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Food: Tradition and Change in Hellenistic EgyptAuthor(s): Dorothy J. CrawfordSource: World Archaeology, Vol. 11, No. 2, Food and Nutrition (Oct., 1979), pp. 136-146Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/124356 .
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Food:
radition
and
change
n
HellenisticEgypt
Dorothy
J.
Crawford
When
he visited
Egypt
in the mid fifth
century
B.C.
Herodotus,
the Greek
historian
from
Halicarnassus,
was struck
by
the
good
health of the
Egyptians
which he ascribed
to the consistent climate of the country, connecting it closely with their diet:
They
eat
loaves
made from emmer
wheat
(olyra)
which
they
call
kyllestis.
The
beverage
they
drink is made of
barley;
for there are
no
vines
in their
country. They
eat raw
fish,
dried
in
the sun or
salted,
and also
quail,
duck and
small
birds,
pickled
in
brine;
other birds and
fish,
apart
from
those
held
sacred,
they
eat
either roast
or
boiled.
(II
77-
3-5)
The balanced diet
of the
Egyptians
came
from bread
and beer
('wine
made
from
barley'
is Herodotus'
description)
supplemented
by
the
wild
life
of
the
countryside,
and fish
and fowl
which
would,
even
after
pickling,
provide
ready protein
to
supplement
the
cereals.
To
a
Greek
the
natural
resources
of the
land
of
Egypt,
the
Nile,
its
annual
flood
and
the
regular
and
plentiful
harvest
this
produced,
were
something
of a miracle.
Commenting
on
the
large population
of
Egypt
in
the
first
century
B.C. Diodorus
Siculus
describes
the
use
of other wild
products
which
provided
a
cheap
source
of
nourishment:
They
bring
their
children
up
with
incredible ease and little
expense;
they
feed them with
plenty
of
raw
vegetables
which are
in
ready
and
cheap
supply;
they give
them those
papyrus
stems
which can be crushed
for flour and
the
tops
of
the
marsh
plants,
sometimes
raw,
some-
times
boiled
and sometimes roasted.
(I
80.
5-6)
In detail
such accounts
may
be
over-simplified
but
the
main
point
is
surely
correct.
There were available in Egypt, in the crops raised in the fields, in the palms, carob and
other
fruit trees which
grew
in
the
countryside,
and
the wild
plants,
fish and fowl of
the Nile and the
Nile
marshes,
the
constituents
necessary
for a balanced
and
healthy
diet.
The
extent,
however,
to
which such
a
diet was
actually
enjoyed by
the inhabitants
of
the
country
is
worth
investigation,
even if
only partial
answers
and
preliminary
conclusions are
possible.
To what extent
did this diet differ over
the
long periods
of
Egyptian history?
How far were there
regional
differences in diet? Herodotus
for
instance
described
the
cheap
and
plentiful Egyptian
diet summarized
by
Diodorus
as
especially
typical
of the inhabitants
of
the marshes
of the northern
Delta:
World
Archaeology
Volume
iI
Number
2
Food
and
nutrition
?
R.K.P.
1979 0043-8243/1102-0136
1.50/1
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Food:
tradition
and
change
in
Hellenistic
Egypt 137
Those
who live in the
marshes.
.
. collect
the
water-lilies,
called
lotus
by
the
Egyptians,
which
grow
in
large
numbers
when the
river s
swollen
and
floods
out
over the
plains,
and
they
dry
them in
the
sun;
then
they pound up
the
centre of
the
lotus
which is
like a
poppy-head
and
make
loaves
from it baked
with the
flour.
The root
of
this
plant
is also
edible;
it is
round,
about
the size of an
apple,
and tastes
reasonably
sweet
....
They
harvest the
papyrus
reeds
which
grow
each
year
in the marshes
and,
cutting
off
the
upper
part
for other
purposes,
they
sell
and eat
the lower
part
left to about
a
cubit's
length.
Those
who
wish
to eat the
papyrus
at its best bake
it first
in
a red-hot
covered
pan.
Some of them live on
fish
alone;
they
catch
the
fish,
gut
them,
dry
them
in the
sun
and
eat
them
prepared
n this
way. (II 92. 2-5)
Cattle
too were
more
common
in the
Delta
regions
than
elsewhere
(Butzer I976: 95),
while
the
doum-palm
grew
only
in the
south
(Theophrastus,
Enquiry
into
Plants,
II
6.
io).
Such
regional
factors will
have
influenced the available diet. The
individual's diet
is also likely to have varied accordingly to his more precise location, rural or urban,
close to
the river which served as an
artery
for
the
transport
of
all
commodities, or,
perhaps,
in one of
the oases.
Status
too
is
relevant in such
an
inquiry.
In Herodotus'
day
the
priests
ate
rather well:
They
have no
expense
or trouble in
everyday
life.
The
sacred
grain
is
ground
up
for
them
and
they
enjoy
a
plentiful
daily supply
of
beef and
goose;
they
also have
proper
wine.
(II
37.
4)
At
different
periods
other
members
of
the
community might profit
from their
position,
as
high
official or
powerful
police-officer.
The small
peasant
farmer
was
always
under
threat:
Rememberyou not the conditionof the cultivator aced with the registrationof the harvest-tax,
when
the snake has
carried
off half
the
corn
and the
hippopotamus
has devoured
the
rest?
The
mice abound
in
the
fields. The
locusts descend.
The
cattle
devour.
The
sparrows
bring
disaster
upon
the
cultivator.
(Gardiner
I941:
I9)
Or later
in
the
second
century
B.C.:
Petesouchos
son
of
Marres,
cultivator
from
Kerkesephis,
to Marres son of
Petosiris
his
brother,
greetings.
You
know how our lands
have been flooded over
and
that we
do
not even
have food for
the
animals.
It would be much
appreciated
f
you
would
first
offer
prayers
to
the
gods
and then save
many
lives
by
searching
out
five
arouras*
f land at
your
village
to
feed
andmaintainus. If you can do this you will earnmy undyinggratitude.Farewell.(P. Tebt.56)
Besides
social status
nationality
too
might play
a
part
in
affecting
the
individual's
diet.
In
a
third
century
B.C.
account of
grain
allowances
made
to workers
on a
Fayum
agricultural
estate
the
usual
payments
were in wheat. A
group
of
Syrians,
however,
working
on
the
estate,
received their allowance
in
barley,
the
cereal
normally
fed to
animals
(P.
Cairo
Zen.
59292.
464--8,
470-2).
The
effect
of invasion and
conquest
on a national diet
forms
a
fascinating
if
subsidiary study
to the more
central
changes
which such
conquest brings.
It
is
the
conquest
of
Egypt
in
332
B.C.
by
Alexander
the
Great,
king
of
Macedon,
which
may provide
a
starting point
for such an
enquiry.
The evidence
:for
food and
diet in Pharaonic
Egypt
is
extensive;
both tomb
paintings
and actual
foodstuffs,
well-
preserved
in the
dry
climate
of
Egypt,
have been
the
subject
of
various studies
(e.g.
One aroura
=
0.25
hectare.
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138
Dorothy.
J.
Crawford
Brothwell
i969; Darby
et
al.
1977).
This
evidence,
however,
strongly
funerary
in
nature,
has a
marked
upper-class
bias;
it
is
hardly
likely
to
be
typical
of the
everyday
diet of the majority of Egyptian peasants. The magnificent meal of a second dynasty
noblewoman buried at
Saqqara
(Tomb
3477),
excavated
and
described
by Emery
(1962),
provides
an
excellent
indication
of
the
enormous
variety
of foodstuffs
available. The
meal to
greet
her
in
the next world consisted
of:
a
triangular
oaf
of
bread of
emmer
wheat
(Triticum
dicoccum
f.
Dixon
I969);
an
unidentified
liquid
containing
some
sort of
fatty
substance;
cooked
fish;
pigeon
stew;
cooked
quail,
dressed
with
its head
under
one
wing;
two
cooked
kidneys;
the ribs
and
legs
of
beef;
a dish
containing
cut
beef;
stewed
figs;
fresh
nabk
berries;
small
round
cakes
sweetened with
honey;
three
jars
of some form
of
cheese;
wine.
In real life our mummy had been able to chew on one side of her mouth onlyo.Her
funerary repast might
perhaps
compensate
to
some
extent
for
deprivation
during
her
life-time
(Emery i962:
8),
though
to
judge
from
tomb-paintings
such elaborate
meals
were
by
no means
atypical.
More
extensive
study
of skeletal remains
might permit
the
identification
of
nutritional deficiencies
as well
as
straightforward physical
disabilities.
And
more extensive
seed
and
pollen analyses
from habitation sites
might
begin
to
balance
the
evidence of the
necropoleis.
In the
Graeco-Roman
Fayurn
town
of
Karanis
for
instance
the
following
foodstuffs
are
recorded:
cereals-
wheat
(Triticum
durum)
and
barley
(Hordeum
vulgare)
-
together
with
date,
fig,
filbert, walnut, pine (yielding pine kernels), olive, peach, Indian medlar, quince, pistachio,
lentils,
radish
and
lotus
(Boak
1933:
87-8).
With
Alexander's
conquest, however,
new and
more extensive
sources of
evidence
become
available to
supplement
the
archaeological
data.
Papyrus
documents are
the
most
important
of
these. With Alexander and
the successor
dynasty
of the
Ptolemies
came
a
new, Greek,
ruling
class
and a new
impetus
to
exploit
the natural wealth of
the
country.
Much
of the
machinery
of
government
remained
unchanged
(though
Greek
was
introduced as the new
administrative
language)
but
under
the
earlier
Ptolemies,
and
especially during
the
long reign
of
Ptolemy
II
Philadelphus
(285-246
B.C.),
significant
innovations
were made in the
agricultural
structure of the
country.
Whether
the
initiative
came from
Philadelphus
himself
or from
his
close
associates,
men such as
Apollonios,
his
finance-minister
or
dioiketes,
extensive
irrigation
and reclamation
works
were
undertaken,
especially
in the
Fayum
basin
(Crawford
1971:
39-42
with
bibliography).
Construction
work at
the El-Lahun
barrage,
together
with
a
network
of
high-level
radial canals
through
the
area,
substantially
increased the cultivable area.
During
the
early years
of Ptolemaic
expansion large gift-estates
were
granted
to the
king's
close
associates
(Apollonios
received
Io,ooo
arouras,
or
2,500
hectares,
around
the new town
of
Philadelphia
in the
Fayum,
together
with land
in the
Memphite
nome),
Greek
soldiers were rewarded
with
plots
of land in what
was
to
become
their
new
homeland,
prisoners-of-war
were set to work on the
land
and
whole
communities
of
native
Egyptians
were resettled
(Rostovtzeff 1922;
Preaux
1947).
The
cultivated area
of the
Fayum
basin,
earlier known
as
The
Marsh
and now
renamed
the Arsinoite
nome
after
Arsinoe,
the
sister-wife
of
Ptolemy
II
Philadelphus,
was as much
as trebled
in this
period
(Butzer
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140 Dorothy
J.
Crawford
(P.
Rev.
Laws);
many
of
these were suited to
marginal
land
where
salinity
from
poor
drainage
remained
a
problem
despite
the
extended
canal
system (Crawford
1973:
248)0
Besides the main oil crops, grown as cash-crops under tight governmental control-
sesame,
castor-oil
(kroton
for
kiki-oil), kolokynthos
(gourds),
safflower
and
linseed-
experiments
were made
with
other oil
crops,
poppy
and
lettuce,
grown
on
the estate
of
Apollonios
and
recorded
in
the
accounts
of
Zenon
(P.
Lond. VII
1994;
9
5).
Other
new
strains of
crops
were
introduced,
garlic
from Tlos
in
Lycia (Crawford
1973a)
and
chick-peas
from
Byzantium (P.
Cairo
Zen.
59731
=
P.
Col.
Zetn.
69. 14,
i6,
21i)
Viticulture
was much
extended
in this
early period
of
Greek
occupation
and
fruiit
trees
also were introduced in new
orchards and
plantations
-
figs,
walnuts,
peaches,
apricots,
plums
and
olives
(Preaux
1947:
22-7).
Besides
crops,
livestock was reared
on the
estate
both for
regular
use and
for
special
festivals which in the ancient world were always the occasion of meat consumption aind
so
played
a
significant part
in
increasing
the
protein
intake
of the
regular
diet. From
250
B.C. there survives
the record of
expenses
connected with
the
transport,
among
other
livestock,
of five
cages
of wild boar
from
Apollonios'
estate
to
his
residence
in
Alexandria,
as a
present
for the
king
for the festival of
Arsinoe. Some
of
the
boars
died
en route
but
nevertheless were skinned
ready
for
consumption;
meat
could
not
go
wasted
(P.
Lond.
VII
2000).
The
change
which must have
affected the
diet of the
greatest
number
of
people,
however,
was
the
change
in the main cereal
crop
of
Egypt.
All
evidence
up
to
the
Ptolemaic
period
suggests
that besides
barley
(Hordetim
vulgare),
tetraploid
emmer
wheat (a husked wheat, Triticum dicoccum)was the staple cereal crop of the country,
the
grain
referred to as
olyra
by
Herodotus and later in the
papyri
(Dixon 1969;
Darby
et
al.
1977: 461-79).
With
the
Ptolemies a naked
tetraploid
wheat
(Triticum
durum)
was introduced to
Egypt
and soon
completely supplanted
the
earlier emmer
wheat.
From
Triticum
duroum
was
produced
flour
of
two
qualities:
semidalis which
was
top-
quality
flour and
whole-wheat
(autopyros)
flour.
A
choenix of wheat
yielded
either half a
choenix
of
semidalis
(though
this
probably
includes
a
milling charge)
or
one
choenix
of
whole-wheat flour.
Olyra
continued to be
grown
but in
decreasing
quantities
(Schnebel
1925:
94-9).
Besides
coarse
loaves,
a
rough
porridge-like
substance
known as
chondros
was
made
from
olyra,
and
it is
interestinig
that on
Apollonios'
estate
the
daily
food
allowance drawn
by
Zenon,
his brother
Epharmostos
and
Styrax
might
on occasion
come in
this form
(P.
Cairo Zen.
59333. 58-70 (248
B.C.)).
When
chondroswas
available
Zenon forewent
his
normal
bread
allowance,
though
whether
from
choice
or
for the
sake of
convenience
is
unclear. Whether or not
Zenon,
a
Greek
though
from Asia
Minor,
preferred
his
carbohydrates
in fine
quality
semidalis bread
(as
it
was
sometimes
drawn)
or
in.
chondros,
the new
wheat
caught
on
very
quickly,
and
within
one
hundred and
fifty years
the switch
to
Triticum durum was almost
total.
The
only
cause for
surprise
is
the silence
of
the sources. The
change
is
well-documented,
but no
comment
on it
has survived
anywhere
in
the
papyri
or
the
agricultural
writers.
The influx
of
Greeks
to
Egypt
following
Alexander's
conquest
will
have
put
an
increased
demand,
especially
for
cereals,
on the resources of the
country.
Much
of this
demand
will have been met
by
the
extension of the area under
cultivation,
but
attempts
were also made to
augment
cereal
production by
the
introduction
of
a
summer
wheat
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Food:
tradition and
change
in
Hellenistic
Egypt
14I
crop
in
areas
irrigated
artificially.
On
27
December
256
B.C.
Apollonios
wrote to
Zenon
as
follows:
The
king
has ordered us to sow the land twice. Thereforeas soon as
you
have harvestedthe
early
grain, immediately
water the land
by
hand. And if this
is
not
possible
set
up
a
series
of shadoofs
[water-lifting
devices
consisting
of a bucket
and
pole]
and
irrigate
in
this
way.
Do not
keep
the water on the land more than
five
days
and as soon
as
it
dries out
sow the
three-month
wheat.
And write to us when
you
are able to harvest it.
(P.
Cairo
Zen.
59155)
This three-month
grain
may
have been the
Syrian
wheat first
recorded
under
Philadelphus (Thompson
1930: 213)
and
is
probably
to be identified
as
einkorn;
other
cereal
strains too were introduced
and
the Zenon
papers
record
a wide
variety
of
cereals
grown
on the estate
(e.g.
Persian
wheat,
P.
Ryl.
IV
57I.
4;
native
wheat and
dark
summer wheat (melanaither),P. Cairo Zen. 59731
=
P. Col. Zen. 69. 25-6).
Cereals had
always
been the
staple
food
crop
of
Egypt.
It is not
therefore
surprising
that the
Egyptian peasants
embraced
the
improved
wheat
strains. But
they
were not
enthusiastic about
royal
attempts
to
exploit
the
country
with
new
methods
and
cash
crops.
Various reactions
are
recorded.
Explicit
criticism
of
the
competence
of the
Greeks
is
preserved
in
a
letter from
some native farmers
brought
in to
the Arsinoite
nome:
To
Apollonios
the
dioiketes,
the farmers from the
Heliopolite
nome,
from the
village
of
Philadelphus
in the Arsinoite
nome,
from
your
Io,ooo
arouras,
greetings.
After
you gave
us
1,000
arourasout
of the
io,ooo
which
we
cultivated
and
sowed,
Damis
took
away
from
us
200(?)
arouras,and when we protested, carriedoff three of our elders until he compelled
them to
sign
a deed of
renunciation.And
although
we were
willing
to move from
the
I,ooo
arouras,
and asked
him
to bear with
us
only
until
we had
prepared
he land and
sown
it,
he
still
refused,
and allowed
the
land to remain unsown. There
is
a further
official,
an
Egyptian,
one
of
an
evil
tribe,
who
does not allow the
city
to
be
settled,
but
drives
away
those who
try
to
come here.
A
large
number
of
mistakes
have been made in the
0o,ooo arouras,
since there
is no one
experienced
n
agriculture....
(P.
Lond. VII
1954.
I-8
(257
B.C.))
Alternatively
the native
population
might
show their
disapproval
by
non-co-operation.
From the mid-third
century
B.C.
a
papyrus
from the North-west
Fayum
gives
details,
for four
villages,
of
the
annual
crop
order which
attempted
to
control
centrally
the
crops
sown
throughout
the
country. Figures
are
given
for the distribution of what
actually
had been sown and the official
adjustments
made to the
original
demands in
the
light
of the actual state
of
cultivation
(SB
4369
a-b).
What
is
striking
is
the non-
cultivation
of the commercial oil
crops,
flax,
safflower and
poppy,
as
specified
in
the
crop
order,
and the
preference
of
the
peasants
to
plant
the
subsistence
crops they
knew and
needed,
durum
wheat,
barley,
a little
olyra
and vetch for
fodder
(Vidal-
Naquet I967:
25-36).
The
conflict of interest between
native
and
immigrant
was both
economic and
cultural.
The
intense
experimentation
and
agricultural
activity
of the
North
Fayum
in
the
time of
Philadelphus
did
not,
it
seems, continue,
and a
more
typical
picture
of
agriculture,
and
probably
therefore
of
peasant
diet,
may
be seen from
the
late second
century
B.C.
South
Fayum village
of
Kerkeosiris.
Here
in
i
i6-i
i5
B.C.
crops
sown
in
the
village
were as
follows
(Crawford
I97I: I84-6
with
P. Tebt.
IV):
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142
Dorothy
J.
Crawford
crop
arouras
%
wheat
994
55
barley 55 3
lentils I86
i
beans
196
ix
fenugreek 33
2
vetch
(arakos)
178
o
black
cummin 2 o'I
grass
18
0'9
fodder
crops
8I
4
pasturage
60
3
1,803
100
The
pattern
is
similar
for the
ten
years
for which details
survive,
with
wheat
regularly
accounting
for
about
55 per
cent of
the
sown land.
Barley,
used for
brewing
as
well
as
for
food
(chiefly
for
animals),
was
less
important,
but
both
beans and
lentils with
their
high
nutritive
value
(Mottram
and Graham
1956: 301-2)
were
grown
in
significant
quantities.
Fodder
crops (vetches,
grasses
and
fenugreek
for
rapid
fattening)
accounted
for
17
per
cent of
the land and fed
the
donkeys
used for
transport,
the
sheep
which
belonged
to
the
temples (P.
Tebt.
53.
7,
1
B.c.)
and the
cattle of the
village
(P.
Tebt.
66.
75-6,
121-120
B.C.).
The seeds of
fenugreek
were
probably
also
used to
make
broth
still so
popular
in
Egypt
today;
cummin
(and
in
some
years
garlic)
was
also
grown
on
the village land. Besides the naturally irrigated basin of the village where these crops
were
sown,
there
were
in
addition
69-5
arouras
(I7.37 hectares)
designated
as
'land of
the
village
and its
surrounds',
where the
mud-brick
housing
was
located
and also the
pigeon
houses.
Not
only
did
pigeons provide
additional
protein,
but
they
were,
and
still
are,
an
important
source
of
dung
for fertilizer.
It
was also here
in
the
small,
artificially
irrigated gardens
that
were
grown
the
lettuce,
cabbage,
fennel,
figs
and
dates
mentioned
in the
papyri
and
grown
locally
for home
consumption.
The food available at
Kerkeosiris,
therefore,
was both varied and
well-balanced
(for
requirements
see
Carpenter 1969).
Salt would need
to
be
brought
into the
village
(this
was
centrally
controlled with a universal salt
tax),
but
carbohydrate,
protein,
minerals and vitamins were all available in crops grown locally or in livestock fed on
these
crops.
Calcium
might
come from
sheep's
milk and
glucose
from
honey
and from
dates.
As
today
the
many species
of
date were
highly
prized
and
would
always
form
a
suitable
'present'
to
a
patron;
they
are also
rich
in
carbohydrates
and contain
some
protein.
From
a
neighbouring village
in
the second
century
B.C.
some
troops
wrote to
their
army
officer
as
follows:
From
Nekpheros
son of Sentheus and the
division in
Lagis
under
your
command.
We
have
been
placed
under
your
protection
and
you,
in
your
turn,
have
accepted
us;
we
shall
give you,
when
the
time
comes,
ten
measures of dried
dates,
one measure
of
Syrian
dates and
two
jars
of
pickled
olives.
(PSI 13I3)
In
the
countryside
it
was
basically
a
natural
economy
which
prevailed
and
the
village
scribe of
Kerkeosiris secured
his
reappointment
in
this
post
in
19
B.C.
by
the
promise
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Food:
tradition and
change
in
Hellenistic
Egypt
143
to
his
superior
of
fifty
measures
of wheat
and
fifty
measures
of
pulses
-
lentils,
bruised
beans,
peas,
mixed
seeds,
mustard
and
parched
pulse (P.
Tebt.
9).
At Kerkeosiris, however, whereas the record of crops is explicit, evidence for the
size
and
spread
of
the
population
is far less certain and
any
detailed
calculation
of
individual diets
is hazardous.
More
specific
evidence for levels of
nutrition
in
Egypt
at
this
period may
perhaps
be obtained from
considering
different
food
allowances.
Food allowances
had
a
long history
in
Egypt.
Their
purpose
was to
allow the
workman
not involved
in
subsistence
agriculture
to subsist
while otherwise
employed,
rather
than
to
reward
services.
Herodotus
(II 168)
records the
daily
allowance of
the
royal
bodyguard
in the
twenty-sixth
dynasty.
Besides a
grant
of three
hectares of
tax-free
land
they
received
a
daily
allowance of five minae
(350
gr.)
of
parched
cereal,
two
minae
(140 gr.)
of
beef
and
four
measures
of wine
-
a not
unreasonable
allowance.
Many
similar examples could be quoted from other periods (e.g. Jannsen I975: 471-93).
Two
Ptolemaic
examples
of food allowances from
the
third
and
second
centuries
B.C.
and from
two
very
different
communities
may
illustrate
the
ranges
possible.
Firstly,
from
the Zenon
papers
of the mid-third
century
B.C. there
survive
numerous
references
to
grain
allowances,
sitometriai.
These
allowances,
made
to
Apollonios'
employees,
were
reckoned
on
a
daily
basis;
they might
be
issued in flour
(e.g.
P.
Cairo
Zen.
59004,
from
Palestine)
or,
more
commonly,
in wheat
(e.g.
P. Cairo
Zen.
59333).
The normal
range
of allowances
was
from
one
to
two
choenikes
a
day (Reekmans
I966
with
Duncan-Jones
1979).
It would be
possible, working
from
these
figures,
to
give
a
daily
allowance
in
terms of calories
(e.g.
Reekmans
1966: 55-7
with
the choenix
at
o098235 litres), but given the variables in such a calculation, the differences in wheat
and
the
uncertainty
in
milling charges
and
extraction rates
(Moritz
I958:
I84-94)
such
figures
lend
a somewhat
misleading
impression
of
precision.
For
purposes
of
com-
parability
calculations in terms of unmilled wheat are
probably
more
reliable.
On
the
basis
therefore
of a
40-choenix
artaba,
reckoning
the choenix at
o-8o8 litres
(Duncan-Jones
1976:
44),
the
annual
allowances
were in
the
range
of
9'I25-I8'25
artabas
or
294-92-
589-85
litres.
Working
from
Pliny's
weight
for
Alexandrian corn
(Natural
History
XVIII
66)
of
2o0-
Roman
pounds (6-812
kg.)
to
a
modius,
making
25-545 kg.
to
the
40-choenix
artaba,
the
equivalent weight
to
these
allowances would
be
233o09-466
19
kg.
of
unmilled wheat
a
year.
Clark and Haswell
in
their
study
of
subsistence diets
reckon
250-300
kg.
as an annual minimum
per person
in units of unmilled
grain
(1970:
62).
The
figure
must
vary
with climate
and
body weight
but
nevertheless
may
serve as
a
standard
against
which to assess the sitometriai of
Apollonios'
estate. It
appears
that
the
grain
allowances made
to his
employees
(233-466
kg.
p.a.)
would be at
least
sufficient
to
satisfy
their basic needs. And
many employees
had
other means of
support,
land
which.
they
rented from
Apollonios
or the
king,
or
commercial
interests.
There was
no reason
for malnutrition
among
this
group
of
workers.
The second
example
is
from
the
very Egyptian
community
of the
Serapeum,
the
cult
complex
of
present-day Saqqara
in
the
desert
west of
Memphis (Ray
I978:
149-57).
When on 6
April
154
B.C.
the
Apis
bull
currently
worshipped
in
the Ptah
temple
in
Memphis
died
and
mummification
proceedings
were
begun,
twins,
the
girls
Taous
and
Thaues,
were
employed
to
take the
parts
of Isis
and
Nephthys
in
these
ceremonies.
Their
predecessors
in
this role
had been
granted
twelve artabas
a
month
of
olyra,
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Food: tradition and
change
in Hellenistic
Egypt I45
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K.
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1976. Early Hydraulic
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A
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Chicago
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D.
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D.
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opium
poppy:
a
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146
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J.
Crawford
P. Cairo
Zen.,
Zenon
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des
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du
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(eds)
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per
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in
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2
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Abstract
Crawford, Dorothy
J.
Food:
tradition
and
change
in Hellenistic
Egypt
Given
the
predictable
climate and
annual
flood
of the
Nile,
a
rich and varied
diet was
always
available in
Egypt,
both from
cultivated
crops
and the
wild flora and
fauna
of
the
country.
Evidence for
diet in
the
Pharaonic
period
tends
to
an
upper-class
bias,
being
mainly
funerary
in
nature.
With the
arrival of
the
Ptolemies
and
their
Greek
bureaucracy, documentary
evidence
adds to
the
picture.
New
crops, especially
new strains
of
wheat,
were
introduced for
the
changing
urban
markets;
they
met
with
some
native
resistance. Records of
corn
allowances
permit
a
detailed
consideration
of some
workers' diets.
In
this
respect
the
temples
remained
centres of
conservatism and
privilege.