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Agricultural Practice in Greek Prehistory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

Glynis Jones
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Abstract

The paper discusses the process of crop production and consumption; that is, methods of cultivating, processing of harvested crops for storage and consumption, and patterns of crop storage. Evidence for storage from prehistoric sites in various parts of Greece is considered.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 82 , November 1987 , pp. 115 - 123
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1987

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References

Acknowledgements. This paper was presented at the Archaeological Institute of America meeting (December 1985) in a session organized by Dr J. Hansen on agriculture in Greek prehistory. Financial assistance for travel, etc., was provided by the AIA and Sheffield University. Thanks are due to Paul Halstead for helpful comments on an earlier draft.

1 See Hopf, M., ‘Frühe Kulturpflanzen in Südeuropa’, Berichte der Deutschen Botanischen Gesellschaft 91 (1978) 31–8Google Scholar; Renfrew, J. M., ‘The First Farmers in South-east Europe’, in Körber-Grohne, U. (ed.), Festschrift Maria Hopf, Archaeo-Physika 8 (1979) 243–65Google Scholar; J. Hansen (paper presented at the AIA meeting) for reviews of this information.

2 Hillman, G. C., ‘Reconstructing Crop Husbandry Practices from Charred Remains of Crops’, in Mercer, R. J. (ed.), Farming Practice in British Prehistory (Edinburgh 1981).Google Scholar

3 Jones, G., ‘Cereal and Pulse Remains from Protogeometric and Geometric Iolkos, Thessaly’, Anthropologika 3 (1982) 75–8.Google Scholar

4 Jones, G., Wardle, K. A., Halstead, P., and Wardle, D., ‘Crop Storage at Assiros’, Scientific American 254 (1986) 96–103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Jones, , ‘The LM II Plant Remains’, in Popham, M. R., The Minoan Unexplored Mansion, Knossos, BSA supplementary volume (London 1984).Google Scholar

6 As at Lerna—Hopf, , ‘Pflanzenfunde aus Lerna/Argolis’, der Züchter 31 (1961) 239–47.Google Scholar

7 As at Kastanas in Macedonia—Kroll, H., Kastanas: Ausgrabungen in einem Siedlungshügel der Bronze- und Eisenzeit Makedoniens 1975–1979: die Pflanzenfunde (Berlin 1983).Google Scholar

8 As at Sesklo—Renfrew, , ‘A Report on Recent Finds of Carbonised Cereal Grains and Seeds from Prehistoric Thessaly’, Thessalika 5 (1966) 21–36Google Scholar; and at Dimini—Kroll, , ‘Kulturpflanzen aus Dimini’, in Körber-Grohne, U. (ed.), Festschrift Maria Hopf, Archaeo-Physika 8 (1979) 173–89.Google Scholar

9 van Zeist, W. and Bottema, S., ‘Plant Husbandry in Early Neolithic Nea Nikomedeia, Greece’, Acta Botanica Neerlandica 20 (1971) 524–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10 See Jones et al., op. cit. (n. 4 above) 100–1.

11 For a more detailed plan and account of the excavation, see Popham, , The Minoan Unexplored Mansion, Knossos, BSA supplementary volume (London 1984).Google Scholar

12 Jones et al. op. cit. (see n. 4 above).

13 Jones, op. cit. (see n. 5 above). This lamentable lack of spatial information for grain storerooms is now being remedied to some extent by work such as that of Anaya Sarpaki on Thera and others in northern Greece.

14 Cf. Halstead, P., ‘From Determinism to Uncertainty: Social Storage and the Rise of the Minoan Palace’, in Sheridan, A. and Bailey, G. N. (eds.), Economic Archaeology: Towards an Integration of Ecological and Social Approaches, British Archaeological Reports (International Series 96) (Oxford 1981).Google Scholar

15 Kroll, op. cit. (see n. 8 above).

16 Hopf, op. cit. (see n. 6 above).

17 Kroll, op. cit. (see n. 7 above).

18 Hillman, op. cit. (see n. 2 above).

19 Ibid, and Hillman, , ‘Interpretation of Archaeological Plant Remains: the Application of Ethnographic Models from Turkey’, in van Zeist, W. and Casparie, W. A. (eds.), Plants and Ancient Man: Studies in Palaeoethnobotany (Rotterdam 1984).Google Scholar

20 Jones, , ‘Interpretation of Archaeological Plant Remains: Ethnographic Models from Greece’, in van Zeist and Casparie (eds.), Plants and Ancient Man: Studies in Palaeoethnobotany (Rotterdam 1984).Google Scholar

21 Id., ‘A Statistical Approach to the Archaeological Identification of Crop Processing’, Journal of Archaeological Science, 14 (1987) 311–23.

22 Renfrew, op. cit. (see n. 8 above); id., The Emergence of Civilisation: the Cyclades and the Aegean in the Third Millennium B.C. (London 1972).

23 Payne, S., ‘Zoo-archaeology in Greece: a Reader's Guide’, in Wilkie, N. C. and Coulson, W. D. E. (eds.), Contributions to Aegean Archaeology: Studies in Honor of William A. McDonald (Minneapolis 1985).Google Scholar

24 Jones, ‘Phytosociology and the Archaeological Recognition of Crop Husbandry Practices’, in H. Demiriz and D. Phitos (eds.), Proceedings of the 5th OPTIMA meeting (Istanbul, in press).

25 Ibid.

26 Ibid.

27 Kroll, op. cit. (see n. 7 above).

28 e.g. Gilman, A., ‘The Development of Social Stratification in Bronze Age Europe’, Current Anthropology 22 (1981) 1–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

29 Halstead, , ‘Counting Sheep in Neolithic and Bronze Age Greece’, in Hodder, I., Isaac, G., and Hammond, N. (eds.), Pattern of the Past: Studies in Honour of David Clarke (Cambridge 1981).Google Scholar

30 Kroll, , ‘Kulturpflanzen von Tiryns’, AA 32 (1982) 467–85.Google Scholar

31 G. Jones, P. Halstead, M. Charles, and S. Colledge, ‘The Effects of Irrigation on Weed Floras in N. Spain’ (in prep.).

32 T. van Andel (pers. comm.).