Two oxen ahead : pre-mechanized farming in the Mediterranean / Paul Halstead.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Introduction : Mediterranean farming between longue durée and contingency -- Fieldwork -- Scales of analysis -- 2. Working the Earth : Tillage and Sowing -- Two-oxen households in Paliambela -- Scratching a living in the hills of Messenia -- Tillage time and sowing season from Assiros to Asturias -- Juggling with seedcorn -- Flexible farmers -- Ard, hoe, and scale of cultivation -- Tillage and sowing in the past -- 3. Harvest Time -- Amorgos : from field to threshing floor -- When to reap -- What and how to reap -- After reaping: Binding, drying, and transporting the harvest -- Who and how many to reap -- Harvest ceremonies -- Reaping in the past -- 4. Sorting the Wheat from the Chaff -- Amorgos : On and after the threshing floor -- Ways of threshing -- Ways of winnowing and coarse sieving -- Cleaning for storage and consumption -- Storage -- Consumption -- Questions of scale : Labor and time stress -- Threshing floor customs -- Crop processing in the past -- 5. Managing the Land : coping with failure and planning for success -- Watching the corn grow --Planning for success: Fallowing and rotation -- Planning for success : Manuring -- Planning for success, mitigating failure : Irrigation -- Averting failure : Weeding -- Crop husbandry and crop yields -- Crop husbandry and yields in the past -- 6. Family Planning : land, labor and livestock -- Clearance -- Long-term improvement : Deep tillage, terracing, and enclosure -- Extending and improving cultivable land : Drainage and irrigation -- Counting the cost of extension and improvement -- Subsistence and cash crops -- Mixed farming: Livestock -- Labor, land, and livestock : The domestic cycle -- Household and community -- Land, labor, and livestock in the past --7. Homo agronomicus? Mediterranean Farming, Present and Past -- Analogies for the past : "Matters of fact" and "matters of interest" -- Cultural reason -- Environmental and technological constraints -- Practical reason: Costs, benefits, and knowledgeable farmers -- Ancient farmers: Knowledgeable and rational? -- Farming in the Mediterranean: Analogy and change.

"This revealing study shows how careful analysis of recent farming practices, and related cultural traditions, in communities around the Mediterranean can enhance our understanding of prehistoric and Greco-Roman societies. Includes a wealth of original interview material and data from field observation Provides original approaches to understanding past farming practices and their social contexts Offers a revealing comparative perspective on Mediterranean societies' agronomy Identifies a number of previously unrecorded climate-related contrasts in farming practices, which have important socio-economic significance Explores annual tasks, such as tillage and harvest ; inter-annual land management techniques, such as rotation ; and intergenerational issues, including capital accumulation "--

"Explores annual tasks, such as tillage and harvest ; inter-annual land management techniques, such as rotation ; and intergenerational issues, including capital accumulation"-- Provided by publisher.