John/Stephen,
Is 'pearled' barley some sort of polishing and what is the purpose?
Bea
>A reply from Stephen on the topic:
>
>Dear all,
>
>First off, thank you all for your e-mails on this topic. They are
>much appreciated. The question I have posed has brought up a lot
>of suggestions and questions, and I e-mail again to provide more
>context for my original question, which I think will add more focus
>to the discussion, and clear up a few things.
>
>1. As to Sabineís suggestion, that I buy barley and barley-flour
>from a health food store, and measure them by volume to come up
>with the figures I am looking for, this wonít work for a couple of
>reasons. Firstly, there is no way of knowing if the sample of
>barley-flour we are measuring was milled from the same barley that
>the sample of barley grains we are measuring comes from. Secondly,
>and more importantly, barley-flour today is most often milled from
>barley grains that have been pearled before the milling process,
>whereas in, classical antiquity, barley grains were not pearled
>before milling.
>
>2. As for Sabineís question on the amount of grain needed for human
>caloric requirements, the caloric content of grains can easily be
>found on www.fao.org/infoods/. In the list of contents on the left
>of the screen, go to ëtables and databasesí for a directory of
>international food composition tables, and all the information you
>need can be found there.
>
>3. As I indicated in my first message, there are quite a few
>figures for rations, mostly for soldiers and sailors, but sometimes
>also for 'civilians', in classical antiquity (see H. Forbes and L.
>Foxhall, 'Sitometreia: The Role of Grain as a Staple Food in
>Classical Antiquityí, Chiron 12 (1982): 41-90, 86-89, for these).
>They seem to indicate that one choinix (1.087 liters) of wheat or 2
>choinikes (2.174 liters) of barley-flour was a relatively standard
>daily ration in the Classical and Hellenistic periods. There is
>some controversy about this amongst ancient historians, since most
>scholars follow Foxhall and Forbes in thinking that 2 liters or so
>of barley-flour would provide far too many calories for an active
>male, but others (including myself) believe that the many mentions
>of this figure in the literary and epigraphical sources must bear
>some weight. This is why it is crucial to find out the
>relationship for weights of volume of barley and barley-flour, even
>if, as Delwen rightly says, this is a question fraught with
>difficulties (and this is even before one gets into the question of
>extraction rates). (While we're on subject of rations, I had read
>those articles that a google search of Mesopotamian barley rations
>throws up, but unfortunately none of them have anything to say
>about barley-flour.)
>
>4. This discussion has confirmed me in my opinion (and Mac's, if I
>may so) that I will have to determine this question experimentally.
> I think Delwen's suggestion that approaching this problem by
>contacting a specialist miller who stone mills barley flour is an
>excellent one. As Mac noted in his first e-mail, I am in Athens at
>the moment and will hopefully have a decent chance of contacting
>such a miller. If not, Sabine, would you mind if I flew down to
>Crete and ground some barley grains with you?
>
>Again, thank you all for taking the time to write on this topic, and
>for your many suggestions, all of which have been extremely helpful
>and thought-provoking.
>
>All the best,
>
>Stephen.
>
>Mac Marston
>Cotsen Institute of Archaeology
>University of California, Los Angeles
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>C: (310) 923-0640
>
>
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