Paul Halstead

Two Oxen Ahead

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

This revealing study uses contemporary observational andinterview data to show how careful analysis of recent farmingpractices, and related cultural traditions, in Mediterraneancommunities can enhance our understanding of prehistoric andGreco-Roman societies.

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This revealing study shows how careful analysis of recentfarming practices, and related cultural traditions, in communitiesaround the Mediterranean can enhance our understanding ofprehistoric and Greco-Roman societies.

Includes a wealth of original interview material and data fromfield observation
Provides original approaches to understanding past farmingpractices and their social contexts
Offers a revealing comparative perspective on Mediterraneansocieties' agronomy
Identifies a number of previously unrecorded climate-relatedcontrasts in farming practices, which have important socio-economicsignificance
Explores annual tasks, such as tillage and harvest;inter-annual land management techniques, such as rotation; andintergenerational issues, including capital accumulation

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Wiley & Sons
• 1. Auflage
• Seitenzahl: 384
• Erscheinungstermin: 14. März 2014
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 235mm x 157mm x 25mm
• Gewicht: 640g
• ISBN-13: 9781405192835
• ISBN-10: 1405192836
• Artikelnr.: 39562233

Autorenporträt

Paul Halstead is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Sheffield, UK. He has edited and contributed to numerous publications, including Food, Cuisine and Society in Prehistoric Greece (with John Barrett, 2004), Neolithic Society in Greece (1999), and Bad Year Economics (with John O'Shea, 1989).

Inhaltsangabe

Preface viii Acknowledgments x 1 Introduction: Mediterranean farming
between longue durée and contingency 1 1.1 Fieldwork 3 1.2 Scales of
analysis 8 2 Working the Earth: Tillage and Sowing 11 2.1 Two-oxen
households in Paliambela 14 2.2 Scratching a living in the hills of
Messenia 19 2.3 Tillage time and sowing season from Assiros to Asturias 21
2.4 Juggling with seedcorn 28 2.5 Flexible farmers 31 2.6 Ard, hoe, and
scale of cultivation 33 2.6.1 Ard versus hoe: benefits 33 2.6.2 Ard versus
hoe: costs 47 2.6.3 On balance: hoe or ard, cows or oxen? 55 2.7 Tillage
and sowing in the past 57 3 Harvest Time 67 3.1 Amorgos: from field to
threshing floor 68 3.2 When to reap 71 3.3 What and how to reap 77 3.4
After reaping: Binding, drying, and transporting the harvest 89 3.5 Who and
how many to reap 102 3.6 Harvest ceremonies 112 3.7 Reaping in the past 113
4 Sorting the Wheat from the Chaff 127 4.1 Amorgos: On and after the
threshing floor 127 4.2 Ways of threshing 136 4.3 Ways of winnowing and
coarse sieving 151 4.4 Cleaning for storage and consumption 154 4.5 Storage
157 4.6 Consumption 163 4.7 Questions of scale: Labor and time stress 166
4.8 Threshing floor customs 173 4.9 Crop processing in the past 174 5
Managing the Land: coping with failure and planning for success 191 5.1
Watching the corn grow 191 5.2 Planning for success: Fallowing and rotation
199 5.2.1 Fallowing 199 5.2.2 Crop rotation 201 5.2.3 Fallowing and
rotation in space 206 5.2.4 Hedging bets: Mixed cropping 210 5.3 Planning
for success: Manuring 212 5.3.1 Stall manure 213 5.3.2 Manuring by folded
livestock 226 5.3.3 Manuring by grazing livestock 229 5.4 Planning for
success, mitigating failure: Irrigation 230 5.5 Averting failure: Weeding
233 5.6 Crop husbandry and crop yields 238 5.7 Crop husbandry and yields in
the past 244 6 Family Planning: land, labor and livestock 259 6.1 Clearance
260 6.1.1 Uprooting deciduous woodland in lowland northern Greece 260 6.1.2
Opening up the maquis in southern Greece 264 6.1.3 Shifting
cultivation: From Crete to Asturias 267 6.1.4 Slashing, burning, and
shifting 269 6.2 Long-term improvement: Deep tillage, terracing, and
enclosure 271 6.3 Extending and improving cultivable land: Drainage and
irrigation 277 6.4 Counting the cost of extension and improvement 281 6.5
Subsistence and cash crops 283 6.6 Mixed farming: Livestock 289 6.7 Labor,
land, and livestock: The domestic cycle 295 6.8 Household and community 304
6.9 Land, labor, and livestock in the past 311 7 Homo agronomicus?
Mediterranean Farming, Present and Past 329 7.1 Analogies for the past:
"Matters of fact" and "matters of interest" 330 7.2 Cultural reason 332 7.3
Environmental and technological constraints 336 7.4 Practical reason:
Costs, benefits, and knowledgeable farmers 338 7.5 Ancient farmers:
Knowledgeable and rational? 346 7.6 Farming in the Mediterranean: Analogy
and change 347 Glossary 360 Index 362

Rezensionen

Review copy sent on 06.10.14 to Historia Agraria

Review copy sent on 07.08.14 to Environmental Archaeology

Review copy sent on 30.04.14 to Near Eastern Archaeology

Review copy sent on 26.03.14 to Tijdschrift voor Mediterrane Archeologie

B = Standard Review List

NA review list: (COPIES SENT 23.10.14)

1. American Journal of Archaeology
2. Bryn Mawr Classical Review
3. Classical Journal
4. Classical Bulletin
5. Classical World

UK review list: (COPIES SENT 23.10.14)

1. Antiquity
2. Journal of Hellenic Studies
3. Journal of Roman Studies
4. Environmental Archaeology
5. Rural History
6. Agricultural History Review

(NOT SENT, no unsolicted reviews)
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology
Reference Reviews