Terraces are prominent features in agricultural landscapes across the world. Several terraced landscapes are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including terraces for olive and vine cultivation in Europe and the Middle East, and rice production in Asia. Terraces are connected to what people consider ‘traditional’ agriculture, and their scenic qualities contribute strongly to regional landscape character (Pedroli et al. 2013). Extensive agricultural and environmental research has suggested their benefits for soil management and controlling moisture levels, but this positive impact has not been fully evaluated in the long term, due to limitations in accurately dating terrace formation and evolution (Bevan and Connolly 2011, Nanavati et al. 2016).

Analysing the historical context and changing function of terraces has been recognised as fundamentally important to understanding sustainable agricultural practices (Krahtopoulou and Frederick 2008), but despite their global distribution and numerous studies dedicated to their ecological and agricultural functions, the histories of terraced landscapes remain surprisingly poorly understood. Relatively little is known about when they were established, and how they were used and developed across different periods and environments. The major reason is that terraces have proven exceptionally difficult to date (Acabado et al. 2009). Excavated artefacts can give relative dates, but datable finds are frequently absent and complicated by disturbance and bioturbation. References to terraces are rare in ancient or medieval texts, potentially because they were so commonplace in the landscape. The innovative approach developed by PI Turner and CoI Kinnaird for dating earthwork features, including agricultural terraces, represents a major advance for this problem. Pilot studies in western Catalonia demonstrate an efficient, cost-effective and minimally-intrusive technique for dating complete sediment profiles (Kinnaird et al. 2017a; Turner et al. 2018). This new approach uses portable optically-stimulated luminescence (OSL) equipment, coupled with gamma dosimetry, to contextualise soil-sediment stratigraphies and therefore relate soils directly to the associated earthworks and agricultural terraces. For the first time it is now possible to write highly-detailed and closely-dated landscape histories working from the soil itself, and to contextualise these narratives in relation to archaeological and historical knowledge of evolving farming practices, population movement and climate change.