THE POTENTIAL MOBILITY OF HUMAN POPULATIONS

Abstract

Summary. The interpretation of the findings of archaeological surface survey involves making assumptions about the extent and limits to the mobility of communities, land, and individuals in past times. Recent work in medieval and early modern European history has established both the rates and the causes of mobility in a number of different communities. This paper assembles some rather less conclusive evidence from classical Greece to argue that relatively high rates of mobility of individuals, land and communities should not be excluded when a picture of the society of ancient Greece is conjured up.