Résumé
For the last twenty years, large-scale public works (Agly’s dam and LGV Roussillon) andconstructions of new major motorways have helped to improve archaeological research in northernCatalunya (Pyrénées-Orientales, France). Prior to this increase in development, the Historical periodswere not well known. Archaeobotanical investigations on fourty sites (levels, ditches, pits, hearths,etc.), on the French Catalan plain and mountains allow us to present a review of the new results oncrops, and a discussion on ancient and medieval farming practices (800 B.C. to 1500 A.D.).Carbonised remains from these excavations have provided carpological material (in varying degrees ofabundance). Triticum aestivum/turgidum and Hordeum vulgare were the principal winter cropsproduced in local fields, while spring crops may be attested by Panicum miliaceum and Setaria italica.The discovery of Avena sativa and Secale cereale suggests that it was grown in the Catalan plain areasince the very beginning of Early Middle Age period. The pulses, less common than cereals, aremainly represented by Vicia sativa, Pisum sativum, Vicia faba var. minor, and Lathyrus cicera/sativus.The most frequent fruits in our samples are Vitis vinifera and Olea europea, although a large diversityof gathered/cultivated species was used (Corylus avellana, Ficus carica, Juglans regia, Pinus pinea,Pistacia lentiscus, Prunus avium/cerasus, Prunus persica, Prunus domestica, etc).The status of wetlands in this Mediterranean area will also be discussed. Geomorphological studiesand textual sources analysis have proved that at the end of Middle Ages, the wandering of the riversaxis and the draining of ponds turned the plain’s landscape into a dryied area. Nonetheless, thepresence on Early medieval sites of Linum usitatissimum, Humulus lupulus and Cannabis sativa seeds,in relation with species from the Cyperaceae family (Eleocharis palustris, Schoenoplectus lacustris,etc) allows us to discuss about the utilisation of local wetlands, disappeared nowadays, for cultivationand processing.After a discussion about the evolution of productions of mountain and plain from the Iron Age toMiddle Ages, these first results from northern Catalunya will be compared with other sites fromnearby areas (e.g., southern France, southern Catalunya).