Hellenistic grape and olive diversity: A case study from rural estates in Greece

Abstract Grapevine and olive are thought to have been intensively cultivated during the Hellenistic period, as part of an agrarian system which included agricultural choices specializing in the production of their secondary products. The discovery of large assemblages of carbonized grapes and olives at three sites in Pieria, Macedonia, Greece, provides a unique opportunity to advance our understanding of grape and olive cultivation, the production of wine and olive oil, and their position in the agricultural regimes in this region of Greece. In this paper, we report on morphometric analyses performed on these assemblages to distinguish wild and domesticated subspecies, and to identify ancient morphotypes that may correspond to the wild form or other varieties of olives and grapes. The comparison of olive and grape assemblages from three different sites, geographically close but different in terms of size and architecture, shows a wide range of cultivated types of both olive and grapevine, as well as possible local selection processes, especially for the grapevine.