EVERYDAY LIFE ON CRETE UNDER VENETIAN RULE
Life for ordinary people in Venetian Crete was particularly harsh and arduous, since most of them were peasant farmers (serfs) on feudal lands owned by Venetian nobles, to whom they were required to pay burdensome taxes, and often had to do forced labour. Regardless of size, each demesne was divided into zevgaria, equivalent to the area of land that could be cultivated by one farmer with a pair of oxen in one growing season. Farmers were forced to render one third of their produce to the feudal lord, keeping the remainder for their own needs. The residents of the Municipality of Lefki lived under the above living conditions and social organization during the Venetian period.
DWELLINGS
The dwellings were organized in villages, sometimes divided in neighbourhoods or in sub-settlements (e.x. Epano and Kato Pervolakia, Epano and Kato Palaipetzi). Dwellings were simple, the limited available space being organized to serve daily needs and tasks. In their simplest, earliest form, peasants’ homes were one-roomed, single-storey structures. The interior had areas used for accommodating the family, storing items and stabling animals all together. Another type of house featured a sofas, a low raised wooden or stone platform used as a sleeping area. A more advanced version was built on two storeys, with the stable on the ground floor and the family home above.
FOLK ART
Weaving: The products of folk art were first and foremost practical objects for use in everyday life and work. One essential of every home was the loom (argalios or argastiri), used to weave dowry goods and clothe the family. All tasks involved in weaving were referred to by the term anifantiko or anifantario (a female weaver was known as an anifantou). Loom products include patanies (heavy woven wool blankets) and sheets made from various fabrics (e.g. rasina, kenarata, chasimaladenia etc.), other bedcovers such as light wool covers (hiramia) and blankets (anaples), in addition to rugs (karpetes), towels (petses), swaddling clothes (faskies), men’s woven belts (vrakozones), bread cloths (artopana), bed valances (krevatoyiri) etc.
Pottery: Crete has a centuries-long pottery tradition, stretching back to Minoan times. The most typical products were storage vessels and large pitchers, capable of holding over four or even five hundred okades (an old weight unit, the equivalent to 1,282 grams) of olive oil. Pitchers and other ware were made on a traditional potter’s wheel.
Basket weaving: Baskets were made from reeds, myrtle branches, bulrushes, corn stalks and other Cretan plant material. They were of various sizes and shapes, depending on use (deep baskets for carrying grapes, food panniers and hampers, baskets for cheese making etc.).
Wood carving: Wood carving developed primarily in the mountainous areas of Crete, its chief products being items for everyday or special use (spoons, forks, plates, stamps for holy bread etc). In the main, woodcarvers known as tayiadori, nitadori or intayadori made and decorated church furnishings (icon screens and stands, tables, candlesticks etc).
DIET
The Cretan people’s diet was simple and frugal. It was based around bread made of barley (krithino), a mixture of wheat and oats (migadero), or a combination of all three (triomigado). Hand-milled wheat (chondros) took the place of rice, and formed the basis for numerous dishes and preparations. Other staples were olive oil and olives, as well as milk and cheese. Other foods consumed on Crete included wild greens, snails, potatoes, eggs, pulses and wild mushrooms. Meat was rare, usually being chicken, cockerel, pigeon, rabbit or game (hare and partridge). Goats and sheep were rarely slaughtered, and cattle almost never. At Christmastime pigs would be slaughtered to make all manner of pork preparations, from sausages to jellied, salt or cured pork. The main alcoholic drinks were wine and raki or tsikoudia (which was also used as spirit in folk medicine).
The family would eat from a deep dish in the centre of a round, low table (sofras).
FARMING LIFE
Traditional farming methods always prevailed in olive farming, viticulture and the cultivation of cereals in rural Crete and the land formation, aswell as the rich flora of Crete, provided the ideal conditions for the growth of livestockfarming.
The main arable crop in early Venetian times was wheat, but this later gave way to wine production and trade. It was the malvasia (Malmsey) variety of grape that led to the expansion of viticulture. Other well-known varieties used to produce particular types of wine were liatiko, kotsifali, rozakia, mandilari, eftakila, voidomata and thrapsathiri. Olive farming and other land cultivation on Crete was carried out in the traditional manner. The terrain and the abundant vegetation were key factors favouring livestock farming.
MAIN EXPORT COMMODITIES UNDER VENETIAN RULE:
Wine
Sultanas
Wheat
Olive oil
Honey
Wax
Soap
Salt
Cotton
Cheese
Cereals:
Barley, wheat, oats
The main arable crop in early Venetian times was wheat, though it was later supplanted by viniculture and olive farming.
Land cultivation on Crete was always done in the traditional manner. The limited amount of level ground available in the natural landscape meant that the wooden plough with metal share (ini, gyni or geni) was virtually the only means used for tilling. The plough was pulled by a pair of oxen (zevgari), which constituted part of a farmer’s material wealth. If the farmer (resperis) only had one ox, he would seek the assistance of another man who likewise hand only one animal (yoking them together was known as syzepsa). Before sowing, a farmer would call the priest to his house to bless the seed. In addition to ploughing, harvesting was also carried out in the traditional way, by mutual assistance. The tool used in harvesting was the sickle or scythe (drepani). Threshing was done by threshing board (volosyros – a farm implement pulled by oxen or horses over the threshing floor, or over fields to level ground after ploughing. This was a wide wooden construction measuring 1.70m by 0.6m, with flakes of quartz or flint or iron nails on the underside for cutting the straw from the grain or breaking up clods in the earth.). The unit of measurement for cereals was the mouzouri: depending on the grain (wheat, barley, oats), this was equivalent to between twelve and fifteen okades (roughly 15 – 20 kilos). Boundaries between adjacent fields marked out by wooden stakes or, in most cases, stones driven deep into the ground, known as stralikia or astralikia. Boundaries were also marked by furrows, streams, roads, dry-stone embankments (trafi) and other natural or man-made features and landmarks.
Olive farming
Olive cultivation has been carried out uninterruptedly since Minoan times. The word elia usually refers to a large tree, while smaller ones are called mourela. Depending on fruit size or shape, olives have various names, such as lanolia (small and thin, but better for oil production), tsounati (a long-stalked variety), milolia (large size and shape, suitable for eating). Olives were usually harvested using special staffs (the katsouna, tembla or dempla - a thin, straight branch about 1 metre long, cut from a wild tree, with a thinner, shorter branch measuring 20cm at one end, for use as a grip. Used to harvest olives, almonds, carob etc.), or the fruit was left to fall of its own accord. In the first instance, olives fell onto large cloths (anapla or liopano) spread out below olive or almond trees to facilitate gathering once the tree had been beaten with staffs. Olives were mechanically pressed at the fabrika (processing and oil production works) or alitrividi (mill and press). Millstones were turned using animal, wind or water power. The unit of measurement for olive oil and other liquids was the mistato, equivalent to approximately 10 okades (an old unit of weight for solids and liquids, equal to 1282 grammes, subdivided into dramia), and the karto or quarter mistato. Olive oil played a significant role in the people’s everyday life, being used not only as a foodstuff but also for ceremonial purposes (baptism, blessings, warding off the evil eye), and up until recent times as a unit of barter.
Oil was also used to make soap – soap makers formed one of the most financially powerful trade guilds.
Viticulture
Wine was the island’s main export commodity in Venetian times. It was so lucrative that viticulture supplanted all other agricultural activity. The wine export trade involved an entire class of specialist craftsmen, the coopers (voutiklaroi), working locally to produce the six thousand or so barrels required annually. Well known varieties of grape and wine were: liatiko (leatick, a dark Greek variety of wine grape); kotsifali (a black winemaking variety similar in colour to the kotsifas or blackbird); voidomata (lit. “ox eye”, a variety with large black grapes). Vineyard planting was carried out by mutual assistance. All the work was carried out by relatives and friends, the only remuneration being a lavish meal laid on by the owner. Before planting began, a blessing ceremony would be held in the field. Vineyard area was calculated in terms of the number of workers (argates) required to till the soil in one day. Grapes were trodden in the press normally found in every village house. Grapes were also used to produced raki or tsikoudia (an alcoholic drink made by distilling some of the fermented by-products of fruit, usually grapes) and sultanas, which were another important export commodity.
Livestock farming
The terrain and the abundant vegetation on Crete were key factors favouring livestock farming. The flock was called a kouradi and the owner a kouradaris, or varkouradaris if he had large numbers of goats and sheep. The animals could either belong to one stock farmer or to two or more, who produced cheese in partnership. Each partner was known as a kinatoras, and the group as a kinato. Special customary law governed particular issues concerning the establishment of the kinato, leasing of pastures etc., as well as the distribution of profits or produce from the partnership.
Shepherds lived in low stone structures called mitata, which were also used for cheese making, keeping the tools of the trade and storing dairy products. Cheese making on Crete has always been carried out in the traditional way, resulting in low production compared to livestock numbers, though this is compensated for by the premium quality of products such as graviera (hard cheese), myzithra (soft white cheese) and athotyros (matured myzithra).
