Reproduced with permission of the publisher. © Authors and School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, 2004. Details of the full publication are available at: http://www.le.ac.uk/ar/research/pubs/catalogue.htm

Creighton, O.H

Segui, J

Open Research Exeter

MANOLO'S WORLD - TFIE SERRA DE L'ALTMIRANT SURVEYthe locals, the main study area, especially theSerra de l'Altmirant mountain, is a distancedand somehow isolated landscape. Of course,this does not mean in real terms actual extendeddistances - since such distances would be nogreater than between a village and cester in theFamorca district - but it perhaps signifies morea mental factor which may have influenced theestablishment of more solid or more permanent-looking structures in a given area.When referring to location, general terms ofpastoral site distribution are followed in bothareas. These are:o pastoral sites are always built outside of themain cultivated areas. although this need notmean the existence in many cases of a closerelationship between a plot of land and apastoral site. Location beyond cultivatedareas rather responds to the need of avoidingcrop damage by uncontrolled flocks or strayflock members.o these were built according to specific landavailability, linked to township/villageterritories and ownership of individual plotsof land on which corrals sought o be placed.However, sorle distinctions can be traced.Thus, in the Famorca district, a clear pattern ofdistribution linked to exposure to sunlight canbe followed: i.e. winter sites - mainly corrals -will be placed in those areas with extendedexposure to sunlight, whereas summer sites -cesters and esbardals are located in moreshaded points, to avoid the summer heat. TheSerra de I'Altmirant corrals. used across thesummer, are sites much exposed to sunlight (oneslope zone is indeed termed Solana or 'sunny').(On this see Section 2.l3.iii). Perhaps thismight be one of the reasons why local shepherdsbuilt corrals, with proper roofs, in order to gainshelter against the heat; if so, the need forunroofed structures is removed.On the other hand, in examining detail,differences in corral location are also detectable.The needs of water, lnore dramatic in the Serrade I'Altmirant than in the Famorca district.meant the general construction of cisterns inassociation with corral sites. As the closegeomorphological study carried out by VictoriaGil Senis has demonstrated (Section 1.1), thecatchment systems ernployed were well thoughtand needed a very particular siting to takeadvantage of superficial waters running downthe slopes. It is obvious that, ultimately, thisfactor conditioned the location of some of thecorral sites in the Serra de I'Altmirant and Plirde la Llacuna areas. Only one similar case wasfound in the Famorca district; otherwise thereare no corrals associated with cisterns here,mainly because proximity to all year roundsprings across the zones used in the summer,solved the water supply problem for shepherds.As a general conclusion for this section, itemerges that geographical proximity, geologicalequality and cultural uniformity, cannot avoidon the one hand, the idiosyncracy of vernaculararchitecfure,, and on the other hand, theappearance of very specific ways of landscapeexploitation. If anything, topographicalparticularities should have a powerful influencein defining these specific ways; precise but veryimportant factors from a shepherdingperspective such as water availability conditionsare also essential. Finally, and perhaps less easyto discern, even in ethnographic contexts,landscape perception (for example, distancefrorn main settlernent point, isolation, harshconditions, danger) rnay equally play a role.2.12 Comparative Study:The Ethnoarchaeology of CorralAbandonment in the Famorca District(JS, OC)In conjunction with the Serra de I'Altmirantsurvey work, a related ethnoarchaeologicalstudy was undertaken at Easter 1996 of'abandoned' pastoral sites in the same Famorcaregion (fig.38; see Section 2.1 I above forlandscape characteristics of district). The aimswere two-fold: first, to assess the value ofstudying present-day pastoral abandonmentprocesses as a comparison with siteabandonment and formation processes in thearchaeological record; and second, to gain anethnographic understanding of seasonalenvironmental exploitation by shepherds in anarea still employing traditional practices. Suchstudies have been pioneered in southernAmerican and Pacific contexts, but are so farlargely lacking for the Mediterranean, althougha growing corpus of ethno-archaeologicalresearch in Greece (Chang 1992), Italy (Barker& Grant 1991) and now Spain (Beavitt et al.1995; Segui 1995; 1999) provides a valuablestarting-point.69MANOLO'S WORLD. THE SERRA DE L'ALTMIRANT SURVEYlfn;:.&r#hThe study embodied a multi-stage approach,commencing with the structural recording of allknown pastoral sites in the Famorca area and thedetailed scrutiny of artifact distributions andcompositions in and around each site; a secondphase saw EDM planning of a selected 'typical'site, combined with grid-walked artefactcollection; the third stage consisted of astructured programme of interviews withmembers of the local pastoral community,supplying information against which to compare'archaeological interpretations' of theabandoned sites (for full analysis see Creighton& Segui 1997;1998).P|.59: Corral decay - here, in Corral LL A, roofcollopse has seen the accunttrlation of broken tileacross the room JIoor. In some instances, completetites mov have been ::#:;:J{::,reuse fottowing(i) Landscnpe und EconomyIn socio-economic terms a high rate of ruralemigration has ensured a fairly recent massivepopulation decline; at present approximately 50people only live in Famorca village, with thesummer season heralding a short-termpopulation increase. Agriculture has long beenmainly concentrated upon almond and olive oilproduction, with a gradual abandonment of theleast viable terraces. Mechanisation andfertilisers have greatly facilitated increasedproduction, but the unpredictability of theharvest and of market structures in general hasled young people to leave the village in searchof more secure employrnent in the cities.Pastoral activity has consequently declinedmarkedly, especially in terms of those practicesmanaging only a lirnited number of animals.lndeed, presently there are only one or two(elderly) participants managing srnall flocks (ofc.30 anirnals).These dramatic changes have all had an impacton the old structures of pastoralism - the corrals- most of which are now ruinous. The twoelderly shepherds utilise two corrals on aseasonal basis,, but with episodic supplementaryusage of additional corrals. During Easter,however, a migrant shepherd with a large flock(over 200 sheep) now comes to the area fromsome 500km distance in a quest foreconomically viable pastures; his presence,albeit brief, is nonetheless witnessed in some ofthe corrals studied. A greater emphasis on oliveand almond cultivation meanwhile, combinedwith mechanisation, has removed the role ofmany corrals, which were in any case oftenlocated so as to avoid areas of cultivation; somecorrals have been used by agriculturalists tostore some implementso or otherwise as shelters,and for herding activities. Ruinous corrals alsonow function as cover and shelter for hunters.Hunting retains an important role, for both foodand sport. As a normally transient activity, thesignals left by hunters fifty years ago werecertainly less obvious than today, with the needto re-use cartridges previously ensuringsystematic recollection after use, whereasdiscarded ernpty, modern cartridges andcartridge boxes abound at present within andaround corrals.As noted, a key aim of the study was tounderstand the varied modes of post-abandonment activity at the corrals (cf. pls.59-6l). These can be summarised as follows:. Some corrals were abandoned, left entirelyunused and. through neglect, ruinous.. Some abandoned corrals were used. almostimmediately after their disuse. as herdingsites. or as a source for building materials.Tiles and, in some cases. beams. were takenfrom corral roofs, and re-used in the village:in certain corrals these materials are piledup awaiting collection (: Re-use Type I ).. Some corrals have been partially re-used asstorage areas. normally for items of lowvalue that owners would not keep in theirhouses in the village ( : Type 2).. Some corrals have been converted intogarages( :Type3) .(i, Tiles and ArtefactsFor each pastoral structure recorded, the volumeof tile was recorded, respectively in (i) the'interior' or (previously) roofed area of the site,70MANOLO'S WORLD - THE SERRA DE L'ALTMIRANT SURVEY(ii) the 'enclosure' area of the site (non-roofedareas of the sites bounded by walls), and (iii) theoenvirons' of the site (encompassing an areawithin 20m of the edge of the structures. Thecollected materials could be further divided into(a) whole tiles, stacked or in storage, (b) wholetiles not stacked, (c) part tiles (the long axisbeing greater than 20cm), and (d) tile fragments(the long axis being less than 20cm). Inaddition the number of tiles in these variousstates still in situ on the roof was estimated, aswas the original total number of tiles.Other artefacts were collected in each of thethree types of re-used corrals and in each of thethree differentiated zones within these corrals(frg.42). The artefacts could be divided into thefollowing categories:" 'Work' items, subdivided into items used byshepherds, hunters and agriculturalists.Artefacts classified into these groups wereeither of industrial or hand-made origin, butoriginating in one of these areas of activity.Thus, for instance. a hoe was counted as anagriculfural item, and a cartridge as ahunting item. In the case of shepherds.items used as fodder. such as olive branchesor sacks of almond skin. were also counted.. Building materials. This refers to anybuilding material apart from tiles found orror near the site, comprising pieces of wall.or timbers spread on the floor. This was adifficult item to assess. because in some ofthe corrals the level of destruction isextremely high.. 'Other '. refering to any other item found onthe site not related to any of the activitiesareas cited above as. for instance. acigarette packet or tuna tin.It has been contended that the study ofabandonment behaviour should focus less on theprocess per se, but more on the aspects of thatbehaviour relating to the cornposition of thematerial remains and their spatial patterning(Tomka & Stevenson 1993: 193). ln this sense,the pattern and process of corral abandorunentin the Famorca area are intimately related to thesurvival of the nucleated village as a settlementin the present landscape. The continuation ofsettlement at Famorca has played a role in thereception of materials from abandoned corrals,in addition to, conversely, being the source of aproportion of items found in the corrals.Notably, distance appears not to be a significantdeterminant of the assemblage of materialsoriginating from corrals; thus tiles from corralsa considerable distance from the village wereused in its rebuilding. Certainly the presence ofanimals is an important factor, as they couldreadily reach corrals when good tracks or roadswere not available. On the other hand, distancefrom the village appears to be an influentialdeterminant of the selection of artefacts, whichemanated from the village found in corrals.Additionally, distance is an important factorinfluencing the selection of corrals used asstores, or as places to leave unwanted items(although not 'unwanted' enough to be thrownaway). Corrals situated near the village dumpare corespondingly influenced in terms of theirartefact assemblage characteristics, with itemseither bought intentionally to the corrals byshepherds, or transported by other factors, suchas the wind or other people.(iii) DiscussionThe 'abandonment' of corrals in the Famorcaregion emerges as a complex process. Acontinuum exists between the completeabandonment of a site in a single phase and thecontinuation of activity at corrals still in use.Between these two extremes come variousmodes of activity such as occasional or seasonalre-use of a site for pastoral functions. Theseprocesses of serni-abandorunent activityevident also in various of the Serra deI'Altmirant structures surveyed - are manifestedin a number of ways. Although post-abandorunent patterns of activity vary, a numberof trends emerge: functionally, corrals canbecome places for the storage of a wide range ofitems; spatially, the structure of a corral can bealtered in line with different modes of activity,often in the contraction of the roofed area;temporally, activity can become concentratedinto a srnall number of days per year when thecorral is used. Clearly, in order to understandthese processes tnore coherently, theabandonment of an individual site must berelated to the abandorunent/ partial abandon-ment/ survival of other sites as well as to anynearby extant settlement(s). The picture isnaturally complex and variable: as seen in thediscussion of the Pld de la Llacuna, a singlecompact landscape can contain ruins, part-maintained ruins, active units within a largelyruinous whole, or, as in the case of Manolo'sown corral, a combination of active and inactivespace, with new units built rather than oldrestored (see Seclion 2.4 above).7 lMANOLO'S WORLD. THE SERRA DE L'ALTMIRANT SURVEYPermanently Abandoned40?qJU259'" 201 51 0353025t 31 050JU25o to  151 00l r P Q E P b= ! : :; € r z € E :- - o x oa x ; - d !P s o C )E E Po(-)Episodical ly  In Usea a o - a R o: 9 F : 9 i €! Y : . - , G vo = [ L )oIIn Uses 3 c ' p p P 6; 9 ; ! e E i2 t L c ), Y a o3Fig.42 : Famorca district:percentages of artifact typesrecovered or identified inabandoned corrals (top), inpart or episodically activecorrals (middle), and in activecorral contexts (bottom)(from Creighton & Segui 1998)P1.60 (belou,): House VGI vieutedfrom the east showing partial decay,bfi with modern breeze blocks indump inforeground as indication ofrecent maintenance efforts in thev,estern unitPl.6l (bottom left): Interior ofy,estern hotrse of VGI sho.tying therudim ent aU d omestic debrisindicating onlt, episodic usage of thesp ace for hunting/st or age72

Comparative Study: The Ethnoarchaeology of Corral Abandonment in the Famorca District

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