The integration of historical, archaeological and paleoenvironmental data at the regional scale : the Etang de Berre, Southern France

Résumé En

An investigation carried out between 1987 and 1993 of settlement patterns and landscape development on the western side of the Étang de Berre, the lagoon system on the eastern side of the Rhone delta in southern France, forms the basis for a consideration of the integration of different methods of landscape archaeology on a micro­regional scale. lt provides an example of a systematic, diachronie, and interdisci­plinary study applied to a restricted area (100 km2), in order to analyze as closely as possible the complex interrelations between social systems, geosystems, and ecosystems. Partial answers have been found to man y of the questions asked, through more meaningful reformulation ofthem as the research advanced. The problem of sait at Saint-Blaise remains unanswered, but the understanding of this major site has nevertheless been advanced and from a new perspective. By combining the archaeological, historical and paleoenvironmental data it is possible to write a landscape history that permits the reconstruction of the evolution of a micro-region, concentrating on its specifics, while allowing the comparison with data obtained from a wider scale. The method implies the need to ask, right from the beginning, how representative is the information contained in the different archivai sources: the soil, the subsoil, the texts. The integration of the experience of each discipline implies an initial independent analysis of the data, in order to avoid circular arguments. In this sense, it is not so much a matter of integrating the methods but of integrating the results. This is why I believe that landscape archaeology should remain simply one method within archaeology - it would be dangerous to try to establish it as a separate discipline.