Rural production and land use at Iron Age Clazomenae, Ionia

Abstract

We present new evidence for the nature of agricultural production and land use in the Iron Age Aegean through archaeobotanical remains recovered from the site of Clazomenae in Ionia, western Anatolia. The spectrum of crops and wild resources utilised at the site largely conforms to those recorded elsewhere in the Iron Age Aegean but includes rare finds of caper and sloe that support their status as likely foodstuffs in the region. High proportions of barley from the site prior to the Archaic period align with other assemblages in western Anatolia to reflect a crop signature distinct from neighbouring regions. We suggest that a shift towards free-threshing wheat in the Archaic period may result from an increase in rural settlement and more intensive cultivation of the landscape. Nut and fruit remains align with zooarchaeological evidence attesting to the importance of upland forests as a natural resource within the hinterlands of the site. This is harmonious with a localised model of farming and land use within the Iron Age Aegean, although some value-added products are likely to have been traded across maritime exchange networks.