Roman farmers in eastern Iberia: A spatial, geoarchaeological and bioarchaeological approach to agrarian strategies

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present the archaeological data that allows us to characterise the agrarian practices of Roman farmers through the study of cultivated fields. To undertake this research, we designed an analytical strategy combining spatial analysis, microstratigraphic analysis through soil micromorphology and physical-chemical analyses of bulk soil samples, and archaeobotanical analyses including palynology, phytoliths and geochemical analysis. All this has allowed us to obtain data of interest for the reconstruction of agrarian land use and to establish a methodological basis for developing future research. This high-resolution, multiscalar, and multianalytical approach pursues to characterise these archaeological contexts to singularize intensive agricultural practices developed in terraced field. The creation of this Roman peasant landscape is related to a specific models of socioeconomic organisation of agricultural work based on the household and its workforce as a determining vector in agrarian intensification.