Bakhsha¯Lı¯ Manuscript 2

B

1. Rule (sūtra) Bakhsha¯lı¯ Manuscript 2. Example (udāharan. a) . Statement (nyāsa/sthāpanā) TAKAO HAYASHI . Computation (karan. a) . Verification(s) (pratyaya/pratyānayana) The Bakhshālī Manuscript is the name given to the oldest extant manuscript in Indian mathematics. It is so A decimal place-value notation of numerals with zero called because it was discovered by a peasant in 1881 at (expressed by a dot) is employed in the Bakhshālī a small village called Bakhshālī, about 80 km northeast Manuscript. The terms for mathematical operations are of Peshawar (now in Pakistan). It is preserved in the often abbreviated, especially in tabular presentations of Bodleian Library at Oxford University. computations. Thus we have yu for yuta (increased), gu The extant portion of the manuscript consists of 70 for gun. a or gun. ita (multiplied), bhā for bhājita (divided) fragmentary leaves of birchbark. The original size of a or bhāgahāra (divisor or division), che for cheda leaf is estimated to be about 17 cm wide and 13.5 cm (divisor), and mū for mūla (square root). For subtraction, high. The original order of the leaves can only be the Bakhshālī Manuscript puts the symbol, + (similar to conjectured on the bases of rather unsound criteria, the modern symbol for addition), next (right) to the such as the logical sequence of contents, the order of number to be affected. It was originally the initial letter the leaves in which they reached A. F. R. Hoernle, who of the word .rn. a, meaning a debt or a negative quantity did the first research on the manuscript, physical in the Kus.ān.a or the Gupta script (employed in the appearance such as the size, shape, degree of damage, second to the sixth centuries). The same symbol is also and knots, and the partially preserved serial numbers of used in an old anonymous commentary on Śrīdhara’s mathematical rules (9–11, 13–29, and 50–58). Pātīgan. ita, which is uniquely written in the later type of The script is the earlier type of the Śāradā script, the Śāradā script (after the thirteenth century). Most which was in use in the northwestern part of India, works on mathematics, on the other hand, put a dot namely in Kashmir and the neighboring districts, from above a negative number. the eighth to the twelfth centuries. G. R. Kaye, who The problems treated in the extant portion of the succeeded Hoernle, has shown that the writing of the Bakhshālī work involve five kinds of equations, manuscript can be classified into at least two styles, one namely (1) simple equations with one unknown (15 of which covers about one-fifth of the work. There is, types of problems), (2) systems of linear equations with however, no definitive reason to think that the present more than one unknown (14 types), (3) quadratic manuscript consists of two different works. equations (two types, both of which involve an The information contained in the manuscript, the arithmetical progression), (4) indeterminate systems title of which is not known, is a loose compilation of of linear equations (three types, including the so-called mathematical rules and examples collected from “Hundred Fowls Problem,” in which somebody is to different works. It consists of versified rules, examples, buy 100 fowls for 100 monetary units of several kinds), most of which are versified, and prose commentaries on and (5) indeterminatepffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi equationspffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi of the second degree the examples. A rule is followed by an example or (two types: x þ a ¼ u and x b ¼ v, where u and v examples, and under each one the commentary gives a are rational numbers; and xy ¼ ax þ by). “statement,”“computation,” and a “verification” or The rules of the Bakhshālī work may be classified as verifications. The statement is a tabular presentation of follows: the numerical information given in the example, and the computation works out the problem by following, 1. Fundamental operations, such as addition and and often citing, the rule step by step. subtraction of negative quantities, addition, multi- Thus, the most typical pattern of exposition in the plication, and division of fractions, reduction of Bakhshālī Manuscript is: measures, and a root-approximation formula, 2 Bakhshālī manuscript

pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 2 A style of exposition similar to that of the Bakhshālī r ðÞr=2a 2 þ þ : work (“statement,” etc.) is found in Bhāskara I’s a r a ðÞþ = 2a 2 a r 2a commentary (AD 629) on the second chapter called gan. ita (mathematics) of the Āryabhat.īya (AD 499). 2. General rules applicable to different kinds of Both Bhāskara I’s commentary and the Bakhshālī work problems: regula falsi, rule of inversion, rule of attach much importance to the verification; it became three, proportional distribution, and partial addition obsolete in later times. The unusual word yāva and subtraction. (yāvakaran. a in Bhāskara I’s commentary) meaning 3. Rules for purely numerical problems: simple equations the square power, and the apparently contradictory with one unknown, systems of linear equations with meanings of the word karan. ī, the square number and more than one unknown, indeterminate equations, the square root, occur in both works. and period of an arithmetical progression. Bhāskara I does not use the symbol yā (the initial 4. Rules for problems of money: equations of proper- letter of yāvattāvat or “as much as”) for unknown ties, wages, earnings, donations, etc., consumption numbers in algebraic equations even when it is of income and savings, buying and selling, purchase naturally expected, while he employs the original word in proportion, purchase of the same number of yāvattāvat itself in the sense of unknown quantities (in articles, price of a jewel, prices of living creatures, his commentary on Āryabhat.īya 2.30). This probably mutual exchange of commodities, installments, a implies that he did not know the symbol. The symbol sales tax paid both in cash and in kind, and a bill of is, on the other hand, utilized once in the Bakhshālī exchange. work in order to reduce the conditions given in 5. Rules for problems of travelers: equations of an example to a form to which the prescribed rule is journeys, meeting of two travelers, and a chariot easily applicable; after the reduction, the symbol and horses. is discarded and the rule is, so to speak, applied 6. Rules for problems of impurities of gold. mechanically (fol. 54v). This restricted usage of the 7. Rules for geometrical problems: volume of an symbol seems to indicate that the work belongs to a irregular solid and proportionate division of a triangle. period when the symbol was already invented, but not very popular yet. All the rules of the first category, namely the There has been quite a bit of dispute over the dates of fundamental operations, occur only as quotations in the manuscript. Hoernle assigned the work to the third the computations of examples. Many of the other rules or the fourth century AD, Kaye to the twelfth century, could belong to either miśraka-vyavahāra (on mixture) Datta to “the early centuries of the Christian era,” and or średhī (of series) in a book of pātī (algorithms) such . . Ayyangar and Pingree to the eighth or the ninth century. as Śrīdhara’s Pātīganita and Triśatikā (eighth century), . . The above points suggest that the Bakhshālī work etc., but they have not been arranged according to the (commentary) was composed not much later than ordinary categories of vyavahāra. Bhāskara I (the seventh century). We apparently owe the present manuscript to four types of persons: the authors of the original rules and ▶ ▶Ś ī ▶ ā examples, the compiler, the commentator, and the scribe. See also: Zero, r dhara, Bh skara I Possibly, however, the commentator was the compiler himself, and “the son of Chajaka” (his name is unknown), References ā ī by whom the Bakhsh l Manuscript, or at least part of it, ā ī “ ” Ayyangar, A. A. K. The Bakhsh l Manuscript. Mathematics was written, was the commentator, or one of the Student 7 (1939): 1–16. commentators. The colophon to the section that deals Channabasappa, M. N. On the Square Root Formula in the exclusively with the trairāśika (rule of three) reads: Bakhshālī Manuscript. Indian Journal of History of Science 2 (1976): 112–24. This has been written by the son of Chajaka, a ---. The Bakhshālī Square-Root Formula and High Speed brāhman.a and king of mathematicians, for the Computation. Gan. ita Bhāratī 1 (1979): 25–7. sake of Hasika, son of Vasis.t.ha, in order that it ---. Mathematical Terminology Peculiar to the Bakhshālī may be used (also) by his descendents. Manuscript. Gan. ita Bhāratī 6 (1984): 13–8. Datta, B. The Bakhshālī Mathematics. Bulletin of the Immediately before this statement occurs a fragmentary Calcutta Mathematical Society 21 (1929): 1–60. word rtikāvati, which is probably the same as the Gupta, R. C. Centenary of Bakhshālī Manuscript’s Discov- ā ī – country of Mārtikāvata mentioned by Varāhamihira (ca. ery. Gan. ita Bh rat 3 (1981): 103 5. ---. Some Equalization Problems from the Bakhshālī AD 550) among other localities of northwestern India ś ā ā ā Manuscript. Indian Journal of History of Science 21 such as Taks.a il (Taxila), Gandh ra, etc. (Br. hatsam. hit (1986): 51–61. 16.25). It may be the place where the Bakhshālī work Hayashi, T. The Bakhshālī Manuscript: An Ancient Indian was composed. Mathematical Treatise. Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 1995. Balkhī school of arab geographers 3

Hoernle, A. F. R. On the Bakhshālī Manuscript. Verhandlun- It is obvious that the maps are conceived as a set gen des VII Internationalen Orientalisten Congresses covering the Muslim Empire with reasonable detail, and – (Vienna 1886). Arische Section, 1888a. 127 47. there is no attempt to cover non-Islamic areas in the ---. The Bakhshālī Manuscript. The Indian Antiquary 17 (1888b): 33–48, 275–9. same way. It has been suggested that this policy of Kaye, G. R. The Bakhshālī Manuscript. Journal of the Asiatic including only Islamic regions is deliberate. Each map is Society of Bengal (NS) 8 (1912): 349–61. given a page or so of textual description, and each B ---. The Bakhshālī Manuscript: A Study in Medieval of these descriptions is planned in such a way that lists of Mathematics. Archaeological Survey of India, New Imperial routes, towns, mountains, rivers, etc., are given for each Series 43. Parts 1 and 2: Calcutta, 1927. Part 3: Delhi, 1933. province. Thus they bear a certain resemblance to the Rpt. New Delhi: Cosmo Publications, 1981, 1987. work of Ibn Khurdādhbih, although the latter’s work Pingree, D. Census of the Exact Sciences in Sanskrit. Series A Vols. 1–5. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, was not accompanied by maps nor did he limit himself 1970–1994. only to the Dar al-Islam. There is a likelihood that the ---. Jyotih. sāstra: Astral and Mathematical Literature. Balkhī School material and the work of Ibn Khurdādh- Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1981. bih are based on Persian (Sassanid) materials which Sarkar, R. The Bakhshālī Manuscript. Gan. ita Bhāratī 4 survived the Islamicization of the Persian home areas. – (1982): 50 5. The Balkhi maps cannot be connected together like the sectional maps of al-Idrīsī to form one large map of the known world. Al-Is.t.akhrī and Ibn H. awqal show no interest in projection, scale, or mathematical geography and do not mention latitudes and longitudes at all. The Balkhı¯ School of Arab Geographers only form of measurement given is that of days, journeys (marh. ala). The maps are very geometrical in design. Lines are straight or arced, rivers are parallel lines, lakes GERALD R. TIBBETTS often perfect circles. Towns can be circles, squares, four pointed stars or something similar. Stopping places on The Balkhī School refers to a group of four authors routes resemble small tents or caravanserais. who recognize the fact that their geographic work is al-Muqaddasī’s text is based on the same principles interlinked. It is also known to scholars as the Classical but is a considerable improvement over that of his School of Arab Geography or the Islamatlas. Abū Zaid predecessors. He also includes a section on astronomical Ah.mad ibn Sahl al-Balkhī (d. 322/834), who wrote geography and geodesy including a note on the Greek ā ī S.uwar al-aq l m, is the earliest of them and presumably system of climates. Both Ibn H. awqal and al-Muqaddasī the originator. The other three authors are Abū Ish.āq are more up-to-date and are more at home in Europe and IbrāhīmibnMuh.ammad al-Is..takhrī (ca. AD 950) (Al- North Africa, having a preference for the western part masālik wa’l-mamālik), Muh.ammad ibn H. awqal of the Empire rather than the Persian speaking areas. (d. between 350/861 and 360/972) (S.ūrat al-ard. )and al-Muqaddasī’s maps however have a closer affinity ˓ ā ī Abu Abdall hMuh.ammad ibn Ahmad al-Muqaddas with those of al-Is.t.akhrī, whereas we would expect, (d. ca. 390/1000) (Ah. sānal-taqāsim). Theirworkisbasedonaseriesofmapscoveringthe Islamic Empire together with a text which consists mainly of notes on the maps. Many copies of these works survive; the earliest surviving manuscript being a version by Ibn H. awqal dated AH 479/AD 1086. This is the earliest Arabic manuscript to contain a map. Yet, copies of al-Is.t.akhrī’s book were still being produced as recently as the middle of the nineteenth century AD. There is so much material available that scholars have identified two separate editions 3ns of al- Is.t.akhrī, three of Ibn H. awqal and two of al-Muqaddasī,althoughoneof the versions of Ibn H. awqal does not contain maps. These different texts can be associated with similar sets of maps, and these maps can be compared and relationships established which enable us to trace the development of “Balkhī” cartography. The standard set of maps consists of a world map, two oceans (Indian and Mediterranean), ī four Roman provinces (i.e., areas which were originally Balkh School of Arab Geographers. Fig. 1 Map of Arabia from al-Istakhrī’sSuwar al-buldān. From the Byzantine) and 14 Persian provinces (Fig. 1). .. . 4 Bamboo from the nature of his text, something much more The reality is that bamboo has been one of the prime advanced. He has however a different selection of maps, nutrients of Asian culture and may yet turn out to there being no world map nor one of the Caspian Sea and have a significant role to play in civilizations around the a completely new map of the Arabian desert. world. The applications and powers of bamboo are The works of these authors were reproduced continu- almost limitless from the purely aesthetic to merely ally throughout the centuries not only in Arabic but also in practical. The earliest boats were made of bamboo. Persian or Turkish translation. Other writers occasionally Through inspiring poetry, metaphysics, painting, and borrow a selection of the maps or an individual map. geometry while simultaneously being the material for Some of the later versions are very corrupt and hardly its production, bamboo has both created and preserved recognizable. A world map derived from this school knowledge, wisdom and art. Bamboo has not only appears regularly in the works of Ibn al-Wardī and often sustained life by providing housing, food, and medi- in texts of al-Qazwīnī’s cosmography showing how cine, it has been used to make a profusion of tools and popular these maps were in the Muslim world. domestic and industrial essentials from baskets to scaffolding, cables, and steel reinforcing, from musical See also: ▶al-Muqaddasī, ▶Ibn H. awqal, ▶Ibn Khur- instruments to windmills, bridges, and airplanes. dadhbīh, ▶al-Idrīsī, ▶Maps and Mapmaking in the It was a raw material for papermaking that bamboo Islamic World, ▶al-Qazwīnī. made its greatest contribution in the past, while also having the capacity to revolutionize paper production References in the future. Bamboo is a super producer yielding two to six times more cellulose per acre than pine and can Ahmad, S. Maqbul. “Djughrafiya” and “Kharīt.a.” Encyclo- pedia of Islam. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1960. be cropped annually, but its capacity to provide paper ˓ al-Muqaddasī. Ah. san al-taqāsim fī ma rifat al-aqālim. Trans. pulp has gone largely unrecognized outside India, André Miquel. Damascus: Institut français, 1963. China, Thailand, and Brazil. Fifty percent of the Dunlop, D. M. al-Balkhī. Encyclopedia of Islam. Leiden: E.J. world’s timber is used to make paper, while in India Brill, 1960. two-thirds of the paper is made from bamboo with Miller, Konrad. Mappae arabicae: arabische Welt-und Land- more than 40 factories making 600,000 tons of paper karte des 9–13 Jahrhunderts. 6v. Stuttgart, 1926–1931. annually. If this use of bamboo were extended Miquel, André. “Ibn H. auqal” and “al-Is.t.akhrī.” Encyclopedia of Islam. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1960. worldwide, the saving of old growth forest currently Tibbetts, G. R. The Balkhī School of Geographers. History used in wood chip production would be greatly reduced. of Cartography. Vol. II, Book 1. Cartography in the In Colombia and Costa Rica, bamboo, when coated Traditional Islamic and South Asian Societies. Ed. J. B. with concrete in a form of lath and plaster construc- Harley and David Woodward. Chicago: University of tion, has proved to be a cheap and effective way of – Chicago Press, 1992. 108 36. building earthquake-proof housing. Similar techniques are under development in the Philippines and Hawaii to use bamboo in cyclone-proof buildings. Bamboo Bamboo has proved extremely effective in stabilizing soil and preventing erosion. As a “mop crop” it also has a great capacity to extract nitrates and phosphates from effluent. DAVID TURNBULL These characteristics make it an ideal plant for handling two of the world’s most significant problems, soil de- Few other plants or materials have been so pleasing to gradation and water quality. It is the ultimate renewable the eye, have inspired so many artists, poets, and resource and if it is employed in either or both these philosophers, or have contributed so materially to the ways it can become a cheap and sustainable feed stock development of civilization as have bamboos. Bamboo for making paper, houses, furniture, flooring, a profusion (Arundinaria) is a grass that grows with great rapidity of decorative items as well as food and medicine. in a wide range of climates with over 1,500 species However, it is in this transition from being virtually a around the world. It is both immensely strong and very free good to being a valued resource that potential light. It is easily worked with simple tools and is problems lie. Demand is already exceeding supply in strikingly beautiful both in the economy of its natural India, and while government economists in Delhi argue form and in its finished state. Yet not only has its key that bamboo can become a cash crop that will improve role in the development of science and technology been the lot of the poor, it is possible that the landless largely overlooked by Western historians of science, peasants will end up being unable to afford even poor but its contemporary uses tend to be contemptuously man’s timber. As Western civilization gradually over- undervalued as simple and traditional. It was dismissed takes the developing world, research on the more as “poor man’s timber.” industrial uses has begun, and it is being widely used Banū Mūsā 5 in making parquet flooring and laminated beams. It is to Syriac into Arabic. Muh.ammad was on friendly terms be hoped that, as it becomes a first world resource, it does with this group of scholars, particularly with Hun.ayn, not become just another opportunity for exploitation. If who translated and composed books at the request of the developing economies leave the knowledge of its his patron. The brothers therefore played a leading role uses and the control of production in the hands of the in the transmission of Greek works into Arabic, and in local people, bamboo has the capacity to benefit all of us. the foundation of the long and important contribution B of the Islamic world to the sciences. Some 20 works ū ū ā References are attributed to the Ban M s , of which three have survived. The best-known and most important of the Cusack, Victor. Bamboo World: Clumping Bamboos and brothers, books, which were largely the work of How to Use Them. Kenthurst, New South Wales: Kangaroo Ah.mad, is their Kitāb al-h. iyal (Book of Ingenious Press, 1999. Devices). The work comprises descriptions of some Farrelly, David. The Book of Bamboo: A Comprehesive Guide to This Remarkable Plant, Its Uses and Its History. 2nd ed. 100 small machines, including alternating fountains, San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1995. self-filling and self-trimming lamps, and a clamshell Kumar, Arun, I. V. Ramanuja Rao, and Cherla Sastry eds. grab. About 80 of the devices, however, are trick Bamboo for Sustainable Development – Proceedings of the vessels of various kinds that exhibit an astonishing Vth International Bamboo Congress and the VIth Interna- mastery of automatic controls. The inspiration for tional Bamboo Workshop. VSP & International Network Ah.mad’s work is undoubtedly to be found in the for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR), 2002. machine treatises of the Hellenistic writers, particularly the Pneumatics of Philo of Byzantium (mid-third cen- tury BCE) and the Pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria (fl. ca. AD 60). The Kitāb al-h. iyal, although some of Banu¯ Mu¯sa¯ the devices in it come directly from Philo or Hero, goes well beyond its Greek predecessors, particularly in the use of small pressure variations and conical valves and DONALD R. HILL other components in automatic controls. Indeed, the work of the Banū Mūsā in the variety and ingenuity of The Banū Mūsā were three brothers, Muh.ammad, their control systems was unsurpassed until quite recent Ah.mad, and al-H. asan, who were amongst the most times. There may have been some didactic intention in important figures in the intellectual life of Baghdad in their writing, but most of their constructions are quite the ninth century. We do not know their dates of birth, trivial to our eyes. Nevertheless, many of the ideas, but Muh.ammad died in 873 and could hardly then have techniques, and components that they used were to be been less than 70-years old, because the youngest of considerable importance in the development of brother al-Hasan was already a brilliant geometrician in machine technology. . ˒ the reign of al-Ma mūn (813–833). Their father, Mūsā ibn Shākir, was a noted astronomer and a close See also: ▶Thābit ibn Qurra, ▶Hunayn ibn Ishāq, ˒ ˒ . companion of al-Ma mūn when the latter was residing ▶al-Ma mūn at Marw in Khurasan before he became caliph. When ˒ Mūsā died, al-Ma mūn became the guardian of his sons, who were given a good education in Baghdad, References becoming skilled in geometry, mechanics, music, Hill, Donald R. Arabic Mechanical Engineering: Survey mathematics, and astronomy. of the Historical Sources. Arabic Sciences and Philosophy ˒ Under the successors of al-Ma mūn, the brothers 1.2 (1991): 167–86. became rich and influential. They devoted much of Rashed, Roshdi. Archimedean Learning in the Middle Ages: – their wealth and energy to the quest for the works of The Banu Musa. Historia Scientiarum 6.1 (July 1996): 1 16. ---. Les commencements des mathématiques archimédiennes their predecessors, especially in Greek and Syriac, and en Arabe: Banu Musa. Perspectives arabes et médiévales sent missions to the lands of the Byzantine Empire to sur la tradition scientifique et philosophique grecque. seek out manuscripts and bring them to Baghdad. Ed. Ahmad Hasnawi, et al. Leuven: Peeters, 1997. 1–19. Muh.ammad is said to have made a journey to Rashed, Roshdi, ed. Les mathématiques infinitésimales du IXe Byzantium in person. The brothers acted as sponsors au XIe siècle. London: Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Founda- to a group of scientists and translators, to whom they tion, 1993. The English edition of Kitāb al-h. iyal is: The Book of paid about 500 dinars a month. The most outstanding ū ū ā ā Ingenious Devices by the Ban M s . Translated and of these scholars were Th bit ibn Qurra and Hunayn annotated by Donald R. Hill. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1979. The ā ibn Ish. q, who rendered numerous works, many of Arabic edition is: Kitāb al-h. iyal. Ed. Ahmad Y. al-Hassan. which would otherwise have been lost, from Greek and Aleppo: Institute for the History of Arabic Science, 1981. 6 Basketry in ancient Egypt

food, and many other items. The tomb of Tutankhamun Basketry in Ancient Egypt contained over 120 baskets (Reeves 1990: 204; Malek). Even coffins and sandals were made in the coiled technique. WILLEKE WENDRICH Twining has been attested from the Predynastic period onward. The twining technique consisted of a The oldest basketry found in Egypt dates to the (passive) warp and a weft of two active strands. These Neolithic period (ca. 5900–4000 BCE). In the Fayum were twisted around the passive warp elements, and Oasis, about 100 km (60 miles) southwest of Cairo, each other, in either S or Z orientation. The twining grain storage pits were excavated in the desert floor, technique was extremely versatile, depending on the lined with coarse straw basketry (Fig. 1). materials used and the distance between the weft and First discovered in 1926 (Caton-Thompson and warp elements. Fig. 4 shows some of the variety. Gardner) and examined in detail for the first time Matting was used widely as awnings, windbreaks in 2005 after recent excavations (Wendrich and Cappers and doors, but also as mattresses for sleeping and 2005), these baskets represent a coiling technique. This covers to wrap the dead. Egyptian architecture was entails a bundle of straw fastened into a coil with a characterized by many references to the use of mats in number of stems pulled out of the straw bundle at the original shrines and temples. The “drum” that was regular intervals. This particular type of coiling went out of use and was replaced by a variation of the coiling technique, which existed simultaneously. This type of coiling makes use of different materials for the bundle and the winders (Fig. 2). Near the Neolithic grain storage pits part of an extremely finely coiled basket was found, dated to about 4200 BCE, made of separate bundle and winder materials and decorated with darker winders along the rim (Fig. 3). These two examples from the Egyptian Neolithic demonstrate that basketry technology was well ad- vanced by that time and must have known a long period of development for which we have no other evidence. The oldest and most frequently used techniques in ancient Egypt were coiling, twining and mat weaving. Coiling was used to produce sturdy baskets, varying in size from 3 to 60 cm in diameter. In Ancient Egypt Basketry in Ancient Egypt. Fig. 2 Coiling with separate bundle and winder materials. A bundle of grass is held into wood was scarce. Basketry, therefore, had an important place by palm leaf winders. function, replacing cupboards as containers for clothing,

Basketry in Ancient Egypt. Fig. 3 The Fayum Neolithic Basketry in Ancient Egypt. Fig. 1 Neolithic grain storage produced very fine decorated coiled basketry. This 6,000 year pit lined with coarse coiled straw basketry, excavated in 2005. old fragment was found only a few centimeters under the Photograph UCLA/RUG Fayum Project. surface. Photograph UCLA/RUG Fayum Project. Basketry in ancient Egypt 7

B

Basketry in Ancient Egypt. Fig. 4 Three examples of the many variations used to produce twined basketry: (a) a mat made of bundles of grass, fastened into a fabric with widely spaced rows of twining; (b) a sturdy mat made of narrowly spaced twined string, and (c) a sieve grid made of open twined strips of palm leaf. part of the so-called false door represented a rolled up Basketry in Ancient Egypt. Fig. 5 Tomb painting of a mat, and decorative motifs on tomb and temple walls, mat weaver (detail), dating to the Middle Kingdom (approximately 1600 BCE). From the tomb of Khety in Beni such as pillars carved to resemble tied reed bundles, a Hassan, Middle Egypt. stylized motif representing the tied off bundles of grass matting (the kheker motive) and other decorative patterns, also referred to mats. The Djoser complex in consisting of plaited strips sewn together to form a Sakkara, for instance, displayed many references to the seemingly ongoing plaited fabric. Depending on the perishable predecessors of its stone architecture pattern, only twill strips plaited with a particular (Lehner 1997:84–93; Verner 2002: 108–140). number of strands (9, 13, 17, 21, etc.) could be used, For mat weaving a simple horizontal ground loom which created broad edges, with a particular orienta- was used, consisting of four wooden pegs in the tion. The edges were pulled inside each other, thus ground, to which two crossbeams were tied. The warp completely hiding the sewing strand. The most com- was kept taut by tightening the strings tying the two monly used materials for basketry changed slightly beams to the ground pegs. A third beam, with evenly over time. In the prehistoric and Predynastic periods the spaced holes, guaranteed the regular spacing of the materials attested are papyrus (Cyperus papyrus), the warp string (in more delicate loom types this part would stems of the composite Ceruana pratensis and wheat or be called the reed ). It had a double function, because barley straw. In the Pharaonic period tall tough grasses by slamming the beam into the woven part of the mat, it (Desmostachya bipinnata and Imperata cylindrica)were also served as a beater, creating a tight weave. The mats used for twined and woven matting, as well as for the were mostly made with a warp of grass string, spaced bundles of coiled basketry. The coils were fastened with 3–4 cm apart, and a weft of single grass stems, or small winders of papyrus rind or doam palm leaf (Hyphaene bundles of grass. For sleeping mats the grass was laid in thebaica). Date palm leaf (Phoenix dactylifera)occurred with the thicker base side of the stem, while the tip was rarely in the Pharaonic period, but became widely used left to stick out from the warp, forming a more toward the Late Period and the Greco-Roman period, comfortable thick fibrous pad underneath the mat. An taking over the significance of both papyrus and doam early depiction of a mat weaver is found in the tomb of palm leaf. This probably had an environmental reason; a Khety in Beni Hassan and dates to the early Middle slight climatic change caused the doam palm to retreat Kingdom (ca. 1900 BCE, see Fig. 5). south and at present this species occurs only sparsely From approximately the fourth century BCE onward south of Luxor and is common only in Sudan. The date the plaiting technique became increasingly popular in palm, on the other hand, was cultivated increasingly in Egypt. Sandals were no longer made of many parallel all of Egypt. Similarly, papyrus plants, cultivated for rows of coiling, but rather plaited with palm leaf. The writing material and basketry, withdrew to the south and equivalent of our flip-flop was plaited with eight strips at present do not occur in a natural habitat in Egypt. of doam palm leaf, each approximately 4 cm wide. The variety of ancient Egyptian basketry techniques, More elaborate sandals had several padded layers, of shapes, and materials reflect the widespread use and fine and coarse plaiting with different materials: coarse functionality of these objects. The tomb paintings and plaits from palm fiber for the outer sole, fine plaited reliefs from all periods of Egyptian history corroborate palm leaf fabric for the inner sole. Fans were made of the information from the archaeological material. extremely fine plaited matting, using strands of palm Bearers of offerings were shown carrying baskets full leaf of only 2 mm wide. For both mats and baskets a of produce and goods, farmers were depicted sowing completely new technique was introduced into Egypt, from twined baskets, loading the harvest in enormous 8 Baudhāyana carrying nets and carrying the threshed grain in baskets of agnis (fireplaces), citis (mounds or altars), and vedis to the granaries. Perhaps the most telling was the fact (sacrificial grounds). Such tracts are also found as that in many of the ostraka (pot sherds and lime stone separate works and are called Śūlba Sūtras or Śulbas. chips used as scrap paper) from the village of Deir el They are the oldest geometrical treatises which Medina baskets (of grain) were listed as the standard represent in coded form the much older and traditional size for paying wages. Indian mathematics. The root śulb (or śulv) means “to measure” or “to mete out”. Ś ū References The names of about a dozen ulba S tras are known. The oldest of them is the Baudhāyana Śulba Sūtra.It Caton-Thompson, Gertrude and Elinor Wight Gardner. The belongs to the Taittirīya Samhitā of the Black Yajur- Desert Fayum. 2 vols. London: The Royal Anthropological veda and is the 13 Praśna or chapter of the Baudhāyana Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 1934. Śrauta Sūtra. The title Baudhāyana Śulba Sūtra shows Germer, Renate. Flora Des Pharaonischen Ägypten. that its author or compiler was Baudhāyana, or perhaps Deutsches Archäologisches Institut Abteilung Kairo, ā Sonderschrift. Vol. 14. Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp more correctly, it belonged to the school of Baudh yana. von Zabern, 1985. Other Vedic works bearing the same name are known. It Keimer, M. L. Ceruana Pratensis Forsk. Dans L’égypte is more proper to consider these works as belonging to Ancienne et Moderne. Annales du Service d’Antiquités the Baudhāyana school than to regard them as authored 32 (1932): 30–7. by the same person. Lehner, Mark. The Complete Pyramids. Solving the Ancient Here we are concerned with Baudhāyana the Mysteries. London: Thames and Hudson, 1997. ś ā ā Śū Malek, Jaromir. Tutankhamun: Anatomy of an Excavation. ulbak ra that is, the author of the Baudh yana lba Oxford: Griffith Institute. ▶http://www.ashmol.ox.ac.uk/ Sūtra) or the sulbavid (expert in sulba mathematics and gri/4tut.html. constructions). We do not know his biographical Reeves, Nicholas. The Complete Tutankhamun. The King, the details. Georg Bühler believed that he hailed from the Tomb, the Royal Treasure. London: Thames and Hudson, Andhra region, but a recent study by Ram Gopal shows 1990. that he probably came from northern India. His dates Verner, Miroslav. Pyramids. The Mystery, Culture and are also uncertain, being any time between 800 and 400 Science of Egypt’s Great Monuments. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2002. BCE. Taking into account the views of A. B. Keith, W. Wendrich, Willeke and René Cappers. Egypt’s Earliest Caland, David Pingree, and Ram Gopal, he may be Granaries: Evidence from the Fayum. Egyptian Archaeol- placed about 500 BCE or earlier. However, it must be ogy 27 (2005): 12–15. noted that much of the material in Baudhāyana Śulba Sūtra is traditional and, thus, still older than its date of compilation and coding. The Baudhāyana Śulba Sūtra is not only the earliest Baudha¯yana but also the most extensive among the Śulbas. The subject matter is presented in a systematic and logical manner. Of course, the language is somewhat archaic, R. C. GUPTA and due to the aphoristic style, the rules are highly condensed. The Baudhāyana Śulba Sūtra was com- India’s most ancient written works are the four Vedas, mented on by Dvārakānātha Yajva (ca. seventeenth namely R. gveda, Yajur-veda, Sāma-veda, and the century). His Sanskrit commentary called the Śulbadī- Atharva-veda. There are different schools which are pīkā was published more than a century ago by Thibaut represented by various Sam. hitās or recensions of (1848–1914) in his edition of the Baudhāyana Śulba the Vedas. To assist their proper study, there are six Sūtra. A recent edition (Varanasi 1979) of the Baud- Vedāngas (limbs or part of the Veda), namely Śiksā hāyana Śulba Sūtra also contains the above commentary . . . (phonetics), Kalpa (ritualistics). Vyākarana (grammar), as well as another called Bodhāyana śulbamīmāmāmsā, . . Nirukta (etymology), Chandas (prosody and metrics), which was written by Vyan.kateśvara (or Venkateśvara) and Jyotis.a (astronomy, including mathematics and Dīks.ita who lived during the Vijaya-nagaram kingdom astrology). These auxiliary Vedic works (except the (ca. 1600). last) are written in sūtra or aphoristic style. The text of the Baudhāyana Śulba Sūtra is divided The Kalpa Sūtras deal with the rules and methods for into three chapters which comprise a total of 272 performing Vedic rituals, sacrifices, and ceremonies, passages or 519 aphorisms. The main subject is the and are divided into three categories: Śrauta, Gr. hya, measurement, construction, and transformation of and Dharma. The Śrauta Sūtras are more specifically various altars and fireplaces. The forms of the three concerned with the sacrificial ritual and allied ecclesi- obligatory agnis (whose tradition was older than even astical matters. They often include tracts which give the R. gveda) were square, circle, and semicircle, but rules concerning the measurements and constructions those of optional citis involved all sorts of plane Beads 9 figures, including the above three and also the rectangle, Kashikar, C. G. Baudhāyana Śyenaciti: A Study in the Piling Up rhombus, triangle, trapezium, pentagon, and some of Bricks. Proceedings of Twenty-Nineth All-India Oriental Conference. Poona: Bhandarkar Institute, 1980. 191–9. complicated shapes. Ś ū ā Kulkarni, R. P. Geometry According to ulba S tra. Pune: Some mathematical topics covered in the Baudh ya- Vaidika Samsodhana Mandala, 1983. na Śulba Sūtra are a fine approximation for the square Prakash, Satya and R. S. Sharma eds. Baudhāyana Śulba root of two and the so-called Pythagorean theorem. In Sūtra. New Delhi: Research Institute of Ancient Scientific B the latter, the sides of a right-angled triangle obey the Studies, 1968. rule a2 + b2 = c2. Scidenberg, A. The Origin of Mathematics. Archive for ā Ś ū History of Exact Sciences 18.4 (1978): 301–42. The Baudh yana ulba S tra also contains formulas Ś ū for circling a square and squaring a circle, and provides Sen, and S. N. A. K. Bag eds. and trans. The ulba S tras. New Delhi: Indian National Science Academy, 1983. rules for basic simple geometric constructions, such Thibaut, G. Mathematics in the Making in Ancient India. as drawing a perpendicular on a given line or drawing Calcutta: Bagchi, 1984. the right bisection of a line. Some other elementary plane figures such as the isosceles triangle, trapezium, and rhombus are also covered for construction. The Baudhāyana Śulba Sūtra deals with the Beads measurements and constructions of a large number of fire-altars (Kāmya agnis). These were needed as part of rituals performed to attain certain desired objects ROBERT G. BEDNARIK according to the religious beliefs of the Vedic people. It was essential that the shape, size, area, and orientation Of the Palaeolithic forms of possible symbolic of the relevant altar be according to the prescribed products, beads and pendants seem to tell us the most instructions. Otherwise, there was a risk of divine wrath. about the cognition and technology of their users. First, The standard forms of some of the optional altars there are the purely technological aspects. To make a were those which resembled certain birds. The most bead one has to be able to drill through an object (or significant and perhaps the oldest of such altars was the enlarge a natural perforation), thread a string through śyenaciti (falcon-shaped altar). It was to be constructed the hole and fasten the ends of the string, presumably when one desired heaven (after death) because “the falcon by knots (Warner and Bednarik 1996). To persist with is the best flyer among the birds.” The spatial dimensions, such a process of manufacture, one must have a mental the number of bricks (of prescribed shapes and sizes), the construct of the end product, and a desire to acquire number of layers, etc., are all given. It is interesting to note what is clearly a non-utilitarian artefact. While the bead that the archaeological remains of this most striking and is such an artefact, the string is not, being utilitarian. It complicated śyenaciti reported to be built in Kausambi in is merely a means of permitting the bead to fulfil its the second century BCE, still survive. non-utilitarian role. Hence this is a combination not Early Indian geometry developed because of the need only of diverse (composite) and interactive artefacts, for accurate altar constructions and transformations but also a hierarchy of diverse concepts of relating to which often required quite advanced mathematical them. The primary imperative, presumably, is to display knowledge. the bead to its best advantage; the secondary intent is to find a means of doing so. A piece of, say, ostrich See also: ▶Śulbasūtras eggshell can be worn on a string without first drilling a hole through it, so why bother with this additional work? References It is through such considerations that beads are imbued with the potential of meaning and significance. Bhattacarya, V. ed. Baudhāyana Śulba Sūtra with Commen- Whether they are sewn on apparel or worn on ń ś ā ā ā taries of Vya kate vara and Dv rak n tha. Varanasi: strings, beads and pendants have symbolic meanings Sampurnanand Sanskrit University, 1979. that are far removed from the empiricism of the Datta, B. The Science of the Śulba. Calcutta: University of Calcutta, 1932. Rpt. 1991. interpreting Western anthropologist. For instance, they Ganguli, S. K. On the Indian Discovery of the Irrational at may be protective, warding off evil spirits or spells, or the Time of Śulba Sūtras. Scripta Mathematica I (1932): they can be good luck charms. They can signify status 135–41. pffiffiffi (e.g. availability for marriage, political status, and state Gupta, R. C. Baudhāyana’s Value of 2. Mathematics of mourning), and convey complex social, economic, – Education 6.3 (1972): 77 9. emblemic, cultural, ideological, religious or ethnic ---. Vedic Mathematics From the Śulba Sūtras. Indian Journal of Mathematics Education 9.2 (1989): 1–10. meanings, or any subtle combinations of them. Their ---. Sundararāja’s Improvements of Vedic Circle-Square emic meanings can be public or private, but they may Conversions. Indian Journal of History of Science 28.2 be difficult to convey to an alien researcher, and they (1993): 81–101. could never be deduced reliably through archaeology. 10 Beads

Beads have no possible utilitarian function that is not of the Bedford specimens. However, these important attributable to purely symbolic purposes. Describing finds remained largely ignored until Bednarik, interest- them as decorative, for instance, does not amount to ed in resolving the issue of the earliest beads, any clarification, because it does not tell us why they conducted a detailed microscopic study of 325 Poro- are ‘decorative’. All communicative functions of sphaera globularis specimens held in the Pitt Rivers beads are culturally negotiated; the abstract values Museum at Oxford University (Bednarik 2005). They they communicate to the initiated beholder are crucial had all been collected before the early twentieth to their existence, yet for the early periods of humanity century, most in England, some in France. In focusing they are entirely inaccessible to the researcher. The on the best-provenanced part of the collection, the outstanding technical perfection of some particularly Acheulian finds from the Biddenham quarry at early specimens has prompted the proposition that Bedford, he found that many specimens bore distinctive these objects expressed concepts of perfection and it artificial flaking around the narrow end of the natural has been demonstrated, via replicative experiments, central tunnel. Moreover, many were observed to bear that such perfection was achieved through a great distinctive wear facets around both tunnel openings, investment of labour and carefully applied skills which leaves no doubt about their use as beads. They (Bednarik 1997). The intentionality of perfection as must have been permanently arranged with their tunnels well as the various layers of intended cultural meanings in alignment to acquire this wear – in other words, they of such objects would have been all impossible without must have been on a string and worn in that way for the use of a ‘reflective’ communication system of a considerable periods, often for years (Fig. 1). complexity that does not seem achievable without Circular, disc-like fossil casts have also been found consciously modulated speech. Hence beads and at Acheulian sites, such as the crinoid columnar pendants constitute key evidence in the quest to clarify segments (Millericrinus sp.) from Gesher Benot the cognitive evolution of humans – not just because Ya’aqov, Israel (Goren-Inbar et al. 1991), and in France they demonstrate the use of symbolisms, but because they columnar crinoid segments from a site on the Loire and demand social, cultural and cognitive systems of an from Soissons, near Aisne, Picardie (Bednarik 2005). adequate sophistication to support the complex aggre- Several disc beads made from ostrich eggshell have gate of mental abstractions without which such objects been excavated from substantial Acheulian layers in simply cannot exist. We have many other indicators of Libya (Bednarik 1997). They are from the El Greifa site language use several hundred thousand years ago, complex at Wadi el Adjal, near Ubari. The site is during the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic (e.g. other located on what was a peninsula of the huge Fezzan forms of symbolism, or seafaring), but the use of beads Lake in the Pleistocene, which then occupied a large and pendants during these earliest phases of human part of southwestern Libya. The U/Th isotopes of the culture provides one of the most crucial forms of such calcareous sediments dated the ostrich eggshell beads evidence. from the Late Acheulian of El Greifa site E as being in Middle and Lower Palaeolithic finds with both the order of 200,000-years old. The near-perfect artificial and natural perforations are quite common, rounded circumference and central perforation of these and many hundreds have been found since the mid- beads demonstrate that hominins of the Acheulian nineteenth century. They demonstrate considerable possessed the technology of working this fragile complexity of human cognition and social structures medium with confidence and skill. These perfectly up to perhaps half a million years ago. The earliest mention of possible beads of the Lower Palaeolithic relates to the first Palaeolithic tools ever reported, from the very type-site of the Acheulian (Boucher de Perthes 1846). Prestwich (1859: 52), who recognized the authenticity of the St Acheul stone tools Jacques Boucher de Perthes had been collecting for many years, noted that the holes in some of the Porosphaera globularis beads he himself collected at French sites had been artificially enlarged. Similarly, many of the 200 Acheulian beads Smith (1894: 272–276) discov- ered at Bedford, England, showed artificial enlarge- ment of the natural orifice. These, too, were of Porosphaera globularis fossil casts, but Smith was not aware of the earlier French finds. His opinion that the globular fossils had been used as beads was Beads. Fig. 1 Some of the Acheulian stone beads from confirmed by Keeley (1980: 164) who examined some Bedford, England (photo by author). Beads 11 made artefacts also imply the existence of the social as well as a wolf vertebra from the Bocksteinschmiede, structures necessary to provide an ideological context Germany (Marshack 1991; Narr 1951), while the for the production and use of body ‘decoration’ (Fig. 2). Micoquian of Prolom 2, Crimea, produced no less Among the earliest objects with human-made than 111 perforated animal phalanges, besides four perforations we know of are the two perforated engraved palaeoart objects (Stepanchuk 1993). The pendants from the Repolust Cave in Styria, Austria. Mousterian of France has yielded a partly perforated B One is a wolf incisor, very expertly drilled near its root; fox canine and a perforated reindeer phalange from La the second is a flaked bone point, roughly triangular Quina (Marshack 1991; Martin 1907–1910), another and perforated near one corner (Bednarik 1997). Both perforated bone fragment from Pech de l’Azé (Bordes objects have received little attention since they were 1969), and a probable crinoid1 fossil from Fontmaure first reported (Mottl 1951). They were excavated with a (van der Made 2002). Two perforated canines from lithic industry variously described as Levalloisian, Bacho Kiro, Bulgaria, too, are of the Middle Palaeo- Tayacian and Clactonian, which is in fact an undiffer- lithic (Marshack 1991). The Middle Stone Age of entiated Lower Palaeolithic assemblage, clearly free of Blombos Cave, South Africa, produced 41 perforated Mousterian elements. There is no reliable dating snail shells that are about 75,000-years old. Two evidence available, the currently favoured age estimate slightly older perforated seashells come from Border of around 300,000 years is based on the accompanying Cave, also in South Africa (Beaumont et al. 1992), as faunal remains, especially the phylogeny of the bear does a centrally perforated ostrich eggshell fragment remains (Fig. 3). from the same site, about 76,000-years old (Grün and In addition to these Lower Palaeolithic beads from Beaumont 2001). Other African finds of the general three continents, there are numerous perforated objects period are a perforated shell from Oued Djebanna, also from the Middle Palaeolithic, and many of them Algeria; four deliberately drilled quartzite flakes from may have served as beads or pendants. The Micoquian Debenath, Nigeria; and a bone pendant from Grotte has yielded an artificially perforated wolf metapodium Zouhra, Morocco (McBrearty and Brooks 2000). Towards the end of this technological phase, beads and pendants became increasingly common, and materials of stone began to be drilled, first appearing in Russia and China. Thirteen such specimens from the lower occupation layer of Kostenki 17, found below a volcanic horizon thought to be about 40,000-years old (from the Campanian Ignimbrite eruption in Italy), include not only polar fox canines (Fig. 4) and gastropod shells with perforations, but also stone and fossil cast objects (Bednarik 1995). From an interme- diate Middle to Upper Palaeolithic site in China, wenhua Shiyu, comes a broken stone pendant (Bednarik Beads. Fig. 2 The technical perfection of ostrich eggshell and Yuzhu 1991; Fig. 5). The oldest beads found in beads, such as the El Greifa specimens, illustrates the cultural Australia, from Mandu Mandu Creek rockshelter, are complexity of the Acheulian period (photo by author). about 32,000-years old and of a stone tool industry of Middle Palaeolithic technology (Morse 1993). With the advent of the Upper Palaeolithic in Eurasia, beads became more numerous in various regions. This includes specimens made by the Neanderthals of the Châtelperronian of the French Upper Palaeo- lithic, among them again a crinoid fossil segment (Leroi-Gourhan 1965; Fig. 6). Just three graves at the Russian site Sungir’–with a stone tool technology that is transitional between Middle and Upper Palaeolithic implement types, the Streletsian – contained more beads than have been found in the entire Pleistocene sites of the rest of the world (Bednarik 1995). They yielded 13,113 small ivory beads and over 250 perforated canine teeth

Beads. Fig. 3 Perforated wolf incisor, Repolust Cave, 1 A crinoid is a type of primitive marine invertebrate animal Austria, probably of the Lower Palaeolithic (photo (echinoderm) with a cup-shaped body and five feathery by author). radiating arms. 12 Beads

Beads. Fig. 4 Beads and pendants from Kostenki 17, Russia, >40,000-years old. (a–c) are snail shells; (d–g) are silicified, semi-translucent fossils; (h–j) are fox canines; and (k–m) are stone pendants (photo by author).

Beads. Fig. 6 Two ivory ring fragments, two perforated animal canines and a fossil shell with an artificial groove for attachment, made by Neanderthals. Grotte du Renne, Arcy-sur-Cure, France (drawn by author).

Beads. Fig. 5 Fragment of drilled stone pendant, about 28,000-years old, from wenhua Shiyu, China (drawn by author). of the polar fox. By this time, perhaps 28,000 years ago, the art of bead making had reached an extraordinary level, in which the results of thousands of hours of labour were lavished on just three burials. In India we have only a few specimens from the entire Palaeolithic: Beads. Fig. 7 Ostrich eggshell bead, early Upper two from Bhimbetka, south of Bhopal, and three from Palaeolithic, from Bhimbetka, Madhya Pradesh, India (photo Patne, Maharashtra (Fig. 7). Two of the latter are not by author). perforated, although one is centrally scored (Bednarik 1997). Other Asian regions producing ostrich eggshell Marshall 1976; Sandelowsky 1971; Woodhouse 1997). beads include Siberia (Krasnyi Yar, Trans-Baykal), In the far north of Africa the Capsian, belonging Inner Mongolia (Hutouliang) and the Gobi desert in already to the first half of the Holocene, yielded not northern China and Mongolia. The ostrich, now extinct only numerous figurative and non-figurative engrav- in Asia, was widely distributed to the end of the ings on ostrich eggshell fragments, but also beads of Pleistocene, occurring in the Arabian Peninsula until snail shells, teeth and small stones, besides those of well into historical times. ostrich eggshell. The southern African sites providing Both southern and northern Africa have yielded such finds date from the Middle Stone Age right up to countless finds of worked ostrich eggshell (Baur-Röger recent periods. Ostrich eggshell beads from Bushman 1987, 1988; Camps-Fabrer 1962, 1966, 1975; Cziesla Shelter near Ohrigstad, Transvaal, have been sug- 1986; Goodwin 1929; Marmier and Trecolle 1979; gested to date from somewhere between 12,000 and Ben Cao Gang Mu 13

47,000 years ago. Beads of this material span a vast age Grün, R. and P. Beaumont. Border Cave Revisited: A Revised spectrum, still occurring in recent periods in southern ESR Chronology. Journal of Human Evolution 40 (2001): – Africa. For instance, they are found in the Smithfield B, 467 82. ’ Helmecke, G. Eine Sammlung palästinischer Amulette und a tool complex of the subcontinent s interior regions of Schmuckstücke. Abhandlungen und Berichte des Staatlichen the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries AD. Indeed, Museums für Völkerkunde Dresden 45 (1990): 99–122. ostrich eggshell beads are among the most enduring Keeley, L. H. Experimental Determination of Stone Tool B symbolic artefacts in human history. Much the same Uses. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980. can be said about other forms of beads. For instance, a Leroi-Gourhan, A. Prehistoire de l’Art Occidental. Paris: publication about Palestinian jewellery of the most Mazenod, 1965. van der Made, H. A Bead from the Mousterian Site at recent ethnographic past features a photograph of a – ‘ ’ Fontmaure, France. Rock Art Research 19 (2002): 135 6. bead described as a fossilized sea urchin (Helmecke Marmier, F. and G. Trecolle. L’utilisation des Oeufs d’Autriche; 1990: Pl. 13f), depicting in fact a crinoid fossil cast that il y a 15000 Ans au Sahara. Archéologia 135 (1979): 6–11. closely resembles the crinoids recovered from the Marshack, A. A Reply to Davidson on Mania and Mania. Acheulian site Gesher Benot Ya’aqov in the same Rock Art Research 8 (1991): 47–58. region, on the River Jordan (Goren-Inbar et al. 1991). Marshall, L. The !Kung of Nyae Nyae. Cambridge, Although separated by hundreds of millennia in time, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1976. Martin, H. Récherches sur l’Évolution du Moustérien dans le the same materials were used for the same class of – Gisement de la Quina (Charente). Industrie Osseuse. symbolic artefacts over an enormous time span a Vol. 1. Paris: Schleicher Frères, 1907–1910. poignant reminder that in terms of their humanness, our McBrearty, S. and A. S. Brooks. The Revolution That distant ancestors were a great deal closer to us than Wasn’t: A New Interpretation of the Origin of Modern many archaeologists are willing to concede. Human Behaviour. Journal of Human Evolution 39 (2000): 453–563. Mottl, M. Die Repolust-Höhle bei Peggau (Steiermark) und ihre eiszeitlichen Bewohner. Archaeologica Austriaca References 8 (1951): 1–78. Narr, K. J. Alt- und mittelpaläolithische Funde aus rheinischen Baur-Röger, M. Der Rohstoff Straußeneischale. Archäolo- – gische Informationen 10 (1987): 180–4. Freilandstationen. Bonner Jahrbuch 151 (1951): 5 47. ---. Prähistorische Straußenei-Artefake aus der Ostsahara. Prestwich, J. On the Occurrence of Flint-Implements, Archäologische Informationen 12 (1988): 262–4. Associated with the Remains of Extinct Mammalia, in Undisturbed Beds of a Late Geological Period. Proceed- Beaumont, P. B., G. H. Miller, and J. C. Vogel. Contemplat- – ing old Clues to the Impact of Future Greenhouse Climates ings of the Royal Society of London 10 (1859): 50 9. in South Africa. South African Journal of Science 88 Sandelowsky, B. H. Ostrich Egg- Shell Caches from South (1992): 490–8. West Africa. South African Archaeological Bulletin 26 Bednarik, R. G. Towards a Better Understanding of the Origins (1971): 153. of Body Decoration. Anthropologie 33 (1995): 201–11. Smith, W. G. Man the Primeval Savage. London: E. Stanford, ---. The Role of Pleistocene Beads in Documenting Hominid 1894. Cognition. Rock Art Research 14 (1997): 27–41. Stepanchuk, V. N. Prolom II, A Middle Palaeolithic Cave Site in the Eastern Crimea with Non-Utilitarian Bone Artefacts. ---. Middle Pleistocene Beads and Symbolism. Anthropos – 100 (2005): 537–52. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 59 (1993): 17 37. Bednarik, R. G. and You Yuzhu. Palaeolithic Art from China. Warner, C. and R. G. Bednarik. Pleistocene Knotting. History – and Science of Knots. Ed. J. C. Turner and P. van de Rock Art Research 8 (1991): 119 23. – Bordes, F. Os percé Moustérien et os gravé Acheuléen du Griend. Singapore: World Scientific, 1996. 3 18. ’ – Woodhouse, H. C. Ostrich Eggshell Beads in Southern Pech de l Azé II. Quaternaria 11 (1969): 1 5. – Boucher de Perthes, J. Antiquités Celtiques et Antédilu- Africa. Rock Art Research 14 (1997): 41 43. viennes. France: Abbeville, 1846. Camps-Fabrer, H. Note sur les Techniques d’Utilisation des coquilles d’oeuf d’Autriche dans quelques gisements Capsiens et Néolithiques d’Afrique du Nord. Bullétin de Ben Cao Gang Mu Société Préhistorique française 59 (1962): 525–35. ---. Matière et Art Mobilier dans la Préhistoire Nord-Africaine et Saharienne. Paris: Mémoires du CRAPE, 1966. ---. Un Gisement Capsien de Faciès Sétifien, Mendjez II, El- LIAO YUQUN Eulma (Algérie). Paris: Éditions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1975. The application of herbal, mineral, animal, and man- Cziesla, E. Excavations at Wadi Sahal. Nubische Studien 42 made substances in medical therapy has been recorded – (1986): 143 9. in China since antiquity. These pharmaceutical compi- Goodwin, A. J. H. The Wilton Industry. Annals of the South African Museum 27 (1929): 251–70. lations are called Ben Cao. Goren-Inbar, N., Z. Lewy, and M. E. Kislev. The Taphonomy In the Ming dynasty, a masterpiece, Ben Cao of a Bead-Like Fossil from the Acheulian of Gesher Benot Gang Mu (Compendium of Materia Medica), was Ya’aqov, Israel. Rock Art Research 8 (1991): 83–7. published in AD 1590. In China, as well as in other 14 Bhāskara I parts of the world, this work is the best known and many experts, he, after innumerable hardships, com- most respected description of traditional pharma- pleted the manuscript in 1578, but the first edition was ceutics. The value of this enormous achievement, not finished until after his death. written by one person, goes far beyond the scope of a pharmaceutical-medical drug work. In fact, it constitu- References tes an extensive encyclopedia of knowledge concerning nature and the technology required for the medicinal Collected Works of Study on Li Shizhen. Hubei: Science and use of nature. Technology Press, 1985. The compilation of Ben Cao Gang Mu was based on Li, Shizhen. Ben Cao Gang Mu. Beijing: Jen min wei sheng chu pan she, 1975. the Zheng Lei Ben Cao (Classified Materia Medica, Métailié, Georges. Des manuscrits en quête d’auteur du compiled at the end of the eleventh century AD). Li “Plinius Indicus” de Johann Schreck au “Bencao gangmu” Shizhen, the author, took from it 1,479 drugs. He de Li Shizhen et au “Bencao pinhui jingyao” de Liu supplemented these with 39 drugs that had been Wentai. Journal Asiatique 286 (1998): 211–33. included in the drug compendia of the Jin Yuan period, Needham, Joseph. Science and Civilisation in China. Vol. V. as well as with 374 drugs that he himself described for Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974. the first time, so that the Ben Cao Gang Mu contained a total of 1,892 drugs. This number is confirmed by the table of contents; the actual number should be 1,898. To continue the statistics: the number of drug Bha¯skara I illustrations is 1,160 and that of the recorded prescrip- tions is 1,196, of which Li Shizhen collected or newly compiled 161 himself. AGATHE KELLER The entire work was divided into two chapters of illustrations and another 52 chapters containing the Bhāskara I was a 7th century astronomer, probably texts. The first four text chapters are of a general nature; from the region that is between the border of modern chapters five through 52 contain the monographs. The day Mahārashtra, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh in total number of drugs was divided into 16 groups, India. and then 60 subgroups. Thus, for example, the group He wrote two treatises in the line of Āryabhat.aI’s of herbs was divided into the subgroups of mountain astronomy, the Mahābhāskarīya (Shukla 1960) and the herbs, aromatic herbs, swamp herbs, poisonous herbs, Laghubhāskarīya (Shukla 1963). Bhāskara did not just convolvulous herbs, water herbs, stone herbs, moss and restate in an explicit way Āryabhat.aI’s astronomy; he lichen herbs, and finally, various herbs. also provided explanations and interpretations of this For each drug the following ten items were discussed. astronomer’s reasoning. Bhāskara I is also the author of As they were used only when the information was a commentary on the Āryabhat.īya (see the entry on necessary, not all are contained in each monograph: Āryabhat.a). This is the oldest known Sanskrit com- mentary on this treatise. It is also the oldest known 1. Information concerning a previously false classifi- commentary for the whole mathematical and astro- cation of the drug nomical tradition in Sanskrit. The commentary is called 2. Information on secondary names of the drug, the Āryabhatīyabhāsya (Shukla 1976; Keller 2006). including the sources of these names . . Bhāskara I himself dates the writing of this text to 628 3. Collected explanations AD. He is thus a contemporary of Brahmagupta. 4. The pharmaceutical-technological preparation of This commentary, not being written in compact sūtra the drug verses, can help us reconstruct what astronomy and 5. Explanation of doubtful points mathematics were for a 7th century astronomer. It 6. Correction of mistakes gives us precious insights into how mathematical and 7. Information on the thermo-influence and taste of astronomical concepts were derived and discussed. the drug Bhāskara, for instance, discusses the relation of 8. Enumeration of the main indications of the drug mathematics to astronomy, giving several definitions 9. Explanations concerning the effects of the drug of mathematics in the opening part of his commentary. 10. Enumeration of prescriptions in which the drug is His idea of ganita (computation, mathematics) seems used . to be quite malleable and open. Indeed, if the discipline As for the author, Li Shizhen was born into a medical called gan. ita is understood as a set of procedures, practitioner’s family. When he was unable to pass the general (samānya) or specified (viśes.a), then it official career exams after three attempts, he was encompasses astronomy ( jyotis.a). But it can also be determined to devote himself to the study of medicine. seen as a set of specialized subjects. In this case, it is Through 30 years’ clinical practice and learning from quite separate from astronomy. Bhāskara provides us Bhāskara I 15 with different proposals as to how one can classify using this segment, computations using the Pythagore- the subjects related to mathematics. He thus states for the an theorem become possible enabling one to derive first time the classification of mathematics into eight lengths of segments quite easily. To explain how to vyavahāras, which were used after him in arithmetical derive tables of sine differences, Bhāskara prescribed texts (see the entry on arithmetic in India). He also the construction of a diagram, which is shown3 in Fig. alludes to equations (bija) as a way of classifying (Hayashi, Yano 1991). It can be seen as an ancestor of B mathematical subjects, an idea that had a certain our trigonometric circle. posterity in the algebraic tradition in India (see the As a mathematician, Bhāskara did not restrict entry on algebra in India). For Bhāskara I all computa- himself to trigonometry but provided his insights on a tions belonged both to arithmetic (rāśigan. ita) and to great range of subjects. For instance he gave a detailed geometry (ks.etragan. ita). Thus series (średdhi) are seen version of different problems solved by a pulverizer as both sums of numbers (belonging thus to arithmetic) (e.g., a method to solve Pell equations, Bag 1979), all and piles of objects (belonging thus to geometry). sorts of variations on the Pythagorean theorem, Bhāskara’s commentary also testifies to how astron- reflections on the concept of quadratic irrationals omy and mathematics were practiced in those times. (Chemla, Keller 2002 and Datta 1980), and many For instance, Bhāskara gives details on the construc- others (Rao 2006). As a scholar, he often staged tions of gnomons (sundials), describing various shapes, intellectual debates and took positions on them, thus styles and schools for this instrument. He also letting us have a feel for the oppositions existing sometimes explains how a mathematician (gan. aka) between different schools of mathematicians and uses a working surface (probably just the bare ground authors that existed at the time, something that or a slate) on which numbers are disposed and diagrams Brahmagupta’s work also testifies to. drawn. These were then used when solving problems, which involve moving quantities, or seeing a proof in a drawn figure (Keller 2005). Bhāskara’s commentary on the Āryabhat.īya is an important landmark in understanding the beginning of sine trigonometry. His work shows us that the fundamental diagram of sine trigonometry is a bow field (dhanuh. ks.etra). A bow field is composed of a back (pr. s.t.ha), a chord (jyā) and an arrow (śara). This is illustrated in Fig.1. By the time Bhāskara wrote his commentary, it was fairly common to consider something that can be a bit confusing at first, the half-chord of the half-arc. That is, in Fig.2, the segment AO is the half-chorda/2, and of not the half-chord of a. This segment is what we call the sine of arc a/2, when in a circle of radius 1. In Bhāskara’s mathematics, however, circles are seldom with a unit radius, and so he deals in fact with R sines, e.g., R times the sine. This segment is called ardhajyā Bhāskara I. Fig. 2 The half-chord of the half-arc. Drawing (lit. half-chord), but slowly as it became a technical by the author. term in itself, the word half (ardha) was sometimes dropped, until the segment itself was called jyā. The innovation constituted by the sine over the chord becomes clear if we look 2 again.at Fig. Indeed, by

Bhāskara I. Fig. 1 A bow field. Drawing by the author. Bhāskara I. Fig. 3 Bhāskara’s diagram for deriving sines. 16 Bhāskara II

Bhāskara’s legacy has been especially felt in Kerala. is the most popular book of traditional Indian If you judge the popularity of an author as being mathematics. He is usually designated as Bhāskara II measured by the number of commentaries it has given in order to differentiate him from his earlier namesake rise to, we can note that in Kerala, his works were who flourished in the early part of the seventh century. commented upon by Govindasvāmin (ca. 825), According to Bhāskara’s own statement towards . Śankaranārāyan.a (ca. 869) and Parameśvara (ca. the end of his Golādhyāya, he was born in Śaka 1430). After first being confused with his namesake AD 1036 or AD 1114. He also adds that he came from Bhāskara II by early 19th century scholars (Datta Vijjad. avid. a near the Sahya mountain. This place is 1930), his work was slowly brought to light in the early usually identified with the modern Bijapur in Mysore. twentieth century (Datta and Singh 1938). Finally K. S. S.B. Dikshit is of the opinion that Bhāskara’s original Shukla took the time to edit his texts and translate his home was Pāt.an.a (in Khandesh), where a relevant treatises in the 1960s and 1970s. inscription was discovered by Bhau Daji in 1865. According to the inscription, Manoratha, Maheśvara, References Laks.mīdhara, and Can.gadeva were the names of the grandfather, father, son, and grandson, respectively, of Bag, A. K. Mathematics in Ancient and Medieval India. Bhāskara. Cangadeva was the chief astronomer in the . . Varanasi: Chaukhambha Orientalia. 1979. court of the king Singhana and had established in AD Balachandra Rao, S. ‘Bhāskara I’ in Encyclopaedia of . Classical Indian Sciences: Natural Science, Technology 1207 a mat.ha (residential institution) for the study and Medicine. Ed. Selin, Helaine and Roddam Narasimha. of the works of his grandfather. Bhāskara’s father, Hyderabad: Universities Press. In press, 2006. Maheśvara, was also his teacher. Chemla, Karine and Agathe Keller The Chineese mian and Bhāskara’s Līlāvatī (The Beautiful) is a standard the Sanskrit karan. īs, From China to Paris: 2000 Years work of Hindu mathematics. It belongs to the class of of Mathematical Transmission. Ed. Dold-Samplonius, ā ī ā ī – works called p t. or p t. gan. ita; that is, elementary Yvonne. Stuttgart: Steiner, 2002. 87 132. mathematics covering arithmetic, algebra, geometry, Datta, B. The two Bhāskaras. Indian Historical Quaterly 6 (1930): 727–36. and mensuration. Its popularity is shown by the fact Datta, B. and S. N. Singh History of Hindu Mathematics, that it is still used as a textbook in the Sanskrit medium Lahore, 1938: Asia Publishing, House, 1986. institutions throughout India. It provides the basic ---. Hindu Geometry. Indian Journal of History of Science 15 mathematics necessary for the study of almost all (1980): 21–187. practical problems, including astronomy. The subject ---. Hindu Trigonometry. Indian Journal of History of Science matter is presented through rules and examples in the 18 (1983): 39–108. Hayashi, T. and Michio Yano. A Note on Bhaskara I’s Rational form of about 270 verses which can be easily Approximation to Sine; Exact Sciences in Arabic, Sanskrit, remembered. There is a story that the author named and Chinese. Historia Scientiarum 42 (1991): 45–8. the work to console his daughter Līlāvatī, who could not Keller, Agathe. Expounding the Mathematical Seed, Bhāskara be married due to some unfortunate circumstances; but and the Mathematical Chapter of the Āryabhat.īya. Bäsel: the truth of the story cannot be ascertained. Bhāskara Birkhäuser, 2006. addressed the problems to a charming female Līlāvatī, ā ’ ---. Making Diagrams Speak, in Bh skara I sCommentaryon who, according to some scholars was his wife (and not the Āryabhat.īya. Historia Mathematica 32 (2005): 275–302. Shukla, K. S. Mahābhāskarīya, Edited and Translated into his daughter). English, with Explanatory and Critical Notes, and Com- The great popularity of Līlāvatī is illustrated by the ments, etc. Lucknow: Lucknow University Press, 1960. large number of commentaries written on it since it ---. Laghubhāskarīya, Edited and Translated into English, was composed about AD 1150. Some of the Sanskrit with Explanatory and Critical Notes, and Comments, etc. commentators were: Parameśvara (about 1430), Ganeśa Lucknow: Lucknow University Press, 1963. īś ā Ā ī Ā (1545), Mun vara (about 1635), and R makr.s.n.a (1687). ---. 1976 ryabhat. ya of ryabhat.a, with the Commentary of Only a few of these have been published. Gadeśa’s Bhāskara I and Someśvara: Indian National Science . Academy, New Delhi, 1976. gives a good exposition of the text with a demonstration of the rules. However, the best traditional commentary is the Kriyākramakarī (ca. 1534), which is a joint . . work of Śankara Vāriyar and Mahisamangala Nārāyana . . . Bha¯skara II (who completed it after the demise of Śankara). There are a number of commentaries and versions in regional Indian languages. Quite a few modern scholars R. C. GUPTA have edited, commented on, and translated Līlāvatī.At least three Persian translations are known, the earliest Undoubtedly, the greatest name in the history of being by Abū al-Fayd. Fayd. ī (AD 1587). The English ancient and medieval Indian astronomy and mathemat- translation by Colebrooke (1817) was based on the ics is that of Bhāskarācārya (b. AD 1114). His Līlāvatī original Sanskrit text and commentaries. Bhāskara II 17

Bhāskara’s Bījagan. ita (Algebra) is a standard The feat was possible not only due to the technique treatise on Hindu algebra. It served as a textbook for but also because of a well-developed symbolic Sanskrit medium courses in higher mathematics. In it notation. Colebrook remarks the author included an exposition of the subject based Had an earlier translation of Hindu mathematical on earlier works. Among the sources named were the treatises been made and given to the public, algebraic works of Śrīdhara and Padmanābha. Besides B especially to the early mathematicians in Europe, operations with various types of numbers (positive, the progress of mathematics would have been negative, zero, and surds), it deals with algebraic, much more rapid, since algebraic symbolism simultaneous, and indeterminate equations. There is a would have reached its perfection long before separate chapter on the Indian cyclic method called the days of Descartes, Pascal, and Newton. cakravāla. He attributes the method to earlier teachers but does not specify any name. Due to the difficult Another gem from Bhāskara’s Algebra is a very nature of some of the topics, the Bījagan. ita was not as short proof of the so-called Pythagorean theorem. popular as the Līlāvatī. The geometrical portion of Līlavatī covers mensura- Bhāskara’s Siddhānta-śiroman. i (AD 1150) is an tion regarding triangles, quadrilaterals, circles, and equally standard textbook on Hindu astronomy. It spheres. A special rule gives the numerical lengths of has two sections: Grahan. ita (Planetary Mathematics) the sides of regular polygons (from three to nine sides) and the Golādhyāya (Spherics). Often these two in a circle of radius 60,000. The last chapter entitled . sections appear as independent works. There is a lucid Anka-pāśa is devoted to combinatorics. commentary on the whole work by the author himself. Bhāskara’s Jyopatti contains many trigonometrical It is called Mitāksarā or Vāsanābhasya. Other com- novelties which appear in India first in this tract. . .. mentators include Laks.mīdāsa, Nr.simha, Munīśvara Although an equivalent of the differential calculus (1638/1645), and Rāmakr.s.n.a. The 14th chapter of the formula Golādhyāya is the Jyotpatti, which may be regarded as a small tract on Hindu trigonometry. Á sin ¼ cos Á Usually it is customary to regard Līlāvatī,Bījagan.ita, ’ ā Grahan.ita, and the Golādhyāya as the four parts of the already appeared in Munñjla s Laghum nasa ā Siddhānta Siroman. i which make it a comprehensive (AD 932), Bh skara II gave its geometrical demonstra- treatise of Bhāskarācārya’s Hindu mathematical tion. He knew that when a variable attains an sciences. His two other works are the Karan. a-kutūhala extremum, its differential vanishes. A crude method (whose epoch is 1183), a handbook of astronomy, and a of infinitesimal integration is implied in his derivation commentary on Lalla’s Śis.yadhīvr. ddhida-tantra (eighth of the formula for the surface of a sphere. This he gave century AD). Some other works have also been attributed in the Vāsanābhāsya on the Golādhyāya (Chap. III). to him, but his authorship of Bījopanaya is questionable. Bhāskara’s Siddhānta-śiroman. i is one of the most Bhāskara introduced a simple concept of arithmeti- celebrated works of Hindu astronomy. It is a compre- cal infinity through what he calls a khahara, which is hensive work of Brahma-paks.a. He praised Brahma- defined by a positive quantity divided by zero, e.g., 3/0. gupta, who belonged to the same school, but his own His arithmetical and algebraic works are full of astronomical work became more famous. recreational problems to provide interesting pedagogi- Although based on the works of predecessors, rather cal examples. than on any fresh astronomical observations, the Perhaps the most important part of Bhāskara’s Siddhānta-śiroman. i served as an excellent textbook. Algebra is his exposition of the Indian cyclic method. Systematic presentation of the subject matter, lucidity We now know that the method was already known to of style, and simple rationales of the formulas made Jayadeva (eleventh century AD or earlier). A modern it quite popular. It also contained some improved expert, the late Selenius, praised it by remarking that methods and new examples. For instance, he gave a “no European performance in the whole field of algebra very ingenious method of finding the altitude of the at a time much later than Bhāskara II, nay nearly up to Sun in any desired direction in his Golādhyāya (III, our times, equaled the marvelous complexity and 46). His professional expertise and all-round knowl- ingenuity of cakravāla method.” Fermat proposed the edge made him a truly great and revered ācārya equation 61x2 +1=y2 in 1657 to Frénicle as a (professor) of Hindu astronomy and mathematics for challenge problem. However, by applying the above generations. method, Bhāskara had already solved the problem five centuries earlier. Bhāskara’s solution (which he got See also: ▶Algebra in India, ▶Mathematics in India, just in a few lines) in its smallest integers was ▶Geometry in India, ▶Parameśvara, ▶Munīśvara, x = 226,153,980, y = 1,766,319,049. ▶Trigonometry in India, ▶Combinatorics, ▶Muñjāla 18 Bian Que

References materials in the biography, Bian Que lived and flourished for hundreds of years. That is because its author Colebrooke, H. T. Algebra with Arithmetic and Mensuration from the Sanscrit of Brahmegupta and Bháscara. London: confused him with another famous medical man, Qin Murray, 1817. Reprint. Wiesbaden: Martin Sandig. 1973. Yueren. Probably Qin Yueren was a follower of Bian Datta, B. and A. N. Singh. Use of Calculus in Hindu Que’s teachings. Mathematics. Indian Journal of History of Sciences 19.2 In the earliest bibliography, Qi Lue, written in the (1984): 95–104. first century BCE, Bian Que was assumed to be the Gupta, R. C. Bhāskara II’s Derivation for the Surface of a – author of some medical works such as Bian Que Nei Sphere. Mathematics Education 7.2 (1973): 49 52. Jing (The Internal Classic of Bian Que) and Bian Que Gupta, R. C. Addition and Subtraction Theorems for the Sine and Their Use in Computing Tabular Sines. Mathematics Wai Jing (The External Classic of Bian Que). Although Education 8.3B (1974): 43–6. all of them have been lost, the contents can be partly Gupta, R. C. The Līlāvatī Rule for Computing Sides of Regular found in other extant medical works, which reflect what Polygons. Mathematics Education 9.2B (1975): 25–9. he contributed to traditional Chinese medicine. Hayashi, Takao. Notes on the Differences Between the Two Bian Que said that the blood and qi (vital energy) Recensions of the Lilavati of Bhaskara II. Sciamvs 3 move along the channels of the body, making 50 (2002): 193–230. circuits per day. Some medical historians consider this Jha, A., ed. Bīja Gan. ita of Bhāskarācārya. Banaras: Chowkhamba, 1949. the first intimation of the circulatory system of the Kunoff, Sharon. A Curious Counting/Summation Formula blood; others are more skeptical. This view was con- from the Ancient Hindus. Proceedings of the Sixteenth structed on the principle of cyclicism, a very common Annual Meeting of the CSPM. Ed. F. Abeles, et al. Toronto: mode of thought for the Chinese. CSHPM, 1991. 101–7. It was he, too, who founded the extremely Mallayya, V. Madhukar. Arithmetic Operation of Division complicated old Chinese system of pulse-taking, with Special Reference to Bhaskara II’s “Lilavati” and its Commentaries. Indian Journal of History of Science 32 according to which a doctor was supposed to be able (1997): 315–324. to diagnose an illness solely by the condition of the Sastri, Bapu Deva, ed. The Siddhānta-śiroman. iby pulse. It was not just a question of whether the beat was Bhāskarācārya with his own Vasanābhās.ya. Benares: strong or weak, regular or uneven. Pulses could also be Chowkhamba, 1929. distinguished as “sounding like a sickle, first exuberant ā Selenius, Clas-Olof. Rationale of the Chakrav la Process of then dying away”; “flowing along quietly like flying Jayadeva and Bhāskara II. Historia Mathematica 2.2 ” “ – hair or feathers ; beating deep and strong like a (1975): 167 84. ” “ Srinivasiengar, C. N. The History of Ancient Indian thrown stone ; sounding delicate like the string of an Mathematics. Calcutta: World Press, 1967. instrument”;or“slipping along like a fish or a piece of wood on the waves”. From the above selection of possible pulse beats, it is easy to see with what extraordinarily sharpened sensitivity the Chinese Bian Que doctor examined his patient. Bian Que also discussed how to diagnose illness by the condition of the complexion. For example, a yellow complexion and LIAO YUQUN nails were an indication of jaundice; red dealt with the heart; and white was always due to the lungs. Bian Que, one of the most famous medical men in As for therapy, Bian Que used the traditional ancient China, lived during the time of the Zhou dynasty, techniques such as acupuncture, moxibustion, and drugs between 500 and 600 BCE. He was good at various to cure various diseases. We do not know who invented subjects in medicine and skilled in diagnosis and those treatments; however, all of them were improved treatment, especially in pulse-taking and acupuncture. owing to Bian Que’s practice and teaching. Indeed, Sima Qian (about 145–96 BCE), a well-known these are still followed in clinical practice and diagnosis historian, wrote a biography of Bian Que in his work today. Shi Ji (Historical Record). In it, he discussed Bian ’ Que s practicing medicine, wandering from town to References town and effecting miraculous cures, even bringing the dying back to life. In the end Bian Que was killed by Liao Yuqun. Study of Bian Que’s Sphygmology. Chinese a jealous commissioner of the Imperial Academy of Journal of Medical History 18.2 (1988): 65. Medicine. Sima Qian says: “Bian Que expounded Li Bocong. Study of Bian Que and His School. Shanxi: Science and Technology Press, 1990. medicine as the guiding principle of (medical) technique; Sima Qian. Biography of Bian Que. The Historical Record. the later generations followed it and could not change any Beijing: Zhonghua Press, 1959. more.” He was regarded as the founder of traditional Wang Shuhe. Mai Jing (Classic of the Pulse). Shanghai: Chinese medicine, but according to the historical Shang-wei sheng chu pan she, 1957. Bitumen in China 19

burn and also cures itches and ringworms of the Bitumen in China six domestic animals. Annually, 110 jin [pounds] are handed in. Moreover, in Yongping village, 80 li north-west of Yanchuan district, there is another HANS ULRICH VOGEL well, which annually procures 400 jin. They are handed over to the [Shaanxi] Route (lu). B Reports of bitumen seepages and production concen- trate on four provinces: northern Shaanxi and eastern As in many other cases, the output of oil seepages was Gansu from the Han period onward, Sichuan from the low. The record also shows that the government was Ming onward, and Xinjiang which has records of heavily interested in this resource, probably because of bitumen seepages during the periods of the Northern its importance for warfare. Dynasties (386–581), the Tang, and the Qing. In The use of bitumen in warfare from the Yumen oil field addition, during the Ming and Qing periods, minor in western Gansu is reported by an eighth-century source, production sites existed in Guangdong, Taiwan, stating that, in 578, the Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhejiang, Anhui, and Liaoning (Liaodung). Zhou, when being besieged by the Turks at Jinquan, took “ ” ’ The earliest record of bitumen seepages refers to this fat and set it afire, thus burning the enemies assault northern Shaanxi that is the oil fields of Yanchang and weapons. When brought into contact with water, it burnt Yongping of today. The Hanshu, first century AD, states even more, with the result that Jinquan was saved. that in Gaonu district (modern-day Yan’an) “there is the With the development of deep drilling, Sichuan Wei River; it can burn.” This statement is elucidated by became an important producer of bitumen, being a by- later sources, which say that on the water of the Wei product of the search for brine and, later, natural gas. River “fat” ( fei) is floating which can burn and which Sixteenth-century accounts report that the sources of the “ ” can be taken for greasing cart axles or as fuel for lamps. fire wells of Jiading and Qianwei are all oily. Because of “ ” Sources from the Song onward provide more details its odor, locals call the stone oil realgar oil (xionghuan- “ ” on the locations of Shaanxi petroleum seepages and gyou)and sulfur oil (liuhuangyou). It was thought that production methods. In his famous account of about the sources and veins of stone fat, realgar, and sulfur were 1070 on using petroleum carbon for ink, Shen Gua interconnected. Officials filled bamboo tubes with oil and (1031–1095) mentions the production of “stone oil” ignited it for lighting the way. Moreover, special iron (shiyou) in the two prefectures Fu and Yan and of lamps were constructed which fitted the use of bitumen “stone juice” (shiye) in Yanchuan. He wrote that stone as fuel. An indigenous terminology developed which oil grew in the sand and stones of the waterfront, was was based on the colors of bitumen. White bitumen was “ ” “ mixed with spring water, and, with a view to ink called rice-soup oil (mitangyou), green green-bean ” “ ” manufacture, was produced inexhaustibly within the oil (lüdouyou), yellow gardenia-nut oil (zhiziyou), “ ” earth, in contrast to the limited supply of pine wood. In and black black-lacquer oil (moqiyou). Petroleum – – spring, local people collected it with pheasant tail occurred at depths of 180 220 m, ca. 360 m, and 950 brushes and put it into pots. The method of collection 990 m, and there were experts who knew exactly to described by Shen Gua is similar to that described in which depths the hoisting buckets should be sent to Agricola’s De re metallica of the mid-sixteenth century. have them filled with petroleum exclusively. Song and Yuan sources report that near Yan’an The most important application of bitumen in crude bitumen was used to make so-called “stone candles” and distilled form was certainly in the military field, (shizhu). Lu You (1125–1210) says in his Laoxuean where it was used for incendiary weapons. The sources biji of 1190 that they are solid like stone and give a very do not inform us about details of the processing and bright light. Moreover, “they also gutter like wax distilling methods, but this may be due to the fact that [candles]. Their smoke, however, is thick and may these were treated as military secrets. The second most fumigate and defile curtains and clothes. This is why important use of bitumen was for lighting purposes, for people in the western [part of the empire] do not esteem which numerous references, particularly for regions them.” The stone cave supplying the raw material for near bitumen seepages or wells, can be found. In the production of the stone candles was, however, Sichuan, bitumen appears to have served sometimes as closed in 1270 by government order. fuel for the evaporation of brine. Bituminous products Perhaps the first notion of a well intentionally dug were also used for greasing cart axles and the bearings of for getting bitumen can be found in the Da Yuan da water power trip-hammers, manufacturing ink, sealing yitongzhi, the comprehensive administrative and geo- leather wine sacks, covering floors, and tempering iron. graphical description of the Yuan period: Moreover, bitumen was often applied for medical, pharmaceutical, and alchemical purposes. For instance, Li South of Yanchang district, at Yinghe, there is a Shizhen’s Bencao gangmu, published in 1596, states that stone oil well which has been cut open. Its oil can it is smeared on ulcers, ringworms, worms, and scabies, 20 Bone technology in Africa and is used for drugs which heal flesh wounds caused by iron arrows. A source of the seventh century tells us that Bone Technology in Africa when swallowing the bitumen of Jiuzi in Xinjiang, fallen out teeth and hair can be induced to grow again. Later sources are less sanguine about internal application and ALICE M. CHOYKE sometimes stress that bitumen is poisonous. Although, in China, bitumen seepages and deposits Particular cellular structures in the hard tissues of were discovered and used from an early period onward, animals provide potential raw materials for manu- the overall economic, technical, and scientific role of facturing tools and ornaments. Mammalian bones and bitumen remained small and did not extend much teeth provide the bulk of the raw material not only beyond the limits of the small number of production because of their form but also because they were areas. The only exemption was in the military field, available in the refuse derived from the consumption of where testimonies of fire and flame throwers using meat. Egg and mollusk shell (gastropods and bivalves) distilled petroleum are numerous. The revolutionary were also modified. It is possible that, like ivory in later impact of the Drake Well in mid-nineteenth century periods, they might have been sought after for the sake Pennsylvania was not due to the depth reached in deep of the shell raw material itself. In parallel, since osseous drilling, but to the fact that beforehand a thorough tissues come from living animals which often had scientific investigation of the properties, refining meth- important symbolic significance to the humans exploit- ods, and possible applications of petroleum had taken ing them, their bones may also have had a variety of place. It was this combination of scientific investiga- special significances in traditional tool manufacture. At tion, technical achievement, establishment of production the beginning, bones were used rather than modified in plants, and creation of a huge demand that was responsible regular ways, but quite early on humans used a variety for the rise of the petroleum industry in the West. of techniques (cutting, scraping, abrasion, and drilling) to produce standardized objects. Until the Late Bronze See also: ▶Salt (China), ▶Tribology (China), ▶Ben- Age in the second millennium BC, flaked stone tools, cao gangmu rough stone surfaces, and polishing materials were used to manufacture quite sophisticated objects. References As it was the cradle of humankind, it is not surprising that Africa was the scene of the earliest bone working Anon. Lüelun wo guo shiyou, tianranqi de kaifa jiqi lishi in the world and some of the latest as well, representing jiaoxun (A Brief Account of the Development of almost two million years of transforming the hard Petroleum and Natural Gas in Our Country and Its tissues of animals into tools and ornaments. Further- Historical Lessons). Wenwu 6 (1975): 47–53. Kuo, Sampson Hsiang-chang. Drilling Oil in Taiwan: A Case more, African bone technology is also distinguished by Study of Two American Technicians’ Contribution to the use of two special raw materials: ivory and ostrich Modernization in Late Nineteenth-Century China. Ph.D. eggshell. As elsewhere, however, animal bone lay at Dissertation, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, the heart of technological processes while antler, a 1981. staple material in Europe, was unknown. Shells, Li Jung. An Account of the Salt Industry at Tzu-liu-ching. riverine or marine, were used as ornaments almost Tzu-liu-ching-chi. Isis 39 (1948): 228–34. Needham, Joseph. Science and Civilisation in China. Vols. III everywhere across the continent and from remarkably and IV, Part 2, and Vol. V, Part 7. Cambridge: Cambridge early times in the Middle Stone Age to the present. University Press, 1954. Outside Africa, until quite recently, the earliest, Pi Xiaozhong, et al. Wo guo gudai laodung renmin kaifa securely dated worked bones, small split-based projec- tianranqi he shiyou de bufen lishi ziliao (Some Historical tile points, came from the Central European Szeleta Material Concerning the Development of Natural Gas and culture at around 35,000 BP, representing the earliest Petroleum in Ancient Times by the Working People of Our securely dated manufactured objects in Europe, coeval Country). Jingyanshi tongxun 1 (1977): 36–44. Shen Lisheng. Zhongguo shiyou gongye fazhanshi; Diyi apparently with the arrival of anatomically modern juan: Gudai de shiyou yu tianranqi (A History of the humans in Europe. Worked wooden artifacts from the Development of the Petroleum Industry in China; Part 1: sites of Clacton and Lehringen as well as three wooden Petroleum and Natural Gas in Ancient Times). Rev. ed. spears found at the 400,000-year old site of Schoeningen Beijing: Shiyou gongye chubanshe, 1984. in Germany, however, show that Middle Pleistocene Vogel, Hans Ulrich, Joseph Needham, et al. The Salt Industry. European hominids used wood. Homo erectus craftspeo- Section 37 of Science and Civilisation in China. Ed. Joseph ple could scrape and shave wood so handily that working Needham. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (in press). Xing Runchuan. Wo guo lishi shang guanyu shiyou de yixie bone should have presented few problems. There are also jizai (Some Records on Petroleum in the History of Our examples from this early time period in Europe of large Country). Huaxue tongbao 4 (1976): 63. mammalian phalanges, deer antler and diaphysis shaft Bone technology in Africa 21 fragments being used as retouchers for making stone Taung in South Africa (Dart 1925), later interpreted tools. There is even one example from Italy of bifacial some of the bone finds from the South African site of tools flaked from an elephant long bone (d’Errico and Makapansgat as being among the first “natural” tools Backwell 2001;d’Errico 2003). used by these early hominid populations (Dart 1949, Some of the chronological and spatial gaps in the 1962). Since then there has been debate concerning distribution of these early bone objects from Europe whether these artifacts were modified or simply used B and Africa revolve around the survival of bone on by these early hominids or were the result of nonhuman archaeological sites. Very ancient sites are rare taphonomic processes such as erosion. However, such everywhere in the world. Furthermore, and importantly, tools were never found, or rather they were not evident preservation of organic, osseous materials was depen- to the people working on these ancient sites and so the dent on the way those objects were used, where they idea was rejected. It was almost inevitable, given the were discarded, and the natural conditions prevailing in relatively well-funded research on early human sites, those places. Acidic soils destroy bone while root regularly ongoing in Africa, that new finds would action and animal gnawing can also modify surfaces emerge to revive Dart’s ideas and even greatly expand and shapes. Osseous materials of any kind, compared them. with stone, will begin to erode and break apart when exposed for more than a month or two in the open air. Thus, both cultural behavior with regard to tool use, The First Humanly Modified Bones in the World— location(s) of that use, and traditions of discarding Termite Extraction Tools worked bone after they broke compound natural Three of the most famous early hominid sites in the conditions to affect what objects can be found by world, Swartkrans (Members 1-3, ca. 1.8–1.0 Mya) excavating archaeologists. Bone tools have not often Sterkfontein (Member 5, 2.0–1.7 Mya), and Drimolen been systematically researched, perhaps because their (2.0–1.5 Mya) are located in South Africa. These sites study also requires such an intimate knowledge of the contain the first evidence for the systematic modifica- biology of the bones they derive from. tion and use of long bone shaft fragments and horncores (the boney core within bovid horn sheaths) ’ The Taphonomy1 of Worked Osseous Materials for tools (d Errico and Backwell 2001, 2003). These 68 tools were originally interpreted through micro- What particularly makes any discussion of African scopic analysis as tools for digging up tubers and bone tool technologies a challenge is the size of the working skins (Brain and Shipman 1993). The bones continent, especially relative to the amount of pub- from these three sites were later reexamined using a lished research which has gone on there. This research multidisciplinary approach that compared wear pat- has been quite localized in time and space. On the one terns on pseudobone tools created by known natural hand, lands along the great Nile, from Nubia to Egypt processes with the patterns on experimentally used have been intensively studied. However, the very gran- bone tools and with the traces of wear found on the deur of Egyptian civilization has meant that researchers original objects (Backwell and d’Errico 2005; d’Errico have concentrated on the grand places, the palaces, and Backwell 2003). temples, and burial monuments and emphasized cera- It was immediately clear that the wear on the mics and exquisite, special finds. Predynastic settle- artifacts matched that neither on pseudotools nor ment has only recently begun to be investigated and on artifacts used for digging tubers or preparing hides. even there the bone finds are rarely published in detail. Wear traces on the working ends of tools used Much less is known of the later prehistory and history experimentally to excavate termite mounds most closely of bone technology in the enormous territory of North fit the wear traces found on these archaeological objects Africa, best known archaeologically for the great (Backwell and d’Errico 2001). The bones used as Roman and Medieval Islamic cities whose ruins dot raw material all show signs of weathering prior to use the shores of the continent. in that they have weathered breakage patterns as On the other hand, because humankind is infinitely opposed to spiral fractures. In addition, compared to fascinated with its beginnings a great deal of attention other bone fragments found at these sites the 68 has been paid to early hominid sites in South Africa, the modified bone objects stand out as a group since they Rift Valley and Congo. Over 50 years ago, Raymond are made from longer, broader bone fragments showing Dart, the physical anthropologist famous for his that they were intentionally selected by these early discovery of the baby Australopithecine skull from hominids. The researchers were able to find robust horncores with tips that had been reshaped by grinding. The presence of such relatively sophisticated shaping 1 Taphonomy is the study of the conditions and processes by suggests that even at this early date, modern human which organisms become fossilized or are preserved. behavior was beginning to emerge, together with 22 Bone technology in Africa the ability to preplan objects according to culturally were dated using thermoluminesence techniques, and determined patterns. Although the technology used there is still debate whether the deposits where the was far less complex than the completely shaped bone harpoons and fish remains lay can be accurately dated tools found at Middle Stone Age sites such as Blombos using this method. It has also been suggested that cave in southwestern South Africa or regularly encoun- the harpoons themselves may have been washed onto tered in materials from the Late Stone Age to the present this terrace from later sites. The debate will probably day, there is still evidence that the location and direc- only be resolved if more sites from this early date tion of the facets produced on the tips represent planned are found. The manufacturing technique used to produce behavior. The makers and users of these termite the Katanda harpoons (D’Errico et al. 2003) was quite extraction tools, probably the robust australopithecine, different from the technique worked out for the harpoons Paranthropus robustus, seem to have had a clear found at the Later Stone Age lakeshore site of Ishango in understanding of the relationship between the shape of Zaire. Ishango is securely dated to around 25,000 BP the tip and how the tools were going to be used (D’Errico (Brooks and Smith 1987).Theboneharpoonsfound 2003;D’Errico et al. 2003). Such complex thinking there have been interpreted as signs of a fishing industry was always previously associated with anatomically (Van Noten 1982; Brooks and Smith 1987). modern humans. The discovery and recognition of these It no longer seems quite so unreasonable that objects tools have forced scientists dealing with human evo- of such sophistication could have been produced so lution to change their ideas about what defines modern early in the history of modern Homo sapiens. Such human behavior. single- and double-row barbed objects have also been The earliest specimens of anatomically modern found widely distributed across Africa on sites younger Homo sapiens come conclusively from Africa at Omo than 10,000 BP (for example, Camps 1974, Camps- Kibish in Ethiopia dating to 185,000 BP and Herto in Fabrer 1961, Haaland 1992; Petite-Maire et al. 1983). Ethiopia dating to 165,000 BP. However, evidence for Although the earliest harpoons from Katanda and planned sophisticated tool making, especially complex Ishango in Central Africa are interpreted as having techniques for modifying osseous materials for tools been used in fishing, there is ample ethnographic and ornaments or even symbolic expression, only evidence showing that such barbed objects can also be appears, at the earliest, 50,000 years later. Students of used for hunting land mammals, especially in bush land the development of modern cognitive thought divide where the prey may not be visible. Mesolithic (Haaland into two schools on this issue. One school, led by the 1992) midden deposits at a lacustrian site from northern scholar Richard Klein (2002), proposes a revolution in Mali dating to ca. 6900 BP contained 200 beautifully mental capabilities beginning around 40,000 years ago carved single- and double-row harpoons as well as in Europe and some 5,000 to 10,000 years earlier in fish hooks, long pins and a carved crocodile bone Africa. This can be seen for example, in the presence of (Petite-Maire et al. 1983). ostrich shell disk beads at the site of Enkapune Ya Muto Single-row harpoons were found at the Sudanese site in Kenya dated to 45,000–50,000 BP. A smaller but of Esh Shaheinab in the Nile Valley as well as another growing group of researchers lead by Brooks and late single-sided harpoon made from elephant ivory Henshilwood have argued that technological complexi- (Choyke 1990) from the Middle Bronze Age site of ty developed slowly in a piecemeal way along with what Kerma (ca. 3500 BP), the capital of the Nubian may be called modern human behavior (McBrearty Kingdom of Kush located on the Upper Nile in Sudan. and Brooks 2000). Proofs of this development may be Other, single-row barbed harpoons were discovered at found in the single-row barbed harpoons from Katanda two pre-Iron Age settlements (ca. 3000 BP) at in the Congo, which have been controversially dated to Gajiganna on Lake Chad (Breurig et al. 1996). Later 90,000 BP (Brooks and Smith 1987), and more securely evidence, from a burial at the site of Daima I (around in the well-dated finds from Blombos Cave dated to 2500 BP), also on the shore of Lake Chad, shows a 77,000 BP. double-row alternating barbed harpoon having been used as a weapon against humans (Connah 1981). All these complex, fine objects were produced using a Katanda and the Harpoon in Africa variety of techniques depending on the time period and Barbed harpoons have a special place in the history of local traditions. Whether used for fish, hunting land bone technology of Africa (Yellen 1998), demonstrat- mammals or as weapons in human conflict all such ing continuity in their basic form if not in their actual objects required a disproportionate amount of time to use. At Middle Stone Age Katanda, single-row barbed produce, beyond what would have been practically harpoons were found with remains of giant Nile carp. necessary. Thus, their form has other social implica- New dates seem to reconfirm that Katanda was a very tions related to display and identity within and between early site (McBeaty and Brooks 2000). The harpoons groups of people. Bone technology in Africa 23

Ornamentation and Symbolic Reasoning The well-published Middle Stone Age cave shelter of Blombos overlooking the Indian Ocean is securely dated by thermoluminesence to ca. 77,000 BP. It is notable for the 40 standardized bone tools found there including the three finely crafted spearheads and three B projectile points. These points were formed by scraping and then polished to give them “ added value ” possibly in exchanges designed to facilitate relationships between neighboring groups of people. Other bone points at the same site were used in leather working (Hensilwood et al. 2003;D’Er ri co 2003:192). However, the site is also remarkable for a ruminant mandible fragment with 11 incisions grooved on it with a flint point (D’Errico et al. 2001). Together with pieces of ochre that were ground flat and incised with patterns this represents evidence of symbolic thinking. Even more sophisticated symbolic thinking is evidenced by the much later incised long bone handle or rod dated to ca. 25,000 from Ishango Cave in Zaire. These repetitive regular groups of notches have been interpreted as representing some kind of mathematical thought (D ’ Errico 2003 ) or as a record of regular events, perhaps associated with female cycles such as menstruation (Brooks and Smith 1987). This question will probably never really be resolved. Blombos cave excavations also revealed 19 tiny bivalve shells of Nassurius kraussianus , which had been artificially drilled, as evidenced by wear facets Bone Technology in Africa. Fig. 1 around the edges of the holes (D’ Errico 2005). Engraved ostrich shell found at the site of Diepkopf ’ on South Africa s Western Cape dates to 60,000 BP are often imitated in other raw materials like gold, while ostrich shell beads dated to 70,000 BP came to bronze, and bone. All these kinds of bone and shell light at Loiyangalani in Tanzania. Again, it has been beads represent a technological tradition of fantastic argued that such sophisticated objects were designed antiquity which seems to grow sharply in complexity not only for personal adornment but also for exchange, and become widespread about 6000– 7000 years ago, in a social lubricant for acquiring social partners (Yellen ’ North Africa at least, with a variety of incised bones, and Brooks 1995,D Errico 2003). Fish vertebrae decorative pins, and a variety of ornamental shapes drilled to be made into beads have been reported from produced in bone and shell. The Neolithic period in Mesolithic sites in Central Sudan (Haaland 1992 ). Africa also saw the advent of special tools and Beads made of bone and mollusk and bivalves and, ornaments made from human teeth, long bones, and in particular, ostrich shell, continue to be made even even crania — surely all with special, socially deeply today. (Figs. 1 and 2) everywhere on the continent embedded symbolic significance (Camps-Fabrer 1966). (Vialou and Vialou 1981; Breurig et al. 1996; Camps 1974; Camps-Fabrer 1966 ; Connah 1981 ; Choyke 1990; Van Noten 1982 , Petit-Maire et al. 1983 ). Ostrich The Use of Ivory shell beads and engraved shells appear regularly on Although drilled and suspended animals’ teeth, and in Neolithic sites across North Africa. Cowrie shells, particular canine teeth, are found around the world, the often with their dorsal sides cut off so they lay flat on earliest use of ivory still seems to have been at Olduvai clothing or on the neck, were certainly used in North Gorge in Tanzania, as reported by Mary Leakey in the Africa by the Neolithic period. Since their form Olduvai volume. This material has not been studied as resembles the human vulva it is usually suggested that it is difficult to differentiate true and pseudotools made these shell beads are connected with fertility. In ancient on teeth, but Mary Leakey described them as tools. Egypt, there are depictions of women wearing cowrie However, with the extinction of mammoths, African shells. As in many other places around the world, they elephant and hippopotamus ivory use became restricted 24 Bone technology in Africa

Bone Technology in Africa. Fig. 3

Bone Technology in Africa. Fig. 2 Bone Tool Production in Later Prehistory By the Neolithic period, bone working had developed to Africa and the Near East, certainly frominto thea fifthmultitude of variable industries using different millennium onwards, only reappearing in combinationsCeltic of techniques. Each group had their own continental Europe at the end of the Iron Agestandardized and with way of making tools and these were best the coming of the Romans. made into pointed tools like awls and projectile points. In Africa, ivory was traded from Central AUsefrica towas thefrequently made of ruminant metapodium Nile Valley to make prestige goods and bones,beau tifuwhichl can be grooved down the median line ornaments at least from the predynastic Middlewith B ronaz e pointed flaked stone tool and then easily split. Age (second millennium BCE). There is now eUsingvidence oneof of the epipheseal ends as a handle the this trade in the Iron Age from Botswana diaphysis(Reid awasnd sharpened through some combination of Segobye 2000). Ivory as a raw material was exscrapingported ouwitht a flaked stone tool or abrasion with a from Europe through Egypt around the Mediterough-texturedrranean. stone. This is an ancient technique, Roman sites in provincial Europe frequently haveeven o bjepreservedcts in a ritual form as a burial offering in made from ivory, manufactured elsewhere in thethe emcemeterypire. at Kerma where two new and identical Manufacturing of ivory seems to have mirror-imagebecome sheep metapodial awls from two different common rather late compared to other raw bonesmaterials. were deposited with the deceased1990 (Choyke ). From the Kushite site of Kerma comes a Ahippowls wereivory used in leather-working and coiled basket harpoon as well as elaborately carved inlaysworking. from Stone tools were the tools of choice in bone elephant ivory (Choyke199 0). Dynastic Egypt sees workingan until the end of the second millennium BCE in explosion in the use of ivory as decoration Egyptfor furniture when metal tools took over. Stone tools, however, and as beads, buttons, and statuettes, perhaps wererelated still importantto at Kasteelberg, an Iron Age site the widespread use of metal in bone and inivory South indus- Africa where a combination of hammering off trial manufacturing. This tradition of ivory theworking epiphyseal ends, grooving, splitting, and fine continued into medieval times (for example ingrinding Ghana, and polishing were used to create beautiful Stahl and Stahl200 4) and until recently in sub-Saharanbone projectile points or link-shafts for arrows. These Africa (Figs. 3 and 4). objects have parallels with objects used until recently by Bone technology in Africa 25

Academy of Sciences. United States of America. 98.4 (2001): 1358–1363. Backwell, L. and F. d’Errico. Additional evidence on the early hominid bone tools from Swartkrans with reference to spatial distribution of lithic and organic artifacts. South African Journal of Science 99 (2003): 259–67. Breurig, P., K. Neumann, and W. Van Neer. New research on B the Holocene Settlement and Environment of the Chad Basin in Nigeria. The African Archaeological Review 13.2 (1996): 111–45. Brain, C. K. and P. Shipman. The Swartkarans Bone Tools. Ed. C. K. Brain. Swartkrans. A Cave’s Chronicle of Early Man, Cape: C.T.P. Book Printers, 1993: 195–215. Brooks, A. and C. Smith. Ishango revisited: New Age Determinations and Cultural Interpretations. The African Archaeological Review 5 (1987): 65–78. Brooks, A. et al. Middle Stone Age Barbed Bone Points from Katanda (DR Congo): New Perspectives on Age and Association. Science 268.5210 (1995): 548–53. Camps, G. Les Civilizations Préhistoriques de L’Afrique du Nord et du Sahara. Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1974. Camps-Fabrer, H. Matière et art Mobilier dans la Préhistoire Nord-Africaine et Saharienne. Mémoires V, Paris: Arts et Métiers Graphiques, 1966. Choyke, A. Travail de l’os et de l’ivoire á Kerma. Ed. C. Bonnet. Kerma, royaume de Nubie. Genéve: Mission archéologique de l’Université de Genéve au Soudan, 1990: 140–1. Connah, G. Three Thousand Years in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981. Dart, R. Autsralopithicus africanus: The Man-Ape of South – Bone Technology in Africa. Fig. 4 Africa. Nature 196.2884 (1925): 195 5. ---. The Predatory Implemental Technique of Australopithi- cus. American Journal of Physical Anthropology new series 7.1 (1949): 1–38. San Bushmen (Smith and Poggenpoel 1988). Simple ---.Substitution of Bone Tools for Bone Tools at Makapans- bone awls based on the spiral fracture of long bones were gat, Nature 196.4852 (1962): 314–6. also common at Kasteelberg as elsewhere across Africa d’Errico, F. The Invisible Frontier. A Multiple Species Model and the world. Otherwise, there are broad tendencies for for the Origin of Behavioral Modernity. Evolutionary – bone to continue to be made into objects with beveled Anthropology 12 (2003): 188 202. d’Errico, F. and L. Backwell. Les premiers outils en os. Pour edges used as wedges, scrapers, and burnishers, la Science 284 (2001): 24. especially for leather working and ceramic production. ---. Possible evidence of bone tool shaping by Swartkrans It would be impossible here to go into all the early hominids. Journal of Archaeological Science 30 different ways bone, ivory, ostrich-egg shell, and (2003): 1559–76. mollusk shell have been used in the last 6000 years d’Errico, F. et al. An engraved bone fragment from c. 70,000- in Africa. There is a general tendency for bone objects year-old Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, South to be made for increasingly special purposes. Often Africa: implications for the origins of symbolism and language. Antiquity 75.287 (March 2001): 309–18. they were made to be parts of composite objects as ---. Archaeological evidence for the emergence of language, fittings, handles, closures, and ornaments. Hopefully, symbolism, and music—An Alternative Multidisciplinary as archaeological work continues in Africa it will be Perspective. Journal of World Prehistory 17.1 (2003): possible to present a more integrated picture of the way 1–70. this ancient technology developed there. ---. Nassarius kraussianus Shell Beads from Blombos Cave: Evidence for Symbolic Behavior in the Middle Stone Age. Journal of Human Evolution, 48.1 (Jan. 2005): 3–24. See also: ▶Ishango Bone, ▶Fishing in the Stone Age, ▶ ▶ Gibbons, A. Archaeology: Doubts over spectacular dates. Beads, Stone Tools Science 278.5336 (Oct. 1997): 220–2. Haaland, R. Fish, pots and grain: Early and Mid-Holocene References adaptations in the Central Sudan. The African Archaeolog- ical Review 10 (1992): 43–64. Backwell, L. R. and F. d’Errico. Evidence of termite foraging Henshilwood, C. S. and F. d’Errico. Being Modern in by Swartkrans early hominids. Proceedings of the National the Middle Stone Age: Individuals and Innovation. Ed. 26 Brahmagupta

C. Gamble and Porr, The Individual hominid in context: the Brāhmasphut.asiddhānta. That he was still active Archaeological investigations of Lower and Middle in old age is clear from the title epoch of AD 665 Palaeolithic landscapes, locales and artefacts. New York: ā – used in another of his works called Khan. d.a-kh dyaka. Routledge (Taylor Francis), 2005. 244 64. ū ā Henshilwood, C., et al. The Origin of Human Behavior. Pr.th daka Sv min, an ancient commentator on Cultural Anthropology 44 (2003): 627–51. Brahmagupta, calls him Bhillamālācārya, which shows Klein, R. and B. Edgar. The Dawn of Human Culture. New that he came from Bhillamāla. This place has been York: John Wiley and sons Inc, 2002. identified with the modern village Bhinmal near Mount McBrearty, S. and A. Brooks. The Revolution That Wasn’t: Abu close to the Rajasthan–Gujarat border. A New Interpretation of the Origin of Modern Human We have no knowledge of Brahmagupta’s teachers, Behavior. Journal of Human Evolution 39.5 (Nov. 2000): – or of his education, but we know he studied the five 453 563. ā Petit-Maire, N., et al. The Sahara in northern Mali: man and traditional Siddh ntas on Indian astronomy. His sources his environment between 10,000 and 3500 years bp. also included the works of Āryabhat.aI,Lāt.adeva, (Preliminary results). The African Archaeological Review Pradyumna, Varāhamihira, Sim. ha, Śrīs.en.a, Vijayanan- 1.1 (1983): 105–25. din, and Vis.n.ucandra. He was, however, quite critical Phillipson, D. African Archaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge of most of these authors. University Press, 1993. The Brāhmasphutasiddhānta is Brahmagupta’smost Reid, D. and A. K. Segobye. An ivory cache from Botswana . and its implications for trade. Antiquity 74.284 (2000): important work. It is a standard treatise on ancient Indian 326–31. astronomy, containing 24 chapters and a total of 1,008 Shipman, P. and J. Rose. Bone tools: An experimental verses in āryā meter. The Brāhmasphut.asiddhānta approach. Ed. S. Olsen. Scanning Electron Microscopy in claimed to be an improvement over the ancient work of Archaeology, British Archaeological Reports, International the Brahmapaks.a, which did not yield accurate results. Series 452 (1988): 303–5. Brahmagupta used a great deal of originality in his Smith, A. and C. Poggenpoel. The technology of bone tool revision. He examined and criticized the views of his fabrication in the south-western Cape, South Africa. World Ā Archaeology 20.1 (1988): 103–15. predecessors, especially ryabhat.a I, and devoted two Stahl, A. and P. Stahl. Ivory Production and consumption in chapters to mathematics. There have been many Ghana in the early second millennium AD. Antiquity commentators on this work. The earliest known was 78.299 (2004): 86–101. Balabhadra (eighth century AD), but his commentary is Van Noten, F. The Archaeology of Central Africa. Graz/ not extant. Austria: Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, 1982. ’ Chapter 7 is on Gan. ita (Mathematics). It deals with Vialou, A. and D. Vialou. Étude d une Collection de Parure elementary arithmetic, algebra, and geometry. The Provenant de la Région de Tabelbala (Sahara Algérien). Ed. C. Roubet, H-J. Hugot, and G. Souville. Préhistoire subject is presented under 28 topics of logistics Africaine, mélanges offerts au Doyen Lionel Balout. Paris: (arithmetical operations) and determinations, including Éditions A.D.P.F., 1981: 349–59. problems related to mixtures, plane figures, shadows, Yellen, J. Barbed Bone Points: Tradition and Continuity in series, piles, and excavations. He wrote in a concise and Saharan and sub-Saharan Africa. African Archaeological understandable style, whether dealing with simple – Review 15.3 (1998): 173 99. mathematics or complex geometry. In the treatment Yellen, J. and A. Brooks. A Middle Stone Age Worked Bone of surds, Brahamagupta is remarkably modern in Industry from Katanda, Upper Semiliki Valley, Zaire. ā ā Science 268.5210 (1995): 553–6. outlook. The Br hmasphut.asiddh nta includes formu- las for the rationalization of the denominator, as well as a marvelous piece of pure mathematics in the rule for the extraction of the square root of a surd. Still more Brahmagupta remarkable algebraic contributions are contained in a chapter entitled Kut.t.aka, which is a traditional name for indeterminate analysis of the first degree. The R. C. GUPTA second order indeterminate equation 2 þ ¼ 2 ð Þ “Brahmagupta holds a remarkable place in the history Nx c y 1 ” ā of Eastern civilization. (Sachau 1971). Bh skara II is called varga-prakr. ti (square nature). An important described Brahmagupta as Gan. akacakracūdāmani, step towards the integral solutions of such equations is jewel among the circle of mathematicians. what is called Brahmagupta’s Lemma in the history of Brahmagupta was born in AD 598 according to his mathematics. In modern symbology the Lemma is as own statement: “… when 550 years of the Śaka era had follows: elapsed, Brahmagupta, son of Jisn.u, at the age of 30, composed the Brāhmasphut.asiddhānta for the pleasure If (α, β) is a solution of (1) with c = k, and (α′, β′) of good mathematicians and astronomers.” Thus he is its solution with c = k′, then (αβ′ ± α′β, was 30 years old in Śaka 550 or AD 628 when he wrote ββ′ ± Nαα′) will be its solution with c = kk′. Bread in Africa 27

This lemma not only helps in finding any number References of solutions from just one solution, but it also helps Primary sources in solving the most popular case of c = 1, provided we Chatterjee, Bina; ed. and trans. Khandakhādyaka with the – . . know a solution for c = 1, or ±2 or ±4. commentary of Bhat.t.otpala. Calcutta: World Press, 1970. ’ In geometry, Brahamagupta s achievements were Sengupta, P. C., ed. and trans. The Khan. d.akhādyaka of equally praiseworthy. He wrote a fine symmetric Brahmagupta. Calcutta: Calcutta University, 1934. B formula for the area of a cyclic quadrilateral, which Sharma, R. S., et al., eds. The Brāhma-sphut.a-siddhānta appeared for the first time in the history of mathemat- (with Hindi translation). 4 vols. New Delhi: Indian ics. Even more important are his expressions for the Institute of Astronomical and Sanskrit Research, 1966. diagonals of a cyclic quadrilateral. Secondary sources Brahmagupta’s name has been immortalized by yet “ ” Colebrooke, H. T. Algebra with Arithmetic and Mesuration another achievement. A Brahmaguptan quadrilateral from the Sanscrit of Brahmegupta and Bhāscara. London: is a cyclic quadrilateral whose sides and diagonals are Murray, 1817. integral (or rational) and whose diagonals intersect Gupta, R. C. Second Order Interpolation in Indian Mathe- orthogonally. He gave a simple rule for forming such matics. Indian Journal of History of Science 4 (1969): – figures in the Brāhmasphut.asiddhānta (Chap. 7, verse 86 98. α β γ ---. Brahamagupta’s Rule for the Volume of Frustum-like 38): If a, b, c and , , are the sides (integral or – γ Solids. Mathematics Education 6.4B (1972): 117 20. rational) of two right-angled triangles (c and being ---. Brahmagupta’s Formulas for the Area and Diagonals of a hypotenuses), then αγ,bγ,cα, and cβ are the required Cyclic Quadrilateral. Mathematics Education 8.2B (1974): sides of a Brahamaguptan quadrilateral. 33–6. Prior to Brahmagupta, the usual method for Ikeyama, Setsuro. Brahmasphutasiddhanta (Ch. 21) of computing the functional value intermediary between Brahmagupta with Commentary of Prthudaka, Critically Edited with English Translation and Notes. Indian Journal tabulated values was that of linear interpolation, which – was based on the rule of proportions. He was the first to of History of Science 38 (2003), no. 1: S1 74; no. 2: 75–S152; no. 3: not available. (This article is a critical give second order interpolation formulas for equal as edition, with an English translation and commentary, of a well as unequal tabulated argumental intervals. Mathe- Sanskrit astronomical text. It is divided into three parts and matically, his rule is equivalent to the modern Newton– treated as a supplement to issues 1, 2, and 3). Stirling interpolation formula up to the second order. Kak, Subhash. The Brahmagupta Algorithm for Square- The Khanda-khādyaka is a practical manual of Rooting. Gan. ita Bhāratī 11 (1989): 27–9. . . ’ ū Indian astronomy of the Karana category. The author Kusuba, Takanori. Brahmagupta sStras on Tri- and . Quadrilaterals. Historia Scientarum 21 (1981): 43–55. claims that it gives results useful in everyday life, birth, Pottage, John. The Mensuration of Quadrilaterals and the marriage, etc. quickly and simply, and is written for the Generation of Pythagorean Triads etc. Archive for History benefit of students. The work consists of two parts of Exact Sciences 12: 299–354. called the Pūrva and the Uttara. The former comprises Sachau, Edward. Alberuni’s India. New York: Norton, 1971. the first nine chapters and expounds the midnight Sarton, George. Introduction to the History of Science. system. The latter six chapters provide corrections and Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins, 1947. additions. This work has been studied by a great Venkutschaliyenger, K. The Development of Mathematics in Ancient India: The Role of Brahmagupta. Scientific number of commentators, from Lalla in the eighth Heritage of India. Ed. B. V. Subbarayappa and S. R. N. century to Āmarāja in the twelfth. It was translated into Murthy. Bangalore: Mythic Society, 1988. 36–47. Arabic first by al-Fazārī (eighth century) and then by al-Bīrūnī. Brahmagupta’s genius made use of mathematics (traditional as well as that which he developed) in Bread in Africa providing better astronomical methods. He used the theory of quadratic equations to solve problems in astronomy. He knew the sine and cosine rule of DIANE LYONS,A.CATHERINE D’ANDREA trigonometry for both plane and spherical triangles. He supplied standard tables of sines and versed sines. Bread is a dietary staple in north and northeastern Africa The historian of science George Sarton called him and is an important food for some Saharan and “one of the greatest scientists of his race and the East African groups. African breads are baked, steamed, greatest of his time.” and sometimes fried to produce pancakes, flat breads, loaves or cakes using ovens, griddles, and moulds. See also: ▶Geometry in India, ▶Arithmetic in India: Technical choice is associated with the baking proper- Pāt.īgan.ita, ▶Algebra in India: Bījagan.ita, ▶Astronomy ties of bread ingredients and should not be considered in India evolutionary stages. 28 Bread in Africa

Wheat and barley are Near Eastern cereals that were introduced into northeastern Africa in ancient times. Only Near Eastern cereals contain gluten, an elastic protein formed when their flours are mixed with liquid to produce dough. If yeast is added and ferments, it produces carbon dioxide gas which becomes trapped in the dough’s elastic structure causing it to rise. Sourdough leavening is common in Africa and is produced with residue left in dough mixing containers or by adding dough saved from a previous batch. However, barley and many varieties of wheat (e.g., emmer wheat and at least one wild ancestor of wheat) form gluten with poor leavening capacities. These cereal flours still produce viscous dough suitable for shaping by hand, a prerequisite for baking on oven floors and walls. Light airy bread was possible only after bread wheat, a variety with superior leavening capabilities, was developed in southwest Asia probably during the fourth millennium BCE. Well-risen loaves are expensive because they require longer baking times, use more fuel and are only Bread in Africa. Fig. 1 Place names mentioned in the text. made for special occasions or commercially. Map by Kees de Ridder. African cereals (sorghum, millets, teff) and other indigenous plants do not contain gluten and their flours burials and likely do not provide details of the range of are made into fermented batter or thick porridge and bread-baking practices. Most evidence indicates that baked on griddles or in shallow earth depressions. Only grain was pounded in a mortar, ground into flour on a sorghum flours will form dough suitable for baking in saddle quern (a simple stone mill used for grinding ovens. grain by hand), sieved through baskets, and then mixed with water or milk and sometimes dates, honey, eggs, Early History butter, coriander, sesame seeds, or fruit (Samuel 2000; Wilson 1988). Bread may have been leavened, but this Bread baking often leaves little material evidence to process is not required for bread making and chemical track its antiquity. 18,000 years ago at Kubbaniya in studies of preserved bread indicate that many were not Egypt, wild plants were made into a fine mush possibly fermented (Samuel 2000). to feed young children (Hillman 1989). Pot boiling was During the Old Kingdom (2686–2160 BCE) emmer unknown at this time and plants may have been ground wheat and barley flours were baked into bread in large and baked in shallow earth depressions similar to those conical molds called bedja. Bedja were stacked and of the Tuareg (see later) (Close 1995). Ash bread is also preheated, filled with dough or batter, covered, set into common with nomadic people and leaves no evidence. depressions in the bakery floor, and banked with hot Hunter-gatherers in southern Africa make “cakes” from embers (Lehner 1997). Bread was also baked as hand- ground corms of the iris family baked in hearth embers formed loaves in hearth ash, on griddles or preheated (Deacon 1984: 258), and nomadic pastoralists in ceramic dishes. Small cylinder ovens about 30 cm high northern Ethiopia make unleavened wheat bread by were heated with fuel fed through a door at the base. inserting a hot stone into small lumps of dough that are The top was covered and bread was baked on a shelf a baked near the fire (Dufton 1970: 219–220). third of the way up the interior (Wilson 1988). During Middle Kingdom times (2055–1650 BCE), bread was Ancient Egypt hand-formed, made in tall cylinder moulds, and baked Emmer wheat and hulled barley were grown in the Nile on griddles or on open hearths (Samuel 2000: 565). Valley since the sixth millennium BCE (Murray 2000) During the New Kingdom (1550–1069 BCE) emmer and were used to make bread and beer in Dynastic wheat predominated and bread was baked in tannur- Egypt. Bread baking practices are known from type ovens that became the main domestic and temple tomb paintings, miniature models of kitchens and bread-baking technology (Samuel 1999). Tannur first bakeries, statuettes, texts, excavations of bakeries, oven appear in southwest Asia in the late fourth millennium installations, analyses of preserved bread loaves, and BCE (Van de Mieroop 1997: 156) and consist of a clay experimental studies (Samuel 2000). Caution is cylinder, sometimes set into a bench, with wood, cattle required in interpreting artistic renderings as “photo- dung, or other fuel fed through an opening at the graphic” records, as images were intended for elite bottom. Dough is inserted through the top and is Bread in Africa 29

B

Bread in Africa. Fig. 2 Dome oven. Photo by Cathy D’Andrea.

Bread in Africa. Fig. 4 Enjera baking on m’ogogo. Photo by Diane Lyons.

but clay griddle fragments, dated to 500 BCE and Bread in Africa. Fig. 3 “Sunny bread”. Photo by Cathy similar to those used in domestic kitchens today, were D’Andrea. found near Lake Tana along with the earliest evidence for tef, barley and emmer wheat in the region pressed onto the hot interior walls to bake,(Dombrowski although 1971). platters for large loaves may also have been Inbaked northern in Ethiopia and Eritrea, clay griddles (60 cm these ovens (Samuel2000 : 568). Long conical mouldsin diameter) calledmogogo (Tigrinya) ormetad were used for ritual purposes in the New (Amharic)Kingdom are set atop a firebox made of upright, (Samuel 2000: 567) and a variety of hand-formedclay-covered bread stone slabs with an opening to the front shapes were baked inside large commercial fordomed feeding fuel of cattle dung and small branches. In ovens. Some ovens were so large that the thebaker central was and southern highlands griddles are held by his feet as he reached inside to positionbalanced doughon three stones set over a fire. Griddles are and retrieve baked bread (1988Wilson : 55). lightly lubricated with crushed oily seeds and dome- shaped lids are used to steam the bread (Lyons and Major changes in bread making occurred ’during Greco-Roman times (332 –BCEAD 395) when freeD Andrea 2003 ). Enjera or taita , spongy pancake threshing wheat (durum and bread wheat) breadreplaced made of teff, wheat, barley, and sorghum flours, emmer, and the saddle quern was replaced byis theserved rotary with all meals4). (Fig.Several varieties of quern (Samuel2000 ). Small dome-shaped ovens slightlyare leavened and unleavened flat breads are made used to bake“ sunny bread” (bread leavened in the insun) the highlands and are differentiated by their today near Luxor (2Figs. and 3). thickness, ingredients and length of fermentation. In southwestern and central Ethiopia, similar pancakes and flatbreads are prepared from the fermented Horn of Africa pseudostem of ensete (Smeds1955 : 24). The northern highlands of Ethiopia and Eritrea Somalianprovide bread is similar to Ethiopianenjera but is the only conditions for growing wheat in madetropical with sorghum flour batter poured onto a well- Africa. Bread was a dietary staple by Aksumiteoiled griddle.times Sweet enjera, and bread made with eggs (300 BCE to AD 800) when huge quantitiesare alsoof produced.bread Thick sorghum dough is baked into were taxed from rural households (Kobischanov1979). flat bread on an oiled pan and Swahili sorghum bread is No definite bread ovens are known from the alsohighlands, consumed (see later) (Abdullahi 2001). 30 Bread in Africa

1975 ; Bruneton1975 ). Small domestic dome-shaped bread ovens are replacing traditional technologies in Morocco (Peña et2003 al ). In large villages in Tunisia leavened bread is made in commercial tannur-type ovens, and griddlecakeskesra ) ( are baked in a dish or on a metal plate. Griddle bread and pancake are sometimes stuffed with vegetables, meat and fruit, or a spicy sauce1975 (Balfet ).

Sahara Wheaten bread is common in the diet of the northern Tuareg and is baked in hearth ash, on a metal baking sheet or on the sides of an inverted metal pot heated Bread in Africa. Fig. 5 Kissra baking. Photo by Catherine over the fire (Nicholaisen1963 ). However, millet flour D’Andrea. is made into batter and baked in a preheated shallow depression in the ground. Fine sand and hot coals or a small fire is set over the top to bake the batter through Sudan (Gast, Marceau, and Adrian1965; Nicholaisen1963 ). Sudanese pancake bread calledkissra is a staple madeThe finished bread is washed, broken into pieces in a with fermented sorghum or finger millet batterbowl, onserved with liquid butter and eaten with spoons. ceramic (now more commonly metal) griddles Somecalled bread is made with millet flour, berry juice and doka heated atop three stone hearths199 (Dirar3: 171). special plants as a medicine for women. The flour is At least 11 different types of Sudanese somixedrghum withor water into “a cak solide” and is baked like sorghum-based breads are produced. Sudanesedoka other millet bread (Nicholaisen1963 ). Nomads in are similar to Ethiopian griddles, but were Sudandeveloped and Egypt use similar but la“ ovensrger ”,earth later circa AD 600 (Adams1977 ; Shinnie and Shinniesometimes with floors of heated pebbles or pot sherds, 1978 : 107). (Fig.5). In Eastern Sudan thick sotorghum bake sorghum or millet flour bread1993 : (Dirar218; porridge is baked into small flat breadhadib, oncalledHobbs 1989). the inner preheated walls of earthenware pots or metal petrol cans (Dirar1993 : 220). East African Coast Ovens calledmofa occur in ninth century AD houses at Northern Africa Shanga on the Kenyan Mofacoast. were also used on Wheat and barley have been grown in northernsome AfricaArab dhows (Horton1996 : 46, 353). At Shanga, since the mid- first millennium BCE, and sormofaghum consistand of clay bowls set in floors that were pearl millet were introduced into Libya during possiblythe early used to both bake bread and boil liquids (see Islamic period (Pelling2003 ). In the High AtlasHorton 1996: Plate 21). At the nearby site of Manda, Mountains of Morocco today, bread flours aremofa madewere made of clay cylinders with no base. These of wheat, barley, maize, millet and sometimescylinders acorn were approximately 40 cm in diameter and (Balfet 1975 ; Bruneton1975 ). Women make ovenswere constructed inside a pit 198(Chittick4: 153). The ( afarnu ) by piling small stones 50 cm high cylinderand 80was cm then surrounded with soil and a fire was lit diameter at the base and then coating the pileinside with to heatthick the walls. Sorghum or millet flour dough clay (Bruneton197 5). After the clay dries, holes wasare baked cut on the hot interior walls and such cakes were at the top and base and the stones aredescribed carefully by twelfth century Chinese traders as dietary removed. The top opening draws a draft and staplesfuel (Hortonis fed1996: 353). Horton (personal commu- through the bottom opening. Oven floors consistnication of 2005)flat has observed that mofa are concentrated stones resting on rock salt to retain heat. Oncein northern the oven coastal sites where sorghum is consumed is heated coals are swept to the side and doughand are is much placed less common on southern coastal sites on the oven floor. where rice is eaten. Although mofa are similar to Different bread varieties include leavened wheatentannur, Horton suggests that the technology is simple bread for feast days and barley flour loavesand for could daily be a local invention. fare. Fast breads are baked from leavened dough in the embers or unleavened dough is baked on a hot stone plate or pottery sherd balanced on two stonesWest over Africa a fire (Bruneton 1975 ). Dough can be flavored with Breadherbs, was possibly made at Jenne-Jeno, Mali 2000 oil, garlic, onions, dill, sesame and aniseedyears (Balfet ago from pearl millet and sorghum flours using Bread in Africa 31 earth depressions like those of the Tuareg (McIntosh Dufton, Henry. Narrative of a Journey Through Abyssinia in 1995: 159–160). Medieval Arabic travelers observed 1862–3. Westport, CT: Negro Universities Press, 1970 bread made with unspecified tubers and millets in the [1867]. Gast, Marceau and Jean Adrian. Mils et Sorgho en Ahaggar eastern Sahara, Jenne, and Gao. These were consumed Étude Ethnologique et Nutritionelle. Paris: Arts et Métiers either as luxury items or cheap traveler’s fare (Lewicki Graphiques, 1965. 1974:46–47, 80), but baking technologies are not Hillman, Gordon C. Late Palaeolithic plant foods from Wadi B described. Today round clay griddles with four to six Kubbaniya in Upper Egypt: dietary diversity, infant small bowls are used to fry fermented batter of pearl- weaning, and seasonality in a riverine environment. Foraging and Farming. Ed. David R. and Harris Gordon millet flour into small cakes called masa or marsa in – Ghana (Apentiik 1997) and Mali. Guinea millet is also C. Hillman. London: Unwin Hyman, 1989. 207 239. Hobbs, Joseph. Bedouin Life in the Egyptian Wilderness. made into fritters and cakes in northwestern Guinea Austin: University of Texas Press, 1989. (National Research Council 1996: 237). Horton, Mark. Shanga. London: British Institute in Eastern Africa, 1996. Kobischanov, Yuri M. Axum. London: Pennsylvania State Contemporary Issues University Press, 1979. A recent advance in bread making technology is the Lehner, Mark. The Complete Pyramids. London: Thames and introduction of electric mills that relieve women from Hudson Ltd., 1997. the burden of grinding flour. Of considerable concern is Lewicki, Tedeusz. West African Food in the Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974. the rapidly growing demand for Western white wheaten ’ ’ Lyons, Diane and A. Catherine D Andrea. Griddles, Ovens, bread in Africa s urban centres. Methods are being and Agricultural Origins: An Ethnoarchaeological Study of developed to produce leavened bread with African Bread Baking in Highland Ethiopia. American Anthropol- cereals. Such projects are intended to protect African ogist 105.3 (2003): 515–530. crop production and reduce reliance on imported wheat McIntosh, Susan Keech. Pottery. Excavations at Jenne-Jeno, (National Research Council 1996). Hambarketolo, and Kaniana (Inland Niger Delta, Mali), the 1981 Season. Ed. Susan Keech McIntosh. Berkeley: – See also: ▶Ethnobotany in Ethiopia University of California Press, 1995. 130 213. Murray, Mary Anne. Cereal production and processing. Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology. Ed. Paul T. References Nicholson and Ian Shaw. Cambridge: Cambridge Univer- sity Press, 2000. 505–536. Abdullahi, Mohamed Diriye. Culture and Customs of National Research Council. Lost Crops of Africa, Vol. 1: Somalia. London: Greenwood Press 2001. Grains. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1996. Adams, Y. William. Nubia Corridor to Africa. Princeton: Nicholaisen, Johannes. Ecology and Culture of the Pastoral Princeton University Press 1977. Tuareg. Copenhagen: National Museum, 1963. Apentiik, Rowland. Bulsa Technologies and Systems Pelling, Ruth. Medieval and early modern agriculture of Thought. Unpublished M.A. thesis, Department of and crop dispersal in the Wadi el-Agial, Fezzan, Libya. Archaeology, University of Calgary 1997. Food, Fuel and Fields: Progress in African Archae- Balfet, Helene. Bread in Some Regions of the Mediterranean obotany. Ed. Neumann, Katharina, Ann Butler and Area. Gastronomy: The Anthropology of Food Habits. Stefanie Kahlheber. Köln: Heinrich Barth Institut, 2003. Ed. M. L. Arnott. The Hague: Mouton Publishers 1975. 129–138. 305–304. Peña, Lydia Zapata, et al. Ethnoarchaeology in the Moroccan Bruneton, Ariane. Bread in the Region of the Moroccan High Jebala (Western Rif): Wood and Dung as fuel. Food, Fuel Atlas. Gastronomy: The Anthropology of Food Habits. and Fields: Progress in African Archaeobotany. Ed. Ed. M. L. Arnott. The Hague: Mouton Publishers 1975. Neumann, Katharina, Ann Butler and Stefanie Kahlheber. 275–285. Köln: Heinrich Barth Institut, 2003. 163–176. Chittick, Neville. Manda. London: British Institute in Eastern Samuel, Delwen. Bread Making and Social Interactions at the Africa, 1984. Amarna Workmen’s Village, Egypt. World Archaeology Close, Angela. Few and far between. The Emergence of 31.1 (1999): 121–144. Pottery Technology and Innovation in Ancient Societies. ---. Brewing and baking. Ancient Egyptian Materials and Ed. W. K. Barnett and J. W. Hoopes. Washington, DC: Technology. Ed. Paul T. Nicholson and Ian Shaw. Cam- Smithsonian Institution Press 1995. 23–37. bridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. 537–576. Deacon, Janette. Later Stone Age people and their descen- Shinnie, Peter and Margaret Shinnie. Debeira West: A dants in southern Africa. Southern African Prehistory and Medieval Nubian Town. Warminster, UK: Aris and Philips, Paleoenvironments. Ed. Richard G. Klein. Rotterdam: 1978. A. A. Balkema Publishers 1984. 221–328. Smeds, Helmer. The ensete planting culture of eastern Dirar, Hamid A. The Indigenous Fermented Foods of the Sidamo. Acta Geographica 13.4 (1955): 1–39. Sudan. Wallingford UK: CAB, 1993. Van de Mieroop, Marc. The Ancient Mesopotamian City. Dombrowski, Joanne C. Excavations in Ethiopia: Lalibela Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1997. and Natchabiet Caves, Begemeder Province. Ph.D. disserta- Wilson, Hillary. Egyptian Food and Drink. UK: Shire tion, Department of Anthropology, Boston University, 1971. Publications Ltd, 1988. 32 Brewing in Africa

Additional Reading In some cases, colonialism has dramatically changed the structure of beer and its ties to society. This paper reviews Chazan, Michael and Mark Lehner. An ancient analogy: pot baked bread in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Paleori- the importance of beer in Africa based on a number of ent 16.2 (1990): 21–35. ethnographic case studies. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Sorghum and Millets in Human Nutrition. Rome: Food and Beer Production Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 1995. Gebrekidan, Berhane, and Belainesh Gebrehiwot. Sorghum The production of beer in Africa is usually under the Injera Preprations and Quality Parameters. Proceedings of domain of women. It requires a considerable amount of the International Symposium on Sorghum Grain Quality. time-consuming labor. In most societies, producing E.d L. W. Rooney and D. S. Murty. Patancheru, India: beer is a multistep process. For the Mabaso women of – ICRISAT, 1982. 55 66. South Africa or the Maale of southern Ethiopia, beer Larsen, Hjalmar. On baking in Egypt during the Middle – production can range from 5 to 12 days (Donham 1999: Kingdom. Acta Archaeologica 7 (1936): 51 57. – Pomeranz, Yeshajahu and J. A. Shellenberger. Bread Science 153 155; Reusch 1988: 24). First, women let the grain and Technology. Westport, Connecticut: Avi Publishing sprout in a damp pot to produce a malt and then mix it Company, 1971. with additional grains, and grind on a stone for hours. Samuel, Delwen. Their staff of life: initial investigations on They bring large quantities of water from up to a mile Ancient Egyptian bread baking. Amarna Reports V. away to mix with the ground grain and then boil the Ed. Barry J. Kemp. London: Egypt Exploration Society, malt and flour in large pots. After boiling the mixture, 1989. 253–290. women ferment the beer in large gourds or ceramic Egyptian Bread Websites vessels. In Tanzania, the Haya make a beer using a combination of bananas and sorghum (Carlson 1990). Theban Mapping Project. ▶http://www.thebanmappingpro They use ripe bananas because of their high sugar ject.com/articles/article_15.4.html ▶ content, which assists in the fermentation process. The University of Memphis. http://www.prosphora.org/page38. bananas are mashed with the help of dried grass, and html Bread in Ancient Egypt. ▶http://www.touregypt.net/fea then water is added in equal proportion to the banana turestories/bread.htm liquid. After the water is added, dried sorghum is mixed Ancient Egypt: Bread in Daily Life ▶http://www.mnsu.edu/ into the water and banana solution and left to ferment emuseum/prehistory/egypt/dailylife/breadmaking.htm for 24 h. In Ethiopia, the Gamo produce beer by two Mark Lehner’s excavations of bakeries at Giza, Egypt different methods (Arthur 2000). The highland Gamo (various websites) ▶ produce beer by boiling water in a large ceramic http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/pyramid/newsflash/news- cooking jar and then pouring the water over the wheat flash970203.html ▶http://www.harvard-magazine.com/on-line/070391.html and barley flour and stirring it in a large serving bowl, where it is left to cool. It is then poured into a beer jar to ferment for 4 days. The second way to produce beer, which occurs in the lowland areas, is to combine and boil Brewing in Africa water and flour and then store this mixture in large beer jars for fermentation (Arthur 2000, 2002, 2003). In the majority of societies, women produce the beer, but once they produce it, it is used by many segments of society. JOHN W. ARTHUR

Beer in Africa has been an important food staple since The Social Consumption of Beer the Old Kingdom of Egypt (5400–5500 BP), from the In Africa beer is consumed every day as a food product site of Hierakonopolis (Geller 1992; Maksoud et al. and beer also plays an essential role in the establish- 1994) and the New Kingdom of Egypt (1550–1070 ment of social obligations. The importance of commu- BCE), to workmen’s village sites at Amarna and Deir el- nal consumption is one of the reasons people process Medina (Samuel 1996). In many cultures of Africa, beer their grains into beer rather than bread (Dietler 1990). provides a substantial part of the diet, with one-eighth to Beer is often considered a food, rather than a beverage, one-third of grain crops being processed and consumed and the consumption of beer adds considerably to their as beer (Platt 1964). Beer socially binds people together daily calories (Gardiner 1836: 266; Green 1999: 414; and serves to reinforce social hospitality, usually without Haggblade 1992: 395; Karp 1980: 85; Moore and aggressive behavior or addiction (Mandelbaum 1965). Vaughan 1994: 192; Richards 1939: 80; Saul 1981: African societies use beer to indicate wealth and status, 746–747). Beer may contribute to increasing caloric as a commodity of reciprocity, hospitality, and commu- intake, but its symbolic role may be more important nality, as a payment of tribute to leaders, and as a vital than its nutritional role. However, de Garine (1996: food for the redistribution of wealth (Arthur 2003). 215) argues that beer “may be richer in vitamins PP and Brewing in Africa 33

B-12, phosphorous and calcium than sorghum por- primary means for repaying voluntary labor to hoe and ridge, but it contains only half the calories, one-quarter harvest agricultural fields and for building corrals and of the proteins and no glucids” (Adrian and Sayerse houses (Netting 1964). These examples demonstrate 1954: 136; Pele and Le Berre 1966). For example, that beer is a motivating force for labor and beer also has among the Koma of northern Cameroon, sorghum beer a role to play in the formation of the elite. provides one-third the total energy consumed in a year B and bonds age-sets and establishes a hierarchy between each one (de Garine 1996: 210). Among the Tiriki The Social Hierarchy of Beer people of Kenya, beer is offered to visitors as a sign of The payment of tribute with beer indicates its economic friendship (Sangree 1962: 11), and the Baganda of and political importance. Although beer in Haya Uganda use beer as a way to bond two men socially society is a secular refreshment, it has symbolic value (Robbins 1979: 371). Beer acts as a social lubricant since when Haya men make banana beer they must be when the Tiriki and the Iteso people of Kenya men sit sexually abstinent while brewing the beer (Carlson around communal beer pots everyday to discuss social 1990: 298, 303–304). When the Haya produce beer, it issues, disputes, and tell stories (Karp 1980; Sangree is their obligation to pay their leader four or more 1962). The Haya of northwest Tanzania pay respect to gallons of banana beer. Beer, along with livestock, fathers by offering them a gourd of banana beer, which barkcloth, and iron products, are presented to leaders as must be done before others can be served (Carlson tribute. They present the leader with special gourds of 1990). In addition, the Haya will offer a sacrifice of a beer that have wrappings of banana fiber covering the gourd of beer to a father at the ancestral altar. The gourds which are tied with twigs and leaves from a Kofyar of northern Nigeria conduct all aspects of their plant that symbolizes purity and strength. As with the daily life around beer (Netting 1964). The Kofyar use offering of beer to the deceased father, the Haya king beer as an award and as a punishment against not taking also offers a sacrifice to his ancestral altar for the part in work parties, verbal or physical violence, welfare and fertility of his kingdom. disrespect of a clan member, or minor theft. The Chagga leaders of Tanzania opened their houses and gave generous supplies of beer, which fulfilled their redistributive obligations and supported the warriors, Beer as a Motivating Ingredient who would fight on their behalf (Dietler 1990: 370–371; In order to gather a work party, beer is essential; Gutmann 1926: 346). The Chagga leaders would collect without beer, it is impossible to bring people together to this beer through either a tax that the people were happy cooperate on the task at hand. Work feasts are a type of to pay so that they might socialize with the leader or commensal politics (Dietler 2001; Dietler and Herbich through a work party in which people would help 2001), where people organize to work on a specific cultivate his millet crop, which was used to make a project and in return receive beer for their labor. Beer in beer feast. A sign of a good Buganda leader is the work parties provides a social alliance between the redistribution to the people in the form of “beer, meat, work party sponsor and the people involved in the work and politeness” (Mair 1934: 183). As with the Chagga, party. Beer changes the context of the group, by the Buganda leaders obtain their beer through a tribute becoming the “social focus” for all of the work party system and beer also is used to settle disputes as fines members, but also for people associated with the party (Robbins 1979: 371). Thus, the payment of beer forms a members (Donham 1999: 155). Among the Konso of social, economic, and political reciprocal bond between southern Ethiopia, the quality and quantity of beer is a commoners and leaders. motivational force in gathering people for a work party Brewing beer in association with slaughtering cattle (Watson 1998: 148). If a person produces a high quality among the Koma of Cameroon also provides a means to beer in sufficient quantities, then they can expect a improve an individual’s status (de Garine 1996: 208– range of 20–50 people to help them in the fields. There 210). The cattle dance ceremony celebrates the hard are a number of different types of Konso work parties, work and good qualities of a man’s wife as being a good which involve fixed or volunteer groups, costing the mother to their children. The ceremony in her honor is a sponsor approximately 50–150 Ethiopian birr (US redistribution feast that increases the husband’s social $7.00–$21.00) depending on the size of the work party. status by distributing meat and beer to their kin and Feasts also accompany work parties, as in Southern religious leaders. Once the husband has hosted up to Africa, where leaders and wealthier commoners orga- seven ceremonies his status increases because he is nize large work parties and then provide an abundance knowledgeable about the secret rituals and places and of beer (Crush 1992). The Pondo of South Africa rate can drink beer from his own pot without sharing. their beer feasts higher than meat feasts, because beer Beer is associated with the wealthy, high-caste Gamo makes the work seem more like a party (Hunter 1979: households (Arthur 2003). The political and religious 89–90). Among the Kofyar of Nigeria, beer is the aspects of Gamo life are under the authority of the mala 34 Brewing in Africa caste. The production and consumption of beer occur at Carlson, R. G. Banana beer, reciprocity, and ancestor all political and religious ceremonies such as at propitiation among the Haya of Bukova, Tanzania. – initiation feasts for ritual-sacrificers (halakas), wed- Ethnology 29 (1990): 297 311. ’ Crush, J. The Construction of compound authority: drinking dings, and at ceremonies celebrating saints days. The at Havelock 1938–1944. Liquor and Labor in Southern mala ritual-sacrificers must demonstrate their generosi- Africa. Ed. J. Crush and C. Ambler. Athens: Ohio ty through beer feasts. The wealthiest mala are “caught” University Press, 1992. 367–94. by the other mala members to become ritual-sacrificers de Garine, I. Food and the status quest in five African (halaka) (Halperin and Olmstead 1976). If the people cultures. Food and the Status Quest: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Ed. P. Wiessner and W. Schiefenhövel. choose a person to become a ritual-sacrificer, his duties – are to perform animal and beer sacrifices in which he Providence: Berghahn Books, 1996. 193 217. Dietler, M. Driven by drink: the role of drinking in the political prays for the health and fertility of his people, crops, and economy and the case of early iron Age France. Journal animals. Gamo ritual-sacrificers are always men, who of Anthropological Archaeology 9 (1990): 352–406. must be circumcised, married, wealthy, and morally ---. Theorizing the feast: ritual of consumption, commensal respected (Sperber 1975: 215). However, to become politics, and power in african contexts. Feasts: Archaeo- a ritual-sacrificer, a person has to perform two beer logical and Ethnographic Perspectives on Food, Politics, feasts (perso oosha), which include producing enough and Power. Ed. M. Dietler and B. Hayden. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2001. 65–114. beer for the people who reside in his political region Dietler, M. and I. Herbich, Feasts and labor mobilization: (dere) (Freeman 1997). This ritual-sacrificer must have dissecting a fundamental economic practice. Feasts: Archae- enough farmland to provide for producing large ological and Ethnographic Perspectives on Food, Politics, amounts of beer and other types of high-status foods. and Power. Ed. M. Dietler and B. Hayden. Washington, This redistribution of wealth cannot be refused by the DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2001. 240–64. chosen ritual-sacrificer (Sperber 1975). He must Donham, D. L. History, Power, Ideology: Central Issues in organize two different feasts, one at his house and the Marxism and Anthropology. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. other in the area of community gatherings (Freeman Freeman, D. Images of fertility: the indigenous concept of 1997). At both feasts, the participants must wait to start power in Doko Masho, Southwest Ethiopia. Ethiopia in drinking until the halaka-to-be and the elder-sacrificer Broader Perspective: Papers of the XIIIth International pour beer on the ground as an offering for the spirits. Conference of Ethiopia Studies. Ed. K. Fukui, E. Kurimoto, Each redistribution feast can comprise up to 300 people and M. Shigeta. Vol. I–III. Kyoto: Shokado Book Sellers, – and requires 800 kg of wheat for beer production 1997. 342 57. (Halperin and Olmstead 1976). Gardiner, A. F. Narrative of a Journey to the Zooloo Country in South Africa. London: Crofts, 1936. Thus, beer in African cultures is more than just a Geller, J. From prehistory to history: beer in Egypt. The beverage; it is a critical component to the social, Followers of Horus: Studies Dedicated to Michael Allen economic, and political structure of society (Carlson Hoffman. Ed. R. Friedman and B. Adams. Oxford: Oxbow 1990; Netting 1964; Robbins 1979; Sangree 1962). Books, 1992. 19–26. People spend a considerable amount of their labor Green, M. 1999. Trading on inequality: gender and the drinks – and time processing their crops into beer rather than trade in Southern Tanzania. Africa 69 (1999): 404 25. Gutmann, B. Das recht der Dschagga. Arbeiten zur bread because of the value of beer in establishing entwicklungspsychologie 7 (1926): 1–733. alliances. Beer binds these different groups together Haggblade, S. 1992. The shebeen queen and the evolution of by providing a means of establishing reciprocity in the Botswana’s Sorghum beer industry. Liquor and Labor in form of labor and social and economic coalitions. Southern Africa. Ed. J. Crush and C. Ambler. Athens: Furthermore, the importance of beer in the form of University of Ohio Press, 1992. 395–412. symbolic respect to the living and to ancestors Halperin, R. and J. Olmstead. To catch a feastgiver: exemplifies its significant role for the well being of redistribution among the Dorze of Ethiopia. Africa 46 (1976): 146–65. societies (Arthur 2003). Karp, I. Beer drinking and social experience in an African society. Explorations in African Systems of Thought. Ed. References I. Karp and C. S. Bird. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1980. 83–119. Arthur, J. W. Ceramic Ethnoarchaeology among the Gamo of Maksoud, S. A., M. N. El-Hadidi, and W. M. Amer. Beer southwestern Ethiopia. Ph.D. Dissertation. Department of from the early Dynasties (3500–3400 cal B.C.) of upper Anthropology, University of Florida, 2000. Egypt, detected by archaeochemical methods. Vegetation ---. Pottery use-alteration as an indicator of socioeconomic History and Archaeobotany 3 (1994): 219–24. status: an ethnoarchaeological study of the Gamo of Mair, L. An African People in the Twentieth Century. London: Ethiopia. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 9 Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1934. (2002): 331–55. Mandelbaum, D. Alcohol and Culture. Current Anthropology ---. Brewing beer: status, wealth, and ceramic use alteration 6 (1965): 281–93. among the Gamo of south-western Ethiopia. World Moore, H. L. and M. Vaughan. Cutting Down Trees: Gender, Archaeology 34 (2003): 516–28. Nutrition, and Agricultural Change in the Northern Buddhism and science 35

Province of Zambia, 1890–1990. Portsmouth, New the origin of the universe. The view of Buddhism Hampshire: Heinemann, 1994. on natural things and natural laws is practical in a Netting, R. Beer as a locus of value among the West African sense that knowing what is the world as we see now Kofyar. American Anthropologist 66 (1964): 375–84. Platt, B. S. Biological ennoblement: improvement of the should lead to a happy life. It should be noted that nutritive value of foods and dietary regimens by biological Buddhism believes that religious practice is closely agencies. Food Technology 18 (1964): 662–70. connected to the laws of nature, so the learning of B Reusch, D. Imbiza Kayibil’ Ingenambheki: the social life of religious teachings in Buddhist perspective is learning pots. Ubumba: Aspects of Indigenous Ceramics in the laws of nature. Kwazulu-Natal. Ed. B. Bell and I. Calder. Tatham Art – In Buddhist texts, five laws of nature are mentioned Gallery, 1998. 19 40. (1) physical law, (2) biological law, (3) psychic law, (4) Richards, A. I. Land, Labour, and Diet in Northern Rhodesia. London: Oxford University Press, 1939. kammic law, and (5) moral law. The first two laws are Robbins, R. H. Problem-drinking and the integration of believed by Buddhist scholars to be the same laws alcohol in rural Buganda. Beliefs, Behaviors, and Alcoholic explored in physics, chemistry, and biology in modern Beverages: A Cross-Cultural Survey. Ed. M. Marshall. Western science. Psychic laws could be partly Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1979. 351–61. compared to what are called psychological laws in Samuel, D. Archaeology of ancient Egyptian beer. Journal Western psychology. However, there are some special of American Society of Brewing Chemists 54 (1996): 3–12. contents in the Buddhist psychic laws not found in Sangree, W. H. The social functions of beer drinking in Bantu Western psychology. An example of these is the Tiriki. Society, Culture, and Drinking Patterns. Ed. D. J. cultivation of the mind through meditation. Kammic Pittman and C. R. Snyder. New York: Wiley, 1962. 6–21. laws are the laws concerning human actions. Buddhism Saul, M. Beer, sorghum and women: production for the believes that what we are is directly the result of what market in rural Upper Volta. Africa 51 (1981): 746–64. we do. We are born as a free entity to choose our future Sperber, D. Paradoxes of seniority among the Dorze. freely. Philosophically speaking, Buddhism believes Proceedings of the First U.S. Conference on Ethiopian Studies, 1973. Ed. H. G. Marcus. East Lansing: Michigan that we are born with a free will. In this sense, we are State University, 1975. 209–22. solely responsible for whatever we have done. Kamma Watson, E. E. Ground Truths: Land and Power in Konso, or Karma in Buddhist teaching, an action with intention Ethiopia. Doctoral Dissertation. Department of Geogra- and carrying moral value, is a secret power, like the phy, University of Cambridge, 1998. field in physics, which dominates our life. Good Kamma determines a good life; bad Kamma determines a bad life. Moral laws are the laws that govern any events that cannot be classified under the first four Buddhism and Science laws. For example, Buddhism believes that the unjust or immoral structure of society is a bad thing. It is bad according to moral law. It is possible that individuals in SOMPARN PROMTA society act well according to the law of Kamma, but they are good people in a bad society. The Buddha is Buddhism is normally viewed as an atheist religion. well known as arguing against the caste system in Modern interpretations of the Buddhist teachings made ancient India. For him, it is possible that people of each by Buddhist scholars in Southeast Asia seem to bring class act well according to their class duties, but caste is Buddhism close to what is called ‘science’ in the still a bad thing, judging from moral law. modern world. That is, Buddhism is explored as a Looking through the Buddhist five laws of nature, religion teaching that human life, the world, and the we can see that the belief in nature is wider than the universe are the Dhamma, a Pali word containing belief in nature found in science. In Western science, complicated meanings. According to Buddhadasa, the the laws of nature as found in physics, chemistry, and most famous Thai Buddhist thinker, the Dhamma has biology have nothing to do with social justice, fair four meanings (1) natural things, (2) natural laws, (3) distribution, or the violation of human rights. Science human obligations to follow natural laws, and (4) the within this tradition has become something containing fruits gained from following the laws of nature. So a narrow meaning. Science never questions how we can human life, the world, and the universe, according to gain a happy life or a just society. Typical scientists Buddhism, are natural things in themselves and they seem to think that such a question should be considered follow the certain laws of nature. outside the scientific community. It should be part of In Buddhist perspective, natural things and natural political science or political philosophy. The above laws are not created by God or any other supernatural tendency leads to the separation between ‘knowledge’ power. They exist naturally, meaning that the concept and ‘value’, and between ‘nature’ and ‘human conven- of creation is not necessary. However, Buddhism tion’. The Buddhist conception of natural laws does not does not stress the philosophical arguments concerning make the same separation. For Buddhism, physical and 36 Building construction biological laws are the beginning laws of nature to be realization of natural laws. Knowledge in the Buddhist explored. They are looked on as a means leading to view is in the end the same thing as morality. We can some things more valuable. easily find the balance between knowledge and value in Between human life and the physical world, Buddhist science. Buddhism thinks the former is of more importance. However, as our life can never be separated from the References world, the study of the physical world is accepted by Buddhism to be of some value as far as it is undertaken Buddhadasa, Bhikkhu. Me and Mine. Trans. D. K. Swearer. in balance with the study of human life. Furthermore, New York: The State University of New York Press, 1989. the study of the physical world must not be run Capra, Fritjof. The Tao of Physics. 2nd ed. New York: Bantam Books, 1984. separately from the study of society. If we are allowed Gombrich, Richard. Buddhist Precept and Practice. New to call the activities of exploring nature through the Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1998. Buddhist five laws ‘Buddhist science’, what follows is Jayatilleke, K. N. Early Buddhist Theory of Knowledge. New that Buddhist science stresses the balance between Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1984. three things: human life, society, and physical world. Keown, Damien. Buddhism and Bioethics. London: Macmil- The confrontation between modern science and lan, 1995. Buddhism in the Buddhist countries such as Thailand King, Winston L. In the Hope of Nibbana. LaSalle, Illinois: Open Court, 1964. seems to be best understood in the light of the Buddhist Kirthisinghe, Buddhadasa P., ed. Buddhism and Science. conception of nature as said above. In Thailand, where New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1984. Theravada Buddhism plays the role of a national Lester, R. C. Theravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia. religion, the sale of GM food is allowed by law under Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 1973. the condition that the products must be declared to Prayuth Payutto, Phra. Buddhadhamma: Natural Laws and contain GM ingredients. Buddhism in Thailand does Values for Life. Trans. Grant A. Olson. New York: The not raise moral questions about this, while Islam seems State University of New York Press, 1995. Promta, Somparn. Buddhism and Science. Bangkok: Chula- to doubt it. The recent study of the opinions of longkorn University Press, 1997. Buddhists concerning the issues of human cloning and Thomas, Edward J. The Life of Buddha as Legend and stem cell research in Thailand declares that the History. London: Rutledge and Kegan Paul, 1952. Buddhists, compared to Christians and Muslims, can more easily accept human cloning and the use of stem cell for medical purposes if it is proved safe. This phenomenon can be understood if we are reminded that Building Construction Buddhism is a religion free from religious dogmas. Like science, Buddhism believes in the natural creation of things. For Buddhism, anything allowed to happen NORBERT E. WILHELM in the world is ‘natural’. So, Buddhists do not view human cloning as unnatural. On the contrary, it is It is difficult to talk about the differences in Western ‘ ’ natural in a sense that it is allowed by the second law and non-Western building technologies, as many of the five laws. However, it should not be understood approaches used today in this field were also used in that Buddhism has nothing to question about these issues. western countries in the past. Some, such as mud These arguments essentially stem from the conception of technology, are currently being revived in Europe. A balance between the five laws. Human cloning and stem more appropriate expression might be indigenous or cell research are viewed as activities run within the traditional technology. second law. So, it is not isolated from other laws. Some basic approaches, such as the construction of Finally, Buddhist scientists in Buddhist countries walls out of stonemasonry, mud or branches plastered like Thailand seem to feel that Buddhism and science with mud can be found in many places in the world. It is are friendly. This feeling possibly stems from the not surprising that there is not so much basic difference, picture of Buddhism in their minds. Buddhism as as the construction materials had to be found in the taught in the university classroom shares a lot with surroundings. What is amazing is to explore which science. In chapters of high school Buddhism text- quality or intelligence is presented in the specific books, the way the Buddha searches for knowledge is adaptation to the climate and in resistance to disasters. usually described in terms of scientific enquiries. The Buddha says that he did not create the truths he found after the process of study. They were naturally given. Traditional Construction Technologies are Still of Anyone, according to the Buddhist perspective, can Great Value be a Buddha. The term ‘Buddha’ means the one who The fact that we now use other technologies does not is enlightened. Enlightenment is nothing but the mean that traditional knowledge was primitive. Building construction 37

Dealing with local material is more ecological, and differences in aspects and the missing of a common idea these old technologies have no recycling problem. make the built environment chaotic. This is not surpris- Traditional technologies went through a long process ing; all building was based on the variations of plants, of evolution, so they are in most cases the very best landscape and textures of the available materials. The solution, taking into account what basic materials were grain of a piece of wood never is uniform, but it follows a available at any given place and time. They are well certain law,a certain pattern. No piece looks like the other, B adapted to the local climate and are rather safe with yet we still can say what type of wood it is. A landscape regard to recurring local hazards. However this is only has its character, and a forest has its own appearance and to the extent that was possible with the available mixture of trees. No person looks exactly like someone materials and knowledge. The typical empirical way of else. We are used to such variations generated by certain improving the design could respond only to events with mechanisms and we appreciate them. a reasonably short recurring period. You can analyze this hypothesis when you visit a Modern technology has to an extent not yet proved its medieval town in Europe or if you walk through an old durability. We face problems, like corrosion in pre- Indian city like the historic part of Ahmedabad, or an stressed concrete bridges, whereas stone arch bridges oasis in the desert. There are prevalent materials and survived for centuries without even regular maintenance variations of the design, based on traditions, limitations or repairs. None of the modern bridges in steel or re- of the structural system and on what the owner could inforced concrete would ever have such durability. afford. Such an appearance corresponds to the older Many of these old building technologies still have a people’s experience with their surroundings, and we find potential for improvements, if modern materials and it pleasant. A similar homogeneity is difficult to achieve knowledge could be added in a sensible way. in today’s architecture: normally, styles vary too much or Today traditional building technology is for the poor; completely new quarters or towns are too uniform. it is often the only one they can afford and handle. Unfortunately this gives it a bad image. It has become the technology of the lowest classes, seen as being Valuable Experience Is Conserved in Traditional primitive, in spite of all its values and potential. Buildings Some famous architects have discovered the value of Our modern design work is to a very large extent based traditions and have gotten inspiration from local build- on mathematical models and calculations, which give ings. Considerable literature about vernacular architec- reasonably reliable results for the dimensions and make ture has emerged, praising the so-called genius loci nearly every shape possible. The old builders did not (sense of place). An excellent collection which shows have such comfortable design tools. They were lucky if how people live is Oliver’s Dwellings (2003). Unfortu- they could cope with the geometrical questions in the case nately most literature looks purely at the architectural of more complicated buildings. The construction of the aspects, so that the engineering experience and the building with regard to structural problems and in order to intelligent use of materials including their ecological provide an optimal climate under the given conditions aspects and their climatic adaptations is left out. This is and restrictions was based on experience. That means what this article will concentrate on. One should not see testing at the scale of 1:1 at the real building. However, the genius loci as something mystical; it is an experi- throughout history, traditional technologies were per- ence that is presented by traditional buildings and it is fected bit by bit. The choice of material was limited to important to document the technology in better detail, what could be found locally. So stones, mud, wood, and so that it does not get lost with the death of the last leaves are prevalent in construction technologies. craftsmen. A limited range of materials is easier to handle in an improvement process. The results we can see today are quite intelligent and efficient. They represent the experi- Tradition Goes with Esthetics ence of hundreds or sometimes even thousands of years. Transport of nonlocal material was too expensive; this For example in earthquakes, sometimes traditional build- led to a rather great uniformity in a specific region. And ings behave very well and are most efficiently designed, as as buildings and other constructions are unengineered, one will see further below. What is not surprising, but there is also not much variation in the structure. As a really remarkable, is the climatic adaptation. If you follow result, traditional buildings are rather uniform. The the design criteria for comfort in a certain region, you end limitations given today by town planning regulations up normally with the traditional building layout and with regard to the size and often with the specification of detailing (Koenigsberger 1973; Lippsmeier 1969). certain exterior materials were more or less imposed by However, there are several problems with traditional the limited resources for the old construction methods. construction. As it is not based on theoretical models, Limiting the variations of the buildings has a great average craftsmen and engineers do not really know esthetic advantage. Total uniformity is boring; too many why it works. So one has to follow the old rules, which 38 Building construction get more and more lost. Only a few bright people c. Sun dried mud bricks. After forming and drying brought the methods forward in the past. All the others bricks of wet mud, they are joined together with were only followers. mud mortar. d. Rammed earth. Here only slightly moistened and The Major Construction Elements rather sandy soil is rammed in forms of varying There are many similarities between traditional con- sizes in layers. High buildings up to five storeys are struction technologies in non-Western countries and built with this method. Well-known examples are the houses in Sanah, Yemen and the famous mosque historical constructions in Europe. Either there was an in Mopti, Mali. In Europe large and high buildings exchange over wide distances in early times or the still exist, made of rammed earth; it used to be a availability of material dictated similar solutions. Most widespread method in Southern France. likely both were true. However some tropical areas had In Afghanistan, one of the historical school their own specific solutions, manly dictated by the buildings has a mixed wall construction, where the different climate and available materials. faces of the walls are made of mud bricks and the core Walls of the walls is filled with rammed earth. Corners are made of burnt bricks in mud mortar. This two storey Walls, the most important construction elements, are mainly of the following types: building in the center of Kabul is more than 100 years old and the walls are still sound (Figs. 3–5). a. Wattle and daub. The basic structure consists of More about mud technologies (as well as their wooden posts, normally directly put into the ground further development with lime or cement stabilizers) or in a simple foundation. In some regions the ends of the posts to be placed in the earth were slightly burnt until they developed a charcoal surface; that made them a bit more resistant to rot. A grid of smaller branches or bamboo, normally bound together by plant fibers, filled the space between the posts. The infill could also be of stronger horizontal branches and vertical hatch or wooden weaving. This wooden core was covered on both sides with mud. Sometimes fibers like short cut straw were added (Figs. 1 and 2). This wall type is probably used the most in the world. The method of infill is also used for the typical European timber framework. One can achieve a very smooth surface if the last layer is reworked over and over without letting it dry until all shrinkage gaps are filled. b. Mud formed in situ. Here the mud is mixed with Building Construction. Fig. 2 Wattle and daub wall old water until it becomes workable. This is often done German house, now used for exhibitions (photo by with the help of an ox walking in the mud. Then the the author). mud pieces are placed one over the other while still wet and made smooth.

Building Construction. Fig. 3 School building in rammed Building Construction. Fig. 1 Wattle and daub wall. earth in Kabul, Afghanistan (photo by the author). Building construction 39

B

Building Construction. Fig. 4 Old castle near Kabul Afghanistan (with rammed earth) (photo by the author). Building Construction. Fig. 6 Thor Heyerdahl’s boat (exhibition in Tenerife, Spain). Similar technology is used in the swamps of Iraq for buildings (photo by the author).

adding vertical loads can increase the horizontal resistance. This is exactly the case, as the tiles of these Chinese roofs are embedded in a thick layer of special mortar. From below it looks like a full wooden roof. Leaving the mortar out would seriously harm the structural integrity. Unfortunately this strategy does not work in the case of earthquakes, as there the horizontal forces are related to the mass. So adding more weight in the roof does not help; old pagodas collapsed during earthquakes.

Building Construction. Fig. 5 Detail of the rammed earth blocks (photo by the author). Slabs Slabs and flat roofs are normally supported by wooden beams with different infill materials. The major ones are: can be found in Doat (1991), Minke (1999), and a. Stones, which are then covered with mortar or mud. Niemeyer (1946). In this case, the beams have to be rather close e. Typical for many tropical hot and humid areas together. Larger crossbeams can often support small (where day and night temperatures vary only secondary beams. This construction is rather typical slightly) are light and easily ventilating walls. There for the east African coast with its Arabic influence. the users can benefit from the slightest breeze. These b. Mud, reinforced by wooden branches. The con- walls are mostly made entirely of bamboo, but one struction usually starts with a mat (bamboo or can also find grass or palm leaves as cladding. Even similar), which prevents the mud from falling down. entire structures of strong grass like reed existed The branches, being fully embedded in the mud, act where this grows close to swampy areas, for as a reinforcement, so that the distance between the example in the Marshs (North of Basra) in Iraq beams can be larger upto about 45–60 cm (1.5–2 ft) (Thesinger 1967). They are bound together as in (Fig. 7). Thor Heyerdahl’s famous boat Ra and can form c. In Rajasthan, India, ceilings and roofs are made in quite sizable arch structures (Fig. 6). stone-producing regions by placing a stronger stone f. A structurally interesting system concerns Chinese as a beam and stone plates between those beams. temples and other important historical buildings, where wooden columns (with infill or free standing) carry the roof. Such freestanding columns get their horizontal stiffness against wind mainly due to a Roof Structures high load from the roof. The horizontal load from the In addition to slab roofs one can find the following wind is related to the height of the structure, and basic roof structures: 40 Building construction

Building Construction. Fig. 7 Roof structure (Dubai) beams, mats, and mud as topping (photo by the author).

Building Construction. Fig. 9 Simple Bungha roof from the inside (photo by the author).

Building Construction. Fig. 8 Support of a roof in China (photo by the author). a. Wooden beam structures, where besides, the purlin1 and rafter construction, we can mention some interesting other types. (1) In traditional Chinese roofs, the main load-bearing element consists of wooden beams arranged one on top of the other with small spaces in between. The top beams get Building Construction. Fig. 10 A simple roof structure out shorter to follow the form of the gable. This of branches (Gujarat, India) (photo by the author). makes larger spans possible without doing compli- cated latticework, although at the expense of more timber consumption (Fig. 8). (2) Some communities b. Domes and vaults are often used in desert architec- in Gujarat, India built conical roofs with small beams ture. Most are made of mud bricks, as they have without intermediate support, which act like shells sufficient strength. The main problem in a dome and (see case study). Others build a wooden dome on a vault construction is to counterbalance the horizon- square house using strong branches (Figs. 9 and 10). tal thrust. Heavy and sometimes inclined walls do (3) In Eastern Africa large roofs were built using tree this. If stones are used for domes, a good overlapping type support systems. Now one can find this efficient can take a lot of the horizontal tension. This is the system being revived in beach resorts at the case in many old mosques and temples (Fig. 12). Mombassa coast (Fig. 11). Tension belts, which would be the best technical and scientific response to the problem, are not used to my 1 A purlin or purline is a piece of timber laid horizontally on knowledge. For vaults, only horizontal tension the principal rafters of a roof to support the common rafters beams lead to an improvement. They can be found on which the roof covering is laid mostly using battens. for example in old Ottoman buildings in the Balkans, Building construction 41

are covered with an additional layer of bricks or clay floor tiles laid to slope. This makes their use as roof terraces more convenient. Normally they are only a mixture of mud and chaff. This cover is in some rare cases also used for sloped roofs. b. Suitable leaves or grasses are very common covers B for sloped roofs. There is the well-known thatch roof using various types of local grasses, some of them are more and some are less resistant. Palm branches are prepared by folding them in half, so that the stalk is one side and the whole piece can be bound to the substructure. This type of roof is called macuti in Eastern Africa. The pieces are laid with overlapping shingles. Rounder growing palm leaves are simply overlapped. All these roofs provide good ventilation and heat insulation which make the houses comfort- Building Construction. Fig. 11 Roof structure with tree-type able. However every three years or so thatch type supports (Beach Resort in Kenya) (photo by the author). roofing needs to be replaced, which is costly for the owners, and good material gets scarce in some regions. c. Burnt clay tiles were common in some areas of India and for all official buildings in China, where they are normally glazed. As mentioned, in China, tiles are laid on top of a wooden structure in mortar. In India traditional country tiles were made of short conical pipes that were cut into halves. They are like all traditional tiles laid one on the bottom as a channel and one on top to cover the gap between the two bottom tiles. A more recent type has a U-section as a tapered channel and is laid in the same manner. People who could afford put several layers on the roof for better heat protection. The small gaps in such tiled roofs ensure good ventilation. Predominantly a layer of split bamboo supports the tiles. It is safer than the Building Construction. Fig. 12 Dome (Jumma Mosque, one batten per tile as we know it. In case an earthquake Ahmedabad). Ring forces balanced by overlapping; joints or high wind moves the tiles, they cannot fall down open where there is a little overlapping (photo by the author). and cause harm. In some regions of India, one can also find such tiles laid in mud on simple thatched roofs where wooden beams carry an intermediate floor (Figs. 13 and 14). under the vault. Removing such a floor with its beams could lead to collapse; even a replacement not respecting the invisible anchoring detail could have this effect. Interesting information on how to build domes and vaults without shuttering can be found in Doat (1991) and Minke (1999).

The above example as well as the Chinese roof (that stabilizes the wall columns by its weight) demonstrates how dangerous it could be to change traditional cons- truction. One has either to follow the tradition strictly or one must fully understand how it works.

Roofing Material Roofing material for waterproofing varies a lot. Building Construction. Fig. 13 Country tile roof (Gujarat, a. Slab roofs (which are prevalent in dry climates) have India). Split bamboo placed close together serves as battens mud layers for waterproofing. In some cases they (photo by the author). 42 Building construction

there are certain elements, which users normally consider decoration, which often play a vital role in the buildings’ strength. An earthquake’s actions can in a simplified way be understood as horizontal forces acting on the structure. They are more or less proportional to the mass of the structure concerned and are expressed as percentage of the gravity acceleration. Various strategies deal with earthquake safety. Basically one can have (a) buildings that do not harm people when they collapse; (b) a construction that is light where earthquakes do not induce large forces; and (c) buildings can be strengthened in various ways to Building Construction. Fig. 14 Country tile roof from withstand earthquakes. Often a combination of those inside (photo by the author). measures is used. One can also have a rather elastic and flexible structure, which reacts by deformation, but that is not the case in traditional buildings. Traditional Japanese houses consist only of a light wooden structure and a sort of paper filling for the walls. As the structure is light, an earthquake will not introduce many forces and if it collapses, the walls are not seriously hurting users. This is an intelligent construction using strategies (a) and (b). All types of thatched roofs (real thatch and covers from palm or banana leaves) always supported by a wooden structure, follow the same strategy. They are light and will not cause harm when the roof collapses. Even roof tiles did not result in serious injuries when falling down during earthquakes (or cyclones). As mentioned, in India, there were many pieces of split Building Construction. Fig. 15 Roof with a stone slab bamboo lying so close together that tiles could not fall (Rajasthan, India) (photo by the author). through. However, when modern roof tiles were introduced, this feature was given up, as those new d. Domes and vaults get a finishing by lime plaster. To tiles only match well with single straight battens as make this watertight, the sand used must have support. Central Europe, where the design of modern different grains and some organic material added in tiles comes from, has not got serious earthquake prob- order to increase the elasticity. lems, and there is always a ceiling under the roof. e. Regions with suitable stone plates have sloped roofs Introducing the same technology in earthquake-prone with overlapping stone slabs. (Fig. 15). areas like northern India, where people normally cannot afford a cladding under the roof, was probably not a good idea. In the great Gujarat earthquake in Earthquake Resistance 2001, falling tiles injured people, but practically In many non-Western regions, earthquakes are a major nobody was killed. The death toll came mainly from natural hazard and all buildings are built to resist their collapsing slabs or slab roofs, especially when their forces. supports failed. It is not the earthquake that kills; it is the collapsing To make the building itself resistant to prevailing building. Traditional constructions have a remarkable earthquakes, following strategy (c) can be achieved in earthquake resistance. Problems start when the tradi- various ways. Rather resistant are wooden structures, tional way of construction is modified. Craftspeople filled with either woven mats or similar (which is the who execute the works cannot really design for earth- usual construction in the real tropics (see climatic quake resistance once traditional design is given up. adaptation), or with mud (mostly a wattle and daub The strength and the proper dimension of a structure type, see wall materials). Some latticework or diag- were developed by experience, and this is also reflected onals increase the horizontal resistance. However, often in the features that may make a structure more earth- the traditional joints are a weak point. quake resistant, even if they are not recognized as You often find this type of approach for the first floor structural elements. Even builders might not know why of two storey houses. It has a long tradition in Muslim Building construction 43 construction and can still be seen in old Turkish towns as well as in Kabul, Afghanistan. The first floor weight is more essential to the structure, as it contributes more to the internal forces, so it is wise to make it light. A good way to reinforce masonry buildings against earthquake actions is to use horizontal bands with good B tension strength. This is the recommended method for one and two storey buildings in many modern earthquake-related building design standards. Today, the bands are normally made of reinforced concrete. You will find similar bands in Turkey and in the Himalayan region of India etc., where houses are constructed of stones. These bands are however made of wood, a material that is relatively cheap and has good tension strength. There you find one piece of wood on either side of the wall, often interconnected in a form of a ladder by smaller batten type pieces. It looks and acts very similar to modern steel reinforcement in concrete beams. In the Himalayan region, people most likely discovered independently from the Arabic- influenced regions the positive effect of wooden beams Building Construction. Fig. 16 Mud wall in a tapered form in case of earthquakes. You can find buildings, mainly to withstand horizontal earthquake forces (Gujarat, India) with dry masonry, which have wooden beams incorpo- (photo by the author). rated. They look very nice and can be considered as traditional decoration, but basically, they are reinforced against earthquakes. given up and westernized construction was imitated Wattle and daub walls have also a rather high-tension without designing the buildings for the prevalent strength, as the basic structure consists of wood. In hazards. addition, the walls are light and do not attract high horizontal forces. Another way to increase the strength of a structure is Climatic Adaptation to give it a suitable form. If you fold a piece of paper, For a good adaptation to the climate, the construction the load bearing capacity becomes much greater com- of a house plays a major role. Together with the pared to a flat piece. Round forms are very resistant and architecture (Koenigsberger 1973; Lippsmeier 1969; this is used in certain types of buildings. In Gujarat, Wilhelm 2000), which should deal with orientation, India such a house type, called bungha, withstood the shadowing, openings, and spatial arrangements, the last heavy earthquake amazingly well (see the case temperature and the air movement and the type of study below). material used and its dimension also influence major A very simple and basic approach to make a wall components of comfort. itself earthquake resistant is to make it thicker. In desert conditions, thick and heavy walls provide a Assuming that the wall is sufficiently monolithic, one good phasing (time shifting of the temperature curve can assume that the resultant of the horizontal between outside and inside the building) and damping earthquake forces acts in the center of gravity of the of the temperature. Mud and rubble stonewalls in the wall, for a prismatic object that is the middle of range of 30–45 cm (1–1.5 ft) as used in traditional the height. If the wall is wide enough in relation to the constructions in such regions have a phasing of 12 h or height, it cannot turn over. This is why huts (with light so. This is how people can benefit from cool nights thatched roofs) and low stonewalls have no problems in during the daytime. In the night they sleep outside or earthquakes, even if they are only built with mud ventilate the room, if it is too hot from the heat stored mortar. More effective are tapered walls with a wide during the day. A straw rich mud plaster normally base in the form of a retention wall or dam. This increases the insulation and contributes to the damping approach can still be found in earthquake-prone areas effect. So the peak temperatures inside are lower than (Fig. 16). outside and closer to the average. In the desert In general, as one could see, traditional buildings environment, the rooms stays within comfortable were amazingly well adapted to earthquake hazards and conditions, whereas a prefabricated concrete building this within a rather limited range of available local with thin elements as required for structural safety materials. Many problems started, when traditions were becomes too hot (Fathi 1986). 44 Building construction

Building Construction. Fig. 18 Decorated Bungha (Gujarat, India) (photo by the author).

Building Construction. Fig. 17 Wind catcher tower (Dubai) (photo by the author).

In tropical conditions, light walls are traditional, which makes it possible to benefit from the slightest change of temperature. Weavings also let the air though, so that the users get more comfort through the air movement. All traditional houses in hot climates have openings near the roof or a roof that let the air pass through. In thatched or palm leaf roof covers this advantage is combined with good insulation properties so that the heat is kept out. Ventilation can be further increased, if the floor is penetrable and put on stilts. Houses on the South East Asian islands with bamboo floors follow this strategy. A further improvement of the ventilation can come through a chimney effect. Raised gables in Bali, chimney-type additions on the center of the roof, wind Building Construction. Fig. 19 Grain storage made towers in Arabia and holes on the top of domes are such of fiber-reinforced mud (Kutch, Gujarat, India) (photo devices (Fig. 17). by the author).

Example 1: Traditional Bunghas in the Semidesert of The bunghas are round structures, standing on Kutch, Gujarat, and India platforms for better protection from the rain, which Probably the oldest types of houses in the semidesert of weakens the mud walls, as there are heavy rains from Kutch are called bunghas. They look very much like the time to time. Several bunghas are placed together on well-known African round huts. They were considered this platform, forming the home of a large family. The rather backward and primitive type of construction. The houses with mud plaster are often nicely decorated and big surprise was their amazingly good performance have furniture made of fiber-reinforced mud with a lot during the high magnitude earthquake in January 2001, of decorations. The walls are in many cases made of where nearly 20,000 people died in the region. wet mud pieces put in layers. In some cases sun dried Practically none of these buildings collapsed, except mud bricks are used, fixed together with mud mortar for those that were rotten, as the wooden roof structure (Figs. 18 and 19). and the walls had been weakened by termite attacks. Another wall type consists of random rubble stone Looking closer into the quality of the bunghas, one masonry, again fixed together with mud mortar. The finds a very good adaptation to the desert climate with fourth wall type found in some areas is the wattle and hot days and cool nights. daub construction. Building construction 45

The wall thickness varies with the material. Wattle and daub is normally about 15 cm. This is the thickness that results from the material used and it is rather appropriate to provide a reasonable insulation and damping to cope with the high temperature differences between days and nights. The filling with branches, together with the mud B layers on both sides, has rather good thermal properties. However from the point of view of building physics, a slightly thicker wall would be desirable. The pure mud walls are about 30 cm thick, which ideally corresponds to the damping and insulation requirements. Mud mortar rubble stonewalls are gener- ally 45 cm or 1.5 ft, which again corresponds ideally to the thermal requirements. The round form gives the walls a great stability, which explains the good per- formance of the bungha during the earthquake. The conical roofs are made of wooden rafters and covered with thatch. To interconnect the rafters, small branches or the core of palm leaves are used in small bunches that can easily be bent into horizontal rings. From the top, such a roof structure looks like a spider’s web: the rafters go in a radial form from the center to the wall and their Building Construction. Fig. 20 Old Bungha roof (Kutch, interconnections form concentric rings. Gujarat, India). Large roof without king post and excellent decoration (photo by the author). Many communities use a king post in the center of the room. They put a heavy beam on top of the wall about 1.80 m high, on which the king post ends. These people are sure that the king post is necessary, but other communities manage without it. They use a corner piece for each rafter to transmit the horizontal thrust of the conical roof to the walls that are acting as a tension ring. This interesting innovation takes longer to spread to the other communities living in the same region where bunghas are built (Figs. 20 and 21). The roof cover is made of thatch, which has good insulation properties and at the same time lets air pass through and provides a good insulation for the build- ings. Together with the good insulation and storage capacity of the walls the house is kept cool during the day and it is also comfortable in the cold nights in winter, which can reach zero degrees. Users are well Building Construction. Fig. 21 Detail: corner element in aware of this and they call it a built-in air conditioning a Bungha roof (photo by the author). system. However they would like some improvements like better flooring and longer lasting roof materials. The ground flooring is laid on top of the so-called Example 2: The Afghan City House fox’s dens. This is a system of ducts, which ventilate Afghanistan has a harsh climate (hot summers, the space under the floor and is in some cases used as a relatively cold winters and nights) and in addition there heating system similar to the Roman holocausts are earthquake hazards. Traditional housing is well (hollow floors and in some cases wall ducts, where adapted to those conditions. Whereas in villages, single fire was made for heating). Transverse main ducts storey mud or stone houses are prevalent, cities like connect both exterior plinth walls, so that the air can Kabul have a long tradition of two storey buildings. pass through. From this main duct secondary ducts run The plinth is built in random rubble stone dry in a perpendicular direction. Then a layer of mud masonry. This keeps the moisture from the soil out of follows which carries the flooring, which is either made the walls. In western technology the damp proof of brick or only mud. This construction keeps the floor courses were only introduced in the beginning of the dry. The ground floor walls are made of sun-dried mud last century, normally as bitumen felt layers. bricks with a wall thickness of at least 30 cm (12 in.). 46 Building construction

This corresponds ideally to the climatic require- References ments, as this wall has a high storage capacity and a Doat, Patrice and Claire Norton. Building with Earth. New phasing of up to 12 h. This room is cool on summer Delhi: The Mud Village Society, 1991. French Original: days (as it preserves the night temperature condition). Construire en terre. Paris: Éditions Alternatives, 1985. A wooden framework with an infill of sun dried mud Fathy, H. Natural Energy and Vernacular Architecture. bricks forms the upper floor walls. These upper walls Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986. are only about 12 cm (5 in.) thick and have large Gardi, R. Auch im Lehmhaus lässt sich’s leben (Living Well – windows. So the rooms in the upper floors pick up the in Mud Houses). Graz: Akademische Druck und outside conditions much faster, and one can choose the Verlagsanstalt, 1973. Jain, K. and Minakshi. Architecture of the Indian Desert. most comfortable room. The light walls, together with Ahmedabad: AADI Centre, 2000. the wooden framework and a sort of batten as bracing King, G. The Traditional Architecture of Saudi Arabia. against horizontal forces, make the building rather London: I.B. Tauris, 1998. earthquake resistant. Koenigsberger, O. H., T. G. Ingersoll, et al. Manual of The floor and the roof slab have wooden beams as Tropical Housing and Building. Chennai: Orient Longman load bearing structures at 45–60 cm apart (1.5–2 ft). Ltd, 1973. Lippsmeier, G. Tropenbau/Building in the Tropics (bilin- As described earlier, there is a reinforced mud layer gual). München: Callwey 1969. across the beams. To get the roof watertight, a layer of Minke, G. Lehmbau-Handbuch: der Baustoff Lehm und seine mud mixed with hacked straw is applied, which needs Anwendung (Manual on Mud Construction). Staufen bei to be replaced every few years. Freiburg: Ökobuch Verlag, 1999. Some houses of this type are reported to be 200 years Niemeyer, R. Der Lehmbau und seine praktische Anwendung old and the technology is still used today. Those and (Mud Construction and its Practical Application). Staufen more modern examples show the potential of mud bei Freiburg: Ökobuch Verlag, Reprint of the Original 1946. houses. Oliver, P. Dwellings. New York: Phaidon Press Ltd., 2003. Improving the traditional construction systems Thesinger, W. The Marsh Arabs. London: Penguin, 1967. would be a real benefit for the poor, who mostly have Wilhelm, N. The Courier: Keeping Cool in the Tropics only their labor to invest. Without Wasting Energy. ▶http://www.eu.europa.eu./ development/body/publications/courier182/en/en_57.pdf See also: ▶Architecture in Japan, ▶Islamic Architecture (also in French), 2001.