It seems probable that there was a goodly measure of communism in the control and use of lands (tho not in other things), but this was largely confined to an oligarchy of the favored; whereas the masses lived in subjection, cut off from all but a meager share in the common lands.

However that may have been, strong forces within historic times have put an end to the common ownership and tillage of land as it existed among the peasants of Europe.

That system was shown by experience to be wasteful.

Competition tended to bring the economic agents into more efficient hands, and the movement was furthered by many acts of injustice and violence on the part of those in power.
Inquiries into the origin and development of any social institution are interesting and helpful in forming an estimate of its present significance, but the problems of the past are not those of to-day.
Whether or not the ancient beginning of property in Europe was in violence and evil has but a remote bearing on the question as to the present working of it.

Social conditions and needs have not changed more than have the forms and limits of property itself.