MACS Proseminar: Catherine Pratt

Mediterranean Archaeology Collaborative Specialization (MACS) Program presents…

Dr. Catherine Pratt
Department of Classical Studies, Western University

"Oil and wine as cultural commodities across the Bronze and Iron Age divide"

Thursday, October 22, 2020
4 pm
Online via Zoom
This is a free seminar but registration is required. Register here.

This talk will explore how oil and wine became increasingly entangled in Greek culture from the Late Bronze Age to the Archaic period. Using ceramic, architectural, and archaeobotanical data, we will see how Bronze Age exchange practices initiated an inescapable network of dependency between oil/wine and the people who produced, exchanged, and used them. After the palatial collapse, these prehistoric connections intensified during the Iron Age and resulted in the large-scale industries of the Classical period. Ultimately, I suggest that oil and wine in pre-Classical Greece should be considered “cultural commodities,” defined as products that become indispensablefor proper social and economic exchanges well beyond economic advantage.