cattle), elk, and hare. Many Mesolithic communities made
great use of shellfi sh along the coasts of northern Europe.
Agriculture was introduced into temperate Europe
around 6000 b.c.e. from the Near East, where the cultivation
of wheat and barley and the raising of cattle, sheep, goats,
and pigs had been established by 8000 b.c.e. Agriculture is
fi rst evident in southeastern Europe, as at Nea Nikomedeia in
Macedonia, and the practice spread gradually northward and
westward, arriving at the coasts of the Baltic and North seas
and the Atlantic Ocean around 4000 b.c.e. Th e transition
from hunting and gathering to agriculture was not sudden.
Many communities adopted farming to supply part of their
diet while maintaining their hunting-gathering practices well
into the Neolithic Period.
Th e process of the spread of agriculture from the Near
East into southeastern Europe probably involved a number of
diff erent mechanisms. We know that communities that prac-
ticed hunting and gathering, as at Franchthi Cave in south-
ern Greece, used boats to fi sh the deep waters of the Aegean
Sea and to trade across the sea for materials such as obsidian
(a natural volcanic glass used for making cutting tools). It is
likely that some such communities learned the technology of
agriculture and animal domestication and acquired the seeds
and animals from farming peoples on the eastern side of the
Aegean Sea in what is now Turkey. Also, some farmers from
that region may have traveled across the Aegean with their
seed grains and animals to settle fertile valleys in the south-
east of Europe.
During the Neolithic Period, Bronze Age, and Iron Age,
some communities tended to rely more on agriculture and
others more on livestock, depending upon local climatic con-
ditions and soils. Archaeological evidence shows that many
fruits were eaten, including apples, pears, plums, grapes,
raspberries, and blackberries, but it is not clear when these
plants were fully domesticated.
Technological innovations contributed to the effi ciency
of food production. Metal sickles came into use during the
Bronze Age. Traction plows, made of wood and pulled by ani-
mals, reduced the time and energy required for planting. In
the Late Iron Age, aft er about 400 b.c.e., metal plowshares
became common, enabling farmers to cultivate heavier and
more fertile soils. In addition to cereals, oil-bearing plants,
including fl ax and gold-of-pleasure, were commonly grown,
as was the broad bean.
Following the Roman conquests of about half of Eu-
rope during the fi rst century b.c.e. and the fi rst century c.e.,
there was some shift in emphasis in crops grown in the new
provinces, and new, oft en larger, breeds of animals were in-
troduced. But for the most part farmers in the provinces con-
tinued tending the same crops and animals they had raised
during the Iron Age. Rome introduced the villa system, and
this pattern was widely adopted by local landowners. Th e villa
included a residential building in which the owner and fam-
ily lived. Around that building were gardens and workshops,
and beyond them fi elds of wheat, barley, and other cereals.
Documents that pertain to subsistence in temperate Europe
were written aft er the Roman conquest, and they describe
how the villa system worked. Th e villa owner employed ten-
ants who worked the land, and wealthy owners kept slaves.
Villas were meant to be self-suffi cient units of production.
Each villa grew and manufactured what was needed by its
little community, and it exported surplus produce to the ur-
ban centers to exchange for manufactured goods and luxury
products. Villas varied greatly in size and wealth. Some were
huge, with lavish residences decorated with mosaic fl oors and
painted walls, and with hundreds of tenants and slaves work-
ing the fi elds and workshops. Others were modest, with the
single family that owned the villa doing all the work.
Written documents from the Roman Period indicate that
farmers had to pay tax on their produce, and the rate of taxes
rose and fell with changing economic and political circum-
stances. Although we have no written records about taxes or
tribute in the pre-Roman periods, it is likely that the political
centers of the Iron Age maintained some kind of system that
taxed the agricultural goods farmers produced.
In lands beyond the Roman imperial frontiers—east of
the Rhine River, north of the Danube River on the Continent,
and north of Hadrian’s Wall in Britain—subsistence organi-
zation and practice were aff ected by the Roman presence but
not as much as in the conquered lands. Th e Roman army had
huge numbers of soldiers stationed along the frontiers—more
than 100,000 along the Rhine and Danube rivers alone—and
these troops placed a great demand on local resources for
food and raw materials. Archaeological evidence shows that
the Roman administrators traded for agricultural goods with
peoples across the frontier. Places such as Feddersen Wierde
on the northwestern coast of Germany demonstrate the eff ects
of the Roman demand for goods from across the frontier. At
that site the archaeological evidence shows an ever-increas-
ing focus on the production of livestock during the fi rst three
centuries c.e., and at the same time an increasing fl ow of Ro-
man luxury objects into the community.MANUFACTURING
Among the earliest tools in Europe are those at Atapuerca in
northern Spain; perhaps dating back as early as 700,000 years
ago, they are called core and fl ake tools. Core tools are shaped
by striking off fl akes from the central portion of a large pebble
or cobble. Flake tools are made from the fl attish pieces that
are knocked off. New during the Mesolithic Period, or Middle
Stone Age (8,000–12,000 years ago), was an emphasis on man-
ufacturing microliths—very small stone tools, many of which
ser ved as points on arrows. Th e bow and arrow was a new tech-
nology developed around the start of the Mesolithic Period as
an adaptation to the hunting of the small and fast-moving ani-
mals of the forests that spread throughout Europe during the
warming conditions aft er the end of the last ice age.
During the Neolithic Period people began to make pot-
tery. Good potting clays are available throughout Europe,
and most communities made their own pottery. Stone tools360 economy: Europe