L’abri de La Font-aux-Pigeons (Châteauneuf-les-Martigues, Bouches‑du‑Rhone), dans le massif litto... more L’abri de La Font-aux-Pigeons (Châteauneuf-les-Martigues, Bouches‑du‑Rhone), dans le massif littoral de la Nerthe (273 m), a ete occupe entre ca 6450 et 4700 ans cal BCE, par les chasseurs-cueilleurs du Castelnovien et les agriculteurs du Cardial et du « Postcardial ». Au Mesolithique, la perduration d’une ambiance vegetale steppique (genevriers, filaires et/ou nerprun alaterne) semble liee a des vents et une secheresse plus marques qu’ailleurs dans le Midi. A partir du Cardial, des formations a pin d’Alep et des garrigues dominees par les filaires et/ou le nerprun alaterne evoquent un paysage vegetal pre‑forestier. La declinaison du rechauffement climatique postglaciaire dans un contexte local particulierement sec peut expliquer la predominance du pin d’Alep a partir du Cardial. En outre, le substrat et la pente semblent bloquer la dynamique de vegetation a un stade pre‑forestier a pin d’Alep. Au cours de l’optimum climatique atlantique cette dynamique de paysages est originale par rapport au reste du Midi de la France ou les forets a chenes caducifolies dominent. Au cours du Cardial et surtout au debut du Postcardial, une modeste pression anthropique pourrait etre a l’origine du maintien des garrigues aux cotes des pinedes. En documentant le couvert vegetal avant le plein developpement des activites agro-pastorales, cette etude anthracologique permet de mieux comprendre le statut du pin d’Alep dans la dynamique de vegetation dans cette zone ou les contraintes naturelles sont particulierement importantes et les perturbations anthropiques anciennes. Les pinedes constituent ici le stade le plus forestier de la succession vegetale, et probablement le climax local. Cette etude souligne le caractere singulier de l’environnement littoral de Provence occidentale au cours de l’Holocene ancien et moyen ; proche des refuges glaciaires, il se distingue par une installation precoce de taxons thermophiles et se trouve soumis a des contraintes naturelles importantes avant meme que l’impact anthropique ne se fasse pleinement ressentir.
17th Symposium of the International Workshop Group for Palaeoethnobotany, Jul 4, 2016
The Roman period is characterized by an intensification of the trade of vegetal goods and the lon... more The Roman period is characterized by an intensification of the trade of vegetal goods and the long-distance diffusion of diverse food plants (as coriander, pine kernels, peach, melon). It is also during this period that archaeobotanical studies and archaeological data show an intensive cultivation of grapevines, fig and olive trees in the Roman Empire. In Mediterranean France, the chronology of these changes is still under scrutiny due to the uneven distribution of information, most particularly concerning the Provence region. Archaeological excavations suggest regional specializations; the production of olive oil seems to be locally important in Provence while wine producing is repeatedly attested in the Languedoc. This archaeobotanical synthesis assembles published data and new results. Recent and ongoing analysis of waterlogged contexts (for example: harbour dumps and wells) allows us to register a wider spectrum of economic plants (both cultivated and wild) and to draw a new appraisal on economical plants during this period. It provides new insights on consumption, plant processing and local cultivation, especially for condiments, fruits such as grapevine, olive, walnut, umbrella pine, and exotic goods acquired from trade. The diversity of contexts studied (urban, rural, funerary, ritual etc.) makes it sometimes possible to assess the social, cultural and symbolic status of plants and their uses. We notice that the presence of imported exotic foods highlights particular uses (funeral symbolism and high social distinction) linked to the status of site.
In the western Mediterranean, the question of the settlement patterns of the first farming commun... more In the western Mediterranean, the question of the settlement patterns of the first farming communities remains a much debated issue. Frequently compared with the LBK model, based on hundreds of well-documented villages, the settlement organization of the Impressed Ware complex is still poorly characterized and highly diversified. New data obtained in Southern France (Languedoc)may shed light on this matter, based on new excavations, revised data, and a multi-proxy perspective (site type, domestic area, food supply strategies, activities, spheres of acquisition of raw material, and so forth). Rather than reproducing a pattern of site locations and settlement structuring, it seems that these Early Neolithic groups sought to optimize the location and structuring of their settlements in relation to the specific characteristics of the surrounding environment and available resources. We therefore propose that the diversity observed in the settlement organization of these first farming com...
La periode qui s’etend du Bronze final a la fin de l’Antiquite (env. 1400 BC – 476 AD) voit s’ope... more La periode qui s’etend du Bronze final a la fin de l’Antiquite (env. 1400 BC – 476 AD) voit s’operer dans le bassin du Rhone d’importantes mutations d’ordre economique, politique et culturel, dont les plus saillantes sont l’emergence des contacts mediterraneens a l’âge du Fer, avec au premier rang l’implantation phoceenne, puis la colonisation romaine. L’analyse des graines et fruits archeologiques (carpologie) est employee comme moyen d’apprehender directement la dynamique des plantes economiques et de l’agriculture au regard de ces evolutions. Ce travail se fonde sur la synthese de l’ensemble des donnees carpologiques disponibles, soit 104 sites (environ 875 assemblages), dont 44 analyses originales. Cette synthese privilegie la diversite des sources et fait appel a une approche multi-scalaire consistant a serier et a analyser quantitativement l’information en distinguant : modes de conservation, niveau du site/de l’assemblage, types d’assemblages, plantes economiques/adventices. ...
in Bon F., Costamagno S. et Valdeyron N. (dir.), Haltes de chasse en Préhistoire : quelles réalit... more in Bon F., Costamagno S. et Valdeyron N. (dir.), Haltes de chasse en Préhistoire : quelles réalités archéologiques ? Actes du colloque international, Toulouse, 13-15 mai 2009, Palethnologie, 3, 335-346.
Le vallon drainant le petit bassin-versant de Derriere-le-Château (Ain) a ete occupe episodiqueme... more Le vallon drainant le petit bassin-versant de Derriere-le-Château (Ain) a ete occupe episodiquement par les hommes depuis le Neolithique final jusqu'a l'epoque moderne. Ce site de moyenne hauteur (500 m), cerne par les reliefs calcaires dominants, est un veritable piege sedimentaire qui va enregistrer les differents episodes de sa morphogenese, essentiellement commandee par des processus de colluvionnement plus ou moins riches en blocs. Une etude interdisciplinaire (geomorphologie, anthracologie et carpologie, notamment) associee a l'analyse archeologique permet de tenter une reconstitution diachronique des paleo-environnements depuis le Boreal et au cours des differentes etapes de colonisation du vallon : Neolithique final/Bronze ancien, Bronze final 1, Bronze final 3/Hallstatt C, bas Empire et epoque moderne.
This paper presents the history of the introduction and expansion of arboriculture during the 1st... more This paper presents the history of the introduction and expansion of arboriculture during the 1st millennium BC from the South of the Iberian Peninsula to the South of France. The earliest evidence of arboriculture at the beginning of the 1st millennium hails from the south of the Iberia from where it spread northward along the peninsula’s eastern edge. The different fruits (grape, olive, fig, almond, pomegranate and apple/pear) arrived together in certain areas in spite of uneven distribution and acceptance by local communities. Grape was the crop with the greatest diffusion. The greater diversity of crops in the southern half of the peninsula is also noteworthy. Their development paved the way for a commercial agricultural model in some territories where fruits and their derivatives, such as wine and oil, played vital roles.
L’abri de La Font-aux-Pigeons (Châteauneuf-les-Martigues, Bouches‑du‑Rhone), dans le massif litto... more L’abri de La Font-aux-Pigeons (Châteauneuf-les-Martigues, Bouches‑du‑Rhone), dans le massif littoral de la Nerthe (273 m), a ete occupe entre ca 6450 et 4700 ans cal BCE, par les chasseurs-cueilleurs du Castelnovien et les agriculteurs du Cardial et du « Postcardial ». Au Mesolithique, la perduration d’une ambiance vegetale steppique (genevriers, filaires et/ou nerprun alaterne) semble liee a des vents et une secheresse plus marques qu’ailleurs dans le Midi. A partir du Cardial, des formations a pin d’Alep et des garrigues dominees par les filaires et/ou le nerprun alaterne evoquent un paysage vegetal pre‑forestier. La declinaison du rechauffement climatique postglaciaire dans un contexte local particulierement sec peut expliquer la predominance du pin d’Alep a partir du Cardial. En outre, le substrat et la pente semblent bloquer la dynamique de vegetation a un stade pre‑forestier a pin d’Alep. Au cours de l’optimum climatique atlantique cette dynamique de paysages est originale par rapport au reste du Midi de la France ou les forets a chenes caducifolies dominent. Au cours du Cardial et surtout au debut du Postcardial, une modeste pression anthropique pourrait etre a l’origine du maintien des garrigues aux cotes des pinedes. En documentant le couvert vegetal avant le plein developpement des activites agro-pastorales, cette etude anthracologique permet de mieux comprendre le statut du pin d’Alep dans la dynamique de vegetation dans cette zone ou les contraintes naturelles sont particulierement importantes et les perturbations anthropiques anciennes. Les pinedes constituent ici le stade le plus forestier de la succession vegetale, et probablement le climax local. Cette etude souligne le caractere singulier de l’environnement littoral de Provence occidentale au cours de l’Holocene ancien et moyen ; proche des refuges glaciaires, il se distingue par une installation precoce de taxons thermophiles et se trouve soumis a des contraintes naturelles importantes avant meme que l’impact anthropique ne se fasse pleinement ressentir.
17th Symposium of the International Workshop Group for Palaeoethnobotany, Jul 4, 2016
The Roman period is characterized by an intensification of the trade of vegetal goods and the lon... more The Roman period is characterized by an intensification of the trade of vegetal goods and the long-distance diffusion of diverse food plants (as coriander, pine kernels, peach, melon). It is also during this period that archaeobotanical studies and archaeological data show an intensive cultivation of grapevines, fig and olive trees in the Roman Empire. In Mediterranean France, the chronology of these changes is still under scrutiny due to the uneven distribution of information, most particularly concerning the Provence region. Archaeological excavations suggest regional specializations; the production of olive oil seems to be locally important in Provence while wine producing is repeatedly attested in the Languedoc. This archaeobotanical synthesis assembles published data and new results. Recent and ongoing analysis of waterlogged contexts (for example: harbour dumps and wells) allows us to register a wider spectrum of economic plants (both cultivated and wild) and to draw a new appraisal on economical plants during this period. It provides new insights on consumption, plant processing and local cultivation, especially for condiments, fruits such as grapevine, olive, walnut, umbrella pine, and exotic goods acquired from trade. The diversity of contexts studied (urban, rural, funerary, ritual etc.) makes it sometimes possible to assess the social, cultural and symbolic status of plants and their uses. We notice that the presence of imported exotic foods highlights particular uses (funeral symbolism and high social distinction) linked to the status of site.
In the western Mediterranean, the question of the settlement patterns of the first farming commun... more In the western Mediterranean, the question of the settlement patterns of the first farming communities remains a much debated issue. Frequently compared with the LBK model, based on hundreds of well-documented villages, the settlement organization of the Impressed Ware complex is still poorly characterized and highly diversified. New data obtained in Southern France (Languedoc)may shed light on this matter, based on new excavations, revised data, and a multi-proxy perspective (site type, domestic area, food supply strategies, activities, spheres of acquisition of raw material, and so forth). Rather than reproducing a pattern of site locations and settlement structuring, it seems that these Early Neolithic groups sought to optimize the location and structuring of their settlements in relation to the specific characteristics of the surrounding environment and available resources. We therefore propose that the diversity observed in the settlement organization of these first farming com...
La periode qui s’etend du Bronze final a la fin de l’Antiquite (env. 1400 BC – 476 AD) voit s’ope... more La periode qui s’etend du Bronze final a la fin de l’Antiquite (env. 1400 BC – 476 AD) voit s’operer dans le bassin du Rhone d’importantes mutations d’ordre economique, politique et culturel, dont les plus saillantes sont l’emergence des contacts mediterraneens a l’âge du Fer, avec au premier rang l’implantation phoceenne, puis la colonisation romaine. L’analyse des graines et fruits archeologiques (carpologie) est employee comme moyen d’apprehender directement la dynamique des plantes economiques et de l’agriculture au regard de ces evolutions. Ce travail se fonde sur la synthese de l’ensemble des donnees carpologiques disponibles, soit 104 sites (environ 875 assemblages), dont 44 analyses originales. Cette synthese privilegie la diversite des sources et fait appel a une approche multi-scalaire consistant a serier et a analyser quantitativement l’information en distinguant : modes de conservation, niveau du site/de l’assemblage, types d’assemblages, plantes economiques/adventices. ...
in Bon F., Costamagno S. et Valdeyron N. (dir.), Haltes de chasse en Préhistoire : quelles réalit... more in Bon F., Costamagno S. et Valdeyron N. (dir.), Haltes de chasse en Préhistoire : quelles réalités archéologiques ? Actes du colloque international, Toulouse, 13-15 mai 2009, Palethnologie, 3, 335-346.
Le vallon drainant le petit bassin-versant de Derriere-le-Château (Ain) a ete occupe episodiqueme... more Le vallon drainant le petit bassin-versant de Derriere-le-Château (Ain) a ete occupe episodiquement par les hommes depuis le Neolithique final jusqu'a l'epoque moderne. Ce site de moyenne hauteur (500 m), cerne par les reliefs calcaires dominants, est un veritable piege sedimentaire qui va enregistrer les differents episodes de sa morphogenese, essentiellement commandee par des processus de colluvionnement plus ou moins riches en blocs. Une etude interdisciplinaire (geomorphologie, anthracologie et carpologie, notamment) associee a l'analyse archeologique permet de tenter une reconstitution diachronique des paleo-environnements depuis le Boreal et au cours des differentes etapes de colonisation du vallon : Neolithique final/Bronze ancien, Bronze final 1, Bronze final 3/Hallstatt C, bas Empire et epoque moderne.
This paper presents the history of the introduction and expansion of arboriculture during the 1st... more This paper presents the history of the introduction and expansion of arboriculture during the 1st millennium BC from the South of the Iberian Peninsula to the South of France. The earliest evidence of arboriculture at the beginning of the 1st millennium hails from the south of the Iberia from where it spread northward along the peninsula’s eastern edge. The different fruits (grape, olive, fig, almond, pomegranate and apple/pear) arrived together in certain areas in spite of uneven distribution and acceptance by local communities. Grape was the crop with the greatest diffusion. The greater diversity of crops in the southern half of the peninsula is also noteworthy. Their development paved the way for a commercial agricultural model in some territories where fruits and their derivatives, such as wine and oil, played vital roles.
in Bon F., Costamagno S. et Valdeyron N. (dir.), Haltes de chasse en Préhistoire : quelles réalit... more in Bon F., Costamagno S. et Valdeyron N. (dir.), Haltes de chasse en Préhistoire : quelles réalités archéologiques ? Actes du colloque international, Toulouse, 13-15 mai 2009, Palethnologie, 3, 335-346.
The Roman period is characterized by an intensification of the trade of vegetal goods and the lon... more The Roman period is characterized by an intensification of the trade of vegetal goods and the long-distance diffusion of diverse food plants (as coriander, pine kernels, peach, melon). It is also during this period that archaeobotanical studies and archaeological data show an intensive cultivation of grapevines, fig and olive trees in the Roman Empire. In Mediterranean France, the chronology of these changes is still under scrutiny due to the uneven distribution of information, most particularly concerning the Provence region. Archaeological excavations suggest regional specializations; the production of olive oil seems to be locally important in Provence while wine producing is repeatedly attested in the Languedoc. This archaeobotanical synthesis assembles published data and new results. Recent and ongoing analysis of waterlogged contexts (for example: harbour dumps and wells) allows us to register a wider spectrum of economic plants (both cultivated and wild) and to draw a new appraisal on economical plants during this period. It provides new insights on consumption, plant processing and local cultivation, especially for condiments, fruits such as grapevine, olive, walnut, umbrella pine, and exotic goods acquired from trade. The diversity of contexts studied (urban, rural, funerary, ritual etc.) makes it sometimes possible to assess the social, cultural and symbolic status of plants and their uses. We notice that the presence of imported exotic foods highlights particular uses (funeral symbolism and high social distinction) linked to the status of site.
Hulled barley happens to be one of the most frequently recovered cereal in European archaeologica... more Hulled barley happens to be one of the most frequently recovered cereal in European archaeological sites from historical periods. In southern France, this cereal is quite common in carbonized contexts such as cultural layers, ditches, pits, hearths, etc.
The distinction between the two subspecies, two-rowed (Hordeum vulgare L. subsp. distichum) and six rowed barley (Hordeum vulgare L. subsp. vulgare), is usually based on morphological characters. In the literature it is stated that at least 4 criteria can be used to discriminate both subspecies from archaeological remains: the number of fertile spikelets per rachis segments, the depression of the lemma base, linear or horseshoe shaped, the symmetry and maximum width of the caryopsis and the proportion of twisted grains.
The recovery of thousands of caryopsis (some clearly twisted) and of a rachis segment with steril spikelets from the site of Petit Clos (Perpignan, Pyrénées-Orientales, France), dated to the Roman period, allows us to think that both subspecies were cultivated at the time in Southern Gaul. Evidence for two-rowed barley is especially scarce in archaeobotanical reports from historical sites. To confirm the presence of two-rowed barley in the carbonized assemblage from Petit Clos and subsequently its cultivation, we developed a new protocol to analyze the size and shape of caryopsis using geometric morphometric approaches (landmarks and sliding semi-landmarks).
We compared archaeological caryopsis from several southern French excavations dating from the 1st to the 11th century AD to a modern referential. The modern referential was composed of several varieties of the two subspecies and was analyzed before and after carbonisation, first to study the modern diversity of barley, then to make them more comparable with archaeological remains.
Geometric morphometrics appear as a promising approach to better distinguish caryopsis from different cereals in archaeological records and to study their role as crop during historical times.
presents an up-to-date overview of the archaeobotanical data available for the Chasséen, and more... more presents an up-to-date overview of the archaeobotanical data available for the Chasséen, and more broadly the Middle Neolithic. As far as we know, more than seventy sites have benefited from the study of archaeobotanical remains; around fifty of these yielded exploitable but dissimilar data, which allow us to propose a synthesis concerning the exploitation of plant resources during this period. The occupations taken into account cover the period 4400 - 3500 Cal BC and are mainly located in southern France. The compiling of these data allows us to record a list of food species, both cultivated and wild, and to outline the evolution of their use through time. The period around 4000 Cal BC is identified as a rupture, materialized by the passage from predominant free-threshing to hulled wheats. This overview also underlines the geographic specificities of the Chasséen: data from the southern Chasséen (much more significant) are first compared with those from more northern areas; they are subsequently compared with information from less distant sites belonging to other contemporaneous cultures (central and northern Europe, Northern Italy, Atlantic coast).
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Papers by laurent bouby
This archaeobotanical synthesis assembles published data and new results. Recent and ongoing analysis of waterlogged contexts (for example: harbour dumps and wells) allows us to register a wider spectrum of economic plants (both cultivated and wild) and to draw a new appraisal on economical plants during this period. It provides new insights on consumption, plant processing and local cultivation, especially for condiments, fruits such as grapevine, olive, walnut, umbrella pine, and exotic goods acquired from trade. The diversity of contexts studied (urban, rural, funerary, ritual etc.) makes it sometimes possible to assess the social, cultural and symbolic status of plants and their uses. We notice that the presence of imported exotic foods highlights particular uses (funeral symbolism and high social distinction) linked to the status of site.
The distinction between the two subspecies, two-rowed (Hordeum vulgare L. subsp. distichum) and six rowed barley (Hordeum vulgare L. subsp. vulgare), is usually based on morphological characters. In the literature it is stated that at least 4 criteria can be used to discriminate both subspecies from archaeological remains: the number of fertile spikelets per rachis segments, the depression of the lemma base, linear or horseshoe shaped, the symmetry and maximum width of the caryopsis and the proportion of twisted grains.
The recovery of thousands of caryopsis (some clearly twisted) and of a rachis segment with steril spikelets from the site of Petit Clos (Perpignan, Pyrénées-Orientales, France), dated to the Roman period, allows us to think that both subspecies were cultivated at the time in Southern Gaul. Evidence for two-rowed barley is especially scarce in archaeobotanical reports from historical sites. To confirm the presence of two-rowed barley in the carbonized assemblage from Petit Clos and subsequently its cultivation, we developed a new protocol to analyze the size and shape of caryopsis using geometric morphometric approaches (landmarks and sliding semi-landmarks).
We compared archaeological caryopsis from several southern French excavations dating from the 1st to the 11th century AD to a modern referential. The modern referential was composed of several varieties of the two subspecies and was analyzed before and after carbonisation, first to study the modern diversity of barley, then to make them more comparable with archaeological remains.
Geometric morphometrics appear as a promising approach to better distinguish caryopsis from different cereals in archaeological records and to study their role as crop during historical times.
the Middle Neolithic.
As far as we know, more than seventy sites have benefited from the study of archaeobotanical remains; around
fifty of these yielded exploitable but dissimilar data, which allow us to propose a synthesis concerning the
exploitation of plant resources during this period. The occupations taken into account cover the period 4400 -
3500 Cal BC and are mainly located in southern France. The compiling of these data allows us to record a list
of food species, both cultivated and wild, and to outline the evolution of their use through time. The period
around 4000 Cal BC is identified as a rupture, materialized by the passage from predominant free-threshing
to hulled wheats. This overview also underlines the geographic specificities of the Chasséen: data from the
southern Chasséen (much more significant) are first compared with those from more northern areas; they
are subsequently compared with information from less distant sites belonging to other contemporaneous
cultures (central and northern Europe, Northern Italy, Atlantic coast).