Munibe Antropologia-Arkeologia (Dec 2020)
La transformación histórica del paisaje de montaña en la vertiente atlántica del País Vasco: el caso de Aiako Harria (Oiartzun, Gipuzkoa)
Abstract
Los paisajes de montaña son el reflejo de las interacciones entre los grupos sociales y su medio ambiente, que se materializan en el espacio mediante la activación de los recursos por medio de diversas prácticas sociales. Este trabajo propone el desarrollo de una metodología de prospección basada en el análisis combinado de las coberturas terrestres y de los artefactos presentes en el paisaje, con el fin de reconstruir la historia social, económica y ecológica que subyace a la configuración actual del paisaje de montaña de Aiako Harria (Oiartzun, Gipuzkoa). Ante la aparente ilegibilidad de unos espacios a menudo observados desde un prisma puramente naturalístico, los resultados alcanzados ponen de relieve la densidad histórica de unos paisajes que actualmente se encuentran, en contraste, sujetos a un fuerte proceso de marginalización. ______________________________________________________________________________ Mountain landscapes reflect past interactions between social groups and their environment, materialised in the space by the activation of environmental resources with a variety of social practices. This paper proposes the development of a multi-proxy archaeological survey methodology, based on the combined analysis of the landcovers and manufacts present in the landscape, with the purpose of reconstructing the social, economic and ecological history that lies beneath its present-day layout, taking as a case study the mountains of Aiako Harria (Oiartzun, Gipuzkoa, Basque Country). The oldest practices documented are wooded pastures, present in the area since the Middle Ages in the framework of diversified silvo-pastoral resource management systems. During the Modern period, the expansion of agrarian lands gave origin to new dispersed settlements, often constructed on previous wooded pastures. In contrast, the 19th-20th centuries are marked by the expansion of industry-oriented forest plantations, which are still nowadays the most common landcover. Despite their progressive marginalisation, these spaces therefore appear as historically built features reflecting complex interactions between societies and their environment, in contrast with the purely naturalistic optic that is widespread in the regulation and management of these spaces nowadays.
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