Terraced Landscapes of the Jabal Akhdar (2022-23): Fieldwork at Shuraijah and Wadi Bani Habib

Agricultural terraces are prominent features in landscapes across the world. Terraces enable the cultivation of steep land for crops
including cereals, fruit, vegetables, flowers and trees, and can be irrigated where careful water management is required. They allow
the redistribution of sediment to create soils with improved root penetration and water retention. Terraces are highly variable, their
regional development reflecting a combination of natural factors (differing geologies, geomorphology, hydrological conditions) and
landscape histories (manuring, field management, crop selection, water availability). The histories of terraced landscapes remain
poorly understood, including in Oman. Little is known about when they were constructed, and how they were used and developed
across different periods and environments. A key reason for this lack of knowledge is that terraces have proven exceptionally difficult
to date using conventional or scientific archaeological methods. This research project uses a new method developed by the research
team to date terraces in Oman for the first time and use geoarchaeological methods to investigate how they were used in the past. In
March 2023, targeted fieldwork in two villages of Jabal Akhdar (Ash Shuraijah and Wadi Bani Habib) allowed collection of sediment
samples for dating and geoarchaeological analysis.