A Companion to Ancient Agriculture E-Book
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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Serie: Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World
- Sprache: Englisch
The first book-length overview of agricultural development in the ancient world A Companion to Ancient Agriculture is an authoritative overview of the history and development of agriculture in the ancient world. Focusing primarily on the Near East and Mediterranean regions, this unique text explores the cultivation of the soil and rearing of animals through centuries of human civilization--from the Neolithic beginnings of agriculture to Late Antiquity. Chapters written by the leading scholars in their fields present a multidisciplinary examination of the agricultural methods and influences that have enabled humans to survive and prosper. Consisting of thirty-one chapters, the Companion presents essays on a range of topics that include economic-political, anthropological, zooarchaeological, ethnobotanical, and archaeobotanical investigation of ancient agriculture. Chronologically-organized chapters offer in-depth discussions of agriculture in Bronze Age Egypt and Mesopotamia, Hellenistic Greece and Imperial Rome, Iran and Central Asia, and other regions. Sections on comparative agricultural history discuss agriculture in the Indian subcontinent and prehistoric China while an insightful concluding section helps readers understand ancient agriculture from a modern perspective. * Fills the need for a full-length biophysical and social overview of ancient agriculture * Provides clear accounts of the current state of research written by experts in their respective areas * Places ancient Mediterranean agriculture in conversation with contemporary practice in Eastern and Southern Asia * Includes coverage of analysis of stable isotopes in ancient agricultural cultivation * Offers plentiful illustrations, references, case studies, and further reading suggestions A Companion to Ancient Agriculture is a much-needed resource for advanced students, instructors, scholars, and researchers in fields such as agricultural history, ancient economics, and in broader disciplines including classics, archaeology, and ancient history.
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Seitenzahl: 1986
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Acknowledgments
Contributor Biographies
CHAPTER ONE: Introduction
Structure of the Volume
The Trajectory of Ancient Agricultural History
REFERENCES
PART I: PLANTS & ANIMALS
CHAPTER TWO: Paleoethnobotany and Ancient Agriculture
Introduction
A Brief History of the Paleoethnobotanical Investigation of Ancient Agriculture
Major Varieties of Paleoethnobotanical Data Related to Agriculture
The Collection of Archaeological Plant Remains
Putting Paleoethnobotanical Data to Work
Conclusions and Future Directions
FURTHER READING
REFERENCES
CHAPTER THREE: Zooarchaeology
Introduction
Zooarchaeological Methods
Zooarchaeological Applications
Conclusions
FURTHER READING
REFERENCES
CHAPTER FOUR: Stable Isotopes in Ancient Agriculture
Introduction
Stable Isotopes Relevant to the Investigation of Ancient Agriculture
Natural and Anthropogenic Determinants in Ancient Agriculture
Conclusions
SUGGESTED READING
REFERENCES
CHAPTER FIVE: Agricultural Plants in the Ancient Mediterranean
The Importance of Agricultural Plants to the Greeks and Romans
Sources of Information and Related Questions
Geography, Climate‚ and Soil in the Mediterranean
Grain
Grapevines
Olive Trees
Other Important Plants
Plants with Specialized Uses
Plants Used for Fiber and Oil
Animal Fodder
Religious Practices Associated with Fertility or the Agricultural Calendar
Conclusion
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
FURTHER READING
REFERENCES
CHAPTER SIX: Animals
Sources of Evidence
Near East
Ancient Egypt
Bronze and Iron Age Europe
Bronze Age Aegean world
Greek and Roman Antiquity
Conclusion
GUIDE TO FURTHER READING
REFERENCES
PART II: THE NEOLITHIC
CHAPTER SEVEN: The Beginnings of Agriculture
Introduction
Historiographical Review of Theory
Archaeological Data
Conclusions
FURTHER READING
REFERENCES
PART III: THE BRONZE AGE
CHAPTER EIGHT: Agriculture in Bronze Age Mesopotamia
Geography and Climate
Sources
Crops
Animal Husbandry
Cultivation Techniques and the Agricultural Calendar
Agriculture and Society
The Development of the Agrarian Regime in Southern Mesopotamia
The Development of the Agrarian Regime in Northern Mesopotamia
Open Questions and Future Avenues of Research
FURTHER READING
REFERENCES
CHAPTER NINE: Egyptian Agriculture in the Bronze Age
Introduction
Environmental Conditions and Physical Setting
Crops and the Agricultural Cycle
Technical Aspects and Animal Use
The Transformations of Institutional Agriculture Over Time
Current Debates and Avenues for Future Investigation
FURTHER READING
REFERENCES
CHAPTER TEN: Agriculture in the Bronze Age Levant
Archaeological and Textual Evidence
Geography and Climate
The Major Crop and Animal Species
Agricultural Calendar
Development of Agriculture Throughout the Bronze Age
Perspectives for Future Research
GUIDE TO FURTHER READING
REFERENCES
CHAPTER ELEVEN: Agriculture in the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age of Asia Minor
Introduction
The Cultural Sequence
Geography, Climate‚ and Vegetation
Cultivated Plants
Animals Husbanded
Wild Plant and Animal Exploitation
Tools and Technology
The Agricultural Calendar
Organization, Scale‚ and Management of Agropastoral Systems
Future Research
FURTHER READING
REFERENCES
CHAPTER TWELVE: Bronze Age Europe
Aegean Greece
Mediterranean Southwestern Europe
Eastern Europe
Continental Lowlands and Alpine Europe
Atlantic Europe
Scandinavia
Conclusions
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING
REFERENCES
PART IV: FROM THE EARLY IRON AGE TO LATE ANTIQUITY (300s ce)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Greece and Anatolia, 1200–500 bce
Introduction
The Technological System
Territories and the Environment
Economic and Social Perspectives
FURTHER READING
REFERENCES
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Agriculture in Greece and Coastal Anatolia, 500–100 BCE
Introduction
Agriculture and Landscapes
From Landscape to Parcel, from Parcel to Settlement
Agriculture in Context: Socioeconomic Aspects
The Polis and Agriculture
The Dynamics of Agriculture
Conclusion
FURTHER READING
REFERENCES
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Agriculture in Magna Graecia (Iron Age to Hellenistic Period)
Introduction
Region, Geography, and Climate
Textual and Material Sources
Plants Cultivated
Animal Husbandry
Agricultural Practices
Rural Settlement Patterns
Cultural, Economic, and Political Expressions
Conclusion
Avenues for Further Investigation
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
FURTHER READING
REFERENCES
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Agriculture in the Hellenistic Kingdoms
Ptolemaic Egypt
The Seleukid Kingdom
Land Management
Tools and Equipment
Animal Husbandry
GUIDE TO FURTHER READING
REFERENCES
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: Adapting to a Diverse Landscape
The Geography of Anatolia
Agrarian Land Use
Land Management
Agricultural Tools and Equipment
Divine Protection
Concluding Comments
GUIDE TO FURTHER READING
REFERENCES
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: Agriculture on the Shores of the Black Sea
Introduction
Geography and Climate
Archaeological, Textual, Epigraphical, and Numismatic Evidence
Crops Cultivated
Animal Husbandry
Agricultural Practices
Land Use and Settlement Patterns
Pontus and the Roman World
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
FURTHER READING
REFERENCES
CHAPTER NINETEEN: Agriculture in Iron Age and Archaic Italy
Introduction
Agricultural Origins and Developments in Peninsular Italy from the Neolithic to the Iron Age
Farming in Central Italy During the Iron Age and the Archaic Period
Demographic Growth, Urbanization Processes‚ and Agriculture
Important Debates and Avenues for Future Investigation
FURTHER READING
REFERENCES
CHAPTER TWENTY: Agriculture in Republican Italy
Introduction
The Archaeological and Textual Evidence
Geography and Climate
Major Crops
Livestock Breeding
The Agricultural Calendar
Tools and Technology
Political, Social, and Cultural Aspects of Agriculture
Changes in the Practice of Agriculture
Avenues for Future Investigation
GUIDE TO FURTHER READING
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CHAPTER TWENTY‐ONE: Agriculture in Imperial Italy
Introduction
The Textual Evidence
The Archaeological Evidence
The Crops of Italy and Animal Husbandry
Agricultural Tools and Technological Innovation
Landownership and Its Transformations
Important Debates and Avenues for Future Investigations
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
FURTHER READING
REFERENCES
CHAPTER TWENTY‐TWO: Agriculture in Roman Gaul
Infrastructure: Structuring the rural landscape, Settlement, Forms of Rural Building, and Field System
Agrarian Techniques and Tools
Land Improvement and Soil Amendment
Plowing Techniques
Sowing
Harvesting
Treatments after Harvest
Storage and Preservation
Mills and Milling
Rural Production: Agriculture
Rural Productions: Animal Husbandry
Other Rural Activities?
Conclusion: Integrated Agriculture
FURTHER READING
REFERENCES
CHAPTER TWENTY‐THREE: Agriculture in Roman Iberia
Development of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry During the Neolithic
New Species: The Impact of Colonial Contacts
Restructuring of Rural Landscape in Second–First Centuries bce
Conclusions
FURTHER READING
REFERENCES
CHAPTER TWENTY‐FOUR: Agriculture in Roman North Africa
Geographical Considerations
Mediterranean Agriculture
Irrigation
Investment in Agriculture
Agricultural Labor
Conclusion
FURTHER READING
REFERENCES
CHAPTER TWENTY‐FIVE: Agriculture in Roman Egypt
Introduction: Preparing the Soil
Environment and Landscape
Evidence
Population and the Cultivated Area
Land Tenure and Taxation
Crops and Diet
Managing Nature
Conclusion: Looking Ahead
FURTHER READING
REFERENCES
CHAPTER TWENTY‐SIX: Agriculture in Iron Age Mesopotamia
Introduction
Geography
Archaeology
Texts
Flora
1
Fauna
The Agricultural Calendar
Technology
Major Aspects of Agriculture
Changes in the Practice of Agriculture
Debates and Trends
GUIDE TO FURTHER READING
REFERENCES
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN: Iran and Central Asia in the Achaemenid and Hellenistic Periods
Farming and Water Management in Central Asia
Agriculture in the Bactrian Aramaic Documents
Agriculture and Pastoralism in the Zagros
The Macedonian Conquest
Comparative Ethnographic Approaches
FURTHER READING
REFERENCES
PART V: COMPARATIVE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY
CHAPTER TWENTY‐EIGHT: Ancient Agriculture in the Indian Subcontinent: The Archaeobotanical Evidence
Introduction
Geography and Environment
Neolithic/Chalcolithic Culture‐Historic Divisions
Archaeological and Archaeobotanical Profiles of the Food‐Producing Cultures
Early Holocene Culture‐Historic Trajectories
Mid‐ to Early Late Holocene Culture‐Historic Trajectories
Discussion: The Role of Water in Sedentation and Adoption of Agriculture
Conclusion
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
FURTHER READING
REFERENCES
CHAPTER TWENTY‐NINE: Trajectories of Agricultural Development in Prehistoric China
Introduction
Origins of and Transitions to Agriculture: Protracted Process and Remaining Mysteries
Middle Neolithic Agricultural Villages: Yangshao and Majiabang
Agricultural Intensification and Emergence of Early Complex Societies during the Late Neolithic
Bronze Age Agriculture: A Short Summary
Conclusions
FURTHER READING
REFERENCES
CHAPTER THIRTY: Late Antique Farming
Introduction
Evidence
Plants Cultivated
Animals
Agricultural Calendar
Tools and Technology
Social Changes and Agriculture
Changes in the Practice of Agriculture During Late Antiquity
Important Debates and Avenues for Future Investigation
FURTHER READING
REFERENCES
PART VI: CONCLUSION
CHAPTER CHAPTER THIRTY‐ONE: Common Ground
REFERENCES
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
Chapter 10
Table 10.1 Maximum proportions of major crop species in Bronze Age sites of t...
Chapter 11
Table 11.1 Summary of economic plants found at sites in Asia Minor (numbers r...
Table 11.2 Summary of the remains of managed animals found in sites from Asia...
Chapter 12
Table 12.1 Major chronological divisions of the Bronze Age for regions of Eur...
Chapter 16
Table 16.1 Data from a crop report from the Fayyum, Egypt. January, 235
BCE
....
Chapter 28
Table 28.1 Paleoclimate evidence for the Holocene in the subcontinent. Modifi...
List of Illustrations
Chapter 2
Figure 2.1 Model of the intersecting biophysical and social factors that con...
Figure 2.2 Commonly encountered archaeological plant remains used as evidenc...
Figure 2.3 Cross section of an unidentified specimen of archaeological wood ...
Figure 2.4 Image of a grass (family: Poaceae) phytolith cell sheet, likely o...
Figure 2.5 Schematization of sampling for macrobotanical remains, with two d...
Figure 2.6 Highly modified flotation machine that cycles water with an elect...
Chapter 3
Figure 3.1 Example of a group of bones and teeth recovered from the dry siev...
Figure 3.2 Effects of traction: anterior view of a “remodeled” (extended) di...
Figure 3.3 Flock of transhumant sheep grazing fallow fields on the Lasithi P...
Chapter 4
Figure 4.1 Interactions between processes that influence stable isotope rati...
Figure 4.2 Ranges in δ
15
N variation.
Figure 4.3 Estimated geographical distribution of soil δ
15
N values to 50 cm....
Figure 4.4 Crop grain quality and soil fertility: Evolution through time of ...
Figure 4.5 (a) Spline interpolation of mean Δ
13
C values from barley grains f...
Figure 4.6 ∆
13
C and δ
15
N values of cereal and pulse samples at four Neolithi...
Figure 4.7 Plot of Δ
13
C values of wheat grain (○), barley grain (●)‚ and bro...
Figure 4.8 Temporal trends in the first year movement of Çatalhöyük sheep, b...
Chapter 6
Figure 6.1 Outline drawings depicting variations in iconographic depictions ...
Figure 6.2 Relative frequency of cattle, sheep/goat and pig by NISP (=Number...
Chapter 7
Figure 7.1 Nikolai Vavilov.
Figure 7.2 Map of major centers of early agriculture.
Figure 7.3 Map of sites in the Middle East.
Figure 7.4 V. Gordon Childe.
Figure 7.5 Mortars and pestles from the Natufian site of Wadi Hammeh 27.
Figure 7.6 PPNA tower at Jericho.
Figure 7.7 PPNB houses at Basta.
Chapter 8
Figure 8.1 Map of the Ancient Near East in the Akkadian period.
Figure 8.2 The Jazira of Syria, Iraq, and southern Turkey, showing mean annu...
Figure 8.3 Kassite representation of a seeder plow.
Figure 8.4 Cross section of a river levee and basin.
Figure 8.5 Tentative reconstruction of major ancient channels in the Mesopot...
Figure 8.6 Sketch of an agricultural cell in South Mesopotamia.
Figure 8.7 Reconstruction of land‐use zones in the upper Khabur Basin of Syr...
Chapter 9
Figure 9.1 Map of Bronze Age Egypt.
Chapter 10
Figure 10.1 Map of the Levant.
Chapter 11
Figure 11.1 Map defining Asia Minor showing relevant palaeoenvironmental sit...
Chapter 12
Figure 12.1 Map of Europe showing sites discussed in sections on the Aegean,...
Figure 12.2 Map of Europe showing sites discussed in sections on Atlantic an...
Chapter 13
Figure 13.1 Map of Late Bronze Age sites.
Figure 13.2 Map of Archaic sites.
Chapter 14
Figure 14.1 The ancient landscape of Delos is one of the best preserved in r...
Figure 14.2 Reconstruction of the drainage system for the marshy lake of Pte...
Figure 14.3
(a,b)
Classical and Hellenistic farmhouse in Delos (the so‐called...
Figure 14.4 Macedonian farm of Asprovalta, located a few kilometers west of ...
Figure 14.5 Proxeny decree of Orchomenos (Arcadia) for Agesimachos, citizen ...
Figure 14.6 Detail of the so‐called Archelaos of Priene relief showing a hum...
Chapter 15
Figure 15.1 Map of Sicily, indicating the locations of important sites menti...
Figure 15.2 Map of southern Italy, indicating the locations of important sit...
Figure 15.3 Silver
nomos
of Metaponto, c. 510–470 BCE. Obverse type depictin...
Chapter 16
Figure 16.1 Political and environmental setting with volcanic forcing histor...
Figure 16.2 Map of Ptolemaic kingdom.
Figure 16.3 Chronology of explosive eruptions showing radiative forcing in W...
Figure 16.4 Map of Seleukid kingdom.
Chapter 17
Figure 17.1 Gravestone erected by Paulinus in memory of his father Trophimus...
Figure 17.2 View of four sides of a Roman gravestone of possibly a landholde...
Figure 17.3 Lower part of a broken Roman gravestone of Metrodorus erected by...
Chapter 18
Figure 18.1 Map of the Black Sea.
Chapter 19
Figure 19.1 Map of Italy.
Figure 19.2 Map of the regions of Italy.
Figure 19.3 Map of the neighborhood of Rome.
Chapter 20
Figure 20.1 Map of Campania.
Chapter 22
Figure 22.1 Fragments of the Cadastre d’Orange.
Figure 22.2 Scene of plowing and sowing. Roman mosaic from Saint Romain‐en‐G...
Figure 22.3 Vallus relief, Buzenol, Belgium. Photograph by Villaegalloromain...
Figure 22.4 Relative levels of crop production during the first century CE....
Figure 22.5 Cheese presses, Musée national d’histoire et d’art Luxembourg....
Figure 22.6 Iron horse‐sandal.
Chapter 23
Figure 23.1 Sites in Iberia referred to in the text.
Figure 23.2 Sites in Cataluña referred to in the text.
Chapter 24
Figure 24.1 Mosaic depicting a Roman estate, from Carthage, late fourth to e...
Figure 24.2 Map of Roman North Africa (below) and northern Tunisia (above)....
Chapter 25
Figure 25.1 Egypt in the Roman Period.
Figure 25.2 Canal‐cleaning at Karanis during the Michigan excavations, 1924....
Chapter 26
Figure 26.1 Map of Mesopotamia.
Figure 26.2 Iron agricultural tools from Nineveh.
Figure 26.3 A Babylonian Kudurru.
Figure 26.4a Late Babylonian field plan (BM 78148), obverse.
Figure 26.4b Late Babylonian field plan (BM 78148), reverse.
Figure 26.5 Image of the seeder plow.
Chapter 27
Figure 27.1 Map of Bactria.
Figure 27.2 Map of Persis.
Chapter 28
Figure 28.1 The subcontinent’s early agropastoral provinces in relation to S...
Figure 28.2 Physiographic subdivisions of the Indian subcontinent.
Figure 28.3 The distinctive culture‐historic divisions across the subcontine...
Figure 28.4 Major natural frontiers that contributed to the geography of agr...
Figure 28.5 Map of Gujarat showing the geographical subdivision and climatic...
Figure 28.6 Map of selected wild crop progenitors in India in relation to th...
Chapter 29
Figure 29.1 Sites containing early millet remains in China and important geo...
Figure 29.2 Pottery and stone tools discovered at the Shanshang site, Zhejia...
Figure 29.3 Settlement plans during the Yangshao period. Left: Settlement pa...
Figure 29.4 Ceramic cooking vessels discovered at the Xipo site. Left: Buria...
Figure 29.5 Burial and grave goods discovered at the Zhufeng site, Shandong ...
Figure 29.6 Burial with many ceramic drinking vessels discovered at the Dafa...
Chapter 30
Figure 30.1 The Mediterranean Basin.
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
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BLACKWELL COMPANIONS TO THE ANCIENT WORLD
This series provides sophisticated and authoritative overviews of periods of ancient history, genres of classical literature, and the most important themes in ancient culture. Each volume comprises approximately twenty‐five and forty concise essays written by individual scholars within their area of specialization. The essays are written in a clear, provocative, and lively manner, designed for an international audience of scholars, students, and general readers.
A Companion to Latin LiteratureEdited by Stephen Harrison
A Companion to the Ancient Near EastEdited by Daniel C. Snell
A Companion to Ancient EpicEdited by John Miles Foley
A Companion to Greek TragedyEdited by Justina Gregory
A Companion to the Roman EmpireEdited by David S. Potter
A Companion to the Roman RepublicEdited by Nathan Rosenstein and Robert Morstein‐Marx
A Companion to the Classical Greek WorldEdited by Konrad H. Kinzl
A Companion to Roman RhetoricEdited by William Dominik, Jon Hall
A Companion to Roman ReligionEdited by Jörg Rüpke
A Companion to the Classical TraditionEdited by Craig W. Kallendorf
A Companion to Greek RhetoricEdited by Ian Worthington
A Companion to CatullusEdited by Marilyn B. Skinner
A Companion to Classical ReceptionsEdited by Lorna Hardwick and Christopher Stray
A Companion to Greek and Roman Political ThoughtEdited by Ryan K. Balot
A Companion to the Roman ArmyEdited by Paul Erdkamp
A Companion to Greek ReligionEdited by Daniel Ogden
A Companion to Ancient HistoryEdited by Andrew Erskine
A Companion to OvidEdited by Peter E. Knox
A Companion to Archaic GreeceEdited by Kurt A. Raaflaub and Hans van Wees
A Companion to Late AntiquityEdited by Philip Rousseau
A Companion to Julius CaesarEdited by Miriam Griffin
A Companion to Hellenistic LiteratureEdited by James J. Clauss and Martine Cuypers
A Companion to the Ancient Greek LanguageEdited by Egbert J. Bakker
A Companion to ByzantiumEdited by Liz James
A Companion to HoraceEdited by Gregson Davis
A Companion to Ancient MacedoniaEdited by Joseph Roisman and Ian Worthington
A Companion to Families in the Greek and Roman WorldsEdited by Beryl Rawson
A Companion to Greek MythologyEdited by Ken Dowden and Niall Livingston
A Companion to the Latin LanguageEdited by James Clackson
A Companion to Greek and Roman HistoriographyEdited by John Marincola
A Companion to the Punic WarsEdited by Dexter Hoyos
A Companion to Women in the Ancient WorldEdited by Sharon L. James and Sheila Dillon
A Companion to SophoclesEdited by Kirk Ormand
A Companion to Marcus AureliusEdited by Marcel van Ackeren
A Companion to the Archaeology of the Ancient Near EastEdited by Daniel T. Potts
A Companion to AugustineEdited by Mark Vessey
A Companion to Roman Love ElegyEdited by Barbara K. Gold
A Companion to Greek Art
Tyler Jo Smith and Dimitris Plantzos
A Companion to Persius and JuvenalEdited by Susanna Braund and Josiah Osgood
A Companion to TacitusEdited by Victoria Emma Pagán
A Companion to Ancient Greek GovernmentEdited by Hans Beck
A Companion to the Neronian AgeEdited by Emma Buckley and Martin Dinter
A Companion to the Archaeology of the Roman RepublicEdited by Jane DeRose Evans
A Companion to TerenceEdited by Antony Augoustakis and Ariana Traill
A Companion to Roman ArchitectureEdited by Roger B. Ulrich and Caroline K. Quenemoen
A Companion to the Ancient NovelEdited by Edmund P. Cueva and Shannon N. Byrne
A Companion to Ethnicity in the Ancient MediterraneanEdited by Jeremy McInerney
A Companion to Sport and Spectacle in Greek and Roman AntiquityEdited by Paul Christesen and Donald G. Kyle
A Companion to Greek and Roman SexualitiesEdited by Thomas K. Hubbard
A Companion to PlutarchEdited by Mark Beck
A Companion to Ancient ThraceEdited by Julia Valeva, Emil Nankov and Denver Graninger
A Companion to the Archaeology of Religion in the Ancient WorldEdited by Rubina Raja and Jörg Rüpke
A Companion to Ancient AestheticsEdited by Pierre Destrée and Penelope Murray
A Companion to Food in the Ancient WorldEdited by John Wilkins and Robin Nadeau
A Companion to Ancient EducationEdited by W. Martin Bloomer
A Companion to Greek LiteratureEdited by Martin Hose and David Schenker
A Companion to Greek Democracy and the Roman RepublicEdited by Dean Hammer
A Companion to LivyEdited by Bernard Mineo
A Companion to Ancient Egyptian ArtEdited by Melinda K. Hartwig
A Companion to Roman ArtEdited by Barbara E. Borg
A Companion to the EtruscansEdited by Sinclair Bell and Alexandra A. Carpino
A Companion to the Flavian Age of Imperial RomeEdited by Andrew Zissos
A Companion to Roman ItalyEdited by Alison E. Cooley
A Companion to Science, Technology, and Medicine in Ancient Greek and RomeEdited by Georgia L. Irby
A Companion to Greek ArchitectureEdited by Margaret M. Miles
A Companion to JosephusEdited by Honora Howell Chapman and Zuleika Rodgers
A Companion to AssyriaEdited by Eckart Frahm
A Companion to Ancient Greece and Rome on ScreenEdited by Arthur J. Pomeroy
A Companion to EuripidesEdited by Laura K. McClure
A Companion to SpartaEdited by Anton Powell
A Companion to Ancient EpigramEdited by Christer Henriksen
A Companion to the City of RomeEdited by Amanda Claridge and Claire Holleran
A Companion to Ancient Near Eastern ArtEdited by Ann C Gunter
A Companion to Greco‐Roman and Late Antique EgyptEdited by Katelijn Vandorpe
A Companion to the Archaeology of Early Greece and the MediterraneanEdited by Irene S. Lemos and Antonis Kotsonas
A COMPANION TO ANCIENT AGRICULTURE
David Hollander
Iowa State UniversityIowa, USA
Timothy Howe
St. Olaf CollegeMinnesota, USA
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Acknowledgments
In the more than six years since we started this project, we have incurred many debts both great and small. Thanks goes first of all to our contributors for their hard work (and, in some cases, considerable patience). We are also grateful for the feedback from the reviewers of our initial proposal to Wiley and the many reviewers of individual chapters who must remain anonymous. At Iowa State University, David wishes to thank Michael Bailey, Simon Cordery, Rachel Meyers, John Monroe, Margaret Mook, Pamela Riney‐Kehrberg, Jennifer Rivera, and Tao Wang. At St. Olaf, Tim thanks Nancy Hollinger, Gabrielle Lattery, and Robert Entenmann. We also thank Sabine Huebner, Jinyu Liu, Jennifer Loullier, Nick Nicastro, Jim and Ed Shaughnessy, and Warren Stine for assistance with various matters. Thanks, finally, to everyone at Wiley.
Contributor Biographies
Smaranda Andrews earned an MA in Archaeology from the University of Constanta and a PhD in Agricultural History and Rural Studies from Iowa State University‚ where she now is a Lecturer in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition. She has conducted archaeological research in Romania on Neolithic, Greek, and Roman sites. She is also a certified organic inspector, Produce Safety Lead Trainer, and has worked as an agricultural consultant in Romania, the United States, and the Philippines.
Katherine Beydler is a PhD Candidate in Classical Philology at the University of Michigan. She received a BS in Plant Biology and a BA in Classical Languages from the University of Iowa in 2014. Her main interests are the environmental and agricultural history of central Italy from both archaeological and textual perspectives. Her dissertation examines Roman literary accounts of early agriculture and landscape development in combination with archaeobotanical evidence. During the summer, she works as the Environmental Lab Supervisor at the Gabii Project.
Christophe Chandezon is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Montpellier (France). He works on Greek agrarian economy, especially on animal husbandry. He is also interested in various aspects of the relations between humans and domestic animals in ancient Greece. He is the author of L'élevage en Grèce (fin Ve‐fin Ier s. a.C.). L'apport des sources épigraphiques (Bordeaux 2003). Currently, he is editing books on Artemidorus of Daldis and dream interpretation in the Classical world (recently: Artémidore de Daldis et l'interprétation des rêves. Quatorze études, Paris, 2014, coedited with J. du Bouchet).
Michael J. Decker is Maroulis Professor of Byzantine History and Orthodox Religion at the University of South Florida and Chair of the Department of History. He earned his DPhil from the Faculty of Modern History at Oxford University. Decker’s research interests include the medieval Mediterranean and Anatolia, specifically the social, environmental, and economic history as well as the material culture of the East Roman Empire. His current research includes work on the landscape and culture of the East Roman Empire during the seventh–ninth centuries CE and the Medieval Coinage and Economy Project Database. He is editor of the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Byzantine Archaeology. His past fieldwork includes field survey and excavation in Syria and Jordan. He currently works on the Realmonte Roman villa excavation, as well as 3D digitization and virtualization projects in Sicily.
Phillip C. Edwards teaches at La Trobe University in Australia. His interests include the origins of farming and the first villages in the Levant. For over 35 years he has specialized in the archaeology of the east Jordan Valley, where he has excavated sites spanning the period between 500 000 and 9000 years ago. His current research is focused on the Neolithic site of Zahrat adh‐Dhra‘ 2 in Jordan, with the aid of a White‐Levy publication grant. He also directs the “Ice Age Villagers of the Levant” project, which investigates how Natufian communities settled in the first villages.
Andrew S. Fairbairn is Associate Professor and Head of Archaeology at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. He is an archaeobotanist and archaeologist interested in ancient agriculture, foraging practice, and past anthropogenic landscape change. He has worked in Turkey since 1999, publishing research on past farming practice and economic change in a range of sites including Neolithic Çatalhöyük East, Pınarbaşı, Canhasan III, and Boncüklu, where he is the project co‐director, as well as Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Medieval occupation at Kaman Kalehöyük, Büklükale, Yassihöyük, Kültepe, and Kinet Höyük. He has also published research on sites in the United Kingdom, central Europe, Jordan, Papua New Guinea, and Australia and is Associate Editor for the journal Vegetation History and Archaeobotany.
Alan Farahani is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. His primary research interests are in the anthropological archaeology of southwest Asia and Eurasia more broadly, socio‐ecological approaches to the human past, and the trajectories of agriculture worldwide throughout the Holocene. He has conducted archaeological field research or published on sites in Armenia, El Salvador, Iraqi Kurdistan, Jordan, the Philippines, Spain, and Tunisia.
Alain Ferdière is a French archaeologist mainly working on the Gallo‐Roman country and agropastoral economy, but he has recently led a project (survey and excavation) on the little Roman city of Javols‐Anderitium in South France. He was Professor of Ancient History and Archaeology in the University of Tours. In a big bibliography about the archaeology of Roman Gaul, we can note here Les campagnes gallo‐romaines (2 vol., 1988) and the chapter “L’époque romaine,” in A. Ferdière et al. (eds.), Histoire de l’agriculture en France de la Protohistoire au Haut Moyen Âge (2006).
Brendan Haug is Assistant Professor of Classical Studies and Archivist of the Papyrology Collection at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He earned his degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2012. He writes on aspects of agriculture and irrigation in Greek, Roman, and early Islamic Egypt and is preparing a monograph on the environmental history of Egypt's Fayyum.
David B. Hollander is Professor of History at Iowa State University. His main interest is the economic history of the late Republic and early Empire. He is the author of Money in the Late Roman Republic (2007) and Farmers and Agriculture in the Roman Economy (2018). He edited The Extramercantile Economies of Greek and Roman Cities (2019, with Thomas R. Blanton IV and John T. Fitzgerald). He also serves as an editor for Wiley’s Encyclopedia of Ancient History.
Timothy Howe is Professor of History, Archaeology & Ancient Studies at St. Olaf College. His main interests include Greek and Roman agriculture and warfare, Mediterranean archaeology, and the historiography of Alexander the Great. He is the author of Pastoral Politics: Animals, Agriculture and Society in Ancient Greece (2008) and also serves as associate field director of the Hellenistic/Roman archaeological site of Antiochia ad Cragum in Southern Turkey.
M. Eleanor Irwin retired in 2001 from the University of Toronto Scarborough where she was a member of faculty since 1968. She now lives in Haliburton, where she grows vegetables with some success. Her main research interest concerns plants in the Greek and Roman world. She contributed “Greek and Roman botany” to A Companion to Science, Technology, and Medicine in Ancient Greece and Rome, Georgia L. Irby, ed. Wiley Blackwell 2016. Her next project is searching for evidence of climate change in the Roman agricultural writers. Her other research interest is in the history of Classical scholarship; she contributed a chapter on Kathleen Freeman to Unsealing the Fountain: Women Classical Scholars from the Renaissance to Jacqueline de Romilly (Rosie Wyles and Edith Hall. eds. Oxford. 2016). She is presently writing entries for a projected Dictionary of Women Classicists, edited by Judith Hallett and Graham Whitaker.
Valasia Isaakidou is a zooarchaeologist and Aegean prehistorian. She is the co‐editor of Escaping the Labyrinth: The Cretan Neolithic in Context (2008) and co‐author (with Paul Halstead) of “Sheep, sacrifices, and symbols: animals in Later Bronze Age Greece” for The Oxford Handbook of Zooarchaeology (2017).
Michael Jursa is Professor of Assyriology at the University of Vienna and member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. In his principal field of research, Babylonian social and economic history, he has authored numerous papers and several monographs, including Aspects of the Economic History of Babylonia in the First Millennium BC (Münster 2010), Neo‐Babylonian Letters and Contracts from the Eanna Archive (with Eckart Frahm, New Haven 2011), and Cuneiform Texts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Volume 4 (with Ira Spar, New York 2014).
Jens Kamlah holds the Chair of Biblical Archaeology at the University of Tübingen, and he serves as Director of Tübingen’s Institute of Biblical Archaeology. His research field is the archaeology and history of Ancient Palestine, including the Central Levant (i.e. Lebanon) and the Southern Levant (i.e. Israel, Palestinian territories, Jordan, and the Sinai peninsula), from the end of the Stone Ages until Medieval Times. He is especially interested in the Bronze Age and Iron Age settlement and landscape history, as well as in the historical research regarding Old Testament texts. His current research projects encompass the ongoing excavations at Tell el‐Burak (Lebanon; together with Hélène Sader and Aaron Schmitt) and the Atlas of Agriculture of Ancient Palestine (together with Simone Riehl and with Britt Starkovich). Both projects are based on systematically combined analyses of archaeological and historical research together with zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical approaches.
Dennis Kehoe is Professor in the Department of Classical Studies at Tulane University, where he was Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities 2010–2013. His scholarship focuses on the Roman economy and Roman law, particularly on the relationship between law and the economy of the Roman Empire. His principal publications include The Jurists and the Roman Agrarian Economy (Ann Arbor 1997) and Law and the Rural Economy in the Roman Empire (Ann Arbor 2007). He is also a contributing editor and translator in B. W. Frier. ed., The Codex of Justinian (Cambridge 2016).
Ravi Korisettar is currently UGC Emeritus and Fellow at the Department of History and Archaeology, Karnatak University, Dharwad, India. His discovery of the Youngest Toba Tuff (YTT), volcanic ash of Sumatra origin in peninsular river deposits has proved significant for dating the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic and has brought the Indian subcontinent at the forefront of debate on the expansion of modern humans out of Africa. He is co‐editor of Quaternary Environments and Geoarchaeology of India (Geological Society of India 1995), The Rise of Early Human Behaviour in Global Context (Routledge 1998), Indian Archaeology in Retrospect (ICHR and Manohar [4 volumes], 2001/2), and a special issue of Quaternary International (vol. 258, 2011) and editor of Beyond Stone and More Stones (Vo. 1: 2017 and Vol. 2: 2018).
Michael Kozuh is Associate Professor of History at Auburn University. He researches the ancient Near East, focusing on the history, agriculture, administration, and technology of Mesopotamia in the first millennium BCE. He is particularly interested in how cuneiform administrative texts attempt both to create and capture the reality of agricultural operations over time. He is the author of The Sacrificial Economy: Assessors, Contractors, and Thieves in the Management of Sacrificial Sheep at the Eanna Temple of Uruk (ca. 625–520 BC) (Eisenbrauns 2014), which examines the management of 60 000 sheep under the control of a temple in southern Babylonia. His next project is a social history of the Mesopotamian plow team.
Lynne A. Kvapil is Assistant Professor of Classics at Butler University. She earned her PhD from the University of Cincinnati in 2012. Her research is in Mycenaean archaeology with a focus on farming and field systems, ceramic production, and mortuary practices. She has worked on numerous archaeological projects, including the Saronic Harbors Archaeological Research Project (SHARP) and the Petsas House excavations at Mycenae. She is currently the assistant director and field supervisor for the Tombs of Aidonia Preservation, Heritage, and explOration Synergasia (TAPHOS).
Benedict Lowe is an Associate Professor of History at the University of North Alabama. He received his PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 1997. Dr. Lowe is a specialist in the economy of the Roman World focusing in particular on the Iberian Peninsula and its relationship to the Mediterranean and Atlantic Worlds. He is the author of Roman Iberia: Economy, Society and Culture (Duckworth, 2009) and has two forthcoming books: Cádiz: a History (Routledge) and The Greeks in the Far West (edited with Jens Krasilnikoff) (University of Pennsylvania Press).
Michael MacKinnon is Professor of Classics at the University of Winnipeg. He received his BSc (Biology) and MA (Anthropology) from the University of Toronto, and MA and PhD (Anthropology) from the University of Alberta. As an archaeologist he has worked at more than 60 sites throughout the Mediterranean, including projects in an array of countries and regions – Italy, Sicily, Albania, Greece, Macedonia, Turkey, Romania, Portugal, Spain, Egypt, and Tunisia. His particular interests focus on the role of animals within ancient Greek and Roman societies, as drawn from interdisciplinary exploration of zooarchaeological, ancient textual, and iconographical evidence. He is the author of Production and Consumption of Animals in Roman Italy: Integrating the Zooarchaeological and Textual Evidence (2004).
Rachel Mairs is Associate Professor of Classical and Near Eastern Studies at the University of Reading. She has previously held positions at New York University, the University of Oxford, and Brown University. She is the author of The Hellenistic Far East: Archaeology, Language and Identity in Greek Central Asia (2014), Archaeologists, Tourists, Interpreters: Exploring Egypt and the Near East in the Late 19th‐Early 20th Centuries (with Maya Muratov 2015) and From Khartoum to Jerusalem: The Dragoman Solomon Negima and his Clients (1885–1933) (2016).
J.G. Manning took his AM and a PhD from the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago. At Yale he is the William K. and Marilyn M. Simpson Professor of History and of Classics, with appointments also in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and at Yale Law School. He is co‐Director of Archaia – the Yale Initiative for the Study of Antiquity and the Premodern World (http://archaia.yale.edu/) Current projects include the modeling of Egyptian history using cultural evolutionary theory, among other approaches, for the Seshat Project (http://seshatdatabank.info/), the history of property in the context of ancient law, a history of the Hellenistic world, and a major new project exploring and specifying the underlying links between short‐term climate change, war, rebellion, and economic performance in the Hellenistic world.
Annalisa Marzano obtained her PhD in 2004 from Columbia University and is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Reading, United Kingdom, and an elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Society of Antiquaries of London. She has published on a wide range of topics related to Roman social and economic history. She is the author of Roman Villas in Central Italy. A Social and Economic History (2007) and Harvesting the Sea: The Exploitation of Marine Resources in the Roman Mediterranean (2013), and co‐editor of The Roman Villa in the Mediterranean Basin: Late Republic to Late Antiquity (2018).
Juan Carlos Moreno García is a CNRS senior researcher at the University of Paris IV‐Sorbonne. He has published extensively on pharaonic administration, socioeconomic history, and landscape organization, usually in a comparative perspective with other civilizations of the ancient world, and has organized several conferences on these topics. Recent publications include Dynamics of Production in the Ancient Near East, 1300–500 BC (2016) and Ancient Egyptian Administration (2013). He is also chief editor of The Journal of Egyptian History (Brill), area editor (“economy”) of the UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, and co‐editor of the series Elements: Ancient Egypt in Context (Cambridge University Press).
Laura Motta is a Research Specialist in Archaeobotany at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan. She earned her PhD at University of Cambridge in 2011. Her research focuses on people–environment interactions in later prehistory and early historical periods, and she is particularly interested in the investigation of social complexity in early cities through food redistribution patterns, agricultural practices, and landscape modifications. She has more than 30 years of fieldwork experience, and she is currently involved in research projects in Italy, Romania, and Egypt, including the excavations at Gabii and at Sant’Omobono (Rome).
Clémence Pagnoux is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Archaeology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece). She completed her PhD at the University Paris 1 Panthéon‐Sorbonne (France) on fruit tree cultivation in prehistoric and ancient Greece. Her current research focuses on agriculture and domestication of plants in Central and Eastern Mediterranean during prehistory and antiquity, through combined analyses of ancient written sources (Greek and Latin) and archaeobotanical data.
Simone Riehl is a researcher at the Senckenberg Center of Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment at the University of Tübingen and docent, and is currently responsible for the archaeobotanical work group at the Institute for Archaeological Science. Riehl has worked as a project archaeobotanist in several archaeological excavations in the Near East, including Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan‚ and Iran. Her main areas of research include the archaeobotany of the emergence and development of agriculture, palaeoecology and environmental archaeology of the Middle East, paleoclimate models in archaeology, and stable carbon isotopes as paleoclimate proxies. Her research in archaeobotany and archaeological applications of stable isotope analysis attracted funding from the DFG (German Research Foundation), the BMBF (German Federal Ministry of Education and Research), MWK (Ministry for Science and Culture), and the ERC (European Research Council).
Pamela Riney‐Kehrberg is Professor of History at Iowa State University. She is the author of Rooted in Dust: Surviving Drought and Depression in Southwestern Kansas (1994), Childhood on the Farm: Work, Play and Coming of Age in the Midwest (2005), Always Plenty to Do: Growing Up on a Farm in the Long Ago (2011), and The Nature of Childhood: An Environmental History of Growing Up in America Since 1865 (2014). She is also the editor of the Routledge History of Rural America. In 2017, she became a Fellow of the Agricultural History Society. Currently, she is researching the Farm Crisis of the 1980s.
Saskia Roselaar holds a PhD from Leiden University (2009). She has worked as a Newton International Fellow at the University of Manchester and as a Nottingham Advanced Research Fellow. Her 2010 book Public land in the Roman Republic: A Social and Economic History of Ager Publicus in Italy, 396–89 BC (Oxford: Oxford University Press) was awarded the James Henry Breasted Prize and the Premio Speciale della Corte Costituzionale della Repubblica italiana. Her research interests are the social, economic, and legal history of the Roman Republic, as well as issues of citizenship and integration in the Roman world in general.
Turan Takaoğlu received his PhD in archaeology from Boston University in 2000. He is currently Professor of Aegean and Anatolian Archaeology at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Turkey. He excavated the prehistoric settlement at Gülpınar (Smintheion) in the coastal Troad between 2004 and 2014. He is currently investigating the Iron Age cemetery on the island of Tenedos. His research focuses on production and exchange systems, technological organization, and ethnoarchaeology. He edited four volumes of books entitled Ethnoarchaeological Investigations in Rural Anatolia between 2004 and 2007.
D. Alex Walthall is Assistant Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Texas at Austin. He earned his PhD from Princeton University in 2013. Alex specializes in the material culture of the Hellenistic Mediterranean and in the archaeology of ancient Sicily. Since 2013, Alex has directed the American Excavations at Morgantina: Contrada Agnese Project (CAP), a long‐term research and excavation project at the archaeological site of Morgantina in central Sicily. He has published articles in multiple journals, including Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, American Journal of Numismatics, and Fasti On Line Documents & Research, on topics ranging from Classical Greek coinage to the agricultural administration of Hellenistic kingdoms.
Yijie Zhuang is a senior lecturer in Chinese Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. He obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2013. His main research interests are water management histories and agricultural ecologies and how these were related to social evolution in the ancient worlds. He has conducted fieldwork in China, India, Cambodia, and Madagascar. His recent edited volume is on Water Societies and Technologies from the Past and Present (2018, open access).
Julien Zurbach is Associate Professor of Ancient Greek history at the ENS, Paris, affiliated to UMR 8546 Aoroc and a member of the IUF. His areas of specialization are early Greek economic and social history, and Mycenaean epigraphy and archaeology. He has conducted field projects in Kirrha (Phocis) and Miletus (Ionia). Recent publications include an edited volume, La main d'oeuvre agricole en Méditerranée archaïque (Bordeaux 2015), and a study of land allocation and exploitation, Les hommes, la terre et la dette en Grèce, ca 1400–ca 500 aC (Bordeaux 2017).
CHAPTER ONEIntroduction
David Hollander and Timothy Howe
In 1970, introducing his Roman Farming, K.D. White justly lamented the lack of attention being paid to Greco‐Roman agriculture. Nearly fifty years later, he would presumably be quite pleased with how the field has developed. Beginning in the 1970s (and no doubt in part due to White’s own work), there has been steady growth in the number of monographs and articles on aspects of Greek and Roman agriculture as well as new commentaries on, and translations of, the most important ancient texts. Furthermore, instead of a largely text‐driven approach, ancient agricultural history now employs an array of archaeological evidence (e.g. botanical and faunal remains) and methodologies (e.g. field survey, isotopic analysis). Students of the agricultural history of ancient Italy, to cite one regional example, now have new editions, translations, and commentaries on the fundamental literary texts (e.g. Goujard 1975 for Cato’s De agricultura and Heurgon 1978 for Varro’s Res rusticae), monographs, edited volumes, and articles putting those writers’ works and lives into the broader context of Republican history (e.g. Reay 2005 and many of the chapters in Becker and Terrenato 2012) and literature (e.g. Kronenberg 2009). Archaeologists have published the results of fields surveys, new excavations of rural sites (including exciting recent work on small, non‐elite sites by the Roman Peasant Project, Ghisleni et al. 2011), a synthesis of the survey data (Launaro 2011), a catalog of the villas in central Italy (Marzano 2007), and important overviews (e.g. Forni and Marcone 2002). In the Greek world, archaeological survey in particular has spawned a generation of multidisciplinary studies on the interactions between landscape and people, between rural and urban (Halstead and Frederick 2000; Adam‐Veleni, Poulaki, and Tzanavari 2003; Alcock and Cherry 2004; Bresson 2016).
What accounts for this astonishing development in what many outsiders probably regard as a fairly dry subject? Undoubtedly one cause is the increased interest in the ancient economy. Since ancient economies were overwhelmingly agricultural, the farming sector demands serious attention. Environmental and demographic research as well as growing interest in foodways have also prompted more work on rural life in antiquity. Efforts to better estimate the population of Roman Italy have led, for example, to interest in the land’s carrying capacity and thus more attention to issues of agricultural yields (on modeling Roman production, see Goodchild 2013; for Seleukid Mesopotamia, see Jursa 2010). The need to take stock of all these developments inspired us to develop this Companion, which we hope offers an entrée into a field now so rich in research as to be perhaps somewhat intimidating.
Structure of the Volume
The chapters in Part I of this volume examine fundamental aspects of the study of ancient agriculture: the roles of paleoethnobotany, zooarchaeology, and isotopic analysis as well as the plants and animals themselves. The chapters in Parts II through IV show some of the ways in which agriculture developed over the course of about four thousand years from the Neolithic to the Roman period. We asked the authors of these chapters to discuss their regions’ sources (archaeological and textual); geography, climate, crops, and livestock as well as the agricultural calendar, tools and technology of cultivation, any major political, social and economic aspects of agriculture, and changes in the practice of farming during the period. (The reader will also find guides to further reading at the end of each chapter.) The greater attention paid to regional developments in the Ancient Near East and classical Mediterranean betray, of course, our training but also reflect our desire to help Classicists, Biblical scholars, and other students of the ancient world (broadly construed) understand the agricultural context of early Mediterranean societies. However, knowing the importance of comparative approaches, we have included chapters on ancient India and China. The concluding chapter, by an agricultural historian of the modern United States, is also offered in the hope of greater engagement with the broader field. As its author, Pamela Riney‐Kehrberg, notes, “the agricultural world has not changed as much as we might think.” Of course, we have not been able to include chapters on every period or region even of Greco‐Roman antiquity (nor indeed every useful analytical approach). While we regret the omissions, they also made the project feasible.
The Trajectory of Ancient Agricultural History
We asked our contributors to note important ongoing debates and suggest avenues for future investigation in their areas. While different regions have different stories – both in terms of ancient agricultural developments and modern research trajectories (driven as much by warfare and politics as by academic trends) – similar comments appear across many chapters. In antiquity, changes in ancient agricultural practice often happened slowly, but, as Christophe Chandezon (this volume) puts it, “nothing was ever static.” The biggest challenge to understanding this flux is now probably the mountains of data available to researchers, from literary, epigraphical and papyrological texts, and the results of field survey, to faunal and botanical evidence, as well as the insights offered by palynology, paleopathology, paleoclimatology, dendrochronology, and geology. Integrating all this material is no simple task, and we expect large, collaborative projects to become even more common in the future. There are also, of course, many specialized topics on which further research is needed. In certain areas, more study of particular tools, crops, art, or texts will improve our knowledge of local developments and practices. More excavations of smaller rural sites would be extremely helpful in most regions, and indeed this has been a common refrain throughout the studies collected here.
Six key developments are central to the recent and future development of ancient agricultural history. First, there is the continuing reevaluation of the fundamental ancient texts, particularly the agricultural writers. For the Roman world, one might note the work of Thibodeau (2011) on Virgil or Henderson (2002) on Columella; for Greece that of Edwards (2004) on Hesiod and his world and Pomeroy (1994) on Xenophon; and for the Ancient Near East that of Wunsch (1999; 2000; 2003
