The Archaeology of Pastoral Landscapes in Mountain Areas of the Central Pyrenees and North of Spain

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Exploring Long-Term Pastoral Dynamics: Methods, Theories, Stories" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Seasonal pastoralism is a livestock strategy which shaped Mediterranean landscapes since ancient times. The recent development of archaeological research in mountain chains of south-west Europe has provided us with new data and interpretative models to study the livestock practices starting from their pre-historic origins. This paper focuses on ancient shepherds’ occupations in an upland area of the Central Pyrenees. The research used the data collected in fieldworks carried on by the High Mountain Archaeology Group (Autonomous University of Barcelona) and ethno-archaeological approaches based on modern transhumant shepherds. The archaeological remains of huts, enclosures, rockshelters, and other architectural structures have been analyzed in order to develop a typological classification and chrono-functional interpretations. In addition, GIS analyses has been performed to know the settlement patterns of pastoral archaeological sites and their relationship with social and biological features of mountain spaces. The results show several changes in livestock strategies in a long-term sequence from late-Neolithic to the twentieth century as well as continuities and discontinuities in the human shaping of the Pyrenean landscapes. Finally, the paper aims to discuss my current research on the archaeology of pastoral landscapes in other zones of northern Spain situated at low altitudinal levels.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)   •
• Exploring Long-Term Pastoral Dynamics: Methods, Theories, Stories

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38985.0