DOI Artikel:
Lamb, R. C.; Rees, S. E.: Ard cultivation at Sumburgh, Shetland
DOI Artikel:Fenton, Alexander: [Rezension von: R.A. Dunkin, Agricultural Terracing in the aboriginal New World]
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49001#0125
REVIEWS
121
The full excavation report will be published by
the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland for the
Scottish Development Department, Edinburgh.
Literature
Hamilton, J.R.C.: Excavations at Jarlshof Shet-
land. Edinburgh 1956.
Hansen, Hans-Ole: Experimental Ploughing with
a Dostrup Ard Replica, in: T ools and Tillage
1:2, 1969, 67-92.
Nielsen, Viggo: Iron Age Plough-Marks in Store
Vildmose, North Jutland, in: Tools and Tillage
E3 1970, 151-65.
Rees, Sian: Stone Ard Points From Orkney and
Shetland, in: Tools and Tillage IIE4, 1979 249-
255-
REVIEWS
R. A. DUN KIN: Agricultural Terracing in
the Aboriginal New World
(Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology
Number 56) Arizona 1979. 196 pp.
R. A.Donkin divides his book into four sections:
Aspects of Indian Agriculture in the Highlands of
Middle and South America; Agricultural Terrac-
ing; Regions of Agricultural Terracing; Discus-
sion. The longest section (pages 39-130) surveys
the distribution of terracing in Mexico, Guate-
mala, the Honduras, Venezuela, Columbia,
Ecuador, Peru-Bolivia, Chile and Argentina, in
well-illustrated detail that leaves the reader in a
state of astonishment at the sophistication of the
agricultural techniques.
As a geographer, the author is always con-
scious of the physical as well as the social factors
involved in the exploitation of different habitats
through intensive or extensive methods of hus-
bandry, or combinations of these. Terracing, with
or without irrigation, is related to increasing
population and the need for conserving and main-
taining the fertility of soils in poor conditions and
especially on steep slopes. On lowland plains the
equivalent consists of mounds and broad ridges, a
difference reminiscent of areas in the south of
Scotland where systems of ridge and furrow are
continued as terraces (sometimes with no visible
break), where the ground gets steeper.
In spite of the sophistication of the terraces,
their cultivation was done entirely with hand
implements. The plough began to be adopted
only in the 16th century, and then mainly on
valley floors. On higher ground, digging or
planting sticks ruled supreme, with stone, metal
or fire-hardened tips. The coa was a one piece
hand-operated implement for turning soil as well
as planting, with a narrow, asymmetrical blade
terminating in a point. It seems to have been only
in the Andes that foot-operated tools, of which
the most important is the ch aqui-taclla (see Tools
and Tillage II: 1, 1972), were in use. They were
worked in the manner of true spades, of which
pre-Columbian pottery models are known (c.
1300 A.D.), and both form and function (includ-
ing operation by teams) inevitably bring a re-
minder of the similarity of the caschrom of Scot-
land (see Tools and Tillage IE3, 1974). Sharp-
angled mattocks were also used, for example in
121
The full excavation report will be published by
the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland for the
Scottish Development Department, Edinburgh.
Literature
Hamilton, J.R.C.: Excavations at Jarlshof Shet-
land. Edinburgh 1956.
Hansen, Hans-Ole: Experimental Ploughing with
a Dostrup Ard Replica, in: T ools and Tillage
1:2, 1969, 67-92.
Nielsen, Viggo: Iron Age Plough-Marks in Store
Vildmose, North Jutland, in: Tools and Tillage
E3 1970, 151-65.
Rees, Sian: Stone Ard Points From Orkney and
Shetland, in: Tools and Tillage IIE4, 1979 249-
255-
REVIEWS
R. A. DUN KIN: Agricultural Terracing in
the Aboriginal New World
(Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology
Number 56) Arizona 1979. 196 pp.
R. A.Donkin divides his book into four sections:
Aspects of Indian Agriculture in the Highlands of
Middle and South America; Agricultural Terrac-
ing; Regions of Agricultural Terracing; Discus-
sion. The longest section (pages 39-130) surveys
the distribution of terracing in Mexico, Guate-
mala, the Honduras, Venezuela, Columbia,
Ecuador, Peru-Bolivia, Chile and Argentina, in
well-illustrated detail that leaves the reader in a
state of astonishment at the sophistication of the
agricultural techniques.
As a geographer, the author is always con-
scious of the physical as well as the social factors
involved in the exploitation of different habitats
through intensive or extensive methods of hus-
bandry, or combinations of these. Terracing, with
or without irrigation, is related to increasing
population and the need for conserving and main-
taining the fertility of soils in poor conditions and
especially on steep slopes. On lowland plains the
equivalent consists of mounds and broad ridges, a
difference reminiscent of areas in the south of
Scotland where systems of ridge and furrow are
continued as terraces (sometimes with no visible
break), where the ground gets steeper.
In spite of the sophistication of the terraces,
their cultivation was done entirely with hand
implements. The plough began to be adopted
only in the 16th century, and then mainly on
valley floors. On higher ground, digging or
planting sticks ruled supreme, with stone, metal
or fire-hardened tips. The coa was a one piece
hand-operated implement for turning soil as well
as planting, with a narrow, asymmetrical blade
terminating in a point. It seems to have been only
in the Andes that foot-operated tools, of which
the most important is the ch aqui-taclla (see Tools
and Tillage II: 1, 1972), were in use. They were
worked in the manner of true spades, of which
pre-Columbian pottery models are known (c.
1300 A.D.), and both form and function (includ-
ing operation by teams) inevitably bring a re-
minder of the similarity of the caschrom of Scot-
land (see Tools and Tillage IE3, 1974). Sharp-
angled mattocks were also used, for example in