The Emergence of Arboriculture in the 1st Millennium BC along the Mediterranean’s “Far West”

Guillem Pérez-Jordà (1) , Natàlia Alonso , Nuria Rovira Buendia (2) , Isabel Figueiral (3, 4) , Daniel López-Reyes , Philippe Marinval , Eva Montes , Leonor Peña-Chocarro , Rachël Pinaud-Querrac’h , Jérôme Ros (4) , Miguel Tarongi , Margaux Tillier (5) , Laurent Bouby (4)

1 UV - Universitat de València
2 ASM - Archéologie des Sociétés Méditerranéennes
3 Inrap - Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives
4 UMR ISEM - Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier
5 IPSO FACTO [Marseille]

This paper presents the history of the introduction and expansion of arboriculture during the 1st millennium BC from the South of the Iberian Peninsula to the South of France. The earliest evidence of arboriculture at the beginning of the 1st millennium hails from the south of the Iberia from where it spread northward along the peninsula's eastern edge. The different fruits (grape, olive, fig, almond, pomegranate and apple/pear) arrived together in certain areas in spite of uneven distribution and acceptance by local communities. Grape was the crop with the greatest diffusion. The greater diversity of crops in the southern half of the peninsula is also noteworthy. Their development paved the way for a commercial agricultural model in some territories where fruits and their derivatives, such as wine and oil, played vital roles.

Mots clés: Europe; fruit cultivation; Iron Age; colonization; wine

Domaines: Archéologie et Préhistoire; Sciences de l'environnement

Guillem Pérez-Jordà, Natàlia Alonso, Nuria Rovira Buendia, Isabel Figueiral, Daniel López-Reyes, et al.. The Emergence of Arboriculture in the 1st Millennium BC along the Mediterranean’s “Far West”. Agronomy, 2021, 11, ⟨10.3390/agronomy11050902⟩. ⟨hal-03221215⟩