Amaya Aran Fotegai (14:00)
The Mayans weren't the only culture who saw the divine power in a humble loaf of bread 5,000 miles to the east. The ancient Greeks loved the foodstuff so much that they even had their own goddess for it. Demeter, goddess of agriculture, grain and life giving bread, was held in the highest regard by the ancient Greeks. Believing she was responsible for successful harvests and keeping famines at bay, the Greeks took their worship of her extremely seriously. Every October, married women celebrated the Festival of Thesmophoria. This was a three day celebration dedicated to Demeter and her daughter Persephone, which celebrated human and agricultural fertility. Although the precise rituals of the festival remain something of a mystery, historians believe that one practice included baking bread and cakes in the shape of snakes and men, symbols of fertility, and placing them on altars for Persephone and Demeter. So when archaeologists discovered five charred bread rings at Monte Papoluccio, a former Greek colony now in southern Italy, they concluded they may have been part of an ancient offering to Demeter. And it wasn't only the immortals who were sustained by bread. Ordinary Greek and later Roman citizens loved it too. Bakers experimented with flavours from all over their respective empires, creating honey and olive oil loaves, mushroom shaped loaves, thick crusty white rolls, bread infused with herbs and fruits, and thin, grainy loaves. Generally, the upper classes preferred white bread, while the poorer settled for brown loaves which were sold cheaply. Bread featured in literature too. In Plato's work Gorgias, written in around 380 BC, he introduced a man called Thirion the baker, whom he described as a marvellous attendant of the body due to his ability to prepare admirable loaves. It seems the bread came to Rome thanks to contact with the Greek world. It quickly became a central feature of the Roman diet and a baker's guild was even formed to regulate and control the market for this now necessary food item. And then, of course, there's the Herculaneum loaf. Following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, archaeologists discovered the carbonised remains of a loaf of bread at Herculaneum. It was almost entirely intact. The pyroclastic flow had preserved it for centuries, giving it the appearance of a very, very badly burned loaf of bread. It was similar to a modern sourdough loaf and was stamped with the name of its maker, Sella, slave of Granius Verus. As Roman industry expanded, the process of making bread became easier. The Romans invented a mechanized dough mixer powered by horses and donkeys, and later created the watermill. Long gone were the days of farmers laboriously grinding grains by hand. And a final little Roman fun fact. The word companion derives from the Latin words com and panis, meaning one with whom one breaks bread. It's the year 857, and we're on the muddy streets of a large village in northern Germany. Dawn is breaking through the clouds and pale rays of sun reflect off the puddles on the road. At this early hour, the town is still asleep, save for a few early risers feeding the chickens they keep. In the distance, you hear the bells tolling at a nearby monastery. Just then, you hear footsteps marching around the corner, trudging through the mud and puddles. Turning to look, you see an elderly woman hurrying on by, clutching a sack that seems to be bursting at the brim. What on earth has dragged this woman out of her bed at this ungodly hour? You follow her along the road to a small wooden house at the end of the street. She raps twice on the front door and a frantic looking woman answers. Her face is pale, her eyes red and puffy. It looks as though she hasn't had a moment's peace in days. The woman lunges forward and grabs her guest's arm, dragging her deeper into the drafty house. Within seconds, they reach the kitchen, which seems to have transformed into a kind of makeshift hospital ward. Blood soaked linens lie in a basin. An assortment of herbs have been left roughly chopped on one side. On the kitchen table, which is lined with yet more stained bedding, is the woman's husband. He's evidently in considerable pain, thrashing and writhing uncontrollably. His speech varies between cries of Discomfort and strange snippets of conversation as he slips in and out of hallucinations. Now it makes sense who the visitor is. She must be some sort of healer or wise woman called in to treat this sick man. Clutching a bunch of fresh herbs to shield her mouth and nose, the healer bends forward and examines the man. She gently picks up his hands. They're black with gangrene. Then she inspects his feet, which are the same each time she touches the man's skin, which is covered in swollen blisters, he cries out as if being burned alive. Shaking her head solemnly, the healer gestures to his wife to help the man back into his bed in the next room. Once he's as comfortable as he can be, the healer gently explains to his wife that there's very little she can do. She's not sure what caused this horrific disease, but she's certain the man doesn't have long left. She's seen this before, you see, and it's never ended well. She suggests that his wife go to the church and pray for her husband's salvation. Perhaps it's his sins that have condemned him to this torment. As the old woman turns to leave, she thinks little of the half eaten loaf of rye bread sitting on the kitchen side next to the chopped herbs. A similar loaf sits in her kitchen at home and in most of the houses in the village. But unknown to either woman, it's this bread that's killing the man. Although bread was generally safe to eat, across the Middle Ages, there were periodic outbreaks of a disease called ergotism. Caused by growth of the ergot fungus on rye grains, it had disastrous consequences for the human body. Ergot poisoning affected the nervous, digestive and cardiovascular systems, constricting blood vessels, causing gangrene and eventual death. The anales Zantenses from 9th century Germany described the horrors of the disease, explaining how a great plague of swollen blisters consumed the people by a loathsome rot, so that their limbs were loosened and fell off before death. At the time, no one knew what was causing the deadly plague, and bread wasn't on anyone's list of suspects. It wasn't until the 19th century that a physician finally uncovered the link between rye bread and this horrendous disease. But by this time, it had already killed hundreds of thousands of people. Despite the occasional dangers posed by ergotism, bread remained a staple of the medieval diet. Much like the ancient cultures of Egypt, Greece and Rome. Everyone ate it. From the King of England to the lowliest peasant. Bread was so important to medieval life that its price and consumption had to be regulated. In England, this was achieved by the Assize laws, first introduced sometime in the 13th century. The assize of bread controlled the quality, weight and price of loaves. While the price of a loaf remained constant, the weight of it was fixed to the price of wheat. This meant that when harvests were plentiful and the price of grain dropped, a penny would buy you a generous life. But when harvests failed, prices rose and the penny loaf shrunk. So volatile was the market that the price of grain changed eight times in Oxford in 1310 and six times in Southampton in 1482. Of course, the Assize laws weren't perfect, and there are multiple instances of individuals who tried to cheat the system. Court records tell of bakers who added dirt and gravel to make their loaves heavier, or chalk to colour it white. One baker even baked iron bars into his loaves to trick customers as to the weight. It wasn't only in the cool, wet climates of medieval Europe that bread was a staple food in 10th century Baghdad, writer Ibn Sayyar Al Warraq documented some of the dishes and foods enjoyed by the caliph's court. His cookbook, the Book of dishes, contained around 600 recipes, and it provides an insight into the rich variety of breads that were consumed. Al Warak wheat bread agrees with almost everybody, particularly varieties which are made with a generous amount of yeast and salt and allowed to fully ferment and bake well. Such breads are lighter and digest faster. Other similar varieties that do not ferment or bake well are hard to digest and cause stomach aches. Only people used to strenuous labor can eat them more often. Bread was certainly a necessity around the world, but that's not to say it was always easy to come by. It's an early morning in May 1775, and we're at a busy market in Meru, northern France. As always, the market is a hive of activity. Customers hungrily eye up the rows of food stalls and haggle with vendors to purchase their goods. You can expect to run into to neighbors, catch up with friends and get wind of any gossip swirling through society. A morning at market is usually a pleasant affair, but today something feels amiss. There's a slight tension in the air and conversation seems strained as customers rush between the stalls. This tension is likely thanks to the recent riots that have been sweeping through the area around Paris, targeting markets in particular. The disturbances are in response to the increased price of grain, which has risen so steeply that many can no longer afford a single loaf of bread, you worry this market will be next. Hurrying between the stalls, you load your basket with fresh vegetables and half a dozen eggs. But as you're standing, handing over fistful of leave, a deafening scream pierces the air, followed by shouting and the sounds of tables clattering to the ground. The riots have arrived. When you spin round, you see dozens of women attacking a grain merchant. They're stabbing at the sacks of grain, tearing them open and loading their apron pockets with wheat. More women follow, hoisting up dresses and skirts to catch the grain, then scarpering in all directions. Within minutes, the market has descended into chaos. You can only stare in horror as war breaks out over something as simple as the price of bread. The so called flour wars of 1775 were a series of riots that spread throughout France in just three weeks. They were triggered by an increase in the price of flour, which, due to poor harvests in 1774, rose from 12 livres a sack to 32. Many agricultural workers were spending over 50% of their salary on bread. They were forced to choose between total impoverishment on the one hand and starvation on the other. After reaching Versailles in late May, the Flower War was eventually quelled by the French army and hundreds of arrests were made. Two riot leaders were even sentenced to be hanged. But while the short term violence ceased, anger continued to bubble beneath the surface. Fourteen years later, the French Revolution would be caused in part by another huge increase in the price of a loaf. As the Chief Minister of France and Robert Jacques Turgot warned, do not meddle with bread. In the years following the French Revolution, bread continued to play a key role in society. The Industrial revolution of the 19th century sped up its production, introducing coal and steam powered machines that could grind tons of grain into flour in a matter of minutes. Disagreements about its price continued though, and when the Corn Laws were introduced In Britain in 1815, they sparked public outrage. The laws were designed to benefit domestic agriculture by placing high tariffs on imported grains. But they made bread unaffordable. Much like the French decades before. British citizens rebelled, signing petitions, organising mass meetings and striking against the laws. Although public outrage never quite boiled over into violent revolution, the Corn Laws were finally repealed in 1846. The next chapter in bread's history takes us to the 20th century. Across the Western world, families were enjoying bread every day. And a favourite item on almost everyone's breakfast menu was, of course, toast. Today, we think of toast as one of the easiest foods to make, but this wasn't always the case. Before Toasters. You had to slice bread by hand, then pierce it with a long toasting fork and hold it over an open fire or stove. This required both an element of skill and patience, since if it was held too close to the flames, it would burn. But keeping it too far away could result in you sitting by the fire, arm outstretched, for what felt like hours. That was, until the toaster came along. Early toasters appeared in the late 19th century. Then, in 1906, American inventor George Schneider filed a patent for the first electric toaster, which inspired General Electric to make their own version. Not that the early toaster would be particularly recognisable to you or I today. It consisted of four metal coils that were slowly heated up by electricity. Bread was hung on racks around the coils to be slowly toasted one side at a time. A little over a decade later, American Charles Stright invented the pop up toaster. Known as the Toastmaster. His device warmed both sides of the bread at once and ejected the perfect toast the moment it was done. When the Toastmaster hit American shelves in 1926, it was the hottest product to have in the home. But the toaster wasn't the only bread invention of the 20th century. In 1912, jewelry store owner Otto Frederick Rohweder began work on a machine that would slice bread automatically. His endeavours nearly came to a premature end when a fire destroyed his blueprints in 1917. However, by 1927, his machine was ready. Roveda's invention consisted of a series of mechanical blades that effortlessly cut bread into equal slices just shy of half an inch. Its advertisement boasted that the slices were so definitely better than anyone could possibly slice by hand with a bread knife. Today, over 14,000 years since humans first tasted bread, it remains a staple source of food the world over. In Britain alone, 70% of us enjoy a sandwich for lunch, according to one survey. But while our love for bread has never wavered, the varieties of bread we enjoy have come a long way. If you take a walk down the bread aisle in your local supermarket, you'll see dozens of different breads on offer. Sourdough, French baguettes, wholemeal loaves, pitta focaccia, ciabatta, rye, gluten free. The list goes on. Despite its popularity, there are ongoing issues with bread. Health experts constantly warn us against ultra processed white bread. And as for the price, well, let's just say you'd be hard pressed to find a penny loaf these days. 2007 was the first year where a standard loaf of bread exceeded one pound and since then, the price has only gone up. In the uk, loaves of artisan bread can cost as much as five pounds. However, these are issues that have followed bread throughout history, and there's little doubt it will ever stop being a staple food. After all, there's a reason why we say something is the best thing since sliced bread. In the Next Episode, we take a peek into the history of Neighbours. A French king creates one of the world's first gated communities. Villagers turn on each other with dangerous accusations of witchcraft, and the human race meets its very first neighbors 45,000 years ago. That's next time on the Curious History of your Home. Listen to the next episode today without waiting a week by subscribing to Noiza plus, head to www.noiza.comscriptions for more information.
