The Ancient Greek Farmstead

McHugh, Maeve

doi:10.2307/j.ctvh1dsmr

Cited by 29 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…islands) residence is not wholly reliant on social and agricultural regimes (Osborne 1987, 68–9). See discussion of the debate in McHugh 2017, 27–33.…”

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confidence: 99%

Going the Extra Mile: Travel, Time and Distance in Classical Attica

McHugh

2019

Annu. Br. Sch. Athens

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The aim of this paper is to explore the physical connectivity of Attica by examining the realities of travel for Athenians wishing to engage with wider civic, social, economic and cultic institutions. This will be achieved by focussing upon the practicalities of short-, medium- and long-distance travel with the aim of differentiating aspects, modes and reasons for travel. This investigation will be realised through a series of computational scenarios created on the basis of a combination of ancient and nineteenth-century accounts of journeys through Attica along with the archaeological evidence of the Athenian road system. The results of this study shed light upon the constraints on, and opportunities for, participation in wider practices and the experience of travel for the individual traveller. Recent studies have shown there were many spaces in Attica that provided opportunities for Athenians to come together, to interact with each other and participate in civic, ritual and social institutions. The ultimate conclusions of this study will help to illustrate the fundamental connectivity and active engagement of the traveller with the Athenian landscape.

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“…islands) residence is not wholly reliant on social and agricultural regimes (Osborne 1987, 68–9). See discussion of the debate in McHugh 2017, 27–33.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Going the Extra Mile: Travel, Time and Distance in Classical Attica

McHugh

2019

Annu. Br. Sch. Athens

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“…For the latter period, we might consider a lower range of smaller farmsteads, since we can expect larger estates owned by the aristocracy [9]. Information about farm sizes and infrastructure provided by archaeological (e.g., [9,[103][104][105]) and historical (e.g., [85,90,91,106]) records can be integrated with the estimated farming population as well as further environmental evaluation. This would allow one to estimate farmstead/estate quantities and to model their spatial distribution.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Much Is Enough? First Steps to a Social Ecology of the Pergamon Microregion

Laabs

Knitter

2021

Land

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In this study, we present a transparent and reproducible approach to model agricultural production with respect to environmental characteristics and available labour. Our research focuses on the city of Pergamon and its surroundings, with an emphasis on the transition between the Hellenistic and Roman Imperial Period, where widespread demographic changes took place. We investigated the degree of local self-sufficiency using different concepts of a city’s complementary region. Using simple topographic derivatives, we derive a measure of environmental suitability that we translate into a carrying capacity index. Our results show that workforce was not a limiting factor for local self-sufficiency. However, environmental carrying capacity may have been limiting in a scenario with a large population. An active investment into the environment, e.g., by the construction of terraces, could have helped to increase the degree of self-sufficiency. Future research should investigate the level of resilience of such a coupled socio-ecological system in relation to environmental and socio-cultural dynamics.

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“…36 Productivity was improved using more intensive methods, whether weeding, handtilling and terracing in a biennial fallow system, or interplanting, integrated animal husbandry and market gardening in a regime of rotating cereals with pulses. Exact agricultural practice was almost certainly highly variable, 37 but intensification is associated with population pressure in densely settled regions like Attica. The need to invest more time and energy, and perhaps to supplement yields through craft or off-farm labour, was greatest for the significant minority with fewer than 40 plethra.…”

Section: The Jurymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Rates of Jury Pay and Assembly Pay in Fourth-Century Athens

Sing¹

2021

The Class. Q.

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During the fourth century, the amount of money Athenians got from the polis for volunteering to sit on a jury and for attending the assembly diverged significantly. Jury pay remained at 3 obols a day, despite inflation, while the pay given for a principal (kyria) assembly eventually rose from 1 obol to 9 obols—outpacing inflation and overcompensating most citizens for their time. What demographic reconstruction of the jury can explain why the real value of jury pay never declined to the point that too few Athenians volunteered? Self-reliant citizens (penêtes) must have dominated the jury pool, and penêtes with young adult children would have volunteered most often. Having an additional source of household labour reduced the opportunity cost of jury service for these Athenians and made their participation more resilient in the face of the declining value of pay. Citizens who faced greater opportunity costs probably participated less over time, meaning that fourth-century juries gradually became less diverse. By contrast, the growth in assembly pay can best be understood in terms of the ‘Lycurgan’ agenda of the 330s and the 320s. Greater pay helped to ensure that the assembly's newly expanded meeting place on the Pnyx was filled to capacity with citizens from all over Attica. The result was a massive spectacle that celebrated a threatened democracy and stimulated the polis economy. Since the courts lacked the same capacity for spectacle, there was no political motivation to pay jurors more.

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The Ancient Greek Farmstead

Cited by 29 publications

References 4 publications

Going the Extra Mile: Travel, Time and Distance in Classical Attica

Going the Extra Mile: Travel, Time and Distance in Classical Attica

How Much Is Enough? First Steps to a Social Ecology of the Pergamon Microregion

The Rates of Jury Pay and Assembly Pay in Fourth-Century Athens

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