The History of Bread: From Pre-historic to Modern Times. John Ashton
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of millet are very solid, and are made of meal coarsely crushed.
We know how this was crushed, for we have found their corn-crushers and mealing-stones. Of these the rude corn-crushers are undoubtedly the earliest. These stones, with their rounded ends, for a time somewhat puzzled the archæologist as to their use; but that was at once apparent when they were taken in conjunction with the hollowed stones. They were corn-crushers, which were used for pounding the parched corn or raw grain to make a thick gruel or porridge.
Later on they improved upon them by using mealing-stones, which ground out the meal by rubbing one stone on another, accompanied with pressure. The stones are in the British Museum. Such mealing-stones were used by the Egyptians and Assyrians, as we shall see, and are employed to this day in Central Africa. ‘The mill consists of a block of granite, syenite, or even mica schist, 15in. or 18in. square and five or six thick, with a piece of quartz or other hard rock about the size of a half-brick, one side of which has a convex surface, and fits into a concave hollow in the larger, and stationary, stone. The workwoman, kneeling, grasps this upper millstone with both hands, and works it backwards and forwards in the hollow of the lower millstone, in the same way that a baker works his dough, when pressing it and pushing from him. The weight of the person is brought to bear on the movable stone, and while it is pressed and pushed forwards and backwards one hand supplies, every now and then, a little grain, to be thus at first bruised, and then ground on the lower stone, which is placed on the slope, so that the meal, when ground, falls on to a skin or mat spread for the purpose. This is, perhaps, the most primitive form of mill, and anterior to that in Oriental countries, where two women grind at one mill, and may have been that used by Sarah of old when she entertained the angels.’1
Pre-Historic Mills and Corn-Crushers.
To these mealing-stones succeeded the quern. This was a basin, or hollowed stone, with another—oviform—for grinding. The quern has survived to this day. In London, at the west end of Cheapside, by Paternoster Row, was a church, destroyed by the Great Fire of 1666, and never rebuilt, called St. Michael le Quern. It was close by Panyer Alley, so called from the baker’s basket, and a stone is still in the alley on which is sculptured a naked boy sitting on a panyer. Querns have been found in the remains of the lake dwellings in Switzerland, and in the Crannoges, or lake dwellings of Scotland and Ireland. They are still in use in out-of-the-way places in Norway, in remote districts in Ireland, and some parts of the western islands of Scotland. In the latter country, as early as 1284, an effort was made by the Legislature to supersede the quern by the water-mill, the use of the former being prohibited, except in case of storm, or where there was a lack of mills of the new species. Whoever used the quern was to ’gif the threttein measure as multer2;’ and the transgressor was to ‘time3 his hand mylnes perpetuallie.’ Querns were not always made of stone, for one made of oak was found in 1831, whilst removing Blair Drummond Moss. It is 19 in. in height by 14 in. in diameter, and the centre is hollowed about a foot, so as to form a mortar.
To sum up this notice of pre-historic bread, I may mention that at Robenhausen, Meisskomer discovered 8lbs. weight of bread, and also at Wangen has been found baked bread or cake made of crushed corn exactly similar. Of course, it has been burnt, or charred, and thus these interesting specimens have been preserved to the present day. The form of these cakes is somewhat round, and about an inch to an inch and a half thick; one small specimen, nearly perfect, is about four or five inches in diameter. The dough did not consist of meal, but of grains of corn more or less crushed. In some specimens the halves of grains of barley are plainly discernible. The under side of these cakes is sometimes flat, sometimes concave, and there appears no doubt that the mass of dough was baked by being laid on hot stones, and covered over with glowing ashes.
CHAPTER II.
CORN IN EGYPT AND ASSYRIA.
The ancient Egyptians had as cereals three kinds of wheat—Triticum sativa, zea and spelta; barley, Hordeum vulgare, and doura, Holcus sorghum, specimens of which may be seen in the Egyptian Gallery at the British Museum. The so-called ‘mummy-wheat’ is a fallacy, as far as its name goes; it is the Triticum turgidum compositum, cultivated in Egypt, Abyssinia, and elsewhere.
Egyptian Reapers.
In this fertile land the cultivation of corn was very primitive; the sower had his seed in a basket, which he held in his left hand, or suspended it either on his arm or by a strap round his neck, and he threw the seed broadcast with his right hand. According to the paintings in the tombs, he immediately followed the plough, the light earth needing no further treatment, and the harrow, in any form, was unknown. Wheat was cut in about five months after planting, and barley in about four. We have here a representation of harvesting, showing the reaping, with the length of stubble left, and its being tied up into sheaves, or rather bundles. We next see the bundles being made into pyramidal stacks.
Egyptians Stacking Corn.
Here it remained until it was required for threshing, and then it was transported to the threshing floor in wicker baskets, upon asses, or in rope nets borne by two men. These threshing floors were circular level plots of land, near the field, or in the vicinity of the granary; and, the floor being well swept, the ears were laid down and oxen driven over it in order to tread out the grain, which was swept up by an attendant.
And, like their modern brethren, they were merry at their work and sang songs, several of which may be seen in the sculptured tombs of Upper Egypt. Champollion gives the following, found in a tomb at Eileithyia:
‘Thresh for yourselves (twice repeated),
O oxen,
Thresh for yourselves (twice repeated);
Measures for yourselves,
Measures for your masters.’
Sometimes the cattle were bound by their horns to a piece of wood, which compelled them to move in unison, and tread the corn regularly. But it was also threshed out by manual labour, with curious implements. The next operation was to winnow the corn, which was done with wooden shovels; it was then carried to the granary in sacks, each containing a certain quantity, which was determined by wooden measures, a scribe noting down the number as called by the tellers, who superintended its removal. Herodotus (book II., 14) says that the Egyptians trod out their corn by means of swine.
Besides the growing and gathering of wheat, the doura is also represented in paintings in tombs at Thebes, Eileithyia, Beni-Hassan, and Saggára. Both it and wheat are represented as growing in the same field, but the doura is the taller of the two. It was not reaped, but was pulled up by the roots by men, and sometimes women, who struck off the earth which adhered with their hands, bound it in sheaves, and carried it to a place where it was rippled, as flax is done.
Egyptians Threshing.
Egyptians Carrying Grain to the Threshing Floor.
In the ordinary life of the Egyptians, the woman mealed the flour—in as primitive a form as the prehistoric man—and in the British Museum are two wooden models, which show the first process of converting the cereal into meal; and then we have two figures of men kneading dough—from the Museum at Ghizeh (formerly at Boulak). The bread