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The island of Formentera, with its small extension and flat orography, was settled relatively late in Mediterranean prehistory between the third and second millennium BC. The sites presented in this paper, Cova des Fum and Cova des Riuets, offer evidence of the island's first occupation. Cova des Fum comprises a necropolis of the Bronze Age and two sanctuary spaces (used, at least, from 2035 cal BC), with hearths and water management structures. Cova des Riuets is a habitation site from the beginning of the Bronze Age (available dates ranging from 2030 to 1760 cal BC). This landscape study, among the first on the ancient occupation of the island, focuses on the plant macro-remains from both sites, providing new data on the vegetation of the surrounding areas and the use of both wild and domesticated plant resources for various daily and ritual tasks. The firewood came from evergreen thermo-Mediterranean formations well adapted to drought and summer heat, as well as rocky environments, and could have been collected in the vicinity of the sites. The autochthonous character of some species, such as the fig tree, has also been investigated and has provided the oldest existing date for this species on the island. This study reveals some peculiarities in the island's subsistence strategy that are relevant to the study of small islands more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the anthropic dynamics of environmental transformation and natural resource management in the specific case of the archaeological site of Tossal de la Vila in Castelló, Spain, a hillfort located at the end of the Eastern Iberian Cordillera. It presents two phases of occupation determined by multiple radiocarbon dating analyses: the first phase during the late Bronze Age (8th–7th centuries BCE) and the second at the beginning of the al-Andalus period (8th–10th centuries CE). The results of the comparison of the subsistence strategies and the biotic configuration of the natural environment in the same place at two different times have shown us that in the protohistoric period, the diversity of economic activities represented in the archaeobiological record is certainly heterogeneous, while in the al-Andalus period the complexity of these options is reduced to much less significant limits, possibly due to the different functionality of this space in both periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of the cultivation of millets (Panicum miliaceum and Setaria italica) along Iberia's Mediterranean zone appears to stem from different origins which themselves hinged on their own specific historical developments. The earliest traces in the northeast, presumably of trans-Pyrenean origin, were brought to light in Bronze Age contexts (13th century BC) in Western Catalonia, notably in the Cinca River Valley. The different species of millets from southern and eastern Iberia, by contrast, come from later 10th–8th century BC contexts under Phoenician influence. Their expansion can be linked to the cultivation of fruit trees (vineyards and others) throughout the 9th–7th centuries BC. The cultivation of millets into the intermediate geographical zone between these two areas is difficult to characterise as it is not possible to identify either a northern or southern in-fluence. In any case, different types of millet saw a wide expansion from the 7th century BC onwards, especially in settlements in the hinterland of the colony of Emporion. This study thus focuses on the history of the cultivation of millets along Iberia's Mediterranean zone from the Late Bronze Age to the Second Iron Age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multiple archaeobotanical studies from the east Iberian Peninsula from 2800 cal.BC to 200 BC have provided around twenty wild fruit taxa of varying importance. The aim of this work is to present these taxa and analyse the most important wild fruits, some of them being cultivated since the First Iron Age. Considering sites with comparable sampling methods, a quantitative difference is not observed between wild species exploited in the several life zones represented in this synthesis: Thermo-, Meso-, Supra- and Montane-Mediterranean zones. Three taxa are common in the three life zones considered: Quercus sp., Sambucus sp. and Rubus sp. More thermophilic taxa, Ficus carica and Olea europaea , are present in the two lower zones, although their values decrease to the north we go and with height, in contrast to what happens with Vitis vinifera . The exploitation of wild resources as a food supplement, in addition to other uses, developed during the 2600 years with several differences. These differences are explained in part by the plants that grow in each of the territories and in part by the organization of the human groups and the forms of land exploitation. Protohistoric human groups would have exploited nearby resources as in the previous periods, and all data confirm the continuity of this fundamental activity. However, gathering seems to have had a fairly small economic importance when considering the low rates of ubiquity of these plants in contrast to those of staple crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]