Ph.D Master thesis by Mireia Celma
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Conference Presentations by Mireia Celma
This research work has focused its study on the Argaric settlement of La Bastida (Totana, Murcia)... more This research work has focused its study on the Argaric settlement of La Bastida (Totana, Murcia) for the knowledge of the paleoecology and paleoeconomy of the archaeological group of El Argar (ca. 2200-1550 cal BC) during the Bronze Age.
The charcoal analysis aims to understand the functioning of the society-environment relationship and the circle of timber production-consumption. The results show an environment with a great arboreal forest richness, with a reduced variety of conifer taxa and a great diversity of dicotyledon taxa. One of the factors that could affect forestry
exploitation capacities lies in the tools available to society, including, also, their organizational capacities for transporting the acquired wood to the place of consumption.
The reduced possibility of access to certain goods would depend directly on the social condition (ruling class, intermediate class or servants), age, and gender/sex. The use of the ax would be necessary and essential when the cutting and/or pruning of trunks and
branches of great caliber was required. For all other cases, the manual collection of living and/or dead wood would be sufficient. The ax and adze would be tools controlled by the intermediate social category and, in particular, by the male sex (regardless of the age of the individuals).
As a result, 28 plant taxa were determined for the site. The maintenance and social reproduction allowed the durability during ca. 650. That being so La Bastida presents the highest taxa variability for the whole Argaric territory and a resilient environment.
So, how long will forest exploitation be considered the main cause of the environmental collapse?
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Shepherds woodcarving in Central Pyrenees
Mireia Celma Martínez * and Elena Muntán Bordas **
... more Shepherds woodcarving in Central Pyrenees
Mireia Celma Martínez * and Elena Muntán Bordas **
Oral presentation
* High-land Archaeology, Department of Prehistory, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
** Dendrochronology, Department of Ecology, Universitat de Barcelona
The present research was focused on the identification and dating of scars on trees growing in the subalpine zone (1900-2350 m elev.) in the National Park of Aigüestortes and Estany de Sant Maurici, Central Pyrenees. These injuries were not from natural processes, they were made by human beings, specifically by shepherds who have roamed the Iberian mountains throughout the last centuries (transhumance). Their object was to obtain bark and wood to manufacture different objects for domestic and pastoral activities. The purpose of this study was to increase knowledge about high-land activities during the last centuries by combining the following disciplines.
Scars showed different shapes and sizes. Archaeological techniques served to put together a description: classify the sort of scars, recreate the means of extraction and reconstruct the original size of wood slices and possible objects made from each type. After that, the obtained information could be related to the many pastoral settlements registered at the National Park by the extensive archaeological project going on since 2004. These sites provide data from the 11th to the 20th centuries with different enclosures and huts made of stone which were identified from pastoral activities.
Dendrochronology was used to date these injuries by extracting cores from the bole of trees, callus and centre of the scars. In order to attain the whole spectrum of ages available, both apparently recent and old scars were sampled. The species with anthropic scars were Pinus uncinata, Betula pendula and Abies alba.
Ethnology supplied valuable details by interviewing old people from villages close to the National Park and by visiting late local museums devoted to the rural and pastoral life. The information thus obtained referred to:
* Qualities and quantity of wood required for wood carving
* Wood-extraction procedure depending on species and required portion of the tree
* The many different objects made of wood and their use
* Reconstruction of shepherds’ activity areas and their impact to landscape
As the traces of the history of country life are disappearing fast, this investigation is meant to retain some of the customs of the pastoral way of life. The results allow us to confirm the wood-carving practices for, at least, the last two hundred years, although these have gone unchanged for centuries in the Central Pyrenees.
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Archaeological site of Dolmen de la Font dels Coms (Llavorsí, Pallars Sobirà, Spain). Charcoal a... more Archaeological site of Dolmen de la Font dels Coms (Llavorsí, Pallars Sobirà, Spain). Charcoal analysis for human impact and dendroecological interpretation
Mireia Celma Martínez
Prehistory Department-Archaeobotany Laboratory, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Edifici B Campus de la UAB, P.C.: 08913 Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallés, Spain)
e-mail: mireia_celma@hotmail.com
Dolmen de la Font dels Coms is located at the top of Vall de Baiasca at 1850 m altitude. The site was dug in 2003-04 and showed a repeated ocupation from prehistoric to roman times. Dolmenic construction was reused between third century BC to first century AC as an iron kiln.
This historical high-altitude iron kiln constitutes the site as a perfect example for studying human explotaition of raw materials. Analysis of charcoal samples are a conjunction between human raw material selection and ecological growth conditions. The object of analysis is determine species (used as combustible) and to obtain different data collection from anatomical features for growth-stress interpretation and attempt to extrapolate it to human activities.
Thanks to Parc Natural de l’Alt Pirineu (Alt Urgell-Pallars Sobirà, Catalonia, Spain), Ecomuseu de les Valls d’Àneu (Esterri d’Àneu, Catalonia, Spain) and Prehistory Department of Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain).
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Papers by Mireia Celma
Quaternary International, 2022
This paper presents the first anthracological results for the Late Almoravid, Early Almohad, and ... more This paper presents the first anthracological results for the Late Almoravid, Early Almohad, and Late Almohad Andalusi phases at the San Esteban archaeological site in the southeastern of the Iberian Peninsula. Archaeobotanical studies are the only way to access the information silenced in written sources: the relationship between the rural and the urban worlds and the wood fuel production cycle. We propose a field multi-sampling strategy in the recovery process by analyzing hand-picking and flotation of light and heavy fractions through >4 and > 2 mm fragment-size classes to evaluate plant taxa presence and absence in the different units of analysis. Flotation sampling offered the highest taxa representativeness but needed hand-picking to complete the anthracological results. The combustion structures in Building 1 and Building 2 yielded 27 taxa for the different phases. This allowed us to map human agency through the paleoeconomic spatial analysis of production and consumption from the perspective of carrying capacity and the resilient possibilities of the environment. The results mainly present local, opportunistic, and self-management of forest resources and pruning in fruit orchards in irrigated agriculture that contributed to the wood fuel production cycle and consumption knowledge, blurring the line between the rural and the urban spheres for wood acquisition management in maintenance activities.
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Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2020
Abstract The consumption of olives, figs, and grapes in El Argar territory (2200–1550 CAL BC) has... more Abstract The consumption of olives, figs, and grapes in El Argar territory (2200–1550 CAL BC) has been suggested through carpological analysis. Currently, there are 22 settlements with archaeobotanical studies of seeds and fruits; most of them present parallel anthracological analyses. There is a lack of wood finds of the mentioned species in some of the analysed sites, with only fruits present, while at other sites wood finds are reported but fruit remains are missing. If these absences are meaningful, one could aim to define production sites and exchange networks within this unique socio-political context of El Argar area. This paper aims to compare different series of archaeobotanical data to define fruit management and circulation in El Argar during the Bronze Age. The information provided by charcoal analysis circumscribes each settlement in a specific environment, which is directly related to the orography of the landscape. The results show a clear zoning of settlements participating in the circulation of edible fruits between the coast and the high plateau. The interpretation of exchange, redistribution and probable trade of fruit products between different El Argar sites adds new information about Argaric society.
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ArkeoGazte: Revista de arqueología - Arkelogia aldizkaria, 2020
San Esteban archaeological site constitutes the best-documented part of the medieval suburb of La... more San Esteban archaeological site constitutes the best-documented part of the medieval suburb of La Arrixaca, a very important part of the Andalusian city of Mursiya, and its evolution is well known both for the archaeological interventions and for written Arabic and late medieval Castilian sources. The research was carried out by an interdisciplinary team of archaeologists, physical anthropologists and bioarchaeologists. The established protocols were clear and strict. The aim was to achieve the results through an analysis of the remains without present contamination during the recovery process. The installation of a closed-circuit flotation machine favored an increase in the number of objects and very small osteological remains recovered, as well as a vast archaeobotanical and archaeozoological record. The results of the burials (palaeoparasitology) and in the human remains themselves (DNA, analysis of isotopes, C14) samplings went beyond the traditional archaeological record, that brings us even closer to understanding the use of this funerary space throughout the 11th to 13th centuries.
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University of Liverpool, 2019
For several millennia, fire has been the source to provide heat and light to human habitations an... more For several millennia, fire has been the source to provide heat and light to human habitations and so, gathering firewood might have been important for human societies, in particular, for those living in colder places like high mountain environments. Archaeological and paleoenvironmental studies on both sides of the Pyrenees have provided a large dataset confirming that human activities have been constant through the centuries in those places although their intensity and economic purposes have changed in time. Those actions have been historically related to stockbreeding but also mining, and charcoal production for industrial purposes. The consequences of which have had a primary impact on the landscape that can be tracked from the Neolithic to the recent past. Thanks to the research developed in the Parc Nacional d’Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici (PNAESM) by the GAAM group (Grup d’Arqueologia d’Alta Muntanya) more than 350 sites of archaeological interest have been documented. Most of them are related to grazing activity. In this poster, we present the anthracological results from Abric de l’Estany de la Coveta I and Abric de les Obagues de Ratera, two rock shelters located above the tree line at 2300-2400m asl.Peer reviewe
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The missing woodland resources, 2022
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For several millennia, fire has been the source to provide heat and light to human habitations an... more For several millennia, fire has been the source to provide heat and light to human habitations and so, gathering firewood might have been important for human societies, in particular, for those living in colder places like high mountain environments. Archaeological and paleoenvironmental studies on both sides of the Pyrenees have provided a large dataset confirming that human activities have been constant through the centuries in those places although their intensity and economic purposes have changed in time. Those actions have been historically related to stockbreeding but also mining, and charcoal production for industrial purposes. The consequences of which have had a primary impact on the landscape that can be tracked from the Neolithic to the recent past. Thanks to the research developed in the Parc Nacional d’Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici (PNAESM) by the GAAM group (Grup d’Arqueologia d’Alta Muntanya) more than 350 sites of archaeological interest have been documented. Most of them are related to grazing activity. In this poster, we present the anthracological results from Abric de l’Estany de la Coveta I and Abric de les Obagues de Ratera, two rock shelters located above the tree line at 2300-2400m asl.Peer reviewe
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Acceso de usuarios registrados. Acceso de usuarios registrados Usuario Contraseña. ...
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Este trabajo de investigacion ha centrado su estudio, en primer lugar, en el asentamiento argaric... more Este trabajo de investigacion ha centrado su estudio, en primer lugar, en el asentamiento argarico de La Bastida (Murcia, Espana) para el conocimiento de la paleoecologia y paleoeconomia del grupo arqueologico de la Edad del Bronce de El Argar (ca. 2200-1550 cal ANE) mediante el analisis de los restos antracologicos (carbon y madera) de los contextos domesticos. El yacimiento de La Bastida es un gran asentamiento (4,5 ha) con un complejo urbanismo documentado en los sectores estudiados de Barranco, Piedemonte y Cima. Entre los elementos arquitectonicos mas destacables se encuentran una gran balsa de almacenamiento de mas de 400.000 litros de agua y una gran muralla que protegia la ciudad prehistorica por su cara norte. El analisis antracologico ha determinado un total de 28 taxones para el asentamiento en su diacronia. La Bastida es el yacimiento que mayor variabilidad taxonomica ha presentado en la produccion y consumo de madera. Estos resultados han proporcionado elementos suficie...
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Quaternary International, 2020
Abstract For the last twenty years, various interdisciplinary research programs have been studyin... more Abstract For the last twenty years, various interdisciplinary research programs have been studying human presence in high mountain environments and how the different activities carried out there have impacted on the landscape and transformed it since the Early Holocene. Grazing, hunting, mining, and charcoal-making are the most significant outdoor productive activities that have been detected. At the same time, on a day-to-day basis, there was a daily household firewood management, studied here, which was related to fires for cooking, heat and light, as basic needs to be satisfied in the caves and rock-shelters occupied in this high-mountain territory since Prehistory. This paper presents the anthracological results from three sites located in the Aiguestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici National Park (PNAESM) in the Central Pyrenees occupied between the 9th and the 1st millennia cal BCE. In the PNAESM, different types of occupations have been identified in a basic spatial distribution by a hearth and some artefacts associated with past daily life. In the limit between the upper montane and the subalpine zones, at 1,790 m a.s.l., Sardo Cave contains a sequence of seasonal occupations (4600-2500 cal BCE) that used local wood selected according to their needs. In the limit between the subalpine and alpine zones, firewood-gathering would have taken place in the surroundings of the sites from what was available at any moment. However the occupations identified in the rock-shelters of Estany de la Coveta I (7001-3028 cal BCE) at 2,430 m a.s.l. and Obagues de Ratera (8182-540 cal BCE) at 2,323 m a.s.l. seem to be short-term. In the context of the Central and Eastern Pyrenees, this appears to be the general pattern that will be better defined as more anthracological analyses are performed.
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Saguntum Papeles Del Laboratorio De Arqueologia De Valencia, Jan 12, 2011
Localización: Saguntum: Papeles del Laboratorio de Arqueología de Valencia, ISSN 0210-3729, Nº Ex... more Localización: Saguntum: Papeles del Laboratorio de Arqueología de Valencia, ISSN 0210-3729, Nº Extra 11, 2011 (Ejemplar dedicado a: 5th International Meeting of Charcoal Analysis; The charcoal as cultural and biological heritage), págs. 49-50
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Piers Dixon & Claudia Theune (eds), 2021: Ruralia XIII: Seasonal Settlement in the Medieval and Early Modern Countryside. Sidestone Press, Leiden, pp. 323-336, 2021
The present research is focused on mapping short-distance pastoralism movements during ... more The present research is focused on mapping short-distance pastoralism movements during the summertime in the Pyrenees through the identification and dating of scars on
Pinus uncinata trees in the subalpine zone (1,700-2,350 m asl). These wounds were made by shepherds to obtain a plate of wood to fabricate cowbell collars for their own use, in order to control their livestock. The purpose of the research was to increase knowledge about high-mountain seasonal activities during recent centuries by combining ethnology, dendrochronology, and archaeology in an interdisciplinary approach. Ethnology supplied valuable details about the crafting of the wooden collars through the interviewing of old people from proximate villages and the visiting of museums and collections devoted to rural and pastoral life, including woodcarving, wood-extraction forms, and everyday-object production, as part of the shepherds’ occupations in the highlands. Four pastoral enclaves in the National Park of Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici were investigated, and a total of 20 trees with old scars were measured and sampled. Scars had routine axe marks that followed a common rectangular pattern with a mean size of 12 cm in width and 65 cm in length. A chronology from 1765 to 1970 attested that these woodcarving practices come from, at least, modern times, as confirmed by the dendrochronological analysis. The finding of some trees with successive wounds in a time lapse of 20-25 years between scars reinforces the idea that these places were visited persistently. Archaeology connected these results to pastoral settlements lasting from the 11th to 20th centuries in this natural reserve, with different enclosures and huts made of stone, as recorded by extensive archaeological projects since 2001.
Keywords: transterminance, shepherds, scars on trees, Pinus uncinata, archaeology, ethnography, Medieval Ages, Modern Period, woodwork, wooden collars.
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Quaternary International, 2020
For the last twenty years, various interdisciplinary research programs have been studying human p... more For the last twenty years, various interdisciplinary research programs have been studying human presence in high mountain environments and how the different activities carried out there have impacted on the landscape and transformed it since the Early Holocene. Grazing, hunting, mining, and charcoal-making are the most significant outdoor productive activities that have been detected. At the same time, on a day-today basis, there was a daily household firewood management, studied here, which was related to fires for cooking, heat and light, as basic needs to be satisfied in the caves and rock-shelters occupied in this high-mountain territory since Prehistory. This paper presents the anthracological results from three sites located in the Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici National Park (PNAESM) in the Central Pyrenees occupied between the 9th and the 1st millennia cal BCE. In the PNAESM, different types of occupations have been identified in a basic spatial distribution by a hear...
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Quaternary International, 2020
For the last twenty years, various interdisciplinary research programs have been studying human p... more For the last twenty years, various interdisciplinary research programs have been studying human presence in high mountain environments and how the different activities carried out there have impacted on the landscape and transformed it since the Early Holocene. Grazing, hunting, mining, and charcoal-making are the most significant outdoor productive activities that have been detected. At the same time, on a day-today basis, there was a daily household firewood management, studied here, which was related to fires for cooking, heat and light, as basic needs to be satisfied in the caves and rock-shelters occupied in this high-mountain territory since Prehistory. This paper presents the anthracological results from three sites located in the Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici National Park (PNAESM) in the Central Pyrenees occupied between the 9th and the 1st millennia cal BCE. In the PNAESM, different types of occupations have been identified in a basic spatial distribution by a hear...
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Ph.D Master thesis by Mireia Celma
Conference Presentations by Mireia Celma
The charcoal analysis aims to understand the functioning of the society-environment relationship and the circle of timber production-consumption. The results show an environment with a great arboreal forest richness, with a reduced variety of conifer taxa and a great diversity of dicotyledon taxa. One of the factors that could affect forestry
exploitation capacities lies in the tools available to society, including, also, their organizational capacities for transporting the acquired wood to the place of consumption.
The reduced possibility of access to certain goods would depend directly on the social condition (ruling class, intermediate class or servants), age, and gender/sex. The use of the ax would be necessary and essential when the cutting and/or pruning of trunks and
branches of great caliber was required. For all other cases, the manual collection of living and/or dead wood would be sufficient. The ax and adze would be tools controlled by the intermediate social category and, in particular, by the male sex (regardless of the age of the individuals).
As a result, 28 plant taxa were determined for the site. The maintenance and social reproduction allowed the durability during ca. 650. That being so La Bastida presents the highest taxa variability for the whole Argaric territory and a resilient environment.
So, how long will forest exploitation be considered the main cause of the environmental collapse?
Mireia Celma Martínez * and Elena Muntán Bordas **
Oral presentation
* High-land Archaeology, Department of Prehistory, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
** Dendrochronology, Department of Ecology, Universitat de Barcelona
The present research was focused on the identification and dating of scars on trees growing in the subalpine zone (1900-2350 m elev.) in the National Park of Aigüestortes and Estany de Sant Maurici, Central Pyrenees. These injuries were not from natural processes, they were made by human beings, specifically by shepherds who have roamed the Iberian mountains throughout the last centuries (transhumance). Their object was to obtain bark and wood to manufacture different objects for domestic and pastoral activities. The purpose of this study was to increase knowledge about high-land activities during the last centuries by combining the following disciplines.
Scars showed different shapes and sizes. Archaeological techniques served to put together a description: classify the sort of scars, recreate the means of extraction and reconstruct the original size of wood slices and possible objects made from each type. After that, the obtained information could be related to the many pastoral settlements registered at the National Park by the extensive archaeological project going on since 2004. These sites provide data from the 11th to the 20th centuries with different enclosures and huts made of stone which were identified from pastoral activities.
Dendrochronology was used to date these injuries by extracting cores from the bole of trees, callus and centre of the scars. In order to attain the whole spectrum of ages available, both apparently recent and old scars were sampled. The species with anthropic scars were Pinus uncinata, Betula pendula and Abies alba.
Ethnology supplied valuable details by interviewing old people from villages close to the National Park and by visiting late local museums devoted to the rural and pastoral life. The information thus obtained referred to:
* Qualities and quantity of wood required for wood carving
* Wood-extraction procedure depending on species and required portion of the tree
* The many different objects made of wood and their use
* Reconstruction of shepherds’ activity areas and their impact to landscape
As the traces of the history of country life are disappearing fast, this investigation is meant to retain some of the customs of the pastoral way of life. The results allow us to confirm the wood-carving practices for, at least, the last two hundred years, although these have gone unchanged for centuries in the Central Pyrenees.
Mireia Celma Martínez
Prehistory Department-Archaeobotany Laboratory, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Edifici B Campus de la UAB, P.C.: 08913 Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallés, Spain)
e-mail: mireia_celma@hotmail.com
Dolmen de la Font dels Coms is located at the top of Vall de Baiasca at 1850 m altitude. The site was dug in 2003-04 and showed a repeated ocupation from prehistoric to roman times. Dolmenic construction was reused between third century BC to first century AC as an iron kiln.
This historical high-altitude iron kiln constitutes the site as a perfect example for studying human explotaition of raw materials. Analysis of charcoal samples are a conjunction between human raw material selection and ecological growth conditions. The object of analysis is determine species (used as combustible) and to obtain different data collection from anatomical features for growth-stress interpretation and attempt to extrapolate it to human activities.
Thanks to Parc Natural de l’Alt Pirineu (Alt Urgell-Pallars Sobirà, Catalonia, Spain), Ecomuseu de les Valls d’Àneu (Esterri d’Àneu, Catalonia, Spain) and Prehistory Department of Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain).
Papers by Mireia Celma
Pinus uncinata trees in the subalpine zone (1,700-2,350 m asl). These wounds were made by shepherds to obtain a plate of wood to fabricate cowbell collars for their own use, in order to control their livestock. The purpose of the research was to increase knowledge about high-mountain seasonal activities during recent centuries by combining ethnology, dendrochronology, and archaeology in an interdisciplinary approach. Ethnology supplied valuable details about the crafting of the wooden collars through the interviewing of old people from proximate villages and the visiting of museums and collections devoted to rural and pastoral life, including woodcarving, wood-extraction forms, and everyday-object production, as part of the shepherds’ occupations in the highlands. Four pastoral enclaves in the National Park of Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici were investigated, and a total of 20 trees with old scars were measured and sampled. Scars had routine axe marks that followed a common rectangular pattern with a mean size of 12 cm in width and 65 cm in length. A chronology from 1765 to 1970 attested that these woodcarving practices come from, at least, modern times, as confirmed by the dendrochronological analysis. The finding of some trees with successive wounds in a time lapse of 20-25 years between scars reinforces the idea that these places were visited persistently. Archaeology connected these results to pastoral settlements lasting from the 11th to 20th centuries in this natural reserve, with different enclosures and huts made of stone, as recorded by extensive archaeological projects since 2001.
Keywords: transterminance, shepherds, scars on trees, Pinus uncinata, archaeology, ethnography, Medieval Ages, Modern Period, woodwork, wooden collars.
The charcoal analysis aims to understand the functioning of the society-environment relationship and the circle of timber production-consumption. The results show an environment with a great arboreal forest richness, with a reduced variety of conifer taxa and a great diversity of dicotyledon taxa. One of the factors that could affect forestry
exploitation capacities lies in the tools available to society, including, also, their organizational capacities for transporting the acquired wood to the place of consumption.
The reduced possibility of access to certain goods would depend directly on the social condition (ruling class, intermediate class or servants), age, and gender/sex. The use of the ax would be necessary and essential when the cutting and/or pruning of trunks and
branches of great caliber was required. For all other cases, the manual collection of living and/or dead wood would be sufficient. The ax and adze would be tools controlled by the intermediate social category and, in particular, by the male sex (regardless of the age of the individuals).
As a result, 28 plant taxa were determined for the site. The maintenance and social reproduction allowed the durability during ca. 650. That being so La Bastida presents the highest taxa variability for the whole Argaric territory and a resilient environment.
So, how long will forest exploitation be considered the main cause of the environmental collapse?
Mireia Celma Martínez * and Elena Muntán Bordas **
Oral presentation
* High-land Archaeology, Department of Prehistory, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
** Dendrochronology, Department of Ecology, Universitat de Barcelona
The present research was focused on the identification and dating of scars on trees growing in the subalpine zone (1900-2350 m elev.) in the National Park of Aigüestortes and Estany de Sant Maurici, Central Pyrenees. These injuries were not from natural processes, they were made by human beings, specifically by shepherds who have roamed the Iberian mountains throughout the last centuries (transhumance). Their object was to obtain bark and wood to manufacture different objects for domestic and pastoral activities. The purpose of this study was to increase knowledge about high-land activities during the last centuries by combining the following disciplines.
Scars showed different shapes and sizes. Archaeological techniques served to put together a description: classify the sort of scars, recreate the means of extraction and reconstruct the original size of wood slices and possible objects made from each type. After that, the obtained information could be related to the many pastoral settlements registered at the National Park by the extensive archaeological project going on since 2004. These sites provide data from the 11th to the 20th centuries with different enclosures and huts made of stone which were identified from pastoral activities.
Dendrochronology was used to date these injuries by extracting cores from the bole of trees, callus and centre of the scars. In order to attain the whole spectrum of ages available, both apparently recent and old scars were sampled. The species with anthropic scars were Pinus uncinata, Betula pendula and Abies alba.
Ethnology supplied valuable details by interviewing old people from villages close to the National Park and by visiting late local museums devoted to the rural and pastoral life. The information thus obtained referred to:
* Qualities and quantity of wood required for wood carving
* Wood-extraction procedure depending on species and required portion of the tree
* The many different objects made of wood and their use
* Reconstruction of shepherds’ activity areas and their impact to landscape
As the traces of the history of country life are disappearing fast, this investigation is meant to retain some of the customs of the pastoral way of life. The results allow us to confirm the wood-carving practices for, at least, the last two hundred years, although these have gone unchanged for centuries in the Central Pyrenees.
Mireia Celma Martínez
Prehistory Department-Archaeobotany Laboratory, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Edifici B Campus de la UAB, P.C.: 08913 Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallés, Spain)
e-mail: mireia_celma@hotmail.com
Dolmen de la Font dels Coms is located at the top of Vall de Baiasca at 1850 m altitude. The site was dug in 2003-04 and showed a repeated ocupation from prehistoric to roman times. Dolmenic construction was reused between third century BC to first century AC as an iron kiln.
This historical high-altitude iron kiln constitutes the site as a perfect example for studying human explotaition of raw materials. Analysis of charcoal samples are a conjunction between human raw material selection and ecological growth conditions. The object of analysis is determine species (used as combustible) and to obtain different data collection from anatomical features for growth-stress interpretation and attempt to extrapolate it to human activities.
Thanks to Parc Natural de l’Alt Pirineu (Alt Urgell-Pallars Sobirà, Catalonia, Spain), Ecomuseu de les Valls d’Àneu (Esterri d’Àneu, Catalonia, Spain) and Prehistory Department of Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain).
Pinus uncinata trees in the subalpine zone (1,700-2,350 m asl). These wounds were made by shepherds to obtain a plate of wood to fabricate cowbell collars for their own use, in order to control their livestock. The purpose of the research was to increase knowledge about high-mountain seasonal activities during recent centuries by combining ethnology, dendrochronology, and archaeology in an interdisciplinary approach. Ethnology supplied valuable details about the crafting of the wooden collars through the interviewing of old people from proximate villages and the visiting of museums and collections devoted to rural and pastoral life, including woodcarving, wood-extraction forms, and everyday-object production, as part of the shepherds’ occupations in the highlands. Four pastoral enclaves in the National Park of Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici were investigated, and a total of 20 trees with old scars were measured and sampled. Scars had routine axe marks that followed a common rectangular pattern with a mean size of 12 cm in width and 65 cm in length. A chronology from 1765 to 1970 attested that these woodcarving practices come from, at least, modern times, as confirmed by the dendrochronological analysis. The finding of some trees with successive wounds in a time lapse of 20-25 years between scars reinforces the idea that these places were visited persistently. Archaeology connected these results to pastoral settlements lasting from the 11th to 20th centuries in this natural reserve, with different enclosures and huts made of stone, as recorded by extensive archaeological projects since 2001.
Keywords: transterminance, shepherds, scars on trees, Pinus uncinata, archaeology, ethnography, Medieval Ages, Modern Period, woodwork, wooden collars.
growing in the subalpine zone (1900-2350 m elev.) in the National Park of Aigüestortes
and Estany de Sant Maurici, Central Pyrenees. These injuries were not from natural
processes, they were made by human beings, specifically by shepherds who have
roamed the Iberian mountains throughout the last centuries (transhumance). Their object
was to obtain bark and wood to manufacture different objects for domestic and pastoral
activities. The purpose of this study was to increase knowledge about high-land
activities during the last centuries by combining the following disciplines.
Charcoal coming from timber production and consumption during La Bastida diachrony was analysed. As a result, 28 taxa were determined for the site. That being so La Bastida presents the highest taxa variability for the whole Argaric territory.
There is, in addition, a variation in taxa during the three phases of La Bastida. In all respects, these taxa draw a completely different landscape from nowadays. The surroundings of La Bastida presented a mesothermophyte flora and a Mediterranean riparian vegetation in the nearby watercourses. Owing to the results, we can offer a new panorama for the environmental and landscape features of the past that lasted at least the 650 years of the settlement, and which was, by far, not arid.
Additionally, data from all the charcoal analysis (21) included in studies for Copper and Bronze Ages from the south-eastern territory of the Iberian Peninsula were collected.
The aim was to observe if there was any palaeoecological disturbance or dissimilarity within Los Millares (3rd millennium cal BC) and El Argar (2nd millennium cal BC) transition –both archaeological groups developed in the same territory. In the light of charcoal analysis, no remarkable difference was found. Conversely, a marked palaeoecological affinity with both archaeological groups could be stated.
Focused again on El Argar palaeoecology, up to the present, just 13% of the archaeological sites have analysed the charcoal on the recovered archaeobotanical remains. For that reason, there are few evidences to synthesize environmental conditions on the Argaric territory. Despite this, we analysed the existing data through correspondence analysis, and we identified separated habitats with different palaeoecological conditions. Dry conditions were detected in the surroundings of the coastal area, and higher humidity in the Penibetic mountain ranges area. Besides, the habitat diversity that featured the neighbourhood of each settlement during El Argar, and a continued availability of a large number of species from a wooded maquia cover could be ascertained. In accordance with our findings, these environmental conditions lasted at least until 1550 cal BC.
Therefore, this work supports the idea that the end and collapse of El Argar, which caused the simultaneous abandonment of all Argaric sites, does not lie in an overexploitation and depletion of forest resources.