Landscape Capital and Fragile Communities on Antikythera, Greece

大多数地中海景观的特征是高度复杂和广泛的田野、轨道和梯田系统，但这些农业特征与它们产生的社会背景之间的关系尚不清楚。通过考古、地质考古、环境和人种学研究，这一研究项目将详细了解人类决策、长期人口模式和这种景观资本投资的发展之间的关系。将要解决的主要问题是梯田和相关结构的建设是否与人口急剧增长的时期直接相关，这使得有必要更密集地投资于生产力较低的景观部分，或者梯田是否在更长的时间跨度内出现，更有机，代表人口增长的潜在因果因素而不是影响。这个问题对于理解个体农业期货之间的关系至关重要，其中这种可重复使用的景观资本投资是一个重要问题。例如，一个地区梯田的快速建设可能证明，如果没有大型国家当局的鼓励，那么在社区层面上可能会鼓励大量的劳动力组织，而更长时间、多代人的建设可能表明，高度复杂的结构可以在没有个体家庭单位以外的劳动力组织的情况下出现。该项目将在Antikythera岛上进行，这是申请人正在进行的密集考古调查的重点。许多与理解景观变化之间的关系相关的问题，如梯田，由于高度偶发的定居历史，从而提高了我们将梯田建设与岛屿过去特定阶段联系起来的能力，因此受到阻碍。其结果将是更清楚地了解地中海乡村景观最具特色的特征之一，以及它们产生的社会和人口背景。

Characteristic feature of most Mediterranean landscapes are highly complex and extensive systems of fields, trackways and terraces, but the relationship between these agricultural features and the social context in which they emerge is not clearly understood. Through archaeological, geoarchaeological, environmental and ethnographic study, this research project will build a detailed understanding of the relationship between human decision-making, long-term demographic patterns and the development of such capital investments in the landscape. The main question that will be addresses is whether the construction of terraces and associated structures is directly correlated with periods of dramatic population growth which made it necessary to invest more intensively in less-productive parts of landscape, or whether terraces emerge over a longer time-span, more organically and represent a potential causal factor of demographic growth rather than effect. This question is crucial for understanding the relationship between individual agricultural futures in which such re-useable landscape capital investments are an important issue. For example, rapid construction of terraces across a region provides possible evidence of significant labour organisation encouraged at the community level if not by large state authorities while longer, multi-generational, construction might suggest that highly-complex structures can emerge without the organisation of labour beyond that of the individual household unit.The project will be undertaken on the island of Antikythera, the focus of an ongoing intensive archaeological investigation by the applicants. Many of the problems associated with understanding the relationship between landscape modifications, such as terraces, are militated against because of the highly episodic settlement history which thus improves our ability to link terrace construction with specific phases of the island's past. The outcome will be a clearer understanding of one of the most characteristic features of Mediterranean rural landscapes, and the social and demographic contexts in which they emerge.