deteriorating soil conditions, leaving behind preserved fi eld
systems, such as the Dartmoor Reaves in Devon, England.
Social change during the Iron Age is refl ected in the
construction of hill forts across much of Europe. Hill forts
refl ect the accumulation of wealth chiefl y by elites through
long-distance exchange in materials as well as the collection
and storage of local agricultural surplus, indicated by stor-
age pits containing substantial deposits of charred grain. Th e
Iron Age elite were also interested in acquiring exotic food
and drink. Archaeological evidence indicates that they ob-
tained wine and drinking paraphernalia from the Mediterra-
nean sphere as well as the domestic chicken, introduced from
southern Asia via the Near East.
AGRICULTURE IN THE ROMAN PERIOD
Th e Roman period off ers an abundance of ancient com-
mentary on agricultural matters (especially Cato, Varro,
Columella, and Pliny the Elder) and a wealth of archaeo-
logical evidence, extending from the agricultural hinter-
land of Rome itself to its eastern frontier provinces in the
Balkans and its westernmost province of Britain. A number
of agricultural innovations are associated with the Romans,
including the introduction of a heavier plow, the asym-
metrical plowshare (capable of turning the soil to one side),
and the coulter (added to make a preliminary vertical cut
in advance of the plow). All of these introductions made it
easier to cultivate heavier soils. Expansion of arable farming
to new ground also involved the introduction of water mills
for irrigation or drainage.
With the disintegration of the Roman Empire, improved
farming methods and government-led developments in agri-
cultural organization largely disappeared, to reemerge in dif-
ferent forms under new political regimes in medieval times.
Other Roman practices, such as the widespread graft ing of
fruit trees and use of new varieties, may have continued in
some areas. Across much of the European countryside, how-
ever, older methods of farming using simple tools and tradi-
tional techniques reasserted themselves. Th ese local farming
traditions can be traced back to the Europe’s earliest farmers
of the Neolithic Period.
GREECE
BY DAVID B. HOLLANDER
Agriculture was essential for the ancient Greeks. Farming was
both the fundamental basis of their economy and for much of
Greek antiquity about the only profession befi tting a respect-
able citizen. Greek farmers not only produced high-quality
wine and olive oil, exported throughout the Mediterranean,
but also formed the armies that defeated the mighty Persian
Empire when it invaded Greece in 490 and 480 b.c.e.
SOURCES ON AGRICULTURE
Despite agriculture’s importance, ancient written sources
describing Greek farming practices are diffi cult to fi nd. Col-
umella, a Roman agricultural writer of the fi rst century c.e.,
knew of many Greek authors who wrote on the subject, but
nearly all of their works are now lost. Th e ones we still have
tend to be moral, poetic, or botanical writings, not techni-
cal manuals. Hesiod’s Work s and D ays, written around 700
b.c.e., is one of the earliest and best sources still available.
Th is poem provides valuable information about the working
of an Archaic Greek farm and the times that various tasks
had to be completed during the year. Xenophon’s Oeco-
nomicus (Th e Estate-Manager), written more than 300 years
later, consists primarily of a conversation between Socrates
and a wealthy Athenian named Ischomachus about the
management of a farm household. Ischomachus describes
his practices to Socrates, who concludes that farming is the
best profession for an Athenian man to pursue, since farm-
ers produce food and are the most willing and able to defend
the city-state.
Th eophrastus, a philosopher of the fourth century b.c.e.,
wrote two botanical treatises, De causis plantarum (On the
Causes of Plants) and Historia plantarum (History of Plants),
both of which contain much useful information about Greek
agriculture. Th eophrastus also produced an amusing, if ste-
reotypical brief, character study of the Greek farmer, whom
he describes as boorish and unsophisticated. Th eocritus, a
poet of the third century b.c.e. from Syracuse, invented the
genre of bucolic poetry, in which life in the countryside is
described in idealized form. A number of his Idylls survive,
and they tend to feature herdsmen relaxing and singing songs
in pleasant rural surroundings. From Greek estates in Ptole-
maic Egypt a diff erent type of evidence has emerged: account
books and other documents related to the management of
large farms. Th ese texts, though oft en fragmentary and dif-
fi cult to read, provide valuable information concerning what
was grown, who worked on the estates, and how much they
were paid.
Archaeology has also begun to provide some informa-
tion concerning Greek agriculture, despite a continued pref-
erence for urban over rural sites. With respect to the study of
ancient farming, the most important archaeological tool is
survey archaeology, in which a team of archaeologists walks
over and examines large areas of land for surface traces of
ancient activity. Th is process can reveal evidence of ancient
farmhouses and villages, thus enabling the archaeologists to
build up a picture of settlement and land use. Aerial photog-
raphy and remote sensing technology, such as soil resistiv-
ity testing (using changes in the electrical resistance of the
soil to detect the remains of structures hidden beneath the
ground), can accomplish some of the same ends, though it is
the fragments of pottery found in surface surveys that allow
archaeologists to date newly discovered sites. Th e excava-
tion of such rural sites as farmhouses has also yielded im-
portant information about Greek agriculture. One problem
that archaeologists face in studying Greek farming is that
many of the tools used in agriculture were made of wood
and have not survived.36 agriculture: Greece