Agricultural terraces in the Mediterranean

Medieval intensification revealed by OSL profiling and dating

Bibliographic Data

ID3356465
AuthorsSam Turner (0000-0002-3257-0070, Newcastle University), Timothy Kinnaird (0000-0001-6530-314X, University of St Andrews, corresponding author), Günder Varinlioğlu (0000-0001-9435-9791, Mimar Sinan Güzel Sanatlar Üniversitesi), Tevfik Emre Şerifoğlu (Koç University), Elif Koparal (0000-0003-1780-6257, Mimar Sinan Güzel Sanatlar Üniversitesi), Volkan Demirciler (0000-0002-3469-208X, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart Üniversitesi), Dimitris Athanasoulis, Knut Ødegård (University of Oslo), Joanna Crow (0000-0002-9478-973X, University of Edinburgh), Jim Crow, Mark Jackson (0000-0002-2852-8929, Newcastle University), Jordi Bolòs (0000-0001-6495-9630, Universitat de Lleida), José Carlos Sánchez-Pardo (0000-0003-2899-4951, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela), Francesco Carrer (0000-0003-4397-4502, Newcastle University), D C W Sanderson (0000-0002-9615-4412, Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre), David Sanderson, A Turner (0000-0003-4139-941X, Newcastle University)
Year2021
Volume95
Issue381
Pages773-790
Publication date2021-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAntiquity (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-598X • E-ISSN: 1745-1744
PublisherAntiquity Publications (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.15184/aqy.2020.187
OpenAlexW3048133883
LanguageEN
Citations received36
References cited38

The history of agricultural terraces remains poorly understood due to problems in dating their construction and use. This has hampered broader research on their significance, limiting knowledge of past agricultural practices and the long-term investment choices of rural communities. The authors apply OSL profiling and dating to the sediments associated with agricultural terraces across the Mediterranean region to date their construction and use. Results from five widely dispersed case studies reveal that although many terraces were used in the first millennium AD, the most intensive episodes of terrace-building occurred during the later Middle Ages (c. AD 1100-1600). This innovative approach provides the first large-scale evidence for both the longevity and medieval intensification of Mediterranean terraces

Limiting · River terraces · Terrace (agriculture · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Archaeology and Historical Studies

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