Socio-ecology of Early and Middle Bronze Age communities in the northwest Atlantic region of Iberia: Wood resources procurement and forest management

• Published in: Quaternary International
• Main Authors: Bettencourt, Ana M. S., Martín-Seijo, María, Tereso, João Pedro, Sampaio, Hugo Aluai, Abad-Vidal, Emilio, Vidal Caeiro, Lorena
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2017
• Subjects: Early Bronze Age; Middle Bronze Age; Charcoal analysis; Woodland management; Wood resource procurement; Northwest Iberia; Humanidades::História e Arqueologia; Science & Technology; Northwest Atlantic
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1822/45419; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2015.08.026

This paper focuses on the web of relationships established between Early and Middle Bronze Age communities and their environment in Northwest Iberia. Charcoal remains recovered from settlements and funerary sites in this area can inform a greater understanding of wood resource procurement and woodland management strategies adopted by these small-scale communities. Although charcoal analysis of contexts with chronologies ranging from 2200 to 1200 cal. BC is not commonly undertaken in this area, data from this period are of great importance because it represents a phase of major deforestation and landscape change. Wood resources were local and exploitation was conditioned by their availability in the environs of the sites. These communities established a clear preference for Quercus wood, combined recurrently with shrubby species of the Fabaceae family. This co-occurrence, previously observed in Middle and Late Bronze Age contexts, could extend back to the Early Bronze Age and even to the Late Neolithic. The presence of small trees and shrubs such as Rosaceae/Maloideae and Corylus avellana could be related with the open landscape that characterises this period, and with the existence of woodland management practices designed to prevent forest regeneration. Natural Spaces, Architecture, Rock Art and Depositions from the Late Prehistory of the Western Front of Central and Northern Portugal: from Actions to Meanings (PTDC/ HIS-ARQ/112983/2009) financed by the Operational Programme “Thematic Factors of Competitiveness” (COMPETE) and by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) reference PTDC/HIS-ARQ/ 112983/2009. ...