Use of space and site formation processes in a Neolithic lakeside settlement. Pollen and non-pollen palynomorphs spatial analysis in La Draga (Banyoles, NE Iberia)

Revelles, Jordi; Burjachs, Francesc; Morera, Núria; Barceló, Joan; Berrocal, Anna; López‐Bultó, Oriol; Maicher, Céline; Bailly, Matthieu Le; Piqué, Raquel; Palomo, Antoni; Terradas, Xavier

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2017.04.001

Cited by 19 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Poher et al, 2017;Schneider et al, 2016;Peña-Chocarro et al, 2018). For example, abundant pollen and macrofossils attest to the cultivation and processing of cereals at La Draga, a major Neolithic site on the shores of Lake Banyoles (BAN; Bosch et al, 2000;Antolín et al, 2015;Revelles et al, 2017), yet cereal pollen scarcely appears in the lake sediments of the same period (Revelles et al, 2015). (Snitker, 2018), corroborating the spike in fire and grazing indicators at NAV (Carrión and van Geel, 1999).…”

Section: Fire-led Vegetation Turnovermentioning

confidence: 81%

“…Plantago, Rumex, Urtica and Juglans: Behre, 1981) belong to the original flora (Carrión and Sánchez-Gómez, 1992;Pantaléon-Cano et al, 2003;Ejarque et al, 2011). We used Brassicaceae, Cannabis/Humulus-type, Cerealia-type, Castanea, Juglans, Olea, Plantago spp., Polygonum aviculare-type, Rumex spp., Trifolium pratense-type, Urtica dioica-type, Vitis, and fungal spores of Sordariaceae, Sporormiella, Podospora, Cercophora and Coniochaeta (Carrión and van Geel, 1999;Ejarque et al, 2011;Revelles et al, 2017). Any of these taxa that occurred in the early Holocene samples from a record (e.g.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Peña-Chocarro et al, 2018;Poher et al, 2017;Schneider et al, 2016). For example, abundant pollen and macrofossils attest to the cultivation and processing of cereals at La Draga, a major Neolithic site on the shores of Lake Banyoles (BAN; Antolín et al, 2015;Bosch et al, 2000;Revelles et al, 2017), yet cereal pollen scarcely appears in the lake sediments of the same period (Revelles et al, 2015). Some of the site-specific differences in fire and turnover only make sense in the light of archaeological evidence.…”

Section: Fire-led Vegetation Turnovermentioning

confidence: 99%

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Humans take control of fire-driven diversity changes in Mediterranean Iberia’s vegetation during the mid–late Holocene

et al. 2019

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Fire regime changes are considered a major threat to future biodiversity in the Mediterranean Basin. Such predictions remain untested, however, given that fire regime changes and their ecological impacts occur over timescales that are too long for direct observation. Here we analyse centennial-3 and millennial-scale shifts in fire regimes and compositional turnover to track the consequences of fire regime shifts on Mediterranean vegetation diversity. We estimated rate-of-change, richness and compositional turnover (beta diversity) in 13 selected high-resolution palaeoecological records from Mediterranean Iberia and compared these to charcoal-inferred fire regime changes. Event sequence analysis showed fire regime shifts to be significantly temporally associated with compositional turnover, particularly during the last three millennia. We find that the timing and direction of fire and diversity change in Mediterranean Iberia are best explained by long-term human-environment interactions dating back perhaps 7500 years. Evidence suggests that Neolithic burning propagated a first wave of increasing vegetation openness and promoted woodland diversity around early farming settlements. Landscape transformation intensified around 5500-5000 cal. yr BP and accelerated during the last two millennia, as fire led to permanent transitions in ecosystem state. These fire episodes increased open vegetation diversity, decreased woodland diversity and significantly altered richness on a regional scale. Our study suggests that anthropogenic fires played a primary role in diversity changes in Mediterranean Iberia. Their millennia-long legacy in today's vegetation should be considered for biodiversity conservation and landscape management.

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Section: Fire-led Vegetation Turnovermentioning

confidence: 81%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Fire-led Vegetation Turnovermentioning

confidence: 99%

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Humans take control of fire-driven diversity changes in Mediterranean Iberia’s vegetation during the mid–late Holocene

et al. 2019

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“…Crop fields could not be in the immediate surroundings of the settlement as the site was established in a swampy area unsuitable for cultivation. Cereal fields would have been far enough away to prevent Cerealia-type pollen from reaching the nearby off-site (thus, near site) SB2 core (Revelles et al, 2014(Revelles et al, , 2015 The high concentrations of Cerealia-type pollen within the settlement reflects on-site storage of crops (mixed cereal grains and chaff suggesting domestic storage were studied by Antolín et al, 2014) and are a by-product of on-site plant processing: at La Draga, spatial association between the highest values of cereal pollen and grinding stones identified an area of cereal processing (Revelles et al, 2017). The comparison of the pollen records from this area (Figure 1) suggests that farming itself caused a limited impact locally and that firewood and timber supply was responsible for major landscape transformations at the extra-local scale (reflected in the near/off-site records: Revelles, 2017).…”

Section: Western Mediterranean: La Draga (Girona)mentioning

confidence: 99%

From influence to impact: The multifunctional land use in Mediterranean prehistory emerging from palynology of archaeological sites (8.0-2.8 ka BP)

et al. 2019

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Archaeobotany is used to discover details on local land uses in prehistoric settlements developed during the middle and beginning of late Holocene. Six archaeological sites from four countries (Spain, Italy, Greece, and Turkey) have pollen and charcoal records showing clear signs of the agrarian systems that had developed in the Mediterranean basin during different cultural phases, from pre-Neolithic to Recent Bronze Age. A selected list of pollen taxa and sums, including cultivated trees, other woody species, crops and annual or perennial synanthropic plants are analysed for land use reconstructions. In general, cultivation has a lower image in palynology than forestry, and past land uses became visible when oakwoods were affected by human activities. On-site palynology allows us to recognise the first influence of humans even before it can be recognised in off-site sequences, and off-site sequences can allow us to determine the area of influence of a site. Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeological sites show similar land use dynamics implying oak exploitation, causing local deforestation, and cultivation of cereal fields in the area or around the site. Although a substantial difference makes the Neolithic influence quite distant from the Bronze Age impact, mixed systems of land exploitation emerged everywhere. Multiple land use activities exist (multifunctional landscapes) at the same time within the area of influence of a site. Since the Neolithic, people have adopted a diffuse pattern of land use involving a combination of diverse activities, using trees–crops–domesticated animals. The most recurrent combination included wood exploitation, field cultivation and animal breeding. The lesson from the past is that the multifunctional land use, combining sylvo-pastoral and crop farming mixed systems, has been widely adopted for millennia, being more sustainable than the monoculture and a promising way to develop our economy.

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“…This hot spot demonstrates a tendency to manage waste at the household level. Despite their willingness to concentrate waste, the inhabitants present a high rate of infestation and show co-occurrence of several gastrointestinal parasites [51,52].…”

Section: Using Statistical Treatment and Spatializing Paleoparasitological Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Accessing Ancient Population Lifeways through the Study of Gastrointestinal Parasites: Paleoparasitology

et al. 2021

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Paleoparasitology is a discipline of bioarchaeology that studies human and animal parasites and their evolution through time. It is at the frontier between biological sciences and the humanities, and aims to provide valuable clues about the lifestyles of former populations. Through examples chosen among recent case studies, we show in this review how paleoparasitology contributes to issues related to food, health, hygiene, organic waste management, and site occupation by ancient populations, but also, in the longer term, to questions of the evolution of the human/animal relationship and the history of diseases. This article provides an overview of this research field, its history, its concepts, and in particular, its applications in archaeology and the history of diseases.

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Use of space and site formation processes in a Neolithic lakeside settlement. Pollen and non-pollen palynomorphs spatial analysis in La Draga (Banyoles, NE Iberia)

Cited by 19 publications

References 35 publications

Humans take control of fire-driven diversity changes in Mediterranean Iberia’s vegetation during the mid–late Holocene

Humans take control of fire-driven diversity changes in Mediterranean Iberia’s vegetation during the mid–late Holocene

From influence to impact: The multifunctional land use in Mediterranean prehistory emerging from palynology of archaeological sites (8.0-2.8 ka BP)

Accessing Ancient Population Lifeways through the Study of Gastrointestinal Parasites: Paleoparasitology

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