An international team of archaeologists led by experts from the University of York has uncovered evidence of human activity in the high slopes of the French Alps dating back over 8000 years. The 14-year study in the Parc National des Eìcrins in the southern Alps is one of the most detailed¹ archaeological investigations² carried out at high altitudes. It reveals a story of human occupation and activity in one of the world's most challenging environments from the Mesolithic to the Post-Medieval period.

 

The work included the excavation³ of a series of stone animal enclosures and human dwellings⁴（住处） considered some of most complex high altitude Bronze Age structures found anywhere in the Alps.

 

The research, published in Quaternary International, was led by Dr Kevin Walsh, landscape archaeologist at the University of York in partnership⁵ with Florence Mocci of the Centre Camille Julian, CNRS, Aix-en-Provence.

 

Dr Walsh explained: "High altitude landscapes of 2000 metres and above are considered remote and marginal. Many researchers had assumed that early societies showed little interest in these areas. This research shows that people, as well as climate, did have a role in shaping the Alpine⁶ landscape from as early as the Mesolithic period.

 

"It has radically⁷ altered our understanding of activity in the sub-alpine and alpine zones. It is also of profound relevance⁸ for the broader understanding of human-environment interactions in ecologically sensitive environments."

 

Excavations⁹ carried out by the team showed human activity shaped the Alpine landscape through the Bronze, Iron, Roman and Medieval ages as people progressed from hunting to more managed agricultural systems including the movement of livestock¹⁰ to seasonal¹¹ alpine pastures, known as transhumant-pastoralism.

 

"The most interesting period is the Chalcolithic/Bronze Age when human activity, particularly to support pastoralism, really begins to dominate the landscape," said Dr Walsh. "The Bronze Age buildings we studied revealed the clear development of seasonal pastoralism that appears to have been sustained over many centuries with new enclosures added and evidence of tree clearing to create new grazing land.

 

"The evidence suggests the landscape was occupied over many centuries marking the start of a more sustained management of the alpine landscape and the development of the pastoral agricultural systems we see in the Alps today."

 

The study also uncovered evidence of Stone Age hunting camps in often inhospitable conditions in the upper reaches of the Alpine tree line at 2000 metres and above. Other finds included a Neolithic¹² flint arrow head at 2475 metres, thought to be the highest altitude arrowhead discovered in the Alps.

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