Tours: Wheat and Agriculture

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See how Ancient Greeks gew and cultivated one of the most important parts of their diet.

Opening RemarksGrowingPlowingHarvestingLivestock FarmingToolsGrindingMaking FlourStoring and TransportationClosing Remarks

• Markos: Greets, my friend! Welcome to Arkadia, home of shepherds, sheep and shi — er, manure.

("Who are you?")

("What do you think of this place?")

• Markos: I recently made an offer to buy some nearby farmland. Unfortunately, the owner refused based on completely unsubstantiated rumors that I once burned down three farms in Kos. Can you believe it? I've never burned down a farm in my life! I may have once paid someone to do so, but I assure you my reasons were entirely acceptable and in the best interest of everyone involved.

("Let's begin the tour.")

• Markos: Arkadia was well-known for its sublime natural vistas. Farmers and shepherds were seduced by its beauty, and it's easy to see why! I have to leave for now, but I'll meet you again when you finish your visit. Until then, my friend!

Ear of barley on a stater of Metapontion in Lucania / 530-510 BCE (Archaic Greece)

Grain was a staple of the Greek diet, to the point where Homer referred to his compatriots as "mortal eaters of bread".

Grain farming was a meticulous process.

Due to dry summers, artificial irrigation was impossible, so farmers had to rely on rainfall to water their crops.

This gave them very narrow windows for sowing and harvesting.

On a farm of this size, only half of the field would be planted every year, while the other half would lie fallow to avoid exhausting the soil.

According to the poet Hesiod, the best time to sow grain was in autumn, and the best time to harvest it was in May. Fortunately, if farmers missed their opportunity, they also had a chance to plant millet in the spring.

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Hesiod was a farmer-turned-poet from the town of Askra in Boeotia. In the 7th century BCE, he composed the Theogony, an epic poem dedicated to telling the origins of the gods.

He also wrote a poem on how to live justly called "Works and Days". The poem included a detailed agrarian calendar that outlined when to plant and harvest, in addition to addressing subjects like the ideal time to marry.

Hesiod's poetry was so famous in Antiquity that Herodotos credits him with teaching the Greeks about their gods.

Plowing scene from a black-figure cup attributed to the painter Nicothenes / 530-520 BCE (Archaic Greece)

Before planting in a field, the land needed to be plowed a total of three times:

Once in the spring to remove weeds, again in the summer to aerate the soil, and a final time in the winter to plant the seeds in the moist earth. The plow was pulled by two oxen, while the sowing of seeds was done by hand.

After the seeds were planted, a boy turned the soil with a hoe to protect them from hungry birds.

Once the sowing was finished, the farmers waited for winter rains to irrigate the field.

They also prayed to the goddess of agriculture, Demeter, and her daughter, Persephone, in the hopes of being favored with a bountiful harvest come springtime.

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Demeter, the goddess of grain, was a sister of Zeus. When her daughter Persephone was chosen to be Hades's bride without Demeter's permission, the goddess withheld all crops until Zeus pledged to release Persephone.

Demeter's actions lead to famine, and forced Zeus to relent. He allowed Persephone to spend half the year underground as queen of the underworld, and the other half above ground with her mother.

The story draws parallels to the planting of grain, which also spends time underground before growing from the soil.

Reaper harvesting grain stalks with a sickle, from a coin of Antoninus Pius minted in Alexandria / 141-142 CE (Roman period)

Grain was harvested in the spring using a curved knife called a sickle.

With their backs to the wind, the reapers cut the plants' stalks and left the sheaves behind before moving through the rest of the crop.

Once the harvest was mowed, the sheaves were brought to the threshing floor.

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Animal sacrifices played a large part in Ancient Greek religion, but cereals also had an important sacred role. Alphita, or barley-meal, was brought to animal sacrifices to scatter over both the animal's head, as well as its roasting meat.

The Greeks also offered the gods "bloodless" sacrifices like cakes. The cakes could be baked into specific shapes depending on the god or the type of ritual, and were made with ingredients like cheese, nuts, honey, cereals, and dried fruit. For example, in Athens, people offered the goddess Artemis a special cheesecake known as an amphiphon.

The Greeks also made a point of honoring gods with aparchai, or the "first fruits" of their farming, hunting, and fishing labors. Greeks brought aparchai of wheat and barley to Demeter after the spring harvest in the hopes of ensuring fertility. Failing to honor a god with aparchai was believed to inspire divine anger that would lead to dire consequences.

Shepherd with his flock of goats, scene from a black-figure kyathos / 540 BCE (Archaic Greece)

Animal husbandry was an important part of Greek agriculture.

Farmers usually kept cattle, donkeys, sheep, goats, pigs, dogs, geese, and chickens.

The animals mostly fed in pastures, but could also eat some of the farm's harvested grain, as well as damaged fruit and residue from olive oil and wine production.

Livestock had several purposes. Their manure was used to fertilize the fields, and their grazing helped remove weeds. Arkadia was a mountainous region believed to be the home of the god Pan, so farmers were more likely to keep sheep and goats than cattle.

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Animals were kept on farms both for their labor and for the secondary products they provided.

Much of the heavy labor on the farm was done by oxen and donkeys, who helped pull plows and wagons. Sheep and goats, meanwhile, were kept for meat, but their milk was also used for cheese. Omnivorous pigs ate table scraps, and dogs helped herd and protect other animals.

Cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs were also offered as sacrifices to the gods.

Bronze plow / 1st-5th cent. CE (Roman period)

Most farming tools were simple handmade implements made of wood, and occasionally tipped with iron.

The most complicated tool was the plow, which was made up of several parts, including a beam, a drawbar, and a yoke.

A two-pronged hoe, meanwhile, was used for tilling soil, and farmers also had tools for digging and weeding.

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In Athens, land-tenure and productivity were reflected in a citizen's political and social status. Citizens were ranked according to property classes, with the top tier owning holdings that produced a minimum of 500 bushels per year, and the lowest tier owning no land of their own.

In Sparta, meanwhile, land was distributed equally among Spartan citizens, who were supported by the crop farming of their helots.

Threshing the grain in Naxos, photography by Eli Lotar and Elisabeth Makovska / 1936

After the sheaves were harvested, workers brought them to the threshing floor to extract the grain.

Oxen or donkeys were hitched to a post in the center of the floor and guided around it, while workers threw sheaves under their hooves.

The animals' stomping forced the grain kernels out of their casings.

Afterwards, the kernels were collected for the winnowing process.

Winnowing helped separate the heavier grain seeds from the chaff.

It began with using a wooden shovel to toss the grain.

While in the air, the wind blew away the lighter chaff, leaving only the heavier grain.

To remove the remaining chaff, the grain was tossed in a wooden basket called a liknon. which filtered the grain until only clean kernels remained.

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The Greeks used grain products to make a large variety of food and beverages.

A coarse barley-meal called alphita could be sprinkled into water, milk or wine to make a nutritious and occasionally medicinal potion called kykeon. Hippokratic doctors prescribed kykeon laced with pennyroyal to women, and the beverage was also drunk during the initiation rites at the Eleusinian Mysteries, which were held in honor of Demeter and Persephone. Alphita was also used to make a medicinal drink called ptisane.

Krimmon, meanwhile, was a wheat-meal that was used to make bread called krimmatias, while un-milled wheat called amylos was boiled into a starchy pudding with the consistency of jelly. Greeks also knew how to make beer from barley, but unlike the Egyptians, they did not enjoy the drink much, and preferred wine.

Cypriot terracotta figurine of flour-making. Figure on the right is grinding grain, the other figure is using a sieve / 600-480 BCE (Archaic Greece)

Barley, which was used to make flour, was different from other types of grain.

Threshing was not enough to separate the barley from its husk, so instead it was roasted in a specialized tool called a phrygetron.

After the barley was roasted, it was pounded with a mortar and pestle.

The pounded grain was then ground into a meal using either a hand-mill or a hopper mill.

Grinding was boring work, so workers often lightened the mood with a mill song.

Once the barley was completely ground, it was sieved using a wicker basket called a koskinon, making it ready for use.

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The two staple grains of the Greek diet were barley and wheat. In fact, during the Classical period, their diet is thought to have been around 70-75% cereal-based.

Wheat flour called aleuron was used to bake a bread called artos, but the Greeks also kneaded a barley-meal called alphita with water, milk, or oil to produce maza, a porridge or flatbread that could be eaten on the go.

In Sparta, boys ate kammata after their meal, which were cakes of barley-meal soaked in oil and served on a bed of laurel leaves. They also ate pancakes called tiganites for breakfast.

The variety of Greek cakes and breads is astounding. Athenaios listed over seventy kinds in "Sophists at Dinner".

Young man dipping hands in a large pithos, scene from a red-figure cup / 500 BCE (Archaic Greece)

Grain storage areas needed to be dark, dry, cool, contained, and well-ventilated to prevent the grain from spoiling.

According to Hesiod, the preferred method of storing grain was in a pithos, the same container as Pandora's mythological box.

Archaeological evidence suggests that Greeks may have also stored grain in small-walled structures woven from branches.

Farms generally needed to store enough grain to sustain themselves for the year, and seed corn for the next.

Any surplus was either stored for a lean year, or sold to markets for profit.

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Not all land was owned by private individuals. Sanctuaries could encompass sacred land as well. Sacred land could be cultivated by priests, leased out to other people, or set aside entirely.

There were often rules for using the land. For example, strangers visiting the sanctuary of Athena at Alea were allowed to pasture one animal for one day and one night, but if they stayed any longer they were required to pay a fine.

• Markos: My friend, good to see you again! You must feel hungry! I know I would, spending all that time watching farmers working themselves to the bone. Now, what else can I do for you?

("I'm ready for the quiz.") ("Take on the next suggested tour.") ("Take me on a random tour.") ([LEAVE] "That's all for now.")

• Markos: Safe travels, my friend! We'd better be seeing each other again soon.