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Dating agricultural terraces in the Mediterranean using luminescence: recent progress and challenges

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Tim Kinnaird, Dr Christopher SevaraORCiD, Professor Sam Turner

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).


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.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Srivastava A, Kinnaird T, Sevara C, Holcomb J, Turner S

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Land

Year: 2023

Volume: 12

Issue: 3

Online publication date: 21/03/2023

Acceptance date: 16/03/2023

Date deposited: 25/03/2023

ISSN (electronic): 2073-445X

Publisher: MDPI AG

URL: https://doi.org/10.3390/land12030716

DOI: 10.3390/land12030716


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Funding

Funder referenceFunder name
AH/T000104/1Arts & Humanities Research Board-AHRB (now AHRC)

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