New Data on Flour Milling Complexes in Tanais Urban Manors of the Second—Third Centuries AD

Flour milling was an essential activity in Tanais residents` households in 2nd—3rd centuries AD. In the quarter of the homesteads studied for the moment, a special type of room for grain milling can be distinguished. They represent semi-basement or ground floor rooms, mostly opening into the yard, with raised corner platforms made of stone and Olynthus milling stones installed into them in antiquity (types I3//II5 after R. Frankel). In the nearest corner in such rooms there was a grain drying kiln (used also for making flatbread). These rooms were located next to the southern border of the manors, with doors opening towards north, west or east.