Landscape Archaeology in Eastern Pyrenees high mountain areas (Segre and Ter valleys, Northeast Iberian Peninsula): Human activities in the shaping of Mountain Cultural Landscapes

Abstract

Since 2004, an integrated archaeological and palaeoenvironmental research programme has been developed in the Eastern Pyrenees (Andorra and Catalonia), with the aim of studying the long-term landscape shaping of Mediterranean high-mountain environments. This programme involved extensive surveying, GIS, excavation and radiocarbon dating of archaeological structures and the integration of multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental data. A methodological approach based on fine spatial and temporal resolution analysis has proved to be a priceless tool for assessing local human occupation and the distinctive nature of highland land-use practices on a micro-regional scale. The results underline the existence in these areas of diverse land-use and resource management strategies during the past millennia, which included fire-driven forest openings, grazing, woodland exploitation (such as resin and charcoal production), mining and melting activities. This diversity of activities has leaded to complex cultural landscapes in the high Pyrenean areas. During the Early and Middle Neolithic human clearances were diversified in its spatial distribution allowing the recovery of alpine forests after impacts. A major landscape change occurred in the valleys during the Late Neolithic when the alpine grassland belt expanded and human settlements have been documented at ca. 2,500 m a.s.l. Roman times report a diversification of practices including mining, metallurgy, pine resin exploitation, charcoal production, grazing activities and livestock, etc. Antiquity is configured as an important period in livestock expansion from the 2nd – 3rd centuries and during Late Antiquity. In high Medieval times (9th 10th c.), a largely grazed landscape resulted in a wide deforestation. Later on, during the modern and contemporary periods, an intensive transhumant grazing exploitation characterized these valleys land use. The history of this landscape furnishes new data for the development of management tools for the sustainability of Mediterranean highlands.