The food stocks of antiquity. Food preservation and management in the Nile Valley and the Mediterranean.
Third meeting of the Research Group on Storage in Ancient Egypt and Sudan.
With the support of UMR 8167 Orient et Méditerranée, UMR 7041 ArScAn, and the University of Geneva.
Study day, June 16, 2025, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Centre Dominique-Vivant Denon (Louvre Museum, Porte des Arts)
As part of the STORinJAR research project and as a partner of the Research Group on Storage in Ancient Egypt and Sudan, the ARCAN laboratory is co-funding a scientific event to be held at the Louvre Museum starting in June 2025. The event will consist of a study day, a round table discussion, and a temporary exhibition on Ancient food stocks. Food Preservation and Management in the Nile Valley and the Mediterranean (June 7, 2025, to January 5, 2026, Room 331 of the Egyptian Antiquities).
After the first two study days organised by the Research Group on Storage in Ancient Egypt and Sudan and devoted to earthen storage architectures of the Nile Valley (https://arcan.unige.ch/outputs/highlights/stockage-en-egypte-et-au-soudan-anciens), the aim of this new meeting is to explore the ways in which food stocks were managed, by including specialists from the ancient Mediterranean world.
Archaeologists and historians working on the Greco Roman world have already provided a number of answers, in terms of building architectural definitions and uses.
We need now to compare our approaches and connect our data. Research on food storage contributes to our knowledge of ancient subsistence economies. It sheds light not only on the technical choices made to conserve stocks until they were replaced, but also on the ways in which these perishable products were acquired and consumed.
By working on storage, we also deal with foodstuff trade – through the containers – and different types of ‘surplus’: these both research themes raise questions about the way in which wealth was created in ancient economies. On the occasion of this study day, an exceptional temporary presentation will be held in the permanent exhibition of the Egyptian collections (Room 331) at the Musée du Louvre: Les garde-manger de l’Antiquité. From June 2025 to January 2026, the Department of Egyptian Antiquities and the Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities will be presenting a selection of objects illustrating the techniques for processing, preserving and trading in food in Antiquity, based on the most recent archaeological research.