At https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/12/241220133041.htm … at a Neolithic site in Denmark, new research suggests grinding stones and grain were not, primarily, used to make bread, as one might think. It was, instead, used to make a porridge, or gruel, from the grains. If so, gruel had a long life amongst the peasants of Europe, as it was still being consumed deep into the 20th entury in the former Russian satellite states. Gruel even pops up in the Charles Dickens stories which tells us it was not unknown in western Europe in the 19th century.
It is normally thought grinding stones were used to produce flour. The idea they were primarily to produce a porridge rather than bread is a fascinating conclusion, one that may have defied the thinking of western scholars with their more sophisticated diets. No breakfast cereals back then, or toast and marmalade. Porridge is still a common breakfast meal however, made of oats rather than other grains. Gruel was the main meal back in the day. A few herbs and vegetables added to the porridge, and in good times, some meat or fish. In the Neolithic vegetables were not as big or readily available as nowadays – usually derived from wild plants. Even a couple of hundred years ago vegetables were not the fat kind of swede or parsnip you encounter today, and carrots were considerably inferior to modern versions.
This finding may explain why pieces of the grinding stone found its way into the food and caused wear and tear on the teeeth of the deceased. Bread flour was sifted and such pieces of stone, if noticed, could be removed. Stone debris in gruel would have been quite different. It was watery
Over at https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/ancient-assyrian-capital-thats-been-abandoned-for-2-700-years-revealed-in-new-magnetic-survey …. Khorsabad, it seems, was not a short-lived blip on ancient history but was, instead, a long lived major city of the empire. It boasted a massive villa complex for starters, as well as cultivated gardens, and various other structures yet to be investigated with the spade or trowell. It was under the auspices of Sargon II that its history began, known then as Dur Sharrukin, the fortress [palace] of Sargon. He died 8 years later and the task of building the city fell ot Sennacherib. At the same time Sennacherib favoured improving and lavishing his attention on Nineveh. This was the location of the hanging gardens – later connected with Babylon rather than Nineveh. Khorsabad, its modern name, was thought to have been abandoned altogether – even though it was newly built. The new research confirms this was not the case.