Encyclopedia of Society and Culture in the Ancient World

growth. More people meant more labor to work on farms and, hence, larger harvests. Larger harvests in turn made for greater secu ...

residents had nothing to domesticate. Th is meant that they had to depend on wild animals such as fi sh for protein. As the popu ...

emmer, while those on the Mediterranean coastal route fo- cused on naked wheat. By around 6000 b.c.e. these dispersals had reach ...

in the crop stores indicate eff ective and careful tillage and high fertility, as would be expected in small-scale intensive cul ...

deteriorating soil conditions, leaving behind preserved fi eld systems, such as the Dartmoor Reaves in Devon, England. Social ch ...

THE DEVELOPMENT OF GREEK AGRICULTURE Agriculture arrived in Greece during the sixth millennium b.c.e., well before the earliest ...

CROPS Th e main Greek crops were the olive, the grape, and grain (barley and wheat). Th ese three crops are oft en referred to a ...

down on all labor performed for wages as demeaning and servile. Hence there is little evidence of such practices. Ten- ancy was ...

WARFARE AND AGRICULTURE Farmland was a regular target in Greek warfare. Invading armies needed to travel light and so would rans ...

Spain, Egypt, Sicily, and Sardinia. Th is grain needed to arrive on a regular basis and be available at a reasonable price—both ...

quite profi table. Cato writes that the average profi t was 6 percent on invested capital. ROMAN CROPS: GRAPES Wild grapes grew ...

During the early Roman Republic farmers began to spe- cialize in particular crops and to run their farms as business- es. Agricu ...

owners, though there were also more modest estates owned by locals. Scholars believe that about half a million tons of wheat lef ...

Over the next three centuries this agricultural exploitation resulted in the loss of farmland and declining fortunes for Egypt. ...

seeds, but wild teosinte is not an impressive source of food. It grows throughout Mexico, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. Th ere are f ...

plantings that included raised fi elds, terracing, canals, and other irrigation systems. Th e raised fi elds and the canals were ...

arid environment. Th e earliest farmers used groundwater to irrigate their crops; they planted their fi elds near springs and la ...

Hail to thee, O Nile! Who manifests thyself over this land, and comes to give life to Egypt! Mysterious is thy issuing forth fro ...

Truth, greatness, universal order [rita], strength, consecration, creative fervor [tapas], spiritual exaltation [brahma], the s ...

Gentle, fragrant, kindly, with the sweet drink [kîlâla] in her udder, rich in milk, the broad earth together with [her] milk sh ...