Landscape transformation and economic practices among the first farming societies in Lake Banyoles (Girona, Spain)

This paper focuses on the high-resolution pollen analysis of one new pollen record from Lake Banyoles (Girona, Spain) and its contextualisation with other archaeobotanical records (charcoal, seed and wood remains) from the early Neolithic lakeshore settlement of La Draga. Around ca.7250 cal BP, coinciding with the first settlement phase of La Draga, a rapid fall of the pollen values of deciduous Quercus sp. is observed, and a stabilisation of these values is found until ca. 6000 cal BP. The causes for such changes in vegetation cover are discussed, taking into consideration environmental data to calibrate the role of climate in vegetation dynamics, as well as archaeobotanical data to evaluate impact of the management of vegetal resources on the landscape. The discussion of the data shows that climate could not have been the main cause for the decrease of broadleaf deciduous forests, and that the need of gathering raw material for the construction of dwellings played a major role in this change. The fact that these plant community does not recover during the occupation or after the abandonment of La Draga would confirm that human impact continued over time and that forest clearances were maintained for various purposes.
This research was undertaken through the following projects ‘Organización social de las primeras comunidades agrícola-ganaderas a partir del espacio doméstico: Elementos estructurales y áreas de producción y consumo de bienes (HAR2012-38838-C02-01) / Arquitectura en madera y áreas de procesado y consumo de alimentos (HAR2012-38838-C02- 02)’, funded by Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad- Subdirección General de Proyectos de Investigación (Spain) and ‘La Draga i les ocupacions lacustres prehistòriques de l’Estany de Banyoles dins del context de la l’Europa Occidental. Anys 2008-2013’ funded by Generalitat de Catalunya. The research has been done in the frame of the research group AGREST (2009 SGR 734). Jordi Revelles is currently a pre-doc FPU fellow of the Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (Spain) and Marian Berihuete is currently a post-doc fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. We would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for the thorough corrections of an earlier version of this paper, which contributed to its significant improvement.