48 Depending on the prevalent environmental conditions, there were very different forms of cultivation. In addition, crops were continually developed to produce higher yields. In Central America, maize was usually intercropped (planted together) with beans and squashes. It required minimal tilling and yielded two annual harvests. Over time, artificial irrigation systems were installed and cultivated maize cobs were grown to be many times larger than in the original wild plant. Growers in Egypt had depended from the earliest times on the annual Nile floods that inundated the river banks for several weeks. The fertile silt deposited on the floodplain was key to agriculture. Basins, dams and canals were built to harness and distribute the floodwaters. Water-intensive rice cultivation in Asia also required complex terracing and irrigation systems (fig. 1). In all cultures, the harvested grain was manually processed using a grindstone (fig. 2) or, in the case of maize, a mortar. For larger quantities, and as part of a process of efficiency enhancement, the ancient Greeks, for example, developed lever mills with two moving grindstones. Rotary mills with large hoppers (funnels for feeding grain into the mill), driven by donkeys or slaves (see p. 61, fig. 4), were introduced in the Roman Republic (2nd – 1st centuries BCE) to meet the growing needs of the city’s population. Water mills, which became increasingly widespread in the Roman Empire and allowed quasi-industrial production, represented a real technological revolution. Scholars estimate, for example, that the watermill complex of Barbegal in southern France, built in the 2nd century CE, was able to produce up to 4.5 tonnes of flour per day to supply the military stationed nearby. Grain was made into loaves (fig. 3) or flatbread, porridge or cakes, as well as beverages, especially beer. The food was prepared in individual households or, in larger towns and cities, on the premises of bakeries and other specialized businesses. In just the small Roman town of Pompeii, which was buried in a volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius, archaeologists have found evidence for more than 30 bakeries of various sizes (see p. 57). Many different actors were involved in the production of staple foods, and in many pre-modern societies their roles changed over time. Peasants, who cultivated land as owners or tenants to provide food locally and regionally, existed everywhere. They were particularly vulnerable to crises such as crop failure or war, which threatened their livelihoods: they could become dependent on large landowners through debt bondage, serfdom or slavery. In Roman Italy, there was a shift from subsistence peasant farming to a slave economy, which was based on large agricultural villas with 1 Photo, Japan, early 20th century. Rice, like grain and maize, is one of the most important staple foods for humanity. It is grown in many Asian countries on irrigated terraces. This historic photograph shows men and women in traditional dress planting rice seedlings.
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