Chapter 4 The Beginning of High Mountain Occupations in the Pyrenees. Human Settlements and Mobility from 18,000 cal BC to 2000 cal BC Ermengol Gassiot Ballbè, Niccolò Mazzucco, Ignacio Clemente Conte, David Rodríguez Antón, Laura Obea Gómez, Manuel Quesada Carrasco and Sara Díaz Bonilla Abstract During the last two decades, the archaeological research carried out in the Pyrenees challenged the traditional images of the past in this mountain area. The archaeological sequence of the range goes back and sites like Balma Margineda, treated until recently as an exception, now are seen as part of more global process. Actual data suggest that main valleys of the Pyrenean frequented by humans at the end of the last glacial period, with sites slightly over 1000 o.s.l. After the Younger Dryas, the human presence ascended to alpine and subalpine areas, in accordance with current archaeological data. The Neolisitation process was early in some hillsides, with intense remains of farming and pastoralism in many sites from dated in the second half of the 6th millennia cal BC. Human settlements like Coro Tracito, Els Trocs and El Sardo confirm the full introduction of agrarian activity in the central part of the Pyrenees between 5300 and 4600 cal BC. After 3500/3300 cal BC the indices oh sheepherding rises to alpine areas, with an abrupt increase of known archaeological sites in alpine areas, above the current timberline. This phenomena, as well as the signs of anthropic disturbance of the alpine environment in sedimentary sequences, suggests a more stable and ubiquitous human presence, probably largely associated with the development of mobile herding practices. E. Gassiot Ballbè (&) Á D. Rodríguez Antón Á L. Obea Gómez Á M. Quesada Carrasco Á S. Díaz Bonilla Department of Prehistory, Autonomous University of Barcelona, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Bellaterra, Spain e-mail: [email protected] N. Mazzucco Préhistoire et Technologie UMR 7055, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, Nanterre, France I. Clemente Conte Institució Milà I Fontanals, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), C/Egipcíaques 15, 08001 Barcelona, Spain © The Author(s) 2017 75 J. Catalan et al. (eds.), High Mountain Conservation in a Changing World, Advances in Global Change Research 62, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-55982-7_4 76 E. Gassiot Ballbè et al. Keywords Mesolithic Á Neolithic Á High mountain human occupations Á Farming Á Pastoralism Á Pyrenees 4.1 Introduction The science of archaeology is undergoing constant change. In recent decades, our understanding of human populations in the late Pleistocene and the first half of the Holocene has increased considerably, owing both to new theoretical approaches and to an increase in the number of researchers. A greater volume of information now exists, for example about the changes of hunter-gatherer communities at the end of the last Ice Age and the development of the Neolithic in SW Europe (Bahn 1983; Galop 2006; Tzortzis and Delestre 2010). In connection with the latter period, in the last thirty years a considerable amount of data has accumulated about such diverse aspects as crop types, seasonality of the settlements, the mobility of flocks, people and objects, the impact of economic practices on the environment and the appearance of signs of social inequality. Technical and methodological innovations have actively contributed to such a development; for example, the improvements in the methods of palaeocarpological remains recollection (and of palaeobotanical remains, in general) have altered the appearance and interpretations of many archaeological sites. Another is the intro- duction of new technologies and techniques for studying artefacts, such as the analysis of residues on pottery and lithic implements, the petrographic analysis of raw materials, traceological studies, etc. (Mazzucco et al. 2013). Also, the appli- cation of isotopic and DNA analysis to the study of animal and human osseous remains as well as of plants has improved our understanding of the processes of domestication of some species, livestock, and human mobility patterns, etc. (Edwards et al. 2007). A further factor is related to the expansion of research, which has noticeably increased the number of empirical prehistoric records in southern Europe. New sites have been identified, some of which are now of great importance. One example is the early Neolithic site of La Draga, on the shore of Lake Banyoles (Antolín et al. 2014). Similarly, some geographic areas have received greater attention than in previous decades. This is the case of mountain areas in southern Europe, where numerous research projects are currently in progress. These programmes have largely embraced the growing sensibility of archaeological science towards understanding economic practices in the past, their relationship with the physical environment (geomorphology, climate, fauna and flora, etc.) and how this changed over time. In this context, it is important to identify the start of human presence in the different altitudinal zones in the mountain ranges after the last Ice Age and also the appearance of significant changes in the ways of life. One of these was undoubtedly the domestication of animals and plants in the first half of the Holocene. Recent publications reveal the current relevance of this archaeology of 4 The Beginning of High Mountain Occupations in the Pyrenees … 77 mountain areas such as the Pyrenees (Gassiot et al. 2016;Fortó and Vidal 2016; Clemente et al. 2014b; Tzortzis and Delestre 2010). The archaeology of mountain areas in southern Europe is undergoing a kind of revolution that is very recent and yet cannot be adequately explained by general changes in the archaeological science. What is this phenomenon due to, therefore? Several factors have converged. On the one hand, some fortuitous finds have demonstrated that high mountain areas were occupied since very early times. The paradigmatic example is the find in summer 1991 in the Tissenjoch Glacier in South Tyrol, at 3,200 m altitude, of the remains of a man who was killed by an arrow wound between 3370 and 3100 cal BC (Kutschera and Miller 2003; Spindler 1995). Ötzi, as he is colloquially known, is currently one of the best known archaeological finds in Europe. On the other hand, growing spatial sensibility of some social sciences (Santos 2000) has jelled in an archaeology that is increasingly aware that it needs to study how human societies live in a place, in an environment that influences them and which, at the same time, they transform (Redman et al. 2004; Folke 2006). This interest has been combined with a particular perception of the uniqueness of high mountain areas, which have slowly changed from being seen as practically pristine places to being viewed as areas full of life, including human life. In a certain way, the UNO’s declaration of 2002 as “International Year of Mountains” attests this change in paradigm, which is also reflected in archaeology. Evidence of this is the proliferation of multidisciplinary programmes in the mountains of south-west Europe, studying the human occupations in long sequences, their impact on alpine and sub-alpine environments and the influence of climate variations (Galop 2006; Pèlachs et al. 2007, 2017; Bal et al. 2010; Palet et al. 2012; Cunill et al. 2012). In general, these different theoretical and methodological approaches share an interest in understanding past human activities in a particular physical space, high moun- tains, which they have shaped over time, together with climatic and ecological factors (Angelucci et al. 2013; Calastrenc et al. 2006; Fedele 1999; Le Couédic 2010; Leveau and Segard 2006; Orengo et al. 2014; Palet 2006; Palet et al. 2007, 2012; Rendu 2003; Rey 2006; Walsh et al. 2010). The present study is a brief summary of archaeological data obtained in recent fieldwork in high altitude areas of the Pyrenees, especially in central and eastern parts of the mountain range. To delimit the long temporal sequence of the human population that is currently being documented, this paper will be focused on the first part of the sequence. This choice is connected with some of the questions posed by archaeological research in such regions in recent years. When did human occupa- tion of high mountain areas begin? How was the livestock farming that currently characterises these areas introduced? In what way is this process related to the neolithisation process of nearby areas? From the beginnings of the twenty-first century, new approaches and techniques have been applied to answer these ques- tions, obtaining results, as it will be shown below, that 10 or 12 years ago would have been unimaginable to most of the archaeologists. 78 E. Gassiot Ballbè et al. 4.2 The Start of Modern History: The Population of the Pyrenees in the Late Pleistocene and the First Half of the Holocene The archaeology of hunter-gatherer groups in the late Pleistocene in southern France and the Iberian Peninsula has traditionally paid considerable attention to the Pyrenean–Cantabrian region. However, this interest has focused on the foothills of the two mountain chains or, at the most, their outer ranges, relatively distant from their higher areas. Archaeological deposits with Palaeolithic remains have been known in both regions since the late nineteenth or early twentieth centuries, and many of them have been studied archaeologically (Bahn 1983; Fullola 1995). The situation in the interior of the ranges is very different, as they have not attracted the interest of researchers, perhaps because it was assumed that type of environment, especially during the cold conditions of the Upper Palaeolithic, would have been unattractive to human groups. In recent years that outlook is beginning to change (Mangado et al. 2005, 2009). 4.2.1 Human Presence in the Valleys in the Late Pleistocene Evidence of human settlement in the Pyrenees in the Pleistocene is very scanty. Numerous Upper Palaeolithic sites certify the presence of hunter-gatherer groups during the last 20,000 years in the outer ranges of the Pyrenees and the foothills (Fullola et al.