Smyrna times., 1905-09-06
ANTIQUITY OF BREAD
THE STAFF OF LIFE AS PREPARED BY
THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS.

wheat and Baking the Loaf - The |
Bread of the Assyrians-First Water |
Power Mills In Norway.
Bread was made of fairly respect
able quality long before the advent Of
the days of Biblical chronology. Syn
chronOus with the development and
progress of grinding stones was the
Improvement in the manner of making
bread. Meisskomer, to whose delvings
into subjects on race progress much
present knowledge is due, discovered,
saws the Flour Trade News, an eight
pound loaf of evenly crushed grain and
well baked under conditions that mark
its manufacture as long before the ad
vent of man as he is today. This loaf
has the appearance of having been
been baked before an open fire, the
mass of dough thrown on fiat stone
before the open blaze and turned until
each side had been subjected to the
heat. 1t is hardly up to the standard
of our present bread, but the men Of
those days were not finical.
| The ancient Egyptians were the pi-
oneers in extensive grain growing and
bread making. Their grains were
wheat, barley and doura, and were
much like the grains of today. The
Egyptians were really the best farm
ers" of which we have any coherent
record They harvested their wheat
FIVE months after it was put in the
ground and bound it into sheaves much
like the hand bound sheaves of today.
Their thrashing was done by driving
cattle over the granary floors.
The old style of grinding obtained
with the Egyptians, the women usu-
ally being required to perform the
work, but they had discovered the
power of fermented yeast cells, as in
several instances leavened bread has
been found dating to this era. 1t is
also with the Egyptians that the pro-
fessional baker first springs into no
tice in the world There is picture
writing on several tombs that shows
bake shops long before the time of the
dynasty. The story of Joseph COLI
serving the abundance of the fat years
: for use during the seven lean years
| shows how important grain and bread
stuffs were to latter day Egyptians.
, Thanks to the art of the Assyrians
, and the enduring qualities of bronze
we have records to show how this an
cient people prepared their bread. Ap
parently the Assyrians were a mos
( abstemious people and little given t.
d riotous feasting, even in the celebra
| Of x-io fhoi-
: On the bronze gates of Balawat ar
q found engravings depicting the warlik
doings of Shalmaneser H., who rulet
} and warred in the years from $50 B.
to S25 B. G. One engraving shows tn
I women of q tribe baking bread, grea
n piles of bread, for the benefit of return
l. ing victorious soldiers. The Assyrian
h also knew how to raise grains, thei
IF hydraulic machines and aqueduct
q showing how they appreciated th
- value of irrigation.
- Bread figured prominently in the his
- tory and religion of the ancient Jew
Their first cereals were only ry,
IL wheat and barley, and they began the
use by eating them raw after the fasl
lOu VI 1hlo 10 u
normal course of progress with a
peoples that early become extensiy
u grain eaters. The grain grew wild +;
90 first and was eaten by the naked sa
lie age only as one of the leguminoI
IL plants that gave him precarious su
IN tenance Gradually, seeing the streng
ne obtained by those who fed exclusive
x-f&l ~ se f,1k
a. ligence increasing, began to care f
the patches where the desirable plan
," grew, and from this 1t was not a f
ne step to the careful cultivation of graf
on Each family of the Jews had m
up for itself, differing in this from its co
ed tempOraneous races, where the gra
N, was ground In a community mill.
nd important was the milestone in t
lor economy of the Jewish home th
Moses laid down the law, mo mi
shall take the neither or the upper mi
nlS stone to pledge, for he taketh a maj
me life to pledge" This, the phrase
to pledge" would indicate that the paw
ich shop was not unknown at even Il
nat early stage of the worlds career.
|
w. the old time residents of the Scandil
Wan countries in their time stood fol
!. most prominently as grain users a
Iui bakers Women were principally
ase charge Of the preparation of the gr;
hes and of the bakeries. The grinding "
ust done in mills run by horsepower. wi
or even by large dogs.
Some of the first water power m
ing known of were in Norway. The b
i'm. ing here was usually done in ov'
=. constructed ard maintained by
towns and villages. People with gr
'ei to be baked into bread came to
OF bakeries, where women received
ing same, baked it and returned the br'
irst to the owner with a 1.-THE taken out
.an- the baking.
iai BeaconsheId's severest Critic.
ing The grateful affection which L