Agricultural terracing, the intentional creation of stepped fields on a hillslope, is ubiquitous in a variety of arid, semi-arid and wet regions in the world. Superficially, it is observable as a significant investment in wide scale landscape alteration for agriculture. However, it represents more than the sum total of its constituent parts – appearing symbolic of the complex social dynamics intrinsically linked to environmental adaptations and technological change (Geertz 1963). As a practice which represents a fundamental step in the human appropriation of the natural landscape, agricultural terracing remains remarkably under-examined. Crucially, terraces can be considered as one of the earliest forms of landscape alteration for human gain – specifically where humans adapt the landscape to suit their needs, as opposed to by-product change. As such, terraced environments can be classed as an ‘anthroscape:’ an environmental aesthetic which is dominated by the infrastructural effects of contemporary human ecology. To this effect, the central theme of this thesis was to establish if agricultural terracing acts as a fundamental part of the resilience of fragile landscapes in the Mediterranean and beyond. The investigation of agricultural terraces demands a rigorous and multi-faceted approach in order to elucidate a full range of scientific observations such as form, function, variation, chronology and social management. Nowhere is this more relevant than in the Maltese archipelago where terraces are, somewhat paradoxically, extant in use and enigmatic archaeologically. As such, this thesis employs an appropriate archaeological methodology to examine terraces from both geoarchaeological and social perspectives. By combining these methodologies, terrace function is objectively analysed, in terms of landscape/geomorphic process, and the attached, contributing/reflexive, social machinations can be examined. In doing so, a scientific and socially relevant understanding of terracing practices has been achieved. This thesis utilises archaeological excavation and geoarchaeological sampling to enable an exploration of terrace soil stratigraphy and geochemistry – observing the variation down-profile, down-slope and between geological regions. Analytical methods used were Particle Size Analysis, Loss-on-Ignition, Ion Chromatography, pH and X-Ray Diffraction. These data were analysed for statistical correlation to indicate salient factors affecting terraced soils in the Maltese Islands. Developing from this, a comparison with 19th Century cadastral land quality assessment and a modern logistic regression analysis study (Alberti et al., 2018) facilitates the application of geoarchaeological observations to the iii understanding of the social ecology of terraces. This is framed by an exploration of the cognitive origins of the human appropriation of environments.