Animal husbandry in Classical and Hellenistic Thessaly (Central Greece): A zooarchaeological perspective from Almiros

Abstract

Abstract Scholars have been arguing about the nature and scale of Greco-Roman economy in mainland Greece for over fifty years. In this study we investigate the faunal assemblages of Magoula Plataniotiki and New Halos, two neighbouring Classical and Hellenistic towns in Almiros (Thessaly, Greece) to scrutinize how the animal economy functioned in central Greece between fourth and third century BCE, using traditional zooarchaeology. The results indicate an apparently stable subsistence economy, primarily based on caprine production, in addition to cattle, pig, and equid breeding. The establishment of New Halos brought about minor changes to the traditional herding and provisioning system; husbandry strategies remained apparently stable, whereas the contribution of game to the diet increased. The intensification of environmental exploitation, due to demographic nucleation in the plain, might have triggered such changes. The surprising underrepresentation of pig in New Halos suggests pork consumption on a non-household level. Zooarchaeological studies from various contemporary sites in Greece show similar patterns suggestive of small-scale subsistence economy. Geopolitical and environmental factors and tradition might have halted the integration of the Almiros markets into the larger market of the Hellenistic world. This study proposes an economic model where small-scale animal and plant husbandry practiced side by side that fits the agro-pastoral model of the ancient Greek economy suggested by Halstead and Hodkinson among others.