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5 - Monastic Vintages: The Economic Role of Wine in Egyptian Monasteries in the Sixth to Eighth Centuries

from II. - Production and Consumption of Food and Material Goods

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2023

By
Dorota Dzierzbicka
Edited by
Louise Blanke  and
Jennifer Cromwell
Louise Blanke
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
Jennifer Cromwell
Affiliation:
Manchester Metropolitan University
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Summary

Monastic communities needed wine for individual consumption, as well as for liturgical purposes and payments in kind. Next to grain, wine was the most common commodity transported from different villages to monasteries, as we learn from invoices from Bawit, Wadi Sarga, and Edfu. It is therefore widely assumed that monasteries, especially the more affluent ones, owned vineyards. Following a brief overview of the purposes wine served in monasteries, this chapter presents and reassesses the evidence for monastic vineyard ownership and considers other options available to monks seeking to procure wine for their needs.

Keywords

wineEgyptLate Antiquitymonasteriesvineyardsvineyard ownershipleasesBawitWadi SargaEdfu
Type
Chapter
Information
Monastic Economies in Late Antique Egypt and Palestine , pp. 129 - 151
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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