2023-07-17 16:34:38
A research team from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) has identified some marks in laurels from 7,200 years ago the site of the Draga de bathrooms This is a corroborating finding the management of forests oldest so far identified. The anthropological marks located on the laurel wood pillars would be made with axes. The wood continued to grow over the scars of the blows and between five and ten years later they were cut down to be turned into pillars of the initial phase of the town’s construction. This finding also allows verify that there was the presence of a group of humans in the area before settling there.
The researchers say that until now they had indications that the communities of La Draga managed the forests but they had never been able to prove it with physical evidence. La Draga is the only Neolithic lacustrine site in the Iberian Peninsula and is between 7,200 and 6,700 years old. In addition, it is one of the few European complexes in which the wooden logs have been well preserved because they were submerged in the water table around the Banyoles lake.
Until now, the oldest evidence of forest management by humans was at the Swiss site ofHauterive-Champreveyres. In any case, the samples are at least a thousand years older than those found in the Dredge.
The research has been driven by researchers Oriol López-Bultó, Ingrid Bertin i raquel piquemembers of Department of Prehistory of the Autonomous University of Barcelonaand the archaeologist Patrick Grassmann. Now, the study has been published in l”International Journal of Wood Culture’ after presenting it at a congress of the Netherlands.
Laurel wood was rare exported in the Neolithic a Europe, although it was mainly in places located on lakes. In the Dredge there is documentation that had been used in fireplaces, tools and some construction elements. Even so, the laurel had a much more secondary role than the oak wood. Of the 1,200 pillars that have been recovered from the site to date, laurel represents 1.4% of the remains and oak 96.6%.
The marks on the pillars, however, have only been found on the laurel wood ones. This puts on the table that humans intentionally marked these logs. The researchers point out that the marks could indicate that their use should be avoided or to delimit the territory. Despite everything, they say that it will be necessary to study the brands more thoroughly to determine the reason.
The researchers had found in previous studies that the villagers of La Draga had a deep knowledge of the natural resources around the site. They managed plants and herds and made massive use of oak, with a careful selection of shapes and sizes to make the pillars on which they built their huts.
“Forest management is an economically and socially very relevant activity, which requires knowledge, planning and social organization to carry it out. Our study demonstrates, once again, the importance and economic development that the inhabitants of La Draga and, in general, the Neolithic groups of the western Mediterranean already had”, says López-Bultó. To carry out the study, different methodologies have been combined, such as direct observation and recording, traceology and experimental archaeology, three-dimensional scanning, taxonomic identification and dendrochronology.
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