View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Repositori d'Objectes Digitals per a l'Ensenyament la Recerca i la Cultura Archaeological charcoal: natural or human impact on the vegetation Identification of archaeological wood remains from the roman mine of Arditurri 3 (Oiartzun, Basque Country) Aitor Moreno-Larrazabal1, Mertxe Urteaga2 and Lydia Zapata1 1 Dpto. Geografía, Prehistoria y Arqueología, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), F. Tomás y Valiente s/n, 01006 Vitoria-Gasteiz;
[email protected],
[email protected] 2 Fundación Arkeolan, Francisco de Gaiza 3, E.20302 Irun. Summary: The study of the wood assemblage from the Roman mine of Arditurri 3, mining district of Oiasso, has focused on different types of materials in terms of sizes, use and mode of preservation. Bigger pieces of worked wood mostly preserved through waterlogging include Quercus, Fagus, Corylus, Acer and Fraxinus. Smaller fragments of charcoal probably related to the roasting involved in ore extraction include a bigger spectrum of taxa which may respond to a less selected and more opportunistic use of woodland resources. Keywords: wood, charcoal, Roman, mining. INTRODUCTION making and 2) fuel for roasting the rocks in order to facilitate the extraction of the hardest veins. The mining exploitation of Arditurri in Oiartzun (Gipuzkoa, Basque Country) belongs to the Roman mining district based in Oiasso. Oiasso was mentioned in Greek-Latin sources as the polis of the furthest Vascones from the coast (Strabo, III, 4.10). It represents the border between Iberia and Aquitaine and was located at the end of the Via coming from Tarraco (Strabo, III, 4.10; Ravenna Cosmography 308.17 and 318.2).