| Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools. |
Palaeoenvironments and cultural landscapes of the last 2000 years reconstructed from pollen and Coleopteran records in the Lower Rhône Valley, southern France
Laboratoire de Botanique Historique et Palynologie (Case 451), IMEP-CNRS (UPRES A 6116), F-13397 Marseille Cedex 20, France
Institut de Géographie, 29 avenue Robert Schuman, 13621 Aix-en-Provence Cedex 1, France
Maison Méditerranéenne des Sciences de l'Homme, 5 rue du Château de l'Horloge, BP 647, 13094 Aix-en-Provence Cedex, France
Laboratoire de Botanique Historique et Palynologie (Case 451), IMEP-CNRS (UPRES A 6116), F-13397 Marseille Cedex 20, France For the first time, a high-resolution pollen/Coleoptera joint analysis is performed on a late Holocene sedimentary sequence located in the Lower Rhône Valley. 14C dates validated by pollen data show that the bottom of the sequence is contemporaneous with the Greco-Roman period whereas the top is attributed to the present. This sequence yielded very rich pollen and insect assemblages, enabling a detailed reconstruction of the palaeoenvironment succession during the two last millennia around the site itself and more widely in the Arles plain. The very low pollen representation of trees and the near absence of tree-dependent Coleoptera suggest a marked deforestation of the area. The abundance of dung-beetles and nitrophytes is also in keeping with a strong grazing impact throughout the sequence. Three agricultural phases reflecting a growing level of human activities are identified. Phase 1 is contemporaneous with Celto-ligurian, Greek and Roman civilizations in Provence. At this time the forest cover was already largely destroyed, and pastoralism, cultivation of cereals, olives, vines and walnuts, was practised. Phase 2 is contemporaneous with a period spanning the Merovingian time and the Upper Middle Ages. It is characterized by increased agro-pastoral activities, probably related to the establishment of a monastic community at the Montmajour Abbey and to the settlement of farmers on the nearby Castellet hill. The major characteristic of agricultural phase 3 is the very high pollen percentages of Dipsacus fullonum or teasel, which was formerly extensively cultivated for cloth teasing. This early cultivation of an industrial plant, dated at La Calade to the twelfth century, is recorded for the first time in Provence. It may be connected with craft industries performed by monks at Montmajour Abbey. The sedimentological data suggest a succession of two stability phases interrupted by three flood phases. This interpretation agrees both with insect data, the fluctuating abundances of which are certainly connected with the alternation of ground submersion and dry periods, and with pollen data, marked by the impact of the floods upon the marshy veg etation. However, no clear climatic signal is recorded.
Key Words: Pollen • Coleoptera • palaeoenvironment • land use • cultural landscape • Greeks • Romans • late Holocene • Lower Rhône Valley • France
The Holocene, Vol. 10, No. 3,
341-355 (2000) This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|||||||||||||||
 |
|
|
 |
|
Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
