Image Details

COURTESY OF THE ORIENTAL INSTITUTE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO (ACC. NO. 242)

DAILY GRIND. Grinding grain into flour on a hand mill was one of the necessary steps in bread production in the ancient Near East. The grinding technology did not change much during the millennia, which is why this painted limestone statuette—dating to c. 2477 B.C.E.—is a valid representation of the process also in Zenon’s time. Coming from the tomb of courtier Nikauinpu (presumably at Giza, Egypt), the statuette captures a kneeling woman in the typical pose: moving the rubbing stone with both hands to and fro over the grains spread on a flat stone, a jar of grain between her knees, and her feet crossed.