10.8Terraces in the Mayan Area

Mayans developed other intensive cropping systems, and not only the slash-and-burn system, as formerly believed. Turner II (1974) and Lobato (1988) report evidence of intensive terrace systems and elevated fields in the Río Bec region, between Quintana Roo and Campeche and the Usumacinta River basin in the state of Chiapas, Mexico.

Turner II (1974) describes the Río Bec region’s terraced systems, mounds, and archeological ruins, which are located in limestone hills that range from 20 to 60 m high. These hills contain shallow, drained soils and are susceptible to erosion in the rainy season. Between Xpujil (Campeche) and Nicolás Bravo (Quintana Roo) terrace surfaces cover an area of ten square kilometers. Two types of terraces were identified there. The first consists of limestone walls, with a height of 0.80–1.40 m, filled with debris. The second type is made of smaller embankments formed by walls of unfilled limestone rocks or rows of vertically buried rocks; the walls are less than 0.40 cm high, and the width of the base fluctuates between 0.60 and 0.80 cm. Such terrace construction facilitates drainage of excess water via guide walls, infiltration outlets, and lateral inclined embankments. The small walls and the paths between the terraces allow control of water flow.

Another case in the Mayan area has been registered by Lobato (1988), in the Santo Domingo River valley, which is in the municipality of Ocosingo in Chiapas (region of the Usumacinta River). This valley has an altitude of 400 m above sea level. It has several hills between the sierras of Piedras de Bola and Güiral, and it has an average annual rainfall of 2566 mm. In this region, three terraced systems have been identified. The first consists of a set of seven bench terraces with stone walls facing east, covering an area of 930 m2. The average slope of the terraces is 39%. The terrace walls are made of sedimentary and calcareous rock, and they are generally 3.0 m high by 2.50 m wide; the soil is clay-calcareous with a depth of 25 cm.

The second system consists of terraces with walls of small calcareous rocks, different from those of the first system, which are brought from a nearby stream and are, on average, 0.60 cm high. The third system is made of four terraces covering an area of 7200 m2. The walls, which oscillate between 1.50 and 2.50 m high, are constructed with rocks of greater volume than those used in the other systems. Lobato (1988) considers that these terraced systems were carefully constructed under proper planning, and, at the time of their discovery, types one and three were in agricultural production under the slash-and-burn system where maize and beans were grown with good yields. Toward the 1980s, the farmers continued to use the terraces under the slash-and-burn system with corn and bean crops. The time, effort, and organization required to build and maintain the large-scale terraces were great, so it is inferred that the work on the terraces was intensive to produce high yields per unit area.

10.9Conclusions

In Mexico, terraces are one of the traditional agricultural systems of Mesoamerican origin, and there are two predominant types—terraces with rock walls and metepantles. The terraces and metepantles are considered part of traditional agriculture and agroforestry and are associated with traditional crops, such as maize, pumpkin, green beans, and fruit trees, which provide food security for farm families. The terrace use and management continue to be carried out by peasant and indigenous families, who have accumulated a body of knowledge that allows them to develop this system and control soil, vegetation, and forms of cultivation.

Most studies of Mexican terraces have been archeological, discussing the origin and development of civilization and giving an account of the terracing system’s historical development, the growth of complex societies, techniques of building walls and water canals, the relationship between terraces and irrigation through canals and reservoirs, and the relationship between terraces and former urban centers.

In Mexico, agricultural terraces are distributed in various regions: northern, western, central, southern, and eastern. Although there are records of terraces in other regions, it is necessary to carry out more ethnographic studies that describe the current state of conservation, use and construction techniques, social organization, crops and medicinal plants, flora and associated fauna, ecological knowledge concerning terrace development, and terrace contribution to environmental conservation and its relationship with the market. Different types of terraces have been identified, and the nomenclature used to refer to them varies in different regions—for example, metepantles and milpa (cornfield) in the Central Highlands, levees in Hidalgo, lama-bordo in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca, and terraces in Jalisco, Chiapas.

Agricultural terraces are the basis for modeling soil conservation efforts, such as those in Oaxaca under the leadership of Milpa Intercalada con Árboles Frutales (MIAF) (Cortés et al. 2012), which aimed to capture coal and boost the economy of farming families, alternating traditional crops with fruit trees, as well as increasing the amount of organic matter in the soil, controlling soil erosion, using rainwater more efficiently, and contributing to the food security of indigenous families. Another strategy that could be developed to boost agricultural terraces is agro-ecological tourism, which combines archeological sites with terraced crops.

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Part II

Towards a Multifunctional Vision of

Terraced Landscapes

Chapter 11

Mapping Agricultural Terraces

in Italy. Methodologies Applied

in the MAPTER Project

Francesco Ferrarese, Salvatore Eugenio Pappalardo, Alberto Cosner, Stefano Brugnaro, Kaodi Alum, Angelica Dal Pozzo

and Massimo De Marchi

Abstract Agricultural terraced systems and their geographical distribution are not often represented in maps, even if they play an important role in hydro-geological hazard: Moreover, detailed cartography of these features could improve understanding and valuing their environmental, social, and economic complexity. The general aim of the MAPTER project is to map and quantify the extension the Italian terraced systems. To do that, it was necessary to apply different methodologies according to different data sources locally available: (i) traditional cartographic and photo analysis, (ii) orthophoto and high-resolution satellite images, (iii) DTM LiDAR analysis, (iv) Web Map Services and Geobrowser analysis, (v) participatory mapping and Voluntary Geography Activities, (vi) the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). At the time of this paper, the LiDAR DTM allows us to highly improve the traditional methodologies of cartographic and aerial photos analyses, in terms of precision, costs, and time-consuming: Many terraced systems in Italy appear to be underestimated by the previous, traditional, methodologies in comparison with the results obtained by LiDAR technology and LiDAR data elaboration. This work tested different methodologies and approaches to survey study areas in the Italian context, representing a starting point to coordinate researches among academic institutions, public administrations, voluntary geographers, and citizens science, in order to implement the geographical knowledge for terraced systems and landscapes, key heritage of Italian territories.

F. Ferrarese (&) K. Alum A. Dal Pozzo

Department of Historical, Geographic Sciences and the Ancient World, University of Padova, Padua, Italy

e-mail: francesco.ferrarese@unipd.it

S. E. Pappalardo S. Brugnaro M. De Marchi

Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering,

University of Padova, Padua, Italy

A. Cosner

Archaeologist Freelance Professional, Trento, Italy

M. Varotto et al. (eds.), World Terraced Landscapes: History, Environment, Quality of Life, Environmental History 9, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96815-5_11