Sistemas agrícolas en el yacimiento de "La Orden-Seminario" (Huelva)

Abstract

The subject of study of this doctoral Thesis is the analysis of the cultivation traces discovered and documented at the La Orden-Seminario site during the archaeological activities carried out from May 2005 to October 2021. The starting point of the research was to address the study of the typologies of the footprints present in the site, analyzing their morphology, stratigraphic relationships, artifactual content, and other relevant aspects, with the aim of construct an interpretative corpus, based on the empirical evidence provided by the footprints themselves, embodied in a detailed plan and a database. Through the analysis of this corpus, and with the general objective of defining the different types of footprints, their associations, functionality, and chronology, our initial hypothesis has been to demonstrate that the oldest footprints, especially those corresponding to pits and ditches, represent the physical manifestation of Vitis vinifera crops. The objectives established for the development of the research have been multiple and strategically defined: to process the collected documentation for its analysis and interpretation, to define the different structures studied, to establish their chronological ascription and functionality (for discriminating types and systems) and finally, to present the thesis based on the results of the analysis and interpretation. Regarding the methodology employed, once the methodological phases related to the fieldwork had been completed, i.e., data collection, and the corpus or working basis had been constructed by creating a detailed plan and a database, the data were processed graphically and computationally. To this end, the structures under study were selected, segregating the cropmarks from the rest of the structures documented at the site, and the structures that maintained stratigraphic relationships with the cropmarks were analyzed, providing crucial information on their layout, distribution and even "absences". After the conclusion of this phase, an archaeogeographical and archaeomorphological analysis was conducted, using the historical and spatial information obtained in the preceding phase. This analysis is based on landscape archaeology, applying hybrid spatio-temporal concepts and modalities between dynamic morphology and archaeomorphology. These approaches have largely been adopted and adapted from the French terminology introduced by Chouquer. Our analysis has revealed that, to date, we have documented a total of 11 farming systems at the site. These systems have their origin, at least, in the tenth century BC and persist until well into the twentieth century. Furthermore, we have observed that all these systems are aligned along isocline, following lines of force that have endured over time (resilience). and to a certain extent, have been adopted by current urbanization. As detailed in the document, these findings represent a singular and, in a certain sense, exclusive case study within the Huelva area. We do not find a clear parallelism regarding the archaeological record of this type of footprints in the European continent in general, and in the Mediterranean area in particular. As will be seen during the development of this report, we have documented, for the first time, the techniques of protohistoric viticulture in the far west. The novelty and importance of our findings lie in several key aspects. Firstly, there is the remarkable number of agricultural systems that overlap at the site. On the other hand, we have been able to establish significant relationships between the cultivation traces and other types of structures present in the archaeological site, which has allowed us to establish a chronological seriation of great antiquity. We want to emphasize that the topic is not new in terms of historiography. Archaeology has long revealed the antiquity of wine-viticulture and its trade in the southern and western Mediterranean regions. The novelty lies precisely in the presence of cultivation traces preserved from such an ancient period, which we have been fortunate to materialize in this doctoral thesis.