Dating Agricultural Terraces in the Mediterranean Using Luminescence: Recent Progress and Challenges

Aayush Srivastava (), Tim Kinnaird, Christopher Sevara, Justin Allen Holcomb and Sam Turner
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Aayush Srivastava: School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9TS, UK
Tim Kinnaird: School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9TS, UK
Christopher Sevara: School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK
Justin Allen Holcomb: Kansas Geological Survey, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66047, USA
Sam Turner: School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK

Land, 2023, vol. 12, issue 3, 1-19

Abstract: Agricultural terraces provide farmers in hilly landscapes with effective ways to increase the area available for crops. They mitigate the risks of soil erosion and promote crop productivity by slowing surface water runoff and retaining moisture. As in other parts of the world, terraces have been constructed and used in the Mediterranean for millennia. The availability of terraced agriculture had important socio-economic, ecological, and environmental implications for past societies. However, the chronology of construction, use, and abandonment of terraces in different regions remains uncertain. A more robust set of chronological data will allow better assessment of whether terrace agriculture was a resilient strategy in the face of past economic or ecological instability and, in turn, inform how terraces could be used to address future agricultural and environmental challenges. In this paper, we review the application of luminescence dating to terrace sediments, the key challenges involved, and the currently published data which include over 250 luminescence ages. We also discuss the use of a multidisciplinary approach involving other geoarchaeological tools (e.g., use of GIS analyses, field-based luminescence readers, and micromorphology) to enhance the ways that past terrace systems can be understood. Terrace systems are inextricably linked to sustainable land use across the Mediterranean. Luminescence dating methods, therefore, have a crucial role to play in understanding the complexities of past and future landscape change.

Keywords: agricultural terraces; Mediterranean; luminescence dating; landscape archaeology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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