Technology of Olbian arable farming. Statement of a problem
Journal Title: Eminak - Year 2016, Vol 0, Issue 4
Abstract
The present article focuses on the agricultural technologies adopted in the Olbian chora in the 6th through 3rd centuries before CE, offering an analysis of archaeological, archaeobotanical and ethnographic data. The author considers the possibility that Olbian agriculture might have had more advanced technology than was believed previously. There is evidence that the lands of Olbian chora were delimitated, indicating that agricultural technology of the Classical Antiquity was advanced. Evidently, the absence of traces of large-scale delimitations in the Olbian chora, which were not discovered until recently, led many scholars to believe that local residents practiced shifting cultivation. There has been evidence of delimitation around Olbia for quite a while, but relatively recently satellite imagery allowed to conclusively prove that the Olbian chora was delimitated not partly but in its entirety.It is rather hard to establish whether the most advanced technologies of ancient agriculture (namely, ley farming and crop rotation farming) were adopted in Olbia. We have only circumstantial evidence to rely on. Crop rotation farming featured the rotation of leguminous and forage crops. The remains of a forage crop known as bitter vetch (Vicia ervilia) are quite often found on the territory of the Olbian state. Judging by the fact that almost a ton of this crop’s remains was discovered in Phanagoria, it was cultivated on the Northern Black Sea Coast as a field culture. Legumes (lentils and peas) are also found fairly regularly. However, at present it seems more likely that Olbia residents practiced mixed or ley farming rather than crop rotation. Some scholars believe that mixed farming, when fallow fields are used for grazing, was rather common during the Antiquity.
Authors and Affiliations
Alexander Odrin
Keywords
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