Holocene anthropization of mid-elevation landscapes around Pic d'Orhy, Western Pyrenees
Résumé
We use archaeologically derived chronologies of agropastoral occupation and archives of sedimentary charcoal (a proxy for fire) to examine processes of anthropogenic landscape domestication (“anthropization”) for upland landscapes around Pic d’Orhy, French Western Pyrenees. Prevailing accounts establish Middle Holocene agropastoral land use activities as the onset of anthropization in the Pyrenean uplands through regional-level syntheses of paleoecological and archaeological evidence. However, little is known about the timing and spatial patterning of anthropization at the landscape
level and even less consideration has been given to the specific socioecological processes responsible for landscape change. In this chapter, we test two alternative hypotheses for the anthropization of landscapes around Pic d’Orhy: (1) Anthropization was an intentional, relatively rapid, and uniform collection of “pulse” deforestation events initiated by phases of land use intensification, and (2) anthropization was a long- term, dynamic, and spatially heterogenous “press” process leading to coevolutionary phases of land use intensification and land conversion. Our results support the hypothesis that anthropization was a spatially and temporally heterogeneous “press” type of disturbance. In conclusion, we suggest that while regional interdisciplinary syntheses are broadly informative, understanding the human behaviors responsible for anthropization may require a finer-grained, landscape-level approach.
Domaines
Archéologie et Préhistoire
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