期刊
LAND
卷 12, 期 3, 页码 -出版社
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/land12030716
关键词
agricultural terraces; Mediterranean; luminescence dating; landscape archaeology
Agricultural terraces are effective in increasing the crop area for farmers in hilly landscapes, mitigating soil erosion risks, and promoting crop productivity. The construction and use of terraces in the Mediterranean have had significant socio-economic, ecological, and environmental implications for past societies. The chronology of terrace construction, use, and abandonment in different regions remains uncertain, and more robust chronological data are needed to assess the resilience of terrace agriculture in the face of economic or ecological instability and inform future agricultural and environmental challenges.
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.
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