Re-thinking the ‘Green Revolution’ in the Mediterranean world

Abstract

From the seventh century AD, successive Islamic polities were established around the Mediterranean. Historians have linked these caliphates with the so-called ‘Islamic Green Revolution’—the introduction of new crops and agricultural practices that transformed the economies of regions under Muslim rule. Increasingly, archaeological studies have problematised this largely text-based model of agrarian innovation, yet much of this research remains regionally and methodologically siloed. Focusing on the Western Mediterranean, the authors offer a theoretically informed, integrated environmental archaeology approach through which to contextualise the ecological impact of the Arab-Berber conquests. Its future application will allow a fuller evaluation of the scale, range and significance of agricultural innovations during the ‘medieval millennium’.

The Archaeology of Field Systems in Al-Andalus

“…This limitation makes it difficult to trace the actual spread of different plants, the local circumstances, and their chronology. Although Watson has been criticised, and some of the eighteen plants he studied may have been known and cultivated before the Islamic expansion (at least in the Middle East) [15,16], archaeology has not yet explored this question in sufficient depth [17]. Bioarchaeological techniques have been occasionally applied to Andalusi sites [18].…”