the grain was stored loose in a granary or in one room of a
larger storage building.
Some of the earliest buildings solely dedicated to storage
of grain were round, with dome-shaped roofs. Th ese would
have looked very similar to the images of granaries from
Egyptian tombs from the same time period. Granaries from
the later Geometric Period in Greece have an almost identical
shape. Grain was poured into the granary through a window
near the top of the dome and removed at the base through
another gap. Th us, the older grain at the bottom of the pile
would always be used fi rst.
During the fourth and fi ft h centuries b.c.e. people ac-
tually made less use of large-scale and long-term storage fa-cilities. During the Bronze Age goods had been taken to the
palaces for redistribution, but in the Classical Period (480–
323 b.c.e.) the system of storage and distribution was based
on individuals and their farmsteads. However, even though
the local farmers could not grow enough grain to feed the
nearby cities, archaeologists have not been able to identify the
storage places of the imported grain in urban centers or their
ports. Th is has led some scholars to suggest that the grain was
stored in the countryside.
At Knossos a building called the Unexplored Mansion
contained a number of storage jars of untouched food, in-
cluding legumes, fi gs, and several kinds of grain. Some of
the grain in these jars was hulled, but a similar fi nd of stored
Bronze Age grain in Macedonia had spikelets of wheat. Cen-
turies later, ancient authors would recommend storing grain
without threshing it (removing the chaff or straw) so that if
weevils did get in, they would be confi ned to the outer lay-
ers of the grain. In the eighth century b.c.e. the Greek writer
Hesiod (fl. ca. 800 b.c.e.) stated that threshed grain should be
kept in storage jars within the house.
Th e available methods of storing food meant that food
had to be preserved by other means before being put into
storage. Unfortunately, most of the ancient descriptions of
food processing come from the Roman Period, and the ar-
chaeological evidence is oft en not of much help. Th e evidence
seems to point to the fact that meat, which was expensive
and therefore rarely eaten, was consumed right away. Fish,
on the other hand, was eaten in larger quantities, both fresh
and preserved. Based on the information available, it seems
likely that the Greeks usually salted or smoked both meat and
fi sh. Th ere are, in fact, many terms for preserved fi sh, but all
seem to describe the species of fi sh and the shape of the pre-
ser ved pieces rather than the process. Milk from goats, sheep,
or cows was preserved for short-term use by being made into
butter and for longer periods by being made into cheese. Milk
solids could be formed into small bricks, dried in the sun, and
later rehydrated for use in cooking.
Lentils, peas, and beans of all kinds were dried for stor-
age and were easily reconstituted with water in stews or
ground up into fl our. Other vegetables could have been dried
or pickled in brine or vinegar. Olives and cucumbers were
certainly pickled in these ways. Greens such as lettuce and
cresses were diffi cult to keep for long periods and probably
were eaten only fresh. However, it is known that the leaves
of fi g trees were pickled and were used by almost every cook.
Fruits that had an outer rind (such as pomegranates) or were
hard (like quinces) could be kept fresh by careful storage. If
the fruits were placed in containers in such a way that they
did not touch the sides of the container or especially each
other, they would stay fresh for a longer time. Juicier, soft er
fruits such as fi gs, plums, cherries, and grapes could be dried
or preserved in honey. Grapes, of course, were also preserved
by being made into wine. Most fruits, in fact, could be pressed
for their juice and the juice allowed to ferment and become
cider or wine or to sour and become vinegar. Not only didAmphora, a ceramic vessel used for storing and carrying oil and wine
and other commodities, from Athens (Alison Frantz Photographic
Collection, American School of Classical Studies at Athens)1068 storage and preservation: Greece0895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i1068 1068 10/10/07 2:30:57 PM