Forest exploitation in the plains of early medieval northern Catalonia: Anthracological review

In the north-western Mediterranean (Mediterranean France, Catalonia), the Early Middle Ages were a period of major change with a restructuration of rural settlements, that impacted both landscape management and how animal and plant resources were exploited. Recent bioarchaeological research has enabled us to understand the agropastoral changes associated with these new dynamics at a local scale, but their impact on the evolution of forest cover remains unevenly documented. The anthracological study of 8 rural archeological sites located in the plains of early medieval northern Catalonia has made it possible to qualify the composition and state of the forests exploited by the local populations. The vegetation on the lower plains appears to be more open than in the hinterland, where human pressure on the environment appears to have been more moderate. Among the sites, Pujals seems to have drawn some of its fuel from the Pyrenees Mountain, raising the question of wood trading networks between the mountain and the plains at the time.