Human Agency and Coastal Landscape Transformation in Early Modern Atlantic Europe: An Interdisciplinary Research Approach in the Urola Estuary (Basque Coast)

ABSTRACT

Landscapes are the result of historical human–environment interactions whose material imprints are recorded in the local topography, hydrography, and sedimentary archives. Human influence is particularly visible in coastal and estuarine landscapes, due to the continuity and intensity of occupation since, at least, the Middle Ages. This paper analyses the historical evolution of an estuarine landscape in Atlantic Iberia, based on the combined analysis of documentary sources, land covers, and sediment cores. The observed anthropic impact relies on the superposition of different agents and processes that has been traced in detail from the Middle Ages to the present, permitting a critical and integrated reconsideration of the written and oral records and their confrontation with the materiality of the landscape. These results highlight the value of the proposed research approach for the study of human–environment interactions of a limited geographical area over the long term. More generally, it has been possible to link these agents and processes operating on the local scale to wider regional and global historical trends, contributing to better characterising and understanding the nature of the anthropogenic impact on coastal environments.

KEYWORDS:

• Estuaries
• local history
• land use
• geoarchaeology
• soil coring
• geochemistry

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to express their gratitude to Manex Argoitia Zabala, Xabier Azkue Ibarbia and Miriam Romatet (Municipality of Zumaia), Fernando Arzallus Iturri (Municipality of Zestoa), Maite Izquierdo (Basque Government), Leire Barruso and Asier Hilario (Geopark of the Basque Coast), Jaime Frigola i Ferrer and Marc Cerdà i Domènech (University of Barcelona) for their valuable support in achieving the works. Two anonymous reviewers are acknowledged for helping to improve the quality of the text.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This paper is part of the research project Erriberak, funded by the Basque Government (009-KOI-2019) and the Geopark of the Basque Coast. The works were supported by the project Archaeology of the local societies in Southern Europe (PID2020-112506GB-C41) funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, the Research Group on Heritage and Cultural Landscapes (Basque Government, IT1442-22) and the Group of Rural Studies (UPV/EHU-CSIC).

Notes on contributors

Josu Narbarte

Josu Narbarte is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of the Basque Country. His research focuses on historic landscapes as the material reflection of past human-environment interactions. In particular, he has worked on early modern wetland reclamation processes and their social, economic, and environmental repercussions.

Eneko Iriarte

Eneko Iriarte is an Assistant Professor at the University of Burgos. He has carried out several research projects on Holocene sedimentary archives. At present, he coordinates the IsoTOPIK laboratory at the same University of Burgos.