Ancient Greek Region

Ancient Greek oral traditions got geology right

In the first century AD, a Greek geographer and historian named Strabo noted that a peninsula just south of Athens called Piraeus had, at one time in the past, been an island. It's unusual for landforms to change so quickly that humans can take notice, even over generations, so that's a pretty interesting claim. The idea pops up elsewhere in Athenian oral tradition, as well as in the etymology of the name itself ("peran" means "beyond" or "on the other side"), so a group of French and Greek geologists and archaeologists decided to put it to the test.

The group collected sediment cores near Piraeus to infer its paleogeography, and used carbon dating to put the events on a timeline. In the end, Strabo's story checks out. Around 8,000 years ago, Piraeus was a peninsula resembling its current configuration. By 6,000 years ago, continued sea level rise from the end of the last ice age had drowned Piraeus' connection to the mainland, making it a proper island.

Around 4,000 years ago, sediment deposited by the Cephissus and Korydallos rivers had made the region between Piraeus and the mainland into a shallow lagoon separated from the Mediterranean by sandy beach ridges. By the time the Athenian city-state was blossoming, all that sediment had built up a large freshwater marsh, and the Athenian leaders constructed walls to fortify the connection between Athens and Piraeus, which was the location of the city's harbors. The evidence shows that the lagoon was not filled in as part of the construction—the freshwater marsh provided a sufficient land connection.

This all means that Strabo got it right, which is doubly impressive, considering that Piraeus couldn't properly have been called an island more recently than at least a couple thousand years earlier. The researchers provide a couple hypotheses to explain how he did it: either the Athenian oral tradition was simply so good that the knowledge had reliably been passed down all that time, or Strabo was such a skilled geographer that he deduced the fact himself by examining the topography and marshland around Piraeus (assisted, perhaps, by the meaning of the name).

S T R A V A G A N Z A: AGRICULTURE IN ANCIENT GREECE

Farming was difficult in ancient Greece. Much of the country is mountainous, and only about one-fifth of the land can be easily cultivated. Moreover, the soil is generally of poor quality and the climate—with its hot, dry summers—is less than ideal for growing crops. Nevertheless, the ancient Greeks adapted their agriculture to the land and climate of the region. Most of our knowledge of ancient Greek farming has come from literature, archaeology, and art. An early book on agriculture, Hesiod's 'Works and Days', provides valuable details on farm activities, crops, and equipment. Another ancient writer, Xenophon, wrote about different types of land, caring for the land, sowing and harvesting grain, and tending fruit trees. Because of the scarcity of good farmland and the hard work involved in farming, most Greek farms were small. These farms were generally owned and operated by individuals and their families, who sometimes had the help of a few slaves. More fertile regions, such as Thessaly in northern Greece, had larger farms that usually belonged to the estates of wealthy landowners. Many of these owners lived in a town or city and hired overseers to manage their estates. Slaves provided most of the labor on large estates, although free workers were also hired, especially at harvest time. Grapes, figs, and olives thrived in less fertile soils, and they could better withstand the extreme conditions of dryness and drought, which explains their importance in Greek agriculture. Farmers often planted these three crops next to each other, allowing the grapevines to grow up the olive and fig trees. The practice saved precious space and made efficient use of poor soils. Both grapes and olives had secondary uses. Grapes were made into wine, which was sometimes added to drinking water to improve its quality, and olives were pressed to make olive oil, an important export product. Many Greek farmers also had small garden plots where they raised vegetables and herbs for their own use and for selling in nearby towns and city markets. Raising livestock depended on an adequate supply of food for the animals. In regions lacking suitable grazing land, farmers relied upon the other types of feed, such as harvested crops or food scraps from the farmer's table. Sheep and goats, which can survive in the least fertile areas, grazed over wide areas of Greece. The region of Arcadia, in the central part of the Peloponnese*, was known for its shepherds and sheep raising.

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