Abstract:

Our main goal is to analyze the interrelations between landscape systems and human land-use strategies in Mediterranean mountains and littoral plains from a long-term perspective. The study adopts the high resolution analysis of small-scale study areas in North-Eastern Catalonia. They are distributed along an altitudinal transect covering both high mountain (2000-2800 m in the Pyrenees) and coastal zones (the Empordà area). In this context, an integrated high resolution interdisciplinary research has been carried out, focusing in the integration of palaeoenvironmental and archaeological data. This micro-scale approach is essential to understand human-environmental relationships because it allows to better understand both the local-regional nature of environmental changes, and the synergies between catchment-based systems, hydro-sedimentary regimes, human mobility, land-uses, human environments, demography, etc. The methodology used is based on a multidisciplinary approach involving the integration of environmental, archaeological and historical data. In each study area, a range of paleoenvironmental proxies (sedimentology, geochemistry, pollen, charcoal, diatoms, crustaceans, etc.) from lacustrine environments and peat bogs has been analysed. These palaeoenvironmental data have been related with the results obtained through archaeological field survey, excavation, dating, historical research and SIG analyses. Following this, archaeological data, spatially distributed palaeo-ecological corings, geomorphological and archaeological mapping, together with remote sensing and 3D GIS analysis will be presented.