Hector A. Orengo

Prehistoric impact on landscape and vegetation at high altitudes: An integrated palaeoecological and archaeological approach in the eastern Pyrenees (Perafita valley, Andorra)

Abstract A multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental study (pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs-NPP, macrocharcoal particles) of a small fen located in the Perafita valley (2240 m a.s.l, eastern Pyrenees, Andorra) was undertaken to trace prehistoric human activities related to woodland clearance and past land-uses at high altitudes. The results of this study constrained by 9 AMS radiocarbon measurements are combined with archaeological data and compared with similar research carried out at the same altitude in the adjacent Madriu valley (Andorra). The overall objectives of this article are, first, to formulate different chronological patterns and spatial land-use distribution at a micro-regional scale during prehistory and, second, to discuss different drivers of prehistoric occupation models in the eastern Pyrenean highlands. The palaeoecological study of the Planells de Perafita fen was performed at high temporal resolution, allowing us to focus on detailed prehistoric (mainly Mesolithic and Neolithic) and Bronze Age human activity. It demonstrates that the shaping of this cultural landscape is the result of a long-term land-use history, which began at the late Mesolithic/early Neolithic transition onwards (ca 6400–6100 cal BC). The existence of three main phases of “inter-valley” land-use variability has also been highlighted, thus testifying a complex and heterogeneous upland land-use model during the Neolithic and Bronze Age. These land-use variabilities between the two adjacent Andorran valleys provide the basis for a discussion of the way in which environmental constraints influenced prehistoric land-use spatial organisation and of how the interaction between environmental (including climatic parameters), socio-economic and cultural conditions affected the temporal and spatial dynamics of landscape shaping in the eastern Pyrenean highlands.

Tracing the history of highland human management in the eastern Pre-Pyrenees: an interdisciplinary palaeoenvironmental study at the Pradell fen, Spain

Although high mountain areas have traditionally been viewed as predominantly grazing areas, with low population and a high degree of land-use stasis, recent research suggest that land-use complexity and change over time has been underestimated. This interdisciplinary palaeoenvironmental analysis has been carried out on the Pradell calcareous fen, located in the eastern Pre-Pyrenees (Spain) at 1975 m a.s.l., and it comprises different environmental indicators: pollen, stomata, non-pollen palynomorphs, macrocharcoal particles, lithostratigraphy, sedimentology and geochemistry. The results of this high temporal resolution study are integrated with archaeological data, and together provide strong evidence for the complexity of the high-mountain land-use system over the last 1500 years. Archaeological fieldwork has shown the rise of highland mining activities during the Roman period. Later, frequent fires resulted from the farming and settlement that followed the Christian conquest. Geochemical analysis of sediment cores records late-Mediaeval metal production, while the expansion of feudal cropping and the advent of several Mediaeval crises are clearly recorded in both the pollen and the historical data. Finally, the rise of a mixed economy system based on transhumance, farming, metallurgy and woodland exploitation was established during Modern and Contemporary times. The high correlation between the palaeoenvironmental, archaeological and historical data at the Pradell fen stresses the value of calcareous fens for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions of historical landscapes. Results obtained also depict high mountain landscapes as the result of the long-term interaction of many human practices, including mining and smelting, grazing, cropping and tree exploitation for the production of wood, charcoal and resin.

Methodological insights into the study of centuriated field systems: a landscape archaeology perspective

The morphological identification of centuriated field systems has been characterised from its beginnings by methodological approaches mainly sustained on actus-based modular relationships and orientations. Many researchers dedicated to the identification of centuriations have only performed archaemorphological analyses based on interpretation of aerial photographs and maps without field verification or any other proof of the validity of their hypothsis. Their restitutions consisted of a set of lines over a map or an aerial photograph which often lacked precision and spatial resolution. This article argues that the study of centuriations should transform its aims, scope and methodologies to be converged with those presented by diachronic transdisciplinary landscape archaeology. In order to do so a series of integrated methodological approaches are exposed and their applicability discussed.

Centuriación del territorio y modelación del paisaje en los llanos litorales de Barcino (Barcelona) y Tarraco (Tarragona) : una investigación interdisciplinar a través de la integración de datos arqueomorfológicos y paleoambientales.

This paper deals with the contribution of Landscape Archaeology to the study of centuriations. The investigation is based on a diachronic and interdisciplinary perspective and explores the applicability of GIS. The article presents data from two case studies, the territories of Tarraco (Tarragona) and Barcino (Barcelona) offering some ideas about the meaning and function of Roman centuriations. Both territories show a strong territorial organization based on the model of centuriation, together with a complex land-use. Therefore, centuriations does not necessarily imply intensive landscape exploitation. In this sense, palaeoenvironmental evidence shows a Roman landscape characterized by the absence of both an extensive deforestation and a general extension of agricultural areas. The data reinforces the symbolic and representational meaning of the centuriation model.

Contemporary Engagements Within Corridors of the Past Temporal Elasticity, Graffiti and the Materiality of St Rock Street, Barcelona

In a medieval Barcelonan side street, urine, rubbish and a bewildering array of graphic imagery splatters the narrowing walls between two major thoroughfares. A contemporary conflict between residents, unknown artists and others is played out using banners, bottles, stickers, posters, stencils, spray paint and bodily substances. In this shadowy liminality, local and global debates are superimposed upon substructures constructed from disease, prostitution and the Saint of the Plague. The continuing urban struggle constitutes temporal statements of dirt and purity, violence and humour, dominance and resistance, death and salvation. Like the renovated facades masking the crumbling remains of structures long neglected, the local councils literal whitewashing of the art is a temporal cover-up of a discursive symptom stretching from deeply embedded preconditions. However, from his niche in the angular bend of the short side street bearing three names, the statue of St Rock remains unblinkingly staring, raised above the contestations expressed below him.

Reconsidering the water system of Roman Barcino (Barcelona) from supply to discharge

This paper presents the results of the ‘Roman Barcino Water Network’ Project. This study employed a series of methodologies aiming at joining and interpreting all data available on water supply, distribution, management, use and discharge in the Roman colony of Barcino (modern Barcelona). Analyses of the results substantially modified previous knowledge of Barcino’s water organization and provided one of the few examples in which the whole water system of a Roman city has been tackled. We concluded that the water supply employed a single aqueduct, which divided before entering the city and not two of them as it was previously assumed. Barcino’s water distribution system was designed according to the different uses of water and was conditioned by the city’s particular topography. The results also stress the colony’s ample water availability, which despite its small size, allowed the maintenance of multiple public and private baths as befitted an accommodated population of merchants and administrators.

Environmental evolution and mid–late Holocene climate events in the Valencia lagoon (Mediterranean coast of Spain)

Integration of geomorphological, stratigraphic, malacological, sedimentological and micropalaeontological techniques and 14C dating allows us to characterise the processes and evolution of the coastal barrier–lagoon system of Valencia (Spain), from the middle Holocene to the historical epoch, as well as the responses to global climate events. Four stages are recognised. Phase 1: around 8240 ± 80 cal. yr BP, a brackish lagoon of moderate energy and in restricted environment was formed, with an energy peak that could correspond to the maximum Holocene marine transgression. Dating (8240 ± 80 cal. yr BP) carried out in peat corresponds to a cold cycle and low water levels in inland lakes of the western Mediterranean. Phase 2: from 6450 cal. yr BP to 3710 ± 130 cal. yr BP, a lagoon remained, in restricted environment and connected with the sea, but with a notable energy decrease and recurrent saturation processes similar to those described in other Mediterranean continental lakes. This phase is contemporaneous with a period of increase in the aridity trend and global cold cycles. Phase 3: from 3710 ± 130 cal. yr BP, a brackish lagoon without marine connection was formed. Towards 820 ± 90 cal. yr BP, a shift to a totally isolated lagoon environment took place (changing from brackish lagoon to freshwater). This process is coeval with a palaeohydrological phase of high flooding frequency in the river flood plains of Spain and Southern France. Phase 4: freshwater lagoon environment becomes a widespread flood plain. During a phase of high frequency and magnitude of floods (‘Little Ice Age’), the flood plain is formed on the top level of the sequence. Phases and processes recorded in sedimentation could be placed in relation with global mid-to-late Holocene events.

Reconstruction of Caprine Management and Landscape Use Through Dental Microwear Analysis: The Case of the Iron Age Site of El Turó de la Font de la Canya (Barcelona, Spain)

ABSTRACT This paper presents the results of a pilot study using dental microwear analysis on 23 sheep and goat teeth dated to the 6th century BC from the Iron Age site of El Turó Font de la Canya (Barcelona, Spain). This study aimed to reconstruct livestock management practices and landscape use. The dental microwear pattern indicates that sheep and goats could have been grazing in the same area where vegetation was composed of shrubs, bushes and non-graminaceous plants on an eroded landscape, although additional supplies of fodder cannot be excluded. This scenario is compatible with the archaeological and palaeoenvironmental data which suggest a possibly increased territoriality, land degradation and an increase of woodland clearance during Iron Age in the North-east of the Iberian Peninsula. Furthermore, we applied two recent microwear approaches which provide more information about mortality events and the possibility of distinguishing between an intensive and extensive management. This paper demonstrates how this method can be used to better understand animal husbandry practices and landscape use in Late Prehistory.

Multi-scale relief model (MSRM): a new algorithm for the visualization of subtle topographic change of variable size in digital elevation models: MSRM: an algorithm for the multi-scale analysis of topographic change

Abstract Morphological analysis of landforms has traditionally relied on the interpretation of imagery. Although imagery provides a natural view of an area of interest (AOI) images are largely hindered by the environmental conditions at the time of image acquisition, the quality of the image and, mainly, the lack of topographical information, which is an essential factor for a correct understanding of the AOIs geomorphology. More recently digital surface models (DSMs) have been incorporated into the analytical toolbox of geomorphologists. These are usually high‐resolution models derived from digital photogrammetric processes or LiDAR data. However, these are restricted to relatively small areas and are expensive or complex to acquire, which limits widespread implementation. In this paper, we present the multi‐scale relief model (MSRM), which is a new algorithm for the visual interpretation of landforms using DSMs. The significance of this new method lies in its capacity to extract landform morphology from both high‐ and low‐resolution DSMs independently of the shape or scale of the landform under study. This method thus provides important advantages compared to previous approaches as it: (1) allows the use of worldwide medium resolution models, such as SRTM, ASTER GDEM, ALOS, and TanDEM‐X; (2) offers an alternative to traditional photograph interpretation that does not rely on the quality of the imagery employed nor on the environmental conditions and time of its acquisition; and (3) can be easily implemented for large areas using traditional GIS/RS software. The algorithm is tested in the Sutlej‐Yamuna interfluve, which is a very large low‐relief alluvial plain in northwest India where 10 000 km of palaeoriver channels have been mapped using MSRM. The code, written in Google Earth Engines implementation of JavaScript, is provided as Supporting Information for its use in any other AOI without particular technical knowledge or access to topographical data.

28. Andorran high Pyrenees (Perafita Valley, Andorra): SerraMijtana fen

28. Andorran high Pyrenees (Perafita Valley, Andorra): Serra Mijtana fen Yannick Miras, Ana Ejarque, Santiago Riera Mora, Hector A. Orengo & Josep Maria Palet Martinez To cite this article: Yannick Miras, Ana Ejarque, Santiago Riera Mora, Hector A. Orengo & Josep Maria Palet Martinez (2015): 28. Andorran high Pyrenees (Perafita Valley, Andorra): Serra Mijtana fen, Grana, DOI: 10.1080/00173134.2015.1087590 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00173134.2015.1087590