To reap a rich harvest

In ancient Greece, the harvest was a time of high stress and intense labour, when farmers engaged in continuous work to reap, transport, and process their agricultural yields. For the harvest to be successful, not only did the individual need to be prepared for hard work, but they were reliant on their local agrarian community to offer support and share labour demands. As such, the harvest was an opportunity for workers to experience shared labour and express physically the ideals of hard work, reciprocity, and connectivity. By considering the mechanisms of agriculture in ancient landscapes, along with measuring the physical stress this had on the individual, and the means by which workers could come together to share labour, this article examines the lived experience of ancient farmers during this crucial period of the agricultural calendar, in order to better understand the immaterial aspects of connectivity and community interaction in the ancient countryside

Agrarian society · Agriculture · Archaeology · Business · Economics · Economy · Geography · Order (exchange · Political science · Reciprocity (cultural anthropology · Rural area · Social science · Sociology · Work (physics · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History · Ancient Near East History · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Engineering · Law

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