The Wheats of Classical Antiquity [62 ed.]

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v~itcr ~ INDIAN AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE,

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tA.ll t6. OIP NLK-H.3 1••UU.-IO·5.S5-15.00C:

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THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES IN HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCE Under the Direction of the Departments of History, Political Economy, and Political Science

SERIES

LXII

NUMBER

3

THE WHEATS OF CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY

By NAUM JASNY

BALTIMORE THEe JOHNS HOPKLNS._PRESS

22697 I 1111[1 11111 11111 11II1 Illil 111I IARI

!il

COPYRIGHT

P!i.INTED

1944,

IN

THE

THE JOHNS HOPKINS

UNITED

STATES

OF

PRESS

AMERICA

BY J. H. FURST COMPANY, BALTIMORE, MARYLAND

PREFACE The writer wishes to express his appreciation of the courtesy of the Johns Hopkins University and particularly of Dr. Sidney Painter, editor of this series, in accepting this study for publication. Dr. B. B. Bayles and Dr. J. H. Martin read and made very useful comments on an early draft of the manuscript, and Miss Elsa Graser of Baltimore went over it with great care. Miss Lilly Lavarello, Miss Annarie Peters, and Mr. R. 1. Revens helped to prepare the present manuscript for print. To all of them the writer's best thanks are extended. To Miss Graser the writer also wis~es to express his sincere regrets; she is justified in feeling that she was asked to work on a manuscript which was greatly changed later, but by no means was all her work lost. Grants-in-Aid by the Social Science Research Council facilitated completion of this and continuation of other studies of grain in classical antiquity. The study was started in the Division of Statistical and Historical Research, United States Department of Agriculture, in 1940 when the writer was on the staff of the Division; the Division has continued to be helpful.

N. Washington, D. C. October, 1945.

7

JASNY

TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGB

11

INTRODUCTION CHAPTER

I.

II.

WHEAT IN THE BROAD SENSE. . . . . . • . . . • . . • . . . . . . .

14

Classification ................................ Present Distribution ..... :.................... Subspecies Grown in the Mediterranean Region in Classical Antiquity and Their Identification. . . . . . Pre-classical History ........ , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

17

CERTAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF WHEATS. . . . . . • . . . . . .

38

Bearded and Beardless Wheats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kernels . ................................. '" Table 1. Quality of Italian Wheats . . . . . . . . . . . . . Table 2. Quality of Egyptian Poulard and Common Wheats .................... " .,. ... .......

III.

IV.

NAKED WHEAT: PRINOPAL TYPES GROWN IN ANTIQUITY AND THEIR l)1AMES. .. .. . .. . . . . . . . . . . .

28

39

41 51 52

53 53 57

NAKED WHEAT: GEOGRAPHICAL AND OTHER VARIATIONS ......•..••.•......•.....•...••...•.

71 71

79

BOTANICAL IDEJHIFICATION. . . . . . .

88

Three-Months Wheat. .. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

88

NAKED WHEAT: ~fJL~8a.A{T'YJ