This research theme focuses on the role of farming regimes, agricultural practices, labour mobilization, production of secondary products, and land management and use during the second millennium in the Eastern Mediterranean and specifically in the Aegean, Crete and mainland Greece, at a time when the first complex societies formed. Social and economic changes are approached through evidence of surplus production and storage, intensification and specialisation in agricultural practices, labour mobilisation and the production of cash crops. Case studies include sites from Mycenaean and Minoan regions, with a combination of archaeobotany and isotope analyses to specific sites.
Relevant Publications
Henkel, C. and E. Margaritis. Submitted “Plant Remains from the Fetish Shrine: Aspects of Ritual Food Offerings from Late Bronze Age Crete.” In A. Kanta (ed), The Religious Center of the City of Knossos; Volume 1: The Fetish Shrine. Philadelphia: INSTAP Academic Press.
Henkel, C. and E. Margaritis. Submitted “Food for Thought: The Archaeobotanical Remains.” In A. Karetsou (ed), Juktas; Volume 1: The MMIII Building Complex (at Alonaki). Philadelphia: INSTAP Academic Press. Revised and Submitted.
Mexi, M., Douni, K. Margaritis, E. and Hadjikoumis, A. in press. The Study and Reconstruction of Food Production and Processing Practices in Early Bronze Age Koropi, Attica, in Papadimitriou N., Wright J.C., Fachard S, Polychronakou-Sgouritsa N., Andrikou E. (eds) 2020. Athens and Attica in Prehistory. Proceedings of the International Conference held in Athens, 27-31 May 2015, Oxford: Archaeopress.
Henkel, C., Kofel, D. and Margaritis, E. in press. Plant deposition in the House Tombs of Petras, in Tsipopoulou, M. (ed.), The House Tombs 2, 4 and 10 from Petras, Institute for Aegean Prehistory Monographs, Philadelphia Academic Press.
Margaritis, E., 2017a. The archaeobotanical remains, in: Apostolakou, V., Brogan, T. and Betancourt, P.P. (eds), The Alatzomouri Rock Shelter. An Early Minoan III Deposit in East Crete, Prehistory Monographs 58, INSTAP Academic Press, Philadelphia, 89-95.
Vetters, M., Brysbaert, A., Ntinou, M., Tsartsidou, G. and Margaritis, E. 2016. People and plants: conscious choices or socio-economic necessities? A contextual archaeobotanical, anthracological and phytolith approach to Tiryns’s least visible remains. Opuscula Atheniensis, 93-132.
Watrous, D.V, Buell, M. McEnroe, J.C., Younger, J.G., Turner, L.A. Kunkel, B.S. Glowacki, K., Gallimore, Angus Smith, S., Pantou, Anne Chapin, P.A., and E. Margaritis. 2015, ‘Excavations at Gournia, 2010-2012, Hesperia 84, 3, pp. 397-465.
Brogan, T., C. Sofianou, J. Morrison, D. Mylona, and E. Margaritis 2014. Living off the fruits of the sea: new evidence for dining at Papadiokampos, Crete, in Subsistence, Economy and Society in the Greek World, Voutsaki, S. and Valamoti, T. (eds.), Peeters, Leuven, 123-132.
Margaritis, E. 2014. Acts of destruction and acts of preservation: plants in the ritual landscape of Prehistoric Greece, in G. TOUCHAIS, R. LAFFINEUR, F. ROUGEMONT, H. PROCOPIOU, S. ANDREOU (eds.), PHYSIS. L’environnement naturel et la relation homme-milieu dans le monde égéen protohistorique. Actes de la 14e Rencontre Égéenne Internationale, Paris, Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art, 11-14 Décembre 2012, Peeters, Leuven-Liege, Aegaeum 37, 279-285.
PHILIPPA-TOUCHAIS, A., G. TOUCHAIS, G.O. DECAVALLAS, A. GARDEISEN, M. GHILARDI, E. MARGARITIS, S. TRIANTAFYLLOU & E. TSIOLAKI 2014. Environnement, alimentation, hygiène et mode de vie dans la Grèce mésohelladique: le cas de l’Aspis d’Argos, in G. TOUCHAIS, R. LAFFINEUR, F. ROUGEMONT, H. PROCOPIOU, S. ANDREOU (eds.), PHYSIS. L’environnement naturel et la relation homme-milieu dans le monde égéen protohistorique. Actes de la 14e Rencontre Égéenne Internationale, Paris, Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art, 11-14 Décembre 2012, Peeters, Leuven-Liege, Aegaeum 37, 531-538.
Margaritis, E., Demakopoulou, K. and Schallin, A.L. 2014. The archaeobotanical samples from Midea: agricultural choices in the Mycenaean Argolid, in G. TOUCHAIS, R. LAFFINEUR, F. ROUGEMONT, H. PROCOPIOU, S. ANDREOU (eds.), PHYSIS. L’environnement naturel et la relation homme-milieu dans le monde égéen protohistorique. Actes de la 14e Rencontre Égéenne Internationale, Paris, Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art, 11-14 Décembre 2012, Aegaeum 37, Peeters, Leuven-Liege, 271-276.
Μargaritis, E. 2013a. Foodstuffs, fruit tree cultivation and occupation patterns at Dhaskalio, in Colin Renfrew et al. (eds.), The Sanctuary at Keros and the Origins of Aegean Cult Practice: Excavations at Dhaskalio and Dhaskalio Kavos, Keros 2006 – 2008, Vol. I. McDonald Institute Series, Cambridge, 389-404.
MARGARITIS, E. 2013b. Arboriculture in the dawn of the Bronze Age in Crete, in P.P. BETANCOURT (ed.) Aphrodite’s Kephali: An Early Minoan I Defensive Site in Eastern Crete, Philadelphia: INSTAP Academic Press, 111-115.