Early to Middle Bronze Age agricultural terraces in north-east England: morphology, dating and cultural implications

Antony G. Brown; Daniel Fallu; Sara Cucchiaro; Monica Alonso; Rosa Maria Albert; Kevin Walsh; Ben R. Pears; Rob Scaife; Catherine Langdon; Paolo Tarolli; David Cockroft; Lisa Snape; Andreas Lang; Philippa Ascough; Pengzhi Zhao; Kristof Van Oost; Clive Waddington

doi:10.15184/aqy.2023.1

Early to Middle Bronze Age agricultural terraces in north-east England: morphology, dating and cultural implications

Antony G. Brown, Daniel Fallu, Sara Cucchiaro, Monica Alonso, Rosa Maria Albert, Kevin Walsh, Ben R. Pears, Rob Scaife, Catherine Langdon, Paolo Tarolli, David Cockroft, Lisa Snape, Andreas Lang, Philippa Ascough, Pengzhi Zhao, Kristof Van Oost, Clive Waddington

Archaeology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Terracing is found widely in the Mediterranean and in other hilly and mountainous regions of the world. Yet while archaeological attention to these ‘mundane' landscape features has grown, they remain understudied, particularly in Northern Europe. Here, the authors present a multidisciplinary study of terraces in the Breamish Valley, Northumberland. The results date their construction to the Early to Middle Bronze Age, when they were built by cutting back the hillside, stone clearance and wall construction. Environmental evidence points to their use for cereal cultivation. The authors suggest that the construction and use of these terraces formed part of an Early to Middle Bronze Age agricultural intensification, which may have been both demographically and culturally driven.

Original language	Undefined/Unknown
Number of pages	19
Journal	Antiquity
Early online date	6 Feb 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2023.1
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 6 Feb 2023

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Britain
Bronze Age
environmental archaeology
landscape history
pOSL
phytoliths
pollen
prehistoric agriculture

Access to Document

10.15184/aqy.2023.1Licence: CC BY

Early to Middle Bronze Age agricultural terraces in north-east England: morphology, dating and cultural implications
© The Author(s), 2023
Final published version, 6.39 MBLicence: CC BY

1 Invited talk

TERRACE Meeting/Workshop
Kevin James Walsh (Chair)
14 Feb 2020
Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk

1 Finished

(ERC- 2017)-ADG: TerrACE
Walsh, K. J. (Principal investigator)
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
1/12/18 → 31/05/24
Project: Research project (funded) › Research

Cite this

Brown, A. G., Fallu, D., Cucchiaro, S., Alonso, M., Albert, R. M., Walsh, K., Pears, B. R., Scaife, R., Langdon, C., Tarolli, P., Cockroft, D., Snape, L., Lang, A., Ascough, P., Zhao, P., Oost, K. V., & Waddington, C. (2023). Early to Middle Bronze Age agricultural terraces in north-east England: morphology, dating and cultural implications. Antiquity. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2023.1

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AU - Brown, Antony G.

AU - Fallu, Daniel

AU - Cucchiaro, Sara

AU - Alonso, Monica

AU - Albert, Rosa Maria

AU - Walsh, Kevin

AU - Pears, Ben R.

AU - Scaife, Rob

AU - Langdon, Catherine

AU - Tarolli, Paolo

AU - Cockroft, David

AU - Snape, Lisa

AU - Lang, Andreas

AU - Ascough, Philippa

AU - Zhao, Pengzhi

AU - Oost, Kristof Van

AU - Waddington, Clive

PY - 2023/2/6

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N2 - Terracing is found widely in the Mediterranean and in other hilly and mountainous regions of the world. Yet while archaeological attention to these ‘mundane' landscape features has grown, they remain understudied, particularly in Northern Europe. Here, the authors present a multidisciplinary study of terraces in the Breamish Valley, Northumberland. The results date their construction to the Early to Middle Bronze Age, when they were built by cutting back the hillside, stone clearance and wall construction. Environmental evidence points to their use for cereal cultivation. The authors suggest that the construction and use of these terraces formed part of an Early to Middle Bronze Age agricultural intensification, which may have been both demographically and culturally driven.

AB - Terracing is found widely in the Mediterranean and in other hilly and mountainous regions of the world. Yet while archaeological attention to these ‘mundane' landscape features has grown, they remain understudied, particularly in Northern Europe. Here, the authors present a multidisciplinary study of terraces in the Breamish Valley, Northumberland. The results date their construction to the Early to Middle Bronze Age, when they were built by cutting back the hillside, stone clearance and wall construction. Environmental evidence points to their use for cereal cultivation. The authors suggest that the construction and use of these terraces formed part of an Early to Middle Bronze Age agricultural intensification, which may have been both demographically and culturally driven.

KW - Britain

KW - Bronze Age

KW - environmental archaeology

KW - landscape history

KW - pOSL

KW - phytoliths

KW - pollen

KW - prehistoric agriculture

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M3 - Article

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JO - Antiquity

JF - Antiquity

ER -

Early to Middle Bronze Age agricultural terraces in north-east England: morphology, dating and cultural implications

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Access to Document

Activities

TERRACE Meeting/Workshop

Projects

(ERC- 2017)-ADG: TerrACE

Cite this