Languedoc and Catalonia. Second, the concentration of large numbers of
storage pits in and around Emporion reinforces the link between trading
networks and the provision of large numbers of grain-storage silos. The
progressive expansion of storage capacity in these silos between the
fourth and second centuriesbc, independently of the life of the individ-
ual settlements with which the silos were associated, indicates a robust
network of producers and distributors, and a continuing history of
exchange. The investigators have assumed that cereals were regularly
exported for the profit of the various urban and rural centres in Catalo-
nia. Until the second centurybc, these were indigenous landowners and
tenants. Thereafter, and until the dissolution of the storage system, when
eastern Iberia became more closely integrated with central Roman plan-
ning, Roman officials increasingly appropriated the proceeds of agricul-
tural exploitation.^32
The pit phenomenon has not been researched systematically in Mace-
donia and Aegean Thrace, but in Bulgaria there is a less distinct but
nonetheless identifiable pattern of pit complexes in the hinterland of the
Black Sea littoral; along the main riversflowing towards the Aegean—the
Hebros, Tonzos, Strymon, Nestos, and in eastern Rhodope, south of
Kurdjali; but with a very marked concentration in the eastern half of
the Thracian Plain, converging on the lower Hebros estuary.^33 The
tradition has its origins in the Neolithic, but the number of sites where
such pits have been identified was most numerous in the periodc. 600 bc
until the reign of Augustus, although the acme of storage corresponds to
the periodc. 600 – 200 bc, providing an intriguing parallelism with Cata-
lonia. The hypothesis needs to be examined in detail; perhaps there was a
similar overall pattern in the dynamics of cereal production and distri-
bution. After all, an international grain market did emerge with the rise
of large concentrations of population and with changes in socio-eco-
nomic strategies, such as those identified among the town-dwellers at
Olynthos, who chose not to store grain and other foodstuffs.^34 If so, then
storage capacity in continental districts provides a new way of gauging
the export of cereals from these areas to the Aegean.
Underground storage provides excellent anaerobic conditions for dry
foodstuffs, such as grain, for limited periods. Annual storage of harvests
and seed corn was a realistic strategy, but once opened, these pits had to
be unsealed and emptied, or the grain stored temporarily in sealed, dry
(^32) Burch et al. 2010, 399–400.
(^33) Hawthorne et al. 2011, 60 andfig. 2 (distribution map); cf. 59fig. 1 (timeline, 4500bc–
ad500).
(^34) Bresson 2011 on the international grain market; see above Ch. 1.
Dining cultures 283