202 EVI MARgARITIS
case where the cultivation of other crops, although possible, cannot be dem-
onstrated from the archaeobotanical record. In addition, if other crops were
cultivated, the areas of land belonging to the estate would have been signifi-
cantly larger.
In addition, these data also contribute in an indirect way to the discussion
of animal husbandry. The animal remains from Kompoloi are scarce, which is
noteworthy considering the size of the estate; on the other hand, the animal
material from Platania is very rich. The exploitation of a variety of different
environmental niches could have allowed the occupants of Platania a high
level of mobility, thus also exploiting uncultivated areas suitable for grazing.
In addition, it is evident from the plant remains that a wide range of agricul-
tural residues would have been available: cereal and legume by-products, wine
and olive oil residues, olive prunings, vine and fig leaves, and weeds, essential
for stock rearing. These plant sources would in turn convert through the ani-
mals into food and other products such as hides, hair and wool (Forbes 1995 ).
Furthermore, the integration of crop and livestock husbandry would in turn
make manure more freely available and so reinforce the viability of intensive
farming, which is evidenced at Platania, in a model most likely in agreement
with husbandry management suggested by Halstead ( 1987 ), indicating a sym-
biosis of stock keeping and agrarian farming.
As mentioned, no archaeological material that would have connected the
two sites with olive oil and wine production has been recovered. It is impor-
tant therefore to consider that the lack of such installations in field surveys
cannot be conclusive as to lack of such cultivation and production practices,
much less the level of engagement in such industries. In addition, the evi-
dence from the excavation of these two estates at Pieria suggests that wealthy
houses which focus on the production of a surplus can be smaller than 0.4 ha
and those sites estimated at up to 0.5 ha in surveys should not necessarily be
characterised as simple farmsteads, as it seems these were often significantly
smaller. The conclusions of this paper as to the agricultural economies of these
two sites are based on detailed excavation data and archaeobotanical recovery,
and are important in demonstrating the limits of inference when dealing with
much wider scale survey data.
This chapter has highlighted the importance of archaeobotanical data to the
study of Ancient Greek agriculture. Plant remains have progressively become
part of more focused studies from excavations of the Classical period. Urban
centres such as the Athenian Agora and Corinth (Margaritis under study) and
rural ones such as the site of Foti-Vroskopos on Kea (Karnava, Kolia and
Margaritis 2011 ) will soon start to unfold their own economic and social his-
tories through the analysis of their organic remains. This new information,
although far from enough for a coherent analysis of the nature of ancient