Dendro-anthracological tools applied to Scots type pine forests exploitation as fuel during the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in the southern central pre-Pyrenees (Spain)

Marta Alcolea , Alexa Dufraisse (1) , María Royo , Carlos Mazo , Martin de Luis , Luis A. Longares , Pilar Utrilla , Ramón Fábregas

1 AASPE - Archéozoologie, archéobotanique : sociétés, pratiques et environnements

Please cite this article as: Alcolea, M., Dufraisse, A., Royo, Marí., Mazo, C., de Luis, Martí., Longares, L.A., Utrilla, P., Fábregas, Ramó., Dendro-anthracological tools applied to Scots type pine forests exploitation as fuel during the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in the southern central pre-Pyrenees (Spain), Quaternary International (2020), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2020.10.029 This work focuses on the reconstruction of fuelwood procurement during the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in the southern central Pre-Pyrenees (Spain). The study combines wood charcoal identification with the application of dendro-anthracological approaches in the archaeological sequence of Esplugón (9.4-6.8 kyr cal BP) (Sabiñanigo, Huesca). Scots type pine (Pinus sylvestris tp.) reaches in this record around 90% of exploited firewood in line with its abundance in the inner Iberia mountainous areas during the onset of the Holocene. The classification of pine wood fragments in anthraco-groups is based on the combination of different dendroanthracological tools: i) pith location tool and wood diameter estimation based on the trigonomethric method tool (ADmodel), ii) the study of growth rate based on the annual tree-ring width measurements, and iii) a modern dendrological dataset. There are hardly any differences observed in firewood procurement between the last hunter gatherers and the first farmers in the long sequences from rock-shelters with recurrent human occupations. First results from this site point to the exploitation of whole trees but a high use of small pine branches probably from the gathering of branch shedding.

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]; Sciences de l'Homme et Société; Ecologie, Environnement; Biodiversité; Archéologie et Préhistoire

Marta Alcolea, Alexa Dufraisse, María Royo, Carlos Mazo, Martin de Luis, et al.. Dendro-anthracological tools applied to Scots type pine forests exploitation as fuel during the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in the southern central pre-Pyrenees (Spain). Quaternary International, 2020, ⟨10.1016/j.quaint.2020.10.029⟩. ⟨mnhn-03008152⟩