Editing Barrel (section)

==History==
An [[Art of ancient Egypt|Egyptian wall-painting]] in the tomb of [[Hesy-Ra]], dating to 2600&nbsp;BC, shows a wooden tub used to measure wheat and constructed of staves bound together with wooden hoops.<ref>{{cite book | last=Kilby | first=K. | title= The Cooper and His Trade | publisher=Linden Publishing Company | year=1989 | isbn=978-0-941936-16-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_abWAAAAMAAJ | page=91}}</ref> Another Egyptian tomb painting dating to 1900&nbsp;BC shows a cooper and tubs made of staves in use at the grape harvest.<ref>{{Cite journal | url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/pts.696 | doi=10.1002/pts.696 | title=The cask age: The technology and history of wooden barrels | year=2005 | last1=Twede | first1=Diana | journal=Packaging Technology and Science | volume=18 | issue=5 | pages=253–264 | s2cid=110088268 | url-access=subscription }}</ref> [[Herodotus]] ({{circa|484|425 BC}}) allegedly reports the use of "palm-wood casks" in ancient [[Babylon]], but some modern scholarship disputes this interpretation.<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Rogers
 |first1               = Adam
 |year                 = 2014
 |chapter              = Aging
 |title                = Proof: The Science of Booze
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=kp2UAwAAQBAJ
 |series               = Mariner books
 |publication-place    = Boston
 |publisher            = Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
 |page                 = 109
 |isbn                 = 9780547897967
 |access-date          = 30 June 2024
 |quote                = In book I of ''History'', Herodotus says that Armenian wine merchants in the fifth century BC [...] could carry nearly 25 tons of wine along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers to Babylon. Most wine histories say that Herodotus wrote that wine was transported in 'barrels made of palm tree wood' [...]. [...] But [...] The Armenians didn't have the wood to make the barrels. Herodotus uses the term ''bikos phoinikeiou'' to refer to the vessel holding the wine, and [[Patrick Edward McGovern | McGovern]] says ''phoinikeiou'' probably means 'Phoenician,' referring to a Phoenician-type [[amphora]].
}} 
</ref>

In Europe, buckets and casks dating to 200 BC have been found preserved in the mud of [[lake settlement |lake village]]s.<ref>Kilby, p. 93.</ref> A lake village near [[Glastonbury]] dating to the late [[Iron Age]] has yielded one complete tub and a number of wooden staves.

The [[ancient Rome|Roman]] historian [[Pliny the Elder]] (died 79&nbsp;AD) reported that cooperage in Europe originated with the [[Gauls]] in Alpine villages who stored their beverages in wooden casks bound with hoops.<ref>[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D14 Pliny the Elder, ''The Natural History'', Book XIV, Chap. 27], translated by John Bostock, H.T. Riley, Ed.</ref> Pliny identified three different types of coopers: ordinary coopers, wine coopers and coopers who made large casks.<ref>Kilby, p. 96.</ref> Large casks contain more and bigger staves and are correspondingly more difficult to assemble. Roman coopers tended to be independent tradesmen, passing their skills on to their sons. The Greek geographer [[Strabo]] ({{circa|64 BC|24 AD}}) recorded that wooden [[pithos|''pithoi'']] (barrels or wine-jars) were lined with pitch to stop leakage and preserve the wine.<ref>Kilby, p. 98.</ref>

Barrels were sometimes used for military purposes. [[Julius Caesar]] (100 to 44&nbsp;BC) used [[catapults]] to hurl burning barrels of tar into besieged towns to start fires.<ref name = Kilby99>Kilby, p. 99.</ref> The Romans also used empty barrels to make [[pontoon bridge|pontoon bridges]] to cross rivers.
[[File:Gestapelde tonnen Zeesluisweg (links) hoek Schokkerweg bij reder Vrolijk te Scheveningen Den Haag.jpg |thumb |Pyramidal pile of herring barrels in [[Scheveningen]], the Netherlands, {{c.|1940}}]]
Empty casks were used to line the walls of shallow wells from at least Roman times. Such casks were found in 1897 during archaeological excavations of Roman [[Silchester]] in Britain. They were made of [[Abies alba|Pyrenean silver fir]] and the staves were {{cvt|38|mm}} thick and featured grooves where the heads fitted. They had Roman numerals scratched on the surface of each stave to help with re-assembly.<ref name = Kilby99/>

In [[Anglo-Saxon]] Britain, wooden barrels were used to store ale, butter, honey and [[mead]]. Drinking-containers were also made from small staves of [[oak]], [[yew]] or [[pine]]. These items required considerable craftsmanship to hold liquids and might be bound with finely-worked precious metals. They were highly valued items and were sometimes buried with the dead as [[grave goods]].<ref>Kilby, p. 102.</ref>