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The Bread Makers

The Social and Professional Lives of Bakers in the Western Roman Empire

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  • © 2020

Overview

Authors:
  1. Jared T. Benton

    1. Old Dominion University, Norfolk, USA

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  • Reveals the rich diversity of bread making in the Roman world.

  • Offers new methods and frameworks for understanding ancient production.

  • Moves past questions of production to address the economic strategies and social habits of bakers.

  • Inperprets iconography and depictions of bread making as expressions of ideology and visual constructions of identity rather than as documentations of production

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiii
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  2. Introduction: Chaînes Opératoires and the Making of Roman Bread

    • Jared T. Benton
    Pages 1-35

  3. Baking as Cultural Heritage: Regional Variation in the Roman Production of Bread

    • Jared T. Benton
    Pages 37-89

  4. Modes of Production: Bakeries as Factories and Workshops

    • Jared T. Benton
    Pages 91-120

  5. Experiencing the Bakery: Training, Status, Labor, and Exploitation

    • Jared T. Benton
    Pages 121-140

  6. Voluntary Associations and Collectivity: A View from the East and the West

    • Jared T. Benton
    Pages 141-174

  7. Crafting an Image

    • Jared T. Benton
    Pages 175-199

  8. Conclusion: The Question of the Roman Middle Class

    • Jared T. Benton
    Pages 201-209

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 211-216
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Keywords

About this book

Bread was the staple of the ancient Mediterranean diet. It was present in the meals of emperors and on the tables of the poorest households. In many instances, a loaf of bread probably constituted an entire meal. As such, bread was both something that unified society and a milieu through which social and ethnic divisions played out. Similarly, bakers were not a monolithic demographic. They served both the rich and the poor, but some bakers clearly operated within regional traditions. Some lived in big cities and others lived in small towns. Some bakers made flat breads and others made leavened loaves. Some made coarse brown loaves and others specialized in fancier white breads. This book offers new methods and new ways of framing bread production in the Roman world to reveal the nuances of an industry that fed an empire. Inscriptions, Roman law, and material remains of Roman-period bakeries are combined to expose the cultural context of bread making, the economic context of commercial baking, the social hierarchy within the workforces of bakeries, and the socio-economic strategies of Roman bakers.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Old Dominion University, Norfolk, USA

    Jared T. Benton

About the author

Jared T. Benton is Assistant Professor of Ancient Art and Archaeology at Old Dominion University, USA. He has excavated in Italy, Greece, Spain, and Morocco. Since 2013, Benton has been a area supervisor for the Contrada Agnese Project, part of the American Excavations at Morgantina. Since 2017, he has been director of the Urban Economy of Volubilis Project.



Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The Bread Makers

  • Book Subtitle: The Social and Professional Lives of Bakers in the Western Roman Empire

  • Authors: Jared T. Benton

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46604-6

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Economics and Finance, Economics and Finance (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) under, exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-46603-9Published: 15 December 2020

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-46606-0Published: 15 December 2021

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-46604-6Published: 14 December 2020

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIII, 216

  • Number of Illustrations: 47 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Economic History, History of Ancient Europe, Cultural Anthropology, Industrial Organization

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