.

5. Oil

Unlike their modern counterparts, ancient Greeks neither produced nor con-sumed olive oil at the same level as they did cereals and wines. Its expense was prohibitive for many farmers, as the trees compete with cereals and vines for good soil, take at least five years to bear their first crop, yield olives only every two years, and the fruit is difficult to process. Not every farmer could afford the extra land, the long delay for an initial crop, and the lengthy wait between yields that were never guaranteed because of the vagaries of weather and war. Since olives had to be crushed and then pressed to release the majority of its oil, only small-scale production was possible without the use of mechanical crushers and presses, both of which were expensive to acquire and to maintain. Therefore,

H7 Smith , " Late Hellenistic Wine Press at Knossos," pp. 3 5 9 - 7 6 , and Pis. 4952־ ; Brunet , "Vin local et vin de c ru ," p. 205; Bruneau and Fraisse, "Pressoir Déliens," p. 721.

CHAPTER THREE 3 0 4

many farmers diversified their crops and grew cereals, grapes, and olives in a pattern that provided for an economical use of labor and a sequential yield of various crops throughout the agricultural year.88 Through the development of more efficient mechanical olive crushers and presses olive oil production, partie-ularly by the Hellenistic period, became an important agricultural commodity for local consumption and for many cities and regions a lucrative export item. The olive could be eaten as a fruit, while uses of olive oil included fuel for lamps, a liquid for anointing, a base for medicines and perfumes, and a staple in the diet where it served as a cooking oil and as an ingredient in various dishes.89

Classical Greek literary, archeological, and art historical evidence for olive processing is scant. Enough exists, however, to form a basic idea of its character-istics. Considerably more evidence dates to the Hellenistic period, but it derives primarily from excavations in the Near East, particularly in Israel. This latter material will serve as comparanda for the former, thereby assisting our under-standing of oil processing in Greece. T h e Near Eastern material will also pro-vide insights into the innovation and spread of pressing technology in the Greek world generally during the Hellenistic era.

Crushing olives Following picking, the first step leading to the extraction of the oil from the olive is crushing. This step reduces the olive to a pulp and, if desired, allows the olive stone to be removed. Some R o m a n writers thought that bruising or crush-ing the olive stone altered the taste of the oil, and so suggested avoiding it. This does not seem to have posed a problem prior to the Romans. Before the devel-opment of adjustable mechanical crushers olives could receive rather rough han-dling while being crushed in any of three different ways: pounding with a pestle in a rock-cut or free-standing mortar , mashing with a stone roller in a shallow rock-cut or free-standing rectangular basin, and treading with the feet, probably covered with wooden sandals of some sort, on a flat crushing bed.90 By the early

!,H Al though olive trees do grow on p o o r soils a n d can withstand some drought , they do best on the same type of land required for cereals. Lin Foxhall, "Oil Extract ion a n d Processing Equip-ment in Classical Greece , " in La production du vin et de l'huile, pp . 192-93; Sallares, Ecology, pp . 304-09 ; Foxhall and Forbes, "Σιτομετρεία," pp. 6 9 - 7 0 ; H a n s o n , The Other Greeks, pp. 74-76 . Fox-hall argues that in warfare , oil and winepresses, located most often in the fields, not the trees and vines themselves, were p r ime targets for enemies ravaging farmlands dur ing warfare . See Lin Foxhall, " F a r m i n g and Fighting in Ancient Greece , " in War and Society in the Greek World. J o h n Rich and G r a h a m Shipley, eds. (London: Rout ledge , 1993), pp . 134-45.

89 Amoure t t i , Le pain et l'huile, pp . 177 96. 90 These methods received at tent ion above (pp. 187 89) in a discussion of olive processing in

the N e a r East du r ing the Chalcoli thic per iod. See also Amoure t t i , Le pain et l'huile, pp. 154-66. See also Isager and Skydsgaard, Ancient Greek Agriculture, p. 61; Foxhall, "Oi l Extract ion and Pro-cessing E q u i p m e n t , " p. 184. T h e R o m a n s were apparent ly being overly fastidious in p roduc ing their oil. For R o m a n oil processing, see below pp. 380 -94 .


Hellenistic period mechanical olive crushers operated on the principal of rotary Rotary motion

motion. T h e development of rotary motion is a landmark innovation in food processing technology. Its use in olive processing almost certainly predated its use in cereal milling by a considerable period of time for reasons which can only be speculated upon.91 Rotary motion, unlike back-and-forth or reciprocal motion used in milling, allows for continuous action, and ultimately permits the development of animal and water driven devices.

Neither the place of origin nor the date of the initial use of the principle of Rotary olive crusher

rotary motion in olive processing can be determined.9 2 T h e earliest securely dat-ed oil mill, at least part of it, was discovered at Olynthus and dates to the late fifth century or early fourth century B. C. A crushing stone was also found at Pindakas on the island of Chios, and comes f rom a context datable to the fifth century B. C. as well. These stone artifacts undisputedly belong to a type of

4 rotary oil crusher that the Romans (Cato RR 20-22) called a trapetum (PI. 34). Interestingly, the word itself is Greek, derived f rom the verb τραπέω, used in ref-erence to treading grapes.93 T h e noun, however, appears nowhere in Greek lit-erature, and so provides little help in determining the origin and date of the rotary oil mill. Rafael Frankel, in his exhaustive study of oil processing in ancient Israel, has identified three basic types of olive crushers, with numerous variations. Two, found in Israel, North Africa, Egypt, the Levant, and Cyprus, have flat crushing surfaces, while the third, the Olynthian type and its Roman descendent, rarely found in Israel but more common in Greece, southern Italy, and Alalta, has a concave crushing surface. All three were in use during the Hel-lenistic period, and, since they differ only slightly in a technical sense, Frankel sees a common origin for all of them. He asserts that the concave crusher reached Italy fully developed "probably" from Greece, and remarks that the flat crushing basin predominated numerically in Israel, Syria, and the Levant. He believes that the simpler fiat type crusher predated the more sophisticated con-

91 Frankel (Wine and Oil Production,68 .כן) at t r ibutes the use to the fact that " . . . w h e a t was g round by reciprocal m o v e m e n t using a h a n d quern , while in m a n y eases olives were crushed using mor -tar and pestle action that was partly rotary in charac te r . " Brun suggests that the appea rance and spread of rotary oil mills must be seen in the context of a general change f rom small-scale p roduc-tion for a household or local market economy to large-scale product ion for an export economy. Th i s would have affected cities and regions at different times. Jean-P ie r re Brun, "L ' in t roduct ion des moulins dans les huileries ant iques," 111 Techniques et économie, pp . 69 78.

92 Knowledge and use of the principle of ro tary mot ion may extend back to the Paleolithic per iod. Con t inuous rotary motion was used in Mesopo tamia for the potter 's wheel as early as the fourth mil lennium B. C . See V. G o r d o n Chi lde , "Ro ta ry Mot ion , " History of Technology, 1: 187-215.

•):t Foxhall, "Oil Extraction and Processing E q u i p m e n t , " p. 190; Mori tz , Grain-mills, pp. 57 58; Amouret t i , L· /min et l'huile, pp . 165 66; Robinson and G r a h a m , Hellenic House, pp . 337 39.

CHAPTER THREE 3 0 6

cave type. From these observations he concludes that the rotary oil mill originat-ed in the Levant or Anatolia perhaps as early as ca. 750-500 B. C. Nahun Sagiv and Amos Kloner, on the other hand, prefer to see the spread in the opposite direction. They conjecture that the rotary oil mill originated in Macedonia or the Greek islands and spread to the Levant and Palestine by way of Macedo-nians and Greeks who, settling the area in the wake of Alexander's conquests, brought with them the knowledge of the principle. Once there the mill was adapted to prevailing local conditions. And finally, Jean-Pierre Brun, though admitting the lack of evidence for it, links the development of the rotary mill with the increase in olive oil production in Attica in the seventh and sixth ccn-turies B. C. He suggests that the Greeks may have transferred the knowledge of rotary oil mills to the Near East under the Seleucids and Ptolemies.94 Whether the Greeks of the Archaic and Classical periods knew and used a prototype of the trapetum with a flat crushing surface derived from the Near East, or originat-ed one of their own with concave crushing surface, must remain at present an unanswerable question. How widespread was their use of it before the Roman period also remains uncertain. What can be confidently asserted is that rotary olive crushers were in use in Greece by the fourth century B. C., and probably earlier.

iMtin terms fir parts Although the trapetum is best known in its Roman manifestation, it clearly of the trapetum derives from the Greek rotary mill, which probably worked in a similar manner .

A detailed description of its form, using Latin terms to denote its various parts, and its mode of operation, therefore, would not be out of place here.95 T h e rotary oil mill (Fig. 31, p. 383) consisted of two principle parts, the m0rtarìum, the circular stone basin with a concave crushing surface, in the center of which stood a raised pillar, called the miliarìum, having a socket (modiolus). An iron axle (Latin columella), secured into the socket of the center post with lead, supported a wooden beam lying horizontally on top of the miliarium and projecting on either side. Each end fitted through the mortise of an upright, round, lense-shaped crushing wheel made of stone, called an orbis, which sat in the concave interior of the mortarium, fiat side facing inward.96 T h e wood beam, extending through the orbes, provided a handle (cupa) that, when pushed by two men, one on each side, rotated the orbes within the mortarium and crushed the olives placed in the

94 Frankel, Wine and Oil Production, pp . 6 8 - 7 5 ; Brun, "L ' in t roduct ion des moulins," pp. 69 78; N a h u n Sagiv and Amos Kloner , "Maresha : U n d e r g r o u n d Olive Oil Product ion in the Hellenistic Period," in Olive Oil in Antiquity, pp . 280 ־81.

95 A. G. D r a c h m a n n , Ancient Oil Mills and Presses (Copenhagen: Levin & Munksgaard , 1932), pp. 7-49; Moritz, Grain-mills, pp . 57 -58 . For the R o m a n trapetum, see below Chap t e r Seven, pp. 381 83.

90 S o m e trapeta had only one orbis. T h e Olynth ian oil mill utilized two crushers. Brun, "L ' int ro-duction des moul ins ," p. 70; Foxhall , "Oil Extract ion and Processing E q u i p m e n t , " p. 190.


basin. T h e two orbes could apparently be adjusted by placing wooden disks over the pivot to allow for a separation of their crushing surfaces from the bottom of the basin. In this way the workers could control any blockage caused by an accumulation of olive skins, pulp, and pits.

Once the olives had been crushed and the pits (perhaps) removed, the pulp Pressing

was placed on a press and squeezed. How early the Greeks used the mechanical press is unknown. A lever-and-weight press may have operated in Late Minoan Kommos, but the evidence is scant and ambiguous. T h e earliest datable evi-dence for Greek knowledge of the mechanical press comes from the scene paint-ed on an Attic black-figure skyphos, dated to the sixth century B. C. (PI. 23) and now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. T h e usual interpretation of the motif is that of two men using a lever-and-weight press to express oil (actually a com-bination of oil and water, called αμύργη, Latin arnurca), from olives contained in a basket. O n e man adjusts the first of two weights on the beam, while the second worker has grabbed the beam with arms and legs and adds his own weight to increase the pressing power. T h e fact that the basket sits not on a low stone plat-form but on a less-than-sturdy-looking table with four legs has led some to con-elude that what is being pressed here are grapes not olives. T h e distinction is not so important as the fact that this is the earliest art historical representation of the lever-and-weight press known.97 T h e motif is not complete in all details, howev-er. For instance, there is no indication of how the beam is anchored on the right. Presumably, it fit into a wall. Secondly, the two weights are either very large stones, a most unlikely option, or else the large objects represent sacks, probably holding many small stones, which have been tied to the beam with ropes. Archaeological evidence, albeit from the Hellenistic period, helps to provide a better understanding of how the early Greek level-and-weight press worked.

Little archaeological evidence for Greek oil factories has come to light. Per- Hellenistic Greek

haps the best example comes from a third-century B. C. house at Praesos, on lever-and-weight

Crete. T h e press-room, measuring 9.6 m. χ 8.35 m., had an oblong tank in its press

center, perhaps to hold olives for pressing, and a low platform running around the room. There was no recognizable means to crush the olives. A stone circular press-bed, similar to one found at fourth-century B. C. Olynthus (PL 24), howev-er, sat on the low platform, though it may once have been raised higher, and apparently supported a lever-and-weight press. It had a ring-channel and spout through which the liquid oil (lowed into a receptacle, no longer present. T h e wall above the press-bed had two sockets, one above the other, into which one

97 Foxhall, "Oil Extract ion and Processing Equ ipmen t , " p. 184. Isager and Skydsgaard (Ancient Greek Agriculture, p. 63) note the existence of ano the r representat ion, similar but unpubl ished, now in the museum at Thebes . Cf. note 98 below.

CHAPTER THREE 3 0 8

end of the beam was set. T w o sockets allowed the fixed end of the beam to be raised or lowered in the wall, according to the height of the container to be pressed. Since maximum pressure arises when the beam is horizontal and the pressure exerted is vertical, the ability to change the setting of the beam during pressing to allow for the reduction in height of the mass of olive pulp is critical. T h e narrowness of the margin outside the ring-channel has led the excavator to speculate that the olives were not contained in baskets but placed on layers of folded square cloth.98

A second, larger press-bed was also found, but it had been cut in two to form the sides of the tank in the center of the room. In addition to a ring-channel, it also had other small channels designed to direct the flow of oil, which over-flowed the circular ring-channel, toward the spout. Bosanquet surmises that the large press-bed may have accommodated a different type container for the olive pulp, one that was less confining and so allowed oil to spill out over a larger area requiring extra channels to control runoff. T h e smaller, more portable press-bed perhaps used a newer type container made of cloth.

Maresha, Israel T o get a more complete picture of oil processing during the Hellenistic peri-od, we should turn to the Near East to the site of Maresha (Tell Sandahanna), located just northeast of Lachish in Israel. This site is instructive for five reasons. First, the completeness of the remains presents a better picture of how an oil fac-tory operated. Second, the similarity of the oil installations with each other indi-cates that the design and specifications for the equipment and their mode of operation by the third or second century B. C. were becoming standardized.99

98 R . C. Bosanquet , "Excavat ions at Praesos. I ," ABSA 8 (1901-02): 259 68. Bosanquet (p. 266) suggests that the mater ial be ing pressed on the Boston sykphos, shown in a l ternat ing layers of black and white, represents not a basket but layers of cloth holding olive pulp. See also Frankel, Wine and Oil Production, p. 61. For the Olyn th ian press bed , see Robinson and G r a h a m , Hellenic House, pp . 339 -42 , and Pis. 8 1 - 8 3 .

99 T h i s is also the case for the Hellenistic oil installation uncovered in Kope t ra on Cyprus . Here excavators found a pressing installation similar to that at M a r e s h a but having some differ-ences. It lay above g round , utilized the local l imestone, and had the basic appara tus . Λ small, sin-gle-orbed trapetum, ten b e a m weights, a press bed resting on a low rubble p la t form and suppor t ing two presses anchored into the back wall, and two collecting tanks. Some of the weights were fixed with an inver ted-T suspension system, while o thers had merely a horizontal bore for a t taching ropes. T h e large monoli thic press bed (3.72 m. χ 1.30 m.) had three ring-channels. T h e left and right channels each suppor ted a lever-and-weight press; the central ring-channel may have served to support the basket af ter pressing. It directed any residual liquid flowing out of the frail, and facilitated ca tch ing any oil that overflowed from the two flanking channels while in use. T h e ring-channels directed the liquid squeezed f rom the olives, the pits of which were found in the soil below, toward collecting tanks, square in form and 70 cm. in depth . R a t h e r than using a spout, the lips of the tank pene t ra ted into slots cut into the press bed. T h e tank was capable of being covered, and had a small concave depression in the floor to assist in cleaning. See Sophocles H a d -j i s a w a s , Olive Oil Processing in Cyprus from the Bronze Age to the Byzantine Period (Nicosia: Paul Aströms,


Third , Maresha was heavily Hellenized, and so its oil production no doubt closely reflects Greek equipment and methods. Fourth, one can detect adapta-tions in response to local conditions. And finally, the Maresha presses show tech-nical innovations beyond the simple lever-and-weight press. Surveyors over the past fifteen years have found twenty oil production plants in Maresha, and esti-mate that the city had perhaps more than thirty dating between the Hellenistic and Byzantine periods. These installations provided the city of ca. 7000 inhabi-tants with far more oil than locally needed, perhaps 300,000 liters annually. The excess was exported to Egypt. T h e oil plants lay underground 111 cool rooms cut from the soft limestone.100

Although not all pressing-rooms had complete oil-processing apparatus, many did. Typically, a Mareshan plant possessed a crushing mill differing from the usual Greek or R o m a n trapetum. Here each basin normally accommodated only one lens-shaped crushing stone ranging in diameter between 0.7 m. and 0.85 m. Made of local nari limestone, a stone softer than the basalt commonly used in the West, the Mareshan orbes and mortarium were less durable. T h e mortarium, usually with an outer shape that was round, wide, and low, had an external diameter much larger than Roman mortana, ranging from 1.6 m. to 1.9 111. The miliarium rose higher above the lip of the mortarium and did not have the simple iron pin (columella) of the R o m a n trapetum, but a wooden pole which extended all the way to the ceiling where it was inserted into a depression and sometimes secured by horizontal posts.

Each oil plant possessed one or more " improved" lever-and-weight presses, ׳improved״ lever-

apparently derived from the simple lever-and-weight presses with central collec- and-weighi press

tion of Iron Age date. T h e wooden beam, calculated to have been ca. 5.0 m. to 6.0 m. in length, passed between two piers sculpted from the rock and rested in a niche cut into the back wall. T h e piers flanked a plastered collecting vat and, in the manner of a sleeve, served to hold the wicker baskets of olive pulp over the vat, which had a capacity of between forty and ninety liters. T h e piers also provided a place to rest the beam while the vat was emptied or the weights were adjusted. They were usually spaced at about one-third of the distance between the point where the beam sat in the niche of the wall (the fulcrum) and the other

1 9 9 2 ) , 3 4 - 4 "" ,esp. Figs. 62 and 65; idem ,קנן. 0 In t roduc t ion to Olive Oil Product ion in Cyprus , " pp. 6768־ . A m o n g o ther Hellenistic oil installations found in the N e a r East are Qa land iyeh and T i r a t Y e h u d a in Israel. See Andrea M . Berlin, "Between Large Forces: Palestine in the Hellenis-tic Per iod," BiblArch 60, no. 1 (1997): 9 (Qalandiyeh), 1 5 1 6 (Tirat Yehuda).

100 Sagiv and Kloner , " M a r e s h a , " pp. 255 92; Amos Kloner and N a h u m Sagiv, " T h e Olive Presses of Hellenistic Maresha , Israel," in IM production du vin et de l'huile, pp . I 19 36; Arnos Klon-er, " U n d e r g r o u n d Metropolis . T h e Sub te r ranean Wor ld of Mare sha , " Biblical Archaeology Review 23, no. 2 (Mar.-April 1997): 2 4 - 3 5 , 67.

CHAPTER THREE 3 1 0

end. This provided a pressing force approximately three times the weight of the stones.101 In the bottom of the vat was a small depression useful for cleaning out all the oil and any sediment that might fall into the vat. Three stone weights, usually rectangular at the bot tom but trapezoidal in section and weighing between 250 kg. and 400 kg. each, normally applied the power to press the olives. The most common Hellenistic beam weight, used here, was the reversed T-weight. Perhaps a development from the vertical bored doughnut weight of the Iron Age period, this weight had a vertical bore to a certain depth where a horizontal bore gave access to each side. A rope was slipped through the vertical bore and tied to a stout piece of wood or metal rod inserted through the hori-zontal bore. Some weights found in situ give a good idea of the spacing of the weights along the beam. T o facilitate at tachment to the beam, these weights usually sat in a trough cut below the floor surface on which the press rested. A rope attached to the rod through the top hole in the weight was probably con-nected to a winch, suspended below the beam that was used to hoist each weight off the ground. Handspikes served to turn the winch and, when braced against the beam, acted as a brake and kept the weights secured at the determined height. The re is no physical evidence for winches, which were probably made of wood and have not survived; their existence is assumed from the difficulty a per-son would face in lifting the large stone weights. Also probably made of wood and so not likely to survive the millennia was a round lid that probably sat on the container of olive pulp and distributed the pressing force of the beam over the surface of the frail, which itself has not survived. Wha t it looked like, one can only surmise from art historical evidence, such as the Boston Black-figure lekythos or the fragment of a sculpted relief now in the British Museum.1 0 2 T h e collection vats had no facility for draining, so the oil had to be bailed after press-ing and placed in jars for separation from the water. It was then stored in large tanks, with a capacity of several thousand liters, until moved to market.

T h e suggestion that winches were employed to lift the stone weights used in

l(" T h e qualifier " improved" is that of Frankel ( Wine and Oil Production, pp. 76-77), used to indi-eate presses character ized by technical innovations beyond the simple lever-and-weight presses typical of I ron Age Israel, part icularly those c o m m o n in southern Israel f rom which the M a r e s h a press derived. For the est imate of pressing p o w e r relative to the p lacement of the piers, see Frankel , ibid., p. 61. Frankel (pp. 77-82) identifies ano the r possible Hellenistic oil press which used two slotted piers to a n c h o r the b e a m ra the r than a n iche in the back wall. T h e Zabad i Press, so designated f rom the location of its best example , is found only in R o m a n contexts, though Frankel suggests that a press using a single slotted pier, found at U m m el י A m a d in a Hellenistic context , is the prototype. Slotted-pier oil presses will receive more detailed t rea tment in the next chapter .

102 Isager and Skydsgaard, Ancient Greek Agriculture, p. 65, PI. 3.14. See Blümner , Technologie und Terminologie, p. 34, Fig. 125. For the reversed T-weight , see Frankel, Wine and Oil Production, p. 101.

3 1 1 ELLENISTIC PERIOD THE GREEK WORLD: BRONZE AGE - H

presses at Maresha derives some support from the Villa Albani relief in Rome, Hero of Alexandria

which shows an oil press with a rope wound around a winch. O n e end of the rope attaches to the beam, while the other end seems to fasten to a stone weight. Drachmann correlates this apparatus with the weight-and-drum press described by Hero of Alexandria, who probably lived in the first century A. D.l()3 Book Three of Hero's treatise on mechanics describes several oil presses, all of which differ to some degree from typical Roman presses and so probably reflect Greek presses. The date of the development of this particular variant of the lever-and-weight press is unknown, but one during the late Hellenistic period is not unlike-ly 104 Interpretation of Hero 's descriptions is difficult not only because of the tech-nical complexities being described but also because the treatise survives only in a ninth-century A. D. Arabic translation and a reconstruction of the Greek text is fraught with uncertainties. Drachmann 's translation and interpretation of Hero's text, however, suggest that Hero used a drum, or winch, and two pulleys (not embodied in the excavator's reconstruction of how the Maresha presses operated) to lift weights onto the beam (Fig. 22). A rope attached to the winch fed through two pulleys, one on the beam and one on the stone, and tied to the beam. How the pulley was attached to the weight is not specified. A crosspiece tied to the top of the pulley allowed it to be secured to the beam when the stone was raised. T h e winch was placed not under the beam, which would result in pulling the beam out of its mortise in the wall, but firmly fixed into the ground inside between the weight and the wall. Workers used long handspikes to rotate the d rum to draw up the ropes through the pulleys and so to lift the stone. A short thick piece of wood inserted into a hole in the winch served to prevent a backlash in case the worker's grip slipped while raising the stone and to anchor the drum when the stone had been raised to the required height. Drachmann thinks that a separate pulley was used to lift the beam when attending to the baskets of pressed olives, a system suggested in the reconstruction of the Hellenistic beam-and-weight presses at Kopetra on Cyprus. This idea, however, rests on no physical evidence other than the conclusion that the building housing the presses was roofed.105

As sometimes still practiced in Crete, before pressing hot water is poured over

10:! D r a c h m a n n , Ancient Oil Mills and Presses, p. 67, a n d Fig. 21. See also Amouret t i , h pain et l'huile, p. 168.

104 S. C. Bakhuizen suggests that the we igh t -and-drum |Dress can be dated at least to 350 250 B. C. based on the finds of four large stones "with swallow-tail mortises" found at Goritsa in Macedon ia . See S. C. Bakhuizen, "Torcu la Graecanica : A No te on the Archaeology of Olive and G r a p e Pressing,,י in Slips Votiva. Papers Presented to C. M. Stibbe. M . G n a d e , ed. (Amsterdam: Allard Pierson Museum, 1991), pp. 1 -6 .

105 H e r o Mechanica 3.14; D r a c h m a n n , Ancient Oil Mills and Presses, pp ־6367 . ; A. G. D r a c h m a n n , The Mechanical Technologγ of Greek and Roman Antiquity (Copenhagen: Munksgaard , 1963), pp.

CHAPTER THREE 3 1 2

Fig. 22. Drachmann 's interpretation of Hero's weight-and-drum press described in Book Three of Mechanica. Drachmann, Ancient Oil Mills and Presses, Fig. 20.

313 THE GREEK WORLD: BRONZE AGE - HELLENISTIC PERIOD

the pulp to assist in removing the oil. Under pressure both water and oil (low Separation of oil

into the collecting vat. Following pressing, the oil had to be separated from the from water

water. O n e way to do this was to bail the oil, which rises to the top, with a small vessel. 111 a second room of the house at Praesos, however, excavators found a two-handled j a r possessing a spout at the bottom. In a manner not unlike that employed by Bronze Age inhabitants of Myrtos, Palaikastro, and elsewhere on Crete using clay tubs possessing a similarly placed spout, the Praesos workers could unplug the spout and drain the water. At the appropriate time, they would plug it again, leaving only oil in the container.106

6. Animal Processing

a. Butchery T h e Greeks consumed many species of domesticated and wild animals, such as Butchery tools

cattle, oxen, goats, sheep, and poultry. Before roasting, boiling, frying, or any other preparation, the animal had to be killed and dismembered. The sacrifice of cattle and oxen are fully documented in Homer , and formed an important par t of the Panathenaea at Athens as well as in festivals at other places, such as Delos. These animals were maintained on farms, as indicated by their appear-ancc among confiscated goods listed in the Attic stelae; literary references to meat dishes show that they were also butchered for food. Evidence for the tools themselves and for the butchery process, however, is meager, and derives pri-manly from art historical and archaeological sources. The latter material includes finds of a few iron knives in Building N:21 in the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore at Corinth and a knife and butcher's cleaver or chopper in the sanctu-ary of Hercules at Heraclion on the island of Thasos. Interestingly, both derive from religious contexts and so probably involved tools used in sacrifice. T h e cleaver served to cut through bone, while knives were sufficient to separate bones at the joints and to remove meat from bones. As might be expected for a sanctuary to Demeter over one-half of bones found at Corinth were of the domestic pig and piglet, with far fewer numbers of goat and sheep bones. These animals were probably sacrificed and later eaten in the dining rooms.107

110-16; J . G . Landcls, Engineering in the Ancient World (Berkeley: University of Cal i fornia Press, 1978), pp. 199-208. T h e Greeks were using the pulley pe rhaps as early as the eighth century B. C . O n pulleys, see Ps-Aristotlc Mechanica 18.853a־b. Sec H a d j i s a w a s , Olive Oil Processing in Cyprus, p. 39, Fig. 65 (Kopetra).

Bosanquet י"" , "Excavat ions at Praesos," pp. 268 69. These vessels also br ing to mind the Ekron-type oil separators used in Israel. See above, pp. 2 3 2 - 3 3 . O n use of hot water dur ing press-ing, see Amoure t t i , Le pain et l'huile, p. 155; Foxhall, "Oil Extract ion and Processing," p. 184.

107 Pritchett , "Attic Stelai," pp. 255-61 ; Bookidis et al, "Din ing in the Sanctuary of Demete r

CHAPTER THREE 3 1 4

Greek butchery in the Some idea of the process of butchery can be gleaned from the art historical evi-art historical evidence dence. So, for instance, an early sixth-century B. C. Corinthian column crater

carries the scene of a man holding a large cleaver in one hand while he offers to another man a leg portion of an animal of some kind. On a three-legged table, or tripod, between them lie other pieces of meat. Among the most famous represen-tations of butchery, this time of a tunny, is the scene represented on a fourth-cen-tury B. C. bell crater from the Lipari Islands off Sicily. A man has come to pur-chase a piece of fish from the butcher shown holding a large cleaver and in the act of cutting up a tunny lying on a tripod. A similar theme appears on an Athen-ian Red-figure amphora, except this time the fish is small, perhaps a mullet.108

The butchery motif tends to be repetitive, showing the typical three-legged table and a cook or butcher holding a large cleaver. T o judge from these paintings and from finds of actual knives and cleavers, it seems that Greek butchery tools and methods have changed not at all from what was typical in the ancient Near East and Egypt. Large choppers served to cut through bone, while smaller sharp knives were best for slicing meat or removing it from the bone. Isager and Skyds-gaard's comment on the comparison between the relatively unchanging shapes of agricultural hand tools and the significant technological development in Greek presses and oil-mills probably applies to butchery tools as well:

The very production of wine and oil is a case of an industry developing from agri-cultural products, frequently with a view to marketing, and the multitude of con-tainers for wine and olive-oil goes to show that they were often transported far afield throughout the Mediterranean area. For that reason, it undoubtedly paid to improve working procedures here, whereas simpler manual tools rapidly attained a functional excellence that did not prompt any attempt at improving them in any fundamental way.109

a n d Kore , " pp. 17-44; Isager a n d Skydsgaard, Ancient Greek Agriculture, pp. 8 9 - 9 6 ; Dalby, Siren Feasts, pp. 5 8 - 6 5 . For the relationship of bu tchery and religious sacrifice, see esp. G u y Berthi-a u m e , Les rôles du Mágeir0s. M n e m o s y n e Suppl. 70 (Leiden: E. J . Brill, 1982), esp. pp. 17-61; Jacques des Courtiis, A n n e Pariente, a n d Armelle Gardeisen, "Sacrifices d ' a n i m a u x à l 'Hérak-1eiŪn de Thasos , " BGH 120 (1996): 815.

108 Sparkes, "Greek kitchen," p. 132, and Pl. VIII.6. For other examples of butchery and of cleavers, see ibid., p. 132, note 6, and p. 136, Appendix No. 65; Berthiaume, Rôles du Mâgeiros, esp. Pis. 6 7, 13 16, 19-20. For cutting up fish, see Brian Sparkes, "A Pretty Kettle of Fish," in Food in Antiquity, pp. 1 5 0 6 ־ 1 , Fig. 11.7-11.9. As can be seen f rom the fish pieces found in the Punic Ampho-ra Building in Cor in th (below pp. 318-IS)), fish had also to be cut up preparatory to preservation. Th is included gutting and cutting into pieces of various shape or f rom different parts of the fish.

109 Isager and Skydsgaard, Ancient Greek Agriculture, p. 66. T h e y fur ther c o m m e n t that many tools used in ancient Greece can still be found in m o d e r n Greek markets in basically the same form, and add that , "Th is is not in tended to suggest that we are dealing with a re tarded material cul-ture: ra ther , to show that at a very early time m a n developed a technology adjusted to his envi-ronmen t . "


b. Daiiy Products Milk, except possibly among rural populations, was not a popular drink among Cheese

the Greeks, nor were byproducts from it, except cheese. Sheep and goat's milk were the most popular, though cow's milk, which Aristotle says actually pro-duced more cheese per amphora than goat's milk, was also used. Specialty sell-ers sold cheeses by weight in the Athenian market. Athenians could buy not only local cheeses but also varieties imported from as far away as Sicily and the Thra -cian Chersonese or as close as the Cycladic island of Cythnus, Boeotia, and par-ticularly Tromileia, a city in Achaea. No Greek literary source explains cheese making, but terminology used to describe different cheeses gives a hint at the process. So, for example, Aristotle, in his Historia Animalium, says that milk could be curdled with fig juice or rennet. 111 one of his plays the comic poet Antiphanes, in listing six different cheeses, adds more information to confirm that the Greeks made true cheeses. 111 addition to a fresh and a cream cheese he also notes cheeses that were dry, crushed, grated, and sliced. From this we can surmise that warm milk was first allowed to curdle by the addition of fig juice or rennet, the stomach contents of an unweaned calf. After a certain period of time the curds were separated off from the liquid whey. The degree to which the curds were drained, through cheddaring or pressing or both, gave rise to cheeses that ranged from soft types that could be sliced to dry ones needing to be crushed or grated. T h e latter kinds required the curds to be squeezed in some fashion, such as today takes place in molds. T h e ancient Greek evidence for this, however, is lacking.110

Ο ׳Greeks were making true cheese at least by the ninth century B. C., and probably Cheese graters

earlier. The evidence for this comes from the find of cheese graters among the objects in three ninth-century B. C. warriors' graves discovered in the Toumba cemetery at Lefkandi in Euboea. Finds of similar items in other warrior graves indi-cates that the cheese grater was a common item in the soldier's equipment. Soldiers could use this portable tool to grate hard cheese into dough to make bread or over meat or fish as a garnish. M. L. West, in commenting on Homer Iliad 11.63840־, suggests that a soldier might also grate cheese to concoct a palatable painkiller. The three bronze cheese graters found in a seventh-century B. C. domestic setting on the island of Pithecusae are probably to be associated with Euboean Greek activity in

110 Dalby, Siren Feasts, pp See also Aristotle HA 522a'22-b6; Ant .־13536 ,108 ,66 . iphanes ap. Athen. 402e. Cf. Euripides Cyc. 136. Sec also Aris tophanes Ra. 1369 (cheese sold by weight), Eq. 480 (Boeotia), 854 (cheese seller); Lysias 23.6 (cheese market); Alexis ap. Athen . 12.516e (Cyth-nus); Ephippus ap. Athen . 9. 370c (Chersonese); Phi lemon ap. Athen . 14.658a (Sicilian cheese); Semonides of Amorgus ap. Athen. 14.658c (Achaea). Theocr i tus (11.20) ment ions a c ream cheese.

CHAPTER THREE 3 1 6

the Bay of Naples at that time. Euboean contacts with the local populations most likely accounts for the cheese graters found in wealthy Italic graves along the Tyrrhenian coastline as far as north as Populonia in Etruria.1" The Greek cheese grater (τυρύκνηστις) consisted of a flat piece of bronze or iron perforated from one side so as to impart to the other side where the punch exited a series of holes sur-rounded by burrs, sharp jagged pieces of metal. Most extant graters arc incomplete, so exact determination of usual size is difficult to ascertain. One example from Olyn-thus, for example, had a complete length of 0.107 m. Width of surviving pieces in the best condition seem to vary between 0.057 m. and 0.07 m. A border, large enough to accommodate nails, surrounds the perforated areas. Nails could attach the bronze grater to a wooden frame. How it was used can be seen in terra-cotta fig-urines, such as the example from Rhitsona, dating ca. 500-474 B. C. The cook, always shown seated but he could just as well stand up, grasped the grater in one hand, usually by a handle, sometimes decorated with the image of a lion, attached to its upper face, and rubbed the cheese over the sharp surface. The cheese fragments fell into a mixing bowl or directly onto the food being prepared.112

c. Fish Fish in the Greek Homer indicates that, as was the case in the prehistoric era, some fishing was

diet practiced in the early Archaic period. T h e scant notice given to fish as food in the epic poems should probably be attributed to the attitude that fishing as an occupation and the eating of fish implied low social standing. Fish was the food of common men, not of heroes. Nevertheless, Greeks of all social classes in the Classical age and later were avid consumers of fresh and processed fish. O n e need only scan the numerous references to fish made by Greek comedy writers and preserved in the Deipnosophistae of Athenaeus to perceive the Greek love of fish. Greek affection for fish cannot be better illustrated than by observing that the word οψον, which designated generally a relish eaten with bread or meat, came to mean "fish." By the Classical period fish were not a sometime food, but a mainstay of the Greek diet.113

/

111 David Ridgway, "Nestor ' s C u p and the Etruscans," OJA 16, nŪ. 3 (Nov. 1997): 32544־ ; M. L. West , "Gra t ed Cheese Fit For Heroes , " J HS 118 (1998): 190 91.

112 Sparkes, "Greek Ki tchen , " p. 132, Append ix No. 56, a n d Fl. VIII ,3 . For Greek cheese graters, sec esp. Paul Jacobs tha l , "Λέαινα έπ\ Τυροκνήστιδος," MDAI(A) 57 (1932): 1 7, a n d Ι). M . Robinson , Metal and Minor Miscellaneous Finds. Part X of Excavations at Olynthus (Baltimore: J o h n s Hopkins University Press, 1941), pp. 191 94, a n d Pis. 4 8 - 4 9 . For the decorative hand le in the form of a lion, see Aris tophanes Lys. 231 32־. See also Aris tophanes Av. 1579, V. 938, 963.

113 Athen. 7.276e. Plutarch (Timoleon 14) indicates that one term for the fish marke t was οψόπωλις. J a m e s Davidson, " O n the Fish Missing f rom H o m e r , " in Food in European Literature, pp. 5 7 - 6 4 ; Buchholtz et al ,Jagd und Fischfang, pp. 131 80; Η . Ν. C o u c h , "Fishing in H o m e r , " (J 32 (1936 37): 171 72; Henk H ö p p e n e r , Halieutica. Bijdrage lot de Kennis der oud-grieksche Visscherif


Since fish die and begin to spoil soon after removal from water, medium and Preserved fish

long-term preservation of fish meat became a primary concern. The various products

products arising from the preservation processes created a popular food item for Athenians, who as early as the fifth century B. C. imported preserved fish from eastern regions as far away as Byzantium and the Crimea on the Black Sea and from Spain and Sicily in the west. During the Hellenistic period, salted fish also came to Athens from Cyprus and Italy. Greek terms for preserved fish denote two broad categories. T h e first, τάριχος (Lat. salsamentum), was a general term used to designate any meat, especially fish, preserved by various methods, whether salted, dried, or smoked and preserved whole or cut into smaller pieces. Specific names attached to particular end products distinguished by shape or form in which they were processed, saltiness, and type and age of fish used. So, for example, τρίγωνον (triangular) and τετράγωνον (rectangular) designated par-ticular shapes; ακρόπαστος (lightly salted), τέλειος (fully salted), τάριχος λεπιδωτόν (salted without scales), υπογάστρια (stomach portion), μελάνδρυα (dorsal slice), θυννίδες (tunny), κορακίδια (korakinos), and ώραιον (young tunny) illustrate oth-er end products. T h e second category included the fish sauces, particularly γάρον (Lat. garum) and άλμη (Lat. muria), known from Roman sources to have been made from small whole fish and innards of larger species.114 "fliese terms provide only a hint at the details of the processes utilized by the Greeks to pre-serve fish. Full descriptions from literary sources date only to the Roman period. Therefore, discussion of the technology of Graeco-Roman fish processing will await discussion of the Roman methods. At this point, we can say that Greek fish preservation included the use of salt and a variety of fish cut up in various ways and preserved in different forms, shapes, and sizes.115

Literary and epigraphic sources dating to the Classical and Hellenistic periods

(Amsterdam: H . J . Paris, 1931), 11() .16 1 .קנן G r a e c o - R o m a n fishing, see Radcliffe, Fishing-, pp. 63 140; D 'Arcy T h o m p s o n , A Glossary of Greek Fishes (London: Oxfo rd University Press, 1947),

passim; Dalby, Siren F e a s t s , . 7 קבן. 66 6114 Cf., e.g., Black Sea: Nicostratus frs. 4, 5 Edmonds , Ant iphanes frs. 77 and 181 Edmonds ; Demosthenes In Lacritum 9 3 3 - 3 4 ; Spain and Sicily: Eupolis fr. 186 Edmonds ; T h e o p o m p u s fr. 51 Edmonds ; Cyprus: Poseidippus fr. 17 Edmonds ; Italy: Eu thydemus ap. Athen . 3.1 16c. See also

J a c q u e s D u m o n t , "La pêche du thon à Byzance à l ' époque hellénistique," REA 78 79 (1976-1977): 9 6 - 1 1 7 ; Chris to M . Danov , "Pontos Euxeinos," RE , Suppl . IX (1962), passim. For a more detailed discussion, with extensive documenta t ion , of the terminology of processed fish in the Greek East, see Robe r t I. Curtis , Garum and Salsamenta. Production and Commerce in Materia Medica (Leiden: E . J . Brill, 1991), esp. pp. 6 1 ־ 5 , and Demetr ius J . Georgacas , Ichthyological Terns for the Sturgeon and Etymologγ of the International Terms Botargo, Caviar and Congeners (Athens: Graphe ion Demos ieumaton tes Akademias , 1978), esp. pp. 154-61.

113 An in-depth discussion of the ancient salting processes appears in C h a p t e r Eight, where the chemical processes at work and m o d e r n methods of fish preservat ion will also find description and compar ison with ancient techniques.

CHAPTER THREE 3 1 8

clearly substantiate salted fish and fish sauces in the Greek East at least as early as the fifth century B. C., though they probably existed much earlier. A fifth-century B. C. inscription describes the Black Sea as a "place full of fish," while literary sources corroborate fish salting in the Black Sea generally, referring to its prod-ucts as τάριχος Ποντικός. Particular Greek colonies, such as Sinope and especially Byzantium, were famous for their salted fish products, which they apparently shipped to Athenian markets. Fish were salted at Parion on the southern coast of the Hellespont, at Phaselis on the coast of Lycia, and on several islands off the coast of Asia Minor, such as Samos, Cos, and Cyprus. Other places where tunny watches operated, such as at Halicarnassus and on the island of Lesbos, probably also processed fish. Surprisingly, considering the wealth of literary evidence, archaeological excavation has yielded no trace of fish processing installations in the Greek East dating prior to the Roman period. This fact, at least to some extent, has probably led some recent scholars to downplay the importance of processed fish in Greek society and to view its role merely as "a source of susti-nence (sic) during periods of scarcity due to reduced crop yields."116 Excavations at one Greek city, however, have yielded physical evidence for processed fish.

Punic amphora In Corinth during the mid-fifth century B. C. a private house served partially as building in Corinth a residence and partially to store or reprocess wine and salted fish. After rénova-

tions, it functioned totally in this commercial capacity.117 Local Corinthian amphorae and similar vessels from Chios, Mende, and other places apparently at one time contained wine. Approximately forty per cent of amphorae, however, were Punic, coming from the area of Kouass on the northwest coast of modern Morocco or the southern coast of Spain opposite.118 Excavators named this house

" , T י . W . Galan t , A fisherman's Tale. Miscel lanea Graeca , Fase. 7 (Gent: Belgian Archaeological Mission in Greece , 1985), p. 44. But cf. Curt is , Garum and Salsamenta, pp . 113-131. Sec also Nicholas Purcell, "Ea t ing Fish. T h e Paradoxes of Seafood ," in Food in Antiquity, pp. 132-49, who takes a position in termediate between Galan t and Curt is . See Inscriptions Graecae Metricae. T . Prcger , ed. (Leipzig, 1891), p. 7 (ίχθυοέσσα χώρα); Pontic salt fish: Cra t inus fr. 40 Edmonds . David Braund points out that most salt-fish described in the literary sources as coming f rom Byzant ium in reality p robably came f rom numerous locations a r o u n d the Black Sea and was merely t ransshipped through Byzant ium. See David Braund , "Fish f rom the Black Sea: Classical Byzant ium and the Greekness of T r a d e , " in Food in Antiquity, pp . 162-70.

117 Char les K. Williams, II a n d Joan E. Fisher, "Cor in th , 1975: Forum Southwest ," Hesperia 45 (1976): 104-07; Char les K. Williams, II, "Cor in th , 1977: Fo rum Southwest ," Hesperia 47 (1978): 15-20; Char les K. Williams, II, "Cor in th , 1978: Fo rum Southwest ," Hesperia 48 (1979): 107-24; Char les K . Williams, II, "Cor in th Excavations, 1979," Hesperia 49 (1980): 108-11.

" B Identif icat ion of origin is based on physico-chemical analysis of the clay content of the ves-sels c o m p a r e d with the geology of known areas of Punic a m p h o r a product ion . T h e Punic vessels confo rm to Punic type Mana-Pascua l A-4a. Y. Maniat is , R . E. Jones , I. K. Whi tb read , A. Kostikas, A. Simopoulos , C h . Karakalos , a n d C . K. Williams, II, "Punic Amphora s Found at Cor in th , Greece: an Investigation of T h e i r Or ig in and Techno logy , " JFA 1 1 (1984): 205 -22 .


the "Punic Amphora Building" from the abundance of sherds of this type ampho-ra found there.119 Many sherds had still adhering to them pieces of preserved bream and tunny (PI. 25). The fish had been cut into small pieces convenient for shipping in the clay vessels. These rectangular segments seem to conform to fish processed in salted form or preserved in brine, called τετράγωνον from their shape. There is no evidence to show that these fish products were originally processed in Corinth. Excavations in the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore, however, confirm the local consumption of processed fish. Mostly unburncd fish bones, ranging in size between eleven and fifteen ccntimctcrs, found in the dining rooms of the sane-tuary may represent the remains either of salted fish or of fish sauce that formed part of ritual meals.120 The most likely place of origin for the bones in the Punic Amphora Building is the source of the amphorae themselves, Spain or North Africa. No salting installations dating prior to the Roman period have come to light in North Africa. Recent finds in the areas of Cadiz, ancient Gades, dating to the mid-fifth century B. C., however, may provide a hint at the technological processes used by Carthaginians in Spain to produce salt fish and fish sauce.

At Las Redes, near Puerto de Santa Maria, Cadiz, excavators have unearthed Punic preserved-fish

the remains of a salting installation. A building, measuring 10.7 m. χ 10.6 m., processing in Spain

possessed five separate rooms. One room contained two vats, one square and one rectangular, which may have served for salting whole or dismembered fish. Another room may have served to produce fish sauce, since its floor was covered with a dark deposit, perhaps the decomposed remains of fish sauce. A small hearth for heating the concoction, a step commonly used in preparing fish sauce quickly, was found in the room as well. T he association with fish seems assured by the presence in the house of fishhooks and net weights and needles; a connec-tion with the trade in processed fish is implied by the finds of Corinthian wine amphorae and Punic vessels of type Mana-Pascual A-4a, the same types found in the Punic Amphora Building at Corinth. Other sites in the Cadiz area, such as in the Plaza de Asdrúba1, seem also to have produced processed fish. T h e Punic salting installations in the area of Gades flourished between 430 and 325 B. C., after which they decline rapidly until disappearing ca. 200 B. C.121 T h e reasons

119 T h e a m p h o r a f ragments were all mixed together, p robably having been broken once e m p -tied of their contents. Th is renders impossible the at t r ibut ion of the fish to a par t icular container . T h e Punic vessels seem the most likely candidates . Williams, "Cor in th , 1978," pp. 117 18.

120 Bookidis et al, "Din ing in the Sanc tuary of Deme te r a n d Kore ," p. 44. 121 G . de Frutos, G. Chic , and N. Berr ia tura , "Las anforas de la factoria p r e r o m a n a de sala-

zones de 'Las Redes ' (Puerto de Santa Mar i a , Cadiz) ," in Ac las 1" Congreso Peninsular de Historia Antigua. G. Pereira M e n a u t , ed. (Santiago de Composte la : Conscllo da Cu l tu ra Gallcga, 1988), 1: 295 -306 ; Angel M u n o z Vicente, Gregor io de Frutos Reyes, and Ncrea Berr ia tua Hernandez , " C o n t r i b u t i o n a los origenes y difusiôn comercial de la industr ia pesquera y conservera Gad i t ana

CHAPTER THREE 3 2 0

for this arc unknown, but are probably related to the effects of the Second Punic War on the Carthaginian economy in Spain. The Punic salting vats, as will be shown below, are similar in construction to Roman installations, and so probably served as the model for them. As the evidence for the later period is much fuller, a detailed discussion off ish salting installations will be postponed until then.

T h e question arises as to who first developed fish processing into a commercial enterprise in the western Mediterranean. If one excludes, as seems justified from the lack of any evidence to the contrary, that the industry did not develop indige-nously, the candidates are two, Greeks and Phoenicians, both of whom colonized extensively throughout the area. O n e scenario would have Greek colonists learn the salting process from inhabitants of the Black Sea as early as the seventh ccn-tury B. C., and carry this knowledge with them to other parts of the Greek East and subsequently to the western Mediterranean. Greek colonists, specifically Phocaean according to one suggestion, in the sixth century B. C. might have introduced the technology to Tyrian inhabitants of southern Spain. As the Span-ish peninsula became more Punicized, however, these inhabitants forgot the Hel-lenic origins of the salting industry.122 Most scholars, however, believe that the salting industry was a Phoenico-Punic innovation brought by colonists first directly from the Levant in the ninth and eighth centuries B. C. and later by Carthaginians. T h e Phoenicians in their homeland were active in the purple dye industry, which utilized production methods similar to those employed by Romans to produce fish sauce. It may be more than coincidence that Phoenico-Carthaginian colonial population centers frequently precede the siting of Roman fish processing installations. Indeed, the Punic salting industry in Spain must have begun long before the fifth century B. C. if it had developed by that time to the point that it was exporting processed fish to the eastern Mediterranean, and if the product from Gades in particular had a reputation in Athens equal to that for preserved fish produced in the Black Sea salteries. At present, however, no Greek fish salting installations have come to light in the western Mediterranean, while the earliest Punic site dates no earlier than the mid-fifth century B. C. The ques-

Transfer offish

processing technology

into the western

Mediterranean

a Través de las recicntes apor tac iones de las factorias de salazoncs de la Bahía de Cad iz , " in Actos de Congreso Internacional el Estrecho de Gibraltar Ceuta~Noviembre 1987 (Distancia, 1989), pp. 487 508;

J . A. Ruiz Gil, "Cronologia de las factorias de salazoncs púnica de Cád iz , " in Atti del II Congresso Intemazionale di Studi Fenici de Punici (Rome: Consiglio nazionale delle ricerchc, 1987), 3: 1211 14; Curt is , Garum and Salsamenta, pp. 4748־ ; Benedict J . Lowe, " T h e T r a d e and Product ion of G a r u m and its Role in the Provincial Economy of Hispania Tar raconens i s , " Ph.D. diss. University of Ed inburgh , 1997, pp. 64 ־66.

122 Robe r t Et ienne, "A propos du ' ga rum soc iorum' , " Latomus 29 (1970): 298-99 ; Carl Roe-buck, Ionian Trade and Colonization (New York: Archaeological Institute of America , 1959), p. 127; Curtis , Gamm and Salsamenta, pp. 1 14 15. But cf. Rober t Drews, " T h e Earliest Ci reek Sett lements Θ η the Black Sea ," JHS 96 (1976): 29.


tion must, therefore, remain unanswered, although it seems probable that the technology for fish preservation came from the East.123

Egypt and the ancient Near East during the Hellenistic period also produced Pish /)messing in

salt fish. Diodorus, writing in the first century B. C., says that the Nile River and Ptolemaic Egypt

Lake Moeris contain a wide variety of fish in unbelievable numbers, many of which were processed in saJteries (ταριχεΐα). Salted fish and fish sauce figure prominently in accounts, inventories, and grocery lists extant among numerous papyri. How the Egyptians preserved fish is unknown, but may have been similar to the modern Egyptian method for producing a dried salt fish. They first clean and wash the fish, after which they rub down the gills, mouth, and body cavity with salt. They then stack the fish with alternating layers of salt, finally covering the whole with a dry matting and allowing it to stand in the sun for three to five J ο Ο days. Then they turn the stack over and allow it to stand for an equal period. That fish were processed in vats, as was done in Punic Gades and later during the Roman period, is not verifiable owing to a lack of archaeological evidence.124

Our knowledge of Near Eastern commerce in preserved fish during this time is not very extensive. One Ptolemaic papyrus, a collection of administrative doc-uments from Tebtunis dating to 259 B. C., provides information on the move-ments of preserved and fresh fish within the Arsinoite nome and between the Fayum and Alexandria in the Delta. The documents speak of large consign-mcnts of fish, fresh and salted, at Alexandria and the tax levied on them. The quantities noted imply a rather large enterprise, perhaps state operated or one managed by a holder of a gift-estate.125 Salted fish came from outside as well during this period. Hieron of Syracuse in the late third century B. C., for exam-pie, sent a ship loaded with ten thousand jars of salt fish as a gift to Ptolemy. 111 259 B. C., Zenon, the private secretary to Apollonios, a treasure official of Ptole-my II, preserved the report and inventory of a four-camel caravan carrying salt-ed fish and other items between Pelusium in Egypt to Galilee via Gaza and Sidon. Along the way Zenon purchased salt fish from Sicily, Byzantium, Syria, and the Greek islands of Peparethos and Thasos.120

12:5 Gades : Nicostratus frs. 4, 5 Edmonds ; Ant iphanes fr. 77 Edmonds ; Eu thydemus ap. Athen. 3.116c. Curtis , Carum and Salsamenta, pp. 4 6 - 4 7 ־6566 , . O n purp le dye product ion , see Pliny / / V 9.133. Ben Lowe, in his recent dissertation on fish sauce product ion in Hispania Tarraconens is , has discussed in detail the question of origin and has strongly a rgued that it is Phoenician. Lowe, " T r a d e and Product ion of G a r u m , " pp. 52 ־77.

124 Forbes, Studies, 3: 193-94. Herodo tus 2.15, 77, 113; Diodorus 1.36.1. Athenaeus (3.118f-119a), a citizen of Naucra t i s in the Nile Delta, ment ions salteries at Mendes . For accounts, inventories, and grocery lists, sec Curtis , Gamm and Salsamenta, p. 135, note. 1 1 7.

125 ρ Teh. 701. See Curt is , Carum and Salsamenta, pp . 135-37. O n taxation on fishing and processed fish, see ibid., pp. 139-40.

126 Sicily: Athen . 5.209a. F û r Zenon papyri , see P.Col. III .2,- (Egypt), P.Lond. VII -Siei) ״.2141.

CHAPTER THREE 3 2 2

7. Sweeteners

Honey Honey was the only sweetener known to the Greeks and, for that reason, was highly esteemed.127 Archaeological excavations have yielded a few examples of Greek horizontal bee hives, such as those found at Vari and Trachones in the foothills of Mt. Hymettus in Attica and generally dated to the third century B. C. Study of the bees themselves, their hive, and its function, however, belongs to the field of apiculture, a subset of husbandry, and so requires only a few com-ments. How the honey was removed from the hive and what processes it under-went subsequently arc of greater interest to us, but apparently these topics had little appeal to the Greeks who have left no comments on the subject. Based on some similar late-Roman fragments capable of restoration found near Corinth, the Hellenistic Greek hives found on Mt. Hymettus can be reconstructed as long terra-cotta vessels with wide mouths and a thin disk-shaped lid. Hoops capable of fitting on the opening of the mouth could be attached to extend the length of the vessel. T h e bees would build a honeycomb inside the vessel, extending it over the entire length, including the attached ring. T h e farmer could, then, har-vest the honey by merely removing the ring extension without disturbing the bees with smoke, which might affect the taste of the honey. This also made har-vesting more efficient and faster. Once harvested the comb with its honey might be sold together in the markets at Athens. Questions concerning the removal of the comb and what processing it underwent after harvesting is more difficult to discover, and can best be learned from Roman writers, who apparently based much of their knowledge on Hellenistic works no longer extant.128

ly). See also Byzant ium: P.Cair.Zen. 59682; PSI IV.413; Syria: P.Can.Zen. 59012, 59013; Pepare thos and Thasos : PSI V.535. For the Z e n o n Papyri , see P. W . Pes tman, A Guide to the Zenon Archive. 2 vols. (Leiden: E..J. Brill, 1981). Cf. also Plutarch Ant. 29.

127 Greek knowledge of sugar goes back to the four th century B. C., but it was confined to reports of the sweetener b rough t back to Greece f rom India. Cf. Nearchos ap. S t rabo 15.1.20 (C694). Cf. Megas thencs fr. IX .410 a n d Nearchos Indika 8.61, quoted in Forbes, Studies, 5: 100.

1211 T h e works on apiculture by two Hellenistic Greeks, Philiscus of Thasos and Aris tomachus of Soli, ment ioned by Pliny ( H N 1 1.19) are, unfor tunately , not extant . See Forbes, Studies, 5: 93. O n Greek apiculture, see esp. Aristotle HA 6 2 3 b 1 6 - 6 2 7 b 2 2 ; C r a n e , Archaeology of Beekeeping pp . 4 5 - 5 1 ; A. J . G r a h a m , "Beehives f rom Ancient Greece ," Bee World 56, no. 2 (1975): 64 -75 ; J o h n Ellis Jones , "Hives and Honey of Hymet tus . Beekeeping in Ancient Greece ," Archaeology 29, no. 2 (April 1976): 8 0 - 9 1 ; C r a n e and G r a h a m , "Bee Hives of the Ancient Wor ld . 1," pp. 23 -41 ; C r a n e and G r a h a m , "Bee Hives of the Ancient World . 2 ," pp. 148 70; Adr ienne Mayor , " M a d Hon-ey!" Archaeology 48, no. 6 (Nov.-Dec. 1995): 3240־ ; Pritchett , "Attic Stelai," pp. 260 -61 . O n 11υη-eycomb sold in the market , see Aris tophanes ap. Athen . 9 .372b; Eubulus ap. Athen . 14.640b.

C H A P T E R S E V E N

R O M A N W O R L D I

T h e western Mediterranean region generally enjoyed the same climate and veg-etation resources as those found in the eastern part. Consequently, the diet also centered around the triad of cereals, grapevine, and olive. Italy, Sicily, and cer-tain areas of North Africa and Spain were particularly blessed with rich soils that supported the growth of these crops. Other sections, especially farther north, grew them in less abundance or not at all. T h e olive, for instance, because of cold weather will not survive much beyond a line running across northern Spain and Italy. During the R o m a n period North Africa and southern Spain were major suppliers of olive oil to Italy. T h e grapevine is hardier and can also grow in areas of western and central Europe. T h e cereals, especially wheat and barley, are found nearly everywhere, though they thrive best in rich soils with Mediterranean climates. So, for example, during the R o m a n period Sicily, Egypt, and North Africa were the primary suppliers of grain to Italy.1

Defining with precision the geographical and chronological parameters of the l lie Roman world

"Roman world" and the "Roman period" is difficult. Over time the Roman defined

Empire camc to cover a vast and diverse area, not only including lands border-ing upon the eastern and western shores of the Mediterranean Sea but also those as far north as Britain and east as Mesopotamia. Additionally, different parts of this expanse came under Roman control or influence at different times. Distinguishing the Hellenistic from the R o m a n period at a particular time in one area may, therefore, be inapplicable to another region. So, for instance, the Antigonid dynasty of Greece and Macedonia fell to Rome in the mid-second century B. C., but Ptolemaic Egypt did not become " R o m a n " until more than a century later. T h e same point can be made for Sicily and Spain in the western area as well. In general, therefore, for purposes of discussion I have treated the western Mediterranean as a whole, including areas to the north, as part of the Roman world, even if not under direct Roman control. Innovations in food technology attributed to areas of the eastern Mediterranean, however, are included as part of the Roman world only if they can be dated to the first centu-ry B. C. or later.

1 Z o h a r y and Hopf , Domestication of Plants, pp. 137 (olive), 143 (grape vine); Peter Garnsey , Food and Society in Classical Antiquity (Cambr idge : C a m b r i d g e University Press, 1999), pp. 12 19,

CHAPTER THREE 3 2 4

3 2 5 ROME I

Extant sources dealing with food technology during the Roman period are far more plentiful, varied, and, in many cases, directly related to the question at hand, than for earlier periods. Particularly valuable are the agricultural writers, Cato, Varro, and Columella, in addition to the encyclopedist Pliny the Elder, who give sometimes quite detailed descriptions of the processes. These provide information on food technology from the second century B. C. through the first century A. 1). Palladius, an agricultural writer of the fifth century A. 1)., pro-vides valuable information for the late empire. Augmenting these literary sources and, especially, providing information for the intervening periods are the numerous archaeological excavations, particularly in the western Mediter-ranean, and art historical materials, which provide a visual perception of the ancient techniques. Indeed, the Roman period offers a wealth of information on food technology for the period between the first century B. C. and third century A. D., a period of significant advancement in many areas, especially in milling and pressing technology.

A. Cereal Processing

1. Storage

Following harvesting and threshing of ccrcals Romans, depending upon their needs, either moved directly to mill the grain into flour for bread and other cereal products and to consume or transport it to market, or to place it into stor-age for future use. Whether the purpose was for short, medium, or long-term storage certain challenges arose in maintaining the grain 111 usable form. If the surroundings are excessively hot or damp, grain will through respiration give off heat, oxygen, and water, will begin to germinate, become susceptible to the growth of fungi and molds, and ultimately spoil. Additionally, unless maintained in a secure place, rats and vermin, such as weevils, gain entrance and either con-sume the grain or contaminate it through their droppings. For these reasons grain storage facilities had to be dry, cool, dark, and confined.2

R o m a n agricultural writers discuss various types of granary used contempora- Underground storage

neously in their own day in diverse parts of the Roman world. Different climates required distinct storage techniques and so varying kinds of facilities. Varro,

2 T o d a y , grain optimally should he stored in a cool, dry , and dark place, and main ta ined at a t empe ra tu r e below 60° F. Geof f rey Rickman , The Com Supply of Ancient Rome (Oxford: C l a r endon Press, 1980), pp. 134-35; Whi te , Roman Panning, p. 197; A n n e J o h n s o n , Roman Torts of the /׳׳ and 2nd Centuries A. I), in Britain and the German Provinces (London: A d a m and Char les Black, 1983), p. 142.

CHAPTER THREE 326 writing in the first century B. C., states that grain was stored in underground caves (sub terris speluncas) in Cappadocia and Thrace , while inhabitants of Carthaginian areas of Spain as well as the area around Osca (mod. Huesca) in Hispania Citcrior used pits (putei). T h e latter lined the bottom with straw and sealed them in such a way that neither moisture nor air reached the grain except when opened to remove some. Columella (il. first century A.D.) notes that inhabitants of dry regions, such as those in certain overseas provinces (transmarì-nis quibusdam provinciis), stored grain in underground pits (sin). T o which provinces he refers is unknown, but probably included those in specific areas of Spain, Cappadocia , Thrace , and North Africa, specifically mentioned by his contemporary Pliny the Elder as characterized by storage in underground pits or trenches (.scrobes).3 Underground food storage, however, was not unknown in the Western Mediterranean before the Romans.

Indigenous populat ions of nor thern Spain and southern Gaul, for example, utilized simple terra-cotta j a r s and small silos f rom as early as the Neolithic period. These latter containers, a r ranged in small groups, had depths of a lit-tie more than three feet and capacities ranging from 300 to 400 liters, suffi-cient for a family-size unit. By the seventh century B. C. they were utilizing silos of various sizes, with the largest reaching a capacity of 10,000 liters. T h e smaller ones may have stored seed grain for the next year 's crop or to feed individual families, while larger ones probably held provisions for entire com-munities or conta ined excess grain ea rmarked for t rading purposes. T h e four th and third centuries B. C. saw an increase in the use of silos, part icular-ly in the area a round Empor ion in nor the rn Spain and in southern Gaul . This mode of storage cont inued in Spain down to the second century B. C. and in southern Gaul into the first century B. C. Greeks seem to have intro-duced into parts of the western Medi te r ranean , such as in Gaul and Italy, the use of pithoi (Latin dolium), large immobile terra-cotta vessels used to store especially grain or wine.4 Storage in underground facilities, such as silos and pits, or in enclosed terra-cotta vessels, sought to protect the grain f rom air and water. W h e n sealed, ca rbon dioxide emitted by the grain, which for a period of time af ter harvesting continues to respire, replaces the available oxygen and gives off heat and moisture. Any pests and fungi so confined would quickly die. Additionally, the cool, dry a tmosphere in the sealed con-

3 V a r r o RR 1.57.2; Columel la RR 1.6.15; Pliny HJV 18.306. 4 Domin ique Garc ia connects this increase in grain storage with the rise of Greek t rade in the

western Med i t e r r anean . See D o m i n i q u e Garc ia , "Les structures dc conservation des céréales en Médi te r ranée nord-occidentale au p remie r millénaire avant J . -C . : innovat ions techniques et rôle économique , " in Techniques et économies, pp. 88 92.

3 2 7 ROME I

taincr would also slow clown the respiration process and so preserve the grain for a considerable period of time.5 Underg round or otherwise scaled storage was not the only option.

Varro (RR 1.57.1) says that wheat should be stored in abovcground granaries Aboveground storage

(in granaria sublimia) ventilated with windows on the east and north sides. Pliny (HN 18.301), in terms that recall Greek and Near Eastern granaries, describes storage buildings with brick walls three feet thick that were accessed from above and had no windows for ventilation, but adds that others suggest that windows be added on the north or north-east exposures. Columella (RR 1.6.12-14) remarks that some granaries had vaulted ceilings and were subdivided into bins in order to separate out each food item. These granaries were sited above ground on earthen floors. For this reason the Romans specially treated the floor and walls, and in some instances the grain itself, to keep out weevils and other vermin. Columella (RR 1.6.9-16) describes this process in some detail. He pre-scribes that the dirt floor be turned over, soaked with fresh unsalted lees (amurca) of pressed olives, and packed clown tightly, as in opus signinum floors. Tiles made from sand, lime, and amurca (specifically not water) should overlay this dirt floor, as well as seal the wall and floor joints. He then suggests applying to the walls a plaster of clay and amurca mixed with (probably crushed) dry leaves of the wild olive. When dry the walls should be sprinkled with amurca. Only then should the grain be placed in storage.·' Additional safeguards in storing grain included spraying amurca directly on the grain itself, and storing it in spikelet form (condita in spied).־

Columella (RR 1.6.16-17) notes that grain stored in granaries sitting on the Raised granary

ground, unless located in dry areas, tended to spoil. He then recommends that buildings

areas that have wet climates, such as Italy, utilize an aboveground granary ele-vatcd on supports (pensile horreum), with floors and walls specially treated as

5 V a r r o (RR 1.57.2) says that whea t stored in caves a n d wells kept for fifty years, millet for one hundred .

6 V a r r o (RR 1.57.1) states that the walls and floor should be covered with a plaster of crushed marble (opere tectorio marmorato), or with a clay mixed with grain chaff and amurca. Cf. C a t o RR 9 1 - 9 2 ; Vitruvius De Arch. 6.6.4; Pliny HN 15.33, 18.306. Whi te (Roman Fanning, p. 197) suggests that the "exceedingly s t rong and nauseous o d o u r " of amurca would repel vermin.

7 V a r r o R R 1.57.2; Pliny H N 18.299 307. Cf. also Palladius Opus Agr. 1.19. V a r r o (RR 1.57.2) says that some farmers use a powder or spray m a d e of Chalc id ian or Car ian chalk or w o r m w o o d , while Pliny (HN 18.306) suggests that an ear th f rom Olyn thus and Cer in thus in Euboea prevents grain f rom rotting. Columel la (RR 1.6.16 17) expressly r ecommends against winnowing grain that has already been at tacked by weevils in the granary . Th i s serves, he admonishes , only to mix the weevils more deeply into the grain, whereas leaving them alone restricts their d a m a g e to the uppe r layers alone. See Geoffrey Rickman, Roman Granaries and Store Buildings (Cambridge: T h e University Press, 1971), pp. 85-86.

CHAPTER THREE 3 2 8

described for granaries sited directly on the ground.8 Varro (RR 1.57.3) had ear-lier also mentioned that inhabitants of Hispania Citerior and of Italy, specifically Apulia, stored grain in raised above-ground granaries located in the fields (supra terram granarìa in agro sublimia).9 fl iese structures, Varro explains, have windows on all sides that allow the wind to cool the grain by blowing through the win-dows and underneath the floor as well. How early granaries of this type were built is unknown, but Ibero-Punic granaries located in northeastern Spain and dating from the fifth to third centuries B. C. apparently sat on supports. Rectan-gular 111 shape with sides ranging from four to six meters in length, these gra-naries had running parallel to each other a series of three or four low walls, ca. 0.80 cm. in height, which apparently supported a wooden floor. It likewise remains unclear if this structural design was of local origin or, as suggested by Dominique Garcia, constitutes a western Mediterranean variant to earlier Greek and Carthaginian examples. In any case, above-ground grain-storage buildings made of wood and raised on supports became an important feature of Roman granaries.10

Raised grammes in Excavations have revealed two granaries of this type in Italy, one in Latium at Italy Yicovaro, the other near Ravenna at Russi. Both formed part of larger farm

buildings, not isolated structures in the fields, and employed dwarf piers to support a raised wooden floor. The granary at Vicovaro was quite large (29.5 m. χ 14.8 m.) and utilized three rows of piers set 3.0 m. apart transversely and 2.8 m. apart longitudinally. The small granary (7.0 m. χ 9.9 m.) at Russi had two series of piers formed of two closely spaced rows each. A gap of 3.0 m. separated the two series of piers. Although the wooden superstructure of both granaries is lacking, to judge

ί! Columel la is somewhat ambiguous concern ing the relationship between the p repa red floor and the floor of a raised granary . It seems unlikely that the wooden floor would have a dirt layer, p r epa red as described, placed on top of it, and on top o f t h a t a layer of tiles. It is best to assume that the dirt floor, if actually employed with raised granaries, served as a foundat ion over which the g ranary was suspended.

V יי a r r o R R 1.57.3. T h e s e m a y be similar to ones attested in nor thern Gau l dur ing the Bronze and Iron ages, where rec tangular s tructures m a d e of posts a n d wedges may have served to store grain in bulk. T h a t these had raised floors is unknown. See Garc ia , "Structures de conservation des céréales," pp. 92 ־93.

10 Garc ia , "St ructures de conservation des céréales," pp. 9 2 - 9 4 . Cf. also Pliny HN 11.120. C o m p a r e above, p . 277, the remains of wha t m a y have been a raised floor in a circular above-ground silo associated with a Late Geomet r i c house in Lefkandi in Greece . R ickman, in his dis-cussion of military horrea, notes that R o m a n granar ies at N u m a n t i a , da t ing to the mid-second cen-tury B. C. , show similarities to later R o m a n military honea, particularly to the type c o m m o n in G e r m a n y . He believes, however, that the R o m a n tradit ion of g ranary construct ion m a y go back through the Greek East, specifically the th i rd-century B. C . storehouses on the acropolis at Perga-m u m in Asia Minor , to the large g ranary at H a r a p p a , in the Indus Valley, dat ing to the early sec-ond mil lennium B. C. R ickman , Roman Granaries, pp. 251 -55 .

3 2 9 ROME I

from the placement of the piers on each side of a wide space the organization of the one from Russi seems fairly clear. Along each side of the interior of the gra-nary and separated by a central aisle and workspace was a series of bins for hold-ing the grain. Another large room at Russi, identified as a barn, also had two rows of similarly spaced piers that may have supported a second, smaller granary."

Columella (RR 1.6.9-10) discusses one other type of storage facility. This was the multi-storied farm building that, as in the Greek world, served to store a vari-ety of products. Iii this case, he indicates that liquids destined for market, such as oil and wine, should be placed on the bottom floor, while the upper, presumably wooden, floors stored grain, hay, and other dry products. Ladders provided access to the upper floor, which was ventilated by small windows.12 T h e founda-tion of structures of this type would have been at liest, a hard, prepared floor, and, if it survived at all, would not today permit its identification as a granary.

Iii sum, then, Romans knew of underground and aboveground storage facili-ties, and constructed some of them in brick. Nevertheless, at least through the first century A. D., the date of the latest agricultural writer who comments in detail on the subject, Roman granaries usually took the form of an aboveground wooden structure, possibly with floors and walls treated with amurca to repel ver-min. Proper ventilation, provided by inserting small windows into one 01־ more walls and by raising the floor off the ground on supports, kept the grain cool and dry. T o what extent the archaeological evidence bears out the literary dcscrip-tions is our next concern.

Almost thirty years ago Geoffrey Rickman published what remains the stan- Military horrea

dard treatment of" Roman granaries.13 For Rickman, Romans knew, generally speaking, two broad categories of granaries, civil and military honea, each sus-ceptible of division into various subcategories. This is a useful construct and will be followed here. Roman agricultural writers offered advice to farmers primarily concerned with maintaining for the medium or long term produce destined for family consumption or transportation to market, or with reserving a supply of seed for the next year's crop and, perhaps, retaining a portion as a hedge against a bad year. T h e army, having similar purposes and faced with comparable con-straints, on the whole, constructed granaries conforming more to their prescrip-tions. So, for example, Tacitus (Agiicola 22.2) says that during his campaigns in Britain Agricola built forts stocked to withstand a siege lasting a full year.

" J . J . Rossiter, Roman Farm Buildings in Italy. B. A. R. Internat ional Series 52 (Oxford: B. A. R., 1978), pp . 57 59.

12 Venti lat ion of above-ground granar ies of all types is also a p r ime considerat ion for V a r r o [RR 1.57.1), Vitruvius (De Arch. 1.4.2), and Pliny (HN 18.302). For Greek farm houses that accom-moda t ed grain storage on the uppe r lloor, see above p. 279.

R י3 ickman , Roman Granaries and Store Buildings (Cambridge: T h e University Press, 1971).

CHAPTER THREE 3 3 0

Roman military granaries could contain any perishable foods but were spe-daily constructed to accommodate grain. Testing on burnt remains dating to the third or fourth century A. 1). found at the army supply base at South Shields in Britain, for example, showed that stores consisted primarily of spelt wheat and bread wheat, the latter possibly representing imported grain, perhaps from northern Gaul. South Shields functioned as the major food supplier of garrisons manning the forts along Hadrian 's Wall.14 Excavations in Roman forts in Britain, Germany, and elsewhere have shown that, generally speaking, all mili-tary forts, except the smallest, would have had one or more granaries within their protective walls, the number and size determined by the size of the garri-son and strategic purposes of the fort. Although variations in granary design do exist from one area to another and from one individual fort to another, several basic characteristics serve to define the Roman military granary.15

Timber granaries R o m a n military granaries fall into two general categories: timber and stone-built buildings. T h e first type, made entirely of wood, typifies Roman forts of the first century A. D. Examples include Rögden, Haltern, Vindonissa, and Hofheim in Germany and, in Britain especially the auxiliary forts of Fendoch and Hod Hill and the legionary fort of Inchtuthil. Because of their perishable nature, little physical evidence has survived beyond remains of their founda-tions. Evidence for ground plans of these granaries show that they were long, rectangular structures made entirely of wood with the superstructure raised off the ground on wooden posts. They averaged between seventeen and twenty-four meters in length and from eight to nine meters in width. T h e supports, usu-ally circular in cross-section and standing up to one meter high, either sat on horizontal beams fixed into the ground, were inserted into individual post-holes, or sat in post-holes aligned along the bed of shallow trenches running either Ion-gitudinally or, most commonly, transversely. T h e posts and the trenches in which they sat were usually spaced about one and one-half meters apart. T h e aboveground appearance of these buildings is unknown.1 6

14 Paul Bidwell, Roman Forts in Britain (London: B. T . Batsford, 1997), pp. 8 5 - 8 7 . See also, for Wales, J . L. Davies, "Nat ive Producers and R o m a n Consumers : the Mechan i sms of Military Sup-ply in Wales f rom Claudius to Thcodos ius , " in Roman Frontier Studies, 1995. W. G r o e n m a n - v a n Waater inge , B. L. van Beek, W . J. H . Willems, a n d S. L. Wynia , eds. (Oxford: O x b o w Books, 1997), pp. 2 6 7 - 7 2 .

15 Rickman (Roman Granaries, p. 250) argues strongly that, despite numerous differences of detail, R o m a n military forts in Britain and G e r m a n y arc remarkably similar in design and fiinc-tion.

16 R ickman , Roman Granaries, pp . 2 1 5 - 2 1 , 2 3 8 - 4 1 ; J o h n s o n , Roman Forts, pp . 144-45, 153, and esp. Fig. 105, p. 146, a n d Figs. 111-112 , p. 154, for a suggested reconstruct ion of the t imber gra-nary at the Lunt , Baginton, Warwickshire , England, based upon the original R o m a n g round plan.

3 3 1 ROME I

Although timber granaries continued to exist, during the Trajanic period Stone granaries

stone-built granaries began to replace timber structures as the preferred type. T h e earliest examples thus far known show that this form developed directly from timber granaries, and later exhibited numerous variations. Most stone-built granaries were single buildings, measuring usually ca. twenty feet wide, although some were of double width. Lengths varied, but in Britain commonly conformed to a ratio of three times the width. Placement within the fort was usually on high ground near the pnncipia, where the commander could keep a close eye on the food supply, and near a gateway. They might stand alone, be arranged in pairs facing each other across a courtyard, or be placed end-to-end. Granaries usually sat on a firm foundation of cobble and clay, and walls of squared stone or squared stone facing a rubble and mortar core frequently mea-sured between three and four feet thick. Flooring might assume any one of five different forms. Early stone-built granaries, like timber granaries, had wooden floors supported on a series of dwarf walls running at right angles to the long axis. T h e most common arrangement, however, embodied dwarf walls running longitudinally and supporting a wooden floor. Many floors were, no doubt, of wood, while a few were made from flagstones. Some granaries, such as at Hous-esteads (Fig. 23), had stone pillars arranged in parallel rows. Still others sat directly on the ground. T h e granary at Caerhun in Wales sat on a cement floor, perhaps constructed according to the recommendations of Columella (RR 1.6.9-16). T h e external walls of granaries themselves, at intervals that could vary between seven and fifteen feet, integrally incorporated stone buttresses, often ranging from two and one-half to three feet square and extending up to roof level. Halfway between the buttresses and located near ground level were narrow vertical openings, or louvers, sometimes splayed inward. These provided ventilation beneath the floor, while keeping out pests. Access to the granaries for loading and unloading was through a double-leaved door placed at one or both short ends. The doors probably formed the only source of light by which to work inside the granary. Some granaries had a loading platform or steps in front.17

T h e superstructure of stone-built granaries is better known than that for tin!-ber granaries, although evidence for a second story, except possibly for the late-imperial fort at Dover, is still lacking. Roofs were constructed of wooden beams covered with tile and possessed a wide overhanging cave. T h e purpose of the overhang was to provide more shade to cool the grain and to prevent rainwater

17 R ickman , Roman Granaries, pp . 2 2 1 - 3 6 , 241 -50 ; J o h n s o n , Roman Forts, pp . 144-57; Bidwell, Roman Forts in Britain, pp. 8586־ ; James Crow, Homesteads (London: B. T . Batsford, 1995), pp. 5 1 - 5 3 .

CHAPTER THREE 3 3 2

Fig. 23. Interpretation of the North Granary at the legionary fort of Housesteads on Hadrian 's Wall. Crow, Housesteads, ] 5 .Fig. 32. Courtesy of Chrysalis Books Group ,נ. 3

3 3 3 ROME I

f rom standing at the base of the walls. How the grain was stored on the inside remains a matter of conjecture. T h e Romans may have stored grain in loose form on the floor of wooden bins lining each side of a central walkway. Some scholars support this suggestion by arguing that exterior buttresses were designed specifically to oppose the outward force of the loose grain on walls that had been fur ther weakened by the addition of louvers. Others think not. They argue that if grain were stored in this fashion, wooden granaries also would have required buttresses, but no evidence for them exists. They conclude that but-tresses probably served primarily to support the heavy tiled roof, the thick gra-nary walls alone being sufficient to resist the outward thrust of the grain. Like-wise, storage in loose form would have made it difficult to regulate the turn over of grain to ensure that the oldest grain was used first. Storage in wicker baskets or in sacks, however, would solve this problem and render moot the question of pressure on external walls. Tha t sacks were commonly used to move grain can be seen in the wall painting from Ostia, now in the Vatican Museum, that shows the scene of dock workers carrying sacks of grain onto a ship called the Isis Giminiana.18

T h e mention of Ostia brings the discussion to the second general type of gra- Civil honea

nary, the civil horreum. T h e city of Rome itself apparently did not possess gra-naries before the time of Gaius Gracchus, who in 123 B. C. pushed through leg-islation to establish a place for keeping secure the public grain (ad custodiam fru-menti publia). Ostia, from the reign of Claudius, was Rome's major deep-water port. Through her docks came most of the goods bound for the city. Chief among these items was food, particularly grain. Dockworkers offloaded grain from sea-going ships onto small boats or barges for the short trek upriver to the city. Wha t could not be taken up immediately had to be stored. Likewise, what arrived in Rome had to be stored until distributed. Excavations in Ostia have revealed several grain warehouses, or honea, such as the Honea Epagathiana and the Grandi Honea, sited within the city so as to give easy access to and from the river. Ground plans engraved on the Severan marble plan of Rome, as well as excavations within the city of such first-century B. C structures as the Ilonea Gal-bana and Honea Agrippiana, give a good idea of granaries in Rome itself.19 Rick-

Rickman , Roman Granaries, 382 .קנן 3 6 ־ ; J o h n s o n , Roman Forts, 57 153 .קנן; Bidwell, Roman Forts in Britain, 86 85 .קנן; C row, Housesteads, 51 .ק. J o h n s o n (Roman Forts, 149 .ק) notes that the potential coolness created by use of granar ies lacking a subfloor ventilation system, such as those sited directly on a water -proofed dirt or flagstone floor, might also require the use of palkns, or pe rhaps straw, to insulate the sacks. For the Isis Giminiana, see Russel Meiggs, Roman Ostia. 2"11 ed. (Oxford: C la rendon Press, 1973), pp. 2 9 4 - 9 5 . W h e t h e r the grain travelled by sea in loose form in the hold of ships is ano the r quest ion.

19 R ickman , Roman Granaries, pp. 15-160; Festus, p. 370L.

CHAPTER THREE 3 3 4

man's study of honea in Ostia and Rome shows that civil granaries usually con-formed to buildings consisting of multiple rows of deep narrow rooms that faced onto a square or rectangular courtyard. Variations in design do exist, however. So, for example, a second Ostian type had two rows of rooms facing onto a cen-tral corridor. Rickman sees prototypes for courtyard granaries found in the provinces in the storerooms of second-millennium B. C. palaces at Mari in Syr-ia, the Hittite capital of Boghazköy, and Amarna in Egypt. For Italy he is less sure of the direct influence, but concludes that Rome had courtyard honea by the middle of the second century B. C., and perhaps earlier, and that the origin was likewise the East.20

Ostian granaries Ostian granaries, always separated from surrounding buildings in case of fire, had walls up to one meter thick and constructed of tufa reticulate or brick-faced concrete. Only a few external walls received any buttressing. There was a mini-mal number of easily guarded doors and windows that provided some ventila-tion but little light. Three honea in the city had longitudinally aligned dwarf walls that elevated the floor only about forty centimeters off the ground. Bipedal bricks spanning the distance between the walls permitted construction of a raised floor not of wood but one consisting of several courses of brick or stone slabs. Thus these particular granaries, brick and cement structures with a brick or stone floor resting on dwarf walls, differed significantly from the aboveground wooden granaries described by the agricultural writers and seen in military hor-rea in Britain and Germany. Rickman dates this particular innovation not before the second century A. D.21

The internal layout of Ostian honea consisted primarily of a series of rooms (eellae) to store grain in bulk or, more likely, contained in sacks. The Grandi Hor-rea, for example, had sixty-four such rooms measuring between 4.5 m. and 5.5 m. in width and from 7.0 m. to 17.5 m. in depth. Stairwells found in some Hadrianic and later honea indicate the presence of upper stories. Wha t these contained is unknown, but, since the flooring was most likely of wood, they probably did not have the same load capacity as the lower floors, which rested on the dwarf walls. Roofs of the individual rooms were formed of large barrel or cross vaults. T h e roof of the honea itself was probably gabled, and had gutters for drainage and eaves extending out perhaps about three feet.22

20 R ickman, Roman Granaries, pp . 148-55. O t h e r variat ions included in Portus and occasionally at R o m e the discarding of the cour tyard al together and a r rang ing the rows of rooms back-to-back facing in opposite directions. 111 Asia M i n o r and Nor th Afr ica granar ies often consisted only of one row of very deep rooms all facing in the same direction.

21 R ickman , Roman Granaries, pp. 7 7 . 9 ־84, '293 722 R ickman , Roman Granaries, ]Dp. 7786־ ; Gustav H e r m a n s e n , Ostia. Aspects of Roman City Life

(Edmonton : University of Alber ta Press, 1981), pp. 227 37.

335 ROME I

T h e city o f K a r a n i s in Egypt had ten large granaries, probably state or lern- Granaries of Roman

pie-owned, and numerous smaller, private ones. Rooms in the southern section Egypt of one first-century A. D. granary were built on two levels. In an arrangement similar to some Ostian granaries, five rooms on each side faced out onto a cen-tral corridor. T h e floors of the ground-floor rooms were about three feet lower than the corridor and had partitions dividing them into from four to six separate bins. Each room had a small window in the wall just below the vaulted ceiling situated a little over nine feet above the floor. T h e walls of the rooms were cov-ered with a mud plaster and were made even darker by being coated with car-bon. T h e vaulting of the rooms provided the support necessary to maintain the upper floor. T h e northern section had a number of vaulted rooms, large unroofed bins, and numerous small bins, plus another twenty underground vaulted rooms accessed through trap doors in the floor of the corridors. T h e open bins, reminiscent of the type granary bin seen in the wooden model from the Twelfth-Dynasty T o m b of Meket-re, could serve just as well as vaulted bins to store grain, at least for a short period of time, since the Egyptian climate was sufficiently dry to avoid spoilage. T h e vaulted bins, capable of being locked, may have operated for long-term storage of private grain, while the open bins could have contained grain to be held for only a short time before being sent to state

O J ο or temple bakeries or transferred to state granaries for distribution or export. Grain for export from Alexandria was loaded onto large ships that plied their way to Puteoli or Ostia. Enroute grain might be offloaded for temporary storage or for transshipment at certain places, such as at Myra and Patara 011 the south-ern coast of Lycia and at Tholos on the northeastern coast of Crete.23

2. Milling

The Olynthian hopper mill was not only being used in the western Mediter- lie Olynthian

ranean by the mid-fourth century B. C., but was also being produced there as hopper mill

well. The shipwreck off the coast of Mallorca, Spain, at Sec, dated to ca. 375-350 B. C., for example, contained thirty-eight Olynthian mills (PI. 21) made of basalt mined and shaped on the island of Pantelleria, located between Sicily

23 Elinor M . Husse lman, " T h e Granar ies o f K a r a n i s , " TAPA 83 (1952): 56 -73 ; Breasted, Egypt-ian Semant Statues, Pl. 1 lb ; YVinlock, Models , passim. T h e Cre t an granary , which dates to the late first or early second century Λ. 1)., is similar to granar ies in Ost ia . T h e large (55.7 m. χ 9.60 m) oblong building was constructed of concrete faced on the inside with brick and on the exterior with dolomite blocks. T h e door is of opus signinum, and the walls, which rise to two stories, had ten buttresses. Dona ld C. Haggis, " T h e Port of Tho los in Eastern Cre te a n d the Role of a R o m a n H o r r e u m Along the Egyptian ' C o r n ' Rou te , " OJA 15, no. 2 (July 1996): 183-209. O n transport-ing grain f rom the source to Rome , sec R ickman , Com Supply, pp. 120 55.

CHAPTER THREE 3 3 6

and the coast of North Africa. Olynthian-type mills continued in use at certain places in the western Mediterranean during the Roman period. So, for instance, excavations at Morgantina on Sicily yielded lever mills in contexts datable between the late fourth century B. C. and the mid-first century B. C. Their use in Italy can be assumed from at least the mid-second century B. C., if, as seems like-ly, the mala trusatilis, mentioned by Cato, is the Latin expression for the Olynthian hopper, or push, mill.24 Also found in the Sec wreck were two small hour-glass mills similar to animal-driven rotary mills common to Pompeii (PI. 27). T h e stone S for these mills came from Mulargia in Sardinia. T h e Sec mills are the earliest rotary mills of this type thus far known. T h e combination of hopper mills and rotary mills found in a single shipwreck is paralleled by the contemporaneous existence of these two type mills at Morgantina in contexts dating to the third century B. C. Therefore, by the early fourth century B. C. at the latest the west-ern Mediterranean knew both the Greek reciprocal motion hopper-rubber mill and the true rotary grain mill, a type unknown in the Greek world at this time. Since Cato mentions a mold asinaria, or donkey-driven mill along with the mola trusatilis, apparently the Romans knew both (though they rarely used the Olynthi-an mill) by at least the early to mid-second century B. C.25 The animal-driven Pompeian mill, however, was not the only nor was it the earliest grain processing apparatus operating on the principle of rotary motion.

Rotary motion The origin and date of the application of rotary motion to milling grain remains shrouded in mystery. V. Gordon Childe, writing in 1943 in response to articles published earlier by Cecil Curwen, first suggested that rotary motion used in grain processing on a hand quern had a western Mediterranean, specili-cally Spanish, origin, an idea taken up a few years later by Moritz. Whereas Curwen saw the rotary hand quern as later than and derived from the animal-driven Pompeian mill, Childe suggested the reverse sequence. He saw the ncces-sity of an efficient and portable apparatus for grinding grain arising not from any urban and commercial context, where Curwen argues that the larger don-key-mill would have arisen, but f rom the need of soldiers on campaign or in camp to grind grain into flour. He cites the presence of rotary hand querns in

24 C a t o RR 10.4, 11.4; Wi l l i ams-Thorpe and T h o r p e , "Millstone Provenancing ," pp. 115-37; Whi te , "Survey of Millstones," pp. 204 05; Mori tz , Grain-Mills, pp . 62 66. An Olyn th ian hopper -r u b b e r of R o m a n da te was also found in Monta l to in eastern Sicily. See Olwen Wil l iams-Thorpe , "Provenanc ing and Archaeology of R o m a n Millstones f rom the M e d i t e r r a n e a n Area , " JArchSci 15 (1988): 261.

25 Mor i tz (Grain-Mills, pp . 63 64, 67 73) notes that mills or mill houses (pistrina) receive m e n -tion fifteen times in the plays of Plautus, who , himself, is supposed to have worked in a mill house. T h e reference to a donkey mill in the Asinaria (lines 208-09) implies the knowledge of the rotary mill. If accurate , ro tary mills opera ted in Italy at least by ca. 184 B. C. , the date of Plautus ' dea th .

3 3 7 ROME I

the Roman camp at Numant ia in 150 B. C. that resembled the Spanish type, Spanish rotary hand

labeled mola hispaniensis by Cato.2 6 T h e Spanish cylindrical hand quern had a quem lower stone with a slightly convex shape, while the upper stone was slightly con-cave on the bottom and had a shallow, flat-bottomed hopper on top. It also had projections on the sides, similar to handles found on some saddle-querns f rom which this type rotary quern appears to have derived. T h e handle ends had ver-tical slots in which to insert wooden handles to rotate the stone.27 Childe had suggested that rotary querns were operating in Spain by the fourth century B. C., but recent excavations in northeastern Spain have found examples dating a century earlier. These millstones measure between thirty and forty-three cen-timeters in diameter and stand about ten centimeters high. Their appearance in Spain may be related to the development of iron tools, which may have allowed stone cutters to fashion the precise shapes, and the appearance of the potter 's wheel, which may have suggested the idea of rotating the upper stone. T h e innovation of rotary motion to process increased amounts of grain may also be linked to the contemporaneous increase in grain storage facilities in the area. From Spain the rotary hand mill spread into southern Gaul between the fourth and second centuries B. C., into Sicily by the third century B. C., and ultimately into northern Europe and Britain by the Íirst century B. C. Its spread probably owed much to the movements of the Roman army.28 Rotary hand mills are a Military rotary hand

common find among Roman military forts, such as at Haltern in Westfalia and mills

6 Chesters on Hadrian 's Wall (PI. 26). Some, such as those found in Britain at Greatchesters and in Germany at Mainz, Wiesbaden, and Straubing, bore

26 Ca to RR 10.4, 1 1.4; Ε. Cecil C u r w e n , " Q u e r n s , " Antiquity 1 1 (1937): 133 51; idem, " M o r e About Q u e r n s , " Antiquity 15 (1941): 15 32; V . G o r d o n Chi lde , "Ro ta ry Q u e r n s on the Cont inent and in the Med i t e r r anean Basin," Antiquity 17 (1943): 19-26; Mori tz , Grain-Mills, pp. 103 21. C u r w e n ( "Querns , " p. 137; " M o r e About Q u e r n s , " p. 16) thought that the Greeks had invented the animal-dr iven rotary mill by the fifth century B. C. , a n d believed that this type preceded the rotary h a n d mill. Cf. C u r w e n , " M o r e About Q u e r n s , " p. 15: " [Donkey mills] were a p roduc t of u r b a n civilization, in which they stood for food-product ion on a commercia l scale. A quern , whe the r of the saddle or rotary variety, was an ins t rument of peasant-cul ture, that is, of individual food-product ion. T h e first application of the rotary principle to corn-gr inding was such a pro-found depa r tu re f rom existing practice that it cannot well be regarded as a normal development f rom the immemor ia l saddle-quern, the movement of which was oscillatory."

27 Chi lde, "Ro ta ry Q u e r n s , " p. 20, esp. Fig. I; Mort iz , Grain-mills, pp. 1 10. T h e N u m a n t i a n querns had holes in the uppe r stone nea r the edge for inserting wooden handles.

28 Mar t inez , "Or igen y expansion del mol ino rotativo ba jo , " pp. 15 19, 235. T h a t the inventor was an indigenous Spaniard or someone of Punic descent remains unknown. In Britain ano ther type quern also appea red , the "beehive" type, character ized by a ra ther flat, thick uppe r stone of small d iameter having a vertically slotted hole for a wooden handle. Mort iz , Grain-mills, pp . 109 10; Childe, "Ro ta ry Q u e r n s , " pp. 19 20. For a m a p showing the distribution of rotary h a n d mills, see Wil l iams-Thorpe , "Provenanc ing and Archaeology, י .p. 259, Fig. 3c י

CHAPTER THREE 3 3 8

inscriptions identifying them as belonging to a specific century. Apparently each century, or even contubernium, had its own quern, which was used to grind the individual soldier's grain ration.29

The Moretum T h e author of the Moretum, or "Vegetable Salad," a poem dating to the Augustan period and traditionally ascribed to Vergil, describes the operation of a rotary hand mill by a poor Italian peasant farmer who grinds grain to make his bread:3 0

Then he calls his hands to work, distributing it to each one. The left hand is intent upon assistance, the right upon work. The latter rotates and impels the disk in continuous circles (the grain struck repeatedly runs from the swift blow of the stones), occasionally the left hand takes over from her tired sister and changes roles; now he sings rustic songs and by a rude voice eases his work (24-30).

Then ,

When the revolving work discharged its proper end, then by hand he transferred the copious (lour into a sieve and shook. The dark detritus remains on top, the pure material settles down, and the cleaned flour is filtered through the holes (38 42).

It seems, then, that hand mills were individually operated. O n e hand fed the grain through a hopper, while the other turned the upper stone. This was apparently tiresome and boring work, as the miller exchanged hands when he became tired, and he accompanied his labors with song. When finished, he strained the flour through a sieve to separate it from the chaff and any fragments of stone that had been sheared off. From this description, it seems clear that two important factors had to be considered in mill design: case of turning the upper stone and fineness of the finished product. A quick look at mill construction will show how these problems were solved.

Although the author of the Moretum does not describe the hand mill itself, its appearance and technical features can be seen in the many examples found in Roman military forts in Britain and elsewhere. Curwcn's study of rotary hand mills in Britain revealed numerous variations to the rotary quern over time and

Design and function

of the rotary hand

mill

2 9 J o h n s o n , Roman Fork,198-200 .קנן, and Fig. 151. 30 Moretum 2 4 - 3 1 : Advocat hide manus open, partitus utroque/ laeva ministerio, dexlra est intenta laboriJ

Haec rotat adsiduum gyris et concitat orbem/ (tunsa Ceres silicum rapido decurrit ab ictu),/ interdum Jessae sue-cedit laeva sorori/ altematque vices, modo rustica carmina cantat/ agiestique suum solatur voce laborem More-tum 38 -42 : Postquam implevil opus iustum versatile JinemJ transfert inde manu fusas in cribra farinas/ et quatit; atra manent summo purgamina dorso,/ subsidit sinceia foraminibusque liquatur/ emundata Ceres. T h e word moretum refers to a simple, rustic meal co i rposed of various herbs, vinegar, olive oil, and salt. For the au tho r and date, see E . J . Kenney , 77ie Ploughman's Lunch. Moretum. A Poem Ascribed to Virgil (Bristol: Bristol Classical Press, 1984),קנן. xxi xxiii.

3 3 9 ROM κ ι

between geographical locations. In general, the rotary hand mill of the R o m a n Catil lus and mcta

period consisted of two parts, an upper or running stone, called the catillus, and a lower, stationary one, or meta, both usually made of volcanic stone. Cut into the center of the lower stone was a socket into which was fixed a thin, vertically positioned spindle made of wood or iron. T h e upper stone had a centrally placed hole penetrating its entire thickness, through which the spindle fit. T h e upper surface of the catillus usually had a shallow hopper to hold the grain sur-rounding the central hole; sometimes the surface was fiat except for a low lip around the hole or near the outer edge of the stone. T h e hole through the upper stone was oval-shaped or round with slots on either side to allow free passage of the grain past the spindle into the space separating the two grinding stones.31

T h e placement of the top stone on the bottom and the location of the handle Rynd and spindle

were crucial elements in the proper operation of the hand mill. O n the bottom surface of the catillus a dovetail cutting on both sides of the hole accommodated a similarly shaped rynd, a wooden or iron bar with a centrally placed hole or a socket on its lower surface. T h e rynd spanned the hole but did not completely block it. T h e spindle, whose head seated into the hole or socket, partially sup-ported the weight of the upper stone and, when properly positioned, permitted a slight separation of the stones. T h e kernels, then, could drop through the hole past the rynd and into the opening between the two stones where they were ground. T h e spindle also served to keep the stones concentric, one aligned on top of the other. The use of the rynd and spindle as well permitted the grinding surfaces of the stones to become flatter, though never completely so, and allowed for a thinner upper stone and so a lighter apparatus overall. Grooves or furrows sometimes cut into the grinding surfaces of both upper and lower stones facilitated discharge of flour and chaff.32

A wooden handle seated vertically into a hole in the top millstone allowed for Handle

ease of grasping and rotating the upper stone. Some hand querns with thick, or "bee hive-shaped" upper stones had horizontal holes for the handle, while flatter querns sometimes had a groove cut into the top surface radiating out from the

31 C u r w e n , " Q u e r n s , " pp. 137-50; idem, " M o r e About Q u e r n s , " pp. 16-26; Henri Amour ic , "L'anil le et les meules," in Techniques et économie, pp. 44 45; Marcus ]unke lmann , Panis Militaris. Die Ernährung des römischen Soldaten oder der Grundstoffder Macht (Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Z a b e r n , 1997), p. 116, Fig. 57.

32 Earlier mills had slight curvatures of both uppe r and lower stones (convex in the latter instance, concave for the former) to keep them concentr ic dur ing opera t ion. T h e convexity of the lower stone also served to direct the meal down toward the sides as the grain was crushed and ground . Amour ic , "L'anil le et les meules," pp . 39 43; Mort iz , Grain-mills, p. 117; C u r w e n , " Q u e r n s , " p. 145. Runne l s ("Rotary Q u e r n s in Greece , " p. 148, Fig. 1.1) notes that R o m a n querns found in Greece had the rynd moun ted on top of the catillus. See also Kardul ias and R u n -nels, Artifact and Assemblage, p. 125.

CHAPTER THREE 3 4 0

center. In either case, the horizontal shaft probably had a vertical hole at the end for inserting an upright handle. O n e hand mill found in the Roman fort of Chesters on Hadrian 's Wall had an iron ring around its circumference that included a vertical socket for a wooden handle (PI. 26); another mill, dating to the Augustan period, found at Haltern, in Germany, had an iron ring embed-ded into the edge of the stone. Placing the handle farther out from the center makes rotating the upper stone easier. It allowed the a rm to extend farther and traverse a wider arc, thereby permitt ing the application of more leverage on the upper stone to cause it to rotate faster and more smoothly. Curwen reconstruct-ed several rotary hand querns and experimented with grinding wheat. He describes the results thus,

The upper and lower stones should fit so that they are in light contact all round the outer edge, but nearer the centre there should be a little space between them. When a handful of grain is fed into the central aperture some of it immediately passes into this space, and as the individual grains work outwards toward the periphery they lift the upper stone slightly off the spindle; in this way they take the full weight of the revolving stone. It is here, near the outer edge, that the grinding is done, but the slight lifting of the upper stone inevitably allows a few whole grains and a good many partly crushed grains to escape round the circumference. After this the upper stone settles down as the remaining grains are crushed smaller and smaller, and if for the time being no more whole grains are fed in to the quern, really fine flour is produced. If, however, the quern is worked empty for too long, grit from the stones may get into the flour.

Bridge-tree The friction produced by the upper stone riding over the lower, even if confined to the outer edges, would have generated enough resistance to keep down the speed of rotation and to have produced a coarse meal of uneven fineness mixed with stone shavings. 33

An innovation in mill design, noted as early as ca. A. D. 70 at Glastonbury in Britain, permitted adjustments in the separation of the two grinding stones to allow the miller a choice in the fineness of meal produced. As in modern Scot-tish rotary mills and similarly with Olynthian hopper-rubber mills, the two stones rested on a table. A long spindle passed from below through the table and lower stone, now perforated throughout its thickness. It then penetrated through the rynd affixed to the bottom of the upper stone. T h e base of the spindle sat on a wooden lever, or "bridge-tree," located beneath the table. T o increase or decrease the space between the lower and upper stones the miller merely twisted

33 C u r w e n , " M o r e About Q u e r n s , " pp. 2529־ , and Fig. 26; Mori tz , Grain-mills, pp . 106-07; C u r w e n , "Querns , , pp. 140 50. For the Hal י tern mill, see Junke lmann , Panis Militaris, p. 116, Fig. 57.

341 ROME I

a wooden handle attached to a string fed through a hole in the table and tied to the free end of the lever. T h e twisting of the string raised or lowered the bridge-tree, which, in turn, imparted the same movement to the spindle. Because the spindle carried the weight of the upper stone, as the spindle rose or fell the space between the grinding stones increased or decreased, respectively.34

Although the hand mill probably produced a more finely ground meal and Animal-driven rotary

could be operated by both male and female, the donkey-driven, or hour-glass, mills

mill had the advantage of providing a greater output per unit of time. It became the primary commercial milling apparatus until the water mill. This type of rotary mill is frequently called the Pompeian mill from its common appearance in R o m a n Pompeii in southern Italy. This specific type mill probably developed in the region, but the basic design and technology goes back at least to the early fourth century B. G. and probably earlier. T h e oldest datable examples arc the two mills found in the Sec wreck near Mallorca. Made of lava from Sardinia and probably taken aboard ship in Carthage, they arc thus far unique. T h e upper stone (catillus) is shorter than later types, measuring about 42 cm. in height, has straight sides, and handles positioned at the base rather than half way up. T h e meta has been likened to a "fat cigar" and lacks a hole at the top to support a spindle.35

T h e closest parallel to the Sec mill is the Morgant ina mill, so called from its The Morgantina mit!

discovery in Sicily at Morgant ina (Fig. 24) and dated to the third century B. C.36

T h e short upper stone (catillus) has externally a slight inward curve to its sides reflecting the internal shape of two unequal cones. T h e upper cone, usually of shorter length, served as a hopper, while the lower cone fit over the top of the lower stone (meta), which was cut in the shape of a cone and seated in a cylindri-cal base. This particular design made it impossible, as with later Pompeian mills, to reverse the catillus. At the bottom of the catillus on each side was a projecting socket that supported rectangular wooden beams, which, when pushed, rotated the upper stone. Pins secured the beams in the socket. O n the top rim of the upper stone at 90° from the position of the projecting sockets two notches proba-bly supported a wooden lid or hopper extension. T h e cone of the meta was trun-cated forming a flat surface, many of which had a vertical hole cut into the top, perhaps to support a spindle. T h e fact that the Morgant ina mill is relatively

34 Amour ic , "L'anil le et les meules," pp. 40 41, esp. Fig. 4; Mori tz , drain-mills, pp. 118 21, and Fig. 1 1. Mori tz (p. 120) notes that the existence of completely per fora ted lower stones does not necessarily imply that the mill was adjustable , as o ther possibilities may account for this feature.

35 YVilliams-Thorpe a n d T h o r p e , "Millstone Provenancing ," pp. 1 18 19. 36 Whi te , "Survey," pp. 202 04. Wi l l iams-Thorpe a n d T h o r p e ("Millstone Provenancing ," p.

118) ment ion o ther Pompeian- type mills found on Sicily at Akrai, M a g a r a Hyblaea and Punic Motya . A meta f rom the latter site may go back to the fifth cen tu iy B. C.

CHAPTER THREE 3 4 2

Pig. 24. Comparison between the Pompeian donkey mill and the Morgantina type. From White, "Survey of Millstones from Morgantina," Pl. 48, Fig. 10. Courtesy of Donald White.

3 4 3 ROME II

small, measuring between 23.0 cm. and 35 cm. in height, has led some scholars to suggest that this type, unlike the later, and larger, Pompeian mill, was driven by human power, probably slaves.37

How the idea of applying rotary motion to milling grain arose in Sicily is Origin of the

unknown. Donald White has tentatively suggested that Spanish mercenaries, Pompeian, or donkey,

brought to Sicily by Carthaginians as early as 480 B. C., introduced the knowl- mill

edge of rotary milling to the Sicilian Greeks. T h e latter, sometime during the fourth century B. C., extended the idea of rotary hand mills to larger human-driven rotary mills. White posited his suggestion in 1963 when evidence was lacking for Spanish rotary hand mills dating to the fifth century B. C. Recent finds in Spain lend strong support to his idea, but examples of rotary hand mills in Sicily remain few and much later in date. T h e fact that the Pompcian-style rotary mill found in the Sec wreck was made of lava quarried at Mulargia on Punic Sardinia and that the mills themselves were probably placed on board in Carthage may indicate that the Pompeian-type mill was a Punic rather than a Sicilian Greek creation. T h e shift f rom the simple rotary hand mill made of two shaped stones to one formed of significantly larger stones incorporated into a wooden frame is more difficult to explain. Was there an intermediary form (or forms) between the two? What was the impetus for this innovation, and did it have anything to do with crushing ore? More evidence is needed before these questions can be answered. In any case, the development of the Pompeian-type mill seems fairly clear, even if its origin is not. T h e early fourth-century B. C. form appearing in the Sec wreck, with its straight-sided catillus and simple hau-dies, gave way in the third-century B. C. to the Morgant ina type, having a short catillus with curved profile and spindle. Both were probably operated by human power, presumably slaves. T h e type apparently made its way to Italy during the late third century B. C. where it underwent fur ther development. Plautus, early in the following century, mentions a rotary mill driven by a slave or maid, while Cato, a few years later, knows it as an animal-driven mill and calls it the tnola asi-nana.38

T h e rotary donkey mill is known best from excavations at Pompeii, Hercula-

37 Whi te , "Survey," p. '206; Mar t inez , "Or igen y expansion del mol ino rotativo ba jo , " pp. 15-19; Wi l l iams-Thorpe and T h o r p e , "Millstone Provenanc ing ," pp. 118 19. T h e Pompe ian mill in the House of Sallust at Pompeii has a catillus measur ing 70 cm. in height. Mori tz , Grain-mills, p. 75.

38 Whi te , "Survey," pp. 206; Mar t inez , " O r i g e n y expansion del mol ino rotativo ba jo ," pp. 15-19; Wil l iams-Thorpe and T h o r p e , "Millstone Provenancing ," pp. 118-19; Diodorus 2.1.5; Plautus Asinaria 208 -09 ; C a t o R R 10.4, 11.4. Whi te (p. 205) emphasizes that differences in size and construction between the Morgan t i na a n d P o m p e i a n mills show that the former is a pro to-type of the latter and not merely a smaller version of it.

CHAPTER THREE 3 4 4

The Pompeian ncum, and Ostia, although examples have been found in other parts of the west-donkey mill crn Mediterranean, such as Sicily, Sardinia, and North Africa, but more rarely in

northern Europe. They are almost totally absent from the eastern Mcditer-ranean.3 9 In addition to archaeological finds, art historical evidence, particularly in the form of sculpted reliefs found in Italy, is fairly plentiful.40 The Pompeian mill is significantly larger and taller than the Morgant ina mill (Fig. 24), averaging about 69.5 cm. high and 73.5 cm. in diameter. It is much too large and heavy to be operated easily or efficiently by human power. A few smaller mills, accommo-dating a single handle, have been found, however. Slaves or a single animal may have operated mills of this size.41 Volcanic lava, or grey leucitite, was the most common stone used for donkey mills, because its porosity insured that even after lengthy use the surface remained rough. Whereas a local material was used for rotary hand mills, this stone was imported from around Ο n i e to in Etruria.42

T h e Pompeian bakery (Casa dei Fornai) at Reg. VII.ii.22, with its four large donkey mills, three of which are complete (PI. 27), provides a good example with which to discuss the donkey mill.43 T h e meta, made of lava and having a cylindri-

39 D . P. S. Pcacock, " T h e Mills of Pompei i , " Antiquity 63, η υ . 239 (June 1989): 205 -14 ; J a n T h e o Bakker, The Mills-Bakeries of Ostia (Amsterdam: J . C . Gieben , 1999), passim; Olvven Wi l l i ams-Thorpe and R. S. T h o r p e , " T h e Impor t of Millstones to R o m a n Mal lorca ," J RA 4 (1991): 152-59; Ο . Wi l l i ams-Thorpe a n d R. S. T h o r p e , " T h e Provenance Mf Donkey Mills f r o m R o m a n Britain," Archaeometry 30, no. 2 (Aug. 1988): 275 89; Wil l iams-Thorpe , "Provenanc ing and Archaeology," pp. 2 5 5 - 6 0 , and Fig. 3a, p. 259; Mori tz , Grain-mills, pp . 9 1 - 9 6 ; Meeks, "Meules rotatives en Egypte ," pp. 23 24.

1(1 For reliefs found in Italy that show the Pompe ian donkey mill, see esp. G e r h a r d Z immer , Römische Berufsdarstellungen. Archäologische Forschungen Bd. 12 (Berlin: Gebr . M a n n Verlag, 1982), pp . 20- 25, 106-20. An example has been found at N a r b o , in Gaul . See Michel Redde , "Les scènes de mét ier dans la sculpture funéra i re gal lo-romaine," Gallia 36 (1978): 59, Fig. 5.

41 See, c. g., the small, hand-opera ted Pompeian- type mill displayed in the Casa dei Fornai , but probably not found there. Peacock ("Mills of Pompei i , " p. 210) classifies the h a n d opera ted mill as T y p e 3a, and notes that extant examples are not associated with bakeries. Mor i tz (Grain-mills, p. 75, Fig. 8) gives the measurement s of a donkey mill f rom the bakery at Reg. VI.ii .6 as follows: base: 4 ' 6 " wide and 18 inches tall; meta: 2 ' 6 " wide, 2 ' tall; catillus·. 2 ' 4 " in d iameter at top and bot tom openings, 7 " interior d iamete r at its narrowest point , and 2' 4 " tall. O n the whole ques-tion of whe the r only animals or bo th animals a n d slaves powered Pompeian mills, see Mori tz , Grain-mills, pp. 6 4 - 6 5 , esp. Plate 5a, a n d pp. 97 102.

42 O f par t icular interest in this context is the c o m m e n t by Pliny the Elder (HN 36.135), citing V a r r o as his source, that rotary mills were invented in Et rur ia at Volsinii. See Peacock, "Mills of Pompei i ," pp. 2 0 6 - 1 3 .

13 T h e bakery forms a work a r e a connec ted to the House of the Popidi i (Reg. VII.ii .20). See Betty J o Mayeske , "Bakers , Bakeshops, a n d Bread: A Social a n d E c o n o m i c S tudy ," in Pompeii and the Vesuvian iMiidscape (Washington , D . C. , T h e Archaeological Insti tute of Amer ica , 1979), p. 45. Since the bakery also conta ins a large oven a n d knead ing m a c h i n e , we will r e tu rn to it again later w h e n the discussion tu rns to bak ing b read . Peacock ("Mills of Pompei i , " p. 210) deno tes this type mill as T y p e 3c a n d says that it is the most c o m m o n form of Pompe ian d o n -key mill.

3 4 5 ROME II

cal lower part and a conical or bell-shaped upper section, was seated into a cylindrical base of larger diameter made of rubble and cement. Unlike the lower J Ο

stone of the Morgant ina mill, the R o m a n meta had a rounded top (Fig. 24). A few metae were grooved, and some had at the apex a square or circular hole to accommodate a spindle. 111 only a few instances, housed in Museums in Naples, Sicily, and in Algeria, the base had an upper surface of smooth plaster that sloped inward from the outside to create a channel to catch the meal falling from above. This channel can best be seen in the sculpted relief from the T o m b

>8 of P. Nonius Zethus, from Ostia (Pl. 28). T h e catillus has the shape of two cones stacked apex to apex, giving the appearance of an hourglass. T h e interior of each cone was hollow and a hole ran through the part where the apexes met (Fig. 25). T h e upper cone served as the hopper, while the lower fit over the meta. When rotated the exterior surface of the meta and the interior surface of the cone fitting over it ground the grain between them. There is little evidence, beyond what may be signs of channelling on mills shown in sculpted reliefs, that the grinding surfaces were grooved. After a time, when excessive grinding had worn the grinding surface of one cone, the catillus could be reversed to make the upper cone the grinding surface. In this way the catillus doubled its effective life. O n the exterior of the catillus at the point where the cones met was a square sockct on opposite sides. They do not penetrate into the central hole, but do accommo-date a wooden frame used in turning the upper stone. Holes for pins secured the

η beams to the catillus (PI. 27, mill nos. 1 and 3).44

How the mill actually operated is a more difficult question to answer. T h e Operation of the

best ev idence comes from sculpted reliefs that invariably show donkeys or hors- donkey mitt

es providing the motive power. T h e animals were harnessed to the two hori-zontal beams inserted into the sockets on the sides of the catillus. Wooden beams, secured with pins to the horizontal ones, rose vertically alongside the catillus and attached to another horizontal beam placed above it (Fig. 25). T h e upper cone of the catillus could function as a hopper , but sometimes a separate, and probably detachable, hopper was affixed, just off center, to the upper hori-zontal beam of the wood frame. This much seems clear. Unders tanding how the internal fittings functioned is more problematic, since the sculpted reliefs cannot show these parts. Some metae had provision for inserting a wooden or iron spindle into a hole in the apex; others, lacking such a provision, probably supported a spindle at tached to an inverted metal bowl-like piece made to slip over the top of the meta. T h e spindle went through the upper conc of the catillus

44 Mori tz , Grain-milts, pp . 7(5 79; Wil l iams-Thorpe , "Provenanc ing and Archaeology," pp. 255 60, esp. p. 256, Fig. la , for a meta found in Spain not seated into a base; C u r w e n , " Q u e r n s , " p. 138; Bakker, Mills-Bakeries 0J Ostia, pp . 5 6 ־ .

CHAPTER THREE 3 4 6

Fig. 25. Rotary Pompeian donkey mill. From Mau, Pompeii-, p. 389, Fig. 221.

3 4 7 ROME II

and attached to the crossbeam above it. When the catillus turned, the metal piece revolved on the apex of the meta. The bell-shaped lower stone was so formed that, when the catillus sat on the meta, the grinding surfaces touched at only a few places, especially near the periphery. This left a space between the two stones toward the center into which the kernels fell from above. As the catillus moved, the grain was worked toward the outside and ground between the two stones. Some mills may have had a rynd with a hole in the center for the spindle and four other holes near the periphery to allow grain to fall into the space between the grinding surfaces. Sincc only one rynd has ever been found, its use may have been exceptional. In any case, it would not have been necessary to ensure that the two stones remained concentric, since the mere weight of the catillus would have sufficed.45 Several Pompeian metae had a wear pattern that indicated that the catillus rotated in less than a perfectly upright fashion. Apparently, even with a spindle it did not sit exactly level and tended to rock as it was rotated. Over time, if the rocking went unchecked, the grind-ing surface of the meta became less centered as the top of the meta wore down unevenly, thereby causing a skewed wear pattern. As with rotary hand mills, it would have helped to ensure a space between the grinding surfaces, but, as Moritz argues, even this is unnecessary given the bell-like shape of the meta. Additionally, a rynd would not be required to adjust this space to different grades of grinding, since, as perhaps seen on the tomb of P. Nonius Zethus

8 (PI. 28), slipping wedges between the head of the spindle and the upper hori-zontal beam of the framework would serve to lift the catillus.46

Apuleius (fl. mid-second century A. D.) in his Metamorphoses describes the oper-ation of a donkey mill in a bakery, perhaps in a North African context. A com- Apuleius

parison of his portrayal with pictorial scenes represented in sculptcd reliefs pro- Metamorphoses

vides a good idea of milling activity in a bakery. Lucius, Apuleius' protagonist in the novel, has by magic been turned into a donkey and describes his life as such

15 For a drawing of the rynd with four holes sur rounding the central hole, see Neuburger , Tech-nicalArts and Sciences, p. 94, Fig. 154.

+ö Mori tz , Grain-mills, pp. 74-90 . See esp. Storck and Teague , Flour, p. 79, Fig. 42, for the two alternative methods of moun t ing the catillus on to the meta. For separate hopper a t tached to the wooden f ramework, sec Z immer , Römishce fíerufsdarstellungen, pp. 112 13 (relief f rom the Vigna delle T r e M a d o n n e near Rome). T h e same m o n u m e n t shows a metal band a round the center of the catillus that seems to be connected to the pins securing the horizontal beams inserted into the sockets. Cf. also the bakery (pistrinum) of Sextus Patulcus Felix in Hercu laneum (Ins. Or. 11.8) where, today, one can see a mill with catillus p laced on a meta whose masonry base has partially fallen away revealing how it was encased in the rubble. Next to this mill is a meta without its catil-lus. See Mar io Pagano, " C o m m e r c i o e consumo del g rano ad Ercolano," in Le ravitaillement en blé de Rome et des centres urbains des débuts de la république jusqu'au Haut Empire. Collection du Cen t r e J e a n Bérard, 1 1 (Naples: Cen t re J e a n Bérard, 1994), p.' 144, Fig. 2.

CHAPTER THREE 3 4 8

until changed back into a man by Isis. One experience related was his work in a bakery (Met. 9.11):

There multiple circuits of many donkeys with various roundabout movements turned round the mills (tnolas); not by day only, but even through the entire night continuously by means of the perpetual spinning of the machines they produced the eternal flour. . . . but ou the following day, in the morning, I am harnessed to a mill that seemed to me to be the largest one, and with my face covered I am immediately impelled along the circular track of a winding rut, so that in a circle of never-ending limit, with my walking having come back around, retracing my footsteps I wander in a fixed direction.

Clearly life for the donkey was hard and full of strenuous and repetitive work. Tha t its eyes were covered to keep it from becoming ill in its continuous circular perambulations can also be seen on milling reliefs from Rome. Although neither mentioned by Apuleius nor clearly evident from the reliefs, most mills were probably set up in an open courtyard, such as was apparently the case with the Casa dei Fornai. The floors of milling areas were frequently paved to keep the animals from wearing a deep rut into the ground. How much flour a bakery could produce depended on many variables, such as the supply of grain, the number of working mills, and the hours per day spent in milling. Although we do not know any of this information for any particular bakery, we do learn from the jurist Gaius that Tra jan decreed that a Latin working as a miller could obtain Roman citizenship if lie could produce at least one hundred measures (:modii), or a little over 873 liters, of flour per day for a period of three years.47

Before surveying as a whole all activity associated with cereal processing that took place in a Roman bakery, we need to turn to the logical culmination in the development of ancient milling technology, the application of water power to rotary milling.

Water-powered grain The earliest industrial use of waterpower was to drive millstones to grind mills grain. When and where this first occurred is difficult to say. Strabo (ca. 64

B.C.-A.D. 21) says that Mithridates VI had built a water mill (ΰδραλέτης) near his palace at Cabira in Pontus. Exactly what this mill consisted of is unknown. The author of a poem collected in the Anthologia Palatina, usually identified as Antipater of Thessalonica (fl. ca. 15 B. C.), though resident in Italy, sings joyful-

17 Gaius Inst. 1.34. Z immer , Römische Berufsdarstellungen, Figs. 21 and 23 (animal with blinkers); J ean-P ie r re A d a m , La construction romaine. Matériaux et techniques (Paris: Picard, 1984), p. 347. Apuleius Met. 9.1 1 : Ibi complurium iumentorum multivii circuitus intorquebant molas ambage varia; nec die tantum, verum perpeti etiarn nocte prorsus instabili machinarum vertigine lucubrabant pervigilem farinam sed die sequenti rnolae, quae maxima videbatur, matutinus adstituor et illico velata facie propel lor ad incurva spatia

Jlexuosi canatis, ut in orbe termini circumfluentis reciproco gressu mea recalcans vestigia vagarer errore certo. Cf. also Apuleius Met. 7.15.

3 4 9 ROME II

ly that women who had earlier labored at the hand mill could relax, since the J '

water mill now performed their work for them. His description of nymphs leap-ing upon the top of the wheel to make it turn and so to move the millstone seems a fairly clear portrayal of an overshot water mill at work.48 His contempo-rary, the architect Vitruvius, provides the only technical description of a water mill, this time an undershot mill:49

By this same principle water-mills are turned, in which all things are the same, except for the fact that at one end of the axle has been placed a wheel with teeth. Moreover, having been fixed perpendicularly on its edge, it is turned at the same time with the wheel. Behind this a larger wheel, likewise toothed, is fixed horizon-tally, by which it is held. So, the teeth of that wheel, which is fixed on the axle, by driving the teeth of the horizontal wheel compels the rotation of the millstones to take place. In this machine a hopper suspended above supplies grain to the mill-stones and by this same turning meal is ground.5"

T h e earliest archaeological evidence for a water mill discovered anywhere is the Earliest evidence for

small, undershot mill associated with the early first-century A. D. villa at San a water mill

Giovanni di Ruoti, located northwest of modern Potenza in Lucania. Archaeol-ogists have also revealed a mid-first century A. D. t imber water mill near Aven-ticum (mod. Avenches) in Switzerland. T h e remains include the stone portions of the mill, including the conical-shaped basalt millstones, and evidence for both head and tail races, the wooden structures that directed the water to the wheel from the stream. T h e small, vertical undershot-type mill seems to have belonged to a wealthy private villa owner. Also found in proximity to the mill were vari-ous carbonized grains of barley, oats, rye, and five different species of wheat, but particularly bread wheat, Tnticum spelta.יי T h e earliest literary evidence, there-

lH St rahn 12.3.30 (C 556); See Anlhologia Palatine! 9.418. For a translation and c o m m e n t on the textual reading, see Mori tz , Grain-mills, p. 131. Some scholars assume the ΰδραλέτης of S t rabo was a wa te r mill; others conclude that it was a water-lift ing device. Very little informat ion exists upon which to base any firm conclusions. See Paavo Roos, "S t rabo a n d the Water-mill at Cabe i r a , " ORom 20 (1996): 99 103.

,Vitruvius De arch. 10.5.2: Eadem ratione etiam versantur hydraletae, in quibus eadem sunt omnia י־,,praeterquam quod in uno capite axis tympanum dentatum est inclusum. Id autem ad perpendiculum conlocatum in cultrum versatur cum rota panier. Secundum id tympanum mains item dentatum planum est conlocatum, quo contine-tur. Ita denies tympani eius, quod est in axe inclusum, inpellendo denies tympani plani cogunt fieri molarum circina-tionem. In qua machina inpendens infundibulum subministrat rnolis frumentum et eadem versatione subigilurfarina.

50 See note 63 below. 51 Alastair M. Small and Rober t J . Buck, eds. Hie Excavations of San Giovanni di Ruoti. Vol. I: 'The

Villa and Their Environment (Toronto: University of T o r o n t o Press, 1994), pp. 47-49 , and Figs. 26 27, pp. 308-09; R . J . A. Wilson, "Tot aquarum tarn multis necessariis molibus . . . . Recent Studies on Aquc-ducts and Wate r Supply," JRA 6 (1996): 21; Daniel Castella et al, L·׳ moulin hydraulique gallo-romain d'Avenche "en Chaplix."Aventicum VI (Lausanne: Cahiers d 'archéologia romande , 1994). T h e au thor dates the Aventicum mill ra ther precisely. It was built in A. D . 5 7 / 5 8 and abandoned in A. I). 80.

CHAPTER THREE 3 5 0

spread of water mill fore, dates to the first century Β. C. and portrays the water mill as a novelty, technology while archaeological evidence proves that the practical application of the inno-

vation was in place a century or less later. Where this first occurrcd is more diffi-cult to say. T h e earliest archaeological evidence points to a western, perhaps even, Italian, innovation, but the (slightly earlier) literary evidence argues for an eastern origin. T h e question, therefore, still has no firm answer.52

Water mills of different types, including horizontal mills and both undershot and overshot vertical mills, have been confirmed in second-century A. D. con-texts in Gaul, at Barbegal near Aries, at Dasing in Germany, at Hagendorn in Switzerland, and in Britain, at Ickham, Kent . Th i rd and fourth-century A. D. examples come from Ro me on the Jan icu lum Hill and under the Baths of Caracalla, from Britain at Ickham, Kent, from Tunisia at Chemtou (ancient Simitthus) and Testour, and possibly f rom Israel at Nahal Tannin im on the Crocodile River.53 An important overshot water-mill operated in the Athenian agora dur ing the fifth century A. D. Archaeological remains from numerous sites, sometimes undatable and in lesser states of preservation, indicate the defi-nite or probable presence of other water mills, including those at Venaf rum in Italy and at many places 111 Britain, such as along Hadr ian 's Wall. T h e communis opinio has for a long time held that water mills, though known in the Augustan period, were not put to practical use nor did they become important before the fifth or sixth century A. D. This is no longer a tenable position, as these finds indicate that not only were the Romans using water mills in the first century

52 Ö r j a n Wikander , Handbook of Ancient Water Technology (Leiden: Brill, 2000), pp. 394—97. 53 O n the typology of water mills generally, see Wikande r , Handbook, pp. 3 7 3 - 7 8 . See also

Gaul : F e r n a n d Benoit , "L 'us ine de meune r i e hydraul ique de Barbegal (Arles)," RA (1940): 19-80; A. T r e v o r Hodge , "A R o m a n Factory ," Scientific American (Nov. 1990): 1 0 6 Phil ;־1 1 ippe Leveau, " T h e Barbegal W a t e r Mill in its Env i ronmen t : Archaeology and the Economic and Social History of Ant iqui ty ," JRA 9 (1996): 137-53. Switzer land a n d G e r m a n y : Wilson, "To/ aquarum," p. 21. Britain: R o b e r t ]. Spain , " T h e Second-Cen tu ry Romano-Br i t i sh Watermil l at I ckham, K e n t , " History of Technology 9 (1984): 143-80; C . J . Young , " T h e Late R o m a n Wate r -mill at I ckham, Kent , and the Saxon Shore , " in Collectanea Historica. Essays in Memory of Stuart Rigold. Alec Detsicas, ed. (Maidstone: K e n t Archaeological Society, 1981), pp. 32 -40 . R o m e : Malco lm Bell, III, "An Imperial Flour Mill on the J a n i c u l u m , " in Le ravitaillement en blé de Rome, !5p. 73 -89 ; R a b u n Taylor , " T o r r e n t o r Trickle? T h e A q u a Alsietina, the N a u m a c h i a Augusti , a n d the T rans t i be r im , " AJA 101 (1997): 4 8 6 - 8 8 ; Tht ìrki1d Schi01er and Ö r j a n Wikande r , "A R o m a n Water -mi l l in the Baths of Caraca l l a , " ()Rom 14, no. 4 (1983): 47 64. Tunis ia : G. Röder , "Die M ü h l e a m Medjerda-Fluss : H i g h - T e c h vor 1700 J a h r e n , " Bild der Wissenschaft 12 (1989): 9 4 - 1 0 0 ; A n d r e w Wilson, " W a t e r - p o w e r in Nor th Afr ica and the Deve lopmen t of the Hor izonta l Wate r -whee l , " JRA 8 (1995): 4 9 9 - 5 1 0 . Israel: J. P. Oleson, "A R o m a n Water-mil l on the Croco-dilian River near C a e s a r e a , " ZPa lV 100 (1984): 137 52; Thork i ld Schioler, " T h e Watermil ls at the Crocodi le River: A T u r b i n e Mill D a t e d to 3 4 5 - 3 8 0 A.D. , " PalE(l J u l y - D e c . 1989): 133-43 . See the brief overview of R o m a n wa te r mills in Castclla et al, Moulin hydraulique gallo-romain, pp . 2 0 - 2 7 .

3 5 1 ROME II

Horizontal versus

overshot and

undershot vertical

water mills

A. D. at the latest but their use had become widespread by the fourth century A. D.5 4

Water mills, even the least efficient horizontal type, were expensive to build and to operate, but they did considerably increase the output of meal, and so provided more product per unit of time expended. Both of these considerations mean that water mills needed a larger investment and produced yields greater than that of donkey-mill installations. Therefore, water mills were usually owned and operated by a wealthy landowner, who needed the flour to feed a large number of farmhands and probably to export to an urban market, a partnership (societas) of landowners, or the state. T h e water mill at San Giovanni di Ruoti in Lucania conforms to the first, the Barbegal mill near Aries to the second, and the mills in Rome on the Janiculum and in the Baths of Caracalla to the third. Water power did not replace the animal-driven rotary mill nor the rotary hand-mill. Diocletian's Price Edict of A. D. 301, for example, lists maximum prices for water mills (2,000 den.), horse-mills with stones (1,500 den.), donkey mills (1,250 den.), and hand mills (250 den.), showing that all three continued to operate side-by-side.55

O u r interest in water mills principally lies not with the motive power of the water wheel per se, that is, whether, as in the horizontal and the vertical under-shot wheels, the water pushed the paddles at a speed dependent upon the force of the stream alone, or, as in the vertical overshot wheel, the water moved the wheel by the combined force of the stream and the weight of the water as it fell onto the paddles from the millrace. We arc concerned, however, with the rnech-anism by which the moving water wheel caused the millstones to turn. Never-theless, something will have to be said on the arrangement of the wheel while focussing on the action required to operate the millstones. Which type of mill

54 See esp. Wikander , Handbook, p. 372, w h o says that forty-nine water mills, da t ing between the first and fifth centuries A. D. , have been found. For a partial list, see Ö r j a n Wikander , "Archaeological Evidence for Early Water-mills — an Inter im Repor t , " History of Technology 10 (1985): 151-79. Wikande r notes that he will catalogue all finds in his fo r thcoming book. See also Whi te , Greek and Roman Technology, Appendix Six, pp. 196 201; A. T r e v o r Hodge , Roman Aqueducts & Water Supply (London: Duckwor th , 1991), pp. 254- 61. For the Athenian water-mills, see Ar thu r W. Parsons, "A R o m a n Water-mill in the Athenian Agora ," Hesperia 5 (1936): 70 -90 ; Rober t J . Spain, " T h e R o m a n Water-mill in the Athenian Agora . A N e w View of the Evidence," Hesperia 56, no. 4 (1987): 3 3 5 - 5 3 . Art historical evidence for water mills is quite scarce, being limited to exactly two examples: a wa te r wheel, or pe rhaps a water-lift ing device, appears in a wall pa in t ing f rom the C a t a c o m b of St. Agnes in Rome , da t ing to ca. third-century Α. I)., and a fifth-century A. D . mosaic f rom Constant inople . See Castella, Moulin hydraulique gallo-romain, p. 20.

Edict. Diocl. 15.52 55. Whi <זי־ te (Greek and Roman Technology, p. 198) commen t s that the close agreement be tween the m a x i m u m price for water mills (2,000 den.) and that for animal-dr iven mills (1 den.) indicates that the fo ־2501,500, rmer "must have become ver)־ c o m m o n by this t ime."

CHAPTER THREE 3 5 2

the Romans chose to use depended upon several factors, the most obvious being the availability of water. If a fast moving stream were nearby, all the better. If not, water from a variety of sources, including baths, could be collected in a millpond and fed to the mill as needed. T h e horizontal mill was perhaps the simplest, sincc the wheel, pushed by the water, turned a vertically placed axle that was linked directly to the millstones. It was cheaper to build and to operate, but it was least efficient and required a steady flow of water to operate. Where the water source was unreliable during parts of the year, such as in Italy, a mill could remain idle for a considerable part of the year, unless it had access to a water head created by a dam or pond. T h e same considerations drove the deci-sion to use the vertical undershot mill. T h e most efficient mill was the vertical overshot mill, although it was considerably more expensive to construct a millpond and to build the framework for the millraces and walls needed to direct the water onto the paddles f rom above.56 Most European water mills conformed to the vertical overshot type, with some undershot mills, while the North African mills were uniformly horizontal, perhaps indicating the origin of these particular types.57 T o illustrate the different ways the Romans operated grain mills with water power, I will briefly discuss two types of mill that moved the millstones in different ways: the horizontal, helix-turbine mill at Chemtou in Tunisia and the vertical overshot mill at Barbegal.

Horizontal helix- T h e mill at Chemtou utilizes the simplest way to turn the millstones, the hori-turbine mill at zontal wheel with vertical axle. This particular mill is interesting because its

Chemtou, Tunisia three wheels sit in circular shafts. When sluice gates were opened water from the river flowed through channels that narrowed as they approached the wheel-shafts and struck the slanted wheel paddles tangentially. Since the wheel filled the surrounding stone casing, or wheel pit, little energy was lost to water escap-ing around the paddles. This arrangement effectively created a turbine. The

50 O n ba th water used to power a four th-century A. I), wa te r mill associated with a bakery, see Palladius Opus Agr. 1.41. J . G. Landels, Engineering in the Ancient World (Berkeley: University of Cali-fornia Press, 1978), pp. 1623־. Power genera ted depends u p o n the velocity of the water when it strikes the wheel paddles a n d the size of the paddle-area so struck. T h e efficiency of the vertical undershot mill is ca. twenty-two pe r cent; that for the overshot type is ca. 65 70 % . Sec Hodge , Roman Aqueducts, p. 255. See Procopius 5.19.19~22, w h o says that dur ing the siege of R o m e by the Go ths in A. 1). 537, af ter the enemy had destroyed the aqueducts , to keep a cont inuous supply of flour for the populat ion the R o m a n s placed water mills on ships anchored on the T i b e r River. T h e water wheel itself was suspended in the wa te r between two boats, while the grindstones rest-ed in one of them. Literary sources also ment ion floating mills of a similar kind at Geneva and Dijon later that same century. See Ö r j a n Wikander , "Mill-channels, Weirs, a n d Ponds. T h e Env i ronment of Ancient Water-mil ls ," ORorn 15 (1985): 14954־; Wikander , Handbook, pp . 379 -83.

Wilson, "Wate י7• r -power in N o r t h Afr ica ," pp . 503 10.

3 5 3 ROME II

wheel turned the vertically placed axle that connected directly to the millstones installed in the mill room above the shafts. A spindle inserted into the axle passed through the lower millstone where it seated into a metal rynd attached to the grinding surface of the upper millstone. As the water turned the wheel, its axle rotated the spindle, which in turn moved the upper stone. Apparently the distance between grinding surfaces could be adjusted by a tentering system. Placed next to and parallel to the wheel shaft was another shaft fitted with a ver-tical wooden pole. Attached to its lower end was a pivoted horizontal bridge-tree the opposite end of which was seated under the waterwheel. T h e miller, by raising or lowering the vertical pole in the mill room, could impart the same movement to the waterwheel, which in turn raised or lowered the axle and spin-die, thereby increasing or decreasing the space between the grinding stones. Unfortunately, the wooden superstructure of the mill is not extant, so the posi-tioning of grinding stones with their f rame and hoppers cannot be ascertained. T h e vertical water mills of Europe, however, used a different, more complicated system to operate the grindstones.58

T h e water mill at Barbegal, located near Aries (ancient Arclate) on the Vertical overshot

southern slope of a ridge, operated between the second and fourth centuries A. water mill at

D. It once constituted a large building (61 m. long χ 20 m. wide) composed of Barbegal, France

sixteen millhouses arranged in two parallel rows of eight extending down the slope, each set of two millhouses on a different level (Fig. 26). A grand stairway separated the houses and gave access to each one. All total, the complex sup-ported sixteen mills operated by wheels turned by water from an aqueduct that approached from the rear. It is easily the largest extant water-powered grain-mill from the ancient world. T h e water mill's foundations, par t of the walls,

9 and a few grinding stones are extant; the wooden superstructure is not (PI. 29). T h e capacity of the mill complex cannot easily be computed, since we do not know the rotation rate of the millstones, how long per day it operated, nor with what efficiency. Earlier scholars have connected the mill with imperial ownership designed to provide flour f rom imported grain to the court, the populat ion of Arelate and the surrounding region, and the army, or with municipal ownership designed to supply flour to the city's population f rom grain raised in the neighborhood. T h e most recent suggestion has the mill

58 Röder , "Die M ü h l e a m Medjerda-Fluss ," 9 4 - 1 0 Wilson, "Wate ;קנן. 0 r -power in N o r t h Afr ica ," 4 9 9 - 5 1 esp. pp. 5 ,קנן. 0 0 6 - 0 9 , for a list of possible R o m a n N o r t h African horizontal water mills. Wilson distinguishes between the helix-turbine type of C h e m t o u and Tes tour located on a river, and the "drop- tower" type, c o m m o n to small s t reams or hilly areas, part icularly in the N e a r East, where water is less a b u n d a n t or irregular. H e r e a tower forms a reservoir to contain a head of water that exits th rough a nozzle at the bo t tom creat ing the stream needed to opera te an unenclosed wheel.

CHAPTER THREE 3 5 4

Fig. 26. Interpretative drawing of the Barbegal water mill. T h e slope was more gentle than shown, ca. 17°. From Hodge, "Roman Factory," p. 109. Courtesy of A. Trevor Hodge.

3 5 5 ROME II

owned privately by a consortium (.societas) of wealthy landowners who grew the grain themselves.59

How the mill operated is fairly clear in most particulars. Power to drive the Operation of the

wheel, and by extension the grindstones, came from water conducted in a small Barbegal water mill

aqucduct that paralleled the main Aries aqueduct. The aqueduct approached the mill through a cut in the top of the ridge, where two diagonal channels directed the water to each side. There it poured into millraces, which are stepped down the slope of the hill having a gradient of 30.5% or ca. 1 7°.60 The water flowed through the millraces, which were placcd along the interior face of the mill's side walls, powering the waterwheels in each of the eight pairs of millhouses as it went. Since the wooden portions of the mill arc not extant, we can only conjecture how it looked. Each millhouse contained the water wheel and the milling room, probably separated from the wheel by a wall or, most likely, a floor to prevent the water from wetting the meal. The milling area contained the millstones, somewhat coni-cal in shape as at Aventicum, the wooden framework surrounding it to provide stability, the hopper {fundibulum) to feed grain into the central hole of the upper grindstone, and room for sacks of grain and meal. There had to be headroom to mount the hopper on top of the grindstones and for workers to accomplish the necessary tasks of feeding the hopper and gathering and storing the meal. As with all water mills, the apparatus was covered, though in this instance the roofing sys-tem remains unknown. Some controversy remains over whether the water wheel was constructed as a vertical undershot mill or, most likely, overshot.111 Regardless, the gearing system to move the grindstones would be the same, and probably

59 Leveau, "Barbegal W a t e r Mill ," pp. 137-53; Peter S. Bellamy and R. Bruce Hi tchncr , " T h e Villas of the Vallée des Baux and the Barbegal Mill: Excavations at la Mér indole Villa and Cemete ry , " JRA 9 (1996): 154-76.

60 Nearly all published reconstruction drawings of the Barbegal water mill show a gradient of ca. 30°, not 17°, because of an er ror published by Benoit in 1940. This is a considerable discrep-ancy, which has also led to many miscalculations of the daily output of the mill. At 17" the water descended the hill at a m u c h slower rate than if the slope were actually 30.5°. Sec esp. Paavo Roos, "For the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Excavations of the Water-mill at Barbegal: A Corrcc-tion of a Long-lived Mistake," R A (1986): 327-33 . For a t tempts to calculate the capacity of the mill, see, for example, Rober t H . J . Sellin, " T h e Large R o m a n W a t e r Mill at Barbegal (France)," History of Technolog)! 8 (1983): 91 -109 ; J a m e s Bromwich, The Roman Remains of Southern Trance. A Guidebook (London: Routledge, 1993), pp. 159-60. For reasons cited above (p. 353), an accurate calculation of mill capacity is impossible. T o o m a n y variables render any estimate unhelpful if not misleading.

e l T h e water mill located on the Jan icu lum hill, for a n u m b e r of reasons, is assumed to have been of the vertical undershot type, so construction on a slope docs not rule out ei ther ar range-ment . It is, however, the only known undershot water wheel driven by an aqueduct . Bell, " Impcr -ial Flour Mill," pp. 7389־ ; Taylor , "To r r en t or Trickle?" pp. 486-88, ' Size of millstones used with water wheels varied widely. Wikander (Handbook, p. 392) says that millstones varied between

CHAPTER THREE 3 5 6

Fig. 27. Gearing arrangement for vertical undershot water mill according to Vitruvius De arch. 10.5.2: a. Water wheel, b. Vertical cogwheel (tympanum dentatum). c. Horizontal axis. d. Horizontal cogwheel (shown here as a lantern pinion mounted on a bridge-tree), e. Vertical axis. f. Dovetail rynd. g. Lower millstone (meta), h. Upper millstone (catillus). i. Hopper. Based on illustration from Saalburg Jahrbuch, Vol. 3, p. 91, Fig. 45. Courtesy of the Saalburg Museum.

3 5 7 ROME II

approximated that described by Vitruvius for the undershot mill (Fig. 27) and that suggested for the overshot mill under the Baths of Caracalla in Rome.0 2

Water flowing through the millraces fell upon the paddles of the wheel and ()/)nation of the caused it to rotate. This turned the horizontal shaft (axis) whose other end, fitted «earing system of a with a metal journal, was inserted into a socket in the wall opposite. Affixed tight- water mitt to grind ly to the same axle was the tympanum dentatum, vertical cogwheel (or driver gear), grain Between the water wheel and the vertical cogwheel, resting on a bridge-tree, sat either a second cogwheel (tympanum) oriented horizontally or, most likely, a small-er lantern pinion (or driven gear) into which the teeth of the vertical cogwheel meshed.63 The pinion had attached to it a vertical spindle that rose to pierce the meta from below. O n the top of the spindle sat a fixed iron dovetail that fit into a reccssed hole of the same shape on the grinding surface of the catillus.(A When the water turned the wheel, the axle rotated the vertical cogwheel. T h e teeth of the cogwheel engaged in the lantern pinion, which in turn rotated the spindle and dovetail causing the upper millstone to spin. T h e centrifugal forces generated by the spinning catillus impelled the crushed meal to the periphery of the millstones

fifty-five a n d eighty-five centimeters in d iameter . Stones in early mills were somewhat conical in shape, flatter later. Examples f rom Avent icum ranged between 60.0 cm. and 73.0 cm. in d iame-ter and between 6.0 cm. and 18.0 cm. in m a x i m u m height. At Barbegal the millstones measured between 43.0 cut. and 87.0 cm. in d iameter . Castella, Moulin hydraulique gallo-romain, pp. 46 62. T h o s e studied by Wil l iams-Thorpe ("Provenancing a n d Archaeology," p. 260) measured between 48.0 cm. and 92.0 cm. in d iameter and between 10.0 cm. and 45.0 cm. in thickness. For Barbegal as an undershot mill, see Bromwich. Roman Remains, p. 157.

Vitruvius De arch. 10.5.2. See also Landels, Engineering, pp י2' . 23 25; Mori tz , (ìrain-mills, pp. 122 30; Sehiolcr and Wikander , " R o m a n Water-mil l ," pp. 51 55־, esp. Fig. 15, p. 57.

Ii:! T h e r e is no archaeological evidence for a second tympanum of the type that Vitruvius describes. However , excavations at Saalburg, G e r m a n y , on the site of a water-mill , though proba-bly not for milling grain, yielded an iron spindle with fixed dovetail , at the bot tom of which was a lantern pinion. Mori tz , Grain-mills, pp . 122 30. Vitruvius, when describing his undershot mill, says that the vertical cogwheel was smaller than the horizontal d r u m that rotates the spindle that moves the catillus. 111 o ther words, this "gea red -down" a r r angemen t mean t that the millstones rotated at a slower rate than the water wheel. Th i s is not the usual a r r angement , so some scholars have a m e n d e d the text to show a "gea red-up" a r r angemen t , whereby the millstones spin faster than the water wheel. But since Parsons ( " R o m a n Watermil l , pp. 70 90) had a rgued that the fifth-century A.I) , water mill in Athens opera ted with jus t such a "gea red-down" a r rangement as Vitruvius had described, o ther scholars have accepted this and a t tempted to explain it in various ways. See, e. g., Wikander , Handbook, pp . 389 92; L. A. Mor i tz , "Vitruvius ' Water-Mill , , Classical יReview 70 (1956): 193 96. Spain ( " R o m a n Watermi l l , " pp . 335 53), however, has recently argued that the Athenian water mill did indeed have a "gea red -up" a r rangement .

64 Castella notes that the spindle of the Avent icum mill a t tached to the catillus in a fashion differ-cut f rom that used in later water mills. He re the top of the spindle, af ter having passed through the upper stone, had at tached to it a horizontal ba r each end of which bent downward and seated into small holes in the top surface of the catillus. Castella believes that this is an early solution to the problem of turning the uppe r stone and preceded the use of a rynd, which became popula r in per-haps the second century A. 1). See Castella, Moulin hydraulique gallo-romain, pp. 46 62, esp. Fig. 31.

CHAPTER THREE 358

where it collectcd in a trough or other container. T h e spacc between the two millstones could be adjusted to produce a finer or coarser meal, as desired, by raising or lowering the bridge-tree supporting the lantern pinion. We do not know the process by which grain, delivered to a water mill, was then processed into flour, but we have a very good idea of this activity from sculpted reliefs show-ing cereal processing and baking of bread in bakeries operating donkey mills.

3. Bread Making

T h e sarcophagus of L. Annius Octavius Valerianus (PI. 30) exhibits two registers depicting the sequence (though not every step) of cereal agriculture from plant-ing to processing to bread making. T h e top register, reading left to right, shows a farmer ploughing, then tilling his field, and finally reaping the harvest. T he bottom register, reading right to left, shows the farmer apparently conducting the grain in an oxen-driven cart to the bakery, where it is first ground and (prob-ably) kneaded into dough. It is uncertain which activity is being shown in the relief, since the apparatus ' construction with a spindle inserted into the upper stone bears no resemblance to any known grain mill. Although the container, however, looks more like a catillus and meta ar rangement for a rotary hand mill, the apparatus would not work well as shown because there is no provision to feed the grain into the mill. It probably, therefore, represents a human-powered kneading machine. T h e last scene shows either dough, formed into loaves, being placed into the domed oven or else baked bread being removed.65 T h e scene seems to depict bread making on the farm. Perhaps the best display of cereal processing in a large urban bakery can be seen in the sculpted reliefs on the late first-century B. C. T o m b of M. Vergilius Eurysaces in Rome.

Eurysaces was a baker who contracted with the state to proccss grain into flour and to bake it into bread. He was apparently a wealthy freedman who spared no expense in proclaiming his service to the state by prominently displaying both roles, pistor and redemptor, on his tomb (Fig. 28).66 Since Eurysaces' funerary relief shows each step from receiving the grain to baking the bread, it provides an

Sarcophagus of I..

Annius Octavius

Valerianus

Tomb of Eurysaces

T י•6 h e artist may not have been entirely knowledgeable of the mach ine he was a t tempt ing to represent . Mori tz (Grain-milk, pp. 81 -82 ) dates the sarcophagus to the Augustan period or later.

66 Paola Ciancio Rossetto, II sepolcro delIfomaio Marco Virgilio Eutisace a Porta Maggiore. I M o n u m c n -ti R o m a n i V (Rome: Istituto de Studi R o m a n i , 1973); Mar io Petrassi, "II m o n u m e n t o del fornaio a Porta Maggiore, ' Capitolium 49, nos. 2 י 5 6 ־ 3 (1974): 4 8 ־ ; Ollc Brandt , "Recent Research on the T o m b of Eurysaces," ORom 19, no. 2 (1993): 13-17; Peter Herz , Studien zur römischen Wirtschafts-gesetzgebung. Die Lebensmittelversorgung (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1988), pp. 40, 78-79 , 113; Paul Zanker , The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus. Alan Shapiro, transi. (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1988), p. 15; Z immer , Römische Berufsdarstellungen, pp. 1 0 6 0 ״ 9 .

CHAPTER THREE 3 6 0

excellent vehicle with which to study Roman cereal processing and to see the role of the state bureaucracy whose interest in it was not too unlike that of Pharaonic and Sumerian government officials. T h e scenes on the south side (reading right to left) show cereal processing. The state delivered the grain, probably in sacks, from the granary to Eurysaces' bakery. Representatives of the state apparently checked and recorded the total amount of grain received so that it might be com-pared with the total amount of bread produced. The scene then shifts to two donkey mills used to grind the grain. The grain used is probably a naked wheat, such as bread wheat (7riticum vulgare), or siligo, which responds easily to threshing and can be ground directly on the mill. A glume variety, such as emmer (proba-bly to be identified with Latin far), or a hulled grain, such as barley, would require roasting followed by pounding with mortar and pestle to remove the tough outer coating before grinding.67 Neither process is represented in this relief.

Bakers and bakeries Pliny (HN 18.97), after remarking that inhabitants of Etruria roasted emmer wheat (far toslum) and, using a pestle having a piece of iron fixed to the business end, pounded it in a mortar with a particularly rough surface, goes on to say that most of Italy used a bare pestle in a wooden mortar so as not to pulverize the seeds. It remains uncertain whether his next comment, that water power might also be used, refers to pestles powered by a water mill. Certainly no other author mentions a machine of this kind.68 The pounding (Latin pinsere) of emmer, or far, apparently accounts for the Latin words for mill, pistrinum. When the miller moved to town and began to bake bread as well as mill flour, he maintained the title that reflected his earlier occupation, that is, pistor. His place of business, the bakery, took a similar name, pistrina or pistrinum. So Servius remarks in his commentary to Vergil Aeneid 1.179: "Because among our ances-tors there was no use of mills, they roasted grain frumenta) and pounded it in mortars (])ilas). Whence, they have been called 'pounders ' [pinsores) who now are called bakers (pistores)."69 The meal so produced, according to Pliny, the Romans

07 See esp. L. A. Mor i tz , "Husked and 'Naked ' Gra in , " CQ.49 (1955): 12934־; idem, " C o r n , " CQ,49 (1955): 135-41; idem, Grain-mills, pp. xxi-xxv.

(iît Cf. Hesiod Op. 4 2 3 - 2 6 , and the commen t s in C h a p t e r Six, p. 280, note 44. Λ study of cereal finds at Acquarossa, dat ing f rom the late-seventh to the early sixth century B. C., indicate that the domina te grain was barley, with e m m e r and einkorn whea t c o m m o n . All of these cereals would need roasting and pound ing with a pestle before gr inding into flour. See Hakon Hjelmqvist , A Ceieal Find from Old Etruiia (Partille, Sweden: Paul Aström, 1989), pp. 3 21. Wikander (Handbook, pp. 403 04) does not dismiss the possibility of water -powered pestles. C u r w e n ("More About Que rns , " pp . 2 9 3 ־ 1 ) conducted exper iments with gr inding wheat and barley on a rotary h a n d quern and found that roasting be fo rehand m a d e them brittle and more easily ground.

69 S e n ius on Vergil Aeneid 1.1 79: El quia apud maiores nostros mo/arum usus non erat, frumenta tombant et ea in pilas missa pinsebant, et hoc erat genus molendi. Unde et pinsores dicti sunt, qui nunc pistores vocantur. Cf. V a r r o Ling. 5.138. Millers, as distinct f rom bakers, went by the term molitor, rnolinarius, or molendi־ nanus. See VVikander, Handbook, p. 398.

361 R O M Κ I

used not for bread but for porridge, called puis, the basic food of early Rome. When they began to bake bread at home is unknown, but, again according to Pliny, professional bakers, pistores, appear in Rome only in ca. 171 B. C. T o judge from epigraphic and art historical sources, most professional bakers were male, but Varro tells us that Lucilius, in one of his satires, refers to a female bak-er (pistrix). Bakers apparently retained their title even though they began to mill grain primarily with the donkey mill, which had entered Italy not long before. Since Pliny says that in his day convicts worked the mortar and pestle to process grains, it is possible that Eurysaces also ground in his mills husked grains roasted and pounded elsewhere before being brought to his bakery. Grains, such as emmer and barley, which have to be roasted before milling, however, cannot be used to make leavened bread because the heat destroys the enzymes necessary for gluten in the meal to expand. Breads made from them were, therefore, not popular products.70

T h e two donkey mills of Pompeian type shown on Eurysaces' relief grind the (Grindinggrain and

grain into meal. T o the left of the mills two individuals stand at a table and sift sieving meat

the meal to obtain a fine grade of flour. T h e last scene on the south side shows another state bureaucrat checking the quality of flour to be used for the bread. Finely ground flour as free as possible f rom the detritus of milling yielded a well baked loaf of superior texture. Production of high-grade flour was more a fac-tor of sieving than it was of grinding. T h e miller had to be careful not to adjust his mill so coarsely that whole grains and large pieces escaped reduction nor so finely that even the bran was ground to a powder. Grinding too long also pre-scnted problems, since then pieces of the millstones could break off into the meal. It is doubtful that R o m a n donkey mills could be so accurately adjusted consistently. Therefore , sieving after grinding became more important in ensuring high quality flour. T h e baker, to judge f rom Seneca's remarks about grinding grain (Ep. 90.2223־), probably performed successive grindings on each batch of grain, not so much to make the meal finer but to ensure that all grains had been crushed. O n e can only assume f rom the utility of doing so in

70 For the pistrix, see Lucilius 1250 51 ap. V a r r o Ling. 5.138; idem ap. Festus p. 1221״ Pliny H.\ 18.83-84, 107-08, 112 (referring to processing alicd). Cf. V a r r o ap . Nonius Marcel lus 152.14. See also K.. 1). Whi te , "Cereals , Bread and Milling in the R o m a n Wor ld , " in Food in Antiquity, pp. 38 43. Mor i tz (Grain-mills, pp . xix xxii) says that the shift f rom puis to b read came abou t f rom a desire to avoid two disadvantages of porr idge as a basic food item: its short keeping capacity and the fact that it r emained liquid or mushy. For a discussion of puis, see M a x W ä h r e n and Chr i s toph Schneider , Die pub. Römischer Getreidebrei (Äugst: R ö m e r m u s e u m Äugst, 1995); for pis-tores, see Betty J o Mayeske, "Bakeries, Bakers, and Bread at Pompeii : A Study in Social and Eco-nomic History." Ph .D . diss., University of Mary land , 1972, pp. 1 4 .

CHAPTER THREE 3 6 2

modern experiments that sifting followed each successive grinding in antiquity as well.71

T h e Romans had several types of sieves. Pliny (HJSÍ 18.108), for example, says that the Gallic provinces developed sieves of horsehair, while Egyptians made them of rush and papyrus. T h e general Latin word for sieve, crìbrum, could be augmented with an adjective to distinguish among the different types, interest-ingly in light of innovations in grain storage and milling on the rotary quern arising from Spain, Pliny credits that province with producing two kinds of sieve from flax, one to sift meal, (cribrum) excussoiium, another to sift flour, (cnbrum) polli-narium. T h e Latin term pollen designated one of the finest Roman flours. Indeed, Pollux (6.74) says that the change f rom reed sieves to those of flax made fine flour possible. Cato (RR 76.3) mentions another coarse-meshed sieve, the cnbmm

faiinanum, referring to the kind used to sift meal ground from emmer, which, as a husked grain, had to be roasted and pounded before being ground. It seems, then, that Romans had both coarsely-meshed and finely-meshed sieves. The for-mer separated the bran (furfures) from the meal; the latter produced first-quality flour.72 Since sieves were made of perishable materials, none have survived. Wha t they looked like, however, can be seen on some funerary reliefs, such as that of Eurysaces and of P. Nonius Zethus (PI. 28); how they were used is clear 2 from the description in the Moretum of the peasant farmer grinding grain for his salad. Sieves apparently were round in shape, and the method used to tie off the material on the periphery created a raised border that prevented any detritus from falling off into the sifted flour. Although R o m a n sieves differed little in shape from their predecessors, significant improvements are discernible in mate-rials used and, especially, in quality of flour produced.7 3

Kneading After sifting the flour and obtaining approval from the state official, the activity shifts to baking, shown on the north side of the monument. Eurysaces' workmen first knead the mixture into dough using an animal-driven mechanical kneading machine. T o the left of the kneading machine are two tables where workers form the loaf from the moist dough. Another state bureaucrat checks to ensure that there

71 Not everyone pa id as close at tent ion to Hour quality as these state bureaucrats , to j u d g e f rom Horace ' s warn ing to travelers to avoid the bread of Canus ium because it was full of stone frag-ments (lapidosus). H o r a c e Sat. 1.5.91; Seneca Ben. 2.7.1 (panis lapidosus). See Mori tz , Grain-mills, pp . 15-58. Seneca (Ep. 22-23) , relates that Posidonius, the Stoic phi losopher, taught that the idea of gr inding grain be tween two stones came to the wise m a n f rom observing how the teeth, when chewing, broke up the food again and again until it could be swallowed easily.

72 Cf. also Plautus Poen. 513 (cribrum pollinarium). See Mori tz , Grain-mills, pp. 164-67. Ano the r high quality flour was called siligo, f rom a grain of the same name . See Mori tz , Grain-mills, pp. xxiv-xxv.

73 See also Z i m m e r , Römische Berufsdarstellungen, pp . I 16-17 (marble relief f r o m Ostia). For the Moretum, see above p. 338.

3 6 3 ROME II

is no waste. One important step in the process must have occurred at this point, but Leaven

is not shown. Assuming that the grain milled was a naked wheat, and not a husked wheat that would have its gluten destroyed by roasting, the workers would have presumably mixed into the flour water, salt, any other ingredients desired, and leaven. Pliny (HN 18.102-03) records various kinds of leaven, including a com-pressed yeast made by mixing grape juice with the bran from milled wheat, allow-ing it to sit for three days in the sun to dry, then forming it into cakes. When the time came, bakers soaked cakes of this leaven in water mixed with emmer flour 'farina) and added it to the flour being used to make the bread. Pliny (.HN 18.68) is our earliest source for the use of another type of leaven the existence of which has been assumed, but unproven, for bread making as early as Old Kingdom Egypt. He says that inhabitants of Spain and Gaul used grain to produce a drink (i. e. beer) that formed a foam during the preparation process. They used this foam, called brewer's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) today, to leaven their bread, which, he laments, is lighter than that of Italy. But Pliny (HN 18.104) adds that in his day the usual source of leaven was dough that had been saved over from the previous day's baking.74 This is probably the kind of leaven that Eurysaces' workers used.

The Romans kneaded dough in a number of ways. If small quantities were Mechanical kneading

needed, as in home baking, they could do it by hand, as depicted in the Moretum machine

(lines 42-46). Cato (RR 74) begins his description of the process with an admoni-tion: "Wash your hands and the bowl!" The cook placed flour in a bowl, added water, salt and leaven (both omitted by Cato), and any other additives desired, and worked it with the fingers and fist until it thickened. He then placed it on a table and shaped it into the proper form according to the bread product being made. The purpose of kneading dough is to aerate it and to assist the develop-ment of gluten, all aimed at producing a lighter and finer-textured bread. Pro-fessional bakers, like Eurysaces and many of those in Pompeii and other cities, however, needed large quantities of dough and so turned to mechanical knead-ing machines. Whether operated by humans or by animals, these machines were identical.75 A low round container (Fig. 29), measuring up to two feet in diame-ter and made of volcanic material, such as was used for millstones, held the

74 Exactly when the R o m a n s began to use leaven is unknown. Ca to (RR 74) does not ment ion il when discussing kneading dough to make bread. Since Seneca (Ep. 90.23) also fails to mention it in his discussion of bread making, J a sny suggests that it did not become c o m m o n in Italy until the mid-first century A. D. Frayn, on the other hand , believes it was used earlier. Sec N. Jasny , " T h e Daily Bread of the Ancient Greeks and R o m a n s , " Osiris 9 (1950): 249; J o a n M . Frayn, "House-baking in R o m a n Italy," Antiquity 52 (1978): 31. O n leavening, see McGee , On Food and Cooking, pp. 360-03 , 437 38

75 T h e mean ing of the last phrase in Vitruvius De arch. 10.5.2 is the focus of varied discussion. Some scholars believe that the expression subigere farina m e a n s "to knead," and so conclude that

CHAPTER THREE 3 6 4

Fig. 29. Plan and cross section of the Roman kneading machine from Pompeii. Mau, Pompeii-', p. 391, fig. 224.

3 6 5 ROME II

dough. Into this vessel lit a central wooden beam with two or three wooden arms, projecting at right angles and extending almost to the interior wall. T h e bottom arm was reinforced on its underside with an iron bar secured to the beam by a pin. The bottom of the iron bar had a projection that seated into an iron socket in the bottom of the container, which allowed the central beam to

51 rotate. 111 the interior walls of the container (PI. 31) were two or three holes to receive wooden teeth. These projected almost to the central post and were placed so as not to obstruct the arms on the central beam as it turned. Near the top of the central post was a horizontal beam extending beyond the exterior walls of the container. When pushed by human 01־ animal the beam rotated the central post with projecting teeth. These teeth pushed the dough in one direc-tion, while the stationary teeth fixed into the side of the container resisted the movement and so kneaded the dough.76 T h e importance of this apparatus to the baking process is best seen in the fact that the design of Eurysaces' tomb incor-porates vertically and horizontally stacked cylinders identified as representing kneading machines.77 T h e kneaded dough was left on the tables to rise, that is, ferment, before being formed into the proper shape based on the product being Fermentation

made. During rising yeast cells multiply and create carbon dioxide, which expands air pockets in the dough causing it to increase in size, usually to twice its original size. Part of this dough was put aside to be used as leaven for the next clay's batch, while most of it was destined to be made into bread in the nearby oven. T o judge from paintings, sculpted reliefs, and actual items recovered from excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum, Roman bread was usually round in shape and scored on top into six or eight wedges (panis quadratus) before baking.78

Vitruvius is here referring to a water-powered kneading machine . Although h u m a n and, possibly, animal-driven kneading machines are attested, no cor robora t ing evidence of a water-driven appara tus if it ever existed has come to light. Since this is the only reference to il, and its interpretat ion is open lo question, this type of mechanical kneading machine must be considered unsubstant iated. R o m a n bread did not always contain salt. Sec Frayn, Subsistence Farming, p. I l l ; Wikander , Handbook, p. 402; Mori tz , "Vitruvius ' Water-mil l ," pp. 193 96. O n kneading, sec Seneca Ep. 90.23 (below, note 84), and M c G e e , On Food and Cooking, pp . 306-07 .

76 August Mau , "Su certi apparecchi nei pistrini di Pompei " M D A I ( R ־4548 :(1886) 1 ( , and PI. 3; idem, Pompeii. Its Life and Art. Francis W. Kelsey, transi. 2״<l cd. (New York: Macmillian and Co., 1 9 0 2 ) , 3 9 ־Bakker, Mills-Bakeries of Ostia, pp. 67 ;גן. 2 ; Pagano, "Commercio ," pp. 144-45, and Fig. 3.

77 Brandt , "Recen t Research on the T o m b of Eurysaces," pp. 15 17. O t h e r scholars have identified the cylinders as grain measures. Cf. also the design of the funerary relief of P. Nonius Zethus (PI. 28).'

7!i Cf . Athen . 3.114e. A d a m , IM construction romaine, p. 324, Figs. 739-40; Mayeske, "Bakeries, Bakers, and Bread at Pompeii ," pp. 47 55. Excavators found eighty-one loaves ο ['panis c/uadratus in the bakery at Reg. VII. i .36 37. See Betty J o Mayeske, "A Pompcian Bakery," in Studia Pom-peiana & Classica in Honor of Wilhelmina F. Jashemski. 2 Vols. (New Rochelle, New York: Aristide D. Caratzas , 1988), 1: 154. O n the stage in bread making in which the dough rises, see M c G e e , On Food and Cooking, pp. 307 -08 .

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Ovens T h e Roman baking oven (furnus) came in two shapes. Like that shown on Eurysaces' monument , it could take the form of a beehive, made of brick or brick-faced rubble. T h e dome covered a baking chamber accessed through an opening in front only large enough to allow the dough to be inserted, and the baked bread removed, using a long-handled tool similar to a peel, in much the same way as pizza is handled today. T h e baker heated the inside of the baking chamber by burning wood or charcoal and then removed the ashes when the walls of the chamber had become sufficiently hot.79 Many bakeries in Pompeii had a second type oven, this same simple beehive oven but encased in brick to conserve more of the heat (PI. 27). The bricking extended to the ceiling of the 2\ house where smoke was vented through openings in the roof. Sometimes an enclosed terra-cotta flue conducted any smoke up and out of the area. Some bakeries extended the bricking out from the oven entrance to form a sort of foy-er entered through an arched opening. This extension created a work area that had passageways extending to one or both sides leading probably to a kneading room or storeroom. The process of baking, therefore, in this arrangement might follow this scenario. The baker heated the baking chamber with combustible materials, removed the ashes, and placed them in a compartment beneath the oven door. Without ever leaving his position in front of the oven, he could receive dough from the kneading room, place it in the oven using a peel, bake it, remove it with the same tool, and then pass the baked product to another room.80 This elaborate arrangement does not appear in the Eurysaces' relief. The whole of the tomb's western side (reading left to right) shows bread being carried in baskets to the weighing station where state bureaucrats are probably checking the finished product not only for quality but also for quantity in rela-tion to the amount of grain delivered earlier.81

State bakeries and Who received the bread from Eurysaces' bakery is unknown, but it probably bread distribution found its way to the table of the emperor, the Praetorian Guard, and other gov-

ernment functionaries, as well as into the hands of people who could afford it.82

79 T o d a y , bread baking usually requires an oven t empera tu re between 400° and 425° F. See McGee , On Food and Cooking, pp. 308 10. See also below, p. 369.

80 Mayeske, "Pompeian Bakery," 1: 149-65; Mayeske, "Bakeries, Bakers, and Bread at Pom-pcii," pp. 23 26; A d a m , IM construction romaine, pp. 324, 347 -48 , and Fig. 623, p. 288. Mayeske ("Pompcian Baker)׳," p. 153) notes that twenty-nine of these elaborate bakeries have been found in Pompeii to date. Nineteen bakeries had prepara t ion rooms near the oven. Bakker (Mills-Bak-eries of Ostia, pp. II 13) says that only twenty-one can be identified as bakeries, with ten others as possible bakeries or as pistrina dulciaria, pastery shops.

81 O n the whole question of bread yield f rom flour expended , see Mort iz , Grain-mills, pp. 195-209.

82 Sec Petronius Sat. 44, where G a n y m e d e complains about food prices in general , but specifi-cally accuses magistrates and bakers of working together to keep the ])rice of bread high.

3 6 7 ROME II

For the people of Rome the Roman government sought to provide a sufficient and dependable grain supply at an affordable price. When Eurysaces' operated his bakery and for many years before and after, the government operated a monthly dole in the form of grain for qualified R o m a n citizens, all done from Augustus on under the watchful eye of the emperor through his praefectus annonae. In the early third century A. D., control of the grain supply merged with the control of the city's water supply. Shortly after, the government went into the bakery business itself, when it substituted baked bread for the usual grain dole. Malcolm Bell has connected the combining of the responsibilities of the praefectus annonae and curator aquarum and the change in the administration of the dole to the construction of the water mills on t he j an i cu lum hill and possibly the water mills under the Baths of Caracalla. Therefore, most people in Rome would pur-chase grain on the market or, before the third century A. D., receive it from the government, but would have to process it themselves to make bread, unless they exchanged it with bakers for processed flour or for fresh bread.83

Home baking was apparently the rule in Rome until the mid-second century Home baking

B. C. when, as Pliny (HN 18. 107) informs us, professional bakers arrived in the city. It was, no doubt, the standard rule in rural areas at all times, and for many urban dwellers even after 171 B. C. T h e processes of home baking were not stagnant; as Seneca relates in the words of Posidonius, it underwent gradual change over time:

...at first hot ashes (cinis) and a heated tile (testa) thoroughly baked the bread. Then little by little ovens fumi) were devised and other things of that sort, whose heat wil l be of use to the will (of the wise man).8'1

The earliest method used to bake bread reached far back into Rome's past and continued to be used well into the historical period. Most of our information on these methods come from later writers who seem to be describing vestiges of earlier times still practiced in their own day or relating tradition as they under-stood it. Ovid (Fasti 6.315-16), for example, in speaking of rustics (coloni) prepar-

83 Jasny , "Daily Bread," pp. 25253־ ; Bell, " Imper ia l Flour Mill," pp. 8487־ . O n the history ΰΓ the R o m a n grain supply, its administrat ion, and its role in R o m a n political life, see Peter G a r n -sey, Famine and Food Supply in the Graeco-Roman World (Cambridge: Cambr idge University Press, 1988), pp. 167-268; Rickman, Corn Supply, passim; Ca ther ine Virlouvet, Tessera Frumentarìa. Les

procédures de la distribution du blé public à Rome (Paris: École française de R o m e , 1995); Emin Tengs t röm, Bread for the People. Studies of the Corn-supply of Rome During the Late Empire (Stockholm: Paul Aströms, 1974). R o m e of the fourth century A. D. had between 250 and 275 " large" bak-cries. H o w m a n y were state owned and opera ted is unknown. Bakker, Mills-Bakeries of Ostia, p. 13.

84 Seneca Ep. 90.23: ...quem [panem] primo cinis calidus et fervens testa percoxit, cleindefumipaulatim reperd et alia genera, quorum fervor seruiret arbitrio.

CHAPTER THREE 3 6 8

ing bread on a low hearth, says that "the hearth itself used to bake bread placed under ashes, and a broken tile had been laid on the warm ground." Pliny (HN 18.107) states that women customarily performed this job. T o judge from these and other literary sources early home baking followed this scenario. The cook placed a broken tile on the low hearth, which had been heated. On top of this she placed dough covered with perhaps bay or celery leaves to flavor the bread. She then banked the hot coals around the dough and waited for the bread to cook.85 Seneca says that ovens developed "little by little" (paulatim), but does not discuss any methods intervening between cooking on ashes and baking in an oven (furnus). We do, however, have some idea of those incremental stages from other sources.

Clibanus T h e first step up from baking directly on the ashes was to enclose the dough by means of some sort of simple lid. W h e n this first occurred is unknown.8 6 Cato, in his recipe for kneaded bread, recommends placing dough under a pot (sub testu) with or without a bed of leaves. T h e au thor of the Moretum adds the addit ional detail that the cook also covered the lid with ashes.87 This method of baking bread continued in use even after other forms appeared . T h e simple baking cover could be no more fancy than one terra-cotta plate placed over another of the same kind, or it could take a more spe-cific form, called the clibanus, a word adopted from the Greek κλιβανίτης. Made f rom ear thenware , bronze, or iron, the clibanus, often preheated , was used to cook not only bread but also meat. Literary and archaeological evi-dence from places like Cosa, Pompeii, and Rome show that the clibanus was round or domed-shaped and wider at the bot tom than at the top. Some apparent ly had a central opening or vents to allow steam to escape and to permit some basic tempera ture control. T h e y varied in size between about

85 Ovid Fasti 6 . 3 1 5 1 ־ 6 : sup/mi turn einen panem focus ipse parabatj strataque erat tepido tegula quassa solo. See also Pliny HN 19. 168, 20.185; Ca to RR 76.3. See also Frayn, Subsistence Faming, pp . 107 08. T h e Vulgate Bible (Genesis 18.6; Exodus 12.39) refers to bread baked in the ashes as sub-cinericius.

86 Archaeologists have identified in several sites in southern Italy a dish for making bread simi-lar to m o d e r n Italian Jocaccia. Circular in shape, the dish has in its bo t tom an incised cross with small circular depressions m a d e by the t h u m b in the wet clay before firing. T h e shallow dishes date to the Late Bronze or Early Iron ages, that is, tenth to sixth centuries B. C. See Ru th D . VVhitehouse, "Bread and Milk: Iron and Bronze Age Economies in South Italy," Antiquity 44 (1970): 55 -56 .

87 Ca to RR 74-75 ; Moretum 49 50. The R o m a n s apparent ly knew about a Syrian bread called mamphula, which, Festus (122L) tells us, before being cooked in a clibanus, used to fall into the coals and ashes. Th is is a fairly clear reference to the N e a r Eastern use of the tannur oven. T h a t the R o m a n s used tannur ovens at any time seems unlikely, since no o ther source, literary or archaeo-logical, attests it.

3 6 9 ROME II

twenty-one and fifty centimeters in diameter , with an internal height of ca. twenty centimeters.8 8

The fixed oven, or furnus, the domed oven shown on Eurysaces' monument Origin of the bakery

and the typical oven used by commercial bakers, came from the farm. Accord- oven

ing to Ovid, Romans of an earlier time apparently parched their grain far) directly in the fire before processing, but incurred loses not only when their houses caught lire but also when they swept up indiscriminately grains and ash-es. They then built a drying oven, fomax and invented a goddess of the same name to represent the activity of parching grain. From this apparently arose the festival of the Fomacalia, or "feast of ovens/ ' Since constructing a parching oven would constitute a significant investment, apparently several farms shared a common oven. Frayn suggests that millers (pistores) operated parching ovens on the farms, but when they moved to an urban setting and became bakers as well, they used a similar oven, called the furnus, to bake their bread. This oven origi-nated on the large farm or villa, which often had a bread oven sited separately from the household fire focus). In other words, she argues that the commercial bread oven arose on the farm from the rural grain parcher and family oven.89

T h e commodities produced by Roman bakers were numerous. Quality distin- Types of bread

guished many types of bread. Wheat bread always ranked barley bread, and some flours, such as siligo, defined the best bread (pants siligineus). Seneca (Ep. 1 19.3), for example, distinguishes the finest bread (siligineus) f rom the common type (plebeius). In another letter (Ep. 18.7) he describes a lesser quality product eaten during the Saturnalia as "hard and filthy" (durus ac sordidus), though he does not indicate if it were always so. Pliny (HN 18.90) speaks of second quality bread as secundanus or cibanus. Breads could also come in different sizes, to judge

κ» Frayn (Subsistence Fanning, p. 110) sees a socio-economic distinction between clibanus and sub testu cooking. She identifies the clibanus as a more sophisticated portable oven associated, not with peasant households, but with the more affluent rural and u rban dweller. Cubber ley, on the o ther hand , sees the t e rm clibanus arising in the wake of the surge in Greek influence beginning in the second century B. C. , which the R o m a n s adopted to show their urbanitas. It simply substituted for the term testu and referred to a type of cooking already known to Romans . See A. L. Cubber ley, J . A. Lloyd, and P. C. Roberts , "Testa and Clibani: the Baking Covers of Classical Italy,5' PBSR 56 (1988): 98 119; Anthony Cubber ley, "Bread-baking in Ancient Italy. Clibanus and Sub Testu in the R o m a n World: Fur ther Though t s , " in Food in Antiquity, pp . 55 68. Cf. Columella RR 5.10.4; Dioscorides '2.81, 96. Isidore (Origines 20.2.15) refers to bread m a d e in this type p a n as clibanicius, while Pliny (HN 18.88, 105) notes a type of pan bread (artoplicus ) baked in an artopta, apparent ly of Greek origin. A third term, thermospodium, may have identified a por table oven consisting of two distinct parts, much like mode rn casseroles. See Cubber ley , " Testi and Clibani," p. 1 16; Frayn, Subsistence Fanning, p. 1 10.

89 Frayn, Subsistence Fanning, pp . 109-10. See Ovid Fasti 2 .519-30; 6.313 14. Cf. also Festus 82L: feriae institutae sunt farris tonendi gratia, quod ad fornacem, quae in pistrinis erat, sacrificium fieri solebat. Pliny (HN 18.88, 105) calls b read baked in an oven furnaceus.

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from the twenty-four plain shallow, circular pans of different diameter found in the bakery of Sextus Patulcus Felix in Herculaneum (Ins. Or. II.8). Fancy pans included those designed to impress the face of Medusa on the bread, as well as molds formed to create bread in the shape of pigs, hares, and even a ham. Dif-ferent types of breads can be understood from the titles of bakers specializing in them. So, for instance, besides the pis tor, who made bread generally, the libanus made cakes used in religious sacrifices. Sweet breads were no doubt the product of the dulciarìus and crustularìus.90

4. Beer Production

Beer in the western Romans in Italy may have known of beer, but there is little evidence that they Mediterranean produced, imported, or even much liked it. When mentioned at all, the context

is always of a provincial product resorted to from an inability to produce wine. Beer remained a popular drink in Egypt, although it seemed to have been on the wane by the mid-third century A. D. Beer apparently had a long tradition in Spain, and Pliny the Elder says that the Spanish terms for beer were caelia and cereal The Gauls called it cewesia. Since the Latin word for beer was also cervesia, the Romans probably learned of the product from them. Its reputation was not a good one, as Dionysius of Halicarnassus pejoratively describes Gallic beer as a "malodorous liquid of barley rotted in water."92 Even if beer did not make its way in any great amounts to Italy, it did form part of trade in the western provinces. In the late first century A. D., for example, a soldier of the fleet that cruised the Rhine River (miles classis Germanicae) left a votive inscription in Augus-

90 Libanus (CIL IV. 1768), crustularius (Seneca Ep. 56.2), dulciarius (Martial 14.222, Apuleius Met. 10.13). Λ Late Latin glossary also lists the placentarius alongside the dulciarius. See csp., Mayeske, "Bakeries, Bakers, and Bread at Pompei i ," pp. 52 55. For the different kinds of breads and pas-tries made in G r a e c o - R o m a n Egypt, see Battaglia, "Artos, " pp. 71-127 .

91 Daniel Woolls, in an Associated Press report da ted Nov. 28, 1998, relates that an analysis of residue f rom a clay j a r , found in Geno , Spain, and tentatively dated to the late second mil lennium B. C., revealed traces of e m m e r wheat and barley used in making beer mixed with herbs. I have been unable to locate fur ther informat ion on this discovery. For beer in Spain, see Pliny H N 14.149; 18.68; 22.164; Dioscorides Mat. Med. 2.88; S t rabo 3.3.7; and Polybius 34.9.15 (= Athen. 1.16C). 1־01יי Egypt, see Pliny H N 14.149, and Hans-Joachim Drexhage, "Bierproduzenten und Bierhändler in der papyrologischen Über l ieferung," M B A H 16 (1997): 32-39 . T h e listing of beer in the Edict of Diocletian (2.11 12) may imply some degree of long-distance t rade in the product . O n ancient beer generally, see Olck, s.v. "Bier, , RE (1899): cols. 458 י -64 .

92 Dionysius of Halicarnassus 13.11.1: κριθής σαπείσης έν ΰδατι χυλω δυσώδει. For beer made in Gaul , sec Pliny H N 14.149; 18.68; 22.164; Diodorus 5.26.2; Athenaeus 4 .152C. Cf., esp., Anth. Pal. IX.368 (= Oxford Book of Greek Verse, no. 626), a poem about beer , writ ten by the empero r

Ju l i an in the mid-four th century A. D. Like Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Ju l ian has noth ing good to say about it. For a translation, see Forbes, "Beer: a Sober Account ," pp. 284-85 .

3 7 1 ROME II

ta Treverorum (Trier). He styled himself a negotiator cervesaiius, and apparently engaged in the beer trade, probably shipping the brew in barrels along the waterways of northern Europe.93 T h e army must have been a prime market for beer merchants, if the Batavian auxiliaries stationed at Vindolanda, near Hadri-an's Wall, are any indication. O n e writing tablet found there is a letter from a soldier to his commander stating that the troops were out of beer and requesting a resupply. Tha t same commander , Flavius Cerialis, himself a Batavian, appar-ently favored the drink, since another tablet, constituting a list of goods for his household, includes several entries for beer. A third tablet found at Vindolanda lists a brewer, cervesar[ius]. Unfortunately, the few references to beer in the Roman period give very little information on how the provincials produced beer.94

Pliny indicates that inhabitants of Gaul and Spain made beer in several ways, Brewing

but he gives no details, except to say that they produced it from grain soaked in water. Dionysius of Halicarnassus states the same thing, and, along with Diodor-us Siculus, mentions that the Gauls used barley. The best literary evidence for beer making comes from Zosimos, an Egyptian from Panopolis who lived dur-ing the late third or early fourth century A. 1). His recipe involves first preparing malt from good-quality barley. This malt is made into a dough, to which a leav-en is added, and then partially-baked. Next, the bread is soaked in water and strained through a sieve. The liquid is then placed in a container and stored. Archaeological evidence for beer production, however, comes only from Britain. T h e Roman town of Scole, a small town lying astride the River Waveney, apparently operated a brewery south of the stream. Little remains today, but archaeologists have recognized a grain-drying kiln with finds of partially sprout-ed grain. Close by near a channel from the river they found evidence for a large wooden tank equipped with a sophisticated drainage system. Considering the nearby grain parching facility, excavators have identified the structure as a malt-ing tank.95

93 André Tchern ia , "Le tonneau , de la bière au vin," in Techniques et économie, p. 123. For the negotiator cervesarius at Trêves , see L'AnnEp. (1928): 183.

94 Tab. Vinci. 11.190, in Alan K. Bowman, Life and letters on the Roman Frontier (London: British Museum Press, 1994), pp. 1 15-17. See also A. R. Birley, "Supplying the Batavians at Vindolan-da , " in Roman Frontier Studies 1995. O x b o w M o n o g r a p h s 91 (Oxford: Oxbow, 1997), pp. 273 80.

95 Myk Flitcroft and Andrew Tester , "Scole," Current Archaeology 12 (Sept.-Nov. 1994): 32225־ . A supply of water would have been a prerequisite for brewing. In this regard, cf. P.Lond. 1177 (A. D . 113), which records the rent paid by a brewer to have water piped to his establishment. For Zosimos' recipe for making beer , see above pp. 133-34.

CHAPTER THREE 3 7 2

Β. Wine

T h e grape and olive formed the second and third leg of the Mediterranean tri-ad. As for the Greeks, along with cereals they were the most important agricul-tural products in the Roman economy. T h e wine and oil produced from them formed the major export product of several provinces in the empire. Archaeolo-gists have found numerous wine and oil amphorae not only in port areas and inland cities, but also in many shipwrecks discovered along major Méditer-ranean sea routes. Spain, for example, was the principal exporter of olive oil to Italy in the second century A. D. until superceded by North Africa during the following century. Thousands of amphora sherds piled up on Monte Testaccio in Rome bear mute testimony to Rome 's need for Spanish oil. Although wine was a major crop in Italy itself, the capital also imported numerous varieties from both the eastern and western Mediterranean. Pliny the Elder, for example, claims to know about eighty different kinds of wine produced empire-wide, two-thirds of which, he says, were Italian.96

Distinguishing grape Grape and olive processing contrasted in significant ways, utilizing for the ami olive processing most part different facilities and different apparatus, except in one particular.

installations T h e same kind of press served to squeeze fruits. J . J . Rossiter has shown that it is unlikely that a single installation processed both wine and oil. The villa at Settefmestre in Etruria, for example, produced both oil and wine in two differ-cnt facilities, each utilizing the same kind of press. If only press beds character-ize a particular site, it is often impossible to distinguish which operation was conducted there.97 Outside of chemical analysis of remains, determination must be based on certain criteria, such as a characteristic apparatus. So, for instance, the presence of an oil crusher (trapetum) would signal olive processing. Beyond that little can be said with absolute certainty. Rollers, for example, could be

96 Pliny devotes most of Book Four teen to wine; for the wine trade specifically, see esp. Pliny HN 14.59-76, 9 4 - 9 7 . Since the bibl iography on both wine a n d oil, and their commercia l a m p h o r a e , is massive, a few selected citations must suffice. For a brief summary , see Frankel, Wine and Oil Production, pp. 38 40. O n M o n t e Testaccio, see José M a . B1ázquez Mar t inez et al, Excavaciones arqueotögicas en el Monte Testacccio (Roma) (Madrid: Ministerio de Cul tura , 1994). See also David J . Matt ingly, "Oil for Export? A Compar i son of Libyan, Spanish and Tunis ian Olive Oil Product ion in the R o m a n Empire ," J R A 1 (1988): 33 56. O n the wines of Italy, see esp. André Tchern ia , Le vin de l'Italia romaine (Paris: École Française de Rome , 1986). Interest in these two products remains high, as evidenced by the n u m b e r of national and international congresses that meet to discuss them, such as, for example , the congress held in Barcelona, Spain in 1987, f rom which appea red El vi a Fantiguitat, economica, produccio i commerç al Mediterrani occidental (Badalona: Museu de Badalona, 1987), and in Aix-en-Provence in 1991, whose papers were pub-lished in La production du vin et de l'huile .

97 Frankel (Wine and Oil Production, p. 138) notes that in Israel certain types of press seem partie-ularly associated with grape processing, while others seem designed for olive pressing.

3 7 3 ROME II

used to crush olives or grapes, though the former is the more likely use. Wine installations required a treading floor, but if it were made of wood, nothing would have survived. Recent studies on this question have shown that no absolute criteria can be established, since installations show significant variation in use of apparatus from region to region and in different time periods.98

Therefore , in discussing grape and olive processing I shall first discuss R o m a n wine and wine making generally, describing all its particulars except for press-ing. I shall then treat olive processing, including the presses used for both olives and grapes. Origin of wine

It remains unknown when and by what means the grape and its by-product, making in the

wine, first arrived in the western Medi terranean. The best guess is that the western

Phoenicians, long familiar with the fruit and the drink, introduced both during Mediterranean

their trading and colonizing activities, particularly in North Africa and Spain. If accurate, then one can speculate that inhabitants of the western Méditer-ranean were enjoying and probably producing wine by the eighth century B. C. T h e earliest physical evidence for domesticated grapes at Car thage dates only to the period between about 350 and 146 B. C. Later R o m a n writers, however, preserve excerpts f rom the writings of Mago, the Carthaginian agri-cultural writer of the late third and early second centuries B. C. He apparently wrote an agricultural manual in which he not only discussed how to raise grapes but also included directions for making a raisin wine. Greeks, through trade and colonization, probably played the major role in introducing the grape and wine production to other areas of the west, particularly in Italy, Sici-ly, and southern Gaul. Drinking vessels similar to Greek forms used for wine, for example, appear in Italian tombs in central Italy by the late eighth or early seventh century B. C.99

T h e earliest archaeological evidence for wine product ion in the West comes f rom Spain where excavations at l'Ait de Benimaquía (Denia-Alicante) have revealed the remains of four houses with wine making installations dat ing to the early sixth century B. C. The location was apparent ly an indigenous Span-ish settlement that produced enough wine to support its own needs and to

9 8 J . J . Rossiter, " W i n e and Oil Processing at R o m a n Farms in Italy," Phoenix 35 (1981): J ; ־34561 ean-P ie r re Brun, "La discrimination ent re les installations oléicoles et vinicoles," in L7 production du vin et de l'huile, pp . 51 1 37; Andrea Carand in i et al, Settefinestre. Una villa schiavistica nel-l'Etruria romana. 3 vols. (Modena: Edizioni Panini , 1984), 1: 126-28.

99 It remains possible that, as with the case of olive oil, the technology for wine making in N o r t h Africa may have come f rom R o m a n and Greek contacts ra ther than through Phoenician colonists. Mago : Pliny HN 18.22; Columel la RR 12.39.1 2. Sec also J o s e p h A. Greene , " T h e Beginnings of G r a p e Cullt ivation and Wine Product ion in Phoen ic i an /Pun ic Nor th Africa," in Origins and Ancient History of Wine, pp. 311 22; Stager, "Firstfruits ," pp. 180 81.

CHAPTER THREE 3 7 4

export to surrounding areas. Since the amphorae used for this purpose were Phoenician in design, their knowledge of wine-making technology probably originated from Phoenician or Punic colonists. Roughly rectangular or irregu-lar in shape, the vats vary in length between 1.78 m. and 3.0 m., in width between 1.0 m. and 1.60 m., and in depth between 0.18 m. and 0.26 m. Exca-vators have estimated the combined min imum capacity of the four installa-tions at ca. 2,500 liters. Since the vats had no means of draining off the must f rom the marc, red wine may have been the pr imary product produced. T h e lack of evidence for presses may imply that they relied only on treading in vats to express the must that they then fermented in the vats themselves or in terra-cotta containers.100

Wine in Roman Once introduced wine became the most popular Roman drink. Petronius (Sat. daily life 34), for example, says that wine was life itself (vinum vita est). It served as a drink

both during and after meals, as a libation in religious ceremonies, and in medi-cine to provide the liquid necessary for the proper consistency of various medici-nal concoctions. Most Romans drank wine, whether red or white, at room tem-perature, or at the temperature of the room in which it had been stored. Wealthy Romans could afford snow or ice to cool their drinks even further or could heat it by the addition of warm water (caldum) or by heating the wine itself. Wine (or water) in the wealthiest homes could be heated in a "self-boiler," the authepsa or miliarium, which came in several types. Its simplest form was that of a tall cylindrical bronze vessel divided into two parts. T h e lower portion held the heated charcoal while the upper part contained the water or wine, which could be drawn off through a spout. A particularly elaborate one was found in a villa at Stabiae, located south of Pompeii (Fig. 30). Made of bronze it was constructed of three parts sitting in a base measuring forty-three centimeters square. Water poured into the tall, slightly tapered cylindrical container through the top flowed through the short central channel into the hollow walls of the round fire-box. Hot charcoal placed in the center of the box heated the water or wine, which was accessed through a decorative tap on the side.101

100 N u m e r o u s finds of g rape seeds indicated the produc t processed here . See Carlos G o m e z Bcllard, Pierre Guér in , a n d Guil lcm Pérez J o r d à , " T é m o i g n a g e d ' u n e product ion de vin dans l 'Espagne p ré roma ine , " in 1/1 production du vin et de !,huile, pp . 3 7 9 - 9 5 .

101 See Ka the r ine M . I). D u n b a b i n , " W i n e and W a t e r at the R o m a n Convivium," JRA 6 (1993): 1 16-4 ! ; J o h n Ward-Perk ins and A m a n d a Claridge, Pompeii A. D. 79. 2 Vols. (Boston: M u s e u m of Fine Arts, 1978), 1: 172 73, esp. no. 154. T h e total height of the miliaúum f rom Stabiae is fifty-one centimeters. O n wine in R o m a n society, see the various contr ibut ions to In Vino Veritas, esp. pp. 167 317. O n wine in medicine, see Prickett, "Scientific and Technological Study," pp. 72-78 .

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Fig. 30. Miliarium, from Stabiae. From Johannes Overbeck and August Mau, Pompeji in seinen Gebäuden, Alterthümem und Kunstwerken. 4I״ ed. (Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann, 1884), p. 442, Fig. 299.

CHAP TER SEVEN 3 7 6

Types of wine and w inc was not the onlv product made from grapes.10'^ So, for example, non-alcoholic grape Romans drank grape juice (mus turn), and cooked with defrutum and sapa. Defrutum

products was must reduced by boiling to one-half its volume, while sapa was must reduced by one-third. Passum was a raisin wine made from dried grapes, while protropum was fermented must from grapes that had not been trod or pressed but allowed to seep naturally from the grapes and then collected and fermented. Pliny, in his discussion of wine, ranks both Italian and foreign vintages into classes based on their quality. Among the former he marks out for special praise the wine of Setia in Latium and Caecuban from grapes grown south of Fundi. Lower quality wines included Falernian, and that made from grapes grown at Alba and Sur-rentina. Among foreign wines, he favors those from Thasos, Chios, Lesbos, Cyprus, and Egypt. Not all wines were considered good. Pliny mentions a drink made from grape skins, pressed and soaked in water, or from the dregs of wine making (faecatum). He cannot bring himself to call these beverages wines, but notes that they pass for such among the lower classes and so are called vina oper-aria, or "workmen's wines."103 Although Roman wines probably had an alco-holic content of less than sixteen percent, it was sufficient to cause inebriation if overindulged. As in all societies where drinking is popular, drunkenness was also a R o m a n problem. After discussing the various wines, Pliny laments the result of over-indulgence, a problem not only of the lower classes, but, as Cicero relates of Antony's excesses, of the upper classes as well.104

Wine making: Roman methods of producing wine were quite consistent, as the procedures treading described by the agricultural writers agree in nearly all particulars.105 T h e appa-

ratus, however, receive little or no description. Before beginning work, the tools, utensils, and containers had to be cleaned and prepared. Specifically, terra-cotta jars (dolia) and treading vats (lacus vinarius) were lined with pitch to prevent seep-age. Next, grapes brought from the vineyards were separated into those that

102 N o r were grapes the only frui t f r o m which wine was m a d e . T h e R o m a n s also knew wines f rom dates as well as figs. See Pliny HN 14.102. Dioscorides (De mat. med. 5.1), an a r m y physician a n d con tempora ry of Pliny the Elder, gives a recipe for date wine, φοινικίτης. H e suggests placing dates in a conta iner having a plugged hole in the bo t tom. A quant i ty of water according to the desire for sweetness of the wine is then added and allowed to stand for ten days to ferment . T h e plug was then removed to permi t the wine to dra in out .

103 Pliny HN 14.59 76 (classes), 8 0 8 2 -83 (mustum), 85 (protropum), 86 [vina oper ,(passum and sapa) ־aria). Mar t ia l likewise lists m a n y of the same wines, domest ic a n d foreign, a m o n g his xenia. T . J . Leary, "Mart ia l ' s Chr i s tmas Winclist ," Greece and Rome Ab, no. 1 (April 1999): 34 41. A mode rn study of R o m a n winemaking procedures takes a dim view of the quality of R o m a n wines. See Prickett, "Scicnlific and Technological Study, pp. 54~67.

104 Pliny HN 14 .139-48; Cicero Phil. 2.63; Prickett, "Scientific and Technological Study, pp. 6 0 - 6 1 . O n drunkeness , see J o h n H. D 'Arms , "Heavy Dr ink ing and Drunkeness in the R o m a n Wor ld : Four Ques t ions for Historians," in In Vino Veritas, pp . 304 17.

105 C a t o RR 23 -26 ; V a r r o RR 1.54; Columel la RR 12.18.

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were to be eaten and those to be made into wine. T h e latter were sometimes sieved to remove any husks and other debris. Some grapes apparently were left to ripen on their own so that their weight caused them to exude their juice. This free-run juice was then collected and placed in jars to ferment into protropum. This type wine was particularly well liked, because free-run must was less acidic and sweeter than must f rom grapes that had been trod or trod and pressed. T h e first active step involved treading the grapes using the feet. Few literary sources comment on how this was done. Vergil, for example, merely says that workers trod with naked legs (nudata crura). G rape treading was apparent ly considered too basic to need description. Palladius, however, writing in the fifth century A. 1)., does describe how to construct and equip a wine-making installation.106 He sug-gests orienting the building to the north and siting it away f rom sources of foul odors, such as stables, dung hills, and standing water, which could affect the wine adversely. He then proceeds to describe an ar rangement for treading grapes, while omitting any reference to pressing. He recommends establishing a treading floor (calcatorium) on an elevated foundation approached by two or three steps. Flanking the treading floor were two tanks (lacus). Though he does not say so, presumably the floor sloped in the direction of the tanks so that the must flowed into them. These tanks had gutters or terra-cotta pipes a round the inside walls to direct the must through other channels that emptied the juice into dolia placed on the side. Palladius then recommends that , if the vintage were large, one might place wooden barrels (cupae) on stands set between the dolia so that the barrels were higher than the large vessels. Presumably, workers transferred must to the barrels when the dolia became full. He adds that if stands are not used, the barrels should sit on a floor made of tiles and provided with raised bor-ders. Its purpose was to catch any wine leaking from the barrels and to direct it toward a vat placed beneath it. 111 this way, no must was lost.

Art historical material , such as the f ragmenta ry stone relief now in the Vati- Art historical

32 can M u s e u m (PI. 32), however, gives a good view of the procedure.1 0 7 In this evidence for treading

instance three workers, naked f rom the waist down, stand inside a tub resting on stools. They hold onto each other for support , while they tread in unison. T h e must streams into dolia through two lion-heated spouts placed on the side. This can be seen as well on a third-century A. 1). mosaic from Cerchel , in Nor th Africa. T h e Ca lendar mosaic in the Maison des Mois at El Djem, also in

Vergil Georg. 2.8; Tibul ־">' lus 2 .1 .45-46; C a t o RR 25, but cf. Va r ro RR 1.54; Palladius OpusAgr. 1.18; Prickett, "Scientific and Technological Study," p. 51.

11)7 C o m p a r e also the decorated blue glass vase in the Museo Nazionale di Napoli . See Wil-helmina Jashemski , The Gardens of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and the Villas Destroyed by Vesuvius (New Rochelle: Car ta tzas Brothers. Publishers, 1979), p. 225, Fig. 331.

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North Africa, has a treading scene in which two treaders seem to hold in their hands curved sticks for hooking an overhead support or ropes already attached above, perhaps to a horizontal pole or grape trellis (not shown).108 The Roman method of treading apparently differed little from that used by Pharaonic Egyptians. Some vats were permanent fixtures, others, as above, could be tem-porary in nature. Not all vats had spouts to allow the must to drain out. Those that did not probably most often produced red wine, since the must would remain in contact with the marc for a period of time. Indeed, Pliny (HN 14.80) says that wines came in four colors: white (alburn), brown (fulvum), blood-red (sanguineum), and black (niger). Wine from free-run must (protropum) was presum-ably white, as was, or nearly so, the must separated immediately after treading. Wines must have grown progressively darker the longer the must was in con-tact with the marc. Must f rom treading was placed into pitched dolia or vats to ferment.

Pressing T h e next step involved pressing. The grape skins and seeds were removed from the treading vats and placed in a basket. They were then pressed using a mechanical press, to be described below. Must from this pressing was added to the must obtained from treading. T h e skins then underwent a second pressing, the must from which was stored separate from that of the first pressing. This must apparently had a sharp taste and was later added in small amounts to fer-menting wines. The remaining skins were then soaked with water and pressed a third time to produce lora, a drink specified by both Cato and Varro as suitable for laborers and farm hands.109

Fermenting The must from treading and the first pressing was then placed in dolia, often buried to one-half their height, and allowed to ferment for a certain period.110

Cato specifies about thirty days. During this time various additives could be included, such as chalk or marble dust to deacidify the wine, pine resin and myrrh to create specialty wines or, perhaps, to mask a poor wine that spoiled eas-ily, and seawater to act as a preservative. Boiled must, or defrutum, was also a rec-ommended preservative for wine. A stone relief (PI. 33) now in the British Muse- 33 um shows, on the left, workmen boiling must. O n the far right, sits a dolium. The worker to the right of the vessel pours must (or wine) into the dolium. The worker to the left has removed some wine (or must) and prepares to carry it in a small

108 Ka tha r ine M . 13. D u n b a b i n , lite Mosaics of Roman North Africa. Studies in Iconography and Patron-age (Oxford: C la rendon Press, 1978), pp . 111, 115, and Figs. 99 and 105.

109 C a t o RR 25; V a r r o RR 1.54. 110 Frankel ( Wine and Oil Production, pp. 138-58) notes that wineries in the nor thern par t of the

Med i t e r r anean tended to collect and ferment wine in dolia (or pithoi), whereas wineries in south-ern areas of the Medi te r ranean , Egypt, and Israel used vats, sometimes ra ther large.

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pitcher to the kettle.111 Cato recommends that containers of fermenting wine be wiped off twice daily, no doubt to keep them cool. This would be particularly important for dolia not buried partially in the ground. Keeping fermenting must cool reduces to a minimum microbial activity that leads to spoilage. Pliny also suggests that dolia containing fermenting wine should be placed under a roof with windows facing east or northeast. A large urban vineyard (Region II.v) in Pompeii, for example, had just outside the pressing room a shed with large win-dows, which protected ten dolia. Another vineyard at Pompeii, located at Region I.XX. 1, stored its must in an underground room. The roof of the cellar had a hole through which the must was poured into a large vat located at one end of the room. The roof in the center of the room had another opening to provide venti-lation for the fermentation gases to escape.112

Once fermented, the wine was usually rackcd, that is separated from the lees, Storage and

and transferred to amphorae for aging or transportation. Columella says that transportation

wines should be placed in the vicinity of smoke, as this assists the aging process, a suggestion at odds with modern methods, which call for a cool, dry storage area.113 Pliny (HN 14.132) notes that inhabitants of areas near the Alps in north-ern Italy stored their wine in wooden barrels (cupae). In fact, barrels for transport of wine was probably a Gallic, or perhaps a northern Etruscan, invention, at least by the first century B. C. Palladius (Opus Agr. 1.18), in the fifth century A. 1)., describes the use of barrels to collect must draining off the treading floor. They are found in great numbers along the Rhine-Danube waterway, and were com-monly used to ship wine to Rome in the fourth century A. D. From the Augustan period to at least into the second century A. D., wine also traveled in bulk, stored in large terra-cotta dolia carried in special ships, such as the Italian ship discov-ered near Caesarea Maritt ima in Israel.114 Terra-cotta transport amphorae fre-

111 Columella (RR 12.19-30) gives several o ther methods for preserving wine. Ca to RR 25; Pliny H N 14.75, 92; J e r e m y Patterson, " R o m e , Classical," in Oxford Companion to Wine, p. 820; Prickett, "Scientific and Technological Study," pp. 55 -56 ; Jashemski, Cardens of Pompeii, pp. 201 -32 .

112 Cf. Pliny HJV 14.132-33. Cf. McGee , On Food and Cooking, p. 448 (cool dur ing fermentat ion). For the press room ol Region II.v, see below, pp. 390-91 .

113 Plutarch Mor. 1088f; Columella RR 1.6.20. Cf. Horace Carm. 3.8. Pliny ( / /ΛΊ4 .135 ) says that dolia used to ferment wine should never be filled to the top, presumably to allow the ferment ing wine to breathe, al though this may have contr ibued to early spoilage. O n the impor tance of keep-ing containers airtight and the wine away f rom air, see Macrobius Sal. 7 .12.13-16. See also Prick-ett, "Scientific and Technological Study," pp. 64 67; McGee , On Food and Cooking, pp. 450 -52 .

114 Giulia Barat ta , "Le botti: dati e questioni," in Techniques et économie, pp. 109-12; A r m a n d Des-bat, "Le tonneau antique: questions techniques et p roblème d'origine," in Techniques et économie, pp. 113-20. Chemical analysis of barrels found nea r the military c a m p at Obe raden , dat ing to the Augustan period, detected the presence of tartaric acid, a s trong indicator of wine. See André Tchern ia , "Le tonneau, de la bière au vin," in Techniques et économie, p. 123. See also Antoinette

CHAPTER THREE 3 8 0

quently received an inside lining of pine pitch to prevent seepage. This probably also gave Roman wines a resin taste, if it did not already have it. A stopper of some sort, such as a cork, sealed the vessel's mouth and rendered it water resis-tant and durable. If wine is not sealed properly, bacteria in the air produce an acid that quickly spoils it. This sour wine the Romans called acetum, or vinegar.115

C. Oil

Olive oil in Rowan The ripe fruit of the olive tree could be eaten raw or preserv ed by various meth-society ods, such as in salt water, for consumption later. Its primär) value, however, came ׳

from its oil. Romans used olive oil in numerous ways, including as an ingredient in culinary dishes, medicines, and perfumes, as a lubricant, a preserv ative, a fuel, and in religious services as part of sacrifices, to name only a few.116 This myriad of uses naturally made it an important part of the Roman economy and a major source of income for particular geographic areas, such as Spain and North Africa. Pliny particularly praises Italian oil produced in Venafrum and the area of Histria. Oil even became part of the annona, along with grain, in the third century A. 1). Most information dealing with its manufacture comes from the agricultural writers and from numerous archaeological sites throughout the Mediterranean area."7

Hesnard , "Entrepôts navires à dolia: l ' invention du transport de vin en vrac," Techniques et économie, pp. 130-31; A. J . Parker, " T h e Wines of R o m a n Italy," JRA 3 (1990): 330-31 ; Tchern ia , Le vin, pp. '285-92. O n aging in barrels today, sec McGee , On Food and Cooking, pp. 454-55 .

O יי" n wine a m p h o r a e , see esp. Tche rn i a , Le vin, pp. 233 56. Some a m p h o r a e had corks pro-vided with a string to assist in removing it and covered with plaster or with plaster set in wax. T h e wax or plaster would serve to make the conta iner watert ight. See Koehler , "Hand l ing of Greek Transpor t A m p h o r a s , " p. 53, note 21. O n the use of corks covered with pitch to seal wine jars , sec Horace Cam. 3.8 (corticem adstrictum pice). See also M c G e e , On Food and Cooking, pp. 450 (vine-gar), 455 57 (corks). (311 lining the inside of a m p h o r a e , see Kochlcr , "Wine Amphora s in Ancient Greek T r a d e , " p. 328; Pliny HN 14.127 28; Plutarch Mor. 676b־c . Chemica l analysis has revealed pine pitch used as lining on a n u m b e r of t ransport a m p h o r a e of different periods. See Cur t W . Beck, Chr i s topher J . Smar t , and Dorreen J . Ossenkip, "Residues and Linings in Ancient Medi t e r ranean Transpor t Amphoras , " Archaeological Chemistry IV. Ralph O . .Allen, ed. (Washing-ton, 1). C.: Amer ican Chemica l Society, 1989), pp. 369-80 . O n vinegar, see Prickett, "Scientific and Technological Study," pp. 63 64.

116 Columella RR 12.49 51־ (preserving olives). O n uses of olive oil, see esp. A. S. Pease, " O l e u m , " RE 172 (1937): cols. 2460 69. O n olive oil in literature, sec S. Mar iner , "El olivo y el aceite en las l i teraturas clàsicas," in Producciony commercio del aceite en la antigiiedad. Pr imer congreso internacional (Madrid: Universidad Complu tense , 1980), pp. 243 -54 .

117 See esp., Ca to RR 64 -69 ; V a r r o RR 1.64; Columella RR 12.52-53; Pliny HN 15.1 23; Pal-ladius Opus Agr. 1.20. O n olive oil product ion as a ma jo r componen t of the R o m a n economy see, Robe r t Bruce Hi tchner , "Olive Product ion and the R o m a n Economy," in IM production du vin et de l'huile, pp . 4 9 9 - 5 0 8 .

381 ROME II

As noted when discussing Greece, olive oil production involved three major steps: crushing, pressing, and settling. Each stage in the process had its charac-teristic apparatus. So, for example, the development of rotary motion led to the use of the olive crusher, called in Latin the trapetum. Advances in pressing tech-nology saw improvements in the lever-and-weight press. And, finally, settling tanks served to separate water (amurca) from the oil, which was decanted into smaller vessels. These apparatus received treatment in the previous chapter, particularly as they developed during the Hellenistic period at Olynthus in Greece and at Maresha in Israel. Further innovations arose during the Roman period, and these will receive the focus in this chapter.

Columella (RR 12.52.6-7) lists four pieces of equipment used to crush olives: Crushing

the trapetum, mola, canalis et solea, and tudicula. Little is known of the last two appa-ratus. T h e solea probably refer to shoes worn when olives were trod in a canalis, an elongated wooden vat, and are known only through Columella (RR 12.52.6) and the Rondanini Relief in Rome. Even less is known of the tudicula, which may have been similar to a tribulum, or a threshing sledge. It has been tentatively identified with numerous examples of a hollow, oval-shaped, bronze apparatus studded with projecting points found on farms in North Africa. With a wooden handle inserted, it was probably used like a hammer.1 1 8 Columella is quite clear that neither method compared favorably with either the trapetum or the mola.

What Columella meant by a mola separate f rom a trapetum is complicated by the fact that Cato mentions only the trapetum, and Varro defines the trapetum as a mola olearia made from a hard and rough stone. Most scholars see the two as sep-arate apparatus, with the mola olearia being identified with a round crushing basin with flat crushing surface, reserving the term trapetum for the round basin

!4 with concave crushing surface (PI. 34). Although this distinction has been gener-ally accepted, Rafael Frankel has recently suggested that the mola olearia is best identified specifically with the horizontal oil mill characteristic of the Quadalquivir valley in southern Spain. He argues that Columella, being from Spain, would have known this, and, as an expert in agriculture, would have known of other types of mills as well. Therefore, he asserts that Columella used the term mola to refer specifically to the Spanish mill, which derived from and was similar to a rotary grain mill. He further suggests that Columella used the word trapetum to refer generally to other types of rotary mill used to crush olives. Frankel notes that rotary oil mills came in at least five different varieties differing

1 , 8 J ean -P ie r r e Brun, L'oléiculture antique en Provence. Les huileries département du Var (Paris: Editions du Cen t re national de la Recherche Scientifique, 1986), pp . 69 (canalis et solea), 80 (turdicula); D r a c h m a n n , Ancient Oil Mills, p. 144, Fig. 10; Blümner , Technologie und Terminologie, p. 351, Fig. 129 (Rondanin i Relief). O n wooden shoes worn to t read olives, see above p. 188.

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principally in the shape of the crushing surface, whether concave or flat, and the arrangement of the central post (milicinum), if present, and the presence or absence of a socket (modiolus) for the iron pivot (columella). Trapeta with flat crush-ing surfaces were used primarily, though not exclusively, in the eastern Mediter-ranean, such as in Syria and Israel, and in Tunisia in North Africa, while those with concave surfaces were typical of the middle and western areas, such as Greece, Italy, and Gaul.119 Whatever their relationship among themselves in terms of origin and date of appearance, their function was the same, to crush the olives in preparation for pressing. Columella asserts that crushing olive stones released its bitter juice, implying that it produced an inferior product. He com-ments on the ability to avoid this by adjusting the height of the crushing stones (orbes) in the trapetum. Cato suggests doing this by inserting wooden disks over the pivot (Fig. 31). Columella's comment has inclined most subsequent authors to conclude that the Romans tried to avoid crushing the olive pit in the mills. Even if this were desired — and Columella's statement implies that some Romans certainly did — it is doubtful whether it could be wholly achieved. T h e best results one could hope to obtain would be to create a uniformly crushed mixture of pulp, meat, and fragmented nuts. Marie-Claire Amouretti has plausibly argued that any adjustments made to the trapetum were motivated not by a desire to avoid crushing the pits, since the juice would not substantially affect the taste of the oil, but to insure that the orbes did not become clogged by crushed accu-mulations of olive skins, pulp, and pits.120 Once the olives had been crushed, they were placed in baskets and pressed.

Pressing Much work has been done on ancient processing technology since A. G. Drachmann ' s seminal publication in 1932 entitled Ancient Oil Mills and Presses. During the last fourteen years a re-evaluation of earlier publications and an increased pace of new excavations augmented by field surveys have combined with a heightened interest in pressing technology to enhance our understanding of how Romans processed olives and grapes. Drachmann ' s study of the oil press, or torcularium, used primarily literary sources and a few archaeological examples,

119 V a r r o RR 1.55.5: ...ad trapetas, quae res motae oterariae ex duro et aspero lapide. See also Ca to RR 20-22 ; Rafael Frankel, " T h e Trapetum and the Mola Olearia," in La production du vin et de l'huile, pp. 4 7 7 - 8 1 , esp. Fig. 1. T h e orbes of the R o m a n crusher differed f rom those of the Olynth ian type. T h e latter were not lense-shaped bu t flat on both surfaces, had a na r rower crushing surface, and were usually larger in d iameter , measur ing 0.8 m. or larger. See Foxhall, "Oil Extract ion and Processing E q u i p m e n t , " pp. 190-91; Blümner , Technologie und Terminologie, pp. 338 -43 .

120 C a t o RR 2 0 - 2 2 ; Co lumela RR 12.52.6. C a t o {RR 66) notes that one of the duties of the w a t c h m a n at an oil press was to make sure that no olive pit was pressed because the oil would have a bad taste. Discussed above, p. 304. David Matt ingly, "Olea Medi t e r ranea?" J RA 1 (1988): 156; M . - C . Amoure t t i , "Des ag ronomes latins aux agronomes provençaux: les moulins à huile," Provence Historique 24 (1981): 83 : 100.

3 8 3 ROME II

C o l u m e l l a

Orb is

Fig. 31. Drawing of a trapetum, a rotary olive-crushing apparatus.

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Typology of Roman particulary from Italy. Recent studies, such as those by Jean-Pierre Brun, David olive presses Mattingly, and Rafael Frankel, using Drachmann ' s discussion as a point of

departure, have focussed on localized areas where the archaeological material is particularly abundant , such as southern Gaul, North Africa, and Israel, respec-tivcly. In doing so they have identified five basic ancient oil press types, some of which also processed grapes. These include the lever-and-weight press, lever-and-drum press, lever-and-screw press, direct screw press, and the wedge press. They have further refined these to create a tentative typology of presses that include the basic forms as well as numerous subtypes. An important point made in these studies is that regional variation not only in design of a specific press or pressing arrangement but also in the development of pressing technology is the rule. So, for instance, not all areas have a linear development from, say, the lever-and-drum through the lever-and-screw press to the direct screw press. Some areas show a shift from lever-and-drum directly to the direct-screw type. And, finally, some regions show an indigenous development at variance with that in a neighboring locale, such as differences in press construction or opera-lion shown between various sections of Israel. Likewise, press technology in a particular region might indicate external influences in addition to local innova-tion. So, for example, the presses of p re -Roman southern Gaul betray borrow-ing from both Greeks and Romans.121 Limitations do not permit a full discussion of all subtypes of press, nor is one required to illustrate the principles of Roman pressing technology. I will begin with a description of the literary evidence for oil presses and then discuss this in relation to the archaeological material to define the basic types.

Lever-and-weight Two presses can be dismissed quickly, the lever-and-weight press and the press wedge press. T h e former has already received detailed discussion in the previous

chapter, particularly as it related to Greek oil processing and to press rooms at Maresha in Israel. This type press did make its way to the western Mediter-ranean, as examples have been found in southern Gaul, an area influenced early by Greek colonists. Although frequently found in the Near East, they are quite

Wedge press rare in the West, with none so far confirmed in Italy.122 T h e wedge press was a simple apparatus compose of a wooden frame into which horizontal boards

121 Brun, L'oléiculture antique, passim; Frankel, Wine and Oil Production, passim; David J . Mattingly and R . Bruce Hi tchner , "Technica l Specifications for Some North African Olive Presses of R o m a n Da te , " IM production du vin et de l'huile, pp. 439 62.

122 Brun , L'oléiculture antique, pp. 8 7 9 0 ־ , esp. Fig. 28 (Types AO and Al) . See also Frankel, Wine and Oil Production, pp. 6 1 - 6 7 , 76 86 (lever-and-weight presses), 9 2 - 9 4 (in Italy and Gaul). Cf. the Rondan in i Relief in Rome , shown in D r a c h m a n n , Ancient Oil Mills, p. 69, and Fig. 10. Frankel ( Wine and Oil Production, pp. 9293־) notes that any conclusions based on this relief, which may show a lever-and-weight press, should be cautious ones.

3 8 5 ROME II

could be inserted. T h e basket of crushed olives placed under the bottom board was pressed when rows of wedges, alternately facing in opposite directions, were hammered between the boards. Four paintings found in Pompeii and Hercula-neum (Fig. 32) depict a wedge press being used to extract oil from the olive pulp. In each instance, however, the context is that of the flower industry. A recent study of these paintings and the scarce archaeological evidence for wedge press-es concludes that this type press, found only in urban settings, was used strictly to extract high quality, low viscosity oil, from green olives to make perfumes. Its compact arrangement made it ideal for small perfumeries, but its method of operation limited its size and its capacity. Although the wedge press could have extracted oil for uses other than perfumes, the volume of oil obtainable per time and effort expended would have rendered it uneconomical for producing large quantities of oil. Apparently other type presses were used to extract from mature olives large volumes of lower quality oil, which found numerous uses, such as food.123 These include the lever-and-drum, lever-and-screw, and direct screw presses.

It is a short step from the lever-and-weight press that employs a drum to hoist Lever-and-drum press

the stone up, such as was probably used at Maresha, to the simple lever-and-drum press, which became the most widespread type of olive and grape press, at least through the first century B. C. Date and place of its origin remains unknown, but Cato the Elder was familiar with it in the mid-second century B. C. when he describes it in detail (Fig. 33).121 According to Cato, one end of a long wooden beam [prelum) had a tongue (lingula) which was inserted under a crossbeam fitted into slots cut into two wooden piers (arbores) anchored in the floor. The beam rested on the basket of crushed olives set in front of the piers on the press bed (ara). Inserted between the beam and the top of the basket was a circular wooden piece (orbis) to insure an even pressure on the frail. The press bed had a circular groove cut with a diameter wider than that of the basket to insure that the oil expressed would be channeled to a receiving vat. The free end of the beam passed between two wooden uprights (stipites). These piers framed

123 Frankel, Wine and Oil Production, pp . 125 26; Brun, L'oléiculture antique, pp . 82 83; D . J . Ma t -tingly, "Paintings, P ressesand Per fume Product ion at Pompei i , " OJA 9, no. 1 (1990): 71 90. Ma t -tingly (p. 86, and fig. 11) identifies as a wedge press a press f rom Pompeii , in Reg. VII.iv.24, usu-ally identified with a n d reconstructed as a direct screw press.

121 C a t o RR 18 19. Cf. also Pliny HN. 18.317. T h e weight -and-drum press, which utilized a winch or d r u m to lift stones up to the beam, where they were lashed in place, discussed in the previous chapter , is really a variant of the lever-and-weight press. It is not a simple lever-and-d r u m press, which has yet to be conf i rmed in the eastern Medi te r ranean . H e r o of Alexandria does not ment ion this type of press, which D r a c h m a n n , with some reserve, doubts was known in Greece. See D r a c h m a n n , Ancient Oil Mills, p. 67.

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Fig. 32. Wedge press operated by erotes, from a painting found in the House of the Stags (Ins. IV.21) in Herculaneum. This detail forms part of a larger scene of erotes making and selling perfume. Illustrated in The Gentleman's Magazine (Aug. 1773): Pl. VII.

CHAPTER THREE 3 8 8

and fixed a winch or drum (sucula). A rope attached to the beam and to the drum. A lever or handspike (vectis), when rotated, wound the rope around the drum, thereby drawing down the free end of the beam and pressing the basket of crushed olives. A wall painting in the House of the Vcttii (Region VI.xv. 1) shows cupids operating just such a levcr-and-drum press to squeeze grapes. Excavators of the Villa of the Mysteries found a press room and evidence for two similar presses (PI. 35). They reconstructed one generally along the lines of 3 Cato's description of a lever-and-drum press but with some differences, such as the use of a single arbor.1'25

North African In North Africa the most common type lever-and-drum press was the variant variant to the lever- that utilized two stone arbores and a drum attached to a counterweight (Fig. 34).

and-drum press These were particularly popular in the Kasserine area of Tunisia.126 T h e heavy stone arbores were usually over six feet tall and possessed a series of holes and grooves to accommodate beam adjustments as the height of the basket of crushed olives decreased under pressure. Since the greatest pressing efficiency comes when the beam approaches horizontal, the beam would have to be removed and fitted into a lower slot in the piers at various points in the process. At the other end of the beam, the d rum was secured to a counterweight. This comprised a heavy stone block with a large dovetail cut-out which accommodai-ed the wooden windlass. Rotat ing the drum brought the free end of the beam down at the same time as the counterweight was lifted oil' the ground. T h e sus-pended counterweight then provided a steady pressure that could be adjusted as needed.

T h e North African presses provide a confirmation of literary and epigraphic evidence that indicates that Africa was a major producer of olive oil. T h e numerous presses, perhaps over one hundred, found in the Kasserine survey arc all the more remarkable because the area is only marginally agricultural. Tripolitania apparently produced olive oil on an even larger scale. This seems indicated not only by the large number and size of presses found but also from the fact that many of these were grouped into veritable factories of sometimes more than five presses per installation. Presses varied in size, so that no standard

12"' M a u , Pompeii, p. 336, Fig. 168. Since the reconstruct ion does not cjuite coincide in a n u m b e r of particulars, two scholars recently re in terpre ted it as an intermediate stage utilizing both a d r u m and a screw. See note 131, below. See J . J . Rossiter and E. Haldenby , "A Wine-making Plant in Pompei i Insula II .5," E M C 8 (1989): 232 -33 . T h e simple lever-and-drum press falls unde r T y p e B20 of Brun , L'oléiculture antique. pp . 90 -92 .

12(i See csp. Matt ingly and Hi tchner , "Technica l Specifications," pp. 440 54. These fall unde r T y p e E3 of Brun (L'oléiculture antique, pp. 105-09). Matt ingly and Hi tchner (p. 446, note 12) note that stone arbores domina ted only in areas surveyed by them; wooden piers generally p rédominâ t -cd in Nor th Africa as in Italy.

3 8 9 ROME II

Fig. 34. Composite plan of a Tripolitanian oil press with slotted piers, of the Roman period. From Mattingly, "Megalithic Madness and Measurement ," p. 189, Fig. 5. Courtesy of David J . Mattingly

CHAPTER THREE 3 9 0

existed. No doubt larger ones were designed for large-scale production, while smaller ones suited reduced output. Many of the large North African presses had piers that measured over nine feet tall and press beams reaching about twenty-seven feet in length. Some counterweights weighed two or three tons.127

It is difficult to determine the capacity of a Roman oil press. Nevertheless, David Mattingly, using the height of extant stone arbores, measurements of the press bed, and, from this, estimates of the capacity of olive baskets has calculated the load capacity for some of the largest presses he surveyed in Tripolitania at between 400 and 1000 kilograms of crushed olives. This would yield about 80 to 250 kilograms of olive oil per press. He further estimates an annual yield from a bumper harvest at up to 10,000 kilograms per unit.128 Presses of this size and capacity, especially when constructed in series in oilcries, would require a signif-icant investment in capital. It would also produce a yield of oil far in excess of local needs. It seems clear that in certain areas, such as Tripolitania, pressing technology permitted large-scale production that translated into increased wealth for specific regions and particular states and individuals.129

lMer-and-drum press Ulpian, in Digest 19.2.19.2, preserves information from a letter dating to the with a screw reign of Tra jan , which lists an inventory of agricultural implements needed to

press olives and grapes. These include beams, winches, screws (cocleae), and ropes. Rossiter and Haldenby have recently interpreted this list as constituting elements of a type of lever-and-drum press that also utilized a screw, and have identified such a press in the press room of the large urban vineyard in Pompeii at Region II.v.130 They speculate from a single posthole near the back wall that the press had a single arbor that fixed one end of the beam. T h e free end was lowered by a combination of winch and screw. They base their recreation on three postholes in the floor. They suggest that the two postholes flanking the free end of the beam indicate the presence of the usual stipites, which secured a winch. A third hole, beyond and larger than the previous two, they argue, held

127 Matt ingly and Hitchner , "Technical Specifications," pp. 454 61. 128 In comparison, Mattingly estimates the capacity of Cato 's press at between 470 and 650

kilograms. T h e olive contains an estimated sixty to seventy-five per cent water (amurca) and only from six to twenty-five per cent oil. More can be obtained by pour ing hot water over the olive pulp and pressing a second time. See Forbes and Foxhall, " Q u e e n of all Trees , " p. 39. Matt ingly estimates a yield of twenty-five per cent f rom each pressing. See David J . Mattingly, " M a x i m u m Figures and Maximizing Strategies of Oil Production? Further Thoughts on the Processing Capaci ty of R o m a n Olive Presses," La production du vin et de. l'huile, pp. 48398־ ; David J . Mattingly, "Mcgalithic Madness and Measurement . O r H o w M a n y Olives Could an Olive Press Press?" OJAT, no. 2 (1988): 177-95.

129 Hi tchner , "Olive Product ion," pp. 499 508; Mattingly, "Oil for Expor t , " pp. 33 56. 130 Rossiter and Haldenby , "Wine-making Plant ," pp. 229-39 ; not accepted by Brun, "Innova-

tions techniques," p. 547, note 21.

3 9 1 ROME II

the screw apparatus.131 Placing the screw mechanism securely in this hole pre-vented it from rotating when the screw was turned. It might also serve as a drop hole for a counterweight attached to the screw assembly. Rossiter and Haldenby suggest that the winch first lowered the beam, and the screw provided added pressure to squeeze more juice from the grapes. They see this combination of winch and screw as an intermediate step between the simple lever-and-drum press and the lever-and-screw press described by Pliny (HN 18.317).

Pliny notes that the lever-and-screw press was invented in Greece about a Lever-and-screw

century before his own time, that is the mid-first century B. C. Hero of Alexan- press

dria, Pliny's contemporary, is likewise familiar with this new press and attributes the innovation to the need to avoid potential mishaps inherent in using large hanging weights with the lever-and-wcight press. From a technical viewpoint use of the screw to lower the free end of the beam increases the mechanical advan-tage over that obtainable with the lever-and-drum press, with or without press weights. Although the lever-and-scrcw press assumed many variant forms in dif-ferent geographical areas, and even within a single area, the general principal remained constant. T h e basic arrangement of lever, piers into which the lever fits, and press bed remains the same as the earlier lever-and-drum press. What differs is the addition of a screw attached to the free end of the lever and two intermediary piers placed between the press bed and free end of the beam (Fig. 35). Although the slotted intermediary piers kept the beam from moving lateral-ly during pressing, their primary function was to support a cross-piece fitted under the beam to create a pivot point. This permitted the back end of the beam, when unsecured from the rear pier arrangement, to be lowered or raised from the free end when replacing or adjusting the basket of crushed olives.132

Pliny says that the lever-and-screw press that raised a box of stones was "espe-daily approved." This arrangement recalls the lever-and-drum press from North Africa, described above, that had its d rum fitted into a large counter-weight that rose oil" the ground when the handspikes were turned. In Pliny's example (Fig. 35), the screw nut, or female screw, is inserted into the beam or

131 Rossiter and Haldenby postulate that the press found in the Villa of the Mysteries has been erroneously reconstructed as a basic lever-and-drum press. T h e y see it as a parallel with the press a r r angemen t found Region II.v, and identify the large posthole beneath the free end of the b e a m with the location of the screw and not as some sort of access hole as the excavators suggested. Rossiter and Haldenby, "Wine-making Plant ," pp. 232 -33 . Cf. Pl. 35.

132 Frankel, Wine and Oil Production, pp. 86 87 (interpretation of Pliny's text), 107-08. See also H e r o Mechanica 3.15 (Drachmann , Mechanical Technology, pp. 115 17). O n the date of the inven-tion of the lever-and-screw press, see D r a c h m a n n , Ancient Oil Mills, pp . 125-28. For the different variations of the lever-and-screw press, see Brun, L'oléiculture antique, pp. 109-17 (Fig. 28, Types A4, C4 , D4, H.4, J . 4, G . 5, a n d J 5 ) ; Frankel, Wine and Oil Production, pp . 107 21.

CHAPTER THREE 3 9 2

Fig. 35. Drachmann 's interpretation of Pliny's description (HN 18.317) of the second type of lever-and-screw press. Drachmann, Ancient Oil Mills and Presses, Fig. 16.

3 9 3 ROME II

sits across the split of a beam forked on its free end. The base of the screw fits into a counterweight in such a way as to allow the screw to turn but not become unseated. As the screw is turned in one direction, the stone is lifted off the ground and begins to turn with the screw. As it does, the free end of the screw turns in the screw furrow of the nut, thereby lowering the end of the beam and so pressing the olives on the press bed. Turning the screw in the opposite direc-tion reverses the order and raises the beam.1 3 3

T h e final development in pressing technology during the Roman period, Direct screw press

according to Pliny (HN 18.317) occurred a mere twenty-two years before he wrote his Historia Naturalis, that is, about A. D. 50 or a little before. This innova-tion, the direct screw press, discarded the beam altogether, and placed the screw, sometimes two, into a fixed wooden frame, not unlike that used for wedge presses, which sat above the basket of olives or grapes.134 He does not indicate the origin of this development. This created a smaller press that could fit into a restricted area. Although Pliny discusses this press in the context of processing grapes, its only representation in art historical evidence shows that it was used in clothing shops to press garments.135 Archaeological evidence for direct screw presses dating before the Byzantine period, however, is scarce.136

Following pressing the oil had to be separated from the water (amurca). Accord- on séparation

ing to Cato (RR 66) this was done immediately after pressing. He suggests that the villa press should have, in addition to guards for the storeroom and pressroom, a ladler (capulator) whose duty it was to skim the oil off the amurca using a shell. He then poured the oil into a lead caldron (use of copper caldrons was expressly pro-hibited) that had been placed in the vat into which the oil flowed from the press. This was transferred into a second caldron, being careful each time to remove any dregs and water. Columella (RR 12.52.8 12) suggests using an iron ladle to trans-fcr the oil into an earthenware tub. He further recommends having three different

133 Pliny also described a lever-and-screw press that had a long screw anchored int» the floor and ceiling, but could move when turned with handspikes. T h e screw passed through a nut rest-ing on top of the beam, which may have been forked at this point . D r a c h m a n n , Ancient OH Mills, pp. 52 56. Cf. He ro Mechanica 3.15 (Drachmann , Mechanical Technology, pp. 115- 16) and Drach-m a n n , Ancient Oil Mills, pp. 70 73.

134 O n direct screw presses, see Brun, I. ,oléiculture antique, pp. 124-32; Frankel, Wine and Oil Pro-duction, pp. 122 37.

135 Cf. also Hero of Alexandria Mechanica 3.19 (Drachmann , Mechanical Technology, pp. 126 37). See M a u , Pompeii, p. 395, Fig. 227. Cf. also Brun, Λ'oléiculture antique, p. 127, Fig. 63. Matt ingly ("Paintings, Presses and Pe r fume Product ion," p. 86) believes that the press reconstructed in the house at Region VII. iv.24 as a direct screw press should be altered to show it as a wedge press.

130 Frankel, Wine and Oil Production, p. 132 (one example in Israel, da t ing to the second century A. D.); Brun, L'oléiculture antique, pp. 62 63 (a single press bed from Khoraz in , Palestine, dat ing to the third century A. I).).

CHAPTER THREE 3 9 4

tubs, one for each pressing. T h e best oil being that obtained from the first press-ing. He then instructs that oil in each of these be transferred to other vessels, up to thirty or more, being careful not to mix the different qualities of oils in any way. The oil is allowed to stand in each successive vessel until it can be separated from any remaining water. Each time the oil is separated it contains less lees and water and so becomes clearer. In an aside (RR 12.52.10) Columella alludes to a more sophisticated method of oil separation, a "built up vat with two compartments" (structile gemellar). No other ancient author mentions this method, but archeologists have found similar structures in Roman pressrooms.

Frankel has identified four different methods of oil separation: skimming, over-flow décantation, underflow décantation, and a combination of the last two. The first accords with the comments of Columella. Round vessels divided into two compartments have been recognized in two villas from Boscoreale in Campania. Although here workers may have employed skimming to transfer oil from one sec-tion to the other, at other sites two or more collecting vats placed in a row and connected successively by channels located near the top operated by the overflow method. Oil from the press flowed into the first vat, or, if not directly connected, workers transferred the oil in vessels. As the first vat filled up, the oil flowed through the channel into the next vat, leaving the lees behind. As the oil over-flowed into each successive vat it became more and more pure. This type arrange-ment has been found in such diverse areas as Israel, North Africa, Yugoslavia, and Italy. Underflow décantation has been documented as early as the Bronze Age Aegean, but only one from the Roman period, the fourth-century A. D. pressing installation on Sicily at Agrigento. 111 this set up, the channel located at the bottom of the vat was sealed while the oil was being poured in. After a period of time, the stopper was removed and the water allowed to drain off, leaving the oil behind. The fourth method combined elements of both overflow and underflow décanta-tion. Only one example of this type has been found, in .Algeria at Madaure. It is considered to be ancient, but its date is uncertain. Here, the first vat had two com-partments, separated by a channel at the bottom of the dividing wall. By under-flow décantation the water flowed into the second compartment where the oil rose to the top. A second channel at the top conducted the oil to the second vat by overflow. This latter method also transferred oil into the successive vats. In sum-mary, although skimming was the simplest method of oil separation, it was labor intensive and time consuming. Even so, it continued to be employed even when in some places the more complicated methods were known. During the Roman peri-od, overflow décantation seems to have been the most widespread method.137

137 Frankel, Wine and Oil Production, pp . 174 76.

C H A P T E R E I G H T

R O M E II

D. Animal Processing

1. Butchery

Many Romans of all social classes in one way or another had access to various kinds of meat, which they consumed roasted, boiled, and stewed. Consumable meats came especially from quadrupeds, such as cattle, oxen, sheep, goats, but particularly boars, young pigs, and small animals such as hares and dormice. The portions particularly enjoyed included the womb, breast, hams, and head of the pig, as well as sausages. Among fowl, cluck and geese were popular. Never-theless, meat played a small role relative to cereals in the Roman diet and its expense for the most part limited its enjoyment to those who could afford it.1

Many towns of Roman Italy had livestock markets where animals might be Meat markets

bought live on the hoof. Rome, for instance, at least through the second century B. C., had a Jorum boarium, or "cattle market." T h e city also operated a pig mar-ket, or forum suanum, and the cities of Aeclanum, Aquileia, Atina, Falerii, and Ferentinum possessed fora pecuaria. No doubt many other towns had livestock markets, at present unattested. Rural estates in the surrounding countryside sup-plied most of the animals sold here. Perhaps the best example of a villa that apparently raised pigs in excess of local needs and so, no doubt, supplied ani-mais to urban markets is the villa of Scttcfinestrc in the Valle d 'Oro near Cosa in Etruria. 111 its second phase (second century A. D.) the villa possessed a large pigsty subdivided into twenty-seven stalls for boars and sows, which could pro-duce between an estimated 200 and 400 piglets annually. Some of the animals may have been conveyed on the hoof to urban livestock markets, while others were processed on the farm or else in a butcher shop in town. The Forum Boanum in Rome, for instance, may have served only to market live animals, but its loca-

1 T h e peasant fa rmer described in the Augustan poem, Moretum (55), was apparent ly too poor to have a piece of pork hanging on the meat-rack placed near the hear th . Mireille Gorbier , " T h e Ambiguous Status of Meat in Ancient R o m e , " Food and Foodways 3, no. 3 (1989): 234-37 ; J a c q u e s André , L'alimentation et la cuisine a Rome. 2nd ed. (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1981), pp. 134-48; W. A. Becker, Gallus, or Roman Scenes of the Time of Augustus. Rev. Frederick Metcalfe, transi. (London: Longmans , Green , and Co. , 1903), pp. 462 -65 .

CHAPTER THREE 3 9 6

tion near the ancient salinae, or salt market, has suggested to some scholars that it may have offered salted meat as well.2

Vie state as a Not only farmers but also the state provided meat for the market (macellum). supplier of meat During the Republic, for example, quaestors sold in the markets meat left over

from public sacrifices and deposited the profit in the treasury. Meat of animals, such as boars, stags, and even of exotic species, slaughtered in the arena were also sold in the markets. This practice caused much chagrin for some Christians who were forbidden to eat meat so procured, but who, like other Romans, desired it as part of their diet. Those who could not afford meat might still obtain it in several ways. During the Republic wealthy individuals sometimes shared meat with the populace to court celebrity and influence. These distribu-tions, called viscera tiones, were often connected with funerary meals or gladiatori-al games. Additionally, the emperor Aurelian, when he substituted baked bread in lieu of the usual grain dole, also initiated distribution to eligible recipients of wine and pork, probably in preserved form and cut into specific portions. Ofii-cial distributions of meat, sometimes as fresh meat, sometimes as lard, continued into the fifth century A. D. And, finally, emperors at gladiatorial exhibitions often provided free meat distributions in a number of different ways. For exam-pie, they might include meat portions, probably preserved in some fashion, in baskets of food distributed as gifts. They also included pieces of meat among items thrown at random into the stands among the spectators, who had to fight with each other to catch them.3

Meat preservation Official meat distributions and scatterings in spectacles required a steady and dependable supply of meat preserved in some fashion. O n e would think, then, that knowledge of the methods to be followed would form a significant part of basic farm knowledge. Among agricultural writers, however, directions pertain-ing to meat preservation fell under the category of "minor things," perhaps another indication of the subordinate role meat played in the Roman diet and the relatively small part it played in the Roman economy.4 Consequently, infor-

2 See J o a n M . Frayn, Markets and Fairs in Roman Italy (Oxford: C la rendon Press, 1993), pp. 145 53; Carandin i , Settefinestre, 1: 179, and 2: 182-88. 1 regret that I was unable to consult Laura Cioffi, Caro: ilmercato delta came nell'occidente romano. Atlante T e m a t i c o di Topograf ica antica, Suppl. 4 (Rome: ' L ' E r m a di Bretschneider, 2000).

3 Mea t distributed in these ways was probably not fresh, raw pieces, because of the likelihood that they would spoil in the hot weather , as well as d raw flies. See esp. S.HA. Aurel. 35.48. See also Corbier , "Ambiguous Status of Mea t , " pp. 223 34; Dona ld G. Kyle, Spectacles of Death in Ancient Rome (London: Routledge, 1998), pp. 184 212־; Joan Frayn, " T h e R o m a n Meat T r a d e , " in Food in Antiquity. J o h n Wilkins, David Harvey, and Mike Dobs, eds. (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1995), j). 1 13. For the meal market , see esp. Claire De Ruyt , Macellum. Marché alimentaire des Romains (Louvain-La-Neuve: Institut Supérieur d 'Archéologie et d 'Historire de l'Art, 1983), pp. 345-47 .

4 Columella RR 12.55. ! : nunc ad minora redeamus.

3 9 7 ROME II

mation on the technology associated with meat preservation is difficult to ascer-tain. Since Romans of Italy, particularly in the central regions, preferred pork to beef, goats, and sheep, what literary references 011 processing animals are avail-able tend to concentrate on the pig.י Columella, for instance, describes a method used to salt pork during the winter months. After the pig has been Salting

butchered, the meat is deboned and rubbed with coarse salt. Placed on a flat surface weights are applied to the meat for three days to press out any remaining blood. If the weather is sunny, Columella recommends rubbing the meat with salt on each of nine succeeding days. If the weather is inclement, he continues, on the eleventh or twelfth day wash off any salt from the surface of the meat, dry it a little, and then smoke it in the larder (carnanum).6

Columella (RR 12.55.4) indicates that salting pork and fish followed similar procedures:7

And there is another salting method which can even be used in hot places at every season of the year. When the pigs have been prohibited from water for a day, on the next day they are slaughtered and are deprived of hair either with boiling water or with a small flame made from slender pieces of wood, for in each way the hairs are removed. The flesh is cut up into pieces of a pound each. Parched salt, but moderately broken as we have said above, is laid down in large containers. The small pieces of meat are thickly arranged, and salt is placed on alternately. But when the throat of the jars has been reached, the remaining part is filled with salt and with weights placed on top is pressed down into the containers. And this llesh is always preserved, just as salt-fish is preserved in its own liquid.

The relationship between the sailing of meat and of fish can be further seen in finds of sheep and cattle bones in fish salting vats in Kerobestin and Telgruc in Gaul. Apparently, in the off season meat preservation kept the fish processing centers active. Cato the Censor (RR 162), in the second century B. C., also rec-

*' Pork may have been popular more because it was readily available than because R o m a n s preferred its taste to beef. Pigs reproduce at a m u c h higher rate than cattle. See W. G r o e n m a n -van Waater inge , "Classical Authors and the Diet of R o m a n Soldiers: T r u e or False?" in Roman Frontier Studies, 1995. W . Groenman-van Waater inge , B. L. V a n Beek, W . J . H. Willems, and S. L. Wynia , eds. (Oxford: O x b o w Books, 1997), p. '263. O n the impor tance of raising pigs on the farm, see V a r r o RR 2.4.3: (hiis enirn fundum colit nostrum, quin sues habeat. . . ("For who of us runs a fa rm who docs not raise pigs.. .?"). T h a t meat , particularly cattle, formed a significant port ion of the R o m a n military diet can no longer be denied. See Anthony King, "Diet in the R o m a n World: a Regional Inter-site Compar i son of the M a m m a l Bones," J RA 12 (1999): 168 202; R. W. Davies, " '! 'he R o m a n Military Diet ," Britannia 2 (1971): 122 42; Corbier , "Ambiguous Status of

M e a t , " pp. 226, 229 -30 .־44 242 ,r> Columella RR 12.55.1-4. See also André , L'alimentation, pp. 141 43. 7 Rober t I. Curtis, darum and Salsamenta. Production and Commerce in Matena Medica (Leiden: E . J .

Brill, 1991), p. 75, esp. note 140. T h e chemical and technical aspects of salting will receive detailed discussion below, pp. 407 -09 .

CHAPTER THREE 3 9 8

ommends a process of layering of pork and salt followed by drying and smoking. T h e resulting product, he assures his reader, neither moths nor worms will touch. Presumably other meat animals besides pig could be preserved in similar fashion. These probably included domesticated goats and certain game animals, such as rabbits, stags, wild boar, and various fowl.

Butchers and butcher How and where the animals were butchered remain questions difficult to shops answer. Farmers might butcher and process their own animals on the farm and

transport the preserved meat to urban or rural markets directly. The animals might also be driven to town and sold to the butcher, or lanius, who slaughtered the animal and processed the meat in his own slaughterhouse, called the laniena. T h e slaughterhouse probably consisted of a holding area, or fold, for live ani-mais and the abbatoir where the butchering actually took place. Identifying these areas within R o m a n towns is difficult and can be confidently conjectured in only a few places, such as near the macellum at Pompeii and, perhaps, near the market at Dougga in Tunisia. Most lanienae, if for no other reason than the strong smells associated with corralled animals, were probably situated near the city limits or even outside of town, like most tanneries and fish salting factories. Epigraphic evidence indicates that lanii apparently operated in Rome near the Porta Capena. Animals slaughtered elsewhere might be conveyed to another butcher, the macellarius, who butchered the meat and sold it from his indepen-dent shop or from a stall in the macellum, as his name implies. Comments by Cicero and Livy indicate that butchers in Roman society occupied a rather low place in the social hierarchy.8

Types of processed Art historical evidence provides some idea of what these butcher shops and meat butchery implements looked like. So, for example, a funerary relief (PI. 36) from 3(

Ostia shows an unnamed butcher, cleaver in hand and standing next to a cut-ting block, prepared to carve to order a piece of meat, the haunch or pema, for a patron. T o the right stands a container to catch the blood, and hanging on hooks of the camatium, or rack for hanging up meat for display, are a boar's head (sinciput) and other cuts of pork, such as the haunch and ribs (costae). T o the left hang scales to weight out the portions. Pigs approach from left and right. Anoth-er funerary relief, this time from Rome, depicts a butcher, probably to be identi-fled with Iulius Vitalis whose large bust appears to the right, also using a cleaver to split a pig's head lying on a block. In the background hang another pig's head and other animal parts, such as a leg of pork (succidium), sow's udder (sumeri), and

« Cf. Cicero De O f f . 1.150; Livy 22.25.19. Sec Frayn, " R o m a n Meat T r a d e , " pp. 107-14; Frayn, Markets and Fairs, pp . 69 73. O t h e r terms identified as specifying butchers include bublarìus and confectuarius For the meat markets at Pompeii and Dougga, see D e Ruyt , Macellum, pp. 137-49 (Pompeii), 212 18 (Dougga).

3 9 9 ROME II

lung [pulmo). Literary sources referring to a pig's head sheared laterally indicates that it was apparently a popular cut. T h e bones of such a specimen, probably preserved in some fashion, was found among some kitchen utensils in the living quarters of a Roman ship, dated to ca. 50 B. C., that wrecked olf the coast of Provence.9

Some meat was sold whole, including the intestines, cum intestinis omnibus (Plau- Butchey tools

tus Pseud. 343), but often was cut into smaller pieces, which might be further divided at home into individual portions (ofellae) before cooking. T h e process of slaughtering the animal probably paralleled the ritual killing of sacrificial ani-mais, where the animal was struck over the head with a mallet and then had its throat cut. T h e blood was collccted in a container, after which the butcher began dismembering the carcass. Pools included the cleaver and knife, which can be seen in the sculpted reliefs of the butchers noted above and in another

57 example on the side of the altar of Atimetus (PI. 37) from Rome. Here two indi-viduals sell a variety of knives, many of which could be used to butcher meat, shown displayed in a cabinet. What is remarkable about the utensils and butch-ery techniques illustrated in Roman reliefs is their similarity to butchery impie-ments and techniques depicted on the walls of tombs in Pharaonic Egypt and painted on black and red-figure pottery from Greece.10 Roman technology in butchery had improved little beyond what had been achieved two millennia ear-lier.

2. Dairy Products

Romans, like Greeks, did not drink large quantities of fresh milk. Since the hot Butter

weather caused it to spoil quickly, they preferred to convert milk into butter (butyrum) or cheese (caseus), which had better keeping quality and allowed for transportation to a market at a distance from the farm. Pliny calls butter the "foam of milk" (spuma lactis), and describes the process of butter making. Recom-mending preferably cow's milk, he says that in the winter one merely warms the milk to produce butter. In the summer, however, he indicates that you should

9 André Tchern ia , Michel Girard , and François Poplin, "Pollens et ossements an imaux de l'é-pave romaine 3 de Planier (Provence)," in 1/1 mer comme lieu d'échanges et de communication. Vol. II of L'exploitation de la mer de l'antiquité a nos jours. VI"־mes rencontres internationales d 'archéologie et d'his-toirc d 'Antibes (Valbonne: Association Pour la Promot ion et la Diffusion des Connaissances Archéologiques, 1986), pp. 231-56 , esp. pp. 252 53, for a discussion of the pig's head as a delica-cy. For reliefs of butchers and butchery implements , see Z immer , Römische Berufsdarstellungen, pp . 17-20, 93 -106 ; Natalie K a m p e n , Image and Status: Roman Working Women in Ostia (Berlin: Gebr . M a n n Verlag, 1981), pp. 99, 141, 157, and Figs. 43 45. All butchers shown are men.

10 Frayn, " R o m a n Meat T r a d e , " p. 112.

CHAPTER THREE 4 0 0

put the milk, with a small amount of water or vinegar, in a tall vessel, sealed except for a small hole below the mouth. Shaking the container vigorously cur-dies the milk. T h e solid material floating on the top is butter. Although they knew that barbarian races employed butter in cooking, the Romans used it, par-ticularly combined with rose oil, mostly in medicines as an emollient, astringent, and cleansing agent, since they considered the fatty substance similar to oil."

Cheese Of all the milk products, cheese pleased the Romans most. It formed an important part of daily fare, and the desire for various types of cheeses spawned a lively trade. Pliny says that the city of Rome consumed not only Italian cheeses, particularly those from Liguria, Umbria , Tuscany, and Latium, but also imported specialty cheeses from as far away as Gaul, especially from the area around Nemausus (Nîmes). Cheeses differed according to the animal that sup-plied the milk — Romans preferring that from the cow, sheep, and goat — and to the taste resulting from various additives or optional processes. Columella, for example, says that one can vary the flavor of cheese by placing green pine cones in the milk while it curdles or by mixing in crushed green pine kernels or thyme. In fact, he notes that the taste of cheese can be modified by adding any condi-ment one desires. He also adds that cheese hardened in brine and smoked with wood specifically from the apple tree yielded a pleasant tasting product. Pliny likewise indicates that, especially with respect to goat's cheese, smoking aug-ments the cheese taste.12 In general, however, Romans made two basic types of cheese: soft and fresh, and hard and dry.

Production of hard The agricultural writers, Varro, Columella, and Palladius, provide detailed cheese descriptions of the process of cheese making. Their instructions are remarkably

consistent among themselves and are similar to modern methods. Cheese could no doubt be made at any time of the year, but Varro suggests that the best time was between early May and mid-July in early morning to mid-afternoon. After filling the milk-pail (;mulctrum) with fresh, full-cream milk, the farmer added ren-net to curdle it. Rennet was made from "beestings," the milk produced by an animal, especially a cow, just after giving birth and consumed by its offspring. Hence, it could be collected from the calf's stomach as well. Columella suggests rennet from a lamb or kid, while Varro recommends the hare or kid. Although

11 Sheep and goat 's milk were also used to p roduce butter . See Pliny HN 11.239, 28 .123-35; Celsus Med. 3.22.14, 4.22.3, 4.25.2, 5.15, 6.18, 8.4.19; Columella RR 6.12.5; André , L'alimentation, p p . 1 5 5 - 5 6

12 V a r r o R R 2.1 1.3; Columella RR 7 .8 .6-7; Pliny HN 1 1.240 42. O n the medicinal value of cheese, sec Pliny HN 28 .131-32 ; Galen De alim. fac. 3.16. See also André , L'alimentation, pp. 152-55. For a study of cheese product ion and commerce in Hellenistic and R o m a n Egypt, see Hans-Joachim Drexhage, "Der Handel , die Produktion und der Verzeh r von Käse nach den griechischen Papyri und Os t raka ," MBA II 15 (1996): 33 -41 .

4 0 1 ROME II

rennet alone was considered best, optional additives suggested for curdling milk included vinegar, (lower of wild thistle, seeds of safflower, and especially fig juice. Only a small amount of rennet was necessary; Varro advises a piece no larger than the size of an olive for each one and one-half gallons of milk. T h e pail of milk and rennet mixture was placed near a source of heat and allowed to stand until the liquid thickened. The warm temperatures served to increase the rate of enzymatic activity leading to the coagulation of the casein to form curds. This could have also been done in milk-boilers, which allowed the milk to boil without spilling over. Archaeologists have identified several such vessels dating from as early as the Bronze Age. These pots had a lid or insert resting on the mouth or interior ledge of the container. O n e specimen had a raised hollow cen-tcrpiece with a large hole surrounded by several small ones. T h e boiling milk rose through the center hole and drained back into the pot through the small ones.13 The mixture was then poured into a wicker basket, pottery strainer, or mold where the liquid whey, draining slowly, separated from the curd. Excava-tions in a R o m a n fort on the Antonine Wall uncovered a terra-cotta cheese

58 mold (PI. 38) that was round in shape and shallow." The whey drained from the soft moist curds through holes placed around the sides. Columella notes that farmers (rustici) hastened the process by immediately placing weights on top to press out the whey. They then removed the soft cheese and placed it in a cool, shady place to keep it from drying too fast, and sprinkled it with salt. When it had hardened, they placed it back into a basket or mold and pressed it again. The salting and pressing were repeated twice more over a period of nine days. T h e repetitive pressings insured that the finished product was not full of holes, while care was also taken not to over salt the cheese. They then removed the cheese and washed it with fresh water, after which they packed the cheeses closely together in a place protected from the winds.15 This process yielded a cheese that was hard, dry, and capable of storage for a considerable period of time as well as suitable for transportation long distances.

Romans also made a fresh soft curd or cottage cheese. Τ he whole process Soft cheese

13 See Whi tehouse , "Bread and Milk," pp. 55 -56 ; Scheifer, Cooking and Cooking Stands in Italy, pp. 108-09.

" For cheese molds, see also J u n k e l m a n n , Pants Militaris, 153 .כן, and Fig. 48. For cheesemak-ing, see V a r r o RR 2 .11.3-5; Columella RR 7 .8 .1-6; Palladius Opus Agr. 6.9 (De caseo faciendo). For pottery strainers possibly used for making soft cheese, see Ward-Perkins and Claridge, Pompeii A. D. 79, p. 205, no. 285. '

15 T h e au tho r of the Morelum (57) describes a hard , round cheese pierced by a string and hung up by the rustic p loughman . See also Frayn, Subsistence Faming, pp. 41 -43 . T h e whey was not wasted, since it was used to feed pigs. Cf. C a t o RR 150. It remains possible, as with honey pro-cessing, that the cheese was pressed using the same type press used to process olives. See Brun, "La discrimination," pp. 513 14.

CHAPTER THREE 4 0 2

could take place in the milk pail within a short period of time. Vergil (<G. 3.394-403), for example, describes a farmer who milks his goats during the day and presses the cheese in the evening. If he milks them near or during the night he can carry the soft cheese to market the next day. Some of it, sprinkled with salt and stored away, was kept for the winter months. T h e process for making soft cheese parallels that for hard cheese up to the point where the curds were placed into a basket or mold. Instead, the curd, after draining for a period of time in the wicker basket or mold, is removed, dipped in brine or salt, and placed in the sun to dry for a short interval. An alternate method, and the one most likely followed by Vergil's farmer, is called "hand pressing." In this case, the curds, still warm in the pail, are broken up and washed with hot water. They are then shaped by hand into balls or pressed into molds made of box-wood, and allowed to dry for a short while.16

3. Fish17

Fish in Roman Fish formed a favorite motif for painting and mosaic decoration in private society homes, and played a symbolic role in pagan and Christian religious belief. In

Italy during the first century B. C. and first century A. D. raising expensive or exotic fish in ponds was one way that some Roman aristocrats displayed their wealth and social status. In fact, Cicero was so exasperated at this group of nobles that he referred to them disparagingly as piscinarìi, or "fishpond lovers." From a more practical standpoint, fishing and raising fish in ponds in the Roman world was an important occupation for a large number of people, and consumption and trade in fresh and preserved fish provided a livelihood for thousands more. Fresh fish was for many Romans, and no doubt for all poor Romans, like meat, an expensive food and, so, one not often eaten. For those with the resources, fresh fish could be purchased in the fish stalls in or near the public market, macellum, examples of which have been uncovered at Pompeii and Ostia. Here were also provisions for scaling fish before sale, such as tables, drainage facilities, and fresh water. Some cities, such as Rome, had a special area, the fomm piscatonum, set aside specially for fishmongers. If fish were to be transported long distances or stored for a period of time, they would have to be

Columel la RR 7 .8 .6-7 . Cf. Vergil Eel. 1 .33-35. 17 T h e present discussion of the R o m a n salt-fish industry summarizes the more detailed treat-

men t found in my Carum and Salsamenta. Production and Commerce in Materia Medica (Leiden: E. J . Brill, 1991). Noth ing has appeared within the previous nine years to alter any conclusions d rawn in 1991. 1 have, however, noted a few new sites reported since then, and have included some bib-liographic references that have appeared in the meant ime.

4 0 3 ROME II

preserved in some fashion. Producers, such as the jock of New Carthage in Spain and A. Umbricius Scaurus of Pompeii, and merchants, such the negotiatores alle-carìi of Lower Germany and M. Primus Secundianus of Lugdunum in Gaul, provided a variety of salted fish products that were affordable to people of all social classes who consumed significant quantities in their daily lives.18

The principal commodities produced at Roman salting installations were salt- Types of preserved

ed fish and fish sauce. The former product, called salsamentum (Grk. τάριχος, or fish: salt-fish

sometimes τέμαχος), derived from Latin sal, meaning salt, and designated any meat, but particularly fish, so preserved. Greek vocabulary for salted fish is more precise, and so gives a better idea of the varieties of salted fish. So, for example, Greek terms indicate that salt-fish could be lightly or fully salted, with or without scales. Some names indicate the shape of the final product, such as triangular or rectangular, or the specific part of the fish from which the product came, for example the dorsal section or the stomach portion. T he terminology of a salt-fish product might also derive from the name of the species of fish from which it was made. The Roman, however, did not distinguish types of salt-fish to the same degree, usually preferring to subsume them all under the general term sal-samentum.19

Where the classical Greeks knew only two fish sauces (γάρον and αλμη), the Fish sauces

Romans distinguished four different products, garum, liquamen, allée, and muna.20

18 O n fish and markets, see I)e Ruyt, Macellum, pp . 115-24 (Ostia), 137-49 (Pompeii), 341-45 ; Frayn, Markets and Fairs, pp. 65 -69 , 107. For producers and merchants of preserved fish, see C u r -tis, Garum and Salsamenta, esp. pp. 148-75. O n fish ponds, see Cicero Alt. 1.19.6, 20.3. See also

J a m e s Higg inbotham, Piscinae. Artificial Fishponds in Roman Italy (Chapel Hill: T h e University of Nor th Carol ina Press, 1997), esp. pp. 4 1 - 6 4 ; Jashemski , Gardens of Pompeii, pp . 48, 108-12. For fish in art and religion, see Mar t ine Sciallano, Poissons de l'Antiquité Istres (Istres: Musée d'Istres, 1997), pp. 69 -89 ; Angela Donati and Paolo Pasini, Pesca e pescatori nell'antichità (Milan: Leona rdo Arte, 1997), pp. 109-45. O n fish, fishermen, and fishing, generally, see Ludovicus Bunsmann , De Piscatorum in Graecorum atque Romanorum Litteris Usu (Monasterii Guestfa lorum: Typis Aschendorffii , 1910); Diedrich Bohlen, Die Bedeutung der Fischerei für die antike Wirtschaft. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der

Antike Fischern (Hamburg : H . Christ ian, 1937); T h o m a s Corco ran , " T h e R o m a n Fishing Industry of the Late Republic and Early Empi re , " Ph.D. diss., Nor thwestern University, 1957; Radcliife, Fishing From the Earliest Times, pp. 141-288; Peter Ors ted "Salt, Fish and the Sea in the R o m a n Empi re , " in Meals in a Social Context. Aspects of the Communal Meal in the Hellenistic and Roman World. Inge Nielsen and H a n n e Sigismund Nielsen, eds. (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 1998), pp. 13-35; André , L'alimentation, pp. 95 -113 .

19 W h e r e the R o m a n s were precise, the terms were Latinized Greek forms, such as trigonum, cyhium, and melandryum. For Greek names for salt fish, see above p. 312.

20 Some scholars prefer to interpret certain product labels on R o m a n a m p h o r a e as identifying fish sauces on the basis that the vessel shape conformed to one of those which normally held fish sauce. These include limphatum, laccatum, largarinum, and something known only as C0D. T h e latter may actually not be a sauce but a part icular type of salt-fish made from the young tunny, c0(r)rf(y1a). See Curtis, Gamm and Salsamenta, p. 9, note 12.

CHAPTER THREE 4 0 4

The fact that Latin garum derives directly from Greek γάρον seems to indicate that Roman knowledge off ish salting derived from the Greeks. This question is complicated, however, by the inability yet to determine who introduced the process into the western Mediterranean, the Greeks or the Phoenicians and Carthaginians. T h e intermediate position of Italy between the Greek world of the eastern Mediterranean, which may have been processing fish by the seventh century B. C. or before, and the Spanish peninsula, where Punic fish salting installations were operating by the fifth century B. C. or earlier, makes possible either one as the source of Roman knowledge. T h e Romans could have learned the techniques from the Carthaginians, with whom they had early contacts, but have adopted the terminology from the Greeks of Magna Graecia. Greek colonists could have brought the knowledge of the salting process with them from their mother city and passed it along to the Italian inhabitants of Italy, even though there is no archaeological evidence to date of any fish processing in southern Italy before the Augustan period. Literary evidence, however, implies that some fish processing was taking place in southern Italy as early as the fourth century B. C.21 Whatever the case, no classical Greek source describes the process used to salt fish. The earliest sources extant are Roman.

T h e first-century A. 1). Roman agricultural writer Columella, after describing how to salt pork, says that fish are preserved in the same fashion.22 From this one can deduce that the Romans followed this procedure. The worker first cleaned, gutted, and cut up the fish. He then took a container of some sort and laid down in the bottom a layer of salt. O n top of this he arranged a layer off ish meat, covered by a layer of salt. He continued to alternate layers off ish with lay-ers of salt until the top of the vessel was reached. He then packed on a last layer of salt and placed on top a heavy object, such as a roof tile. Over a period of time as the fish were compressed, the salt entered the meat (salsamentum) and a salty liquid (muria) was expressed. T h e parts of the fish not salted in this fashion, small whole fish and the innards and gills of large fish, for example, were not wasted. They went into making fish sauces.

Several literary sources describe how to make fish sauce. Manilius (fl. first cen-tury A. D.) describes fishermen on the shore catching and processing tunny fish. Part of the fish went into large salting vats to produce salt-fish and muria while another part, though he does not name them specifically, were made into fish sauces. T w o other sources, attributed to the third and fourth centuries A. I).,

Salting Jish similar

to salting pork

Literary evidence for

fish sauce

preparation

21 See above p. 319 -21 . See also Eu thydemus ap. Athen. 3.116c; Archestratus ap. Athen. 7.302a; Aelian NA 15.3. See esp. Lowe, " T r a d e and Production of G a r u m , " pp. 5277־ ; Curtis , Garum and Salsamenta, pp . 85 86.

22 Columel la Rust. 12.55.4. See above p. 397.

4 0 5 ROME II

respectively, though probably of a later date, describe making fish sauce. Ps-Gargilius Martialis describes a method by which layers of herbs and spices, fish, and salt are placed alternately upon each other up to the capacity of a "solid well-pitched container ." This mixture was allowed to sit in the sun for twenty-seven days. After the seventh day, the material required stirring two or three times daily. At the end of the period the garum was strained and collected in a vessel. Ps-Rulius Festus employed a quicker method of making sauce. He rec-ommcnds applying heat to a container of fish material, wine, and salt until the liquid reduced by two-thirds. This was then strained into a glass flask.23 T h e best and most complete description of garum product ion comes f rom the Geoponica (20.46.1-6), a tenth-century A. D. Greek agricultural manual that may derive f rom a sixth-century A. 1). Latin treatise. 111 the chapter entitled "Preparat ion of Geoponica

G a r u m s " (Γαρων ποίησις), the au thor describes two methods of prepar ing garum, a slow procedure, warming by solar heat in a baker 's kneading trough for up to three months, and a faster method, heating the material in a small container over a fire:

1. The so-called liquamen21 is made in this manner: the intestines offish are thrown into a vessel and salted. Small fish, either the best smelt, or small mullet, or sprats, or wolffish, or whatever is deemed to be small, are all salted together and, shaken frequently, are fermented in the sun. 2. After it has been reduced in the heat, garum is obtained from it in this way: a large, strong basket is placed into the vessel of the aforementioned fish, and the garum streams into the basket. In this way the so-called liquamen is strained through the basket when it is taken up. The remain-ing refuse is allex.25 3. The Bithynians prepare it in this manner: it is best if you take small or large sprats, but if not, wolffish, or horse-mackerel, or mackerel, or even alica, and a mixture of all, and throw these into a baker's kneading trough, in

23 Manil ius Astron. 5.656 81. For Ps-Gargilius Martialis, see Valent in Rose, "Aringus, der Her -ing," Hermes 8 (1874): '224-27. Only a single manuscr ipt of the Breviarium rerum gestarum populi liomani preserves a recipe for garum [RuJi Festi Breviarium Rerum Gestarum P. R. W endell Foerster, ed . [Vienna: Alfred Hoelder , 1874), p. 23). T h e recipe, entitled Confeclio gari, appears at the head of the tenth-century A. I), manuscipt Codex Parisinus Ρ and was written in the same hand as the text itself.

24 Fhe exact mean ing of this term is unclear. It was by the third century A. D . the generic term for fish sauce, often replacing the word garum. T h e evidence of a m p h o r a inscriptions and a mosa-ic decorat ion f rom Pompeii , however, indicate that , at least in the early empire , it was seen as a fish sauce distinct f rom garum. H o w it differed remains unknown. It may have been the liquid d rawn off f rom a second or subsequent washing with br ine of the residue of garum. It probably was less salty and had a lower keeping quality than garum. See Curt is , Gamm and Salsamenta, pp. 7, 9 1 - 9 2 , 177, and Rober t I. Curtis, "À Personalized Floor Mosaic f rom Pompeii ," AJA 88 (1984): 5 5 7 - 6 6 .

25 Allex, the residue f rom garum product ion, was variously spelled allée, hallec, and liallex. See Curtis, Garum and Salsamenta, p. 7, note 7.

CHAPTER THREE 4 0 6

which they are accustomed to knead meal. Tossing into the modius of fish two Italian sextarii of salt, mix up thoroughly in order to strengthen it with salt. After leaving it alone for one night throw it into a vessel and place it without a lid in the sun for two or three months, agitating it with a shaft at intervals. Next take it, cov-er it, and store it away. 4. Some add to one sextarius of fish two sextarii of old wine. 5. Next, if you wish to use the garum immediately, that is to say not ferment it in the sun, but to boil it, you do it this way. When the brine has been tested, so that an egg having been thrown in lloats (if it sinks, it is not sufficiently salty), and throwing the fish into the brine in a newly-made earthenware pot and adding in some oregano, you place it on a sufficient fire until it is boiled, that is until it begins to reduce a little. Some throw in boiled-down must. Next, throwing the cooled liquid into a filter you toss it a second and third time through the filter until it turns out clear. After having covered it, store it away. 6. The best garum, the so-called haimation ["blood-sauce"] is made in this way: the intestines of tunny along with the gills, juice, and blood are taken and sufficient salt is sprinkled on. After having left it alone in the vessel for two months at most, pierce the vessel and the garum, called haimation, is withdrawn.

T h e ancient literary sources, therefore, indicate that the basic preparat ion process of fish sauce remained unchanged throughout antiquity, al though some variations in detail do appear . T h e fish used were usually pelagic and could vary from small species such as sprats to large ones such as mackerel and tunny.2 6

T h e process could take as long as two or three months heating in the sun or a much shorter period of time by heating over a lire. T h e size of vessel used to make the sauce was unimpor tant as long as the proport ion of f i sh to salt was suf-

Ancient methods of fìcient. T h e author of the Geoponica suggests a mixture of one modius of fish for salting parallel two sextarii of salt, that is, a fish-to-salt ratio of 8:1. W h e n brine replaced dry

modem methods salt, the ratio was un impor tan t so long as the liquid was salty enough to float an egg. And finally, the sauce could be plain with no additives, or it might also con-tain wine, herbs, and spices.27 It also seems clear that the production of garum and that of salsamentum were closely related, and constituted different steps in the same process. T h e procedures followed have direct parallels with modern pro-duction methods for salt-fish and fish sauce, especially as practiced on the Black Sea and in the countries of southeast Asia, such as Vie tnam, Thai land, and the Philippines.

26 Pliny (HN 31.94—95) says that garum could be m a d e from an infinite variety o f f i sh , but that the mackerel (scomber) was the most popular . H e also lists oysters, sea urchins, and various shellfish as ingredients as well.

27 Both Greek and R o m a n writers ment ion various mixed garums, as do a few papyri . These appear , however, to refer to addit ions of wine (oenogarum), oil (oleogarum), water (hydrogarum), and vinegar (όξύγαρον) following product ion ra ther than dur ing processing. See Curtis, Garum and Sal-samenta, pp. 89 ־ , note 12.

4 0 7 ROME II

Salting is the most important method of preservation practiced in those areas Modem Jìs/ι salting

where climatic conditions, lack of storage facilities, and poor transportation technology

resources militate against the accumulation of large quantities of fresh fish.28 Salt retards or, at least, controls the decomposition of fish, which commences soon after removal from water and death. In general, the term used to describe the process whereby organic substances break down into simpler compounds in the presence of salt and enzymes is fermentation. T h e term "fermented fish prod-uct" is, however, misleading, since all fish processed with salt ferment after a period of time. Some biochemists prefer more precision and so speak of two dis-tinct processes: bacterially fermented products and products created by enzyme hydrolysis. T h e latter term, reserved for non-microbial action, further subdivides into processes using added enzymes or naturally occurring enzymes. Where only indigenous enzymes play a role, the process is called autolysis. T h e term autoly-sis, therefore, best corresponds to the ancient salting process and to many mod-ern ones as well.29

The principal ingredients necessary for fermentation arc salt and fish. T o speed up the process a very salty water can be used; this is called "brining." Since fish tissue deteriorates rapidly following death, the length of time elapsing between catch and initiation of processing can strongly influence the taste and keeping quality of the final product. Other variables include the species of fish, where it was caught, its age, fat content, size, and whether it is processed whole or eviscerated. The purity and quantity of salt or the salinity of the brine play a major role, as does the process itself. For example, the length of time given to salting and subsequent ripening, the ambient temperature of the fish-salt mass, and the use of additives, such as sugar or pineapple, to speed up the process, to inculcate a desired taste, or to create a certain appearance, all alfect the end product. T h e decision to dry a n d / o r smoke following fermentation also deter-mines the ultimate outcome.30

Salt exerts a strong osmotic effect on fish tissue, producing a pickle. If the fish remains in contact with the pickle for only a short time and the amount of salt

28 Frequently, to insure longer keeping quality salting ])recedes smoking and drying. T h e com-hination of salting then drying is probably the most widespread method of fish preservation today. Th is is particularly true of Malaysia, where in 1977 salted then dried fish m a d e up seventy-seven per cent of all of its processed fish. See S. Y. Yu, C. L. Siaw, and A. Z. Idrus, " T h e Appli-cation of Technology to the Processing of Dry-salted Fish in Peninsular Malaysia: Compar i son of Sun-dr ied and Oven-dr ied Fish," Journal of Food Technology 17, no. 2 (April 1982): 211.

2 9 J . 1). O w e n s a n d L. S. M e n d o z a , "Enzymically Hydrolyscd and Bacterially Fermented Fish-ery Products ," Journal of Food Technology 20, no. 3 (June 1985): 273-74 .

30 H. L. W a n g and C. W. Hesseltine (Indigenous Fermented Food of Non-western Origin. Mycologia Memoirs , No. 11 [Berlin 1986|, pp. 35-40) have identified sixty-eight different products of South-east Asia, Korea , and J a p a n . See also Curtis, Garum and Salsamenta, pp. 16-17.

CHAPTER THREE 4 0 8

used is small, a relatively soft salt-fish results. If the amount of salt and the peri-ocl of contact time is increased and the pickle is occasionally drained off, the result is fish paste. Over a long period of time and if the amount of salt used is great, the proteolytic enzymes (from the muscle and gastro-intestinal tract if retained) produce almost complete degradation of fish material, creating fish sauce. Some amount of residue, however, remains. All of these products, salt-fish, fish sauce, and fish paste, therefore, form integral parts of the same process.

Modem salt-fish Three general methods are employed to salt fish meat today: dry salting, which forms its own brine, brining with a prepared salt solution, and a combina-tion of the first two. T h e production of salt-fish normally requires removal of the gastro-intestinal tract from the fish before mixing with salt or brine. This elimi-nates the most active enzymes leading to autolysis. Mildly cured fish are those treated with only a little salt or with high concentrations of salt but for only a short period of time, followed perhaps by drying a n d / o r smoking. They keep lit-tie better than fresh fish. Hard cures have as their goal long-term preservation and involve increased concentrations of salt for extended periods of time. A minimum of ten per cent salt concentration is needed to inhibit the growth of bacteria and molds. As osmosis draws water out off ish tissue and replaces it with salt, the overall weight of the fish decreases. As time goes on, the salt concentra-tion in the outer layers off ish tissue equalizes with that in the surrounding brine. T h e whole process slows down, salt passing from the brine into the outer fish tis-sues to the same degree as the inner tissues absorb salt from the outer layers. Finally, as the fish continues to absorb salt, its weight increases slightly. The fish meat is now dense and contracted. A strong flavor of salt replaces both the odor and taste of raw fish.31

Processing of herring in modern Black Sea salteries provides a good example with which to compare the ancient literary accounts and to assist in interpreting the ancient archaeological evidence.32 T h e bottom of the vat receives a layer of salt. A layer of fish, sometimes washed, at least partially eviscerated, and occa-sionally rubbed with salt, is then laid clown. This is topped by a layer of salt, then more fish is laid down at right angles to the previous fish layer, and so on. When the top of the vat has been reached, a final layer of salt is added and the whole covered in some fashion. Stone or concrete weights press down the fish so that they are submerged in the picklc that begins to form within twenty-four hours. The weights expel air bubbles and the brine covering the mass prevents the oxidation of unsaturated fatty acids that accelerates spoilage. The pressure

31 N . A. Voskresensky, "Salt ing of Herr ing ," in Fish as Food. G e o r g Borgström, ed. 4 Vols. (New York 1965), 3: 11 1 16; Curtis , Carum and Salsamenta, p. 18.

32 Voskresensky, "Salt ing of Herr ing ," pp. 121 28.

4 0 9 ROME II

of weights also increases the penetrat ion of salt into the fish tissue. T h e period of ripening depends upon the degree of salt penetrat ion desired and can range from only a few days to several months. Vat salting is the best way to accommo-date catches of migratory fish where large quantities arc involved, ' f l ic ma jo r problem encountered is an unevenness of the product because the depth of the vat and pressure exerted by weights can create different degrees of salinity at dif-ferent levels in the same vat. T o allow for this, oftentimes the top layers receive almost double the amoun t of salt as the bottom layers. "

T h e fish sauces of southeast Asia, such as nuoc-mam of Vietnam, are clear, fil- Modem fish sauce

tered liquids made in salt concentrations of twenty per cent or greater with whole, uneviscerated, usually pelagic fish, which undergo a slow process of enzyme hydrolysis extending over long periods of time. Any amount of sauce can be pro-duced, but commercial processing involves huge quantities of fish, both large and small, processed in wooden 01־ concrete vats housed in sheds to protect the prod-uct from sun and rain. T h e fish-to-salt ratio rarely exceeds 5:1. Uneviscerated fish are placed in vats in alternating layer with salt; sometimes concentrated brine is used. W h e n the top of the vat has been reached, the whole is pressed down by weights. After a few days the first bloody liquid (nuoc-boi) is drawn off. With more salt added and the vat sealed, ripening begins, during which the mass is occasion-ally stirred with paddles. T h e ripening period, at ambient temperatures of about 30° C, varies according to type and size of fish, and can extend up to eighteen months. Elevated temperatures, but only up to about 45° C, and the use of pure salt can hasten autolysis. W h e n fully matured, the sauce is transferred to settling tanks where a clear first-quality sauce (mwc-nhut) is filtered and separated from the thick residue of undigested fish material (nuoc-xat). T h e liquid sauce is then either bottled for shipment or else aged, sometimes up to four years. T h e residue can be leached or lixiviated with a boiling salty brine to produce sauce of lower quality. A poorer quality sauce arises from each successive leaching. T h e residue is a thick paste, which, as a by-product in making fish sauce, can itself serve as an important food item. Producers can also intentionally produce a fish paste (mam) by not per-mitting complete autolysis of the fish and salt mass.

Consumpt ion of fermented fish products can contribute to a healthful diet.34

33 Beatriz E. Filsinger, "Effect of Pressure on the Salting and Ripening Process of Anchovies (Engraulis anchoi ta ),"Journal of Food Science 52, no. 4 (July-Aug. 1987): 919-27 ; Curtis , Garum and Salsamenta, pp. 18-19.

34 Consumpt ion of too much salt-fish has its downside as well. Studies of the diet of J apanese in J a p a n and of Japanese immigrants to Hawaii suggest that a diet rich in processed fish, even though not eaten with great frequency, may cause significant chemical changes in the stomach when the secondary amines of the fish react with nitrites naturally occurring there. These chemical changes produce nitrosamincs, known cancer-causing agents. See Curtis, Garum and Salsamenta, pp. 24-26 .

CHAPTER THREE 4 1 0

Nutritional value of T h e nutritional importance of modern fermented fish products, as also for their modem preserved fish ancient counterparts, derives from the biochemical and microbiological process-

products es occurring during the salting and ripening stages. Salt-fish provides a more concentrated source by weight of protein than fresh fish, since processing removes most of the moisture from fish tissue and replaces it with salt. In salting, however, unless the liquid formed during the process is retained, some water-soluble nutrients, such as minerals and B-vitamins, are lost. For this reason, salt-fish per se is an excellent source of concentrated protein, but not a particularly good source of B-vitamins. T h e fish sauces are likewise a healthy food.

The production o f f i sh sauce involves entirely enzymic proteolysis, primarily from enzymes of the digestive tract (pyloric caeca). In the best products there is little or no bacteria involvement, except in so far as what appears between catch and the initial stages of processing. T h e quality of the final product depends upon the extent to which the growth of microorganisms are controlled. The bet-ter quality sauces do not constitute a health hazard, since a fish-to-salt ratio of 5:1 or less and a relatively low p H of 5.0 to 6.5, common in fish sauces, are not conducive to the growth of aerobic bacteria. This prevents putrefaction and reduces the chances of botulism poisoning. Enzymes, such as trypsin of the pyloric caeca and to a lesser extent pepsin found in the stomach, attack fish tis-sues at the same time as salt by osmosis removes moisture. Since the proteolytic activity of these enzymes varies with fish species, and in some species varies with the season of the year, but generally is low, the process can take a considerable length of time. Eventually the fish loses its shape and begins to liquefy as protein dissolves in the liquid formed. T h e proteins slowly decompose into amino-nitro-gen compounds, especially peptides, amino acids, and nitrogenous bases, such as ammonia , trimethylamine, urea, and creatin. Since enzymic hydrolysis is not total, an insoluble residue remains. This fish material is also high in protein and is used as a condiment or as an additive for highly seasoned food. Progressively greater bacterial spoilage of the product lowers the ratio of amino acids to amines and creates a stronger smelling sauce of poorer quality. Fish sauce of lower quality produced by leaching likewise results in a smaller amount of amino acid nitrogen and so a product of less nutritional value.35

The Romans, of course, did not know the mechanisms of enzyme hydrolysis or of autolysis, nor were they aware of the nutritional aspects of eating ferment-ed fish products. Nevertheless, by observation and experiment they did recog-nizc the changes that fish undergo in the presence of salt and how that permit-ted them to extend the shelf life of a food item popular at the table and prone to

35 For the bibl iography associated with the biochemical and microbiological aspects of ferment-ed fish products a n d their relation to nutri t ion, see Curtis, Garum and Salsamenta, pp. 2224'־.

ROME II

spoil quickly. Like their modern counterparts they knew how to substitute ingre-dients and to manipulate the salting process to create différent products. They employed both dry salting and brining to produce salt fish, and varied the fish-to-salt ratio to create safe products of varying keeping ability. They recognized the advantage of using artificial heat to accelerate the fermentation process and of including certain additives to vary the taste. Not only was the ancient process similar to that used today, but the facilities were comparable as well.

Archaeological excavations have uncovered numerous Roman fish salting Ancient salting

installations. For various reasons, chiefly associated with the intensity of archae- installations

ological excavations, most have come to light in the western provinces of Spain, Gaul, North Africa, and Sicily. The major exception are the R o m a n salteries that operated in the Black Sea along the Strait of Kerch at Tyritake and Myrmekion and in the Crimea (Tauric Chersonese) at Chersonesos.36 The most concentrated finds are in Spain, extending from Punta de Γ Arenal on the Mediterranean coast of Hispania Tarraconensis along the coast of Baetica and up the Atlantic coast of Lusitania to Olisipo (modern Lisbon). In addition to numerous small installations, major sites include Baelo in Baetica and Troia in Lusitania. Extensive remains have also been found in Mauretania Tingitana at Lixus and Cotta, in Africa Proconsularis at Sullecthum, and in Gallia Lug-duncnsis in the Bay of Douarnenez.3 7 Archaeological evidence shows that Italy, especially in Pompeii, and the western part of Sicily at Porta Palo, Isola delle Femmine, and Tonara del Cofano, produced salted fish products as well. Exclu-sive of the fifth-century B. C. Punic salteries at Gades, however no salting instal-

3ß For a detailed discussion of R o m a n salting installations in these provinces, see Curtis, Garum and Salsamenta, pp. 46 -101 , I 18-47. Since that book appeared , additional finds have come f rom Spain, especially in Hispania Tarraconensis . See Lowe, " T r a d e and Product ion of G a r u m , " pp. 106-22; Michel Ponsich, Aceite de olivay salazones de pescado. Factores geo-economicos de Betkay Tingita-nia (Madrid: Universidad Complutense , 1988); Rober t Etienne, Yasmine Makaroun , and Françoise Mayet , Un grand complexe industriel a Trôia (Portugal) (Paris: E. de Boccard, 1994); Rober t Etienne and Françoise Mayet , "Car tographie critique des établissements de salaisons de poisson dans la péninsule ibérique," in Méditerranée antique. Pêche, navigation, commerce. Eric Rieth, ed. (Paris: Éditions du C T H S , 1998), pp. 33-57 ; C a r m e n Fernández O c h o a and Ju l io Mar t inez Magan to , "Las industrias de salazôn en el norte de la peninsula ibérica en época romana . Nuevas apor ta-ciones," A FA 67 (1994): 115-46; Mar ia José H e r n á n d e z , Miguel Angel Cau , Margar i ta Orfi la , "Nuevos datos sobre cl poblamiento ant iguo de la isla de C a b r e r a (Baléares). U n a posible factoria salazones," Saguntum. Papeles del Laboratorio de Arqueologia de Valencia 25 (1992): 213-22 ; Patrick

André , " U n atelier de salaisons chez les Vénètes d 'Armor ique , " RF/Ì 94, nos. 1 . 4 1 - 4 ־2 (1992): 737 T o give some idea of the size of the largest installations, the product ion capacity of three dif-

ferent salteries at T r o i a has been est imated at over 700,000 m3, live factories at Baelo had a capacity of almost 270,000 m3, and the ten factories at Lixus could produce ca. 1,013,000 m3. It should be noted that excavations at T ro i a arc still underway. See Étiennc and Mayet , "Car togra-

phie critique des établissements de salaisons de poisson," 48 .כן.

CHAPTER THREE 4 1 2

lat ion can be securely dated before the first century B. C. Mos t operated between the first and th i rd centuries A . D . , a l though evidence is accumula t ing to indicate that some R o m a n salteries, such as at Rhode and Santa Pola in Spain (PI. 39), A r m o r i q u e i n western Gau l , and Ty r i t ake in the Strait o f Ke rch , cont in- 3׳ ued to funct ion, though usually on a reduced scale, th rough the sixth century A . D.3 8 I n al l o f these places the R o m a n salt ing facilities show a remarkable degree o f un i f o rm i t y i n locat ion, construct ion, and operat ion. Consequent ly , discussion needs only to focus on a few wel l-preserved sites to discern how the Romans produced salted fish products.

T h e size and complex i ty o f a saltcry depended upon the size o f the popu la-t ion avai lable for work , the abundance and type o f f i s h obta inable, the accessi-b i l i ty o f salt, the avai lab i l i ty o f fresh water , and the purpose o f the instal lat ion to p rov ide salt-fish for local consumpt ion only or for expor t as wel l . T h e ci ty o f Baelo i n Baetica had two locations devoted to p roduc ing salt-fish, an area on the beach outside the city walls and, u n c o m m o n l y , one inside the ci ty in the commerc ia l quar ter . T h e ci ty had perhaps five separate factories, a l though at present there exists no accepted cr i ter ia to dist inguish separate factories f r om a m o n g the groupings o f vats. Sal t ing took place in vats sunk in to the g round and covered w i t h a r oo f to protect the products f r o m the sun and rain. W h e r e the vats were located in bui ld ings w indows p rov ided vent i la t ion. T h e vats themselves were ar ranged i n two or three ranks, g rouped ei ther paral le l or in a square fo rmat ion . T h e r e was no access between vats, bu t one could approach any o f the basins by wa lk ing a round on top o f the par t i t ions that separated them.

Salting vats T h e dist inctive element o f any saltcry was the salt ing vat, or cetaria. Construe-t ion fo l lowed a general p lan, the size and shape varied. T h e vats were usually square or rectangular in shape and var ied i n size, but usually corresponded to large and small ones. T h e large vats served to salt fish meat, whi le the small ones, f requent ly r ound in shape to assist i n s t i r r ing the fish mass, were used to process fish sauce. Vats in Lusi tania, for example at V a o and Caetobr iga, mea-sured between 1.50 m. χ 1.03 m. χ 1.85 m. a n d 4 . 0 0 m . χ 3 .70 m . χ 2 .00 m. Most were square or rectangular, but some, such as at Baelo, were cylindrical. While most vats of Baetica and Lusitania were usually grouped by twos in a series or in a square formation, those emplaced on rocky areas, such as at Punta

3!! Literary sources refer to other provinces, east and west, that opera ted fish salteries dur ing the R o m a n period, including Corsica, Sardinia, Egypt, a n d Palestine. See Curtis, Garum and Salsamen-ta, passim; Mar ia J . Sánchez, Ε. Blasco, and A. Guardio la , "Descubr imiento de una factoria bajoimperia l de sala/.όη de pescado en San ta Pola (Alicante),'" Saguntum. Papeles del laboratorio de Arqueologia de Valencia 22 (1989): 4 1 3 - 3 8 .

4 1 3 ROME II

de Γ Arenal, were randomly scattered.59 Vats normally lay on the beach with a roof structure of some sort covering them, near the beach, on a rocky p romon-tory above the beach and its tides, or, less often, inside a city within a building specially built or converted for their use. Vats in sandy areas, such as at Baelo, were usually sunk into the ground and constructed of mor ta r and rubble com-posed of broken tiles, bricks, or small rocks. T h e interior was faced with a mor-tar of lime and finely-broken tiles (opus signinum), but the exterior usually remained rough. Vats on rocky areas had to be cut into the rock or sat like a tub on the rocky ground. Vats possessed rounded lips at the top, and at the interior angles an ovolo served to reinforce the side and to aid in periodically cleaning the vats. Since there existed no way to drain the basins, many, but by no means all, contained a small depression in the bot tom, similar to those found in collec-tion basins used in conjunction with oil presses in Palestine, to collect the remains and to help in the cleaning process.40

Using ancient literary sources, archaeological remains, and modern parallels Ancient fish

we can with reasonable certainty reconstruct the procedures followed in a preservation

Roman saltery. Fishermen conveyed their catch as quickly as possible to the procedures

preparat ion room where they or other saltery workers cut the fish into pieces. Some parts went into large vats to be made into salsamentum, while small whole fish, the innards and other parts considered refuse of large fish, and perhaps oth-er sea creatures, were placed into small basins to be made into fish sauce. If dry salting were the process to be followed, salt would be obtained from supplies received from a nearby salt marsh or salt mine.41 T h e worker first laid down a

39 For Baelo see Curtis, Garum and Salsamenta, pp and bibliography cited therein. For ,־52 51 .use of the word cetaria to designate salting vats, see Pliny HN 9.49, 92; 31.94; Horace Sat. 2.5.44. Sec also Curtis, Garum and Salsamenta, pp . 53 54, and note 43. For Punta dc l 'Arenal, sec Gabr ie la Mar t in and M a r i a Dolores Serres, Lafactoria pesquera de Punta de l'Arenal y 0tr0s restos romanos de'jâvea (Alicante). Serie de t rabajos varios, no. 38 (Valencia: Servicio de Investigacion Prehistorica, 1970).

40 For collecting vats for olive oil, sec above pp. 229 3 1 , 3 1 0 . At Rhode (Rosas), on the Méditer-anean coast of Hispania Tarraconensis , in a building devoted to fish processing one room contained five roughly square vats coated on the interior with opus signinum and arranged on two sides about a central space. T h e floors of the vats were higher than that of the room itself and sloped slightly in the direction of the center of the room. At the bot tom of at least three of them (and possibly a fourth) a conduit extended through the front wall that faced the interior of the room. This conduit was capable of being plugged and, when opened, emptied the contents of the vat into a small round catch-basin cut into the floor of the central space. T h e vats themselves lacked both the quarter-round in the angles and the depression in the floor. See J . M. Nolla and F . J . Nicto, " U n a factoria de salaô de peix a Roses." FonamenLs 3 (1981): 187 200 ;J . M. Nolla-Brufau, "Excavaciones recientes en la ciudadela dc Roses. El edificio Bajo-imperial," in Papers in Iberian Archaeology. T . F. C. Blagg, R. F . J . Jones , and S . J . Kay, eds. BAR International Series, 193 (ii) (Oxford: BAR, 1984), pp. 430-59 .

41 O n the close association between fish salting installations and sources of salt, see Robert El i-enne, "A propos du 'ga rum soc io runr , " Latomus 29 (1970): 297-313 , Ponsich, Aceite de olivay sala-zones de pescado, pp. 4 4 - 4 8 ; and Lowe, " T r a d e and Product ion of G a r u m , " pp. 292-321 .

CHAPTER THREE 4 1 4

layer of salt, then a layer of fish meat , ano ther layer of salt, and so on until the top had been reached. He then spread on a final layer of salt and placed on top of that some heavy weights.42 W h e n properly ripened over a period of days or weeks, they removed the salt-fish from the vat and, along with the salty solution (;muna) that had formed, placed them into amphorae for storage or transport.4 3

After each batch, the worker cleaned the vat of any liquid and fish material remaining.

Fish material designated for fish sauce needed a sufficient amoun t of salt to achieve a proper fish-to-salt ratio in accordance with the type of sauce being made. Additives, such as wine, herbs, and spices, could be included to create various products.4 4 T h e worker occasionally stirred the material while it ripened in the sun for perhaps three months. H e had the option of speeding up the process by constructing the basins in a room capable of being heated, or else by transfering the material f rom fixed basins into portable containers of some sort that could be heated over a fire on a hearth.4 5 W h e n ripened the worker removed the fish sauce f rom the basin with a strainer, which allowed the clear sauce (garum) to stream into an a m p h o r a while catching any undissolved fish material (allée).46 This residue could then be leached with hot water to produce a second quality sauce (liquamen) that would likewise be placed into amphorae sep-arate from the garum.

Physical appearance Archaeological evidence f rom which to conclude anything about the appear-of ancient fish ance of R o m a n salt-fish products is meager, being basically restricted to finds of

preserves fish bones or, more rarely, a caramel-colored residue in salting vats, amphorae ,

42 Roof tiles have been found in salting vats in the Bay of Douarnenez in Gaul and in the Black Sea installations at Tyri take. See Curtis , Garum and Salsamenta, pp . 75 (Douarnenez), 122 (Tyri-take).

43 O n the close association between salting installations and a m p h o r a kilns, see Lowe, " T r a d e and Product ion of G a r u m , י pp. 159-94; Ponsich, Aceite de olivay salazones de pescado, pp י . 55 -77 ; Curtis, Garum and Salsamenta, pp. 40 44.

44 T h e r e was always danger of botulism poisoning unless the fish-to-salt ratio reached at least 10:1 and preferably 5:1 or less. It is interesting to note that the Bithynian fish sauce made accord-ing to the directions given by the au tho r of the Geoponica (20.46.3) had a fish-to-salt ratio of 8:1.

45 Ponsich has suggested that a typical type of pot found at many salteries in Nor th Africa may have been used for heat ing fish sauce. Additionally, several salteries were built into buildings that had once been baths. These structures, therefore, may have still possessed operable furnaces capable of heat ing rooms into which vessels filled with fish sauce could be placed. See Ponsich, Aceite de olivay salazones de pescado, pp. 5 5 - 7 7 , esp. Figs. 21 and 27; Curtis, Garum and Salsamenta, pp. 67 -69 .

46 A first-century A. D. one-handled vessel (urceus) f rom Pompeii bore a hand-pain ted inscrip-tion (titulus pictus) that indicated that the conta iner had once held liquamen that had been strained. See CIL IV.7110: liquamen/ optimum/ saccatum. Cf. also Apicius De re coq. 7.6.14: allée collatus. A strainer may have been found at Myrmek ion inside a pithos used to process fish sauce. See Curtis, Garum and Salsamenta, p. 123.

4 1 5 ROME II

and other containers. Generally speaking, they no doubt resembled the pieces of salsamentum adher ing to amphora fragments found in fourth-century B. C. Corinth (PI. 25) and products produced today in salteries in the Black Sea and in southeast Asia. Literary descriptions and deductions f rom our knowledge of the production process itself, however, can provide a good basis for picturing their physical qualities. Those salted with scales were probably coarse looking and rougher to the touch than those salted without scales. Fish heavily salted for an extended period of time were probably dry with a hard consistency, and appeared rather tight and stretched. Those only lightly processed yielded a soft and moist product . Pliny says that melandrya were shaped like oak-wood, and his contemporary Xenocrates asserts that they had the form of darkened roots.47

Garum, liquamen, and muria, being liquids, have left few traces beyond a dark carmelized residue found in a salting vat at Plomarc 'h in western Gaul, while finds of dried fish bones at Pompeii and in Britain probably identify allec, the residue of garum. T h e liquid sauces no doubt resembled the modern fish sauces. T h e color of southeast-Asian sauces, for instance, varies from the clear, straw yellow to amber of Philippine patis to the brown color of Vietnamese nuoc-mam and the Tha i nam-pla.48

Salt-fish was a common item in the gustatio of a R o m a n meal, and might serve Uses of /)reserved fish

as part of a casserole or stew. T h e basic taste of salsamentum was salt, which products

sometimes required that before use it had to be soaked in water to reduce its sharpness. Fish sauce, on the other hand, being a strong saline liquid, was used primarily to flavor other foods, in this capacity substituting for salt. Indeed, Pliny says that the taste of salt was the desirable result in eating garum. Its use as a condiment can be easily documented in both Greek and Latin literature into late antiquity. Apicius, the noted chef of the mid-first century B. C., in his De re coquinaria, as extant in its late fourth or early fifth-century A. I), form, for exam-pie, records thirty-one recipes that use salt, but nearly 350 that contain a fish sauce. Ancient authors readily acknowledge that fish sauce aided digestion and promoted the appetite, but ironically almost uniformly deride its salty taste and odor by alluding to its production process. So, for example, Pliny describes ga rum as "that secrction of putrefying mat ter ," while Seneca, in alluding to the

47 Pliny HJ\9.48 ־ ; Xcnocra tes ap. Oribasius 2.58.146. Melandrya was a kind of salted fish also callcd elacatena. See Paulus, in his commen ta ry on Festus De verboruin significatu, p. 671,. Salted stur-geon, called balyk, p roduced at the mou th of the Don and Volga Rivers and at Kerch in the early n ineteenth century had a similar appearance . See (?) Köhler , "Τάριχος, ou recherches sur Fhis-toire et les antiquités des pêcheries de la Russie méridionale ," in Mémoires de VAcademie Impériale de Sciences de St. Petersburg. 6lh sér., tome 1, 1832 [extract], p. 32.

48 Curtis , Garum and Salsamenta, p. 10, and esp. p. 21 and note 62. T h e colors result perhaps f rom the interaction of amines with carbonyl compounds .

CHAPTER THREE 4 1 6

esteemed product of Spain, garum sociorum, asks " D o you not realize that garum sociorum, that expensive bloody mass of decayed fish, consumes the stomach with its salted putrefact ion?" Apicius' suggestion on how to improve garum "if it should have a bad odor ," shows that it could have a strong smell, but there is not reason to think that it was any worse than that of limberger cheese.49 T h e taste and odor of R o m a n salt-fish products no doubt also resembled their mod-ern counterparts . T h e taste of the fish sauces, for example, is ra ther distinctive, unlike fish altogether. It can best be described as ranging from the salty, almost cheese-like flavor of patis, to the salty, strong cheese-like taste of nuoc-mam, to the "meaty" odor and flavor of nam-pla. Recent studies have attr ibuted the taste of fish sauces to umami , a taste distinct f rom the four basic tastes of sweet, salty, sour, and bitter and impar ted by two substances, the amino acid monosodium L-glutamate (MSG) and 5'־ribonucleotides, such as disodium 5'-inosinate (IMP) and disodium 5'-guanylate (GMP). U m a m i can also be found naturally in differ-ent meats, cheese, and certain vegetables, such as tomatoes and asparagus. T h e odor of fish sauce, particularly of lesser quality types, can be quite strong. T h e best ones, however, actually exude an appetite-stimulating aroma.5 0

Salt preservation permit ted fish to be stored for considerable periods of time and so allowed for long-distance transportat ion. For this reason and because of the populari ty of these items as food and medicine, a large and active trade in processed fish arose in certain areas. T h e degree of archaeological exploration has shown that this industry concentrated in specific areas where fish and salt were plentiful, such as in the Black Sea, Spain, North Africa, and northwest Gaul; future excavations may reveal other areas as well. Salt-fish amphorae traveled in amphorae , frequently of uniform and identifiable shapes. Plotting finds of these containers can identify important trade routes and so reveal much about R o m a n long distance trade. So, for example, Spanish products, the best studied type, particularly those dated between the first and third centuries Α. I)., traveled by ship to southern Gaul where they were off-loaded onto river craft and conveyed up the Rhone River to northern Gaul, Germany , and across the

Taste and odor of

salt-fish products

Commerce in

preserved fish

products

49 Pliny HN31.87, 90; Apicius De re coq. 1.7. For soaking sall-iish, see Plautus Poen. 240 44. For salt-fish and fish sauce as a food and condiment , see André , L'Alimentation, pp . 109-13. For the smell a n d taste of garum, see Robert I. Curtis , "In Defense of G a r u m , " CJ 78, no. 3 (Feb-Mar. 1983): 2 3 2 - 4 0 .

Curtis °י , Carum and Salsamenta, p. 21, and esp. note 62. For umami , sec Yojiro K a w a m u r a and Morely R. Kare , eds., Umami: A Basic Taste (New York: Marce l Dekker, Inc., 1987), and Food Review International. Special Issue on U m a m i . 14, nos. 2 & 3 (1998). Amines, such as pyridine, putrescine, and cadavar ine , account for the full range o f f i s h odors. If concentra t ions of amines arc high in compar ison to those of amino acids, the odor can be quite s trong indicating a spoiled product .

4 1 7 ROME II

channel to Britain. O t h e r ships carried Spanish products to Italy and points east, including the Near East. Consumers included all Romans with a taste for fish, particularly soldiers stationed in forts and along the limes of nor thern Europe and Britain, and non-Romans who for many reasons enjoyed the R o m a n diet. Salt-fish and fish sauce continue to be produced today in only a few places for-merly under R o m a n influence, such as ])arts of France, Greece, Egypt, and the Black Sea. These products, however, form a significant part of the diet of several countries in southeast Asia, who produce them in almost exactly the same way as did the R o m a n s two thousand years ago.51

E. Sweeteners

Pliny briefly mentions that cane sugar (.saccharon) f rom Arabia and, especially, Sugar

India was a "honey collected in canes, white in the m a n n e r of gum, brittle to the teeth." He goes on to say that its only use was medicinal. T h e au thor of the first-century A. D. "Periplus of the Erythrean Sea" indicates that sugar made its way f rom India to the cast African coast. How much of it continued on f rom there to Rome by way of Alexandria is questionable, though Pliny's knowledge of it implies that some did. It seems, then, that R o m a n knowledge of sugar was only in its infancy by the first century A. D.52 T h e pr imary R o m a n sweetener, there-fore, remained the same as that for the Greeks, honey.

Honey had a myriad of uses in the R o m a n world. It served as a sweetener in Honey

drinks, such as wine, and in numerous sweet cakes and confections, as a condi-ment , as a preservative of fruits, vegetables, and meats, as an ingredient in per-fume and cosmetics, and as a base for medicines. It also found value in various

51 For R o m a n t rade in preserved fish products , sec Curtis, 6'arum and Salsamenta, pp. 46 175; Rober t I. Curtis, "Spanish T r a d e in Salted Fish Products in the lsl and 2ml Centuries A. I).," IJNA 17, no. 3 (1988): 205 10; and more recently, Lowe, " T r a d e and Production of G a r u m , " pp. 131-258; Evan W. Haley, " T h e Fish Sauce T r a d e r L. Iunius Puteolanus," Z.PE 80 (1990): 72 78; H a n n a h Cot ton, O m r i Lernau, and Yuval Goren , "Fish Sauces f rom Herodian Masada , " J RA 9 (1996): 223-38; Hans-Joachim Drexhage, " G a r u m und G a r u m h a n d e l im römischen und spätan-tiken Ägypten," M B A H 12 (1993): 27 55; Jacquel ine Studer " R o m a n Fish Sauce in Petra, J o r -dan , " in Fish Exploitation in the Past. Preceedings of the 7,h Meet ing of the ICAZ Fish Remains Working Group . W . Van Neer , ed. Annales du Musce Royal de l 'Afrique Centrale , Sciences Zoologiques no. 274 (Tervuren, 1994), pp. 191 96.

52 Periplus Maris Erythraei 14. See also Lionel Casson, The Periplus Maris Erythraei (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989), csp. 133 ,59 58 ,13-21 .נןנץ. Pliny / / jV 12.32: Saccharon et Arabia

fert, sed lauclatius India. Est autem mel in harundinibus collectum, cummium modo candidum, dentibus fragile, amplissimum nucis abellanae magnitudine, ad medicinae tantum usum. See also Dioscorides 2.104; St rabo 15.1.20 (C694). Later writers, also doctors, such as Galen, note the importat ion of sugar f rom India and Arabia Felix. Forbes, Studies, 5: 100-02.

CHAPTER THREE 4 1 8

religious observances. As part of the villa economy, for those who had large api-aries, honey was a lucrative commodity.5 3 T h e agricultural writers discuss in detail the care and feeding of bees and how to construct hives, identifying as many as nine different types, including those made from tree trunks, cork bark, wooden boards, woven wicker, terra-cotta, brick, fennel, and even dung, and, perhaps, mica, a transparent stone. Unfortunately, no hives dating to the Roman period have survived, except a few isolated examples in northern Europe outside the boundaries of the empire. These tend to be upright rather than horizontal and were made of tree logs or wicker.54

Processing honey Only Columella (RR 9.15.12-13) among Roman agricultural writers discusses in any detail how to process honey. After discussing the best way to harvest the combs from the hives, he admonishes that the honey should be processed imme-diately while it is still warm. He advises taking a wicker basket or a loosely con-structed sack, similar, he says, to that used to strain wine, shaped like an invert-ed cone. Hang this up in a dark enclosure and, after removing dirt and young bees, place the honeycombs in it. The honey by gravity flow strains through the basket or sack and falls of its own accord into a container placed beneath it. When all the honey has drained out, it is transferred to a terra-cotta vessel (vasa

fictilia) where it remains open to the air for a few days. During this time it fer-ments and requires occasional skimming with a ladle. Fermentation arises from the fact that the honey absorbs water from the air, creating an optimum envi-ronment for the growth of yeasts. These convert the sugar into alcohol and car-bon dioxide.55 T h e ladle is necessary to skim off crystals which also form when honey is exposed to air. This part of Columella's directions is studiously avoided today, when the honey is kept away from air. T h e honey that oozes from the honeycombs naturally was considered first quality. The honeycombs remaining in the basket are then removed and pressed to extract the second quality honey.

53 O n uses of honey, see Claire Balandier, "Production et usages du miel dans l 'antiquité gré-co-romaine," in Des Hommes et des plantes. Plantes méditenanéennes vocabulaire et usages anciens. M.-Cl. Amouret t i and G. Cornet, eds. (Aix-en-Provence: Université de Provence, 1993), pp. 93-125 . O n apiaries as a source of income, cf. Var ro RR 3.16.10-1 1.

54 Crane , "Bee Hives of the Ancient World, 1," pp. 3439־; Crane and G r a h a m , "Bee Hives of the Ancient World. 2," pp. 153-54. T h e knowledge of the agricultural writers on the relationship between bees and honey was vague at best. Pliny (HN 11.30-31), for example, says that bees col-lected in their stomachs honey that had fallen from the air and settled on leaves and flowers. T h e y then regurgitate this liquid into the cells of the hive. Cf. also Vergil G. 4.1, who calls honey a heavenly gift f rom the air. For a discussion of the chemical processes involved in creating honey from nectar, see McGee , On Food and Cooking, pp. 372-77 . O n bees and hives, see esp. Pliny HN 21.70-82; Var ro RR 3.16.

55 McGee , On Food and Cooking, pp. 378-80. O n harvesting hives, see esp. Var ro R R 3.16.32-34; Columella / ^ 9 . 1 5 . 4 - 1 1 .

4 1 9 ROME II

Unfortunately, Columella does not describe how they were pressed. T h e combs and the pots which held the honey could then be washed with water, which was then boiled down to create a type of vinegar.56

F. Refrigeration

Of the little we know about ancient refrigeration, most of the information comes Ice from R o m a n sources. T o cool wine Romans , like the Greeks, placed snow directly into the wine or else cooled water with snow and added that to the wine. Apparently, Falernian and Sedan wines were so sharp that R o m a n s often added cold snow or water to dilute or cool them. T h e difficulty of obtaining and storing snow and ice made it a luxury. Seneca indicates that snow, presumably after having been brought by pack-animals from a mounta in or stored after a rare snowfall in the vicinity of Rome, was compactly pressed into some sort of con-tainer so that it would last throughout the summer . He complains that the snow was sometimes discolored and had a bad taste because in transit in carts the snow was covered with straw. He does not say how it was stored once it reached its destination other than that it was deposited in a cold place (loci frigore). Xenophon says that Alexander the Great preserved snow by placing it in deep pits and covering it with oak branches. Whe the r the Romans followed the same technique is unknown. According to Seneca they had shops reserved specifically for storing snow (reponendae nivis officinas). Ice also found a use similar to that of snow among Romans . They apparently did not cut it f rom frozen ponds. Instead they dug down into compacted snow to the level at which the weight of the snow on top had pressed so hard that the snow solidified. This layer had been fur ther hardened by water from melting snow in the upper layers trickling down toward the bottom where it refroze. T h e r e is no evidence that snow or ice was used for any purpose other than for eating or for cooling liquids before drinking.57

56 F o r the suggestion that a lever-and-weight press of the type used in olive processing was used, a conjecture based on a similar use in the pre-industrial period, see Brun, "La discrimina-tion," pp. 513 -14 . See Pliny HN21.82 for vinegar f rom honey.

57 Mart ia l 5.62.4, 9.2.5, 9.22.8; 14.103.1; H o r a c e Cam. 2.11.19; Seneca Ep. 78.23; QNat. 4.13 .1-9 ; Pliny HN 19.55; Athenaeus 3.124c (Alexander the Great) . See also Geer , " O n the Use of Ice and Snow," p. 62; Forbes, Studies, 6: 103, 108-14.

S U M M A R Y A N D C O N C L U S I O N S T O P A R T T H R E E

During the Graeco -Roman period food items requiring processing fell into a few specific but very important categories. Plant foods included the Medi te r ranean triad of cereals, grapes, and olives. Particular animals, such as cattle and fish, were butchered for their meat , which was preserved in various ways, while oth-ers were raised for their by-products, especially milk that was processed into but-ter and cheese. Increased production, storage, availability, and long-distance transportat ion of processed foods became impor tant concerns for governments and offered economic opportunities for numerous private individuals. Processed foods provided many of the needed proteins, vitamins, and other dietary supple-ments necessary for a healthful diet, at least for those to w h o m they were readily available.1

Food technology dur ing this period experienced significant advances in some areas, but near stagnation in others. In the former category are most prominent -ly the milling of cereals and the pressing of grapes and olives. So, for example, the first mechanical application to be applied to grinding grain was the invcn-tion in Greece of the hopper mill, which permit ted the automatic feeding of grain between the millstones. T h e hopper , in one form or another , character-ized all subsequent grain mills. T h e most impor tan t development dur ing this period, however, was the application of rotary motion to food technology. O n c e established, it led directly to the harnessing of animal and water power to mill grain. Knowledge of this principle brought new inventions, such as the rotary hand mill, animal-driven mill, and, perhaps most impressive, the water mill. This last invention marked the first use of a motive power that, theoretically at least, could function continuously to process food. Additionally, knowledge of rotary motion led to the invention of two additional tools of food processing, the mechanical kneading machine and the trapetum to crush olives before pressing.

Impor tan t advancements in pressing technology appeared dur ing the Graeco-Roman period as well. T h e lever-and-weight press, in common use in the Near East by the tenth century B. C., was in Greece by the sixth century B. C. at lat-est. T h e Hellenistic period saw the development of a press, perhaps in use in the Greek East by the third century B. C,. that capitalized on the earlier knowledge of the pulley and rotary motion. This new innovation added a winch, or d rum,

Advances in food

technology during Ihe

Graeco-Roman

period

1 Peter Garnsey, Food and S o c i e t y , 2 Curtis ; קנן. 12 1 , Garum and Salsamenta,26—24 .קנן.

4 2 1 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS TO PARI' THREE

to the lever-and-weight press to assist in lifting the weights. Next, in an innova-tion of the second century B. C., but this time in the western Mediterranean, the drum became the sole method of pulling the beam down to press the basket of grapes or olives. And finally camc the application of the principle of the screw to press technology, perhaps arising in the Greek East by the mid-first century B. C. A screw was first added to the lever-and-drum press to apply additional près-sure on the olives. The following century brought the direct screw press, which utilized only a screw to press down on the baskets. This apparatus was only just catching on by late antiquity. These improvements in pressing permitted greater efficiency in processing grapes and olives than was possible by treading with the feet, crushing with a stone roller, or twisting in a cloth bag. 111 addition to increased ease of use, which both mills and presses gave to processing cereals, grapes, and olives, came also heightened efficiency. And along with this came significant growth in production potential. Developments in milling and pressing affected ancient social and economic life in two important areas.

The first area where change is detectable is organization of labor. The cellular Organization of

approach to organizing for production, earlier practiced in Pharaonic Egypt and labor

Mesopotamia and still to be seen in Bronze Age Aegean palaces, responded to the need for increased output merely by increasing the number of people using the same technology, though perhaps centralizing their work in a single location. Certain areas of the Graeco-Roman world responded to this need by developing more efficient, larger, labor saving machines requiring fewer people to operate per unit of output, while achieving greater results. Examples include the devel-opment in Greece of two labor saving devices, the hopper mill and mechanical olive crusher, the efficient and easy to operate rotary hand mill in Spain, the convenience of substitution of animal for human power in Sicily and Italy, and the harnessing of water to increase significantly the output of grain mills in Italy, Gaul, and North Africa. These developments did not, of course, occur every-where nor did they all spread uniformly throughout the Mediterranean area. Several factors can be adduced for this.

The first factor influencing the adoption of technological innovations in food Technology transfer

technology was the nature of technology transfer, which could be rapid, slow, or intermittent Some innovations spread quickly, such as the principle of rotary motion, which may have arisen simultaneously in at least two different places, Greece and Spain. Use of rotary hand mills by soldiers greatly assisted the spread of this technology in the western Roman Empire. Beginning in Spain in the fifth century B. C., it could be found in most areas of northern Europe by the third century B. C., and in Italy by the following century. Its spread to Greece took considerably longer, not reaching there before the first century B. C. at the earliest. O n the other hand, although the olive crusher, or trapetum,

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS TO FART TIIRF.E 4 2 2

spread fairly rapidly, though in a slightly altered form, from Greece to the west, the hopper mill did not. It apparently got to Sicily by the fourth century B. C., but no farther. T h e simple lever-and-drum press was popular in the western Mediterranean by the second century B. C., but was apparently unknown in Greece before the following century. This was so even though the Greeks were using the lever-and-weight press by the sixth century B. C., and areas of the Near East had added a winch to it by the third century B. C. T h e water mill, on the other hand, perhaps invented in the Greek East in the first century B. C., spread quickly to the west where it was in practical use by the first century A. D. and in fairly widespread use by the late third and fourth centuries. T h e screw, perhaps also invented in Greece, however, spread slowly. It was known in Italy by the first century A. 1)., but was used primarily as an addition to the lever-and-drum press. T h e direct screw press, for pressing grapes or clothes, apparent-ly was still not in widespread use before the Byzantine period. T h e wedge press never caught on generally, its use remaining restricted to the perfume industry. T h e reasons for inconsistent transfer arc difficult to ascertain, but among them should be included restrictions to the growth of a particular plant, such as olives, which do not fare well much beyond northern Italy and Spain. The pace at which technical knowledge did spread during this period has been attributed to the degree to which the agricultural manuals of Cato, Varro, and Columella, and the encyclopedia of Pliny the Elder, were known, and the persistence of long-distance contacts by way of the movements of government personnel, sol-diers, skilled workers, and merchants and their products.2

Local variation in Closely associated with the problem of technology transfer is the existence of technology local variation in apparatus, particularly between the eastern and western parts

of the Mediterranean but also between regions of the same area and sometimes, such as in Israel, between parts of the same region. O n e element influencing the appearance of variation was the degree to which knowledge of a particular prin-ciplc or apparatus spread. In instances where technology transfer was rapid and uninterrupted, a particular area might show examples of each stage in the devel-opmcnt of a specific machine, for instance, in the evolution of the olive press. Another area, where transfer was slow or intermittent, on the other hand, might omit one or more stages. The third-century B. C. rotary Delian mill provides a unique example of an innovation that, for the most part, remained local. The millstones were constructed in standardized segments that allowed them to be fairly easily erected and disassembled. If it were used to grind grain using rotary

2 Kevin Greene , " H o w was Technology Trans fe r red in the Western Provinces," in Current Research on the Romanization of the Western Provinces. Mark W o o d and Francisco Quci roga , eds. (Oxford: T e m p u s R e p a r a t u m , 1992), pp. 101-05.


Conservative

technology

Commercial

development in food

technology

motion, for unknown reasons it did not catch on in the eastern Medi terranean. Greece had to wait almost two centuries for the spread of rotary hand mills f rom the West. Additionally, variation could derive from contrasting responses of two distinct areas to the same needs, based upon differences of climate, natural resources, or perhaps personal preference. So, for example, the trapetum with flat grinding surface, typical in the Near East, more often showed a concave grind-ing surface in the western Medi terranean. In wine making, fermentat ion tended to be carried out in vats in North Africa, Egypt, the Black Sea, and the Near East, but in dolia in nor thern Medi ter ranean areas.

T h e third factor explaining inconsistency in technology usage is the natural conservatism that prevailed in the area of technology. Earlier, simpler methods of food processing, for instance, grinding on a quern, continued in use alongside new, more efficient apparatus. For example, the Price Edict of Diocletian (15.52-55), promulgated in A. D. 301, lists together hand mills, animal mills, and water mills, indicating the contemporaneous use of all of them. T h e reasons for this persistence are two. First, some grains, such as emmer wheat and barley, required roasting and pounding before grinding. It seems that in antiquity no better tool was found than the mor tar and pestle to process glume cereals and hulled barley, which required extra effort to separate the grain from the spikclets. This milling problem also accounts for the rapid replacement of these cereals by the naked wheats in the Graeco-Roman diet. Since these grains require only threshing to separate the kernels f rom the spikclets, they are ready for milling immediately after threshing and winnowing. And second, most new inventions and innovations were directed toward commercial production. They tended to be larger and more expensive than earlier apparatus. T h e small farmer, like the peasant in the Ps-Vergilian Moretum, for example, simply could not afford to possess a donkey mill, but he could perhaps afford a saddle quern or rotary hand quern.

This brings up the second major area of change attributable to the Graeco-Roman period, a substantial increase in commercial development of food tech-nology. Certain apparatus, such as the lever-and-drum press and particularly the water mill, constituted a significant capital investment that must have pre-supposed a reasonable expectation of a profit f rom the sale of surplus produce. This was, of course, dictated primarily by the resources available and so benefit-ed only certain areas, for instance, production and trade in olive oil by Spain and North Africa, and the operation of water mills at Barbegal in southern Gaul and Chcmtou in North Africa. Particularly wealthy landowners and some states in these regions benefited greatly from advances in food technology. Certain other individuals benefited as well. So, for example, it may not be entirely coin-cidcntal that professional bakers arose in R o m e at the about same time (ca. sec-


ond century B. C.) as the appearance of large ovens to bake bread in quantity and the invention of the donkey mill. And finally, new technology spawned fresh opportunities for making a living. Certain areas where natural resources permit-ted, for example the islands of Nisyros and Aegina in the eastern Mediterranean and Mulargia on Sardinia in the west, specialized in producing and trading mill-stones. Additionally, increased production of wine, olive oil, and preserved fish in places like Italy, Spain, and North Africa spawned new subsidiary industries, such as the manufacture of amphora to transport processed foods. This provid-ed occupations to many people, to say nothing of those who worked in the pro-duction centers themselves, who transported the products from one place to another, and who sold them in urban shops and markets.3

Areas of technological Invention and innovation did not characterize all aspects of Graeco-Roman stagnation food technology, however. Different tastes and varying requirements rendered

some areas stagnant. So, for example, butchery methods remained almost totally unchanged. Finds of knives and scenes of butchery shops shown in sculpted reliefs show little difference from knives and butchery scenes in Pharaonic tomb paintings or wooden models. Perhaps this can be attributed to some extent to the fact that, although meat, especially pork, was available to those who could afford it, it never reached the status of a staple food. Since the alcoholic drink of prefer-ence for most Mediterranean populations was wine, beer-making technology, so intensely practiced in Egypt and Mesopotamia, was neglected. Although Greeks and Romans knew of beer, both showed a strong distaste for the brew and attrib-uted its production and consumption to barbarians. Despite the fact that Greeks from the fourth century B. C. apparently knew the principle of distillation, nei-ther they nor the Romans applied the technology to produce a distilled alcoholic beverage. Both Greeks and Romans liked cold drinks and knew how to cool wine and water with snow and ice either by placing them directly into the liquid or by using specially constructed vessels to cool them indirectly. Yet neither applied this knowledge to preserving foods, such as meat, by refrigeration. And, finally, honey and reduced grape must remained the only sweeteners, even though the Romans were aware of cane sugar from India and may have imported it to Rome.

:i It is these same factors that provide modern historians with impor tan t evidence for studying ancient economic history. So, for example, archaeologists, using petrological analysis, can deter-mine where artifacts associated with food technology, such as millstones and amphorae , originat-ed, and from that de termine not only places of product ion and consumpt ion but also the routes used for G r a e c o - R o m a n long-distance trade. Finds of similar artifacts, such as t reading or décantat ion vats and donkey mills, can be used to de termine the function of a part icular archaeo-logical site. And , finally, detailed study of changes in form of certain artifacts, such as millstones and amphorae , can be used to establish chronologies that can assist in dat ing other artifacts found in the same context.


By the late R o m a n Empire inhabitants of the ancient world were applying many of the principles of food technology in use today, and had developed numerous tools and machines by which to apply them. T h e period between the sixth century B. C. and fourth century A. D. proved to be a fruitful era in the development of food technology. Although significant advancement did not appear in every area, this single millennium saw more advances in the invention or improvement of machines to apply the principles of food technology than for any other comparable period before. They were little improved upon until the Industrial Revolution.

Mechanical Technology: T h e Graeco -Roman period saw the application of new Mechanical

mechanical principles, rotary motion and the screw, and the invention of or technology

innovations to several food-processing machines arising f rom them. This period brought forth four distinct types of mill to process cereals (hopper mill, rotary hand mill, donkey mill, and water mill), f rom four to six new presses to process grapes and olives (wedge press, lever-and-drum press, lever-and-screw press, and direct screw press, in addition to intermediary versions), and two other machines operat ing on the rotary principle, one for crushing olives and the other for kneading dough. T h r e e additional machines may have existed as well, a mechanical mor ta r and pestle a r rangement and both a kneading machine and mor ta r and pestle a r rangement powered by water. These last three appara tus are not otherwise attested than by one casual and disputed literary reference each.

Storage: Palaces of the Bronze Age Aegean stored wine and oil in large terra-cotta Storage

containers in special rooms. This method cont inued in use well into the Graeco-R o m a n period. Bronze Age palaces often placed grain either in koulouras, large stone-lined circular pits, or in partially above-ground granaries not unlike the dome-shaped silos of Egypt. The i r form can be seen in the contemporary Melos vase, and is probably reflected in the terra-cotta circular granaries f rom Athens dat ing to the Geometr ic II period. The Athenian model granaries are nearly identical to those of the Melos vase. T h e y differ primarily in their a r rangement in a row instead of in a square and in the presence of two holes at their base. These holes may represent some sort of archaic sub-floor ventilation system designed to keep grain cool and dry. This suggestion derives some confirmation f rom the subsoil excavation of contemporary aboveground grain silos at Lefkan-di. T h e grain itself, particularly the hulled grains, such as e m m e r and barley, was stored in partially threshed form, that is in the spikelet, to give added pro-tection to the kernels while in storage. Although the Athenian government of the Classical period took great interest in providing grain for the city's population, it


does not seem to have created a centralized storage as was common in the Near East. This conclusion is based primarily upon an argument from silence, both of literary and archaeological sources, and future excavations may yet yield evi-dence for large granaries. There is some evidence that multi-storied farm build-ings were used to store grain on their upper doors to keep it dry and to provide ventilation.

Advances in food storage dur ing the R o m a n period differed primarily in quantity and scale rather than in principles applied. Most of the steps in granary construction were already known or can be assumed to have been known at least by the Hellenistic period, if not before. For the Roman period alone, how-ever, do we have a substantial body of literary and archaeological evidence. Although other storage methods were used, R o m a n storage facilities were pri-marily situated aboveground, either sitting directly on prepared ground or ele-vated on supports to provide sub-floor ventilation. Which type storage was used, Columella informs us, depended primarily on the climate. Aboveground storage was better suited to the form of grain used most often by Romans . T h e y pre-ferred the free-threshing wheats, such as bread wheat , which releases the kernels from the spikclets when threshed. T h e "clean" grain, therefore, was ready for milling and stored most conveniently in sacks or in bins. Consequently, they strove to provide a cool, dry, dark place. Additionally, to keep out pests they coatcd the packed floors and walls, as well as the grain itself, with the liquid dregs of olive processing (amurca). Military granaries (honed), whether of wood or stone, were an integral part of m a n y R o m a n army forts and tended to conform to the type of granary raised on supports. T h e second major type of R o m a n gra-nary, the large u rban civil horreum, contained grain and other export and import items for short or medium term storage. These granaries also stored government grain collected f rom Sicily, Egypt, and North Africa, for distribution as part of the dole or, f rom the third century A. D. on, for supplying state-run grain mills and bakeries, which processed it into flour to produce bread. Civil granaries, excavated in Rome, Ostia, and Egypt, usually took the form of large buildings having multiple rows of deep narrow rooms, sometimes facing onto a courtyard. It should be noted that, al though discussion has focused on grain, R o m a n gra-naries probably stored other processed foods needing a cool and dry place, as well as non-food items.

Milling Milling. Although some areas remained essentially stagnant, the Medi ter ranean civilizations made significant advances in milling of grain. Additionally, several key inventions and impor tant innovations to existing machines moved milling from the t ime-consuming laborious efforts of individuals to the more efficient, labor-saving mechanical appara tus that permitted large-scale production that


helped to transform ancient society in numerous ways. Little can be said of Bronze Age Aegean grain processing equipment, except that it continued to be based on the mortar and pestle for pounding and saddle querns for grinding. I hese show little change over their Neolithic predecessors, except that they tended to be larger. In the Graeco-Roman period, pounding technology using mortar and pestle, frequently made of wood, remained essentially unchanged from what had been common earlier. The suggestion that pounding technology became mechanized has only the slightest basis in the evidence. The reason for the lack of innovation should be attributed to the continued but substantially reduced reliance on the hulled grains by Graeco-Roman populations. Their taste inclined to the cultivated durum and bread wheats, which were easier to process and yielded flour that looked and tasted better.

In a departure from Near Eastern patterns grain processing among Greeks seems to have been a domestic activity. Though the state controlled the supply of grain to the market, its processing was a duty of each family.4 Nevertheless, important progress is discernible. T h e Greeks, for instance, made some changes in the saddle quern. The upper stone became heavier and more elliptical than was typical of Neolithic querns, and developed pointed ends to assist in grasp-ing. By the fifth century B. C. it had become flatter, and the movement of the rubber in grinding had shifted from rather random circular motions to a back and forth pattern. The grinding surface of both upper and lower stones also received a herringbone grooving, which aided in cutting rather than crushing the kernels. This also helped in moving the meal to the periphery of the grinding surfaces, where it could be easily collected and any large pieces of bran sifted out. This innovation laid the groundwork for the next two significant contribu-tions to food technology.

In places like Athens and Olynthus by the late fifth century B. C. the upper stone, or rubber, had received a hopper, a cavity in the top of the stone. At the bottom of this depression was a slit that allowed the grain to drop continuously through into the space between the upper and lower stones where it could be ground. A further innovation quickly followed this one. A handle was attached to the hopper-rubber and the whole assembly raised onto a Hat surface, such as a table. The miller, by pushing the handle sideways in a back and forth motion, moved the upper stone over the stationary lower stone. Although the action was still reciprocal as before, the handle gave the miller greater leverage, permitting a more finely ground meal processed more quickly and yielding increased out-put. In combination with the hopper, this raised hopper, or "push," mill was less

1 Amourct t i , "Transformat ion des céréales," pp. 137 38.


labor-intensive, easier to use, more efficient, and more productive than the sim-pie saddle quern. T h e hopper mill replaced the saddle quern in commercial establishments, while the latter no doubt continued in use in domestic settings.

R o m a n s apparently knew of the Olynthian hopper mill (mola trusatilis) for pro-cessing cereals, but made little use of it. Perhaps the most important innovation of the Roman period was the application of the principle of rotary motion to cereal processing. T h e use of rotary motion to grind grain on a hand mill appar-ently arose in Spain at about the same time as the Greeks were applying the same principle to crush olives in the trapetum. T h e form of the mill varied some-what according to geography and over time, but the principle was the same. A round upper stone (catillus) with a slightly concave grinding surface fitted over the slightly convex grinding surface of the lower, stationary stone (meta). T h e worker turned the upper stone by means of a vertically seated wooden handle. Later a wooden or metal spindle, affixed in the center of the top surface of the meta, penetrated the upper stone. T h e upright spindle plus the convex shape of the lower stone and concave shape of the upper stone kept the millstones cen-tercd. Over time the millstones became flatter, and a more efficient rynd and spindle a r rangement was developed to keep the two stones centered and slightly separated to aid in grinding. Striations 011 the grinding surfaces of both mill-stones and the centrifugal force of the rotary motion itself discharged the meal to the periphery. Still later, a longer spindle seated onto a horizontal bridge-tree penetrated both millstones f rom below. This allowed the miller to raise or lower the upper stone more efficiently to change the separation of the two stones and so to adjust the fineness of meal produced.

A second type of mill arose in the central Medi ter ranean, perhaps among Sicilian Greeks or Punic inhabitants of Sardinia or Nor th Africa. Known f rom an early fourth-century B. C. shipwreck oil" the coast of Spain, the animal driven grain mill became the pr imary machine for large-scale grain production until the appearance of the water mill. T h e same principle for the hand mill guided the operation of the mill driven by an animal, usually a donkey. A development from the human-powered Morgant ina mill, the Pompeian donkey mill had a reversible catillus to give extra life to the upper stone. T h e advantage to this mill over the hand mill, which probably was more efficient in grinding, was its greater output per unit of time expended. Since it was animal driven, it also freed other workers to do other things. Even with all of these innovations in grinding, except for the development of varying mesh size, sifting of meal to pro-duce flour changed not at all.

The last advancement in milling, the water mill, probably developed in the Greek East in the first century B. C., but is best known from examples discov-ercd in Italy, North Africa, Gaul , and Britain. T h e largest of these so far


revealed operated at Barbegal, near Arelate (modern Aries) as early as the sec-ond century A. D. Wate r f rom an aqueduct powered sixteen grain mills built on the slope of a ridge. T h e method of applying water power to drive the millstones operated on two basic principles, a direct application of force and an indirect one. In the former method a horizontal water wheel had at tached to it a vertical shaft on top of which was placed a spindle that passed through both millstones from below. This spindle was secured into the catillus in such a way that it turned the millstone when water, moving over the wheel, rotated the vertical shaft to which it was at tached. Since the application of force passed directly f rom the wheel to the shaft and so to the spindle at tached to the catillus, the speed of the water determined the speed of the millstone. In the indirect method, used in ver-tical overshot and undershot water wheels, the wheel turned a horizontal shaft on which was affixed a vertical cogwheel. T h e teeth of this cogwheel drove a smaller horizontal cogwheel resting on a bridge-tree. This cogwheel drove a shaft at the top of which was affixed a spindle that penetrated both millstones f rom below and was secured to the catillus. This "geared-up" a r rangement allowed the upper millstone to rotate at a speed faster than the water wheel.

Baking and Fire Technology. For the Aegean Bronze Age, although portable hearths Fire

and braziers were commonly found, fixed ovens were not. Where employed, with few exceptions, they were usually located outside the house. Palace records indicate that there were professional bakers, and finds at K o m m o s of small domed ovens imply that they made leavened bread. Evidence for the classical Greek period is little better. Literary sources provide the names of many types of bread, many of which were apparently also baked in a domed oven. T h e appearance of these ovens can best be seen in some terra-cotta figurines, such as those from Tanagra , and in the few portable examples that have survived f rom antiquity. T h e Greek oven (ίπνός) had a vaulted roof and a full width opening in front. T h e firebox was situated beneath the oven door, and holes in the lloor drew the heat f rom the firebox into the baking chamber .

W e arc much better informed about R o m a n ovens not only f rom archaeologi-cal finds but also f rom art historical representations of the apparatus at work. Excavations at Ostia and Pompeii, in particular, have yielded many examples of bakeries, complete with milling appara tus a n d ovens. T h e R o m a n oven (fumus) came in two forms, the beehive shape, which was similar to Greek ovens, and the beehive oven completely encased in brickwork. The latter type had a small opening for inserting dough into the baking chamber , which had been heated by coals that were then removed. A Hue drew smoke and heat up and out of the roof. O n e sculpted relief, found on a first-century B. C. tomb in Rome, shows the operation of a commercial bakery owned by Eurysaces who, as a baker (pis-


tor) and contractor (redemptor), supplied bread to the state. T o judge from Eurysaces' relief the operation of a bakery differed little f rom that of Pharaonic Egyptians, except in one of degree. T h e Romans ground their grain, sifted the meal, added leaven and water to the flour, kneaded the dough, formed the loaves, and baked the bread in an enclosed oven. T h e r e was, however, one important innovation in this period, the significant increase in size of ovens. Commerc ia l bakeries, utilizing animal driven grain mills, mechanical kneading machines, and large ovens supplied most of the bread to urban populations. For rural areas and for the poorer levels of society for w h o m home baking was a necessity, cooking on hot ashes or under small pans, such as the testu and clibanus, was the norm. Wealthy households might use elaborate forms of these as well as various other utensils, such as the milianum, for warming drinks.3

Although both Greek and R o m a n literary sources mention the necessity to parch certain grains before milling, the process is nowhere described nor can it be documented in the art historical record. Archaeologists have identified the Greek "barley-1Όaster, with a thumb-held shallow dish. T (φρύγετρον) י h e R o m a n beehive oven may have derived from the rural grain drying oven (fornax) and so probably resembled it in form.

Treading Treading: Processing of wine followed what had been done in the Bronze and Iron Ages, that is, t reading in a tank followed by pressing. In Bronze Age Crete t reading of grapes took place in a stone or terra-cotta basin, or λήνος, having a spout near the bot tom. T h e must flowed from the basin into a receptacle placed beneath the spout where it was allowed to ferment into wine. Recent studies have revealed several variations of this treating basin, the most common being the one just described. Classical Greek treading vats known primarily f rom paintings on pottery, differ little f rom those of the Bronze Age. These paintings show individual treaders standing in small t reading tubs. T h e fact that they sometimes stand in sacks placed inside the tub implies a desire to separate the must f rom the marc and so, presumably, to create a white wine. This type of evidence and literary references to various colors of wine indicate that the Greeks recognized the effect of the grape skins on the juice, even if they did not understand the chemistry that led to a distinction between red and white wines.

3 For Greek cooking appara tus , including ovens, see Sparkes, "Greek Ki tchen, י ;pp. 121-37 יfor Italic cooking stands dat ing between 1400 and 400 B. C., see Char lo t te Scheffer, Acquarossa. 2 Vols. (Stockholm: Svenska Institutet i R o m a , 1981). For a brief review of the various types of cooking utensils found in first-century A. 1). Pompeii , see M a r i a Annecchino, "Suppellettile futile da cucina di Pompei , " in L'instrumentum domesticum di Ercolano e Pompei nella prima eta imperiale (Rome: " L ' E r m a " di Bretschneider, 1977), pp . 105-20.


The demand for wine not only in areas where the wine was produced but also in those places lacking the ability to produce it themselves or desiring a foreign product led to large-scale production of Greek wine. Numerous finds of wine transport amphorae in many places in the Medi te r ranean imply that wine was big business in Classical and Hellenistic Greece. Little evidence, however, can be found for large wineries in Greece, though some material remains have come to light on Delos and Crete. Excavations of fifth and fourth century B. C. wine producing installations in the Black Sea, however, show that large-scale wineries possessed a treading platform, which could accommodate several treaders at a time, and a collection tank. Wine was being produced in Spain as early as the sixth century B. C., no doubt through Phoenician influence. T h e Romans prob-ably learned of it f rom Greeks in Italy not long afterward. T o judge f rom com-ments by the agricultural writers and archaeological and art historical evidence, t reading during the R o m a n period differed little f rom that of the Greeks. Fer-mentat ion of must into wine took place most often in dolia in nor thern areas of the Medi ter ranean; vats served most often in southern and eastern regions. T he R o m a n s also drank the non-alcoholic mustum, or they could reduce it by one-half to produce defrutum or by one-third to create sapa. T h e sweetness of both prod-ucts made them suitable substitutes for honey.

Crushing: T h e need to make olive processing easier and more product ive Crushing

brought the applicat ion of a new principle to food processing, rotary mot ion. Al though some controversy remains, it appears that the Greeks first applied the principle to food technology by developing the mechanical olive crusher , certainly by the fourth century B. C. and probably a little earlier. Little is known of the Greek version, but it no doubt resembled in most part iculars that of the later R o m a n crusher , or trapetum. Its Hellenistic Nea r Eastern form can best be seen at oileries in Israel, such as at Maresha , where combined with developing pressing technologies, oil p roduct ion , like wine making, was becoming a large-scale enterprise. T h e R o m a n s m a d e no substantial changes to the Greek crusher , though the orbes of the R o m a n appara tus tended to be a bit smaller in d iameter and to be lens-shaped on the side facing out. It is sig-nificant that crushing technology remained essentially unchanged af ter the fourth century B. C., even while great strides were being made in pressing technology.

Pressing. T h e principle of pressing grapes and olives to extract the juice was the Pressing

same as that practiced in the Hellenistic period. T h e mechanics of how this was accomplished, however, underwent significant innovation. Change in pressing technology centered principally a round methods of lowering the beam to press


the baskets of grapes or olives. T h e lever-and-weight press was known in Greece by the sixth century B. C., as a representation of one appears on an Attic black figure skyphos of that date, and Hellenistic remains of this type press have been found at Olynthus in nor thern Greece and at Praesos on Crete. At Maresha in Israel this type press underwent some innovation when a winch was incorporât-ed to allow for larger press weights to add more force to the basket of olive pulp under the beam. Although there is no physical evidence for the winch, its use seems likely in order to lift the huge beam weights that were found there. The description of just such an appara tus in a treatise on mechanics by Hero of Alexandria strengthens this supposition. T h o u g h writing in the first century A. D., he apparent ly wrote in terms that imply that this type press was a much old-er invention.

By the time technology for the lever-and-weight press reached Italy and the west it had been " improved" ; a winch or d rum replaced the weights. T h e winch, when rotated with handspikes, drew down the beam by means of an at tached rope. T h e simple lever-and-drum press apparent ly developed in the west by the second century B. C. and spread back to Greece, where it was fur-ther improved in the following century by the addit ion of a screw. The direct screw press, which arose in the east dur ing the first century A. D., discarded the long beam altogether and opera ted within a wooden f rame to press directly down on the frail. Archaeological evidence for it dates mainly to the Byzantine period. Screw technology was the last significant advance in ancient pressing technology.

Butchery Butchery) In the area of animal processing little progress can be seen in butchery. Meat , particularly pork, was a popular item among those who could afford it. For most u rban dwellers it was probably a scarce item on the table unless one was lucky enough to be present for a meat distribution. Where the butchery activity took place is difficult to pinpoint , but it probably occurred in a butcher shop (laniena) near or outside the city gates. Several sculpted reliefs incorporate scenes f rom a butcher shop displaying large knives and cleavers suitable for cut-ting through bone and smaller, sharper knives for slicing flesh. Butchery tools show little or no change from earlier periods.

Preservation Preservation: Preservation of fish became big business by the Classical period, especially in the Black Sea area. Salt-fish and fish sauce were popular items a m o n g Greeks, to judge from their f requent ment ion in literature, and an ele-men t in the economy of many cities. Archaeological evidence for Greek fish pro-cessing, however, is almost non-existent. T h e finds of amphorae of preserved fish in a fifth-century B. C. home in Corinth is all, and this was the house of a

J


merchant , not a producer . The only Classical and Hellenistic fish processing installation that has come to light is in Punic Spain, near Gades (modern Cadiz). Indeed, it seems more likely that the spread of fish salting into the western Medi te r ranean was by way of Phoenician and Punic colonists, but even here archaeological evidence is slender. Certain areas of the western Medi te r ranean in the R o m a n period were large-scale producers and exporters of preserved fish.

Fish preservation showed the greatest improvement over earlier cultures, at least the evidence for it, both literary and archaeological, is far better in quality and quantity. T h e Romans probably learned the technology needed to process fish f rom Phoenician and Punic colonists of Spain or f rom Greek colonists of M a g n a Graecia, in southern Italy. T h e facilities probably derived from early Punic or Greek facilities. This must remain only conjecture at this point because outside of a few Punic sites of the fifth century B. G., only R o m a n sites dat ing at the earliest to the first century B. C. are presently known. O n e can assume that the R o m a n contribution to fish salting most likely was limited to increasing the scale of operations to produce large amounts available for export.

Fish meat could be dried, smoked, or salted; some fish and the innards of large ones went into making fish sauces. Both products, produced where the nat-ural resources of f i sh , salt, and water were readily available, found a ready place in the R o m a n diet to which they supplied impor tant levels of protein and some B-vitamins. Areas particularly associated with preserved fish include Spain, Nor th Africa, and the Black Sea. T h e y were apparently produced

111 such large quantities and formed such a significant part of long-distance trade that in most areas those who had a desire for fish had access to it. A study of fish sauce in Pompeii, for example, concluded that, a l though some varieties could be expen-sive, generally speaking most Romans of all social classes could afford preserved fish products. Salt fish could be part of the R o m a n meal, especially the gustatio. Fish sauce was apparently the R o m a n equivalent of table salt, much as it is today in many parts of Southeast Asia, where the modern counterparts , such as nuoc-mam of Vie tnam and nam-pla of Tha i land , are produced and consumed in almost the exact same way as did the Greeks and Romans .

Among daiiy products cheese was by far the most popular with Greeks and Romans . T h e description of cheese product ion described by the agricultural writers indicate little change over prior methods. T h e use of rennet to curdle the milk and molds to express the whey from the curds show no real advancement over earlier periods. T h e R o m a n s made both soft and hard cheeses and varied its taste with numerous additives. These inventions and innovations may not constitute an industrial revolution, but the technology necessary to create machines operated first by h u m a n power,


then by animal, and finally by water power to achieve greater output, more cfii-ciently, with fewer workers cannot be called stagnant.6 And, finally, we should not overlook the benefit to most Greeks and Romans of the expanding availabil-ity and variety of foods made possible by the application of technology to their processing, storage, and transportation over long distances. Not only did it add to the quantity of foods available in their diet, it also increased the quality. And finally, particularly in the case of alcoholic beverages, ancient food technology increased their enjoyment of life.

6 T h e question of the role of technology in general in the ancient world has been the subject of scholarly debate for m a n y years. Interestingly, food technology has not played a ma jo r role in the discussions. Th is will, I hope, no longer be the case. For various views presented in the debate , see especially Moses I. Finely, "Technica l Innovat ion and Economic Progress in the Ancient Wor ld , " Economic History Review 18 (1965): 29 -45 ; H. W. Pleket, "Technology in the G r e c o - R o m a n World: a Genera l Report , ' 5 Talanta 5 (1973): 6 - 4 7 ; Hous ton , "State of the Art ," pp. 63 -80 ; Kevin Greene , "Pespectives on R o m a n Technology ," OJA 9, no. 2 (July 1990): 209-19 ; Greene , "Study of R o m a n Technology," pp. 39-47 ; Kevin Greene , "Technology and Innovat ion in Context : the R o m a n Background to Mediaeval and Later Developments ," JRA 7 (1994): 22 -33 .

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I. G E O G R A P H I C A L INDEX

Abu Ghurab: 176 Abusir: 96, 168 Abydos: 96. 97, 101, 107, 142, 160, 169, 172 Alexandria: 321. 324, 335, 417 Amarna: 96. 104, !19, 124, 129-31, 140, 162,

164, 169-71, 202 Badari: 95 Bcni Hasan: 96, 149, 158 Buto: 96, 162 Cairo: 93, 96 Deir El Gebrawi: 96, 99, n. 18 Deir cl-Bahri: 96, 166 Deir el-Ballas: Ballas: 96. 107, 129 Deir el-Medina: 96, 137-38, 164, 166, 170, 174 Delta: 143 44, 150 Dendera: 96, 111 Edfu: 77 El Kab: 77, 96 Elephantine: 53, 94. 96 Fayum: 77, 79, 93, 321 Giza: 96, 122, 137 Hcliopolis: 96. 145 Helwan: 96, 100-01 Hemamieh: 96, 97 Hermopolis: 130 Hierakonpolis: 97, 100, 106 08; 143, 11. 4 Isna: 56, 77. 96 Kahun: 96, 104, 121, 251 Karanis: 324. 335 Kom K: 79, 99 Kom Ombo: 53, 56, 77, 96 Kom W: 79 Letopolis: 143 Maadi: 96, 99, 186 Mahasna: 107 Malkata: 96, 171 Medinet Habu: 96, I I I Medum: 96, 148 Memphis: 96, 145 Merimda: 78, 96, 123 Mirgissa: 96 , 104 Nabta: 77. 96 Naqada: 96, 97 98 Niuserre: 176 Pelsuium: 96, 175, 321 Rifch: 136 Saqqara: xxiii. 96, 100, 115, 117, 120, 134, 146,

148, 151, 174 Tebtunis: 321 Tell cl-Dab׳a: 96, 153 Thebes: 96, 101, 145, 162, 169 Uronarti: 104, 112 Wadi Kubbaniya: 53 56, 62, 67, 82, 8 8 9 ״89. 6

Ethiopia Aramis: 5 , 6

(Numbers in bold refer to map pages)

Bahrain Ras al Qala 'a: 179. 242

Britain Boxgrove: 17, 37 Caerhun: 331 Chestcrs: 324. 337, 340 Dover: 331 Glastonbury: 340 Hadrian's Wall: 330, 337, 340, 350, 371 Housesteads: 324. 331 Hoxne: 17, 37 Ickham, Kent: 324. 350 Inchtuthil: 330 Scolc: 371 South Shields: 324, 330 Vindolanda: 371

China Zhoukoudian: 14, 29, 87

Crete Epano Zakros: 261. 270-71 Gournia: 261. 270 K ״ t 9 Zakros: 261, 270 -71 Knossos: 74, 260, 261. 2 6 2 , 2 6 9 - 7 ־63, 265. 1

303 ,301 ,273-74 Kommos: 261, 265-67 Mallia: 261. 262-63, 265 66, 270, 272, 278 Myrtos: 261, 264. 267, 269-70, 313 Palaikastro: 261, 270, 313 Phaistos: 260, 262-63, 265, 274, 276 Phorni: 261, 270 Praesos: 261. 307 Tholos: 261, 335 Vathypetro: 261, 270 Zakro: 266

Crimea Chersonese: 411 Mirmekion: 37, 301, 303, 411 Nymphaeum: 37, 301 Starosel'e: 27, 37 Tyritake: 37, 301, 411-12 Volgograd: 27

Cvprus Kopetra: 308, n. 99; 311 Kyrenia: 37, 287 Maroni: 37, 228, 271

Czech Republic Dolni Vestonice: 37, 43, 46, 51, 88

Democratic Republic of Congo Katanda: 5, 36, 42

Egypt (incl. Nubia)

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX 4 6 8

Tanagra: 261, 291, 429 Thasos: 301, 313, 321 Therasia: 261, 274 Tiryns: 261. 263-64 Tromileia: 315

37 Hungary

Vertesszöllös: 17.

Iran Choga Mis: 209 Godin Tepc: 106. 179, 184-85. 209 10, 249 Hajji Firuz Tepe: 73, 179. 184

Iraq Abu Salabikh: 179, 195, 207 Arpachiyah: 179. 180 82 Babylon: 179, 221 Drehern: 233 Eridu: 179. 181, 209, 241 Gcbcl Sinjar: 201 Girsu (= Tcllo): 179. 212-14, 217, 239 40, 253 Jemdet Nasr: 179. 190, 192 Lagash: 179. 202-03, 210, 213, 233, 252 Nimrud: 179, 192 93 Nineveh: 179. 193, 203 Nippur: 179. 193, 203, 212, 240 Nuzi: 179. 234 Sagdana: 202 Shanidar Cave: 37. 179. 27 Shuruppak: 179. 196, 251 Tell Abada: 179. 182 Tell el-'Oueili: 179. 181 Tepe Gawra: 105, 179. 181-82, 254 Ubaid: 179, 180 81 U m m a : 179. 212 Ur: 140. 179. 181, 192-93, 202-03, 209, 211 ,218 ,

233-34, 239 Uruk: 179. 181 82, 185, 190, 192, 195, 208 09,

240 Yarim Tepe: 179. 180 83, 207 Zawi Chemi Shanidar: 67-68

Italy Boscorale: 394 Cosa: 368 Hcrculaneum: 324. 343-44, 365, 370, 385 Ostia: 324, 333-34, 344 -45, 398, 429 Pithecusae: 315 Pompeii: 324, 341, 344, 347, 365 66, 368, 379,

385, 390, 398, 402-03, 411, 415, 429 Rome: 324. 3 3 3 , 5 ־34, 348, 350 51, 357 8

367-68, 395, 398 99, 419, 423-24, 429 Russi: 328 San Giovanni di Ruoti: 324. 349-51 Settefinestre: 324, 372, 395 Stabiae: 374 Venafrum: 350 Vicovaro: 324. 328

Kenya Chemeron: 5 , 7, 9 Chesowanja: 28 Kanapoi: 6, 5

Fejej: 5, 6 Hadar: 4, 5, 9 Kada Gona: 9 Maka: 6 West Gona: 5, 9

Fertile Crescent: 178 France

Abri Pataud: 37 , 42, 88 Aventicum: 324, 355; 357, 11. 64 Barbcgal: 324, 350-51, 423, 429 Bay of Douarnenez: 411 Combe Grenal: 27, 30, 37 Grotte du Lazaret: 30 31. 37 Kerobestin: 397 Lugdunum: 324, 403 Nemausus: 324. 400 Pech de l'Azé: 31-32, 37 Plomarc'h: 415 Roc dc Comb: 46 Solvieux: 42 Telgruc: 397 Terra Amata: 30 31, 37

Georgia Dmanisi: 15, n. 28, 37

Germany Augusta Treverorum (Trier): 371 Haltern: 330, 340 Lehringen: 27; 49, η. 39 Mauer: 17. 37 Rögden: 324. 330 Saalburg: 357, 11. 63 Vindonissa: 324, 330

Greece (incl. Cyclades islands) Aegina: 76, 264, 286 87, 424 Aghios Kosmas: 261. 267, 273 Andros: 261, 276, 279 Argolid: 286 87 AsÌne: 261, 264 Athens find. Attica): 261, 276-79, 282, 290-91,

293, 301, 313, 350, 427 Corinth: 261, 286, 290, 313-14, 318 19 Delos: 261. 282, 288 89, 301 Dimini: 261, 266 Franchthi Cavc: 74, 261. 267 Iolkos: 276 Keos: 261, 279 Lefkandi: 261, 277, 315, 425 Lei na: 261, 264 Megara: 261. 279, 282 Melos: 197, 261, 277 Mt. Hymettus: 322 Mycenae: 260. 261. 264, 266, 272, 301 Naxos: 279 Olynthus: 261, 280 84, 288, 301, 305, 307, 381,

427 Orchomenos: 261, 263 Peparcthos: 321 Pylos: 261, 272, 274 Siphnos: 279 Syros: 261, 264

469 GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX

Tel Michal: 179, 224 Tel Miqnc-Ekron: 179, 228 32. 247 Telcilat el-Ghassul: 179, 180-81, 187 Tell Beil Mirsim: 179, 198, 228 Tell Dan: 179, 198, 228, 231 Tell el Ifshar: 198 Tirai Yehuda: 228 Ubeidiya: 15, 37 Ugarit (Ras Shamra): 37, 179. 180 81, 223,

227 28 YVadi Hammeh: 37. 60

Pantelleria: 287, 335

Russia Avdeevo: 37, 44 Koslenki: 37. 44 46 Mczin: 63

Sardinia Mullargia: 324. 336, 424

Sicily incl. nearby islands Agrigento: 394 I.ipari Islands: 314 Morgantina: 280, 287, 289, 324. 336, 341 Syracuse: 321 Tonara del Cofano: 41 I

South Africa Florisbad: 53 Swartkrans: 5. 28

Spain incl. nearby islands) Ambrona: 24, 37 Atapuerca: 17. 19. 37 B״elù : 324. 41 1, 413 Gades: 319, 411 L'Ali de Bc11in1aquía: 373 74 l » s Redes: 319 New Carthage: 324, 403 Numantia: 324. 337 Punta de l'Arenal: 41 I, 413 Rhode: 324, 412; 413, 11. 40 Santa Pola: 412 Torralba: 24. 37

Troia (incl. Caetobriga): 324. 411; 411, 11. 37; 412 Syria

Abu Hureyra: 37. 202, 245 Bouqras: 66 Carcheinish: 179, 182 Damascus: 221 Ebla: 201 02, 212, 226, 250 Mari: 179, 192. 195; 197. η. 33; 207 08, 210, 212.

221, 223, 226, 233, 240, 272 Mureybit: 37. 63, 88, 191 Sclcnkahiyc: 214, 11. 66 Tel Brak: 179, 209 Tell al-Raqa'i: 179, 196 Tell Hadidi: 179, 214, 217 1VII Halaf: 179, 180, 201, 286 Tell Mcfesh: 182

Tanzania Lacioli: 5. 6 Olduvai Gorge: 5, 7, I I , 15, 20 21, 23, 27, 85

Koobi Fora: 5, 7, 20, 22 23, 25, 27 28 Lake Turkana: 5, 6, 7, 14 Olorgesaillc: 5, 25

Kuwait Failaka: 179, 241 42

Macedonia Assiros Toumba: 261, 262 Sitagroi: 261, 267

Mallorca: 287, 324. 335, 341 Malta: 305

Noil 11 Africa Carthage: 287. 324 Chcmtou: 324. 350, 423 Chcrchcl: 377 Cotta: 324. 411 El Djcm: 377 Kouass: 318 Lixus: 324, 411 Madaurc: 394 Sullecthum: 411 Tcstour: 50

Palestine (incl. Lebanon, Israel, Jordan) Abu Noshra: 37, 47. 88 Achzib: 179, 205 Ain Mallaha: 37, 60 Aphek-Antipatris: 179, 223 Arad: 142, 179, 186, 197 Beth Shemcsh: 179, 198, 203 Beth Yerah: 179, 197 Bir el-1 Abel: 179, 197, 251 Caesarea Marittima: 379 Dothan: 179, 198 99, 201 Ein Aqev: 37, 53, 59, 86 'En Besor: 96. 107, 11. 36; 186 Gibeon: 179, 185, 225 Gilgal: 37. 67 Golan Heights: 179, 187 Hayonim Cave: 37. 40 Hazor: 179, 198, 228, 231 Jericho: 37. 65, 67 68, 142, 183, 186, 198, 201,

250

Jerusalem: 179, 240 Jisr Banal Yakub: 30 Khirbet Iskandcr: 179, 207 Lachish: 142, 179, 186 87, 198 Maresha: 37, 308 09, 381. 384 85 Mushabi: 60 Nahal Oren: 37, 67 Nahal Tanninim: 350 Netiv Hagdud: 37, 65, 67, 86 ( )halo: 37, 59 Rosh Zait: 240 Shechem: 179, 199. 201 Shiqmim: 179, 180 81 Shiqmona: 228, 231 Ta׳annck: 179, 198, 223 Tel Batash: 179, '228 Tel esh-Shuna: 142, 179. 186 87 Tel Megiddo: 179, 187 89, 198

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX 4 7 0

Rhodes: 297, 301 Samos: 318 Sinope: 297 Smyrna: 261, 278 Tell Turin: 181 Thasos: 297, 376 Titris Höyük: 219

Ukraine Dobranichevka: 37, 44 45, 63 Mezhirich: 37 , 44 45; 50, n. 44; 88 Mwlodova: 31, 37 , 44, 50, 53, 86 Pushkari: 37 , 44

Zambia Kalambo Falls: 5, 30

The ra Akrotiri: 261. 265

Turkey (Asia Minor; incl. nearby islands) Bogazköy (Hattuša): 179, 192,220 Byzantium: 37. 17 18 Cabira: 324, 348 Çayônii: 179. 186 Chios: 261. 297, 305, 376 Gordion: 37, 218, 286 Halicarnassus: 318 Kos: 261. 297, 318 Kültepe: 179, 220 Kurban Höyük: 179, 219 Lesbos: 261, 294, 297, 318, 376 Nisyros: 287, 424 Parion: 318 Phaselis: 37. 318

II. G E N E R A L INDEX

KAŠ (Akk. Šikaru): 186, 211; 211, 11. 58; 212, η. 62; 215-16 , η. 68; 242

šeššar (Hittite beer): 219 unfiltered: 217-19; 217, η. 73

beer siphon: 139-40, 218 ζύθος (ζϋτος, βρΰτον, πΐνον): 294 Thrac ian beer: 294 Gallic beer (cervesià): 370 Spanish beer (caelia and cerea): 370

brewers: 105, 212-13 , 371 breweries (Sum. E-BAPPIR): 213-14 , 217

brewery model: see models characteristics of beer:

color: 219 potency: 139, 294 taste: 219

beer in society: beer and morality: 213 beer drinking: 140, 191 beer in Egyptian hieroglyphs: 108 10 beer in pyramid texts: I 10 deities associated with: 111 (Hathor and Menqet) economy: 111 12; 112, 11. 48; 370 71 taverns: 213

biltong, see butchery boiling: see fire bouza: see beer making bread making: Egypt: 117 31, 134 35; ancient Near

East: 205-10; Greece: 266 -67, 289-94; Rome: 3 5 8 - 7 0

priority of bread or beer: 105-06 processes:

grinding grain: see mechanical technology sieving: see milling kneading:

manual : 118, 127, 136, 205, 362 65 animal power: 362 -64 water power: 363, n. 75

making dough: 106, 117 19, 205, 358, 365 leaven: 118, 363, 365 flour: 117, 200, 203, 265, 286, 360-62

bread molds: bedja molds: 118-19, 121 23, 209 conical molds: 123 24 trough-shaped: 123 bevelled-rim bowl: 209

baking:

home baking: 290 91, 3 6 7 - 6 9 ashes: 106, 367 clibanus: 368-69; 369, n. 88 eschara290 .״ sub testa: 368

bakeries (Grk. άρτοπώλιον; La t. pistrinum)·. 105, 122, 209 10, 293, 344, 347 48; 347, n. 46 large-scale baking: 129-31, 358-60 , 430

alcohol: 88 drunkenness: 139, 294, 376

animals cattle: 70, 74-75 , 79; 79, n. 132; 97, 165, 180 81,

233, 274, 313, 395 domestication: 68 70, 75, 79 fish: 50, 56, 59, 62, 64, 77 79, 83, 89, 97, 173 74,

238-39 , 274-75 , 316, 402 gazelle: 68, 78 goats: 74-75 , 97, 180- 81, 233, 274, 313 m a m m o t h : 44- 45, 47, 82 pigs: 70, 74, 97, 166, 181, 233-34 , 274; 275, 11. 33;

'314, 395, 397; 397, 11. 5 sheep: 70, 74-75, 97, 180 81, 233, 274, 313

abattoir: see butchery Amrat ian culture: 97 amurca: 307, 327-29 , 381, 393, 426 Annius Octavianus Valerianus, L.: 358 Antipater of Thessalonica: 348 Ashurbanipal : 203 Ashurnasirpal II: 193, 203, 208, 222 Atimetus: 399 autolysis: 407

Badar ian culture: 9 5 - 9 6 bag press: see mechanical technology baker: see bread making bakery: see bread making beer-bread: see bread making beer making: Prehistory: 88, 105; Egypt: 131-41;

ancient Near East: 2 1 0 1 ־ 9 ; Greece: 294; Rome: 370-71

priority of bread or beer: 105 06 earliest evidence: 105, 210; 217, 11. 72 processes:

beer making with bread: malt (MUNU; Akk. buqlu) and malting: 106, 132,

138, 215-16 , 249 diastase: 215 maltose: 215

beer-bread (BAPPIR; Akk. bappiru): 135, 137 38, 214; 215, n. 68; 216

sieving: 106, 132 mashing: 135-36, 216-17; 217, n. 71

mash tun: 107, 136, 214 (Akk. namzitu), 216 wort: 132, 136, 249

fermentation: see fermentat ion storage: 137

beer making without bread: 137 -38 types: 139, 184, 192, 210-12 , 214

(dapjì(1nu (beer of mari): 219 b o u z a 2 4 ׳. 132-34, 137 38, 140, 9dark beer (ΤΙΤΛΒ; Akk. titapu): 219 date beer (billatu or biltu): 241- 42 filtered: 217

GENERAI. INDEX 4 7 2

Cannibal Hymn: see pyramid texts cereals

domestication: 66 barley: 56, 59, 66, 71, 74, 77. 99, 107, 131, 138,

186 81, 183, 193, 199, 200, 205, 262, 360 wheat:

bread: 74, 199, 360 club: 74 durum: 74, 199 einkorn: 62, 66, 71, 74, 183 emmer: 66, 74, 99, 107. 114, 138, 180, 183,

199, 200, 205, 215, 262, 360 cervesarius: 371 cheddaring: see dairy products cheese: see dairy products crushing: see mechanical technology curd: see dairy products

dairy products: butter: Prehistory: 69; Egypt: 173; ancient Near

East: 235-37; Rome: 399-400 butyrum: 399 400 ghee: 237

cheese: Prehistory: 69 , 76 ; Egypt: 173; ancient Near East: 2 3 7 38: Greece: 274 , 3 1 5 16; Rome: 3 9 9 4 0 2 ceramic sieve: 76 cheddaring: 2 3 8 cottage cheese: 4 0 1 0 2 c u r d : 2 3 8 , 3 1 5 , 4 0 0 - 0 2 GA-AR (Akk. eqidum)·. 2 3 7 - 3 8 mold: 2 3 8 , 11. 119 (ancient Near East), 4 0 1 - 0 2

(Rome) rennet: 238, 315, 400 01 tu-ro,: 274 type's: 238 whey: 76, 315

milk: Prehistory: 69, 76; Egypt: 173; ancient Near East: 69, 234; Greece: 274. 315: Rome: 399-400 buttermilk: 235, 237 milk boiler: 76, 401

Delian mill: see milling dental-wear pattern: '21'22, 51, 70-71. 117 detoxification: 52, 88 dispu (Akk.): 240 ,Disputation Between the Millstone and the gul.gul-stone': 201 distillation: see refrigeration donkey mill: see milling drying: see preservation

Enkidu: '211 ,213 enzyme hydrolysis: 407 Eurysaces: 358, 363-63, 365 66, 429 evaporation: see refrigeration

Jar. 360 fermentation: see preservation Fertile Crescent: 178 fire: 28 34, 54, 81, 87 88, 121, 248, 429 30

bakers: 105, 117, 130, 209 10; 210. 11. 55; 266, 293 (female), 358 61, 423 άρτοκόπος: 266, 293 a-t0-j)0-q0·. 266 crustularius: 370 duláarius: 370 libarius: 370 fiisior. 358, 360, 370 pistrix: 361

ovens: 125 27, 129 30, 195, 208; 208, 11. 51; 215. 248, 266 67, 289 90, 366 69 box ovens: 125, 127, 129 domed ovens: 266 67, 208: 208, 11. 51; 215,

429 Junius: 366 69, 429 ίπνίτης: 290 ίπνός: '293, 429 πνιγεύς: '290 uduii: 216 round ovens: 125, 127. 130 laburr. 184, η. 9; 207 laimur. 205, 207 08; 368, 11. 87

bread: (Sum. NINDA; Grk. άρχος; Lat. panis) types: 119, 205-07; 205, n. 48; 209, ,289-90־

369 70 ' beer-bread: see beer making flat bread: 207 leavened bread: 208 mamphula: 368, n. 87 pants quadralus: 365

in Egyptian economy: 111 12; 111, 11. 48 in Egyptian hieroglyph: 108 10

brining: see preservation bulgur (burghul): 196, '203 butchery: Prehistory: 15, 47, 81, 8587־ ; Egypt:

165 73, 252-53; ancient Near East: 233 34, 252 53; Greece: 274; 275, n. 33; 313 14; Rome: 395 99, 432

birds (Egypt): 167, 171 72 spatchcocking: 171

cattle: blood: 69, 167 68, 172 73 butcher (Rome): 398 (macellaritis, lanius) butcher shop and abattoir: Egypt: 167 69;

ancient Near East: 233; Rome: 398 (laniena) butchery tools: Prehistory: 15, 47, 81. 85 87;

Egypt: 169-70; Greece: 313 14; Rome: 399 carnarium: 397 (smoke house), 398 (meat rack) fat rendering: 172 73 meat markets (Rome)

Jorum boarium: 395 forum suarium: 395 macellum: 396, 398. 402

processed meat: 171-72, 398 -99 fish: Prehistory: 56; Egypt: 171; ancient Near

East: 238-40; ( ;recce: 274-75, 314 gutting: 240 scaling: 240 splitting: 240 washing: 240

butter: see dairy products

4 7 3 GENERAL INDEX

honey: see sweeteners hopper mill: see milling Iwrrea: see storage House of the Vettii Pompeii): 388 ' H y m n to Ninkasi': 213 16; 215, n. 68; 217, n. 72

ice: see refrigeration ' iceman': 77 intelligence:

and brain size: 8; 8, n. 14; 10, 40 cognitive fluidity: 34, 63 communicat ion: 33 34, 40, 44 planning: 33, 42, 45

Isis Gitniniana: 333 lulus Vitalis: 398

kanou (or kamou): 143, 165 KAS (Akk. šikaru): see beer making Kebaran culture: 59, 68 koulouras: 263 KU.SIM: 192 kvass: 218

'Lamentat ion Over the Destruction of Suiner and Ur ' : 211

laniena: see butchery λήνος: see wine making

madbasa: 241 manna: 207, 11. 49 μάζα : 289 markets (Roman): see butchery mastaba of Kaemrehu: 114, 11. 54; 134 meat-eating: see hominids and Homo mechanical technology: 246 48, 425

crushing: non-rotary methods:

feet: 188; 188, n. 19 (κρουπέζαι); 304, 381 (canalis et soled)

pestle: 187, 304 tudicula: 381

rotary motion: rollers: 304, 372 73 moin olearia: 381 trapelum:

Greek: 288 89, 305 09; 309, 11. 99; 431 Roman: 305-07, 309, 372, 381 82, 420,

423, 428, 431 terminology:

columella (iron pivot): 306, 309, 382 cupa (wooden handle): 306 miliarium (central post): 306, 382 modiolus (socket:: 306, 382 mortarium (container): 306, 309 orbis (crushing stone): 306, 309, 382

grinding: see milling kneading: see bread making pounding: see milling pressing: ancient Near East: 185, 187 88, 225 32,

247 48; Greece: 271-72, 307 12,431 32; Rome: 378, 382-93, 432 earliest evidence for the oil press: 227

processes: baking: see bread making boiling: 82, 88, 170 71, 248 cooking: 29-31 (earliest use), 65, 73, 77, 82, 88,

195,' 265-66, 429 heating: 374 (miliarium) parching; see milling roasting: 47, 88, 170, 195

apparatus: boiling pits: 47 fire drill: 121, 248 griddles: 120, 248 hearths: 30 32, 43 47, 60, 65, 75, 77, 79, 87,

97, 195, 265-66; 266, 11. 14 kilns: 182 ovens: see bread making pot boilers: 46, 88 spits: 47

fish sauce: see preservation Fomacalia: 369

forum boarium: see butchery forum piscatorium: 402 Jorum suarium: see butchery

garum (Grk. γάρον): see preservation 'gat: 225 26 gearing: 357. 11. 63 Geoponica: 297, n. 75; 298, n. 77; 405 -06 Gerzean culture: 97 GEŠTIN (Akk. karanu): 186, 220 ghee: see dairy products Gilgamcsh: 193, 2 1 1 , 2 1 3 , 239 granary: see storage grinding: see milling

Halaf culture: 180 81 handaxe: 15 Hero of Alexandria: 3 1 1 1 2 hominids:

Australopithecus afarensis: 4, 67, 10, 22 Australopithecus ajricanus: 6, n. 4; 7; 7, n. 10; 22 Australopithecus anamensis: 6 Australopithecus «ahn: 7, 9 -10 ; 24, 11. 51; 27, 11. 62;

81 Australopithecus ramidus: 6; 6, 11. 6; 7 diet: 21-23 , 25, 83 84 Paranthropus boisei: 7; 7, 11. 10 Paranthropus aethiopicus: 7 Paranthropus robustus: 7; 7, 11. 10; 8, 10, 22, 28

Homo: archaic Homo sapiens: 18 19 diet: 23, 25 Homo antecessor. 17 Homo heidelbergensis: 17 18 Homo sapiens neanderthalensis: 17 19, 30; 35, 11. I; 40,

51, 70 Homo sapiens sapiens: 8, 11. 12; 18 20, 40, 44, 50, 57,

63, 70, 73, 81, 82, 87 Homo erectus: 8; 8, nos. 12-13; 10, 14-15, 17; 17, 11.

,81 ,40 ,34־33 ;71 .11 .29 ;29 ,27 26 .19 18 ;3085 86

Homo habilis: 7, n. 11:810, 14, 18, 32, 34, 81


terminology: bridge-tree: 340-41

- catillus (upper stone): 339 - handle: 339 40 - hopper: 339-40 - meta (lower stone): 339

modern experiments with: 340 rynd: 339 spindle: 339

- man 01־ animal-driven mill: 341 Delian mill: 288 89, 422 Morgantina mill: 341-45, 428

- donkev mill (mola asirtaria): 287, 336, 343 48, 428'

origin: 343 size: 344; 344, n. 41 terminology: - catillus (upper stone): 341, 343, 345, 347;

347, n. 46; 358 - hopper: 341, 345; 347, n. 46

meta (lower stone): 341, 344-45, 347; 347, 11. 46; 358

- rynd: 347 - spindle: 341, 345 water mill: 348-58, 429 earliest evidence: 348-50 types: - drop tower: 353, n. 58

horizontal: 350-52 - vertical overshot: 350-52; 352, n. 56; 355 - vertical undershot: 349, 351 52; 352,

11. 56; 355 terminology: - axis: 356 - bridge-tree: 356-58 - catillus: 356-57

hopper (Jimdibulum): 35556־ latern pinion: 356-58

- meta: 356-57 rynd: 356

- spindle: 357 - tympanum dentatum (flywheel): 356 57 gearing: - 'geared up1: 357, n. 63

'geared down': 357, n. 63 major installations: - Athens: 350; 357, n. 63 - Barbegal: 350, 353-58, 423 - Chemtou: 350, 352-53, 423

Rome: Janiculum: 350-51; 355, n. 61; 367 Baths of Caracalla: 350-51, 357, 367 San Giovanni di Ruoti: 349 51

parching: 80, 88, 107, 115, 199-200, 250, 279; 279, n. 43; 369, 371 barley roaster (Grk. φρύγετρον): 279; '279, η.

43; 430 parching oven (Lat. fomax): 200, 369

pounding: 51-53, 55, '59-62, 75, 84-86, 114-15, 199, 250, 280, 293, 360 61 mortar (Grk. ολμος) and pestle (Grk. ύπερος):

hand operated: 52, 54-56, 60, 64, 75,

pressing without a press: 227 press weights: 231 32 types:

direct screw press: 393, 421 lever-and-drum press: 385-90, 421-22 lever-and-drum press with a screw: 390 91 lever-and-screw press: 391 92 lever-and-weight press: 228 31; 229, 11. 102;

231, n. 103; 247, 271-72, 302, 307-11; 308, n. 99; 384, 420

lever-and-weight press with a winch: 309-11 wedge press: 384-85

terminology for Roman oil press (torcularium): 385-93 ara (press bed): 385 arbores (piers): 385, 388, 390 coclea (screw): 390 ligula (tongue): 385 orbis (circular wooden piece): 385 prelum (wooden beam): 385 stipites (uprights): 385, 390 sucula (winch): 388 vectis (handspike): 388

squeezing: see also wine making bag (sack) press:

origin: 148-50 simple bag press: 148-50; 150, n. 26; 154-58,

247 with wooden frame: 148-50; 150, n. 26;

158-60, 247 as a hieroglyph: 143, 146

Megarian ('Homeric') bowl: 282 84, 291 milk: see dairy products milling: Prehistory: 84-86; Egypt: 1 1 4 1 7 , 250-51;

ancient Near East: 199-204, 250-51; Greece: 279-89, 427 29; Rome: 335-58, 427 29 bureaucratic oversight: 111- 12, 358-60, 366-67 millers: 360, n. 69 י millhouses: 201-03, 250-51 mill song: 281, 338, 348 -49 processes:

grinding: 51, 53, 55-56, 60, 62, 75, 85 86, 115-16, 124, 182 84, 200 01, 280-81, 335-58, 361

reciprocal motion: grinding slab: 55 'basined' grinding slab: 53, 86 quern: 60, 64, 67 68, 71, 75, 79, 85-86,

115-16, 124, 129, 180, 293, 427 bifacial: 67 flat: 67, 86 saddle: 76, 80, 82; I 15, n. 57; 116, 183-84,

199, 201-03, 264 65, 280 82, 284, 427 trough: 67, 82, 86, 183 mill: slab: 281 Olynthian hopper mill (mola trusatilis):

282-87, 335 36, 340, 427-28 rotary motion: 280, 287 ;89 287׳, n. 53; 288,

11. '54; 336; 336, n. 26; 341 hand mill: '288. 336 40 origin: 33637־

4 7 5 GENERAL INDEX

Papyrus Harris: 145; 175, n. 107 parching: see milling Patulcus Felix, Sexlus: 347, n. 46; 370 pestle: see milling pistrinum: 360; see also bread making pounding: see milling pottery: 66, 72-73, 82, 88 preservation:

drying: beef: 171 (Egypt), 396-98 (Rome) fish: 89 (Prehistory), 175 (Egypt), 239-40 (ancient

Near East) fowl: 172 (Egypt)

fermentation: 147 4 8 , 2 1 6 17 beer making: 106- 08, 131 32, 136 3 9 , 2 1 6 - 1 7 ,

249 additives: 106 07, 132 (hops), 139, 242, 250 barm: 106 yeast:

Saccharomyces winlocki: 1 18 Saceharomyces cerevisiae: 131, 363

grain: 88 89,' 118, 205 honey: 418 wine making: 117 48 (modern method), 160 61.

248, 273 '74 , 300 (in wine skins), 378 79 yeast (Saccharomyces ellipsoideus): 147

salting: beef: 396 98 (Rome) fish: Prehistory: 88; Egypt: 175, 321 ; ancient

Near East: 239-40; 'Punie: 319 20: Greece: 316 21; Rome: 402-17, 432 33 similar to salting pork: 397, 404 fish eggs (bolargo): 175 salt-fish (Grk. τάριχος; Eat. salsamentum)

types: 317, 403 08, 413, 415; 415, 11. 47 physical appearance: 414-16

fish sauce (Grk. γάρον; Eat. garum similar to modern sauces of Southeast Asia:

406 07 types: '239, 317, 403 06; 405. 11. 24; 406, 11. ' 27; 414 15

salting installations (Grk. ταριχεία): 175 (Egypt), 240 (ancient Near East), 321 (Greece), 4 1 1 1 3 (Rome) salting vats (cetariaé): 412 13

uses of salted fish products: 415 16 commerce: ancient Near East: '240; Rome:

403 04, 416 17 modern fish salting technology: 407 09

dry sailing: 408 brining: 408 fish-to-salt ratio: 409 botulism: 414, 11. 44

fowl: 172 (Egypt) pork: 397 (Rome)

smoking: 56, 89 pressing: see mechanical technology Primus Secundianus, M.: 403 Puabi (Queen): 203, 218 puis: 361 pûrâ: 225-26 pyramid texts: 144, 148, 149 (Cannibal Hymn)

84 85, 108; 114, n. 54; 124, 180-81, 199, 201, 250, 280, 293, 360 61

composite mechanical: '280, n. 44 - water powered: 360. 11. 44

sieving: 116 1 7 , 2 0 0 , 2 9 1 , 3 3 8 , 3 6 1 62 sieves: - cribrum: 363 - κόσκινον: 291, 293

models: Aeropagus granary model: 276-77 Egyptian tomb models:

É1 Kab: 100, 11. 21 Helwan: 100 Saqqara: 100 Thebes (Meket-re):

bakery-brewery: 116, 125 27, 134-37, 202 slaughterhouse: 167, 11. 77; 168 69, 171, 173 granary: 103, kitchen boat: 127 29; 136, 11. 127

Melos vase: 263, 425 Moretum: 338, 362, 368, 423 Morgantina mill: see milling mortar: see milling multiregional evolution: 19 Mycoderma aceli: see wine making

namzitu: see beer making Naqada culture: see Gerzean Natufian culture: 60 62, 68, 71, 82 negotiator allecarius: 403 negotiator cervesarius: 37 1 Nile River: 93-95 Nonius Zethus, P.: 345, 347, 362 nuoc-mam: 409

oil processing: Egypt: 164 65; ancient Near East: 187-89, 226-33; Greece: 267 74, 303 13; Rome: 380-94 Difficulty in distinguishing oil from wine processing

installations: 164 65, 269-70; 270, 11. 24; 301, 372-73

crushing: see mechanical technology pressing: see mechanical technology separation: 188, '232 33, 311-12, 393-94

décantation: 394 hot water: 311 12 rendering: 227 skimming: 394 spouted tubs: 269-7'2, 312

storage: 198, 11. 35; 269, 272 olive oil:

uses: 164 65, 187 89, '269, 303-04, 380 base for perfumes and medicines: 227, 269,

304, 380 cooking: 227, 304 illumination: 227, 304 religion: '227, 380

'Out of Africa': 19 oven: see bread making overflow décantation: 394

Papyrus Ebers: 177


subsistence strategies (prehistory) broad-spectrum diet: 53, 61; 61, 11. 79; 83 food sharing (= central-place-foraging): 25 hunting: 24 hunting-fishing-foraging: 27 multiple foraging: 27 refuging: 25 resource defense: 26 resource transport: 26 routed foraging: 25 scavenging: 24 25, 27, 81, 83 summarized: 83 84

sugar: see sweeteners sweeteners:

dates: 241 42 honey and hives: Prehistory: 88; Egypt: 176 77

(honeycomb); ancient Near East: 240 42; Greece: 322; Rome: 417 19

sugar: 417 symposium: 222 (ancient Near East), 295-96 (Greece)

tabun: see bread making tannur. see bread making ταρ ιχε ΐα : see preservation τάριχος: see preservation technology:

ancient, general: xxv-xxvi food technology:

and bureaucracy: 249-50, 360, 362, 366-67 and development of writing: 108 10, 191-92 and efficiency: 245 46, 421 and nutrition: Prehistory: 70-73, 84; Egypt: 117,

140 41; 141, n. 144;'245; Rome: 409' 10 and rise of the state: 243 defined: xxv-xxviii distinguished from agriculture: xxvii distinguished from husbandry: xxvii in Greek 'Dark Ages': 275 stagnation: 424 unintended consequences: 71 73

technology transfer: Egypt: 142 43; Graeco-Roman: 263, 268, 271 72. '286 87, 289, 305-06, 315-16, 320-21, 336 37, 349 50, 384, 404, 421-22

temples: Seti I: 160 Sun Temple, at Xiuscrre, Abu Ghurab: 176-177,

n. I l l tools and tool use:

bow and arow: 64, 77, 97 digging sticks: 36, 64 Levallois technique: 18 microwear analysis: 52, 61 sickles: 61, 66, 80, 181 tool kits:

Acheulian: 15, 85 86 blades: 35 36, 87 Mousterian: 18 Oldowan: 9, I I ; 14, 11. 23; 52, 85 86

ι ϋ ΰ | use: 9 10; 10. 11. 19; 49; 49, n. 39; 82, 85 tombs (Egypt :

Akhethetep: 99, 11. 18 Amenemhct: 99, 11. 18; 101

quern: see milling

ration lists: 203 refrigeration:

distillation: 254 55, 424 evaporation: 253 54 ice: 253, 296, 374, 419

rennet: see dairy products roasting: see fire rotary motion: see milling

S A B I T L 2 1 ־: 3salsamentum׳. see preservation salting: see preservation Sec wreck: 287, 341 sedentism: 46, 64 servant statues: 115 16; 117, 11. 66; 123 Shalmaneser III: 203, 222 Shamash-resh-usur: 240 41 sieving: see milling siligo: 360 Sinuhe: 129 Siris: 213 smoking: see preservation soldiers: 203, 337 38 soul house: 124, 11. 95 squeezing: see mechanical technology 'Standard of Ur': 221 222 stelae:

Count Indi: 110 Wahankh Intel־ II: 110, n. 44

storage: Prehistory: 45, 65, 75, 78 79, 87; Egypt: 97' 104, 251 52; ancient Near East: 180 82. 190, 195-99, 251 52; Greece: 260-63, 265, 276-79, 425-26; Rome: 325 35, 426 underground storage: Prehistory: 45, 65, 75, 78 79,

87: Egypt: 79. 97, 99; ancient Near East: 180, 182 83; Greece: 262-63, 424; Rome: 325-27

aboveground storage: ancient Near East: 196 99 (beehive granaries) Greece: 262, 276 79

Sub-floor ventilation: 277, 279 Rome: 327 35

precedents: 328; 328, 11. 10; 334 raised floor: 327 29 military granary (horreum): 329 33, 426

timber: 330 stone: 331-33

civil granary: 333 35 sub-floor ventilation: 328 29, 425-26

granary models: see models grain preservation:

grain storage in spikelet form: 262 pests: 103, 327; 327, 11. 7 amurca·. 327 29

large granaries: centralized in Egypt: 99 101, 104 05 centralized in ancient Near East: 192, 195 97 lacking in Attica: 278 Rome: 333 [Horrea Galbana, Horrea Agrippiana) Ostia: 333 llorrea Epagathiana, Grandi Horrea Karanis (Egypt): 335

4 7 7 GENERAL INDEX

difficulty in distinguishing wine and oil processing installations: 164 65, 269 70; 270, 11. 24; 301, 372 73

processes (ancient : drying grapes: 297 treading: 149 54, 223-26, 246 47, 279 99,

302 03, 376 78, 430 31 vats: 150-54

ληνός: 270. 273, 299, 430 tacus vinarius: 376

receiving vessels: 270, 299 ιύπολήνιον singing: 151; 225, n. 92

pressing: see mechanical technology fermentation: see preservation

tartaric acid: 73, 147, 184 aging: 300 01 blending: 162; 162, 11. 54 storage: 161 62; 162, n. 55; 184, 222, 273 74,

379 vinegar: 161. 273, 380

Mycoderma aceti: 161 transport containers:

amphorae: 300 01, 379-80; 380, η. I 15 barrels (cupae): 377, 379 inside lining: 380; 380, 11. 115 j a r seals: 142, 161, 184, 380 Levantine wine jars: 142-44

processes (Biblical): '225 26 processes (modern): 146 48 types of wine: 144, 162 64, 220, 273, 295, ' 299 300, 378

Hittite wine: 219 21 color of wines: 147 48, 153. 163 64. 220 :221 .

II. 81; 299 300, 378 protropum: 376 77 vina operaria: 37(5

non-alcoholic grape drinks: defiutum: 376, 378 lorn: 378 mustum: 37678

de-re-u-ko: 273 possum: 376 sapa: 376

wine in daily life: beverage of the elite: 145 4 6 , 2 2 0 2 3 , 2 9 4 97,

374 commerce: 186 87, 221, 296-97, 379 80 psykter. 296 religion: 144 45, 220 23

Dionysus: 296 Ssm.w (Shcsmu): 143, 148-49, 165; 165, n. 66

wine in hieroglyphs: Crete: 268 ' Egypt: 146

women: Prehistory: 31, 65, 72, 83; ancient Near East: 194, 202-03, 213, 244; Egypt: 115, 124, 127, 129, 140; Greece: 265; 265, 11. 13; 281, 291, 293; 293, 11. 68; Rome: 349, 361

wort: see beer making

Yale Culinary Texts: 193 94, 234

Amcnhotep II: 172 Antefoker: 99, n. 18; 101, 117, 120, 123, 136, 196 Asa: 99, n. 18; 121 Baqt III: 149, 153, 158, 160 Chnemhotep: 160 Hor-Aha: 173 Ipy: 173 Ken-amun: 117, 124, 127, 136, 145, 171 Kha: 172 Khacmwasct: 151 Khentika: 162 Khenty: 116, 120, 136 Khety: 101, 103 Meket-re: 103, 116, 125, 127, 134, 136, 168 69,

171, 173, 335 Mereruka: 151 Nakht (Deir cl-Bahri): 166 Nakht (Thebes): 151 Nefer and Ka-hay: 151, 157 58 Nefermat and Atet: 148 Nianchchnum and Chnumhotep: 99, 11. 18;

120-21, 154, 157. 171 Pabesa: 176 Paheri: 99, n. 18; 101, 150 Petosiris: 153 Ptah-hotep: 100, 146, 154, 157, 175 Puyemrc: 157, n. 43; 169 Rameses III: 106, 120, 127, 171 Re'-em-kuy: 99, 11. 18; 115, 117, 121, 136, 175 Rckh-mi-re* : 151, 176 Scorpion I: 142 Tchuti-hetcp: 154. 11. 37 Ted: 110 Thutmoses III: 172 Ti: 100, 116, 118, 121, 175 T o m b 2105 (Saqqara): 100, n. 21 T o m b 3477 (Saqqara): xxiii; 172, n. 98; 174 Tutankhamun: 115, n. 57; 162 Unas-Ankh: 101, 196 Userhet: 151, 11. 31

torcularium: see mechanical technology Irapetum: see mechanical technology treading: see wine making trichinosis (in Egypt): 166; 166, 11. 73

Ubaid culture: 181 82 Ubaid Mosaic: 235 37 ΰπολήνιον: see wine making umami: 416 Umbricius Scaurus, Α.: 403 underflow décantation: 394

Villa of the Mysteries (Pompeii): 388; 391, n. 131 vinegar: see wine

water mill: see milling whey: see dairy products wine making: Prehistory: 73; Egypt: 142 64; ancient

Near East: 184 87, 219 26; Greece: 267 74, 294-301; Rome: 372-80 earliest evidence: 73, 184, 267 68 (on Crete),

373-74 (in western Mediterranean)

G E N E R A I . INDEX 4 7 8

Zimri-lim: 253 Zosimos: 133, 371

yeqeb: 225 26

Zenon: 321

Plate 1. Limestone mortars and pestle from Site E-78-4, Wadi Kubbaniya, Egypt, dating ea. 18,500 16,500 B. P. Courtesy of Fred Wendorf and the Combined Prehistoric Expedition.

Plate 2. Milling stone with slab-shaped surface and disc-shaped handstone from Site E-78-3 at Wadi Kubbaniya, Egypt, dating ca. 18,500 16,500 B. P. Courtesy of Fred Wendorf and the Combined Prehistoric Expedition.

Plate 3. Basalt mortar and pestle from the city mound at Jericho. The pestle, dating to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic Period (8500-6000 B. C.), measures 11.3 cm. in height χ 7.3 cm. in diameter. Inv. No. 1955.123. The tripod-footed mortar, dating to the Early or Middle Bronze Age (3300-1550 B. C.), measures 7.3 cm. in height χ 18.3 cm. in width Inv. No. 1955.134. Both from the collection of the Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University, Jericho Excavations, 1952 1958.

Plate 4. Limestone model granaries from the Fifth-Dynasty T o m b of Ny-Kau-Inpu, at Giza. Average measurements of granaries are 12.4 cm. high, 6.4 cm. wide, 6.6 cm. long. The base measures 4.5 cm. high, 40.1 cm. wide, 18.0 cm. long. Courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Inv. No. O l M 10643.

Plate 5. Reed and rush sieve from Lisht, North Pyramid. Between the Twentieth and Twenty-second Dynasty. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1914. Inv. No. 15.3.1124.

Plate 6. Limestone servant statue of a woman grinding grain on a saddle quern. From the Fifth-Dynasty T o m b of Ny-Kau-Inpu, Giza. Note the cloth covering her hair and the attempt to rest the left foot on top of the right one. Height, 27 cm.; width, 11.5 cm.; length, 38.7 cm. Courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Inv. No. OIM 10638.

Plate 7. Wooden model of bakery-brewery shop (with roof removed), from the Twelfth-Dynasty T o m b of Meket-re, at Thebes. Note the two women grinding grain on raised quern in background, and different shaped loaves of bread at lower right. Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum Excavations, 1919-20; Rogers Fund supplemented by contribution of Edward S. Harkness. Inv. No. 20.3.12.

Plate 8. Triangular-shaped loaves of bread from an Eleventh-dynasty tomb at Thebes. Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1925. Inv. No. 25.3.230-35.

Plate 9. Limestone statuette of the son of Ny-Kau-Inpu stoking fire to bake bread. From the Fifth-Dynasty T o m b of Ky-Kau-Inpu at Giza. Figure measures 19.3 cm. high, 9.3 cm. wide, 9.4 cm. long; stack of bread molds: 10.0 cm. high, 7.7 cm. wide, 9.5 cm. long. Courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Inv. No. O I M 10634.

Plate 10. Limestone relief from Amarna, but found at Hermopolis Magna, showing scenes from the royal kitchens. Lower left, baking bread; upper left, brewing beer. Doorways separate the two activities. Late Eighteenth Dynasty, ca. 1350 B. C. It measures 21.5 cm. in height χ 54.0 cm. in width χ 3.7 cm. in depth. Courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund. Accession No. 62.149.

Plate 11. Limestone servant statue of a brewer, from the mastaba tomb of Zasha at Giza. Dated to the Sixth Dynasty, ca. 2250 B. C. It measures 36.0 cm. in height, 12.4 cm. in width, and 20.8 cm. in depth. Courtesy of the Roemer and Pelizaeus Museum, Hildesheim.

Plate 12. Eleventh-Dynasty servant statues from Deir el-Bersheh showing five men brewing beer. Courtesy of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Inv. No. 1933.1446.

Plate 13. Sixth-Dynast)׳ spouted beer vat of polished red clay, from Giza. Height: 31.5 in; Diameter: 38.0 in. Courtesy of T h e Metropolitan Museum of Art; received from The Boston Museum of Fine Arts in Exchange for Duplicate Material, 1937. Inv. No. 37.6.6.

Plate 14. Limestone stela of a Syrian soldier drinking beer through a sieve. Eighteenth Dynasty, Tell el-Amarna (?), ea. 1350 B. C. It measures 29.5 cm. in height χ 24.0 cm. in width. Courtesy of the Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung, SMB, Berlin. Inv. Ν ϋ . 14122.

Plate 15. Terra-cotta wine jars from the Tomb of Tutankhamun. Courtesy of the Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

Plate 16. Wooden model of butcher shop (with roof removed), from the Twelfth-Dynasty T o m b of Meket-re, at Thebes. Note meat drying on the rack in the upper story at rear. Length: 76.0 cm.; Width: 58.0 cm.; Height at back: 45.5 cm; Height at front: 51.5 cm. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund and Edward S. Harkness Gift, 1920. Inv. No. 20.3.10.

Plate. 17. Saddle quern and rubber, probably granite and smooth limestone, respectively, from Jericho. Dated to ca. 7lh millennium B. C. Courtesy of Lawrence Keppie and the Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow. Inv. No. 99-35-171-GA.

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Plate 18. Reverse side of Neo-Babylonian (sixth-fifth cent. B. C.) clay cuneiform tablet, recording terminology and ingredients of beer and steps in its brewing. Height: 5 1/8 111. width: 4 1/2 111. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Purchase 1886. Inv. No. 86.11.368.

Plate 19. Impression of a Sumerian quartz cylinder seal with banquet scene. Early Dynastic III (ca. 2600-2300 B. C.). Inv. No. LI 993.006.017. Courtesy of Jonathan P. Rosen Collection, New York, New York. Item presently on loan to the Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia.

Plate 20. Terra-cotta chest with lid decorated with five granaries. Found in tomb of wealthy woman on Areopagus in Athens. Dated to Geometric II, ca. 850 B. C. Note the holes at the base of each granary. Average height, 0.107 m.; depth, 0.077 m. Inv. No. P.27646 A+B. Courtesy of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Agora Excavations.

Plate 21. Hopper-rubbers found in excavations at Olynthus. Compare the rectangular hoppers of Nos. 1-4, and 7 with the oval ones of Nos. 5 and 6. From Robinson and Graham, The Hellenic House. Part VIII of Excavations at Olynthus Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1938), PI. 80.

Plate 22. Satyrs treading grapes to make wine. Side Β of an Attic black-figure amphora, ca. 540-530 B. C. It measures 0.43 m. in height χ 0.284 m. in diameter. Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Henry Lillie Pierce Fund. Inv. No. 01.8052.

Plate 23. Two men processing olives on a lever-and-weight press. Attic black-figure skyphos, ca. 520-510 B. C. It measures 0.102 in. in height χ 0.153 m. in diameter. Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Henry Lillie Pierce Fund. Inv. No. 99-525.

Plate 24. Circular stone oil press bed with spout, from Olynthus. From Robinson and Graham, 7he Hellenic House. Part VIII of Excavations at Olynthus (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1938), PI. 83, 1.

Plate 25. Piece of salt-fish (salsamentum) found in the Punic Amphora Building at Corinth. Courtesy of American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Corinth Excavations.

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Plate 26. Rotary handmill from the Roman fort at Chesters (not Corbridge as indicated), on Hadrian's Wall. Courtesy of English Heritage Photo Library. Inv. No. 530.

Plate 27. Pompeian bakery at Reg. VII.ii.22 (Casa dei Fornai), showing the oven (left) and four donkey-driven rotary grain mills made of basalt. Note the ancient repairs on the catillus of the first mill.

Plate 28. Funerary Relief of P. Nonius Zethus, from Ostia, showing left) a donkey mill of Pompeian type and (right) tools of the miller, such as fine and coarse sieves, modius, and measuring rod. Courtesy of the Direzione Generale Musei Vatican!.

Plate 29. Barbegal Water Mill. Water from aqueduct entered from left, divided into two channels, and powered two series of eight mills erected on different levels descending the slope of the hill. Photograph by Antoine Chéné. Courtesy of C.N.R.S., Centre Camille Jullian.

Plate 30. Sarcophagus of L. Annius Octavius Valerianus. T o p register shows scenes (left to right) of ploughing the field and harvesting grain. Bottom register depicts (right to left) grain transported to the bakery in a cart drawn by two oxen. Two men turn a rotary mill to grind the grain or else operate a kneading machine, in either case the sculptor has misrepresented the apparatus. A baker places dough into a domed oven (fiirnus) to bake into bread. Courtesy of Direzione Generale Musei Vatican!.

Plate 31. Kneading Machine from the bakery at Reg. VII.ii.22, in Pompeii. Note holes in the sides for the insertion of wooden rods, which served as "teeth" to assist in kneading the dough, and remnants of the metal piece used to secure the wooden vertical shaft. Photo courtesy of Joan and Kevin fucker.

Plate 32. Fragment of a sculpted relief showing workers, nude below the waist, treading grapes in a long tub supported by legs on each end. A worker with a basket of grapes approaches from the right; on lower left a basket of grapes sits waiting to be emptied into the treading vat. Must pours through two lion-headed spouts into dolia, where it will ferment into wine. Inv. No. 10432. Courtesy of Direzione Generale Musei Vaticani.

Plate 33. Third-century A. D. Roman sculpted relief showing the reduction by boiling of mustum to make defrutum. Figure at right pours wine from an amphora into a dolium. Second figure goes to fill up his pitcher to transfer the mustum to a kettle, at left, placed over a fire and tended by a third figure. The fourth figure (background) carries firewood. Inv. No. 2212. Townley Collection. Courtesy of the British Museum.

Plate 34. Roman basalt rotary crushing basin, or trapetum, used to crush olives. Found in a villa at Boscoreale, now in Pompeii. T h e wooden cupae are modern. Author's photo.

Plate 35. Reconstructed wine/oil lever-and-drum press from the Villa of the Mysteries at Pompeii. Note the large posthole just below the ram's head that may have accommodated a screw mechanism. Author 's photo.

Plate 36. Relief of butcher shop, from Ostia. Courtesy of the Archivio Fotografico della Soprintendenza Archeologica di Ostia. Inv. No. 133. Museo Ostiense.

Plate 37. Altar of Atimetus, side view. Two men stand beside a cabinet tilled with variously shaped knives and cleavers being offered for sale. Courtesy of the Direzione Generale Musei Vaticani.

Plate 38. Cheesepress from Balmuildy Fort on the Antonine Wall in Scotland. Dated ca. A. 1). 142 165. It measures ca. 150 mm. in diameter. Courtesy of Lawrence Keppie and the H untenan Museum, University of Glasgow. Inv. No. 99-35-1 71-5A.

Plate 39. Late fourth-century A. I), fish-salting vats at Santa Pola, in Hispania Tarraconensis. Courtesy of Benedict Lowe.

Ancient Food Technology (Technology and Change in History)(Gnv64)

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