It has long been recognised that the Linear B archives from the Mycenaean palaces of Late Bronze Age Greece document ‘a massive redistributive operation, in which all personnel and all activities, all movements of both persons and goods … were administratively fixed’. Goods, land and services were transferred within the extensive territory of each palace without the equivalences of value between commodities which are a prerequisite of market exchange. The transactions recorded in the Linear B archives are thus unambiguously ‘redistributive’, an Aegean variant of a form of exchange widespread in the ancient civilisations, and as such have attracted the interest both of economic historians and of prehistorians concerned with the development of complex society. The term ‘redistribution’ embraces a range of possible forms, however, and in the case of the Mycenaean palaces poses a number of questions.

The burnt sacrifice of bare (defleshed) bones, described in Homer's Odyssey and well documented from Archaic and Classical Greece, is now clearly attested by burnt faunal remains from the ‘Palace of Nestor’ at Mycenaean Pylos. This evidance is of great importance for understanding both the historical role of sacrifice in Greek religion and the significance of fensting in Mycenaean palatial society.

A question of broad economic and social significance is the extent to which farming in prehistoric times, and perhaps even in historical times, was characterised by cultivation on a small scale and with intensive methods. Archaeobotanically, a distinction may be possible between intensive and extensive cultivation on the basis of the weed seeds associated with ancient grain samples. To this end, an ecological study was carried out in central Ewia of the weeds of winter-sown pulses grown both intensively in gardens and extensively in fields. The recorded weed flora was demonstrably influenced by relevant husbandry variables, such as method of tillage (with hoe or plough), weeding, manuring and soil organic content. The closest correspondence, however, was with the size, type and location of cultivated plots, suggesting that the weed flora was determined by a combination of these husbandry variables. In conclusion, the potential is briefly discussed of disentangling these variables for application in an archacobotanical context.

According to Linear B texts from Knossos, the sheep which the palace kept for wool were far too numerous to have been reared from recorded flocks of breeding ewes. The wool flocks are dominated by castrated males (wethers) but also include ewes, yearlings, old sheep and ‘deficits’. Following Killen, deficits often occur as round numbers and so represent sheep not returned to the palace rather than losses through natural deaths. Moreover, most flocks have no deficits, implying that inevitable losses were made up by the herders to whom the flocks were entrusted. This paper examines the association of different categories of sheep among the wool flocks and the nature of legible amendments to texts. It is argued that ewes, yearlings and old sheep were all substituted for wethers, which herders removed in large numbers, perhaps for feasting or sacrifice. Herders were thus responsible for both culling and replacing palatial wool sheep, while the palace was primarily concerned with the collection of wool.

As recently as the first half of this century, leaf- and twig-fodder cut from trees played a major role in animal husbandry across most of Europe and, in many areas, stored leafy hay was of critical importance to the survival of stalled livestock over winter (e.g. Brockmann-Jerosch, 1936; Radley, 1961; Spray, 1981; Salvi, 1982; Sigaut, 1982; Haas and Rasmussen, 1993). In addition to its importance to livestock, leaf- and twig-foddering also played a major role in shaping the cultural landscapes of the continent, and in particular the structure and composition of vegetation cover (e.g. Moreno, 1982; Austad, 1988). During this century, the use of arboreal fodder has declined dramatically to the point of almost total abandonment and, in consequence, this once important practice is both poorly understood and largely ignored by historians, geographers and ecologists alike.

For late bronze age Greece, archaeobotanical research has demonstrated a striking range of grain crops, whereas only two or three categories of grain are recorded in Linear B texts. It is unlikely that each Linear B grain ideogram covers several crops, or that the paucity of grain ideograms results from the partial preservation of texts. It is argued that the Linear B evidence reflects selective palatial involvement in grain production, although the identity of the two or three crops documented in Linear B is uncertain.

A polychrome style krater from an LH I A destruction level in Thebes contained charred seeds of Vicia faba L. (field bean), which had been split in the manner of Greek ‘fava’ (φάβα). The growing archaeological evidence for late bronze age consumption of pulses contrasts with their absence from the Linear B archives. Consumption of the field bean as fava affects the intake of toxins which may cause lethal anaemia, but may also afford protection against malaria.

Charred plant remains of middle neolithic to middle bronze age date indicate the processing for storage or consumption of emmer (Triticum dicoccum), hulled six-row barley (Hordeum vulgare), bitter vetch (Vicia ervilia) and acorns (Quercus sp.). Samples of emmer, barley, and bitter vetch from an early bronze age destruction level are valuable evidence for economic diversification at a household level.

Rings and buttons and beads cut from the marine shell, Spondylus gaederopus, are among the most distinctive exchange items of Neolithic Europe. From sources on the coast of the Mediterranean, these highly valued objects were widely distributed across central Europe. A re-examination of the nature and contexts of shell objects and manufacturing waste at Dimini, a key late Neolithic site on the coast of northern Greece, explores their social role within a Spondylus-working community.

Hourmouziadis' recent analysis of the extensive excavations at Dimini has isolated a series of residential subdivisions or ‘domestic areas’ within the Late Neolithic settlement. Faunal remains from the ‘central court’ and from five surrounding domestic areas suggest a remarkably uniform pattern of animal exploitation. Individual domestic units kept cows, goats, pigs, and especially sheep; sheep and pigs, at least, seem to have been raised principally for meat. The lack of domestic specialization in stock husbandry has implications for understanding both of the ‘neolithic mode of production’ and of the role of specialization in the emergence of the élite which occupied the central court.

The bone assemblages from the Flag Fen platform itself and from the contemporary post alignment revealed at the Fengate Power Station site are small (respectively c. 150 and c. 600 identified pieces), but may nonetheless shed some light on the nature of human activity at the two sites. For obvious reasons, this study is principally directed towards understanding the circumstances of bone deposition rather than towards a reconstruction of local animal husbandry.

On May 29 1986, a storm tracked across central Macedonia. In the hills north of the small market town of Langadhas, a violent fall of hail flattened ripening cereal crops, but the destruction was very patchy: some fields belonging to the village of Assiros were devastated, but others were unharmed and the storm spared a neighbouring village before causing renewed damage further along its path. Farmers hit by the storm were lucky – they received compensation for their losses from the European Economic Community – but their neighbours were less fortunate. Across the whole region, the winter of 1985/6 had been virtually rainless and some farmers unaffected by the storm barely recouped their sowing costs.

Ritual, or apparently ritual, burials of Iron Age date are not uncommon in Britain. However, most of those for which records survive were recovered in less than ideal circumstances or from sites which are not securely dated. This example was recovered in recent excavations of a well-dated site, and from an area of Britain for which evidence of Iron Age burial practices is unusually scanty.

A botanical study of crop processing was undertaken on the semi-arid, southern Aegean islands of Karpathos and Amorgos. The present article provides details of the crop processing activities, and some contextual information concerning the wider agricultural economy. Attention is drawn to three aspects of this wider economy (time stress, scale and risk) which are of particular significance for understanding both recent ‘traditional’ and ancient farming practice in the region. Amorgos is discussed in greater detail as the period of fieldwork was longer.