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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Filippo Brandolini, Dr Tim Kinnaird, Professor Sam Turner
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
This study employs Optically Stimulated Luminescence Profiling and Dating (OSL-PD) to address the challenge of synchronizing social changes with natural events, a significant limitation in existing studies on the resilience and vulnerability of pre-modern societies to ecological stress. By uncovering the construction dates of terrace farming systems in the northern Apennines region, the research reveals a distinct temporal framework, indicating that the establishment of agricultural terraces predominantly occurred during the 11th to 13th centuries CE. This crucial time frame aligns directly with complex socio-economic factors, including the encastellation process, alongside the climatic shifts characterising the Medieval Climate Anomaly. Isotopic fractionation of the Total Organic Carbon confirms that different agricultural choices were made in coincidence with the establishment of terrace farming. The resultant historical rural landscape underwent continuous enhancements in the centuries that followed. Notably, the main phases of (re)construction correspond to the coldest periods of the Little Ice Age, offering new insights into the historical interactions between human activities and the environment during the Late Holocene in the area.
Author(s): Brandolini F, Kinnaird T, Srivastava A, Costanzo S, Compostella C, Turner S
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Scientific Reports
Year: 2025
Volume: 15
Online publication date: 10/07/2025
Acceptance date: 20/06/2025
Date deposited: 11/07/2025
ISSN (electronic): 2045-2322
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-08396-2
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-08396-2
Data Access Statement: The results of the geochronological analysis are available as supplementary materials attached to this paper
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