Archaeobotanical contribution to the history of farming practices in medieval northern Catalonia (8th-14th c.)

The High Middle Ages is considered as a period of major changes for the agricultural world. These changes, which intervene as soon as the 9th c. in Catalonia and reached their full potential between the 12th and the 13th c., had an impact on farming practices and on the exploited landscapes. Although well known through the study of textual sources, agrarian productions and practices were, so far, poorly documented by archaeology in northern Catalonia (Pyrenees-Orientales, France). The increase of archaeobotanical investigations in this region allow us to present a first review of medieval farming practices. Based on the study of fifteen rural sites, this paper aims to document, through archaeobotanical data, the characteristics of northern Catalan agriculture between the 8th and the 14th c. (cultivated crops, prevalence of certain species, farming practices associated, types of exploited landscapes), while detecting some evolutions over the long term.