This revealing study shows how careful analysis of recent farming practices, and related cultural traditions, in communities around the Mediterranean can enhance our understanding of prehistoric and Greco-Roman societies. * Includes a wealth of original interview material and data from field observation * Provides original approaches to understanding past farming practices and their social contexts * Offers a revealing comparative perspective on Mediterranean societies' agronomy * Identifies a number of previously unrecorded climate-related contrasts in farming practices, which have important socio-economic significance * Explores annual tasks, such as tillage and harvest; inter-annual land management techniques, such as rotation; and intergenerational issues, including capital accumulation