Agricultural terraces in Europe: Geoarchaeological and botanical methods

Abstract

Agricultural terraces in Europe: Geoarchaeological and botanical methods Tony Brown, Dan Fallu, Sara Cucchiaro, Ben Pears, and the TerrACE Team, highlight agricultural terraces in Europe, providing geoarchaeological and botanical insights. Agricultural terraces exist in all countries in Europe but, particularly those with hilly regions where terraces can significantly increase the area of high-quality cultivatable land. Terraces, which are also common worldwide, are the largest human-made manipulations of the earth’s surface prior to the building of cities and are known to provide beneficial ecosystem services, including long-term carbon storage. Despite this remarkably little is known about their history, and in many cases, what crops they were originally created for. They are also exceptionally resilient, mostly surviving since their first construction to the present day. However, this is changing as since the development of the caterpillar-tracked bulldozer, many have been destroyed.