Ancient canals in the valley of Bourgoin-La Verpillière (France, Isère): morphological and geoarchaeological studies of irrigation systems from the Iron Age to the Early Middle Ages (8th century bc–6th century ad)

Times are changing: A new chronology for Holocene volcanic events and hydro-sedimentary history recorded in the Sarliève marsh (central France)

“…A very similar date (c. 2600 cal yr BP) was recently proposed for the drainage of la Narse de la Sauvetat, a similar although smaller wetland 8 km south of the Sarliève marsh (Mayoral et al, 2018;Mayoral et al, 2020b), revealing a pattern of wetland drainage in Limagne at the beginning of the second part of the first Iron Age. This chronology presumes that the Hallstatt societies possessed significant hydraulic capacity and were able to drain and settle former wetlands, as already detected in other French regions (Milcent and Mennessier-Jouannet, 2007;Bernigaud et al, 2014;Riquier et al, 2015).…”

Early human impact on soils and hydro-sedimentary systems: Multi-proxy geoarchaeological analyses from La Narse de la Sauvetat (France)

“…This early drainage capacity certainly represented a break in the socioenvironmental interaction in the Limagne lowlands hitherto unsuspected, and a major step towards environmental systems anthropisation. Even if needing confirmation through additional investigations, this precocity is not out of place since drainage capacity was likely developed from the beginning of the Iron Age in central France, allowing hydraulic developments and small settlements on former wetlands (Bernigaud et al, 2014;Milcent and Mennessier-Jouannet, 2007;Riquier et al, 2015;Walsh et al, 2019). Remarkably, the emergence of a proto-urban settlement including hundreds of storage pits in the neighbouring Puy de Corent takes place only few decades (from c. 2550 cal.…”

Holocene land cover and population dynamics in Southern France

“…yr BP) related to the exploitation of gallery forests and wetlands, and the disappearance of fir woods (Figures 7 and 8). The spread of hydraulic systems then ensures the drainage of a large part of the Rhône wetlands, allowing the expansion of cultivated land and the intensification of crops and fodder (Berger, 2015;Bernigaud et al, 2014). These signatures reveal, at the scale of the large Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis, a commercial agricultural exploitation (vineyards and orchards) which affects all the bioclimatic zones up to the midmountains and results in an unprecedented scale of human land use (Berger and Bravard, 2012;Leveau, 1998).…”