Agriculture In Ancient Greek Civilization

Societies of the ancient world’s prosperity relied heavily upon their agricultural capabilities. While Rome, Egypt, Greece, and Mesopotamia all learned to adapt to meet their agricultural needs, each ancient society faced different barriers that they would have had to adapt to in order to overcome and become prosperous enough to build strong civilizations. Such barriers included their climates, reliable water sources, and fertile lands.

Founded by the Sumerians, Mesopotamia was a civilization founded in the Middle East around approximately 3,500 BCE in what the modern world today recognizes as most of Iraq, Kuwait, and the eastern parts of Syria between the rivers of the Tigris and Euphrates. The Sumerians built their civilization through

Ancient Greek Civilizations took place in the mountainous regions along the Mediterranean Sea in Eastern Europe. Due to the landscape challenges agricultural prosperity was much more difficult for the ancient society than that of Egypt or Mesopotamia. Approximately only one-fifth of Greece had productive lands for farming. A majority of this agricultural land lied in what was known as Athens, during the Mycenaean era. The lack of land created a high demand and pressure to make the best use of what the Greeks could in fact farm, and those responsibilities for farming feel largely to the private households. Through the development of Greek culture much of the responsibility for faming shifted from citizens to slave labor. Many of the households responsible for farming would have managed fruits trees, vegetables, and nuts, however, they were most successful in growing cereals, olives, and grapes in their Mediterranean climates. To overcome the vast majority of land that was not suitable for crops, Greeks relied heavily on the raising of livestock. Similar to both Mesopotamia and Egypt Ancient Grrek relied on the domestication on livestock such as sheep, goats, pigs, and cattle. Overall, due to the lack of plant based agriculture Greece heavily relied upon Egypt’s exports of grains to meet the demands of their large