Archaeobotanical analysis of fuel and forest management from a Roman pottery workshop in southern France (Mas des Tourelles, Beaucaire)

Abstract

Roman-era pottery workshops have been central to numerous research inquiries for several decades. The increasing exploration of rural contexts in Narbonensis Gaul in recent years has progressively led to the implementation of archaeobotanical studies, especially anthracological analyses. However, until now, fruit and seed studies have largely been neglected in this type of context. A new excavation project began in 2019 at the site of Mas des Tourelles (Beaucaire, France), a pottery workshop associated with a wine-producing villa dating from the Late Republican period to the Late Roman Empire, and allowed the combination of these two approaches. In this study, 55 samples were analyzed for carpological remains and 11 samples for charcoal remains. On the one hand, archaeobotanical data indicate the use of small-caliber wood and faggots as fuel, demonstrating the management of a Mediterranean mixed oak forest and the predominant exploitation of holm oak/kermes oak, rockrose, and heather. On the other hand, the question arises whether non-woody fuels, undetectable through charcoal analysis, were also used for firing the kilns: although the carpological results did not reveal the presence of non-woody fuel, seed analysis provided further information to the anthracological results by identifying additional woody taxa.