Woodland transformation under palaeogeographic constraints and fuelwood use on a coastal lagoon during the Antiquity, according to charcoal analysis (The Prés-Bas villa and Le Bourbou, Loupian, Hérault)

During Antiquity, the mixed oak woodland and the vegetation of the alluvial plain developing on the shores of the Thau lagoon were exploited as a source of wood fuel, as shown by charcoal remains from the villa of Pres-Bas and the pottery workshop of Le Bourbou. Taking into account the local ecology and the vegetation transformations during the second part of the Holocene, charcoal data exemplify the long term opposition between the northern and the southern shores of this lagoon.