Agriculture in ancient Greece
Agriculture was the foundation of the Ancient Greek economy. Nearly 80% of the population was involved in this activity.[1]
Background
Most Greek language agricultural texts are lost, except two
Agricultural products
Farm
During the early time of
On the other hand, the Greek land was well suited for
These core crops were augmented by vegetable gardens (
were also grown.Animal husbandry
Horses were raised on the plains of Thessaly and Argolis; it was a luxury animal, signifying aristocracy. The Clouds, Ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes, illustrates the equestrian snobbery of Athenian aristocrats: Pheidippides, the son of the hero is addicted to race-horses and so ruins his father Strepsiades.
It is likely that most farms practiced some limited animal husbandry; poultry or small animals grazing on waste land or fed kitchen scraps. Combined farm/livestock operations also existed, as well as those specializing in livestock. An inscription[4] also mentions a certain Eubolos of Elateia, in Phocis, the owner of 220 head of cattle and horses and at least 1000 sheep and goats. Flocks of sheep were herded between the valley in winter and the mountains in summer. Taxes existed for the transit or stopover of flocks in cities.
Other products
Wood was exploited, primarily for domestic use; homes and wagons were made of wood as was the ard (aratron). The Greek forests located in the highlands were denuded by goats and charcoal production; it was not long before it had to be imported especially for ship production (see trireme).
Beekeeping provided honey, the only source of sugar known to the Greeks. It also was used in medicines and in the production of mead. The Ancient Greeks did not have access to sugarcane. The Hymettus region of Attica was known for the quality of honey produced there.[5] Wax was also produced, used in the lost wax process to produce bronze statues as well as in medicines.
Bronze was used for farm tools and weaponry.
Agricultural work
Hesiod's Works and Days, 8th century BCE and Xenophon's Economy of the 4th century BCE provide information about working off the land.
The olive harvest took place from late autumn to the beginning of winter, either by hand or by pole. They were placed in wicker baskets and left to ferment for a few weeks before being pressed. The screw press, although referred to as the Greek press by Pliny the Elder (XVIII, 37) was a late (2nd century BCE) Roman invention. Oil was preserved in terra cotta vases for use later. This was also the time for pruning of trees and vines and harvesting of legumes.
Spring was the rainy season; farmers took advantage of this to bring fallow ground back into production. They practised biennial crop rotation, alternating from year to year between fallow and cultivated.[citation needed] Attempts to introduce triennial crop rotation with legumes in the third year, ran into problems due to the poor Greek soil, lack of power, and absence of mechanization. The Greeks did not use animal manure, possibly due to the low number of cattle.[citation needed] The only soil additive was weeds ploughed back into the ground after fields came out of fallow.
In summer, irrigation was indispensable. In June, they harvested with sickles; the scythe was not used. Wheat was threshed with animal power; it was trampled by oxen, donkeys or mules, and the grain stored. Women and slaves ground it and made bread.
In early autumn, they collected deadfall and prepared supplies of firewood; while winters were mild on the coast they could be brutal in the highlands. Farmers also had to break the hard crust that had formed over the summer on grain fields. To do this required three passes since the ard was wooden (metal shares were rare) and only scratched the uppermost subsoil without inverting it. A hoe and mallet were also used to break clumps of earth. The fallow land for next year was sown by hand. This was the time of the grape harvest: the grapes were crushed by foot in large vats, then the wine was left to ferment in jugs. After that process, people could drink the ambrosial wine and enjoy it.
In the nearly four centuries that passed between Hesiod and Xenophon, no improvements can be found in agriculture. Tools remained mediocre and there were no inventions to lighten the work of either man or animal. It was not until the rise of
Agricultural property
With the exception of
From the 8th century BCE, tensions grew between the great landowners and the peasants, who were finding it more and more difficult to survive. This can probably be explained by population growth brought on by reduced infant mortality, and aggravated by the practice of equally subdividing land amongst several inheritors each generation (attested to by both
From the 4th century BCE onwards property starts to become concentrated among few land owners, including in Sparta where according to
Some Greek land was public and/or sacred. Each city possessed such land and it is estimated that in Athens during the classical period these lands represented a tenth of cultivable land. This was an administrative division and the property of the city itself (for example in Attica, it was a deme) or a temple. These lands were leased to individuals.
See also
- Diet of Ancient Greece
- Economy of Ancient Greece
- History of agriculture
Notes
- ^ As estimated by L. Migeotte, L'Économie des cités grecques, p. 55.
- ISBN 9789088901874.
- ISBN 0-415-11671-6) p.41
- ^ Migeotte, Leopold. L'emprunt public dans les cités grecques. Recueil des documents et analyse critique, Sphinx and Belles Lettres editions, Quebec-Paris, 1984.
- ^ Strabo, Geography 9.1.23
- ^ Aristotle in 23 Volumes. Vol. 21, trans H. Rackham. 1944. Retrieved 10 June 2006.
- ^ Plato in Twelve Volumes. Vol. 8 trans W.R.M. Lamb. 1955. Retrieved 10 June 2006.
Bibliography
- Marie-Claire Amouretti :
- (in French) "L'agriculture de la Grèce antique. Bilan des recherches de la dernière décennie", Topoi. Orient-Occident, 4 (1994), p. 69–94,
- (in French) Le Pain et l'huile dans la Grèce antique. De l'araire au moulin, Belles Lettres, Paris, 1986 ;
- (in French) Anne-Marie Buttin, La Grèce classique, Belles Lettres, coll. "Guide Belles Lettres des civilisations", 2002 (ISBN 2-251-41012-0) ;
- (in French) Marie-Claire Cauvin, Rites et rythmes agraires, Maison Orient-Méditerrannée, Lyon-Paris, 1991 ;
- (in French) Christophe Chandezon, L'élevage en Grèce (fin Ve - fin Ier S. a.C.): l'apport des sources épigraphiques..., Paris: De Boccard, 2003, 463 p. (ISBN 2-910023-34-6).
- (in French) Moses Finley, Le Problème de la terre en Grèce ancienne, Mouton, Paris-La Haye, 1975 ;
- Signe Isager and Jens E. Skydsgaard, Ancient Greek Agriculture: An Introduction, Routledge, 1995 (ISBN 0-415-11671-6) ;
- Léopold Migeotte :
- (in French) L'économie des cités grecques, Ellipses, coll. « Antiquité : une histoire », Paris, 2002 (ISBN 2-7298-0849-3),
- (in French) L'économie des cités grecques, Ellipses, coll. « Antiquité : une histoire », Paris, 2002 (
- Léopold Migeotte :
- (in French) L'économie des cités grecques, Ellipses, coll. « Antiquité : une histoire », Paris, 2002 (ISBN 2-7298-0849-3),
- (in French) L'emprunt public dans les cités grecques. Recueil des documents et analyse critique, éditions du Sphinx et Belles Lettres, Québec-Paris, 1984 ;
- (in French) L'économie des cités grecques, Ellipses, coll. « Antiquité : une histoire », Paris, 2002 (
- (in French) ISBN 2-200-26562-X).
Further reading
- Burford, Alison. Land and Labor in the Greek World. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993.
- Cole, Susan Guettel. "Demeter in the ancient Greek city and its countryside." In Placing the Gods: Sanctuaries and Sacred Space in Ancient Greece, edited by Susan E.Alcock and Robin Osborne, 199–216. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994.
- Hodkinson, Stephen. "Animal husbandry in the Greek polis. Paper presented at the Ninth International Economic History Congress at Bern, August 1986." In Pastoral economies in classical Antiquity. Edited by Charles R. Whittaker, 35–74. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Philological Society, 1988.
- --. "Imperial democracy and market-oriented pastoral production in classical Athens." Anthropozoologica 16 (1992): 53–61.
- Isager, Signe, and Jens Erik Skydsgaard. Ancient Greek Agriculture: An Introduction. 1st paperback ed. London: Routledge, 1995.
- McHugh, Maeve. The Ancient Greek Farmstead. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2017.