Мелничарството в Македония през Средните векове
Mills and milling in Macedonia during the Middle Ages

Summary/Abstract: The present paper has the purpose to present a brief overview of the various types of milling practices in a region that once belong to the core lands of the Byzantine Empire and for which a rich amount of written documents has survived. Due to their importance in everyday life connected to providing sufficient amounts of food for bigger groups of people living in larger communities such as villages, cities and monasteries, mills were not only crucial for local economies and societies, but they were often the only machines in the areas they functioned and could generate secure income for their owners. The paper offers an overview of the various types of water mills (vertical and horizontal) and analyzes the written documentation about wind mills in the Northern Aegean in the Late Middle Ages. Moreover, it discusses data from various documents of the archives of the Athos monasteries and the Monastery of St. John the Forerunner near Serres and gives a glimpse into the agency of the people who built, donated, maintained and sometimes even damaged mills in high and late medieval Macedonia. Special attention is paid to the problem of available sources of power and the impact of nature on mills’ proper functioning.

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