Abandoned settlement, Mani, Greece. There are remains of about 170 pre-modern settlements in the Mani peninsular, the most numerous of their kind in Greece, built between the 8th and 13th centuries and pre-dating the ubiquitous tower houses. Before the Ottoman conquest Mani was populated by the Franks and the Slavs. The evolution of the clan system was a direct response to the limited resources created by overpopulation, which led in turn to the near -starvation subsistence observed by those who later travelled to the area, Maniots living only a knifes edge away from starvation. Small wonder, then, that the Maniots exploited the peninsulas position on the shipping routes linking Italy and the Aegean to add slave trading and piracy to their more legitimate commerce.