broader investigation of how the region’s resources were perceived,
exploited and applied. Human societies have used natural resources for
a wide variety of reasons, whichflow from perceived social needs or
aspirations. A broader perspective on ancient economic behaviour in the
north Aegean must take some account of what these social aspirations
were and how they were connected to economic activities. So it is to the
relationship between the social and the economic that these methodo-
logical reflections should now turn.
84 Herdsmen with golden leaves—narratives and spaces