Mesolithic fuel use and woodland in the Middle Ebro Valley (NE Spain) through wood charcoal analysis

• Published in: Quaternary international 2017-02, Vol.431, p.39-51
• Main Author: Alcolea Gracia, Marta
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Epipalaeolithic/Mesolithic; Firewood exploitation; Landscape evolution; NE Iberia; Wood charcoal analysis
• ISSN: 1040-6182; 1873-4553
• DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2015.11.029

This work provides new data concerning plant use in prehistoric times at northeast of Spain. We present preliminary results from three Mesolithic settlements: Ángel I (Ladruñán, Teruel), Esplugón (Sabiñánigo, Huesca) and Espantalobos (Quicena, Huesca). The study includes anthracological sequences from Pre-Pyrenees, Ebro Depression, and Iberian Ranges so that the geographical location of the sites covers a diversity of environments inside the Mediterranean region of vegetation. The aim of this work is to assess the influence of geographic and climatic factors in the availability of fuels and their implications for human management of these. According to pollen information, the Mesolithic, the last stage of an exclusively predatory economy based on hunting and gathering, is also a period of environmental change. Our preliminary results show that i) conifers, especially pine, either Mediterranean (Pinus halepensis) in drier areas or montane pines (Pinus type sylvestris) in higher elevations, appear as the most widely firewood used in all archaeological layers studied, ii) consumption of Quercus appears often but always with very low percentages, iii) the taxonomic diversity observed in the center of the valley contrasts with the specific poverty in mountainous areas where we only documented the consumption of pines and oaks. The last hunter-gatherer communities in the Middle Ebro Valley seem to have used opportunistic strategies of fuel management, and consumed a variety of wood species in the Early Holocene.