Paleoambiente y formación de los paisajes antiguos de la comarca de la Sierra de Francia (Salamanca, España): de la estructura social a la creación del paisaje

This work is consequence of a part of the results of the projects developed by the research team “Estructura Social y Territorio: Arqueología del Paisaje” of the CSIC in the region of Sierra de Francia, at the South of Salamanca. Through a series of selective test pits an important amount of palinology samples in stratigraphy have been recovered that allow the environmental characterization of three sites belonging to different stages of Proto-history sequence. These data, in relation to other series of samples, the analysis of the location’s characteristics, the potential of exploitation, the morphology of the settlements or the characteristics of the topographic relations, allow the creation of accurate historical sequences where strong social transformations are recognized. These, in relation to the formation of the ancient landscapes, are very clear. The present work is, nowadays, a unique contribution in this aspect in the area. The analyses reveal three differentiated moments clearly in this sequence that imply forms of relation with means very different, supported by equally diverse social systems. From the moment of transition of the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age, possibly around 9th to 8th Century b. C., we arrive to the re-structure of the territories in Roman times and the beginning of the systematic exploitation imposed to suit a tributary mode of production that seems to begin in this zone in the 2nd half of 1st Century B. C.