Ancient Greek Agricultural Practices and Society: Isotopic Evidence in Context at Zagora (Andros) and Argilos (Macedonia)

Abstract

This dissertation seeks to advance current understandings of agricultural practices and social organisation in the Aegean during the first millennium BCE. Its aims are addressed through the analyses of the stable carbon, nitrogen and oxygen isotopic composition of faunal material from Early Iron Age Zagora on Andros (ca. 900-700 BCE) and from Archaic-Classical period Argilos in Macedonia (ca. 650-357 BCE), a city which was founded by colonists from Andros. Combining evidence from agriculture and archaeology, this study also attempts to reconstruct socio-economic structure at Zagora. As one of the best preserved Early Iron Age settlements in Greece, Zagora can provide valuable insight into social organisation during this pivotal period of Greek history. Eleven bone samples from Zagora were also submitted for radiocarbon analysis to refine the settlement’s chronology and contribute to the wider scholarly debate on Mediterranean Iron Age chronology. The results suggest that farmers at Zagora and Argilos generally exploited the natural environment available to them, with temporal, environmental and socio-economic factors accounting for the differences in animal management practices between the two settlements. At Zagora, those households with archaeological remains signifying lower relative wealth also exhibit isotopic evidence for land-limited grazing and/or farming, further supporting suggestions for the existence of socio-economic differentiation in Greece at the time. Radiocarbon dates from Zagora reinforce arguments for a higher Mediterranean Iron Age chronology that more than triples the length of the final phase at Zagora, explaining the population growth and intensification of agriculture here at this time as a more gradual process than previously believed.