The Bread Makers by Jared T. Benton

Author:Jared T. Benton
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030466046
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Conclusion

The dichotomy of the small bakeshop and the large bakehouse, known from Newark, are also evident in the Roman world. The small bakeries occupying, on average, less than 150 m2, pervade the cities around the western Mediterranean. In certain cities, a larger bakery capable of greater production existed. This second category of commercial baking is demonstrated by larger bakeries (over 200 m2 in area) and by possible tenement housing, but such architectural remains are largely confined to Rome, Ostia, and further east in the Mediterranean.62 But Ulrich, among others, observes that our evidence for insulae is evident only in urban centers with large populations, which must also be true of the large baking operations.63 As such, population size may be a guide as to where to begin documenting industrial-scale commercial baking, especially when accompanied either by mechanized water mills (at least those away from military installations) or epigraphy attesting investment and vertical-integration strategies. The population estimates adopted here are from J.W. Hanson and S.G. Ortman whose recent study is the most convincing effort to use the nature of the urban fabric of cities to infer their likely population density and then apply that to their extent or area, arriving at a population estimate.64 For the cities they do not address, other bibliography was used. Rome, Ostia, Cologne, Trier, Timgad, and Nimes are all cities that demonstrate factory-production or businessman bakers, clustering in central Italy, along the Rhine river valley, and in Mediterranean Gaul. Excluding Rome, these cities have an average population estimate of ca. 42,000 people (Table 3.2). The smaller workshop bakeries are attested instead at a much smaller type of city, with an average population of ca.7500.Table 3.2Population Estimates and Bakery Types

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