Titre : LiDAR as a tool to study past land-use 

Auteurs : Catherine Fruchart, François Favory,  

Revue : Digital Archaeology 

Numéro : Issue 1 

Volume : 4 

Date : 2020/06/11 

DOI : 10.21494/ISTE.OP.2020.0520 

ISSN : 2515-7574 

Résumé : The vestiges of past landscapes have come down to us and their study can inform us about the ancient occupation of the territories. LiDAR, coupled with traditional data sources, GIS and modelling, opens up new perspectives to better understand past landscapes and their transformations. In particular, these data show the frequency of patchy remains in present-day forests in France, occupying up to several hundred square kilometres in a single block. These vestiges materialize spaces formerly dedicated to agro-sylvo-pastoral activities. 17 areas (about 2200 km2 ), including parcel vestiges attributed to Antiquity, have been studied within the framework of the ERC Rurland programme devoted to the spatial and historical dynamics of rural territories between the Seine basin and the Limes de Germanie, from the Final Tène to Late Antiquity. Half of these areas, mainly under forest, incorporate LiDAR. Documented by archaeological data, they have been put into perspective with environmental characteristics: slopes, soil textures, soil water reserve capacities, degrees of fertility or silvicultural productivity, limits to agricultural use, and other topographical, geological and pedological information. In addition, a detailed study of plot morphologies was carried out in six areas to better understand how the plots fit into their environment. Examination at different scales of plot systems identified some factors that appear to favour or hinder past agro-pastoral use. Insufficient soil water reserve capacity and low natural fertility could be factors limiting this use in antiquity; the presence of slopes may have favoured the ancient abandonment of an agro-pastoral use after the Roman period. 

Éditeur : ISTE OpenScience