Crop production and plant consumption on coastal Languedoc (France) in the Second Iron Age: new data from Pech Maho (Aude), Lattara (Hérault) and Le Cailar (Gard)

Abstract

Archaeological and archaeobotanical research in coastal Languedoc (southern France) has been strongly developed for the last 30 years and concerns several major sites to understand not only the role of local crop productions but also exchanges with many Mediterranean societies. As regards to the Iron Age period, recent excavations and studies have provided new information to the knowledge of the agricultural systems and plant consumption practices during the 6th-4th centuries BC. They highlight a well-structured crop production based on cereals and pulses together with an increasing development of fruit growing, especially grapevine. During the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC one can observe the appearance of changes announcing the new Roman trends. The main aim of this article is therefore to discuss about these Second Iron Age periods focusing on both economic and cultural aspects through their comparison. For this, we present new archaeobotanical data (seed and fruit analysis) concerning three archaeological sites (Pech Maho, Lattara and Le Cailar) sharing many environmental, economical and cultural characteristics.

Natàlia Alonso's participation was also supported by projects HAR2016-78277-R (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Spain) and SGR2014-273 (Generalitat de Catalunya, Catalonia).