Stremma

The stremma (pl. stremmata; Greek: στρέμμα, strémma) is unit of land area used mainly in Greece and Cyprus, equal to 1,000 square metres or approximately +1⁄4 acre.

History

The ancient Greek equivalent was the square plethron, which served as the Greeks' form of the acre. It was originally defined as the area plowed by a team of oxen in a day[1] but was nominally standardised as the area enclosed by a square 100 Greek feet (pous) to a side. It was the size of a Greek wrestling square.

The Byzantine or Morean stremma continued to vary depending on the period and the quality of the land, but usually enclosed an area between 900 to 1 900 m2.[2] It was also originally known as a "plethron" but this was replaced during Byzantine times by the word "stremma", derived from the verb for "turning" the ground with a plough.[3]

The Ottoman stremma or Turkish stremma, is the Greek (and occasionally English) name for the dunam, which is probably derived from the Byzantine unit.[4] Again, this varied by region: some values include 1 270 m2,[5] and 1 600 m2.[6]

See also

Bibliography

  1. ^ Pryce, Frederick Norman; et al. (2012), "measures", The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 917, ISBN 978-0-19-954556-8.
  2. ^ Siriol Davis, "Pylos Regional Archaeological Project, Part VI: administration and settlement in Venetian Navarino", Hesperia, Winter, 2004 [1]
  3. ^ Λεξικό της κοινής Νεοελληνικής (Dictionary of Modern Greek), Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών, Θεσσαλονίκη, 1998. ISBN 960-231-085-5
  4. ^ V.L. Ménage, Review of Speros Vryonis, Jr. The decline of medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor and the process of islamization from the eleventh through the fifteenth century, Berkeley, 1971; in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London) 36:3 (1973), pp. 659-661. at JSTOR (subscription required); see also Erich Schilbach, Byzantinische Metrologie.
  5. ^ The Dictionary of Modern Greek Λεξικό, 1998
  6. ^ Costas Lapavitsas, "Social and Economic Underpinning of Industrial Development: Evidence from Ottoman Macedonia" (PDF). Ηλεκτρονικό Δελτίο Οικονομικής Ιστορίας. Retrieved 2012-08-29.
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