Antracología y etnoarqueología. Perspectivas para el estudio de las relaciones entre las sociedades humanas y su entorno

Desde mediados del siglo XX se ha dado un importante impulso a los estudios de carbones procedentes de contextos arqueológicos. No obstante, este desarrollo de la antracología se ha visto condicionado por un fuerte debate metodológico sobre la validez de esta disciplina arqueobotánica para el estudio de la dinámica vegetacional del pasado. En este trabajo se propone: 1) recoger las opiniones que desde los años noventa del pasado siglo están a favor de superar este debate (recalcando tanto los límites como las posibilidades de la antracología en trabajos paleoecológicos) y desarrollar nuevos campos de estudio disciplinares; 2) plantear la discusión sobre el estudio arqueológico de las relaciones sociedad–naturaleza como un campo fructífero y de proyección social para el desarrollo de la antracología; y 3) exponer que la etnoarqueología es una de las principales herramientas para atender estos objetivos. Como ejemplo expongo el estudio de la gestión del combustible entre los fang de Guinea Ecuatorial.Since the second half of the XXth Century charcoal analysis has became an important field of research in Archaeology. Nevertheless, this development has been deeply conditioned by the discussion about the palaeoecological representativeness of the charcoal assemblages from archaeological contexts. With this article I intend 1) to develop new areas of study for charcoal analysis; 2) to set out the archaeological debate about the study of Society – Nature relationships as a way to develop charcoal analysis; and 3) to set out the ethnoarchaeology as a way to start working in this sense. As an example I expose the study of fuel management among the Fang of Equatorial Guinea

Mediterranean polyculture revisited: olive, grape and subsistence strategies at Palaikastro, East Crete, between the Late Neolithic and Late Bronze Age

This paper examines agriculture, farming and dietary resources in east Crete, and re-evaluates the role of grape and olive in its prehistoric economy, these being key in debates on the emergence of social complexity. To do so bioarchaeological, paleoenvironmental and landscape survey data from the Bronze Age town at Palaikastro and its territory are combined. The results indicate a highly compartmentalised landscape, including intensive crop cultivation and extensive animal herding with careful monitoring to maintain productivity. A heightened specialisation in ovicaprine management at Palaikastro and east Crete seems to be delineated. Marine resources were regularly exploited from easily accessible coastal areas. Other activities included viticulture since the Early Minoan period, with the possible involvement of several houses in wine-making. A final important activity in the area was large-scale olive tree management since the Final Neolithic period and through to the Late Bronze Age, that seems to be entangled with ovicaprine herding and grazing. Thus, the demand for olive oil production does not seem to have been the driving force behind the intensification of the tree management, at least initially, but a corollary of its use in other aspects of the local economy

Ancient crops provide first archaeological signature of the westward Austronesian expansion.

The Austronesian settlement of the remote island of Madagascar remains one of the great puzzles of Indo-Pacific prehistory. Although linguistic, ethnographic, and genetic evidence points clearly to a colonization of Madagascar by Austronesian language-speaking people from Island Southeast Asia, decades of archaeological research have failed to locate evidence for a Southeast Asian signature in the island's early material record. Here, we present new archaeobotanical data that show that Southeast Asian settlers brought Asian crops with them when they settled in Africa. These crops provide the first, to our knowledge, reliable archaeological window into the Southeast Asian colonization of Madagascar. They additionally suggest that initial Southeast Asian settlement in Africa was not limited to Madagascar, but also extended to the Comoros. Archaeobotanical data may support a model of indirect Austronesian colonization of Madagascar from the Comoros and/or elsewhere in eastern Africa

Coastal Subsistence, Maritime Trade, and the Colonization of Small Offshore Islands in Eastern African Prehistory

Recent archaeological research has firmly established eastern Africa's offshore islands as important localities for understanding the region's pre-Swahili maritime adaptations and early Indian Ocean trade connections. While the importance of the sea and small offshore islands to the development of urbanized and mercantile Swahili societies has long been recognized, the formative stages of island colonization—and in particular the processes by which migrating Iron Age groups essentially became “maritime”—are still relatively poorly understood. Here we present the results of recent archaeological fieldwork in the Mafia Archipelago, which aims to understand these early adaptations and situate them within a longer-term trajectory of island settlement and pre-Swahili cultural developments. We focus on the results of zooarchaeological, archaeobotanical, and material culture studies relating to early subsistence and trade on this island to explore the changing significance of marine resources to the local economy. We also discuss the implications of these maritime adaptations for the development of local and long-distance Indian Ocean trade networks

Coastal subsistence, maritime trade, and the colonization of small offshore islands in eastern African prehistory

Recent archaeological research has firmly established eastern Africa’s offshore islands as important localities for understanding the region’s pre-Swahili maritime adaptations and early Indian Ocean trade connections. While the importance of the sea and small offshore islands to the development of urbanized and mercantile Swahili societies has long been recognized, the formative stages of island colonization—and in particular the processes by which migrating Iron Age groups essentially became “maritime”—are still relatively poorly understood. Here we present the results of recent archaeological fieldwork in the Mafia Archipelago, which aims to understand these early adaptations and situate them within a longer-term trajectory of island settlement and pre-Swahili cultural developments. We focus on the results of zooarchaeological, archaeobotanical, and material culture studies relating to early subsistence and trade on this island to explore the changing significance of marine resources to the local economy. We also discuss the implications of these maritime adaptations for the development of local and long-distance Indian Ocean trade networks.The Sealinks Project is funded through a grant toNicole Boivin from the European Research Council (StarterGrant 206148) under the “Ideas” specific Programme of the 7th Framework Programme (FP7). Additional funding includes: postdoctoral fellowships from the British Academy (2010–2013) and the University of Queensland (2015–2017) to Alison Crowther; a Fondation Fyssen Postdoctoral Grant toEr´endira Quintana Morales; and a postdoctoral fellowship from the Government of the Balearic Islands (Conselleria d’Educaci´o) and the European Social Fund to Llorenc¸ Picornell-Gelabert. Fieldwork was carried out under COSTECH Research Permit no. 2012-303-ER-2011-85 and the Division of Antiquities (Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Tanzania) excavation license no. EA.402/605/01 issued to Alison Crowther, and with the support and permission of theRegionalAdministrative Secretary (Dar es Salaam andCoast/Pwani), the District Administrative Secretary (Mafia), and the Village Executive Officer (Mtendaji wa Kijiji, Juani).http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/uica20hb2016Anthropology and Archaeolog

Coastal subsistence, maritime trade, and the colonization of small offshore islands in eastern African prehistory

Recent archaeological research has firmly established eastern Africa’s offshore islands as important localities for understanding the region’s pre-Swahili maritime adaptations and early Indian Ocean trade connections. While the importance of the sea and small offshore islands to the development of urbanized and mercantile Swahili societies has long been recognized, the formative stages of island colonization—and in particular the processes by which migrating Iron Age groups essentially became “maritime”—are still relatively poorly understood. Here we present the results of recent archaeological fieldwork in the Mafia Archipelago, which aims to understand these early adaptations and situate them within a longer-term trajectory of island settlement and pre-Swahili cultural developments. We focus on the results of zooarchaeological, archaeobotanical, and material culture studies relating to early subsistence and trade on this island to explore the changing significance of marine resources to the local economy. We also discuss the implications of these maritime adaptations for the development of local and long-distance Indian Ocean trade networks.The Sealinks Project is funded through a grant toNicole Boivin from the European Research Council (StarterGrant 206148) under the “Ideas” specific Programme of the 7th Framework Programme (FP7). Additional funding includes: postdoctoral fellowships from the British Academy (2010–2013) and the University of Queensland (2015–2017) to Alison Crowther; a Fondation Fyssen Postdoctoral Grant toEr´endira Quintana Morales; and a postdoctoral fellowship from the Government of the Balearic Islands (Conselleria d’Educaci´o) and the European Social Fund to Llorenc¸ Picornell-Gelabert. Fieldwork was carried out under COSTECH Research Permit no. 2012-303-ER-2011-85 and the Division of Antiquities (Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Tanzania) excavation license no. EA.402/605/01 issued to Alison Crowther, and with the support and permission of theRegionalAdministrative Secretary (Dar es Salaam andCoast/Pwani), the District Administrative Secretary (Mafia), and the Village Executive Officer (Mtendaji wa Kijiji, Juani).http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/uica20hb2016Anthropology and Archaeolog

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

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\u2013crops\u2013domesticated 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

Paisaje vegetal y comunidades prehistóricas y protohistóricas en Mallorca y Menorca (Illes Balears): una aproximación desde la antracología

[spa] En esta Tesis Doctoral se ha realizado un estudio de las relaciones entre el paisaje vegetal y las comunidades prehistóricas y protohistóricas de las islas de Mallorca y Menorca (Illes Balears, Mediterráneo occidental) a partir del análisis de restos arqueológicos de madera (carbón y madera no quemada). La aproximación a este objeto de estudio de ha desarrollado en el contexto tanto de las relaciones sociedad-entorno de estas comunidades como de la dinámica de la vegetación holocena en el Norte del archipiélago balear. En este sentido, se han analizado tres tipos de materiales diferentes: restos de carbón disperso en el sedimento de yacimientos arqueológicos, restos de material constructivo calcinado en contextos arqueológicos y objetos confeccionados en madera. El trabajo se organiza en tres bloques. En el primero de ellos se define la aproximación teórica y metodológica al registro antracológico desarrollada en función de los objetivos propuestos. La perspectiva del estudio parte del análisis de varias aproximaciones al registro antracológico desarrolladas por diferentes investigadores en los últimos decenios. Esto se ha puesto en relación al contexto del análisis arqueológico de las relaciones entre las sociedades humanas y su entorno. En este sentido, se ha analizado la división entre una “arqueología científica” y una “arqueología teórica”. En el caso del análisis de las relaciones sociedad-entorno, este escenario ha influenciado el desarrollo de los trabajos de la arqueología ambiental y, más concretamente, en la disciplina antracológica. Muchos de estos trabajos parten de la distinción heurística entre naturaleza y cultura, dicotomía a partir de la que se han organizado muchos de los trabajos antracològicos. Este escenario ha dado lugar a una multiplicidad de denominaciones de la propia disciplina y a la división entre las antracólogas y los antracólogos entre una “perspectiva ambiental”, centrada en el análisis de la dinámica de la vegetación, y una “perspectiva funcionalista” o “paleoetnobotánica”, centrada en el análisis de la gestión de “recursos naturales”. No obstante, ambas perspectivas antracológicas, así como diversas voces de otras disciplinas de la arqueología ambiental, han cuestionado estas divisiones en la última década, manifestando la necesidad de desarrollar aproximaciones no dicotómicas en los estudios arqueobotánicos. En este sentido, en el primer bloque del trabajo se analizan todas estas cuestiones teóricas y metodológicas y se plantea una aproximación al registro antracológico que permita desarrollar un análisis holístico y contextual de los datos antracológicos orientado al estudio integrado de la dinámica de la vegetación y de las interacciones entre las poblaciones prehistóricas y protohistóricas con ésta. En un segundo bloque del trabajo se presentan los datos obtenidos en los 10 yacimientos arqueológicos de ambas islas de los que se han analizado restos de madera y carbón. Estos yacimientos son Closos de ca’n Gaià, Hospitalet Vell, Cova des Pas, Ses Païsses, Son Fornés, Ca’s Canar, turriforme de Son Ferrer, Cometa dels Morts, Son Maió y La Punta. Finalmente, en el tercer bloque del trabajo se discuten los datos obtenidos en relación a los objetivos y la aproximación establecidos en el primero de los bloques. En este sentido, se ha realizado una compilación de todos los datos antracológicos disponibles para el contexto geográfico y cronológico del trabajo, tanto los presentados en esta tesis como los publicados en trabajos de otros autores. Para el análisis de este conjunto de datos se han aplicado diversas herramientas de análisis estadístico multivariable. Todo ello ha permitido establecer varias hipótesis interpretativas en relación a los diversos aspectos contemplados. Por una parte, el conjunto de datos antracológicos ha permitido matizar la imagen de la dinámica de la vegetación holocena en las islas de Mallorca y Menorca, identificando diversas particularidades en relación a otros territorios del Mediterráneo occidental. Por otra parte, el análisis de los diversos usos de las plantas leñosas identificados (combustible doméstico, material constructivo, materia prima para la confección de objetos, combustible en ceremonias funerarias y ofrendas florales de difuntos) ha permitido caracterizar las relaciones entre las sociedades naviformes, talayóticas y postalayóticas en relación al paisaje vegetal y a las plantas leñosas.Title: Vegetal landscape and prehistoric and protohistoric communities in Mallorca and Menorca (Illes Balears): an anthracological approach Author: Llorenç Picornell Gelabert This PhD dissertation presents the results of the charcoal analysis of 7 prehistoric and protohistoric sites of Mallorca and Menorca, as well as the taxonomical identification of wooden objects in another 3. The chronological and geographical framework established corresponds to the islands of Mallorca and Menorca between 4.000 and 2.000 BC. The general objective has been the study of the interactions between society and woody plants in the Prehistory and Protohistory of these islands, within the frame of the interactions between these groups and their environment. In order to do this, the starting point has been a holistic and contextual approach to the charcoal record, which has been considered as the result of the interactions between the human societies and the vegetation in their surroundings. The work has been organized in 3 parts from which its 16 chapters are organized. In the First Part (Chapters 1 to 6) the objectives, perspective and context of the work are defined. The Second Part of the work presents the results obtained through the charcoal analysis of the various observed sites in the study: Closos de ca’n Gaià, Hospitalet Vell, Cova des Pas, Ses Païsses, Ca’s Canar, Son Fornés, Son Ferrer, Son Maimó, Cometa dels Morts and La Punta. In these chapters (Chapters 7 to 14), the taxonomical identification of charcoals disperse in the sediments, burnt timber and no-charred wooden objects is exposed attending to the particularities of each case. Finally, the Third Part corresponds to the synthesis and discussion of the data obtained and the data available in the literature (Chapter 15) in relation to the approach and objectives proposed. This has allowed the analysis of the vegetation dynamics in the North of the Balearic archipelago and the nature of the relationships between the prehistoric and protohistoric communities with their environments attending different social actions in which ligneous plants are involved (domestic firewood, raw material, funerary firewood and floral offerings). The conclusions and perspectives of the research are organized in the last Chapter (16)