Two Oxen Ahead

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

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