Abstract:

In recent decades, archaeological research in some of the main European mountains has grown enormously. As a result, extensive data is finally available for areas that have long been overlooked, showing human occupation of these mountain spaces from the Neolithic era to the present. Obtaining information from these areas, however, requires a specific methodology, focused on the study of the landscape. This paper explains the methodology used by the Landscape Archaeology Research Group of the Catalan Institute of Classical Archaeology (GIAP-ICAC) to research how humans have shaped mountain areas between 1800 and 2800 metres above sea level, located in the eastern Pyrenees and specifically in the Ter and Segre valleys (el Ripollès, la Cerdanya, Andorra). Strategies for surveying and sampling are discussed, as well as palaeo-environmental approaches. The application of this interdisciplinary methodology has made it possible to document landscapes shaped by humans since ancient times, which would have been hard to imagine only a few decades ago.