Pounding Grain.
In book xviii., 23, Pliny gives us the mode of grinding corn. ‘All the grains are not easily broken. In Etruria they first parch the spelt in the ear, and then pound it with a pestle shod with iron at the end. In this instrument the iron is notched at the bottom, sharp ridges running out like the edge of a knife, and concentrating in the form of a star, so that, if care is not taken to hold the pestle perpendicularly while pounding, the grains will only be splintered and the iron teeth broken. Throughout the greater part of Italy, however, they employ a pestle that is only rough at the end, and wheels turned by water, by means of which the corn is gradually ground. I shall here set forth the opinions given by Mago as to the best method of pounding corn. He says that the wheat should be steeped first of all in water, and then cleaned from the husk, after which it should be dried in the sun and then pounded with the pestle; the same plan, he says, should be adopted in the preparation of barley.’
This was how corn was prepared in some parts of Italy at the time of the Christian era, by the same method as that described by Livingstone: ‘The corn is pounded in a large wooden mortar, like the ancient Egyptian one, with a pestle six feet long and about four inches thick. The pounding is performed by two or even three women at one mortar. Each, before delivering a blow with her pestle, gives an upward jerk of the body, so as to put strength into the stroke, and they keep exact time, so that two pestles are never in the mortar at the same moment.... By the operation of pounding, with the aid of a little water, the hard outside scale or husk of the grain is removed, and the corn is made fit for the millstone. The meal irritates the stomach unless cleared from the husk; without considerable energy in the operation the husk sticks fast to the corn. Solomon thought that still more vigour than is required to separate the hard husk or bran from the wheat would fail to separate “a fool from his folly.” “Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.”’
A Bakehouse at Pompeii.
We have noticed the primitive Homeric millstones and the Etruscan pestles and mortars, but at the time of the Christian era things molinary were somewhat more advanced. Doubtless in parts of the country the hand mill or quern, called Mola manuaria, versatilis or trusatilis, was in use, and it was worked by slaves, who were sent to the pistorineum as a punishment. But the usual corn mill was worked by animals, and was called Mola iumentaria or Mola asinaria.
Both Greeks and Romans originally ground their flour and baked their bread at home, and mills and bakeries have been found in several private houses in Pompeii. One of these bakeries was attached to the house of Sallust, on the south side, being divided from it only by a narrow street. Its front is the main street, or Via Consularis, leading from the gate of Herculaneum to the Forum. Entering by a small vestibule, the visitor finds himself in a portico of ample dimensions, considering the character of the house, being about 36 feet by 30 feet. At the end of the portico is an opening through which the bake-house is entered, which is at the back of the house, and opens into a smaller street, which, diverging from the main street at the fountain by Pansa’s house, runs straight up to the city walls. The work room of the mill and bakery is about 33 feet long by 26 feet. The centre is occupied by four stone mills, and when it was uncovered, the ironwork, though entirely rust eaten, was yet perfect enough to explain satisfactorily the method of construction.
Not only were the flour mills, kneading troughs and other utensils for baking found in Pompeii, but there were also loaves of bread, of round form, and sub-divided, some of which were stamped with the baker’s name. That this was the usual form of loaf is also shown by a painting on the walls of the Temple of Augustus, where we see the bread partially broken, and by the representation of a baker’s shop, where all the loaves are similarly shaped.
