The stratigraphic implications of long‐term terrace agriculture in dynamic landscapes: Polycyclic terracing from Kythera Island, Greece

Abstract

Geoarchaeological work in conjunction with the Kythera Island Project indicates that significant portions of the island are now or have at some time been terraced. Geoarchaeological observations and local historical records confirm extensive terracing during the last few centuries. Detailed stratigraphic, soil, and sediment analysis along with radiocarbon dating suggest, however, that some of the slopes and small drainages of the island were terraced more than once and that this relatively recent phase of terracing followed earlier efforts, some dating to the early second millennium B.C. (Bronze Age). During each phase of slope organization significant amounts of soil were moved locally on the slopes. Polycyclic terracing has, therefore, interesting implications for surface survey visibility, preservation of archaeological record, early agricultural landscapes and soils, and past land use, as well as for interpretation of local records of Holocene sediment mobilization and valley alluviation. Geoarchaeological investigation of terraces may reveal unique archaeological information not available in urban or village dwelling sites. Early features, such as those reported in this paper, however, usually remain hidden due to the remarkable lack of stratigraphic investigations of non-site landscapes.

Vegetation recolonisation of abandoned agricultural terraces on Antikythera, Greece

“…Grove and Rackham 2001, 107; and for regions neighbouring Antikythera: Price and Nixon 2005;Krahtopoulou and Frederick 2008). The inhabitants consider the terrace systems part of their inheritance from their immediate ancestors (i.e.…”

The Long-Term Ecology of Agricultural Terraces and Enclosed Fields from Antikythera, Greece

“…Very few of the remaining inhabitants on Antikythera have any memories of terraces actually being built on the island (these structures are typically referred to by their common Greek name pezoulia, or the local term chalastres) and the community consensus is, as is the case elsewhere in the Mediterranean, that most terraces were constructed prior to the 20th century (e.g. Grove and Rackham 2001, 107; and for regions neighbouring Antikythera: Krahtopoulou and Frederick 2008;Price and Nixon 2005). Even so, several remember September as the month in which it was customary to repair terraces: after the main cereal harvest, before the first rains and in tandem with other maintenance task such as clearing stables, collecting winter firewood and insulating house roofs.…”

“…By the latter part of the 3rd millennium if not before, there is evidence for more settled patterns of exploitation and by the 2 nd millennium BC, we find three or four parts of the island with a scatter of small farmsteads each. Contemporary evidence from the neighbouring island of Kythera (Krahtopoulou and Frederick 2008;see also Bevan 2002) and further afield from the island of Pseira on Crete (Hope Simpson et al 2004) suggest that cross--channel terracing may have been a strategy that was developing in the 2 nd millennium, on Crete and amongst Cretan--affiliated communities such as those on Kythera and Antikythera. The direct evidence for cross--channel terracing on Kythera and Pseira are based on unusual preservation and recovery situations (respectively, an unusually large road--cut in what has been a more lightly farmed part of the island in modern times, and a buried terrace found during an excavation on an island with very little later activity).…”

The role of geoarchaeology in extending our perspective

“…These studies can reveal additions to soils (e.g. Bintliff et al 2006;Guttmann et al 2006Guttmann et al , 2008Simpson et al 2006), or other techniques such as terracing (Krahtopoulou & Frederick 2008) or runoff irrigation (Sandor et al 2007), which create or improve arable land, or otherwise allowed communities to manage risk (Zaro & Alvarez 2005). Human land-use practices can have unintended consequences, however, which can be either positive or negative.…”