freezing was a good way to preserve food in cold-weather cli-
mates. North Americans, for example, killed game late in the
fall and then allowed the meat to freeze, oft en grinding it up
and mixing it with other foods such as berries. Another ma-
jor way of preserving meat and fi sh was by salting them. Salt,
inexpensive and taken for granted in the modern world, was
a highly valued commodity in the ancient world, necessary
not only for nutrition but for food preservation. In addition
to salt, certain herbs and other plants were found to have pre-
servative properties, particularly in discouraging insects and
rodents. Enzymes from cow stomachs and some plants en-
abled people to preserve dairy products in the form of cheese.
Pickling, too, used acids to preserve vegetable crops.
Larger, more advanced communities needed to fi nd ways
to preserve and store large quantities of food. Th e ancient
Egyptians, for example, developed highly sophisticated tech-
niques for growing grain in the silt left behind by the fl ood-
waters of the Nile River. Aft er the waters receded, millions
of acres of grain crops were planted and then irrigated with
water stored in a complex system of fi elds, dikes, dams, and
sluices. Annual crop yields amounted to millions of tons,
most of which was stored in community granaries for later
distribution. On a smaller scale, some ancient peoples devel-
oped underground storage silos for grain, sealing the silos off
from the air to prevent rotting, molds, and pest infestations.AFRICA
BY KIRK H. BEETZ
Archaeological evidence for ancient African storage and pres-
ervation is patchy, known only from a smattering of sites scat-
tered across the continent. Archaeologists have used physical
evidence, records from ancient historians such as Herodotus
(ca. 484–ca. 425 b.c.e.), and the practices in historical times
of ancient ethnic groups to reconstruct a little of how ancient
Africans stored food and valuables. Th ere are hazards in us-
ing the practices of people in the present day to reconstruct
what their ancestors may have done, because even a very tra-
ditional culture may change some of its practices over a pe-
riod of thousands of years.
Even so, what little is known about storage and preserva-
tion in ancient Africa off ers clues to the matters of ancient re-
lationships among cultures and the diff usion of knowledge in
ancient times. Grass-lined pits have been discovered in West
Africa and in the central Sahara in which food, probably mil-
let, would have been stored, and the peoples around ancient
Lake Chad had silos made of mud bricks, possibly for storing
grain. Th e pits of West Africa may date from about the early
4000s b.c.e., around the same time as similar ones found in
Egypt, whereas the pits and silos of Chad date from about
1800 to 400 b.c.e. Some archaeologists take these fi nds as evi-
dence of a shared culture that predated the ancient Egyptian
culture and probably developed in the Sahara, then spread
into the region of the Nile. Others suggest it is evidence that
storage practices spread either from the newly agriculturalpeoples of the lower Nile region to the west or from central or
western Africa to the region that became central Egypt.
Archaeological work in Chad is especially interesting be-
cause it is one of the few places in Africa where archaeologists
have been able to begin constructing a record of continuous
cultural development. Very early, people built villages near
the shores of Lake Chad, which was much bigger before the
Sahara dried. As the shores of the lake receded, people moved
their homes to remain near the vital source of water. Th is
has allowed archaeologists to go from one site to another,
progressing ever more recently in history as they move ever
closer to the modern lake. Th us there is evidence for the de-
velopment of storage practices from about 1800 to 400 b.c.e.
Th e most signifi cant fi nds have been pits. Some pits were
dug to remove clay for building homes. Others were dug to
provide clay for building defensive walls around villages.
Still others are of a more mysterious purpose. Some probably
stored valuables such as pottery and metal objects. Some of
the pits may have stored food, especially cowpeas. Not yet
securely dated are the silos, which were probably built aft er
1800 b.c.e. Th ey were for grain, probably pearl millet, a type
of grain that was durable when stored. Th e silos are taken as
an indication that the ancient villagers were able to have sur-
pluses of crops from their harvests and had the social orga-
nization to store the surpluses for periods of poor harvests.
Given that pearl millet was a summer crop and that winters
could be very dry, the silos and pits at least may have provided
storage of food for use during the winter. People in the region
still use storage pits, and archaeologists draw some of their
conclusions about pits being used for storing food from the
similarity of the ancient pits to the modern ones.
As the Sahara and much of northeastern Africa dried
in ancient times, storing and preserving water became more
and more important. Evidence for how this was done in the
Sahara comes mostly from ancient rock paintings dating to
about 8000 b.c.e. onward. Many of the paintings depict or-
dinary life, which has allowed archaeologists to trace some of
the developments in Saharan culture as the climate changed.
During the period from 2780 to 600 b.c.e. residents of the Sa-
hara drew water from wells. One painting shows what appears
to be a leather bucket being hoisted from a well. Th e belief that
it is leather is based on the artist’s depiction, which makes
it look like animal hide, and the fact that the Saharans were
longtime herders of cattle. From this it may be inferred that
leather bottles were used to store and transport water much as
the peoples of the Sahara have done in historical times.
In the kingdom of Kush (ca. 900 b.c.e.–ca. 300 c.e.),
south of ancient Egypt, water management seems to have
been more sophisticated. Cisterns made of stone have been
found in Kush’s towns and cities. Archaeologists debate about
the use of the cisterns, suggesting that they were swimming
pools, baths, or storage for drinking and cooking water. Th ey
tend to be located in or near homes, and the ancient Kushites
boiled food extensively, both of which suggest that the cis-
terns were intended to store water for consumption.1062 storage and preservation: Africa0895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i1062 1062 10/10/07 2:30:56 PM