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