Agriculture | American Journal of Archaeology

The Archaeology of Olive Oil Production in Roman and Pre-Roman Italy

website — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 22:12:36 +0000

This article provides a comprehensive synthesis and re-evaluation of the archaeological evidence for olive cultivation and oil production across Italy from prehistory through the Roman era. Italy is often neglected in studies of ancient olives and oil, with greater focus given to the eastern Mediterranean or Gaul, Spain, and North Africa. Extant studies on Italian regions fail to capture broader patterns and transregional developments. Scientific advancements, more rigorous sampling strategies, and a rapidly expanding paleoenvironmental and archaeological dataset encourage an updated state of the field. Traditional assumptions regarding the sparse prehistory of olive exploitation prior to Greek or Phoenician contact are challenged by growing paleoenvironmental evidence highlighting Neolithic and Bronze Age activity. This is complemented by indications of pre- and early Roman oil production sites, including perhaps the earliest rotary olive crusher. Substantial Roman-era oil production was not confined to southern Italy but occurred more widely across the peninsula using a diverse range of facilities, including large villas, farms, and rudimentary rural installations. Regional biases remain along with significant gaps in evidence, both geographically (e.g., Sardinia) and in terms of material culture (e.g., a notable scarcity of milling apparatus) compared with other regions.

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Ancient Diet and Agricultural Economy in the Levant: An Archaeobotanical Study

website — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 15:22:09 +0000

This study utilizes archaeobotanical macroremains to explore the impact of integration into the Roman empire on foodways and agriculture in the Levant. Published and unpublished data from 65 sites dating from 1000 BCE to 500 CE are subjected to meta-analysis in order to shed light on patterns according to chronological and social variations. Additional archaeological evidence and literary comparisons are integrated throughout. Results reveal the unique character of consumption patterns in the region. The data reflect a variety of phenomena, including agricultural expansion, shifts in crop choices and cultural preferences, dietary regionalism, and the use of agricultural by-products and alternative fuel sources. Findings ultimately shift the narrative from Roman impact on provincial consumption patterns to instead highlight the importance and influence of local food practices. In bringing the eastern provinces into greater focus, the need for a nuanced approach to ancient foodways is emphasized.

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Archaeobotanical Research in Classical Archaeology

website — Sat, 01 Oct 2022 04:00:00 +0000

The recovery, identification, and analysis of archaeobotanical remains can help address a wide range of archaeological and historical research questions, from foodways, to the agricultural economy, to ritual practice and social identity. This state of the discipline article reviews the application of archaeobotanical techniques to classical archaeology from historical, regional, and thematic perspectives. It also highlights current challenges and limitations in the field of archaeobotany. The article concludes with some suggestions for future directions to improve the practice and outcomes of the discipline. Classicalperiod archaeobotanical research has not yet reached its full potential, and despite facing some internal and external issues, we envision a bright future for both archaeobotanical and classical archaeological research with a greater degree of communication and collaboration between the two fields.

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The Archaeology of Wine Production in Roman and Pre-Roman Italy

website — Fri, 01 Jul 2022 04:00:00 +0000

The world of vinicultural archaeology has expanded exponentially over the past two decades, adding novel discoveries, methodologies, theories, and new archaeological evidence. Despite this, focused regional or site-specific approaches and syntheses dominate scholarship. This article provides an alternate, macroperspective via a comprehensive update and overview of the archaeological evidence for the entire Italian peninsula. When considered as a whole, the sheer quantity of evidence is simply a starting point for future research directions. New data from pre-Roman Italy might suggest localized indigenous winemaking experimentation, contrasting with traditionally dominant east–west colonial diffusionist models. Detailed cataloguing and interpretation of Roman wineries demonstrate that two dominant press types were present simultaneously. Along with these syntheses, previously unpublished evidence is analyzed for the first time, including conspicuous, lavish, and theatrical wine production at the Villa dei Quintili just outside Rome.

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Toward a Definition of Minoan Agropastoral Landscapes: Results of the Survey at Palaikastro (Crete)

website — Sun, 01 Jul 2018 04:00:00 +0000

Agricultural production and the palatial redistribution of staples have played a key role in the debate concerning the emergence of social complexity in Minoan Crete. However, much of the focus has fallen on major settlements where such products were consumed, rather than on the landscape where agricultural surplus was produced. While there is no shortage of landscape surveys on Crete, their emphasis has typically been on the distribution of rural settlements instead of on identifying landscape structures and
arrangements—such as terraces, enclosures, and field systems—that might provide data about a territory’s economic focus. A key aim of the new survey at Palaikastro has been to address this bias. By combining extensive archaeological survey with differential GPS (DGPS) measurements, high-resolution aerial photography, and microrelief generation and analysis, the project has identified hundreds of structures, forming an almost continuous fossilized landscape and providing important clues on landscape management practices. The results highlight the importance of pastoral practices, to which a large part of the landscape was dedicated. Agricultural arrangements were also documented in the form of terraced areas adapted for dryland agriculture and reflecting concerns for soil retention. We argue that a highly structured landscape, indicative of pressures in land use, was established during the Middle and Late Minoan periods across Palaikastro’s territory.

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Chronological Contexts of the Earliest Pottery Neolithic in the South Caucasus: Radiocarbon Dates for Göytepe and Hacı Elamxanlı Tepe, Azerbaijan

aja — Wed, 01 Jul 2015 13:39:45 +0000

Research on the earliest Neolithic in the South Caucasus is still in its early stages. Establishing a solid chronological framework will help determine the timing of the emergence and subsequent development of regional Neolithic societies. This article reports on 46 radiocarbon dates obtained from the two recently excavated Early Pottery Neolithic sites of Göytepe and Hacı Elamxanlı Tepe, the oldest farming villages known to date in West Azerbaijan. Comparing the dates from other related sites demonstrates that several settlements representing the earliest Pottery Neolithic emerged almost simultaneously at the beginning of the sixth millennium B.C.E. in the northern and southern foothills of the Lesser Caucasus Mountains. The lack of evidence for plant cultivation or animal husbandry at earlier sites suggests a foreign origin for agricultural economies in the South Caucasus. However, cultural items characterizing the initial agropastoral communities were not brought to the region as a package. Instead, we suggest that these early farming communities—that is, the Shomutepe-Shulaveri—underwent gradual but significant autochthonous developments likely deriving from the aceramic stage. The chronological framework provided by Göytepe and Hacı Elamxanlı Tepe serves as a reference point for identifying details of early farmers’ cultural developments in the South Caucasus.

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Urbanocentric Models and “Rural Messiness”: A Case Study in the Balikh River Valley, Syria

aja — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 20:32:50 +0000

This article explores the complexity of nonurban and rural landscapes. Using published and unpublished survey data from the Balikh River valley and integrating remotely sensed data sets, such as satellite imagery, I demonstrate that subregional environmental diversity can constrain emerging urban landscapes and result in long-term, stable nonurban and/or rural settlement patterns. Rather than viewing these areas of low occupation density as “backwaters,” I suggest that they reveal divergent settlement trajectories that were crucial components of regional settlement systems.

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The Changing Role of Herding in the Early Iron Age of Crete: Some Implications of Settlement Shift for Economy

aja — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 18:06:46 +0000

Various factors, including disruption in sociopolitical systems at the end of the Aegean Bronze Age and a long gap in the textual record during the Early Iron Age, have led some scholars to hypothesize a degree of change in subsistence strategies—in particular, an increased role for pastoralism—for the latter period. In Crete, a shift of settlement occurs from ca. 1200 B.C. to inaccessible sites, often in mountain or foothill locations, which contrast greatly with the former settlement pattern focused on coastal or large arable zones. The notion of subsistence simplification as an after-effect of systems collapse, together with the perception of Crete’s landscape as traditionally determining specific types of herding, have tempted some to suggest an important role for herding in modeling the EIA economy and/or in explaining the settlement relocation. This article examines in more detail the role herding might have played in Crete’s EIA economy and considers its probable character at this time. The settlement record for EIA Crete as a whole, recently enhanced by new data, forms the basis for this investigation. A case study of EIA settlements located in a mountainous landscape in eastern Crete, along with a review of the most recently published EIA faunal evidence, are used to illustrate the discussion. Particular attention is given to the analysis of large-scale socioeconomic context, because the collapse of previous state systems and the emergence of a new state form within this period have very different implications for herding's role and character.

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Final Neolithic–Early Minoan I/IIA Settlement in the Vrokastro Area, Eastern Crete

aja — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 17:37:45 +0000

This article presents the evidence for the earliest settlement of the Vrokastro region of eastern Crete, derived from systematic survey of this west-central portion of the Gulf of Mirabello coast. The Final Neolithic through Early Minoan I/IIA settlement pattern of the Vrokastro area is analyzed within an environmental framework and an island-wide context. Site size, location, function, chronology, demographics, and possible subsistence strategies are discussed. These data also provide a context for a recent excavation within the Vrokastro survey boundaries (the KARP excavation in Istron) that revealed part of a habitation and produced a stratified sequence of EM IB pottery. Resource control is a significant factor in settlement near the coast, and settlement of the interior first occurs near perennial springs and along routes and riverine systems. A network of strategically placed sites in the coastal zone and near the Istron Valley suggests that one important aspect of settlement was defense, and this function endures through EM I. The zones most prized for settlement included the coastal strip and nearby inland valleys; these were magnets for settlement from the earliest occupation of the region. Some few coastal sites may have served as the earliest ports or landing places for this portion of the Gulf of Mirabello coast. Abundant resources, demographic growth, and trade or exchange with other areas of Crete and the Cyclades contribute to an emerging social and economic complexity that gained momentum during EM I. This complexity may also be reflected in the regional settlement system, which can be ranked by size.

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The Olynthus Mill, Its Origin, and Diffusion: Typology and Distribution

aja — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 16:53:51 +0000

The article reviews previous research and present knowledge of the Olynthus mill and attempts to portray its history. The geographical distribution of the device and the regional diversity of subtypes are emphasized. The device varies in shape of hopper and upper stone, method of attachment of lever to upper stone, and in striation patterns. The Olynthus mill originated in the eastern Mediterranean and was diffused westward by Greek settlers but did not penetrate regions where the rotary hand mill already existed, for example, Spain and northern France. The meeting of the two techniques probably led to the development of the Pompeian donkey mill. The rotary hand mill was spread eastward by Roman legions, finally replacing the Olynthus mill in the east.

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