Grinding: A Puzzle from 5th Century Greece
I’m always looking out for anything that sheds light on grinding with a saddle quern (or a metate as it would be called in Mexico). Museums often have some dusty exhibits in a corner. Just a couple of days ago I was in the marvelous Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. In an exhibit of Greek artifacts, there was a charming little model, just about six inches high, of a Greek woman grinding in the 5th century BC. Actually the sign said she was kneading but that was clearly wrong. She is leaning over a saddle quern holding the muller in both hands. Or at least I think she is. Assuming the sculptor got things right, it’s actually rather a puzzling little model when you examine it closely.
Some preliminaries. First, the woman is grinding standing up. Grinding worldwide seems most commonly to be done on the knees but there are lots of interesting exceptions. This is one. Second, the metate is placed in a footed tray. This means that the ground product could spill down on to a clean surface. Collecting is always a problem with grinding.
Now the puzzle. What is coming off the grindstone appear to be big lumps. What can they be? Clearly not barley or wheat meal. Cheese? In Mexico metates are used to smooth cheese but the result is a smear not a lump. Same with meat. Could she be breaking down balls of dried barley meal and milk?
Rachel, glad to have discovered your blog!
In Lalibela, Ethiopia, I saw a grindstone that was operated standing — I’d put my certainty at 99%. I’m going to be going back to check up on the grinding to confirm it. A bread is made for Easter. A bread that is made from flour the woman of the house grinds, then makes into bread dough, which she bakes in a leaf-lined terra cotta pot. A lid is placed on the pot and the bread is baked in it with fire under and over. When done and cool a priest comes to the house to bless it. I may have a photograph of the station where the grain was ground. If I can find it — not a certainty — I’ll send it to you.
Perhaps Andrew Dalby would have an opinion about what is being ground.
That would be great William. The variety of ways that grinding is done never ceases to amaze me. And you comment prompts me to get back to writing some posts on grinding.
I guess that if you had a tray like this to collect the milling product, then you really do nead to stand over it?
The lumps are odd, I can’t think of a product that would come off as lumps like this using a push quern. Unless it is something really odd, like something foamy.
The laumps are pretty amorphous, otherwise I might suggest breaking down something like chestnuts for flour. Even if they were lumps of dried dough or grain balls I would expect them to be more uniform in size?