Llorenç Picornell is an archaeologist and researcher in the ArqueoUIB research group of the Department of Historical Sciences and Theory of the Arts at the Universitat de les Illes Balears (UIB). He graduated in History from the Universitat de Barcelona in 2006, and received his PhD in Ancient Sciences in 2012 with a thesis entitled ‘Vegetation landscape and prehistoric and protohistoric communities in Mallorca and Menorca. An approach from anthracology’. Llorenç is a specialist in this archaeobotanical discipline, anthracology, which focuses on the analysis of the remains of wood and charcoal recovered in archaeological contexts.
In addition to his work in anthracology, which has focused mainly on Mediterranean islands such as the Balearic Islands, Crete, Sicily and Corsica, he has also conducted ethnobotanical studies on the use of wood in non-Western societies, specifically in Equatorial Guinea and Ghana.
He has plans for similar research in Tanzania and Sri Lanka. He recently participated in the seminar "
Menorca Talayótica, patrimonio mundial: el papel de la investigación", jointly organised by the Talayotic Menorca Agency, the Museu de Menorca and the Museu de Can Saura.
Here you can watch his intervention.
Let's start by getting to know a bit about your background. Why did you choose archaeology?
Well, I'm not really sure, to be honest! I remember that when I was a child I was always very interested in history, an interest I shared with my parents and grandparents, with whom we often talked about the past. Later, during high school, reading some books and going to excavate at the Son Fornés site, very close to my village, ended up directing my interest in the past towards prehistory.
What sparked your interest in Talayotic culture?
Initially, my interest in prehistory was more focused on the oldest phases, the Palaeolithic, which are not documented in the Balearic Islands. But my participation in excavations during the summers in Mallorca made me connect with the prehistoric archaeology of the Balearic Islands as part of my own landscape. Moreover, as I became more and more interested in subjects related to the landscape, studying a type of vegetation that was familiar to me and some cultures, such as the Navaetic and Talayotic cultures, which structured the landscapes with impressive monuments, motivated me to start training as an anthracologist and to do a doctoral thesis. And to this day I continue studying Talayotic charcoals!
You specialise in anthracology and palaeobotany. What information does the plant landscape give us about prehistoric societies?
The study of archaeological plant remains offers us a very good way to analyse what we know as socio-environmental processes, that is, how society-environment relations were structured over time and since prehistoric times. In the specific case of the study of charcoal fragments from archaeological sites (anthracology), this technique allows us to identify which specific species each small fragment of charcoal comes from. By identifying this type of remains, we obtain information both about the vegetation that formed part of prehistoric landscapes and its changes over time, as well as the use made by human communities.
How can it help us understand the history of the landscapes we have today?
Charcoal fragments, in most cases (though not always), represent the residues from the use of woody plant biomass (i.e. firewood) as fuel. The consumption of fuelwood is a constant, daily task to satisfy energy needs in the domestic sphere (e.g. cooking, heating, lighting) and in the productive sphere (e.g. copper, ceramics, metal smelting, etc.). In this way, human groups constantly generate this waste and form the anthracological record, which allows us to see both the dynamics of the vegetation over time and the way it has been exploited as a resource.
Anthracology thus explains both the botanical and social history of forests, and allows us to better understand their history and current composition.
How can we learn about the landscape of the past and how prehistoric communities used it?
Apart from archaeological charcoals, there is a diversity of other types of remains that allow us to trace the history of the complex and dynamic relationships that were established between prehistoric communities and their environment. On the one hand, we have
plant and animal remains that appear, together with charcoal, in archaeological sites, such as pollen grains, seeds, fruits or animal bones. These remains, which we call bioarchaeological, allow us to study what the landscape was like, what agricultural and livestock production was like, how wild resources were exploited, etc.
On the other hand, palaeoenvironmental records, i.e.
sediments deposited in coastal lagoons, lagoons and other similar environments, allow the preservation and dating of other types of plant remains and palaeoenvironmental markers, such as pollen grains, fungal spores and other biological microrrests. The study of all these remains allows us to reconstruct the landscapes of the remote past and assess the impact of human societies.
Menorca is the Balearic island where most palaeoenvironmental studies have been carried out. Which have been the most important studies?
Indeed, the number of palaeoenvironmental sequences studied and published in Menorca is higher than in the rest of the archipelago. They have been developed in coastal lagoons such as Son Bou, Albufera des Grau or Addaia, among others. I believe that the importance of these sequences lies precisely in the complementarity of one with the others, which have been incorporating new palaeoenvironmental indicators as they have become consolidated in the discipline, and allow us to see how environmental and landscape processes and dynamics take shape in different parts of the island.
What was the landscape like in Talayotic times?
Both bioarchaeological and palaeoenvironmental studies agree that this
landscape was very similar to the present one in terms of the type of plant formations and their structure. At that time, a process of landscape transformation that had begun a few millennia earlier had just been consolidated, with a shift from more lush vegetation to a generalisation of maquis, especially wild olive trees. This was the type of woodland that we think dominated the Talayotic landscape. However, it was obviously combined with other types of forest formations, such as holm oak groves or some masses of pine trees, as well as other types of formations such as meadows, riverside vegetation in torrents or vegetation in wetlands, which grew in more territorially limited places and with more specific conditions.
And how did they make use of forest resources?
The Talayotic people obtained their main forest resource, firewood, to satisfy their energy needs, from the wild olive groves. In fact,
wild olive trees were the main fuel used throughout the entire Talayotic period. Other resources, such as wood for construction and for the manufacture of objects, came from this same type of formation. It is also likely that the forest areas were used to obtain other non-woody resources and to carry out other productive tasks. For example, studies of faunal remains show that sheep often feed on woody vegetation, i.e. they either graze in these forests or are provided with woody vegetation to eat the leaves (or both at the same time).
At the same time, open spaces were opened up in the forest masses in order to develop the crop fields. This agro-silvo-pastoral system interacted with the vegetation on the island of Menorca and
defined what we know as a mosaic landscape, in which forested areas alternated with open spaces and hedgerows. This type of landscape has endured throughout the nearly two thousand years of Menorcan prehistory and has been malleable to the present day.
What are the lines of study that could bear the most fruit in the near future?
Oh, we still have a long way to go! I think that a lot of work has been done to date, both in bioarchaeology and archaeobotany, and very important results have been obtained which have had, for example, a positive impact on the preparation of the Talayotic Menorca candidacy. However, in archaeological research, the fact of generating new information in response to specific questions always generates new information.
I believe that in the future the development of new archaeobotanical, zooarchaeological and palaeoenvironmental studies, as well as the application of techniques that go beyond the taxonomic identification of the remains, will help us to better define the puzzle that represents the study of the interactions between prehistoric communities and their landscape.