TERRACED LANDSCAPES

(1) This form of land use is plasticized on terraces in order to maximize insolation. Terraces are typical for the whole Mediterranean. Typical plants: wine grapes, olive- and fruit trees.

(2) Cultivation terraces are notoriously difficult to date. A very few are known from the Bronze Age, and there is rather more archaeological evidence for them in Classical Greece. How widespread they became is still very uncertain.

Source: (1) Definition elaborated by the Eucaland-Project group (2) Grove and Rackham 2001.

Agricultural terraced landscapes mean grasslands as wells as fields, including artificial landscapes like for wine and fruit production. It does not include: artificial terraces from mining or waste deposit, water meadows in hilly regions which also have a terraced aspect, Wölbäcker/Bifang, infrastructure terraces (e.g. roads, dykes, house construction), microterraces by transhumance and/or wild animals.