Panel 3.28 – Food production and consumption

Organiser/Chair:

• Sabine Deschler-Erb (University of Basel)

Speakers:

• Stavros Dimakopoulos (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)
  Educating farmers: Economic strategies in ancient Greek and Roman literature and their applications in the agricultural landscape
• Giulia Falco (Polo regionale di Catania per i siti culturali)
  Snow and ice in Antiquity: supply, preserving, trade, luxury and daily consumption
• Vedat Keleş and Michael Deniz Yılmaz (Ondokuz Mayıs University)
  Fishing, processing and the production of marine food in Parion
• Anna Depalmas (University of Sassari)
  Wine in Sardinia. New archaeological data and research methodology
• Corinne Dubler (Université Paul-Valéry, Montpellier)
  OLEASTRO - Neue Ergebnisse des französisch-spanischen Forschungsprograms
• Felix Teichner (Philipps-Universität Marburg)
  Boca do Rio (Algarve, Portugal) – A center of export oriented garum production on the shore of roman Lusitania
• Sílvia Valenzuela (Spanish National Research Council, IMF-CSIC)
  L'économie vivrière d'Althiburos de l'époque numide à la lumière des découvertes archéologiques récentes

1. Stavros Dimakopoulos (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)

Educating farmers: Economic strategies in ancient Greek and Roman literature and their applications in the agricultural landscape
Agricultural activity comprises a social practice that incessantly evolves from generation to generation over the centuries. Various agricultural practices take place within the rural landscape, and each time the landscape itself indicates the ways this activity must be developed. Despite the almost automatic and self-evident way that this production took place, the need for a systematization of this knowledge emerged during certain historical periods through written texts. Xenophon’s Oeconomicus, among many others, is a prime example of such an increased interest in writing and transmitting the experience of the agricultural process during the 4th century BC in Athens. The purpose of this paper is not simply to identify the key points of those texts, but rather to assess their pedagogical dimension based on the historical context of each period as well as to link them to specific archaeological remains. It is therefore attempted to relate the words of advice by authors such as Xenophon, Columella and others concerning the management of the country house, the organization of the countryside and the optimization of agricultural productivity to the realia, that is, the archaeological remains themselves. In the end, the pedagogical/educational value of these texts is evaluated, as well as the extent to which they affected agricultural production and the optimization of the rural economy in specific periods and areas.

2. Giulia Falco (Polo regionale di Catania per i siti culturali)

Snow and ice in Antiquity: supply, preserving, trade, luxury and daily consumption
Because of their multiple uses, snow and ice were widely consumed in Antiquity. Both written sources and archaeological evidence testify they were used in medicine, as well as to prepare and preserve food and to cool beverages, exspecially wine. In the 3rd millenium BC, some kingdoms of the Near East, such as Mari, already had an organization for provision, transport, conservation and distribution capable of making frozen snow available far away from the supply area in any season of the year, though torrid climates. While snow was a luxury good reserved for regal banquets and diplomatic gifts in the Near East, in Greece and Rome it seems to have been easily accessible with variety of cost and quality. It was used not only for chilling beverages, preserving meat, preparing specific dishes as well as in frigidaria of the thermae, but also for luxury pleasures. Indeed, specific paraphernalia was adopted both for purifying and consuming it.
In medicine, recourse to ice was under dispute between Hippocrates, who was contrary to their consumption, and Asklepiades of Bithynia, whose therapies, on the other hand, centred around the use of ice.
The paper will focus on the ways and means of supplying, trading, conserving and consuming snow and ice through Antiquity, as well as on their continuity in Mediterranean area up to the introduction of modern techniques of refrigeration in the 20th century AD.

3. Vedat Keleş and Michael Deniz Yılmaz (Ondokuz Mayıs University)

Fishing, processing and the production of marine food in Parion
Parion, a colony founded in 709 BC, located on the Anatolian bank of the Propontis is a significant littoral city which accomodated two harbours. The ancient city’s location and riches are now the heritage of the modern day Kemer Village of Biga Municipality, Çanakkale Province, which is a fishing village. The city being a polis until the Roman sovereignty was mentioned by many ancient writers regarding its different aspects. One of the aspects which is made mention of is the marine food procured and processed in Parion. Marine food attested in Parion through ancient writers, archaeological evidence and epigraphic sources range from fish and salted fish to crabs and oysters.
The intention of this paper will be to approach ancient fishing by the archaeological material related to the procuring, processing and production of the aforementioned marine food species along with evaluating the species and techniques used with the modern Turkish and Greek terminology and techniques of fishing in order to establish the species known to mankind today, together with establishing the production techniques. Material regarding this paper are the ancient writings, archaeological evidences and epigraphic evidences related to the topic. Consequently this paper is aimed to establish the place, techniques and diversity of fishing in Parion; regarding the disciplines of archaeology, economy, sociology and biology.

4. Anna Depalmas (University of Sassari) / Cinzia Loi (Ispettore Onorario SABAP-CA) / Alessandra Pecci (Universitat de Barcelona) / Nicolas Garnier (Laboratoire N. Garnier / Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris AOROC) / Alessandro Usai (MIBACT)

Wine in Sardinia. New archaeological data and research methodology Wine is an important drink in the history of Sardinia. Recent research has allowed to date back of the introduction of wine production and consumption in the region. The combination of botanical finds and chemical residues allows to suggest the production and consumption of wine already from the Middle Bronze Age. The Bronze Age settlement of Sa Osa (Cabras), is one of the few Sardinian archaeological sites, which allows us to reconstruct a complete picture on the development of the exploitation of natural resources, agricultural technologies, as wine’s production. The discovery of wild and domesticated grape seeds in Sa Osa wells suggests the presence of sufficient quantities to production of the drink. The stone presses constitute a fundamental element of the agricultural production process and they are of significant interest due to their historical and archaeological value. These artifacts, being considered less valuable than others, have enjoyed relative anonymity. Those that have survived often have missing parts and are deprived of their original context in the landscape; therefore, it is difficult to interpret their typology and age. However, they represent an interesting feature that could be related to ancient wine production. A total of 150 fixed rural wine-presses have been found and 50 movable containers possibly connected to at least 30 other wineries, suggesting the widespreading of wine production for a long period of time, that needs further investigation.

5. Corinne Dubler (Université Paul-Valéry, Montpellier), Quentin Desbonnets (Université Paul-Valéry, Montpellier) and Ivan González Tobar (Université Paul-Valéry, Montpellier) / Stéphane Mauné (CNRS), OLEASTRO 

Neue Ergebnisse des französisch-spanischen Forschungsprograms
Dieser Beitrag soll unser internationales Forschungsprogramm OLEASTRO «OLEiculture et production d’AmphoreS en Turdétanie ROmaine», das durch das LabEx Archimède in Montpellier und der Casa de Velázquez in Madrid, finanziert wird, in der «Pannelsession 3 zur Produktion» vorstellen. Dieses Programm besteht seit 2016 und informiert über die Produktion, den Handel und die Verteilung des spanischen Olivenöles. Es wird u. a. durch vier gleichzeitige Dissertationen repräsentiert (O. Bourgeon, Q. Desbonnets, I. González Tobar, C. Dubler).
Das wissenschaftliche Ziel dieses Programms ist die Untersuchung der Ölproduktionskette: von der Herstellung der Amphoren und des Olivenöles in der römischen Provinz der Baetica, bis hin zur Verteilung dieses Nahrungsmittels im ganzen römischen Reich. Die Analysen integrieren gezielte Feldforschungen (Prospektionen und Grabungen der Töpferateliers in der Baetica) sowie Materialanalysen der epigraphischen Inschriften, der in den Konsommationszentren gefundenen Amphoren. Ein Schwerpunkt wird auf die Wechselwirkungen zwischen wirtschaftlichen Aktivitäten und Akteuren und den Veränderungen bezüglich der Umwelt gesetzt.
Ziel dieses Beitrages ist die Präsentation neuer Erkenntnisse und ersten Ergebnissen zu diesem zentralen wirtschaftlichen Phänomen. Zudem gibt uns dieser Kongress die Gelegenheit, unsere Forschungsthemen einem breiten, wissenschaftlichen Publikum, das sich speziell an den angelsächsischen-germanischen Raum richtet, vorzustellen.

6. Felix Teichner (Philipps-Universität Marburg) / Joao Pedro Bernardes (Universidade do Algarve) / Florian Hermann and Ricardo Soares (Câmara Municipal de Vila do Bispo)

Boca do Rio (Algarve, Portugal) – A center of export oriented garum production on the shore of roman Lusitania
Located in the extreme southwest of Iberia, the area of Sagres includes several small fishing ports and archaeological sites (as those around the palaeoestuary of Boca do Rio). These sites still preserve records and elements of a long fishing tradition, as well as from its Atlantic and Mediterranean influences, and the geo and bio-indicators of ancient coastal cataclysms.
Through a transdisciplinary fieldwork and an integrated research, the autors seek to clarify the coexistence of these fishing populations with the geo-coastal dynamics and with the communities of seafarers.
On the shores of the old lagoon and paleoestuary of Boca do Rio, archaeological research detected an intense fishing and saline occupation with more than two thousand years, whose locations alternate between the beach and the interior lands. In these sites, it is possible to observe the evolution of the instruments and fishing gear. Concomitantly, Boca do Rio natural characteristics yield exceptional conditions for the observation of coastal geodynamics and their effects on the local communities. Moreover, in the surrounding region, the geo-indicators of ancient coastal cataclysms and their consequences are very well preserved. In addition, geo-sedimentological research has demonstrated the frequent invasion of the paleoestuary by high-energy marine events, such as the 1755 Tsunami, whose impact and destructive force can be measured.

7. Nabil Kallala (Université de Tunis) / Carme Belarte, Joan Sanmarti, Joan Ramon, Bouthéina Maraoui Telmini, Francisco Cantero, Dani López, Marta Portillo and Sílvia Valenzuela (Spanish National Research Council, IMF-CSIC)

L'économie vivrière d'Althiburos de l'époque numide à la lumière des découvertes archéologiques récentes
Althiburos est une cité numido-romaine du N-O de la Tunisie. Elle était connue jusqu’ici surtout par ses fameuses mosaïques et le culte de Baal Hammon. Les recherches récentes tuniso-catalanes ont amélioré et diversifié très largement nos connaissances sur ce site, notamment la période numide, grâce à une approche qui incorpore, en plus des méthodes traditionnelles, l’archéométrie et de l’archéobiologie, pour mieux connaître l’histoire et la genèse de sa société en connexion avec son économie. On a pu établir ainsi que son histoire numide remonte au Xe s av. J.-C pour s’étaler tout au long de la période dite préromaine. Les données archéo-zoologiques et archéo-botaniques nous ont permis de parvenir à des résultats neufs et tout à fait intéressants sur l’agriculture, l’élevage, l’artisanat et l’alimentation. Les Numides s’avèrent être non seulement des producteurs de céréales, mais aussi de raisin, de grenades, dès les Xe s av. J.-C., de même qu’ils pratiquaient l’oléiculture et savaient réduire le fer, dès le VIIIe s av. J.-C., et consommaient toute sorte d’animaux, bœufs, moutons etc. Loin de vivre en autarcie, ils entretenaient des relations commerciales avec les Phéniciens de la côte tunisienne, mais aussi avec les îles méditerranéennes, l’Ibérie et l’Italie. Nous passerons ainsi en revue les éléments de ces activités vivrières à l’époque numide, du Xe s av. J.-C. à la fin de la République romaine.