Domestic Work And Workspace

Many occupations were carried in workshops and shops facing the street and in courtyards. Professions ranged from all types of shopkeepers and stall-holders, including money-changers and money-lenders, to cooks, butchers, bakers, tavern owners, potters, smiths, cooking-pot makers, goldsmiths, tailors, drapers, dressmakers, flax dealers and rope makers. Shops could be quite small or quite large depending on their location, ownership and use. Several rural industries were located within or adjacent to living quarters. One of the most important industries in the Latin East was the manufacture of sugar. The anonymous text known as Ernoul or La Citez de Jherusalem locates the butchers in Jerusalem on the left hand side of Temple Street in the eastern part of the city. Bread was a staple in the Frankish diet, and the importance of flour mills and baking ovens is made clear by the many references to them in every type of Frankish settlement.Keywords: butchers; flour mills; Frankish rural sites; Jerusalem; manufacturing workshops; rural industries