A survey of ancient grain milling systems in the Mediterranean

After thousands of years of exclusive use of saddle querns for grinding grain, a series of sophisticated mills appeared and developed in the Mediterranean during the second half of the first millennium BC and the beginning of the Common Era. These were the Olynthus mill, the rotary hand mill, the Iberian rotary pushing mill, the Morgantina mill, the Pompeian mill, the ring mill, the Delian mill, the watermill and the geared mill. Although studies of aspects of this subject have appeared in the past, these have usually been limited to one mill type or region. In this paper we intend to present an overview of the dynamics of innovation, continuity, influences and spread of these different milling systems.