Unearthing the Histories of Agrarian Landscapes: A Research Framework for Terraces as Sustainable Environments
ABSTRACT This article presents an interdisciplinary programme for research on historic landscapes that has emerged since 2020 in the framework of the project Terraces as Sustainable Agricultural Environments (‘TerraSAgE’). While the methodology has been tested in specific Mediterranean case studies, it is also applicable in other locations and regions. Our integrated approach provides new insights into the development of terraced agrarian landscapes and the changing dynamics in land management. It can provide knowledge of the extent to which past change has influenced present‐day landscapes and has implications for the development of sustainable landscape practices. The research framework proposed here has been tested through case studies in different landscape types across southern Europe, including small‐scale mixed farming landscapes of the Aegean islands (Naxos, Greece); terraces for vines and olives (Pelješac, Croatia); a landscape of dairy production (northern Apennines, Italy), which was until quite recently agroforestry; modern cereal cultivation (around Els Prats de Rei, Catalonia, Spain); upland irrigated landscapes on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada (Andalucia, Spain) and mixed farming in a wooded Atlantic environment (Galicia, Spain).
Authors
- Natalia Salazar Ortiz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2695-0843)
- José María Martín Civantos (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5513-8427)
- Stelios Lekakis
- José Abellán Santisteban (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4653-3884)
- Sam Turner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3257-0070)
- Francesco Carrer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4397-4502)
- Tim Kinnaird (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6530-314X)
- Lisa‐Marie Shillito (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6176-531X)
- Christopher Sevara (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8061-4322)
- Justin A. Holcomb (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4461-1634)
- Alex Turner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4139-941X)
- José Carlos Sánchez Pardo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2899-4951)
- Noemí Silva-Sánchez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6355-7285)
- Aayush Srivastava (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2279-0843)
- Blas Ramos Rodríguez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0527-8485)
- Filippo Brandolini (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7970-8578)
- John Otterbein Snyder
- Maria Duggan
- Richard Carlton
Institutions
- United States Geological Survey (US)
- University of Kansas (US)
- Universitat de Lleida (ES)
- University of St Andrews (GB)
- Universidad de Granada (ES)
- University of Milan (IT)
- Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (ES)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
- University of Genoa (IT)
- Newcastle University (GB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Geoarchaeology
- Published
- 2025-03-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/gea.70004
- Citations
- 6
- Primary Topic
- Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 49.64