Agricultural terraces in the Mediterranean: medieval intensification revealed by OSL profiling and dating

Sam Turner; Tim Kinnaird; Günder Varinlioğlu; Tevfik Emre Şerifoğlu; Elif Koparal; Volkan Demirciler; Dimitris Athanasoulis; Knut Ødegård; Jim Crow; Mark Jackson; Jordi Bolòs; José Carlos Sánchez-Pardo; Francesco Carrer; David Sanderson; Alex Turner

doi:10.15184/aqy.2020.187

Agricultural terraces in the Mediterranean: medieval intensification revealed by OSL profiling and dating

Sam Turner, Tim Kinnaird^*, Günder Varinlioğlu, Tevfik Emre Şerifoğlu, Elif Koparal, Volkan Demirciler, Dimitris Athanasoulis, Knut Ødegård, Jim Crow, Mark Jackson, Jordi Bolòs, José Carlos Sánchez-Pardo, Francesco Carrer, David Sanderson, Alex Turner

^*Corresponding author for this work

School of Earth & Environmental Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

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.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	773-790
Number of pages	18
Journal	Antiquity
Volume	95
Issue number	381
Early online date	22 Apr 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2020.187
Publication status	Published - 1 Jun 2021

Keywords

Mediterranean
Landscape archaeology
Agricultural terraces
OSL-PD

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.15184/aqy.2020.187Licence: CC BY

Turner_2021_Antiquity_OSL_CC
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Antiquity Publications Ltd. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Final published version, 7.08 MBLicence: CC BY

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Turner, S., Kinnaird, T., Varinlioğlu, G., Şerifoğlu, T. E., Koparal, E., Demirciler, V., Athanasoulis, D., Ødegård, K., Crow, J., Jackson, M., Bolòs, J., Sánchez-Pardo, J. C., Carrer, F., Sanderson, D., & Turner, A. (2021). Agricultural terraces in the Mediterranean: medieval intensification revealed by OSL profiling and dating. Antiquity, 95(381), 773-790. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2020.187

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title = "Agricultural terraces in the Mediterranean: medieval intensification revealed by OSL profiling and dating",

abstract = "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.",

keywords = "Mediterranean, Landscape archaeology, Agricultural terraces, OSL-PD",

author = "Sam Turner and Tim Kinnaird and G{\"u}nder Varinlioğlu and {\c S}erifoğlu, {Tevfik Emre} and Elif Koparal and Volkan Demirciler and Dimitris Athanasoulis and Knut {\O}deg{\aa}rd and Jim Crow and Mark Jackson and Jordi Bol{\`o}s and S{\'a}nchez-Pardo, {Jos{\'e} Carlos} and Francesco Carrer and David Sanderson and Alex Turner",

note = "Funding for fieldwork and analysis has been provided by grants from the Newton Fund administered by the British Academy (AF140007 & AF160103), UK Research and Innovation (AH/P005829/1 & AH/P014453/1), the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (116K829), the European Commission (H2020 657050), Dumbarton Oaks (Washington, D.C.), Seven Pillars of Wisdom Trust (UK), Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (HAR2012-35022) (Spain), Xunta de Galicia (2016 PG-065) (Spain).",

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Turner, S, Kinnaird, T, Varinlioğlu, G, Şerifoğlu, TE, Koparal, E, Demirciler, V, Athanasoulis, D, Ødegård, K, Crow, J, Jackson, M, Bolòs, J, Sánchez-Pardo, JC, Carrer, F, Sanderson, D & Turner, A 2021, 'Agricultural terraces in the Mediterranean: medieval intensification revealed by OSL profiling and dating', Antiquity, vol. 95, no. 381, pp. 773-790. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2020.187

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T2 - medieval intensification revealed by OSL profiling and dating

AU - Turner, Sam

AU - Kinnaird, Tim

AU - Varinlioğlu, Günder

AU - Şerifoğlu, Tevfik Emre

AU - Koparal, Elif

AU - Demirciler, Volkan

AU - Athanasoulis, Dimitris

AU - Ødegård, Knut

AU - Crow, Jim

AU - Jackson, Mark

AU - Bolòs, Jordi

AU - Sánchez-Pardo, José Carlos

AU - Carrer, Francesco

AU - Sanderson, David

AU - Turner, Alex

N1 - Funding for fieldwork and analysis has been provided by grants from the Newton Fund administered by the British Academy (AF140007 & AF160103), UK Research and Innovation (AH/P005829/1 & AH/P014453/1), the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (116K829), the European Commission (H2020 657050), Dumbarton Oaks (Washington, D.C.), Seven Pillars of Wisdom Trust (UK), Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (HAR2012-35022) (Spain), Xunta de Galicia (2016 PG-065) (Spain).

PY - 2021/6/1

Y1 - 2021/6/1

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - Mediterranean

KW - Landscape archaeology

KW - Agricultural terraces

KW - OSL-PD

U2 - 10.15184/aqy.2020.187

DO - 10.15184/aqy.2020.187

M3 - Article

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EP - 790

JO - Antiquity

JF - Antiquity

IS - 381

ER -

Agricultural terraces in the Mediterranean: medieval intensification revealed by OSL profiling and dating

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

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