ASSIROS - GRANARIES PHASE 9 C 1300 BC: 1
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GRANARY PHASE 9 ROOM 9 |
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The granaries found at Assiros in Phase 9 are a unique discovery in the prehistoric Aegean. The devastating fire which overwhelmed the site around 1300 BC preserved details of the storage containers - large baskets, pithoi and clay bins - as well as hundreds of kilogrammes of charred seeds of wheat, barley and other crops. One of the rooms measured 9 x 4 metres and is estimated to have contained about 18 m3 of stored crops. |
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© Diana Wardle |
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Large wicker baskets over 1.20m in diameter were placed along one side of the room, while twelve large pithoi were set along the other wall and the spaces in between filled with smaller containers made of clay mixed with straw. After the fire the inhabitants attempted to salvage what they could, searching for unburnt grain or unbroken pithoi for reuse. Rebuilding followed and the granaries were reinstated in the following Phase (8 - c 1300-1200 BC) |
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The wheat and barley had only been partly threshed before storage, so that the grains were still held in fragments of the ears. In this form they would have been more resistant to mould and insect attack. We calculate that the one room would have contained 12 tonnes of food stuff - enough to feed fifty people for a year. Together with the other areas of storage found at this period there would have been far more grain stored than the inhabitants of the mound itself could have needed. Perhaps Assiros served at this time as a centre for storage and perhaps even administration for a large area. |
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