Cultivation of millet in Cyprus during the Middle Ages.
Name - Origin
Millet (Penninsetum glaucum) was domesticated in Africa. Its cultivation spread to some parts of Europe, such as Italy, where in the Middle Ages it provided the basis for poor people's bread.
Scientific name: Penninsetum glaucum
Functional and symbolic role
The production of millet in Cyprus was promoted during the Venetian rule, mainly in order to export it to Italy. At the end of the Venetian rule, however, its cultivation was abandoned since the Cypriot peasants never adopted its use (Arch. Kyprianos 1788, pp. 363-369).
Additional information and bibliography
Unlike the Italians who had established the use of both millet flour and maize flour, the poor Cypriots preferred to use barley flour as an alternative to the -more expensive- wheat flour. (Arch.Kyprianos 1788, pp. 363-369).
Archimandrite Kyprian (1788) Ιστορία Χρονολογική της Νήσου Κύπρου, Paligenesia Publications, Nicosia, reprint 1971, p. 363-369
Matala Antonia