cultivar_22_Final_EN

116 ANALYSIS AND PROSPECTIVE STUDIES CULTIVAR Issue 22 APRIL 2021 Chapter I – The Mediterranean World examines the geological (coastal and highland), climatic, plant and human dynamics (ways of life, population and settlement) characteristic of the lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea on the three continents of Europe, Africa and Asia. This region is considered one of the oldest in human civilisation, marked by relationships of convergence (e.g. trading relations) and divergence (e.g. wars) between peoples. These past actions have influenced the landscape of today. The geology of the Mediterranean stretches from the jagged and jutting coast of Europe – “a complex array of peninsulas and archipelagos, inlets and deep gulfs” that offer perils or protection to vessels traversing it – to the highlands formed by tectonic movements in earlier and more recent times, and to the deserts of northern Africa. The climate of hot, dry summers and cold, rainy win- ters characteristic of the Mediterranean also includes various typologies. The climate is affected by both latitude and altitude and the effects of proximity to other diverse climate zones. While Portugal, located at the most westerly point of continental Europe, is not touched directly by the Mediterranean, it is influ- enced by both it and the Atlantic. In this chapter, it is noted that “treatises distinguish the special nature of the Portuguese climate , which is characterised by gentle winters, moderate summers, albeit hot and always dry, with low annual variability. In fact, it has various climates which, when combined in vari- ous degrees along the Iberian Atlantic coast, abate its Mediterranean character, which blurs under the damp, cool pressure of the great breath of the Atlan- tic”. The Mediterranean-style climate is suited to certain plant species. For example, the hot and dry summers prefer evergreen species or thorny, or small and leath- ery, or fleshy plants which can withstand the loss of water by transpiration (xerophytic adaptations). Many of these (exotic) plants were introduced from other continents and have adapted well, flourishing and spreading across the landscape. In fact, human influence on this region is old. Man has transformed it since the melting of the last glaciers to obtain the resources he needs, particularly food. “By introduc- ing a great variety of crops in different eras, it was man who enriched the vegetation and transformed the landscapes. So profound was his effect that it can be hard to separate what stems from his actions and what preceded or escaped them.” These plants range from Mediterranean species, such as olive and fig trees, to those from other origins, such as com- mon wheat, vines and pome fruit (from Asia), maize and potatoes (from the Americas), and sweet orange (brought from China by the Portuguese). “Every great civilizational push is marked by the enrichment of the agricultural heritage.” The lands bathed by the Mediterranean were crucial to human settlement. However, this region is hard to farm, “demanding man’s constant labour” to work “soil that is generally thin and poor with a hard and hostile bedrock”. Higher areas, where arable land is easily washed away in winter, require terraces to sustain the soil. The plains that flood with rainwater and salty seawater need to be drained. Seen from above, the Mediterranean landscape is described as “an intricate puzzle of multi-use fragments constantly broken by rocky outcrops, thickets and woods, in soils that cannot support regular cultivation”. Two systems of cultivation stand out in the Mediter- ranean – dry and irrigated. The former uses more extensively grown resistant crops adapted to the cli- mate, enabling the soil to naturally recover. The lat- ter requires frequent work “in which man must labour constantly around the plant and bestow upon it, like in the art of gardening, infinite care and toil”. A more intensive regime is adopted where as much as pos- sible is produced in a limited space in a short period of time, a system that emerges in more densely pop- ulated regions close to sources of water. In addition to agriculture, the peoples of the Medi- terranean managed to develop sheep farming (asso- ciated with transhumance) and fishing, establishing trading relations with other peoples through mari- time trade from ports, one of the bases of human life. Chapter II examines Mediterranean Portugal, char- acterised above all by three influences – the inland