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Holocene vegetation changes in the northwestern Mediterranean: new palaeoecological data from charcoal analysis and quantitative eco-anatomy

UMR 5059, CNRS, Centre de Bio-archéologie et Ecologie, Université des Sciences et Techniques du Languedoc, Institut de Botanique, 163, rue Auguste Broussonet, 34090 Montpellier, France heinz{at}srvmail.univ-montp2.fr

I. Figueira

j J.-F. Terral

UMR 5059, CNRS, Centre de Bio-archéologie et Ecologie, Université des Sciences et Techniques du Languedoc, Institut de Botanique, 163, rue Auguste Broussonet, 34090 Montpellier, France

F. Claustre

UMR 8555, CNRS, Centre d'Anthropologie, Université Paul Sabatier, 39 allées Jules Guesde, 31000 Toulouse, France

The stratigraphic sequence of Montou (Eastern Pyrenees, France) covers a period from the middle Neolithic to the late Bronze Age. Environmental changes are noticed since the middle Neolithic, when the decline of the deciduous oak favours, in the long term, the evergreen oaks. The Chalcolithic period witnesses the arrival and spread of mesomediterranean and thermomediterranean plant formations. This evolution may result from increasing anthropogenic pressure as shown by the maintenance of a garrigue vegetation during the Bronze Age. The association charcoal analysis/quantitative anatomy offers new perspectives concerning vegetation changes. Both approaches record the existence of mesomediterranean bioclimatic conditions during the middle Neolithic; thermomediterranean affinities are recorded first, by charcoal analysis, during the early Bronze Age, and by eco-anatomy during the transition from the middle to the late Bronze Age. Quantitative anatomy also pinpoints (1) the existence of two humid phases, (2) an increase in mean annual temperature, and (3) the exploitation and management of the olive tree since the early Bronze Age.

Key Words: Charcoal analysis • quantitative eco-anatomy • Holocene • Neolithic • Bronze Age • Pyrenees • palaeoecology • anthropogenic pressure

The Holocene, Vol. 14, No. 4, 621-627 (2004)
DOI: 10.1191/0959683604hl739rr


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