Bronze to iron: agricultural systems and political structures in late bronze age and early iron age Greece

This paper surveys farming practices and their associated administrative structures in Mycenaean Greece, and outlines the kinds of changes which might have occurred in regional farming systems during the dark ages. It is postulated that the underlying subsistence basis of Greek agriculture remained substantially the same, although the structural position of élites in regional agrarian economies (as well as the constitution of élite groups) may have changed considerably. The type and degree of changes that occurred during the dark ages in any particular region seem to correlate with their earlier relationships to Mycenaean palace centres.