The Ancient Greek Economy. Markets, Households and City-States

AgRICULTURAL PRODUCTION IN HELLENISTIC gREECE 203

Greek agriculture, will certainly add important hard data to current theoretical

debates and improve our understanding of the ancient economy.

It is clearly imperative for a better understanding of ancient agriculture and

farming systems that we combine the information from plant remains with the

evidence from other sources already available. It is only then that site-specific

information on husbandry regimes and practices can be integrated in an overall

approach to land, labour, management strategies and their subsequent impact

on the economic, political and social aspects of Greek society of the Classical

period. It is with such integration of information that the reconstruction of

ancient agriculture will move from a static approach recording and interpret-

ing the material culture to an understanding of the dynamic processes behind

the domestic life of ancient Greece.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank E. Poulaki, Director of the KZ’ Ephorate of Pieria for all

her valuable support; Professor Martin Jones, Dr. Jane Renfrew and Dr. Michael

Boyd for their useful comments. I am indebted to Gates Cambridge Trust for

funding the project.