From Archaeological Evidence for Agricultural Manuring to an Understanding of Settlement and Landscape Dynamics: An Experiment in Non-invasive Archaeological Methods Undertaken in South-West France

Résumé En

Manuring is a farming practice which produces archaeological traces. Indeed, the introduction of waste into manure heaps has resulted in the spreading of broken pottery across manured plots. The interpretation of off-site find scatters as remains of manuring is based both on ancient texts and archaeological evidence. The chronological and spatial analysis of these scatters allows us to estimate the stability and durability of agrarian occupation. Today, small GPS devices incorporated in low-cost smart phones enable us to map intra-plot densities for an estimate of the overall trend of occupation which does not necessarily discriminate between site and off-site, but is useful to discuss such a discrimination when necessary. However, a sound appreciation of buried structures and the impact of past human activities on the landscape can only be reached by a combination of different non-invasive methods. The REPERAGE project developed in the Garonne Valley near Toulouse (in southwestern France) aims at developing a global non-invasive archaeological strategy combining high resolution mapping of fieldwalking artefacts, low altitude aerial surveys using drones' on-board multispectral and Lidar sensors, and geophysical surveys (GPR, magnetometer). The objective is to obtain a high level of information about diachronic settlement systems and dynamics, and their relationships with the natural environment.