Paisaje holoceno de una gran urbe: la ciudad de Madrid

Abstract

this work develops a synthesis of palaeoenvironmental studies conducted in the city of Madrid and immediate surroundings in order to reconstruct the history of vegetation in the study area and anthropogenic dynamics from a chronocultural viewpoint during the Holocene. the first human impact on the landscape is detected during the VI millenium cal. bC (Early Neolithic) in the eastern part of the province, related to extractive and pastoral activities. the first evidence of farming is confirmed during the Chalcolithic (III millenium cal. bC), although anthropogenic dynamics is intensified in the two millennia later, during the bronze and Iron ages, attending a high degradation of forest cover, only in the basiphilous territories. this anthropic process continued during the Roman period and Middle Ages, cultivating the corn and olives, under significant livestock pressure, throughout the province including the silicicolous area for the first time.