TerrACE Project

On a 5 year mission to better the scientific understanding of the history, use, and sustainability of agriculturally terraced landscapes in Europe. ERC funded.

[TerrACE Project @TerrACE_ERC]

Join us in Rome on November 3rd for a day of cutting-edge Terrace research! Registration is free so get your spot now!

[Huw Groucutt @huw_groucutt]

1) Postdoc job opportunities…join my TerraForm ERC project, at the University of Malta. One position for a geoarchaeologist and one in GIS/spatial analysis. The formal advert and application procedure will be out soon (and shared here), so I am releasing this as an early notice

[Gordon Inglis @climategordon]

Two days left to apply for this 3.5 year postdoc position at Southampton!

[Dirty Dan the Soil Man (Fallu) @SoilManDan]

Let the @TerrACE_ERC final meeting begin!
#terraces #archaeology #sustainability

[TerrACE Project @TerrACE_ERC]

Read the paper here:https://t.co/feWwWUKgYL

[TerrACE Project @TerrACE_ERC]

New Paper Alert!
Although #agricultural colluvial soils are important storage for #soil organic carbon (SOC), the mechanisms underlying colluvial (cumulative soils) SOC stability have received little attention so far.

[TerrACE Project @TerrACE_ERC]

Together, these results suggest that the dominant controls on SOC stability in colluvial soils differ from those in non-colluvial soils, and the soil accretion rate is the most important control on colluvial SOC stability in agricultural systems.

[TerrACE Project @TerrACE_ERC]

The terraces are more or less the same size as the ancient steps. The trees found at the terraces are from the original species – basically, the biblical seven species, which includes olives, pomegranates, dates, grapes and figs.

[TerrACE Project @TerrACE_ERC]

#Jerusalem has never been considered prime agricultural land, but farmers of old actually grew #pomegranates and other fruits – once they had cleared the rocky #hills for #cultivation.

[TerrACE Project @TerrACE_ERC]

Most of the farming on the terraced areas of the Judean Mountains was done without artificial irrigation. Farmers harvested pomegranates, grapes, olives and figs watered solely by rainfall.

[TerrACE Project @TerrACE_ERC]

About 35 years ago, at the Sataf Spring, the Jewish National Fund began to reestablish the ancient terraced fields. The organization’s purpose was to preserve the cultural heritage of terracing and to preserve the landscape.

[TerrACE Project @TerrACE_ERC]

Box fields or patch cultivation denote the natural step-like appearance of the rocky slopes of hills, with thin layers of chalky marl interposed between limestone or dolomite strata.

[TerrACE Project @TerrACE_ERC]

But how did early people come to consider terracing? For more than 100 years now, some archeologists have been suggesting box fields or patch cultivation may have sparked early attempts at terracing.

[TerrACE Project @TerrACE_ERC]

In the valleys of the mountains, farmers occasionally had to deal with draining off excess water caused by floods or heavy rains. They did this by extending the terracing deep into the valley. Where necessary, they built drain lines.

[TerrACE Project @TerrACE_ERC]

When the terrace was wide enough, the farmer worked with a plow. When it was very narrow, the farmer was forced to use a hoe or mattock.