Above all, it demonstrates how Cyprus lived in harmonious industry with some of our ancient "rulers" like the Venetians ... so not all have been as bad as the Ottomans
An Investigation into Medieval Processed Sugar
By Gavan MacBane
The existence and use of processed and refined cane sugar in Medieval Europe has long been the target of debate. There are some who insist that cane sugar was not refined in Europe during the medieval time period. There are others who claim that although it did exist, excessive cost put it out of reach to all but nobility. Still more believe that the refining process was so primitive that the sugar available would have been scorched, burned or otherwise unusable. The intent of this research is to determine the layout, operations and production methodology of late medieval Cypriot sugar mills, and to discuss, and recreate, how sugar was refined in these facilities. This will be accomplished by 1) analyzing written descriptions and images of the medieval physical refining process; 2) examining archaeological evidence derived from the actual sugar processing mills, especially their layout and equipment; and 3) an attempt to duplicate the refining process using period equipment, methodology and technique. This will all be performed in an effort to determine both the visual and gustatory properties of the sugar produced during this period and how it compared to modern refined sugar.
Thirty-Second History of Cane Sugar
Sources differ on the exact origin of sugar cane, but most agree that it was most likely first cultivated in the South Pacific. Whether it originated in New Guinea, the Solomon Islands or Southeast Asia, it is estimated that sugar cane has been cultivated for about 8000 years. There are multiple documented references following the western migration of sugar cane throughout the centuries. Nearchus, general of Alexander, when encountering sugar cane in India in 327 B.C., is recorded as describing "a reed which makes honey without bees, from which an intoxicating drink is made though the plant bears no fruit." The process of refining sugar from the cane was known in India as early as 300 AD. That knowledge followed the reed as it found its way through India to the Middle East sometime around 600 AD. With proper irrigation, sugar cane cultivation took off in the Tigris-Euphrates delta. Over the next 500 years, sugar mills began appearing Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Sicily, Morocco and Cyprus and Greece. The products of these mills, both crystallized sugar and molasses, were largely unknown in Europe until the Crusades. Crusaders learned about sugar during the First Crusade and brought it back to Europe with them. Albert van Aachen, a writer who collected accounts and stories of veterans of the First Crusade explains,
Medieval Process
By examining extant culinary, medicinal and brewing recipes in manuscripts dating from the 12th – 16th centuries, it becomes apparent that processed cane sugar was used in one form or another [3]. Once it is established that refined sugar falls within the medieval time period, and that the sugar involved was produced from sugar cane, the following two questions are introduced: How was the sugar refined and what are the physical characteristics of this refined sugar.
... can only speak of a great farm not far from Limasol, which belongs to a certain Don Federico Cornaro, a patrician of Venice, and is called Espicopia, where they make so much sugar, that, in my judgment, it should suffice for all the world. Indeed it is said to be the best which goes to Venice, and the quantity sold is always increasing. It seems to me that no one ought ever to die there. It was very interesting to see how they make the sugar -- both the fine and the coarse -- and so many people at work. There were not less than four hundred persons there, all employed -- some in one way, some in another. It was interesting too, to see such a number of utensils; it was like another world to me. There were cauldrons of such a size that if I described them no one would believe me.
Further research reveals a Florentine merchant, Francesco Balducci Pegolotti, who apparently was a representative of the banking house of the Bardi in Cyprus. In his 1340 book, La Practica della Mercatura, Pegolotti catalogs the appearance, price and packing of the sugar produced. He details that there were three types of sugar produced, Bambillonia (or Caffettino) – the highest quality, Musciatto – inferior quality, and crystal sugar known as olvere di zucchero.ՠ[8] Pegolotti also remarks that the Ңest powdered sugar came from Cyprusɩt was called dezamburada, rid of impurities which accumulate on the top of the sugar loaf, the zambour.Ӡ[9] Muddled in all of these sugar loaf descriptions lies a quality scale. Dr. von Wartburg points out, based Pegolottiճ descriptions, that the higher quality sugar had to be boiled multiple times. King James II of Cyprus, in his limited time on the throne, requested that all sugar crops be processed as thrice-boiled sugar. [10]
Mills
For answers to these questions, we are required to turn to archaeological evidence. Fortunately, over the past 25 years there has been a growing academic interest into medieval sugar mills and there have been several digs involving the three main medieval sugar mills on the island of Cyprus. These mills are Kouklia-Stavros, Episkopi-Serayia, and the mill at Kolossi.
Kouklia-Stavros
Built toward the end of the 13th century, this facility was likely owned by the royal house of the Franc Lusignan dynasty, which ruled Cyprus from 1191 – 1489. The milling and refining facility continued to be used through the Venetian period, around 1571, although the complex was remodeled and reconstructed several times throughout its use during this time.
Episkopi-Serayia
During the 14th century, the Serayia mill located in the village of Episkopi, became the property of the Venetian Cornaro family, relatives of the Lusignan Queen of Cyprus, Caterina Cornaro. The family developed an extensive empire of cultivation and refining of sugar on their lands, on the western banks of the Kouris River. [12]
Kolossi
Also in the 14th century, the mill at castle Kolossi on the eastern banks of the Kouris River was in full use. This facility was owned and operated mostly by the Order of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem, better known as Hospitallers. The Hospitallers transferred their headquarters from Acre to Kolossi in 1302, where the headquarters remained for several years. Even after the үfficialӠheadquarters moved on to the Greek island of Rhodes, the Hospitallers maintained a military and sugar production presence for many years.
All three of the mills discussed in this research, although built and rebuilt over a span of a few hundred years, are remarkably similar in both construction and refining technology. The three mills follow the same basic layout, as seen in the Kouklia-Stavros floor plan (figure 1)
The mill walls are composed of limestone walls, separating the facilities into four main sections, the store room/workshop, the mill area, the boiling hall and the stoke rooms. It is likely that it was a combination of this separation and layout, along with their engineering ingenuity and well practiced process and technique that Cyprus was able to produce such a high quality product.
The Aqueducts
The modern riverbeds of Cyprus are dry during the summer months, although this was not always the case. According to archaeological evidence, Kouklia, Episkopi and Kolossi relied on water power to their cane grinders, making the presence of ample free flowing rivers more than probable. The aqueduct system attached to the sugar mills plays an integral part in the medieval sugar cane industry. Since sugar cane has a long growing season and requires substantial water supply to grow properly, the aqueducts were used to transport water from nearby rivers to be used to irrigate the cane fields.
The Millstones and Water Jets
All three of these mills on Cyprus had technologically advanced grinding systems, where two separate kinds of cane milling equipment were discovered. The first was an animal driven grinding wheel and millstone. The second was a multi-floor, gear-based, horizontal waterwheel crushing and grinding system. The waterspout and wheel remains for this second system were discovered in a subterranean vaulted chamber below the grinding room, next to the animal driven mill room at Episkopi [15].
In an attempt to demonstrate the complexity of this design, a very brief exploration into the history of waterwheels is in order. Various sources indicate that horizontal wheels were fairly common throughout the Mediterranean as early as the first century. In the earliest forms of horizontal waterwheels (figure 2), the wheel itself would sit in the water supply, usually a swiftly flowing stream, with the radial vanes or paddled lower end dipping into the water. This design resulted in a fairly inefficient transference of power.
Whereas a complex series of overshot waterwheel-driven flourmills have been discovered in southern France and Israel, this system appears to be unique to Cyprus during this time period. Although extensive additional research would need to be performed to state that with any certainty, no references to or archaeological evidence of such a system have been found in recent investigations into contemporary sugar mills in Jordan, Israel and Greece.
One of the common misconceptions about medieval sugar is that it would have been laced with soot and ash. It is true that one of the largest problems when refining sugar, from a quality viewpoint, is how to handle the soot, ash and other byproducts from the fires necessary for the boiling process. The Cypriot mills responded to this challenge in their mill design. An analysis of the physical mills shows the stoke rooms separated from the boiling hall by a limestone wall. The stoke rooms were also deeper, partially under the boiling hall. These stoke rooms could be entered and exited through doorways leaving the facility.
The period descriptions of the refining process that actually list the cauldron material refer to the cauldrons being made from copper. In an age where cast iron was used extensively for cooking, it might at first seem unusual for them to have used copper. As with the waterwheels, additional investigation was necessary. Copper has several advantages over other metals for processing sugar, especially in medieval Cyprus. Firstly, copper was abundant on the island. So abundant, in fact, that the original Latin word for copper was ҡes CypriumӠ– the metal of Cyprus. Secondly, copper was easy for the Cypriots to work with.
The keys to the drying or evaporation phase in sugar refining are the sugar molds and their respective molasses pots (figure 7). Various reports throughout the middle ages indicate that these molds were made from either earthenware, reeds, twigs or some similar material. All archaeological evidence points to the extensive use of fired clay pottery, however, reed or twig molds may have been used, but would not have survived the centuries. Fortunately, thousands of these ceramic sugar molds and molasses pots have been recovered from various digs through Cyprus.
Put all of these elements together, and you have a fully functional, commercial scale, high quality sugar refining plant. Economically, these facilities were a major source of income throughout the 13th-16th centuries.
Locating a medieval description of the process that leads to Ҵhrice-boiledӠsugar has been difficult. As it was a major factor in CyprusՍ ңornerӠon the sugar market, the exact process may have been passed orally from generation to generation, reducing the possibility of the secrets being stolen and copied. Therefore it became necessary to examine post medieval sugar making techniques, where documentation is often much more detailed.
If this concept is applied to the medieval process, and the sugar mold and molasses pot quantities and sizes are examined, several correlations can be made. Out of the several thousand sugar molds (and corresponding molasses pots) found in the sugar mill ruins of Kouklia-Stavros and Episkopi, the largest number of molds were of the ҴallӠvariety. Dr. von Wartburg suggests that these numbers show crystal sugar (the lowest quality) as substantially more important to the economy of Cyprus than the higher quality loaf sugar or the superior quality ҃affettinoӠsugar [28]. Examination of these mold quantities from another angle reveals that perhaps this multiple crystallization/re-boiling process was performed on Cyprus to make the various quality sugars. It would stand to reason that the first crystallization/molasses extraction be performed in the larger molds.
Although the type of wood used in the fires is not documented, the forests on the island of Cyprus consist of oak, juniper, olive, cypress, and various types of pine. According to National Geographic, some of the types of vegetation on the island are not found anywhere else on Earth. This would have introduced additional unknowns into the process. Second, using an open fire without the controlled physical separation Conclusions
Examination of the Cypriot sugar mills and the sugar refining process shows a much more advanced display of manufacturing technology and industrial proficiency than might be expected. The similarities between the three mills on Cyprus are incredible, considering that they were built at different times for different people.
Molasses Pots
... Many contributed to, or enhanced, the Island's attributes .... have yet to find an equivalent for the Ottoman invaders 
