Abstract
As an effect of intensive agricultural development of the steppes of the northern Black Sea coast, the finds of postantique agricultural landscapes that preserve relic elements of ancient land-use infrastructure are extremely rare. To these belongs the uniquely preserved ancient Greek land division system on the Tarkhankut Peninsula (north-western Crimea), which was studied using the methods of soil science and biomorphic analysis. This paper explores ancient land-use practices in order to reconstruct the original parameters of the land division system, as well as agricultural techniques employed. For postantique agricultural landscapes, an integrated geoarchaeological approach that includes GIS and remote sensing methodologies, in-field study of microrelief and soil registrograms, pedochronological dating technique, and physicochemical, geochemical, and biomorphic soil analyses has been developed and tested. The soil-geomorphological reconstruction shows that the Hellenistic land division system included a 4.5–4.9 m wide strip of land bordered by a 4.1–4.7 m wide (at the base) and c. 0.2 m high wall and a c. 2 m wide and over 15 cm deep trench, which controlled surface runoff and erosion. Ancient agricultural practices of slope farming resembled the modern ones. Surface runoff and soil erosion were controlled by dividing the catchment area into narrow plots, the borders of which on arable land were marked by simple earthen structures (low walls with shallow trenches). The biomorphic analysis of soil sampled atop these structures indicates that in ancient times, these earthen walls were not cultivated. The study of conservative properties preserved in pedomemory of postagrogenic soils provided valuable evidence of agricultural techniques used in the palaeogeographic conditions of the 4th and 3rd centuries BC.
Highlights
Geoarchaeology as an integrative approach draws on a range of disciplines, including pedoarchaeology or archaeological soil science [1,2,3]. is synthesis of soil science and archaeology valuably enriches both branches of knowledge. e integration of palaeopedology and geoarchaeology allows for reconstructing the paleoenvironmental conditions in the Holocene [4,5,6] and complements the study of soils developed on archaeologically datable surfaces [7], as well as the study of ancient landscapes [8,9,10]
In addition to the main walls that divided the plot into c. 46 m-wide fields, a number of internal walls dividing these fields into two narrower parcels of roughly equal size have been identified (Table 2). e average values of the measured widths of narrow fields amounted to 22–23.5 m what roughly corresponds to a half width of large fields of 46 m. e data presented in Table 2 show that the differences between these two parameters are statistically insignificant (P < 0.5). e fact that at the depth of 56–63 cm
In the northern Black Sea region, the array of geoarchaeological techniques used to study ancient systems of land division and management that were detected on aerial and satellite imagery and verified in the terrain depended on the complexity of research objectives. is study demonstrates the informative capabilities of this approach that integrates GIS, satellite-navigation and space technologies, in-field studies of microrelief and soil registrograms, and physicochemical, geochemical, and microbiomorphic soil analyses
Summary
Geoarchaeology as an integrative approach draws on a range of disciplines, including pedoarchaeology or archaeological soil science (archaeopedology) [1,2,3]. is synthesis of soil science and archaeology valuably enriches both branches of knowledge. e integration of palaeopedology and geoarchaeology allows for reconstructing the paleoenvironmental conditions in the Holocene [4,5,6] and complements the study of soils developed on archaeologically datable surfaces [7], as well as the study of ancient landscapes (agricultural, residential, etc.) [8,9,10].e geoarchaeological and, in particular, pedoarchaeological studies at ancient sites are decently present in the publications of the last few decades [11,12,13] and others, while the studies on ancient agrolandscapes and their soils are significantly fewer in number [8, 14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21]. is is partially due to the fact that the ancient land plots and their earthenApplied and Environmental Soil Science division walls are archaeologically mute objects, so that the eventual studies would usually lack the chronological reference points.e studies by Frontinus, Urbicus, Hyginus, and other ancient writers preserved in the collection Corpus agrimensorum Romanorum inform us about Roman practices of land surveying and management [22,23,24]. Unlike other areas of the northern Black Sea region, western Crimea boasts an exceptionally well-preserved classical agricultural landscape, on the Herakleian Peninsula around the ancient city of Chersonesos [26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34] and in parts of the Tarkhankut Peninsula where large areas still untouched by modern ploughing show the traces of ancient land use and management [9, 27, 29, 32, 35,36,37,38]. While Shcheglov [26, 35] ascribes these traces to the Hellenistic period, their chronology still needs to be ascertained
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