The long-term ecology of agricultural terraces and enclosed fields from Antikythera, Greece (2013) (original) (raw)
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Vegetation recolonisation of abandoned agricultural terraces on Antikythera, Greece (2010)
Environmental Archaeology 15.1: 64-80, 2010
Antikythera is a small, relatively remote Mediterranean island, lying 35 km north-west of Crete, and its few contemporary inhabitants live mainly in the small village at the only port. However, an extensive network of terraces across the island bears witness to the past importance of farming on the island, although the intensity of use of these cultivated plots has changed according to fluctuating population levels. Most recently, the rural population and intensity of cultivation have dramatically declined. Our aim is to understand the recolonisation process of agricultural land by plants after terraces are no longer used for the cultivation of crops. The results demonstrate a relatively quick pace of vegetative recolonisation, with abandoned farm land covered by dense scrub within 20 to 60 years. The archaeological implications are that, following even relatively short periods of abandonment, the landscape would have required arduous reinvestment in the removal of scrub growth, as well as the repair and construction of stone terraces, to allow cultivation once again.
Agricultural Terraces in Classical and Hellenistic Greece
Agricultural terraces have been a necessary element in the landscapes of Classical and Hellenistic periods in many areas of the Greek world. These terraces, formed by long terrace walls, shaped the slopes in the proximity of the farmhouses in order to facilitate exploitation of the land by the farmers, providing all the necessary conditions for efficient and effective cultivation of olive trees, grains, vines and almost any other crop. Various sites with agricultural terraces in the area of Attica, especially in the territory of the ancient deme of Atene (such as PH 2 in Aghia Photini and TH 18/42 in Thymari) as well as the Cycladic islands (Delos and Kea), dated to the Classical and Hellenistic period, are provided in this paper as some very characteristic examples of ancient terraced systems. Despite the thorough discussions about the dating of agricultural terraces in previous years, the issue of dating them back to ancient years remains an existent question for some scholars. Nevertheless , the sites mentioned here offer fairly good evidence for a dating in the fifth or fourth centuries BC. Furthermore, all these cases seem to share a common factor: their construction results from or is related to demographic criteria, such as the population growth of every area.
Landscape and Early Farming Settlement Dynamics In Central Greece
Geoarchaeology, 2006
Current hyperintensive surface survey in the Tanagra district of Boeotia, central Greece (J. L. Bintliff et al., 2002), together with a recent reanalysis of survey results from the Thespiae dis- trict (J. L. Bintliff et al., 1999), have led to a radical rethinking of how and where early farm- ers exploited the Greek landscape between earliest Neolithic and Early Bronze Age times. This new work is described, and its significance for the wider debates about the Greek land- scape in this period is further discussed, to demonstrate that alongside widely spaced villages in earlier Neolithic times there were also small, short-lived farms; both were associated with wetland hand cultivation. In later Neolithic and Early Bronze Age times, these locations remained, but vestigial traces discovered by hyperintensive survey methods have identified an explosion of small, short-lived, and horizontally migrating farms across the newly cleared interfluve zones. A largely lost alluvial terrace provides a major resource for the earlier, wet- land farming foci. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Human-shaped landscape history in NE Greece. A palaeoenvironmental perspective
Following palaeobotanical, sedimentological and archaeological research recently conducted on and around the tell of Dikili Tash (Eastern Macedonia, Greece), we present continuous palaeoenvironmental data on this multiperiod site. This study combines pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs (NPPs), macro-charcoal and sedimentological analyses that are compared with archaeological data from the Middle Neolithic to Antiquity period. It provides an overview of the local environment near the former Tenaghi-Philippon marsh and a comprehensive view of human impact on vegetation cover in lowlands. As early as ca. 4550 cal BCE, an initial phase of change in vegetation cover, has been recorded. This period, in the Eastern Mediterranean region, is one of intensifying human activities and social interactions into the Balkan region, which resulting in the foundation and transformation of early Late Neolithic societies. Although the palynological record does not show the crops species grown, the intensive clearance resulted in the increase of open herbaceous landscapes with anthropogenic indicators. This, as well as the increase of macro-charcoal values strongly supports a more or less continuously shaping of the landscape by human induced fires. New tree species that also became established at this time include Olea and Castanea. The presence of three main formations can be argued from the Early Neolithic to Antiquity: (1) riparian vegetation, (2) oak woodlands and (3) open vegetation in the form of wooded grasslands. Beyond the responses to climate changes, the vegetation composition reflects a regionally diversified land management system as indicated by a greater diversity in cultivated or harvested plants. The study reveals two phases of decline in land use directly on the edge of the marsh, although indicators of anthropogenic disturbance of the vegetation never entirely disappear during these periods between 3900 and 3300 cal BCE at the transition from the Late Neolithic (LNII) to the Bronze Age and from 1650 to 800 cal BCE when we observe a reorganization of the settlement on the higher slopes. In contrast, four periods are characterized by an increase in land use extension and intensification: Late Neolithic (4500–3900 cal BC); Early to Middle Bronze Age (3000–1600 cal BCE), the Iron Age (1000–800 cal BCE) and Antiquity during the Macedonian (ca. 357–148 cal BCE) and Roman periods (148 cal BCE–cal 395 CE).
Environmental Management, 2008
Agricultural landscapes illustrate the impact of human actions on physical settings, and differential human pressures cause these landscapes to change with time. Our study explored changes in the terraced landscapes of Nisyros Island, Greece, focusing on the socioeconomic aspects during two time periods using field data, cadastral research, local documents, and published literature, as well as surveys of the islanders. Population increases during the late 19th to early 20th centuries marked a significant escalation of terrace and dry stone wall construction, which facilitated cultivation on 58.4% of the island. By the mid-20th century, the economic collapse of agricultural activities and consequent emigration caused the abandonment of cultivated land and traditional management practices, dramatically reducing farm and field numbers. Terrace abandonment continued in recent decades, with increased livestock grazing becoming the main land management tool; as a result, both farm and pasture sizes increased. Neglect and changing land use has led to deterioration and destruction of many terraces on the island. We discuss the socioeconomic and political backgrounds responsible for the land-use change before World War II (annexation of Nisyros Island by the Ottoman Empire, Italy, and Greece; overseas migration opportunities; and world transportation changes) and after the war (social changes in peasant societies; worldwide changes in agricultural production practices). The adverse landscape changes documented for Nisyros Island appear to be inevitable for modern Mediterranean rural societies, including those on other islands in this region. The island’s unique terraced landscapes may qualify Nisyros to become an archive or repository of old agricultural management techniques to be used by future generations and a living resource for sustainable management.
Terraced Fields, Farming, and Farmers at the Settlements of Kalamianos and Stiri, Greece
in: S. Arnoldussen, M. Løvschal & R. Johnston (eds.), Europe’s Early Fieldscapes. Archaeologies of Prehistoric Land Allotment, Cham: Springer , 2021
This chapter focuses on the adoption of agricultural terracing as a technological enhancement that resulted in changes to cultivation practices and distribution and organization of farm labour. The macroscopic investigation and systematic documentation of terraces in and around the settlements of Kalamianos and Stiri in the south-eastern Corinthia in southern Greece revealed that several large systems of terraces were likely contemporary to these Late Bronze Age settlements in the productive hinterlands of nearby Argolid palace-centres like Mycenae. It is suggested here that the construction of several systems of agricultural terraces, likely achieved with some palatial support, prompted the implementation of diverse cultivation techniques that would have altered labour needs throughout the agricultural calendar. Garden terraces within the settlement of Kalamianos emphasize the variety of growing environments enabled by terraced farming and raise questions regarding the identity of farm workers and the creation of gendered agricultural spaces.