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CAROLYN WILLEKES

Mount Royal University

Agriculture necessitates the domestication of both plants and animals, as agricultural societies are reliant almost entirely on domesticated species. Domestication is the creation of new species from wild specimens as a result of artificial selection by humans. This artificial selection led to the development of biological characteristics that benefited humans, but often meant that the species could not survive without some degree of human management.

The change from a hunter‐gatherer society to an agricultural‐based one was not a quick transition. It began during the shift from the late Epipaleolithic (11000–9000 BCE) to the early Neolithic: evidence for this change is provided by human, animal, and vegetal remains, as well as tools and structures. This agricultural revolution began in the Levant in the tenth millennium, moved to Anatolia by the eighth millennium, and from there to the Greek mainland in the seventh millennium, whence it spread north to the Danube valley and east to southern ITALY, SICILY, and IBERIA. The rise of agriculture did not spell an end to HUNTING and gathering. Instead, foraging and hunting were incorporated into agricultural society. Hunting became a marker of class distinction, particularly in the Greek and Near Eastern worlds.

The earliest domestic crops were barley, emmer wheat, einkorn wheat, lentils, chickpeas, peas, and bitter vetch. These crops were all being cultivated in the Levant by 9000 BCE. The domestication of animals as livestock followed some time later, and by 6000 BCE sheep, goats, CATTLE, and PIGS were being raised in the Levant, creating the mixed subsistence pattern of agriculture. Fruit trees were domesticated much later than cereals and pulses: they were not cultivated until the Chalcolithic (5000–3000), beginning with the date palm and olive; the pomegranate, figs, and the grape vine were not cultivated until the Early Bronze Age.

In the Greek world, the practice of agriculture symbolized the separation between the “civilized” and the “other.” The nomadic populations of the Eurasian steppe epitomized the “other” in this sense. Despite this, sedentary farming communities regularly interacted with these nomadic groups, trading their produce for animal products. This is particularly evident in the Greek colonies around the EUXINE (Black) Sea, who traded with the Scythian tribes. The SCYTHIANS are an excellent example of a culture that practiced different lifestyles: although traditionally considered to be a purely nomadic people, there were nomadic, semi‐nomadic, and sedentary/agricultural tribes, with lifestyle reflecting environmental/climatic conditions (4.17–19).

The tools of ancient agriculture were simple. The wooden plow, called an ard, was used to break up the surface of the soil by producing furrows. Also called a scratch plow, the ard did not turn the soil, but scratched a line in the topsoil, necessary for sowing seeds, killing weeds, and aerating the soil. The plow was typically pulled by two oxen, and the tilling of the soil took place in the autumn. HESIOD (Op. 427–92) provides a detailed description of the plow and how it worked. It is clear that plowing was physically demanding for both man and oxen, and achieving a straight line took strength as well as considerable skill and experience. Depictions of plows frequently occur in the artistic record. For smallholders who could not afford to maintain a pair of oxen, the tools used were the spade and hoe, although the MEDITERRANEAN soil was better suited to the hoe.

The sickle was the main harvesting tool, and the curved blades are regularly found in archaeological contexts. HOMER (Il. 18.550–60) provides one of the most accurate accounts of the grain harvest and use of the sickle. Once harvested, cereal products had to be threshed, the process by which the kernels/seeds were separated from the rest of the plant. This is done on a threshing floor, a paved, circular area bordered by stones. Draught animals were hitched to a central pole and driven around the floor as the grain or corn was thrown under the hooves (Xen. Oec. 18.3–5). The threshing process was followed by winnowing, the purpose of which was to remove the chaff from the grain or corn. This was done by means of a winnowing basket or winnowing shovel. Theophrastus (Hist. pl. 8) provides a detailed botanical analysis of the various crops grown in the Mediterranean region, as well as their sowing and harvesting seasons.

The harvesting of grapes and olives required specialized tools. The harvested grapes were placed in large wicker baskets and transported to a wooden or stone pressing board. The grapes were then put in a basket or wicker sack on top of the pressing board and trodden upon to release the juice, which ran into a container. The grapes could also be put directly into a large vat for treading. The WINE fermented in pithoi before being transferred to amphorai for distribution. Olives were harvested by using long poles to beat the olives from the tree, a process still used in Greece today. The olives were collected in a basket and taken to be crushed in an oil mill, then pressed.

Animals played an important role in agriculture. Our main source for animal husbandry in the Greek world is Aristotle’s Historia Animalium in nine books (second half of the fourth century BCE). Livestock kept by farmers included donkeys, MULES, oxen, goats, sheep, PIGS, and poultry. Beekeeping was also quite common. Rarely were HORSES used for agricultural work. Throughout the Mediterranean and Near East, transhumance was a necessity for the maintenance of large herds, grazing in the highlands during the summer and moving to the lowlands for the winter.

SEE ALSO: Barbarians; Climate; Ethnography; Food; Geology; Meat; Nomads