The Legacy of Terracing

Part of the Legacies on the Landscape project

Author(s): Sarah Ventre

Year: 2005

Summary

When trying to analyze human impact on the environment one of the first questions that comes to mind is what long-term effects agriculture has on the land. This research examines the effect of agricultural terracing in terms of soil content and fertility. Specifically, does prehistoric agricultural terracing affect the number and type of seeds in the soil, and thereby the soil’s fertility? Soil fertility is a complex question and studies have been done to analyze the chemical content of soils to determine whether or not they have optimal growing conditions. This project however looked at seed bank data in the context of an experimental study. In essence, I took seed bank samples from on and off agricultural terraces and then put them through the same experimental conditions to see whether or not they yielded similar results in the number and types of plants that grew.

Cite this Record

The Legacy of Terracing. Sarah Ventre. 2005 ( tDAR id: 406858) ; doi:10.6067/XCV8CJ8GFQ

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Keywords

Culture
Ancestral Puebloan • Hohokam • Mogollon • Perry Mesa Tradition

Site Name
Perry Mesa

Site Type
Archaeological Feature • Domestic Structure or Architectural Complex • Funerary and Burial Structures or Features • Non-Domestic Structures • Resource Extraction / Production / Transportation Structure or Features • Rock Art • Water-Related

Investigation Types
Architectural Survey • Methodology, Theory, or Synthesis • Systematic Survey

Geographic Keywords
Agua Fria National Monument • Perry Mesa

Temporal Keywords
Perry Mesa Tradition • Pueblo IV

Temporal Coverage

Calendar Date: 1200 to 1450

Spatial Coverage

min long: -112.162; min lat: 34.079 ; max long: -111.907; max lat: 34.296 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Landowner(s): Bureau of Land Management

Sponsor(s): Arizona State University, Department of Anthropology

Repository(s): Arizona State University Museum of Anthropology

File Information

  Name Size Creation Date Date Uploaded Access
Seed-Bank-Paper---Ventre.doc 29.50kb Aug 3, 2016 10:37:16 AM Public

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