cover image: Forest exploitation in the plains of early medieval northern Catalonia: Anthracological review

Forest exploitation in the plains of early medieval northern Catalonia: Anthracological review

1 Jan 2024

In the northwestern Mediterranean (Mediterranean France, Catalonia), the Early Middle Ages were a period of major change with a restructuration of rural settlements, that impacted both landscape management and how animal and plant resources were exploited. Recent bioarchaeological research has enabled us to understand the agropastoral changes associated with these new dynamics at a local scale, but their impact on the evolution of forest cover remains unevenly documented. The anthracological study of 8 rural archaeological sites located in the plains of early medieval northern Catalonia has made it possible to qualify the composition and state of the forests exploited by the local populations. The vegetation on the lower plains appears to be more open than in the hinterland, where human pressure on the environment appears to have been more moderate. Among the sites, Pujals seems to have drawn some of its fuel from the Pyrenees Mountain, raising the question of wood trading networks between the mountain and the plains at the time.

Authors

Marie Larrieu, Christophe Vaschalde, Jérôme Kotarba, Carole Puig, Jérôme Ros

Related Organizations

European Union
Université de Rennes 1
Bibliographic Reference
Marie Larrieu, Christophe Vaschalde, Jérôme Kotarba, Carole Puig, Jérôme Ros. Forest exploitation in the plains of early medieval northern Catalonia: Anthracological review. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 2024, 320, pp.104993. ⟨10.1016/j.revpalbo.2023.104993⟩. ⟨halshs-04312626⟩
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.revpalbo.2023.104993
European Project Title
Eight millennia of changes in domestic plants and animals: understanding local adaptation under socio-economic and climatic fluctuations
HAL Collection
["Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société", 'IRD - Institut de recherche pour le développement', 'CIRAD - Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement', "Sciences De l'Environnement", 'Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives', 'École Pratique des Hautes Études', 'Université Toulouse 2', 'CNRS - Centre national de la recherche scientifique', 'Aix Marseille Université', "Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution", 'Université de Montpellier', "Maison méditerranéenne des sciences de l'homme", "Laboratoire d'Archéologie Médiévale et Moderne en Méditerranée", 'OpenAIRE', 'GIP Bretagne Environnement', 'FRANTIQ Fédération et ressources sur l’Antiquité', 'Campus-AAR', 'Collection LaCAS - Open Archives in Language and Cultural Area Studies', 'Université Paris sciences et lettres', 'Archive ouverte en agrobiosciences', 'TEST-DEV', 'École pratique des hautes études - PSL', 'Université de Montpellier (2015-2021)', 'Université de Montpellier - EPE', 'Institut écologie et environnement du CNRS']
HAL Identifier
4312626
Institution
['Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement', 'École Pratique des Hautes Études', 'Institut de recherche pour le développement [IRD] : UR226', 'Mosaïques Archéologie', 'Aix Marseille Université', 'Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives', 'Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès', 'Acter Archeologie']
Laboratory
["Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier", "Laboratoire d'Archéologie Médiévale et Moderne en Méditerranée", 'France, Amériques, Espagne – Sociétés, pouvoirs, acteurs']
Published in
France

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