Www.WorldHistory.Biz
Login *:
Password *:
     Register

 

18-08-2015, 06:41

Ordered Landscapes: Land Division and Land Holdings

From at least the eighth century BCE Greeks imprinted their culture on the landscapes they occupied by measuring out land into ordered plots. Although many of the best-known examples are ‘colonial’ cities, the phenomenon appears in old Greece as well. Sometimes these land divisions are visible on the ground, as in the countryside of Metapontion in southern Italy (Carter 1990). Sometimes they are revealed by archaeologists as the framework for urban landscapes, as at Megara Hyblaia and Selinous in Sicily, or Halieis in the southern Argolid (Figure 13.1 a-d). Even in an urban setting land divisions may have been inspired by rural principles and practical-


Ordered Landscapes: Land Division and Land Holdings

Figure 13.1a Urban and rural land division: Metapontion.


Ordered Landscapes: Land Division and Land Holdings

Ities: the earliest land divisions at both Megara Hyblaia (eighth century) and Halieis (sixth century) result in plots of about the right size for a day’s ploughing. This suggests that these structured landscapes may originally have been intended as plots for farming rather than as part of an urban planning scheme (Foxhall 2003: 86-8).



Frequently, land divisions are understood by modern scholars to imply equality of land holdings (at least at some point in the city’s past) as part of the egalitarian ethos of the polis community (Morris 1994: 362-5; Hanson 1999: 182, 186-96). This is most probably a mistake. Most Greek cities were not democratic and even in those that were, political egalitarianism certainly did not imply economic equality, as is well attested in classical Athens. Land was bought, sold, rented and leased in classical cities, but most people probably acquired most of their land through inheritance. Although there were many minor variations in inheritance customs, partible inheritance was practised throughout Greece. This means that sons inherited equal shares of their father’s estate. How women fared was more variable, but generally they received


Ordered Landscapes: Land Division and Land Holdings

Figure 13.1c Urban and rural land division: Selinous.



Smaller portions of the patrimony than the sons, often as dowry at marriage. If land were divided among siblings every generation, a man’s holdings would almost inevitably consist of a collection of small plots scattered around the countryside, rather than a single, contiguous ‘farm’. It is also likely that most people owned plots of land close to those of relatives, especially brothers or cousins. These plots did not necessarily become infinitely smaller over time: they might be ‘rationalized’ to some extent by selling land in less convenient locations or recombining plots by acquiring neighbouring ones. Similar traditions of partible inheritance fragmenting plots have persisted in many parts of Greece and elsewhere in the Mediterranean up to the present day (Figure 13.2). At Metapontion there may be archaeological evidence for the sub-division of plots (Carter 1990). Therefore what appear to be equal-sized plots in systems of land division do not automatically imply equal-sized holdings, since a single landholder might have possessed more than one plot or small fragments of plots.


Ordered Landscapes: Land Division and Land HoldingsOrdered Landscapes: Land Division and Land Holdings

Figure 13.2 Methana, Greece: several families ploughing plots of vines in the 1970s. Here there are no visible field boundaries, but what appears to be a single large area of vines is actually divided into small plots owned by many different households.



Inevitably, the land holdings of wealthy farmers are far better attested than those of small-scale farmers. One of our most important documents for demonstrating the scattered land holdings of rich men is the so-called ‘Attic Stelai’ of fifth-century Athens. This is a series of Athenian inscriptions {IG13 420-430; Amyx 1958; Pritchett 1956) published by the poletai, the magistrates responsible for selling property confiscated by the state. The reason for full publication of their records on this occasion was the political and religious controversy surrounding those accused of mutilating the herms just before Athens’ expedition to conquer Sicily embarked in 415, and subsequently accused of parodying the Eleusinian Mysteries {Thuc. 6.27-9, 60-1). Some of Athens’ wealthiest and most eminent citizens and metics were implicated in these scandals, and their property was confiscated by the state and sold at auction. The ‘Attic Stelai’ contain inventories of the property sold and the price fetched at auction.. However, the culprits had ample warning of their impending arrest and most appear to have disposed of or hidden as much of their property as possible before they fled Attika. It is likely therefore that the preserved lists represent only the relatively worthless items or property which they could not hide, not the full extent of their estates. Even so, it is possible to catch a glimpse of the wide range of agricultural and other property which a wealthy citizen might own, and its geographical spread.



Figures 13.3 and 13.4 show the property listed in the ‘Attic Stelai’ under the names of two different men, Adeimantos son of Leukolophides of Skambonidai and Axio-chos son of Alkibiades of Skambonidai. Adeimantos owned land in at least two different parts of Attika, and it appears to have been divided into a minimum of six different plots. He also owned land abroad in Thasos, which itself may well have been divided into smaller plots. Axiochos owned land in at least seven different places in Attika {and some of these holdings must have consisted of several separate plots), as well as land overseas in Abydos, Klazomenai and elsewhere. However imperfect our knowledge of the full range of their property, it is clear that in both of these estates, agricultural land and enterprises were extremely important sources of wealth and income for these men, and that the range of their agricultural activities was diverse.



 

html-Link
BB-Link