Farming

Mainland Greece is a mountainous country, and ancient Greek society was shaped by the scarcity of farmland. Individuals owning land in the plains tended to be much richer and more elevated socially than those who farmed the foothills. Hilly terrain dictated cultivation of olive trees, grape vines, and other fruit-bearing plants that thrive on rough ground.

The social upheavals of the Dark Age and years following (circa 1100-700 BC) saw the emergence of smaller holdings, owned by nobles, yeomen, or poor subsistence farmers. Developments in metallurgy brought an improved plowshare, tipped With iron rather than bronze (circa 1050 BC). By the start of the historical era (750 BC, Mycenaean-style ranches survived mainly on the plains of Thessaly; elsewhere, a more efficient use of the land arose in the raising of crops.

The primary Greek farm crops were grain, olives, grapes (mainly for wine-making); other fruits such as apples, pears, figs, and pomegranates; and beans and other greens. Barley was the most common grain grown in mainland Greece, but by the 400's BC imports of Ukrainian and Sicilian wheat were displacing barley on the market at many cities. Millet was grown for fodder. Flax was grown for weaving into linen. The ancient Greeks knew about cotton, which was cultivated in Egypt but could not be grown easily on Greek terrain.

Crucial to the ancient Greek economy was olive cultivation, which in the Aegean dates back at least to the Minoan era (circa 2000 BC). Eventually the Greeks had more than 25 varieties of olive; they used olive oil for cooking, washing, lamp fuel, religious devotions, and as a treatment for athletes. Olive oil was a principal export of the city of Athens, where the olive tree was honoured in myth as the goddess Athena's gift to the city.

Early Creek farmers had to let a field lie fallow every other year (or sometimes two years for each one cultivated), so the soil could replenish its nutrients. But by circa 400 BC the Greeks had discovered the much more productive method of raising different crops in annual rotation on the same land. The Greeks did their plowing and grain-sowing in October, at the start of the rainy season. In order to plow a field, a farmer would guide a wooden rig behind a pair of yoked oxen. (Ancient Greek horse breeds were too small for draft, aside from pulling chariots.) Plowing was hard work: Unlike the much-improved plowshare of medieval northern Europe, the ancient Greek tool did not turn the soil but only scratched the surface, and the plowman had to keep pushing the blade into the earth as he proceeded.

Grain grew through the relatively mild Greek winter and was harvested in May. During the parching Greek summer the crop was winnowed and stored. September brought a second harvest of grapes, olives, and other fruit.