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Soil erosion, agricultural terracing and site formation processes at Markiani, Amorgos, Greece
C.A.I. French and T.M. Whitelaw

Soils and sediments of a terraced slope at an Early Bronze Age site on the Aegean island of Amorgos were examined micromorphologically to determine the nature and amount of erosion on the slope during the past 5000 years, and how this had affected the formation of the surviving archaeological record. The deposits forming representative terraces were examined, as was the post-depositional sequence overlying the site, and a palaeosol preserved beneath terrace retaining walls at the break of slope. The buried, pre-terrace system 'red soil' was a reworked red palaeosol, much affected by downslope erosion processes, which probably commenced with clearance associated with the Early Bronze Age occupation of the site.

Keywords: Soil erosion, palaeosol, terraces, terra rosa, illuviation

Click on the link below to open a pdf with a more detailed summary of this project.

[[media:DrFrenchSoilerosion2.pdf‎|Soil erosion, agricultural terracing and site formation processes at Markiani, Amorgos, Greece]]

Even further details of this project can be found in the complete article at the Archaeological Data Service website http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/projArch/markiani_ba_2000/index.cfm

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