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Agronomy
Special Issues
Archaeology and Agriculture
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Archaeology and Agriculture

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Agroecology Innovation: Achieving System Resilience".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2023) | Viewed by 2408

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Andrea Luca Balbo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Section of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Geneva, Genève, Switzerland
Interests: sustainability; domestication; Neolithic; Holocene; Anthropocene

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Agriculture is one of the most widespread and successful adaptive strategies in human history. Over millennia, agriculture and domestication have provided a steady source of subsistence, supporting the sustained growth of human populations and increasingly complex societies worldwide. Often seen as a granted asset in modern societies, agriculture has only emerged relatively recently in human history, with the climatic stability of the Holocene. In fact, recent climate trends show the vulnerabilities of modern agricultural systems while pointing to their contribution to environmental deterioration.

As we enter a period of great climatic uncertainty in the Anthropocene, this volume explores various early and pre-industrial forms of agriculture across climates and environments worldwide. From tropical deserts and forests to temperate mountains and plains, from the Neolithic to the Colonial period, this volume provides a broad overview of pre-industrial strategies, solutions, and excesses in agriculture. We are convinced that lessons learned from archaeological research on agriculture can inform the agricultural sector today towards sustainable food production for present and future generations.

Dr. Andrea Luca Balbo
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • sustainability
  • domestication
  • Neolithic
  • Holocene
  • Anthropocene
 

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 8281 KiB  
Communication
Prehispanic Arid Zone Farming: Hybrid Flood and Irrigation Systems along the North Coast of Peru
by Ari Caramanica
Agronomy 2024, 14(3), 407; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14030407 - 20 Feb 2024
Viewed by 650
Abstract
As arid lands expand across the globe, scholars increasingly turn to the archaeological record for examples of sustainable farming in extreme environments. The arid north coast of Peru was the setting of early and intensive irrigation-based farming; it is also periodically impacted by [...] Read more.
As arid lands expand across the globe, scholars increasingly turn to the archaeological record for examples of sustainable farming in extreme environments. The arid north coast of Peru was the setting of early and intensive irrigation-based farming; it is also periodically impacted by sudden, heavy rainfall related to the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon. While the sociopolitical effects, technologies, and engineering expertise of these irrigation systems have been thoroughly examined and theorized, little is known about how farmers managed periods of water stress. The aim of this study is to test whether arid zone farming was supported by hybrid, intermittent flood and perennial water source systems in the prehispanic past. An arroyo in the Chicama Valley was selected for preliminary data collection, and these data are presented here: (1) drone photography of the arroyo capturing the aftermath of a recent (2023) rain event; and (2) potassium (K) soil test kit results from samples collected near suspected prehispanic check dam features in the same area. The paper combines these data with comparative examples from the literature to suggest that the prehispanic features functioned as water-harvesting infrastructure. The paper concludes that sustainable, arid zone farming can be supported by hybrid, intermittent flood and perennial water source systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Archaeology and Agriculture)
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Review

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13 pages, 982 KiB  
Review
The Archaeology of Field Systems in Al-Andalus
by Helena Kirchner
Agronomy 2024, 14(1), 196; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14010196 - 16 Jan 2024
Viewed by 1447
Abstract
The Berber and Arab conquest of the Iberian Peninsula in 711 C.E. led to a profound transformation of the agricultural landscape. The layout of the irrigated areas, both rural and urban, is recognisable because it is the result of social and technological choices. [...] Read more.
The Berber and Arab conquest of the Iberian Peninsula in 711 C.E. led to a profound transformation of the agricultural landscape. The layout of the irrigated areas, both rural and urban, is recognisable because it is the result of social and technological choices. But irrigated agriculture was not the only option in Al-Andalus. Rainfed agriculture is supposed to have been the main form of agriculture in large areas of the centre and west of the peninsula, although the field systems have been scarcely identified. In regions where irrigation was the preferred option, rainfed crops were complementary. In regions where dry farming was the only possible agriculture, there were settlement networks linked to livestock breeding and to droveways and pasture areas. The original selections made by the Berber and Arab farmers can still be recognized despite the expansion that has mainly taken place since modern times. However, the more recent and destructive capitalist agriculture is erasing the last vestiges of the Andalusi agricultural landscape. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Archaeology and Agriculture)
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