Abstract:In this study archaeology, history and palaeoecology (modern and fossil data sets of pollen and nonpollen palynomorphs) were used to reconstruct small-scale pastoral activities in the Pyrenees Mountains during the last two millennia. Modern pollen assemblages from the major vegetation units (both natural and anthropogenic) are studied on one restricted watershed area. A correlative model (RDA) of 61 modern pollen spectra and 35 external variables distinguishes two groups of taxa, providing information on the nature and spatial extent of human impact on the landscape. The first pool indicates local pastoral activities, and the second one implies regional input from outside the studied watershed, and is not characteristic of a specific land use. These pools are described as 'Local Pastoral Pollen Indicators' (LPPI) for this particular mountain region on crystalline bedrock and 'Regional Human Activities Pollen Indicators' (RHAPI). The modern data set is used to aid interpretation of the local pollen sequence of Sourzay that covers the last 2000 calendar years BP, using RDA reconstructions, and best modern analogues as a means of comparing modern and fossil spectra. The study also demonstrates agreement between the independent interpretations of two fossil proxies, LPPI and coprophilous fungi.

a b s t r a c tThis article uses a method that combines pedoanthracological and pedo-archaeological approaches to terraces, complemented with archaeological pastoral data, in order to reconstruct the history of ancient agricultural terraces on a slope of the Enveitg Mountain in the French Pyrenees. Four excavations revealed two stages of terrace construction that have been linked with vegetation dynamics, which had been established by analyses of charcoal from the paleosols and soils of the terraces. Pedo-archaeological descriptions of these terrace soils reveal their ancient origins and their long-term use. Their chronology was established by radiocarbon dating of single charcoal fragments and charcoal lenses originating in the paleosols. Combining radiocarbon dating with pedo-archaeology resulted in a more reliable chronology.Moreover, the Bronze Age was found to be a crucial period in the history of land-use. This study also highlights the role of fire in the construction of this land-use pattern.

Pastoral activities in the northeastern Pyrenees increased substantially during the Bronze Age, raising the question of the modalities of occupations in zones where the snow cover limited access to grasslands for a significant part of the year. The present study explores how stable isotope analysis may characterize the adaptation of husbandry to mountain environments through herding strategies, including the vertical mobility of livestock. It also addresses the broader issue of the occupation of territories by Bronze Age communities in the Western Mediterranean area, focusing on possible links between coastal plains and mountainous areas. For this purpose, sequential stable carbon and oxygen isotope analyses were conducted on caprines' teeth from the mountain site of Llo (Pyr en ees-Orientales, 1630 m asl, Middle Bronze Age) and the permanent coastal site of Portal-Vielh (H erault, 0 m asl, Late Bronze Age). An exploratory analysis was also conducted on modern sedentary and transhumant ewes to investigate the effect of altitudinal mobility on enamel oxygen isotope values. The range of d 18 O values measured in modern and archaeological caprines raised in mountain zones was lower than the one measured in the lowland caprines, while no significant difference could be observed in the range of d 13 C values. Co-variations between d 13 C and d 18 O sequences reveal the most information. The positive correlation observed in all instances at low elevation sites was not the leading pattern at Llo, where a variety of schemes could be observed, including opposite d 13 C and d 18 O sequences. This opposition could not be explained by a reversal of the d 18 O cycle due to vertical mobility. Other causes could involve changes in the pattern of variation of d 13 C values, potentially linked to human responses to the local constraints, including vertical mobility and/or foddering. Portal-Vielh delivered a fully lowland signal. At Llo, although a full adaptation to a mountain environment seems clear, the question of the vertical mobility of the livestock cannot be resolved at the moment. Most importantly, Llo was characterized by a high inter-individual variability in the co-variation of d 13 C and d 18 O profiles, reflecting great plasticity of the husbandry practices on the inter-annual scale. This could have been a key to the adaptation to these marginal environments. The apparent disjunction between the coastal and mountain settlements, as far as herd trajectory is concerned, must be reaffirmed by further investigations in a larger number of sites.

The building of a solar power station at Thé mis, at 1650 masl on the south-facing slope of the Carlit massif in the eastern Pyrenees, led to an archaeological evaluation from April-June 2009. This evaluation covered a surface of 10 ha that included a medieval village as well as the surrounding agricultural land in terraces. Non-destructive archaeological methods were used for the village. A detailed study of the 6 ha of terraces began with a fieldwalking survey, mapping every visible feature, followed by systematic trial trenches. Fifty-five trenches, 11 in the village and 44 in the fields, were opened. The stratigraphies were then compared with a series of 22 radiocarbon dates and eight relative dates provided by ceramic typologies. This combination of surface and buried evidence supported our preliminary hypothesis about the dynamics of the slope. The results suggest the existence of agrarian features beginning in the Bronze Age and reveal that the field patterns were frequently transformed, both in the Medieval and Early Modern periods. The transformations in the terrace fields after the village was abandoned are as interesting as those during occupation because, contrary to the idea of a fixed, unchanging landscape after the end of the Middle Ages, they challenge the idea that mountain zones are marginal spaces by nature, or were marginalized later.

RésuméPour constituer l'estivage en domaine de l'histoire il faut mettre en lumière une transformation de sa pratique au cours du temps en un même lieu. L'entreprise paraît simple mais la carence des textes nécessite la constitution d'un corpus de sources inédit. Alliée à des études paléoenvironnementales, la fouille des sites pastoraux d'estivage permet ici de retracer les grandes étapes de l'anthropisation d'une montagne des Pyrénées de l'est, du néolithique à nos jours. Mais dans le tableau qui se dessine et qui fait affleurer les rythmes majeurs d'expansion et de repli des activités pastorales, quelques dissonances subsistent entre les différentes approches disciplinaires. Loin de nuire à la compréhension, ces discordances constituent une voie d'accès à une perception plus aiguë de l'évolution de la pratique de l'estivage. C'est par la comparaison diachronique et par une approche systémique du versant que chaque période semble susceptible de dévoiler sa personnalité et sa véritable dimension. Abstract Excavating shepherds' huts :For what purpose? --To place the summering of livestock inside history, light must be shed on changes in such practices over time in a single area. This seems easy to do, but the lack of texts necessitates forming a previously inexistent corpus of sources. Combined with paleoenvironmental studies, the excavation of sites for summering livestock served to detect the major stages, from the neolithic till our times, in humanizing a mountain in the eastern Pyrenees. But in the thus developed picture about major rhythms in the expansion and contraction of herding activities, troublesome points subsist due to the dissonance between different disciplines. Far from hindering our understanding however, this dissonance enables us to more keenly perceive changes in summering practices over time. Through a diachronic comparison and a systemic approach to mountain slopes, each period can reveal its personality and its dimensions.