2024-03-29T02:08:57Zhttps://riubu.ubu.es/oai/requestoai:riubu.ubu.es:10259/51512023-06-08T12:48:28Zcom_10259.4_2551com_10259_5086com_10259_2604com_10259_5495com_10259.4_2560col_10259.4_2552col_10259_5496col_10259.4_2561
On the origin of rural landscapes: Looking for physico-chemical fingerprints of historical agricultural practice in the Atlantic Basque Country (N Spain)
Narbarte Hernández, Josu
Iriarte Avilés, Eneko
Rad Moradillo, Juan Carlos
Carrancho Alonso, Ángel
González Sampériz, Penélope
Peña Chocarro, Leonor
Quirós Castillo, Juan Antonio
Agriculture
Geoarchaeology
Soils
Geochemistry
Core sampling
Social change
Agricultura
Arqueología
Agriculture
Archaeology
Evolution and change in agricultural practice is a major factor in the codification of social relations and represents one of the main resources employed by human societies to establish a durable relationship with their environment. Using a multi-proxy integrated approach, this paper seeks to decipher the long-term dynamics that have shaped agricultural landscapes in the Basque Country (N Spain). Social and economic indicators (archival records, toponymy and oral sources) are used along with geological core sampling (geochemistry, magnetic, palynological and carpological analyses) to reconstruct a diachronic sequence of human settlement and agricultural management in the village of Aizarna over the last ~1500 years. The oldest records obtained refer to non-agricultural human activities dating back to the Roman period. Later on, traces of agricultural landscape-transformation can be divided into four main phases: 1) the onset of terraced agriculture, defined by the clearance and terracing of previous forested areas during the Early Middle Ages; 2) a Late Medieval reorganisation, with new terraces being (re)constructed close to dispersed farmsteads, linked to the emergence of the modern rural landscape; 3) a new model of intensive polyculture developed during the Modern period as a consequence of the introduction of new crops of American origin; and 4) the mechanisation and commercialisation of the agricultural production over the 20th century. These results provide a valuable pathway for the investigation of currently inhabited rural contexts, and offer, for the first time in this region, an overview on long-term landscape construction in the Atlantic areas of the Basque Country.
Fieldwork was funded by the Culture Department of the Provincial Government of Gipuzkoa, and by the Project “Peasant Agency and socio-political complexity in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages” (Ministry of Economy, AEI/FEDER EU HUM2016-76094-C4-2-R), jointly participated in by the Research Group on Heritage and Cultural Landscapes (Basque Government, IT936-16) and the Group of Rural Studies (UPV/EHU-CSIC Associated Unit). Á. Carrancho acknowledges the financial support given by the Consejería de Educación, Junta de Castilla y León (project BU235P18) with also FEDER funding.
2019-10-29T09:05:26Z
2019-10-29T09:05:26Z
2019-09
2021-09-01
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion
0048-9697
http://hdl.handle.net/10259/5151
10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.05.082
eng
Science of the total environment. 2019, V. 681, p. 66-81
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.05.082
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/MINECO/76094-C4-2-R
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/GV/IT936-16
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/JCyL/BU235P18
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
application/pdf
Elsevier
https://riubu.ubu.es/bitstream/10259/5151/4/Narbarte-sdte_2019.pdf.jpg
Hispana
TEXT
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
RIUBU. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Burgos
http://hdl.handle.net/10259/5151