be completely coated in a thick layer of potter’s clay and left
to dry. A quick wash would remove the clay from the fruits
later. Th e Romans also understood the importance of keeping
the fruits from touching one another, and fruits might also be
stored in containers divided with wood into little compart-
ments and fi lled with sawdust. However, all of these methods
were very labor intensive and were probably most oft en used
on the great estates that had hundreds of slave workers.THE AMERICAS
BY AMY HACKNEY BLACKWELL
Ancient American peoples needed to store several things:
wild food items that they had gathered, seeds for the next
planting season, and water for daily use and in case of
drought. Th ey also needed to preser ve food, both plant foods
and meats, so that they would have a steady food supply
throughout the year.
Drying was the most common method of food preserva-
tion throughout the Americas. People dried such grains as
corn and other vegetables either by spreading them out in
the sun or by placing them in a fi re. How long grains would
remain edible depended on local humidity; corn would last
three years in the dry climate of the North American South-
west, but it lasted only one year in the humidity of the Yu-
catán peninsula. People preserved meat and fi sh by drying
them as well. Women would cut meat into strips and lay it
across open racks to dry in the sun. Meat and fi sh could be
smoked by placing them in the smoke of a slow fi re for several
days. Dried and smoked meats would keep for many months,
depending on humidity and temperature. Native Americans
sometimes embellished their basic dried meats with diff er-
ent ingredients. For example, sometimes they would dip the
meat in ground corn before drying it and then roll up the
dried strips for ease of transport during travel. Pemmican
was made by cutting fresh meat into chunks, mixing it with
dried berries and rendered fat, and spreading it out to dry
into bars.
Native Americans who lived in cold climates took advan-
tage of natural freezing temperatures to preserve meat. Th ey
would kill animals early in the winter, cut them into pieces of
meat, and allow the meat to freeze. Th ey could then defrost
it in a fi re when they were ready to eat it. Th e people who
lived in the Arctic commonly employed this technique with
seal meat. People who lived in the Andes used freeze-drying
to preserve some of their food, particularly potatoes. Th ey
would lay out their potatoes on the mountainside, where the
potatoes would freeze; the water would then gradually subli-
mate out of them, resulting in very lightweight potatoes that
lasted a long time. Although people ate dried foods as they
were, they might also reconstitute them by soaking or cook-
ing them in water.
Th roughout the Americas people stored food in woven
baskets. People throughout the two continents began mak-
ing baskets about 6000 b.c.e. Both sexes wove baskets. Peoplewould sometimes weave baskets very quickly on the spot if
they suddenly found a trove of food and wanted to carry it
home. Basket styles and materials varied by region. People in
the north made baskets of birch bark, ash, or sweetgrass. Na-
tive Americans in California used yucca, willow, or sumac.
On the northwest coast weavers used spruce root, cedar bark,
and swamp grass. People in the southeastern regions used
pine needles. Basketry became more highly developed when
people adopted the sedentary agricultural lifestyle, around
1 c.e. in North America and perhaps around 4000 b.c.e. in
Central America.
Native Americans used baskets for a variety of purposes.
Th ey attached shoulder straps to conical baskets to make car-
rying baskets. Some baskets had an open weave; these baskets
were lighter, good for carrying loads of fi rewood or large food
items. Open-weave baskets were useful for catching and car-
rying fi sh or clams because they allowed the water to drain
out of the basket. More tightly woven baskets could carry
small items, such as seeds. When people harvested crops,
they sometimes carried small baskets on their hips to hold
the grain they picked, periodically emptying these small bas-
kets into larger baskets on their backs. Diff erent shapes of
baskets were used for diff erent food items. Baskets intended
to hold fresh berries, for example, were shaped like cones to
prevent the weight of the topmost berries from crushing the
ones on the bottom. Baskets could be waterproofed with such
substances as pine resin to make them suitable for carrying
or storing water.
Native Americans throughout North America stored
food in clay pots. Archaeologists have found pots throughout
the continent, dating to the time when humans fi rst lived in
the area; numerous ancient pots date to between 25,000 and
8000 b.c.e. Plain mud can be formed into vessels that will
dry hard, but unless they are fi red, they will dissolve in water
and crumble easily when dry. Baking clay in a hot fi re makes
it hard and more water resistant, though without some sort
of glaze to seal the surface even fi red clay will leak water. Ar-
chaeologists have found many unfi red pots used by ancient
Americans; these could have been used to store dry items,
such as nuts and seeds.
Historians believe that the practice of fi ring clay pots was
an outgrowth of basketry and food drying. One technique
Native Americans developed to dry such food as corn was to
place the grain in a basket lined with clay and then put it in
or over a fi re. Th e basket would burn, leaving behind a baked
clay shell. As evidence for this practice, historians cite the
many ancient pots with exterior textures that look as if they
were formed in baskets.
Although Native Americans had used pots to store food
for millennia before the advent of farming, it was when they
settled down in agricultural settlements that potters gained
real expertise with their art and diff erent nations developed
diff erent designs for their vessels based on their storage needs.
Women (who made most pottery) made water jars with bases
designed to rest comfortably on the top of a human head in1070 storage and preservation: The Americas0895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i1070 1070 10/10/07 2:30:58 PM