On this episode of the Peopling the Past Podcast, we sit down with Dr. Jared Benton, an assistant professor in the Department of Art at Old Dominion University. Dr. Benton is the author of a recent book titled “The Bread Makers: The Social and Professional Lives of Bakers in the Western Roman Empire” and he is the field director of the Contrada Agnese Project at Morgantina in Sicily, as well as the director of the Urban Economy of the Volubilis Project in Morocco.
Listen in, as we discuss all aspects of Roman bakeries, including the process of making bread and the people who worked in these environments, as well as the sights and smells you would encounter when visiting a bakery in a Roman city.
Interested in learning more? Check out these related publications by Dr. Benton:
Benton, J., 2020. The Social Construction of Roman Industrial Space: The Limits of Chaînes and the Nature of Roman Baking, in: Kamermans, H., Van der Meer, L.B. (Eds.), Designating Place: Archaeological Perspectives on Built Environments in Ostia and Pompeii. Leiden University Press, 153–168.
Benton, J., 2021. The Bakeries of Volubilis: Process, Space, and Interconnectivity. Mouseion 17, 241-272.
Looking for a transcript of this episode? Click here.
Additional Resources Related to this Podcast
Bakker, J.T. 1999. The Mills–Bakeries of Ostia: Description and Interpretation. Amsterdam: J.C. Gieben.
Leduc, M. 2008. “Les Pistrina Volubilitains, Temoins Majeurs du Dynamisme Economique Municipal,” in L’Africa Romana. Le Ricchezze dell’Africa Risorse, Produzioni, Scambi. Atti del XVII Convegno di Studio. Sevilla, 14–17 Dicembre 2006. Rome: Carocci. 475–505.
Leduc, M. 2011. “L’artisanat au Coeur de la ville: l’exemple des pistrina de Volubilis,” in S. Fontaine, S. Satre, and A. Tekki (eds.), La ville au quotidien: regards croisés sur l’habitat et l’artisanat antiques: Afrique du Nord, Gaule et Italie: actes du colloque international, Maison méditerranéenne des sciences de l’homme, Aix-en-Provence, 23 et 24 novembre 2007. Aix-en-Provence: Publications de l’Université de Provence. 181–189.
Mauné, S., N. Monteix, and M. Poux (eds.). 2013. Gallia. Archéologie de la France antique, vol. 70, no. 1. Paris: CNRS.
Mayeske, Betty Jo B. 1972. “Bakeries, Bakers, and Bread at Pompeii: A Study in Social and Economic History.” Ph.D. dissertation, Ann Arbor.
Monteix, N., 2009. Pompéi, Pistrina : recherches sur les boulangeries de l’Italie préromaine. Mélanges de l’école française de Rome 322–335.
Monteix, N., 2016. Contextualizing the operational sequence: Pompeian bakeries as a case study. Urban craftsmen and traders in the Roman world. 153–179.
Monteix, N., 2018. Using the chaîne opératoire to interpret the layout of Roman workshops, in: Bentz, M., Helms, T., Habelt, R. (Eds.), Craft Production Systems in a Cross-Cultural Perspective, Studien Zur Wirtschaftsarchäologie. Habelt, Bonn, 133–150.
Online resource: Bakker, Jan Theo. 2000. “The mills-bakeries of Ostia and the distributions of free grain”
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