RECONSTRUCTING LANDSCAPE HISTORY OF THE IKLAINA ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE USING A COUPLED LEM-ABM

Landscapes modified through construction of agricultural terraces evolve in response to both environmental changes and human decisions regarding terrace maintenance and abandonment. Model simulations, including Landscape Evolution Models (LEM) can test hypotheses regarding interactions and feedbacks in landscapes, however, few LEM include agricultural terraces and none involve human decision-making about terrace maintenance. In this project, human-landscape interactions in terraced areas are analyzed by coupling a LEM with an agent-based model (ABM) to reconstruct the history of landscape change near Iklaina, Greece, using a combination of historical, archaeological, and environmental data. The landscape history reconstruction may improve interpretation of the stratigraphy at the Iklaina excavation by providing a timeframe for changes in ground surface level that would explain preservation of walls close to the current ground surface. Overall, this research reveals the intricacies of human-landscape interactions in Messenia, Greece and provides a method to analyze the evolution of terraced landscapes in other parts of the world.