In medieval Iberia, fruit arboriculture is widely discussed in agronomic, culinary, and calendrical treatises, which demonstrate the major role of fruits in the subsistence economy. Arab authors also mention fruit taxa that were exotic to the Iberian Peninsula (such as the lemon, grapefruit, and citron trees), attesting to new introductions and agricultural dynamics during the Middle Ages. However, these textual sources contain biases that must be confronted with the material reality revealed by archaeological and archaebotanical studies.Within this framework, anthracological studies are becoming increasingly numerous and allow to approach medieval fruit arboriculture from a new perspective: the use of wood. Indeed, many studies have identified fruit taxa with known economic value—such as olive, vine, and fig—in fuel assemblages, as well as exotic taxa such as lemon. These non-negligible occurrences raise questions, particularly regarding differences in crop management (agricultural diversity, cultivation practices and gestures, and wood use) at the scale of the Mediterranean side of the Iberian Peninsula As part of this study, funded by the ANR ISEMA project (ANR-23-CE27-0003, PI: J. Ros) in collaboration with the ERC SyG MedGreenRev (Grant agreement ID: 101071726), we address this issue through a synthesis of the available anthracological data from the Mediterranean Iberia between the 8th and 15th centuries AD. This synthesis benefits from a broad chronological scope, allowing comparison between changes in the management of fruit crops and the socio-economic transformations affecting the Iberian Peninsula during this period marked by the Arab-Muslim conquest, the various phases of Latin expansion and those of the Berber tribes. The assembled corpus includes around thirty urban and rural sites, encompassing both domestic and craft-related contexts (such as pottery kilns and forges). The results reveal the regular use of olive wood and trees of the genus Prunus as fuel, probably corresponding to the recovery of pruning waste generated during the maintenance of cultivated plots. Furthermore, the identification of certain trees with a more ambiguous status—such as strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo) and Maloideae (Rosaceae)—raises questions about their exploitation, lying between cultivation, rational management, and opportunistic gathering.
- Cultivating, gathering, and burning. Fruit tree management in Medieval Iberia: an anthracological review
- Marie Larrieu - Université de Montpellier, ISEM - Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution - MontpellierSabrina Bianco - Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució SocialMireia CelmaMónica Ruiz Alonso - Grupo de Investigación de ArqueobiologíaMarta Alcolea - Universitat Autònoma de BarcelonaClotilde Digeon - Université de Montpellier, ISEM - Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution - MontpellierCamille Hervy - Université de Montpellier, ISEM - Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution - MontpellierMagali Toriti - Centre de Recherche en Archéologie, Archéosciences, HistoireSophie Gilotte - TerritoiresSébastien Gasc - IRAMAT - Centre Ernest BabelonJosé Maria Moreno-NarganesJorge Eiroa Rodríguez - Universidad de MurciaLuca Mattei - Universidad de GranadaNicolás Losilla - Universidad de GranadaFrancisco Melero-García - Universidad de GranadaGuillermo Garcia-Contreras - Universidad de GranadaChristophe Vaschalde - Laboratoire d'Archéologie Médiévale et Moderne en MéditerranéeJérôme Ros - Université de Montpellier, ISEM - Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution - Montpellier
- 9th International Anthracology Meeting, Anthraco 2026 (Thessalonique, Greece, 06/07/2026–10/07/2026)
- 99259556209311
- ISEM - Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution - Montpellier
- English
- Conference proceeding
- halshs-05685740