The Halaesa Landscape (III B.C.) As Ancient Example of the Complex and Bio-Diverse Traditional Mediterranean Polycultural Landscape

Landscape History

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The Halaesa landscape (III B.C.) as ancient example of the complex and bio-diverse traditional Mediterranean polycultural landscape

Giuseppe Barbera & Sebastiano Cullotta

To cite this article: Giuseppe Barbera & Sebastiano Cullotta (2014) The Halaesa landscape (III B.C.) as ancient example of the complex and bio-diverse traditional Mediterranean polycultural landscape, Landscape History, 35:2, 53-66, DOI: 10.1080/01433768.2014.981395

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01433768.2014.981395

Published online: 03 Nov 2014.

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Download by: [La Trobe University] Date: 31 May 2016, At: 22:01 The Halaesa landscape (III b.c.) as ancient example of the complex and bio-diverse traditional Mediterranean polycultural landscape

Giuseppe Barbera and Sebastiano Cullotta

ABSTRACT landscapes and their rapid transformation into more modern forms call out for a better knowledge of the more Southern Europe and the whole Mediterranean area are complex forms of traditional land use and their relative distinguished by landscape types whose characters result rural landscapes. from countless, long and complex cultural and historical processes that developed in an equally complex and varied environment. The Mediterranean rural landscape would keywords keep these same distinctive characteristics until the crisis Cultural landscape, environmental history, land of the mixed crops, and the phenomena of urbanisation scape pattern, land use, agro-silvo-pastoral sys in the1960s/70s. tems, material and non-material heritage, Sicily This paper identifies the characteristics of the Mediter ranean polycultural and polyspecific coltura( promiscua) landscape, characterised by the presence of trees (both wild INTRODUCTION and cultivated), starting from a historical overview of the The different regions of the Mediterranean Basin central Mediterranean. The analysed case-study of the show a high degree of both physical and climatic Halaesa landscape (Sicily), as one of the first historical unity, despite the landscape’s diversification by detailed descriptions of a complex Mediterranean cultural mountains, plateaus, and plains, especially the

Downloaded by [La Trobe University] at 22:01 31 May 2016 landscape, is the result of a polycultural agro-silvo-pastoral coast. This environmental and ecological diversity system which guarantees complexity and richness (in terms is also the consequence of the intersection of of structural and biological diversity), as well as with three different continents, and hence of their reference to others environmental, cultural and economic genetically different flora and fauna as well as their multi-functionality. The analysis of these polycultural different civilisations (e.g. Braudel 1986; Grove & landscapes reveals a rich spatial configuration and the Rackham 2002; Blondel 2006). A complex ‘co- patchiness of the land mosaic. The presence of historical evolution’ has shaped the interactions between features, of traditional crops and land use, of traditional natural ecosystems and the constantly evolving land management, and the conservation of the rural human land-use practices, resulting in a mosaic architecture and other material cultural heritage related to of traditional landscapes which conserve many agricultural activity, as well as the non-material cultural of the biological and cultural characteristics of heritage, are particularly important aspects considered those from the past. by international and European organisations towards These agricultural and forestry practices gradu their valorisation and conservation. The pressure on these ally led to complex and heterogeneous agro-silvo-

DOI: 10.1080/01433768.2014.981395 54 landscape history

pastoral rural patterns typified by a fine-grained landscapes that are characterised by complex mosaic pattern of land use (Sirami et al. 2010; agricultural forms, mixed agro-forestry systems Cullotta & Barbera 2011). This mosaic was made and landscapes that are capable of generating up of relatively small patches and corridors, and and guaranteeing an articulated environmental had a great species and interspecies diversity as well as economic, cultural and social multi- as a consequence of the cyclical disturbances functionality (Pinto-Correia & Vos 2004; Jose introduced by rotational grazing, cutting and 2009; Jones-Walters 2008; Mascari et al. 2009). coppice regimes, and fire management, as well as Considering these more complex forms in of cultivation and other human land-use practices which the tree holds a central role, a better (Naveh 1995). The traditional agricultural and delineation and characterisation of the role of forestry practices together are considered today the polyculture (literally mixed cultivation, ‘coltura in defining the agroforestry systems (Nair 1991), promiscua’) in the traditional landscape certainly as the deliberate growing of woody perennials on seems useful or necessary. This definition is so the same area and at the same time as agricultural often generically associated with the countless crops and/or fodder plants (Nair 1993). So, these different systems and agricultural and agro- systems often show different spatial and temporal forestry landscape configurations that have been combinations of land use that can be classified produced by the complex and intricate historic as: silvo-pastoral, agro-pastoral, agro-silvicultural, processes that have led to their cultural definition agro-silvo-pastoral (Nair 1993; Nerlich et al. 2013). and evolution. The cultivation of arable land, olive groves, This paper traces the historic milestones of vineyards, mixed crops and fruit orchards, agricultural processes that have characterised these and other multi-functional agricultural and complex agricultural systems and landscapes of agro-forestry systems are among the most the Mediterranean basin in order to better define: important examples of traditional farming in (i) the concept of a traditional rural Mediter the Mediterranean. Moreover, the conventional ranean landscape, with particular reference subdivision of properties into small units to that including fruit and non-fruit (wild) (especially in peri-urban areas), due to the long trees; intervals in ownership succession and property (ii) the concept and importance of the mixed transfers, has further augmented this structural and complex forms of agro-forestry systems heterogeneity, thus influencing the contemporary and landscapes (coltura promiscua, giardino cultural practices regarding rural landscapes Mediterraneo) by following the historic (Horden & Purcell 2000, pp. 175–230). The development of this landscape, beginning physical expression of land division and property with a historic description of the territory Downloaded by [La Trobe University] at 22:01 31 May 2016 ownership is visually reinforced by the presence of Sicily (central Mediterranean), in which of stone walls and other artefacts or features all of the most important defining features such as terraces, hedgerows, canals, stone heaps, of this complex polycultural landscape come etc. (Grove & Rackham 2002; Brown et al. 2007; together; Petanidou et al. 2008; Barbera & Cullotta 2012). (iii) their most important structural characters, Traditional agro-silvo-pastoral Mediterranean configuration and elements at the landscape landscapes, particularly those characterised by and stand-system level, because of its environ the presence of trees, both as strictly agricultural mental complexity, multi-functionality and crops as well as in woodlands or as isolated trees, cultural heritage. have maintained some defining characteristics regarding their composition, structure, and function during the course of their slow evolution (Antrop 1997; Vos & Meekes 1999). These features are particularly expressed in those the halaesa landscape 55

THE ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN RURAL because of its environmental, climatic, and LANDSCAPE: THE HALAESA LANDSCAPE topographic variability and its interactions with various historic events and cultures (Naveh 1995; milestones of the pre-classical Pinto-Correia & Vos 2004; Blondel 2006). These and classical time interwoven seminatural and cultivated landscapes The first significant impact made by humans have been the cradle of man’s relationship on forests and other natural ecosystems in the with nature for thousands of years and are real Mediterranean took place before the Neolithic biodiversity hotspots due to their exceptional revolution (Terral 2000), when permanent settle number of endemic and cultivated species. The ments were established. Forest management three main crops — grapes, olives and grains (e.g. through wood-cutting and coppicing, controlled Terral 2000) —, are those which Braudel defined burning, plant domestication, livestock husbandry, as the ‘trinity born from the union between grazing and browsing, as well as through water climate and history’ (1986, Vol. 1, p. 242) — management and terracing, has been the main however, in general, there is a great diversity tool for producing intermediate disturbance of crops which has determined the area’s food regimes for millennia (Zohary & Hopf 1993; security and ecological stability over the centuries Blondel 2006). (Loumou & Giourga 2003). During its slow evolution over the millennia, This diversity in the Mediterranean was created the Mediterranean agricultural landscape charac by history (with the main contributions being, in terised by the presence of trees, both wild brief, the pre-Classical and Classical introduction and cultivated, maintained some of its initial of Asiatic species, the Islamic ‘agricultural properties from the foundation of its unique revolution’, the introduction of American species tradition: and finally the introduction of the species that arrived via the activities of plant collectors and – its peri-urban (just outside a village, or city) European scientific institutions) and by the closed and protected location; Mediterranean’s heterogeneous environmental – its polycultural and polyspecific (mixed-crop/ characteristics. However, the Mediterranean garden) make-up, its irrigation; landscape was unified by a climate perfectly – its multi-functional character, its close relation adapted to wild and cultivated tree and shrub ship to culture; and species (Bevilacqua 1996). – its continuous use as a source of material and The most famous garden of the Mediterranean non-material heritage. landscape tradition from the classical age is that of Alcino, in the Odyssey: We know that a peri-urban landscape made up Downloaded by [La Trobe University] at 22:01 31 May 2016 of cultivated fields and fruit orchards alternating Outside the gate of the outer court there is a large with wooded areas (from Shay et al. 1991, cited garden of about four acres with a wall all round it. in Blondel & Aronson 1999), such as those that It is full of beautiful trees — pears, pomegranates, can still be seen today in the various parts of and the most delicious apples. There are luscious the Mediterranean from the Iberian peninsula figs also, and olives in full growth ... Pear grows on and southern France in the west (Pinto-Correia pear, apple on apple, and fig on fig, and so also with the grapes, for there is an excellent vineyard ... In & Vos 2004; Sirami et al. 2010) all the way to the furthest part of the ground there are beautifully the far eastern regions (Braudel 1986; Kizos & arranged beds of flowers that are in bloom all the Koulouri 2006), was already present in the ancient year round. Two streams go through it, the one polycultural landscape located in the peri-urban turned in ducts throughout the whole garden, while areas of the island of Crete during the 4th–3rd the other is carried under the ground of the outer millennium a.d. This fragmented landscape is court to the house itself, and the town’s people both temporally and spatially heterogeneous draw water from it (Homer, trans. Butler 1900). 56 landscape history

Another Homeric garden is that of Laertes, According to Sereni (1961), in typically Mediter Odysseus’s father — a ‘great orchard’ (ibid.) ranean regions, such as Sicily and southern Italy, surrounded by a dry stone wall. the origins of the Mediterranean cultivated fruit For example, in the Italian landscape (which is trees can be found in the Classical period, with very representative of the entire Mediterranean the colonisation of Magna Graecia, as much as area’s geography, environmental variability and in the subsequent Arabic colonisation (between history), the presence of fruit trees is generally the ninth and twelfth centuries), and enriched in celebrated with authoritative testimonies by the the following centuries. geoponic Latin writers: Columella, Pliny the Elder For example, in Sicily, the Caliphates (IX–XI and Terrenzius Varro. In Rerum Rusticarum, Varro century) and the Norman kings (XI–XIII) adopted symbolically asks: ‘Is not Italy so covered with fruit Islamic landscape character styles and agricultural trees that it seems one vast orchard?’ (Varro, trans. systems as privileged sites for the introduction Fairfax 1918, p. 59). Fruit trees can be effectively of new species and techniques. Citrus sp. would identified as the most distinctive trait showing begin to spread throughout the peri-urban environmental diversity as well as the complex lands, gardens and parks of the Mediterranean, course of human history so clearly legible in the increasing the species biodiversity as well as traditional Mediterranean landscapes. the Mediterranean land-mosaic (Barbera 2000). The Greek model — an enclosed polyspecific Once more, the polyspecific and polycultural garden, with a regular planting distance between Mediterranean landscape would increase its trees — is also found in the Roman landscape biodiversity again when new species were brought in the form of small fruit and vegetable gardens in by the discovery of the American continent. (hortuli), which surround the city where temporary One of the most important new species for its dwellings (tabernae) house worshippers of the effect on the composition and function of the sacred Lares (Grimal 2000). The economic and traditional complex Mediterranean landscape territorial growth of the Roman Empire led to would be the cactus pear (Barbera et al. 1992). the adoption of Oriental paradise garden models, This shows how multi-temporal and complex containing both useful and ornamental species the evolutionary process that shaped the Mediter and a strong architectural and monumental ranean agricultural and agro-forestry landscape component that would mark the style of the was. Renaissance as well as the later Neoclassical gardens in future centuries. The mixed fruit crops of the hortuli would be the an ancient case-study: the halaesa rural hallmark of what would be the Italian agricultural landscape description

Downloaded by [La Trobe University] at 22:01 31 May 2016 landscape par excellence, that of the coltura promiscua For the first time in landscape literature, Sereni which combines trees with grains, combining (1961) retraces the elements of such mixed and permanent crops with temporary herbaceous complex forms of agro-forestry systems and crops and natural patches (forest, woodlot, landscapes, named giardino Mediterraneo, starting Mediterranean maquis, etc.), and occurring in with the forms and functional characteristics a variety of forms. One of the most complex, found in the Tavola di Alesa (literally: Stele of for example, being the alberata (Desplanques Alesa) (Fig. 1), a Greek colony founded in 403 1959) in central Italy, a mixed-cultivation system b.c., and the plan based on it drawn by Sicca that trains grapevines on living trees (Agnoletti (1924) which provides schematic information 2013). In southern Italy, extraordinary examples on the land use and landscape structure of the of coltura promiscua which still survive are the city of Halaesa (Fig. 2a) (near the present Tusa) terraced almond orchards of Gargano (Apulia) on the Tyrrhenian coast of Sicily (Barbera & and the carob orchards of the province of Ragusa Cullotta 2014), between the second half of III (south-east Sicily). to I a.d., during the establishment of Roman rule the halaesa landscape 57

and following a probable redistribution of land. A reconstruction similar to that one, although more lean but with the same elements, can be seen in the two drawings made by Arangio Ruiz & Olivieri in 1925 (Fig. 2b), which graphically portray the information found on both of the columns of the marble epigraph (in total three marbles discovered in different moments: 1558, 1885 and 1958; the first citation by Fazello 1558) published by Torremuzza in 1753 (Burgio 2008). The text and drawings allow a first reading of the area, but to arrive at its more precise definition, in as much as it is a cultural landscape derived from an encounter between natural characteristics, human history and perception, the reading by Belvedere (2008, pp. 1–10) of the epigraph based on the historical and archaeological findings, and literary references to the area is fundamental. Fig. 1. The ‘Tavola di Halaesa’ (Stele of Halaesa) that describes From this multi-disciplinary reading, and the Greek colony founded in 403 b.c., N-Sicily. analysing in detail the information reported in the two columns (columna dextera and latus sinixtrum) of the marble epigraph (see Fig. 1), the territory Downloaded by [La Trobe University] at 22:01 31 May 2016

Fig. 2. The elements that define the traditional Mediterranean complex tree landscape through the plan based on it drawn by Sicca (1924) (a), and by Arangio Ruiz and Olivieri (1925) (b) which provides schematic information on the land use and landscape structure of the city of Halaesa (Greek colony founded in 403 b.c., b N-Sicily). 58 landscape history

Fig. 3. Landscape characters of the sub-urban slopes located between the city walls (top) and the today ‘Tusa’ river (lower). Plan based on the Alesa marble epigraph information, drawn by Arangio Ruiz & Olivieri (1925).

in question is defined by what appears to be a are located on boundaries and have the double highly fragmented and heterogeneous agro-silvo- function of acting as a marker. The importance pastoral land-use mosaic pattern. of olive trees and oil production is shown, not It is located in a suburban area, as is demon only by the widespread presence of the species strated by its proximity to the city walls, and is throughout all of the areas described, but also situated on the slopes interrupted by plateaus by the existence of a nursery or, according to a next to the river and stream beds (Fig. 3). These, different hypothesis, an oil press. The olive tree along with the springs present, constitute a dense is probably also present as a sacred tree. The hydrographical network which also involves crop system in areas with a lower slope is that aqueducts formed by clay channels and pipes as of arable land and wooded pastures following a well as drains which come out from the walls. simple system of fallow fields. The presence of The fragmented nature of the mosaic is also hydraulic structures, found during archaeological

Downloaded by [La Trobe University] at 22:01 31 May 2016 determined by the network of various-sized investigations, has made it possible to imagine roads (Fig. 2) — at least two connecting routes the presence of irrigated orchards. Some of the between the coast, the city and the interior as other tree species present are: figs, pomegranates, well as side roads and private unpaved pathways. pears, and plums. They are certainly grown in These access ways link the sacred areas and coltura promiscua but are also used as hedges or important buildings together with some rural grow wild, especially plums and pears. The latter constructions presumably used for housing is also used to mark the plot boundaries. Even agricultural products or gear. Farmyards (for briars and palisades, stone walls and boulders threshing too) are also present. The main crop contribute towards scoring and marking the grown is the olive, as shown by the frequent boundaries by integrating the subdivisions presence of cultivated specimens, along with marked by the hydrographical network and ones growing wild in the maquis, those that have roadways. The grapevine is also cultivated. The sprouted from the coppicing, and those that soil, due to the slope’s gradient, had to be at least were abandoned after being planted. Some trees partially terraced. The livestock present are sheep, the halaesa landscape 59

TABLE 1. LANDSCAPE PATCHES AND ELEMENTS, GROUPED IN MAIN LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY ASPECTS, REPORTED IN THE COLUMNA DEXTERA (DX) AND LATUS SINIXTRUM (SX) OF THE TAVOLA DI ALESA (GREEK COLONY FOUNDED IN 403 b.c., N-SICILY), THAT DESCRIBES THE LANDSCAPE BETWEEN THE SECOND HALF OF III TO I a.c.

Landscape elements reported in the Landscape elements reported in the Column Dx Column Sx

Shape of patches / Irregular and twisted division of field plots Patchiness and crops • olive groves all around the main sectors of • patched land mosaic and closed fields • the city and presence of olive nursery • olive groves all around the main sectors of the city vineyard, fruit trees (pear, pomegranates, figs) and presence of olive nursery • sheep-caprine livestock • grapes, olive groves, pomegranates, figs, arable land and mixed arable-olive systems • fruit orchards, vegetable gardens, closed fields • grazing lands • grain growth • arable land and mixed arable-olive systems • sheep-caprine farm (livestock) • pasturelands Core areas and buffer areas / • Cork oak (patches of different size) • other woodlots and shrublands • Mediterranean maquis Corridors and ecological network • river (the today Tusa river) • Streams, rivers and riparian Medit. vegetation • Mediterranean riparian vegetation Linear and point elements • small stream • small streams, creeks, springs, holes (natural) and • hedgerows, plums & pears (wild and cultivated) trenchs (artificial) • wild pears and thorn hedgerows (rhamnoi) (as field • aqueduct lines boundary) • wild pears and hedgerows (rhamnoi) (as field boundary) • holes (natural) and trenchs (artificial) • other wild trees and fruit trees as boundary (big olive, • boundary rocks pomegranates, figs) • sacred trees Rural architecture & other stone-made artefacts Downloaded by [La Trobe University] at 22:01 31 May 2016 • rural buildings • rural buildings • fortified walls (pyrgos) • fortified walls (pyrgos) • public fountains, laundry, drinking trough • sheds & storerooms for agronomic cultivation tools • viability network • tower • terraces • canals (of ‘U’-shape of cutted stone or terracotta; • trench (artificial) terracotta tubes) • public fountains, laundry, drinking trough • sacred areas • stone pathways and vias • stone-made terraces • stone-paved farmyards other • poles for grapes 60 landscape history

goats and pigs. These were kept free-range and trees between land properties and fields. The also fed cork oak acorns, which were also used to historical rural architecture and artefacts are tan leather. The forest and maquis saw grazing, currently marked by the archaeological site and hunting, as well as traditional wooden and non- evidence of the Alesa city: small settlements, wooden production. These latter natural patches rural buildings, stone-made boundaries, terraces, contributed to the landscape mosaic of the area. enclosures, pathways, aqueducts, etc. (Pl. Ib). In Table 1 all the detailed information reported in the two columns of the marble epigraph are given for this case-study, and grouped according PATTERN VARIABILITY OF THE COMPLEX to the following main aspects of the landscape MEDITERRANEAN POLYCULTURAL ecology (e.g. see Farina 2000): the shape of LANDSCAPE CHARACTERISED BY THE patches, patchiness, crop types, core areas and PRESENCE OF TREES buffer areas, corridors and the ecological network, The delineation of the Mediterranean, specifically linear and point elements, rural architecture and Italian, rural landscape derived from the historic other stone-made artefacts. It is possible to development described above are attributable to allocate these main landscape elements to the a landscape that is so complex and diverse that different lots (about twelve) in which the Alesa it includes several of the major Mediterranean landscape is divided. Thus, while the left column agricultural landscapes that have been catalogued of the marble describes the city’s lots located on and described to date (e.g. Meeus 1995; Pinto- the north-eastern side of the area, the western Correia & Vos 2004). In it, the coexistence of and south-western part is described in the right spaces dedicated to agriculture, forest and pasture column (see Table1). The information reported refer back to the Latin categories of ager, saltus, in this last column describes a more complex and and silva. Geographers such as Vidal de la Blanche structured land-mosaic compared with the other (1922, cited in Claval 2007, pp. 7–23) or, more part of the city and its surroundings. Each lot is recently, historians like Aymard (1992, pp. 123–44) described in detail by both natural and artificial and landscape ecologists such as Pinto-Correia & boundary lines of fields and patches (small Vos (2004) still consider these categories relevant, streams, creeks, holes, trenches, rocks, trees, especially considering that the ager not only woodlots, stone pathways and roads, sacred areas, includes crops but also shrub and fruit orchards, urban walls, etc.) (Table1), although no details are that the saltus mainly concerns aspects of maquis given about its dimension and shape. and garrigue scrublands affected by grazing, while The long-lasting historical landscape of Alesa the silva is made up of woodlands (where different shows its polycultural character still today. Through traditional silvo-pastoral uses are practiced).

Downloaded by [La Trobe University] at 22:01 31 May 2016 the centuries and the succeeding historical and These are all polycultural systems, composed of cultural processes, this landscape was able to agricultural and agro-forestry patches (Barbera conserve the characters of its foundations, later & Biasi 2011) which, through wood cutting, on to be enriched by additional and traditional felling and the use of branches as animal feed, crops and land uses. Plate Ia reports a present- controlled fires, crop cultivation, livestock and day view of the Alesa polycultural and agro- their transhumance, water control and terracing, forestry landscape character. The landscape is define the prerequisites — or ‘the golden rules’ still complex and irregularly patched; with crops, (Blondel 2006) — of the ancient Mediterranean fields and natural cover types expressive of a agro-silvo-pastoral systems. traditional agro-silvo-pastoral Mediterranean Emilio Sereni’s History of the Italian Agricultural landscape. Currently, the olive grove is still the Landscape (1961, trans. Lichfield 1997) attributes most important cultivation. Most important the characteristics of the traditional complex veteran trees, especially olives, are still today used Mediterranean rural tree landscape to the land as historical land-marks, for instance as boundary scape of the mixed cultivation and agro-forestry the halaesa landscape 61

Fig. 4. The distribution of the mixed cultivations (coltura promiscua) in Italy according to a density gradient (darker areas are more densely treed) (a) (from Sereni 1960); on the right side (b) a more detailed map is reported at regional level for Sicily (after Barbera & Cullotta 2012).

systems (including different aspects and gradient or hedges’ (ibid., p. 178). Until the eighteenth of the coltura promiscua) (Fig. 4a and 4b), and shows century, this landscape was mainly ‘restricted

Downloaded by [La Trobe University] at 22:01 31 May 2016 how those characteristics are maintained all the (to) suburban or coastal zones. It was thus still way through time — from the Greek colonisation isolated amid vast extents of uncultivated land or to the post-war agriculture following WWII — open fields’ (ibid., p. 176). It was ‘an agricultural remaining well defined and long-lasting with landscape of closed fields, vineyards, …gardens, regard to their formal structure and functional and fruit trees’ (ibid., p. 67), and often even of biotic and abiotic elements, their ecological and arable and pasture land ‘imprinted with a suburban geographical context, their plurality of functions, physiognomy by dividing walls and the contiguous their social uses and economic determinants placement of houses and rustic storage sheds’ (Sereni 1961). (ibid., p. 329). ‘Terraced arrangements became It is a landscape with irregular closed lots the chosen location for the most valuable crops, defined by ‘the polygonal irregularity of contours’ and particularly for trees and shrubs’ (ibid., p. 98). (Sereni, trans. Litchfield 1997, p. 27), that is The above reported concepts and descriptions fragmented, twisted, squashed, and formed by of the traditional Mediterranean polycultural a ‘tangle of little wooded plots divided by walls (mixed-cultivation) landscape in practice generate 62 landscape history

Plate I. A today view of the Alesa area: (a) the polycultural agro-forestry landscape of the Tusa municipality is still today dominated by olive groves (ancient and modern), various fruit trees and orchards, open and semi-open pastureland, remnant paths of Mediterranean maquis and woodlots; (b) archaeological elements related to the management of water as a Roman spring and aqueduct still survive and are used by farmers.

a Downloaded by [La Trobe University] at 22:01 31 May 2016

different spatial combination (i.e. configuration) Polyculture is an agricultural system using of the coltura promiscua. In fact, according to the multiple crops in the same space, in imitation of the presence and location of the plant promiscuity diversity of natural ecosystems, and avoiding large (at least one of them is a tree species), we have stands of single crops, or monoculture. It includes different landscape patterns: in the same field multi-cropping and inter-cropping systems. The (intra-plot) or between fields (inter-plot) (Pl. II). ‘coltura promiscua intra-plot’ is a multiple cropping Moreover, this heterogeneity is reinforced by the system, i.e. the practice of growing two or more land mosaic patchiness (i.e. more fragmented or crops in the same space during a single growing coarser) (Pl. II). season. Vice versa, the practice of growing two or the halaesa landscape 63

[ fine-grained mosaic ] [ coarse-grained land mosaic ]

Plate II. Type of Mediterranean mixed cultivations and agro-forestry systems at stand and landscape levels: (a) intra-plot mixed cultivation (coltura promiscua) at stand level with cultivated and wild plants (olive, wine, walnut, chestnut, herbaceous crops, oaks, dry-stone walls) (Sicily); (b) inter-plot coltura promiscua landscape with fine-grained land-use mosaic (terraced wineyards, fruit orchards, remnant oak woodlands, isolated rural buildings) (Sicily); (c) inter-plot coltura promiscua landscape with coarser-grained land-use mosaic (vineyards, olive groves, remnant woodlands, forests, small rural settlements) (Tuscany).

more crops in proximity (i.e. the intercropping The patches were enclosed by hedges and system) is the expression of the ‘coltura promiscua groups of trees and shrubs, or by non-living inter-plot’ (Plate II). barriers (walls, palisades) or separated from natural or semi-natural areas by buffers. Linear structures in the form of ecological corridors — LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY, MULTI-FUNCTION rivers, ditches, aqueducts, living and non-living ALITY AND CULTURAL HERITAGE OF THE barriers and terraces — are additional elements COMPLEX MEDITERRANEAN AGRO-SILVO- that diversify the ecosystem by functioning as PASTORAL LANDSCAPE ecotones. Further biodiversity comes from large The Halaesa landscape is the result of a polycultural boulders, piles of stones, and isolated trees, agro-silvo-pastoral system which, observed under which not only provide agricultural products the lens of landscape ecology, highlights the but also ensure shade and shelter from the rain features that the available information allows us for humans and animals alike, and act as micro- to assess very positively in terms of complexity sites with the function of stepping zones for a and richness with reference to specific and countless number of plants and animals. intra-specific biodiversity, and the ecosystem’s The water cycle is assured by the territorial structure. The temporal and spatial complexity hydrographical and hydraulic structures that

Downloaded by [La Trobe University] at 22:01 31 May 2016 manifests itself in the economic productivity contribute, with the terraces, to protect the soil and environmental services that participate in and slope stabilisation. The organic matter cycle that multi-functionality belonging to complex is guaranteed by the presence of mixed crops Mediterranean agricultural and agro-forestry and the integration of crops/livestock/woodlots. systems (Barbera et al. 2004, pp. 481–92; Pinto- These landscape material elements and characters Correia & Vos 2004; Blondel 2006; Kizos & are visually (at least, but many other functional Koulouri 2006; Brown et al. 2007, pp. 395–415; aspects are involved) reinforced by the presence Biasi et al. 2012; Otero et al. 2013; Agnoletti 2013). of stone walls and other artefacts or features such Agricultural production and forestry, such as as: countless types of rural buildings (country animal breeding, are carried out in a context of residence, storeroom for fruit conservation, wine environmental protection that comes from the cellar, storeroom for agronomic cultivation tools, high biodiversity and the complex structure of terraces, hedgerows, canals, stone towers, stone the fields and their relationship in a network of heaps, etc. (Grove & Rackham 2002; Brown et connectivity with the woodland and scrub areas. al. 2007, pp. 395–415; Kizos & Koulouri 2006; 64 landscape history

Barbera & Cullotta 2012; Riguccio et al. 2013). located in the geographic centre of the Mediter Along with multi-functional and environmental ranean Basin, as one of the first historical detailed production, these spaces also have a cultural description of a complex Mediterranean cultural production shown by indirect literary references landscape, is the result of a polycultural agro-silvo- (Theocritus, cf. Belvedere 2008), and more gener pastoral system which guarantees complexity and ally contribute to the complex and rich non- richness (in terms of structural and biological material heritage (dialects, music, narratives, diversity), as well as with reference to others toponyms, etc.) (Scazzosi 2004; Moreira et al. environmental, cultural and economic aspects. 2006; Cullotta & Barbera 2011; Otero et al. The presence of historical features, of tradi 2013) and the appeal that is characteristic of tional crops and land uses, of traditional land polycultural Mediterranean agricultural systems. management, and the conservation of the rural All of these aspects, especially historical features, architecture and other features of the material traditional crops, land use and the permanence cultural heritage related to agricultural activity (i.e. of agricultural practice, and the presence of historical rural monuments, rural country houses architecture related to agricultural activity, are and settlements, terraces, stone walls and related particularly important for the UNESCO action rural artefacts, agricultural and forestry tools toward rural landscapes, assigning them a very and machines, manuscripts, poems, paintings high value (Gullino & Larcher 2013). and pictures), as well as the non-material cultural heritage (e.g. dialects, music, narratives, etc.), are particularly important aspects considered CONCLUSIONS by international and European organisations The highly diversified land-use patterns and agro- towards their valorisation and conservation. silvo-pastoral practices in Mediterranean cultural The conservation of these traditional land landscapes are the results of the long historical scapes is now an issue of growing importance. development and of the complex cultural process Over the last few decades, profound social changes that affected all the Mediterranean Basin. The relative to the development of a production- long-lasting, complex and mixed forms of agro- oriented agriculture and land use have subjected forestry systems and landscapes, such as the coltura these complex landscapes to strong changes that promiscua, is ascribable and can be associated with risk wiping out their characteristics in a not too different and innumerable agricultural land uses distant future. and different kinds of landscape configurations A preliminary inventory is an essential reference (intra- or inter-plot polycultures), as well as the for acquiring full knowledge of the consistency land mosaic patchiness. and variability of landscapes in a given area,

Downloaded by [La Trobe University] at 22:01 31 May 2016 These landscapes have developed from the either within a nation or throughout Europe. The intricate historic processes that have produced European Landscape Convention of Florence their cultural identification and evolution over the 2000 goes precisely in this direction: in contrast passage of time. The pre-Classical and Classical with past endeavours, it hints at the need for an introduction of Asiatic species, the Islamic overall knowledge of the European landscape. In ‘agricultural revolution’, the introduction of addition, a multi-disciplinary characterisation, as American species, the introduction of the species holistic as possible, needs to be developed with that arrived via the activities of plant collectors the aim of identifying and planning strategies and European scientific institutions were most that conserve the landscape’s characteristics, important historic milestones in this long-lasting complexity, functions, and identity. Their con process. In addition the Mediterranean’s hetero stitutive complexity and multi-functionality geneous environmental characteristics increased should be dealt with from different points of view this diversity within which the cultural processes so as to reflect their overall inter-cultural value. were inserted. The analysed Halaesa landscape, the halaesa landscape 65

acknowledgements The research was supported by the Italian Ministry of multi-disciplinary and multi-scale assessment for the Research and University Education’s PRIN 2010–2011 development of an integrated model for landscape Project ‘Traditional agricultural landscapes in Italy: a planning and management’ (prot. 2010LE4NBM).

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