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ARCHAEOBOTANY  March 2007

ARCHAEOBOTANY March 2007

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Subject:

More on whole-grain vs. hulled

From:

Nic Dolby <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

The archaeobotany mailing list <[log in to unmask]>, Nic Dolby <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 21:48:05 +1000

Content-Type:

text/plain

Parts/Attachments:

Parts/Attachments

text/plain (173 lines)

Another line in this long discussion I know but...

Somewhere in the past I was informed that brown rice is more susceptible
to insect attack than white rice, and that is one of the reasons for the
cultural preference for white rice in majority-world countries. If that
is so then other hulled grains may have been preferred for their keeping
quantities. As I write this, I suspect that the prevention of sprouting
and then rotting would also have been a good reason for hulling.
nic

Sarpaki Anaya wrote:
> 
> Yes, experiments are very valuable for all the reasons you state but it
> would "get us further" if all written/epigraphical  knowledge of these
> things have been collected organised, digested and then tested
> experimentally. Unfortunately, these problems that Mac and especially
> Stephen want to understand are very much in the fringe of what goes on in
> Classical studies. People talk & write about agriculture in the Classical
> period but most of the information is collected from written material.
> Strangely enough less is known (first hand) about classical agriculture than
> Prehistoric agriculture in Greece due to the fact that botanical remains
> which are one -if not the most important body of data- do rarely get
> collected from Classical sites!!! We believe we know it all from the various
> authors!! Little do we consider that these scholars were definitely not
> interested -most of the time- in providing information that they considered
> trivial for their readers and too well known for their day. Therefore, we
> fall in the trap of considering that what is mentioned in the texts is what
> was universally happening in the Greek world!! Yet, we should not forget
> that most of the writings are Atheno-centric!
> 
> Regarding the fact that cereal flour or meal would be more prone to get
> "quicker" insect infestation than whole grain or even husked grain, that is
> a fact but I do not know off-hand whether this has been measured
> experimentally. I have a feeling that salt would not protect very much but
> perhaps rather an insect repellent. Bread too would be attacked by other
> things...moss, rodents unless turned into hard tack (a double baked bread-
> but it could be done with any flour, e.g. barley, wheat) as that mentioned
> by Sabine, Dakos, kouloures, paximadi. If tightly kept without humidity,
> this is good to eat even after 1 year (tasted by me) and would have been
> probably -my guess- the staple used on boats and for long trips. It is light
> and can accompany any food. Bulgur could also be used such as a "fast food"!
> A discussion about Greek soldiers' food is discussed in the book by
> J.J.Coulton (ed.) 2002 The Fort at Phylla, Vrachos: excavations and
> researches at a Late Archaic Fort in Central Euboea. BSA, suplement 33, esp.
> chapter 7.
> 
> Some other questions also crop up as one thinks about this subject. Are we
> sure that all of the army got hulled barley? What about the higher ranks?
> Our assumption is based on how many inscriptions? Were they all from Attica?
> Or was that the same for all areas? Even the translations of terms such as
> "hulled" from Greek to English pose certain problems.
> 
> Having said that, I believe what Stephen is trying to do is very important
> and most importantly has not been questioned before. So yes, we would like
> to see more of this type of work "awakening" for the Classical period of
> Greece and also -very important- we need to have MORE
> archaeobotanical samples from sites of this period which would enable us to
> view the inscriptions from the angle of the remains themselves.
> 
> Good luck to Stephen,
> Anaya
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Beatrice Hopkinson" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2007 7:16 AM
> Subject: Yet more on barley and barley-flour
> 
> > Everybody's input here has been most interesting and informative.  But as
> > an
> > experimenter I would also venture to add something about the importance
> > of being
> > exact in trying to reproduce what went on in antiquity.  My own
> > experiments showed that one learns unexpected things experimentally that
> > were not understood or could be foreseen from a modern point of view, and
> > in fact went against the grain (forgive the pun) of modern specialists.
> > There is also evidence of Mesopotamian diet from the 3rd and 2nd mbc that
> > shows  food rations were distributed according to rank and gender, with
> > women and laborers and children getting less, higher ranking officials
> > getting more.   But again, an
> > experiment that stays as close to the truth as we now know it, can still
> > reveal some surprises and therefore worth doing.   So I don't agree that
> > it would be a 'fool's errand' :)
> >
> > With regard to the last question on barley flour or meal being
> > biologically more unstable than barley grains, or even bread.  Wouldn't
> > the addition of salt stabilize all of these?
> >
> > Bea
> >
> >>A last word from Stephen.
> >>
> >>> Dear all,
> >>>
> >>> Again, thank you all for your comments and advice, which are proving
> >>> enormously helpful.  And thank you, especially, Sabine:  I did not
> >>> know about the twice-baked barley biscuit from Crete--this must be
> >>> very similar to the biscoctum (i.e. twice-cooked) barley biscuit
> >>> medieval and early modern Mediterranean galley crews ate.  I will
> >>> definitely follow that up, in Athens, and in Crete, too, if I can
> >>> find the time and money.
> >>>
> >>> Nic, Anaya and Sabine have again pointed out some of the many
> >>> problems inherent in this question, and it may seem to some, or
> >>> most, of you that I am on a fool's errand.  I may be, but I wanted
> >>> to post one more time in order to provide you with an outline of
> >>> what we know on this subject, in order to provide a sounder basis
> >>> for the discussion.  As a start, I should say that Forbes and
> >>> Foxhall's article (Chiron 12 (1982):  41-90) was ground-breaking in
> >>> its collection and treatment of the literary and epigraphical
> >>> evidence (one of the things Anaya asks for in her e-mail) for
> >>> rations in classical antiquity, and remains the starting point for
> >>> any research on the topic, although new data and new insights have
> >>> emerged since they published their artice.  Also:
> >>>
> >>> 1.  We know that the predominant type of barley in classical Greece
> >>> was 6-rowed and hulled.
> >>>
> >>> 2.  We do know, from many and various literary sources, that
> >>> barley-flour, olive oil, and wine were the basis of the diet of the
> >>> classical Greek soldier and sailor, together with some condiments
> >>> such as garlic and onions.  We can also use the evidence of rations
> >>> handed out (we know in many cases that these were handed out and
> >>> were not just 'paper' rations) to sailors and soldiers in the
> >>> medieval and early modern Mediterranean as a control on our
> >>> calculations of the caloric content of the diets of Greek soldiers
> >>> and sailors (sometimes, of course, they will have needed more, but
> >>> we are aiming for a norm, in order to produce a minimum estimate,
> >>> or order of magnitude, rather than aiming at precision).  The
> >>> caloric content of the diets of soldiers and sailors in the later
> >>> Mediterranean was roughly between 3,000 and 3,300 calories--with
> >>> some outliers--and cereals or cereal products made up 60-70% of the
> >>> caloric content.  This figure of 60-70% is reflected in the diets of
> >>> most, if not all, pre-industrial Mediterranean populations.
> >>>
> >>> 3.  There must have been different grades of flour and we know very
> >>> little about this for classical Greece, the period I'm interested
> >>> in, though we do know a little more about this subject for the
> >>> early Roman empire.  I am assuming, for purposes of calculation,
> >>> that soldiers and sailors were buying roughly milled barley.  As
> >>> for crop processing, there is M.-C. Amouretti, *Le pain et
> >>> l'huile*, and three books recently published in a new series by
> >>> Brill [Technology and Change in History] on ancient food
> >>> technology, processing, and milling, but still, for classical
> >>> Greece, we know very little.
> >>>
> >>> I will end with one more question--my last to the list, I promise, I
> >>> have already taken up too much of your time and thought--brought up
> >>> by Anaya.  Barley-flour or meal is obviously far more biologically
> >>> unstable than barley grains, or even bread--does anybody know how
> >>> long it would last before it became inedible?
> >>>
> >>> Again, thank you all for your time and interest,
> >>> all the best,
> >>> Stephen.
> >>
> >>Mac Marston
> >>Cotsen Institute of Archaeology
> >>University of California, Los Angeles
> >>[log in to unmask]
> >>C: (310) 923-0640
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > No virus found in this incoming message.
> > Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> > Version: 7.1.413 / Virus Database: 268.18.15/728 - Release Date: 20/3/2007
> >
> >

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