Deciphering the Evolution of Agrarian Technologies during the Last ~1600 Years Using the Isotopic Finger- Print (δc, Δn ) of a Polycyclic Terraced Soil

The agricultural landscape of NW Spain is mainly inherited from ancient agricultural practices. Its origin can be traced back, at least, to the VI century AD (BOUHIER 1979; CRIADO BOADO 1989; GUITIÁN RIVERA 2001; BALLESTEROS-ARIAS et al. 2006a), although some of its features might have originated in the Iron Age (PARCERO-OUBIÑA 2006) or even the Late Bronze Age (MARTÍNEZ CORTIZAS et al. 2009). In this traditional agricultural system, the land is divided between that used for intensive agriculture and plow (agro) and land used for growing slash and complementary activities (monte), configuring what some authors called “concave landscape” (BALLESTEROS-ARIAS et al. 2011). Bouhier (1979) was one of the few authors dealing with the agrarian geography of NW Spain, in its broadest sense, describing the traditional Galician system and deepening in the main causes of its current configuration. Other noteworthy research on this issue was developed by Ballesteros-Arias et al. (2006a, 2006b, 2010) from an archaeological point of view, drawing conclusions about the land division systems, the constructed landscape and the spatial distribution of the agrarian activity that greatly improved the comprehension of the current landscape and the history of its evolution. But the lack of direct archaeological evidence frequently limited the achievement of conclusions on the management techniques and the technologies that