the fi rst century c.e. was the double bottle, which linked two
main vessels with a tube. Cups sometimes resembled those
used by the Mayans, but a long, narrow, cylindrical one was
in use by the mid-400s c.e.
Th e furniture of the ancient South Americans is not yet
well known. Beds seem to have consisted of blankets, and pil-
lows may have been used to rest sleepers’ heads. Tables were
low on four legs, with raised edges as if to prevent objects
from slipping off. Dates for such artifacts have yet to be fi rmly
assigned.
See also adornment; agriculture; architecture; art;
building techniques and materials; ceramics and pot-
tery; children; climate and geography; clothing and
footwear; crafts; death and burial practices; em-
pires and dynasties; food and diet; gender structures
and roles; hunting, fishing, and gathering; illumi-
nation; inventions; metallurgy; music and musical
instruments; nomadic and pastoral societies; sacred
sites; settlement patterns; social collapse and aban-
donment; social organization; storage and preserva-
tion; textiles and needlework; trade and exchange;
weaponry and armor.
FURTHER READING
Penelope M. Allison, Pompeian Households: An Analysis of the Ma-
terial Culture (Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at
the University of California at Los Angeles, 2004).
Bob Brier and Hoyt Hobbs, Daily Life of the Ancient Egyptians
(Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1999).
Robert Flacelière, Daily Life in Greece at the Time of Pericles, trans.
Peter Green (London: Phoenix Press, 2002).
Kevin Greene, Roman Pottery (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1992).
Michael Loewe, Everyday Life in Early Imperial China during the
Han Period, 202 B.C.–A.D. 220 (New York: Dorset, 1988).
A. G. McDowell, Village Life in Ancient Egypt: Laundry Lists and
Love Songs (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999).
G. M. A. Richter, Th e Furniture of the Greeks, Etruscans, and Ro-
mans (London: Phaidon Press, 1966).
H. W. F. Saggs, Everyday Life in Babylonia and Assyria (New York:
G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1965).
D. E. Strong, Greek and Roman Gold and Silver Plate (Ithaca, N.Y.:
Cornell University Press, 1966).
Donald Strong and David Brown, eds., Roman Craft s (London:
Duckworth, 1976).
Malcolm Todd, Everyday Life of the Barbarians, Goths, Franks and
Va n d a l s (London: B.T. Batsford Ltd., 1972).
▶ hunting, fishing, and gathering
introduction
In modern life, many people hunt and fi sh as a form of rec-
reation, and even gathering crops from a household garden is
oft en more of a hobby than a necessity, at least in the devel-
oped nations. By contrast, among ancient peoples, especially
before the development of agriculture, hunting, fi shing, and
gathering were serious pursuits. People lived in small bands
and tribes, moving about as the seasons changed in the con-
stant search for food. To the extent that they foraged within
a limited area, they had to be careful not to deplete the food
resources in their area; otherwise, they could face starvation
later. Th ey oft en had to compete with other species, making
sure, for example, that they harvested berries before birds ate
them.
Ancient hunters, who relied on such weapons as spears,
had to hunt cooperatively, and they learned how to read the
signs of nature that told them where they could fi nd game
and in which direction that game might be moving. In early
hunter-gatherer societies, considerable emphasis was placed
on sha r i ng. I n genera l, t he food acqu i red i n a hu nt or gat hered
from the ground was communal property, not the property
of the individual who found it. Women played an important
role in acquiring food, especially as gatherers.
Game meat was the chief source of protein among early
hunter-gatherers, as was fi sh for those who lived in coastal
regions or along the banks of freshwater rivers. Early fi sher-
men became adept at fashioning nets and underwater traps
for fi sh and seafood. Additionally, ancient hunter-gatherers
consumed nuts, acorns, seeds, herbs and spices, roots, fruits
and berries, and mushrooms—always depending on what
was available in the local region at a particular time of year.
Th e most common sweetener was honey. Many common do-
mesticated crops, including wheat, rice, and legumes (that is,
beans), originally grew wild and only later were domesticated
to become staple crops.
Aft er the development of agriculture, hunting, fi shing,
and gathering by no means disappeared. While people who
lived in sedentary communities (that is, more or less fi xed
communities, where people remained in one place) derived
most of their food from agriculture, including livestock
production, people in remote areas continued to rely on the
hunting, fi shing, and gathering skills learned by their remote
ancestors. Even people who lived in settled communities con-
tinued to hunt and fi sh as a way of introducing variety into
their diets. Poor people, for example, supplemented their di-
ets by hunting rabbits and game birds.
As civilizations became more advanced and food pro-
duction became more organized and even commercialized,
hunting became more of the sport that it is in modern life.
Th e elite hunted prestige animals such as wild stags, usually
on horseback and with the aid of dogs bred for the purpose.
Hunting, fi shing, and gathering provided ancient peoples
with more than just food. Animals large and small aff orded
hides for clothing and blankets as well as bones, horns, and
teeth from which tools and decorative items could be made.
Birds supplied feathers, and many plants were valued not
as food but for their medicinal properties or as the source
of dyes. Even fi sh bones could be useful for such household
items as needles.hunting, fishing, and gathering: introduction 571