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All about yew: on the trail of Taxus baccata in southwest Europe by means of integrated palaeobotanical and archaeobotanical studies

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Abstract

This paper reviews the palaeobiogeography of Taxus baccata (yew) and the human social customs and traditions relating to this tree in southwest Europe. Pollen and archaeobotanical (charcoal, seeds and manufactured tools) evidence supplemented by some data from ethnographical sources have been considered in an integrated approach focused on the Holocene. The geographical scope covers northern Spain, including both sides of the Pyrenees to southeast France, northeast Spain and the Balearic islands. Although the first archaeobotanical occurrences of yew have been recorded at 12–8 cal. kyr bp, the highest values have been found between 7,000 and 2,000 cal. bp as reflected in its maximum pollen curves in the study area. According to the pollen records this taxon had a first significant presence within the mixed oak woods and then it gradually disappeared (ca. 3,000 bp) from middle altitudes. This might be due to a combination of changing climatic conditions responsible for the major Holocene vegetation changes and increasing human pressure. A wide diversity of human uses is observed in the record of yew macroremains from archaeological sites. The presence of charcoal, potentially consumed fruits, manufactured tools and other archaeobotanical evidence of yew associated with livestock activities lead us to propose a set of past uses that may have contributed to its clear decrease in the late Holocene. Despite this intensive exploitation it is also rather common to find old specimens of planted yew throughout the study area, witnessing its endurance in the memories of people wherever it has remained.

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Acknowledgments

This review is based on previously published archaeobotanical works where Taxus baccata has been recorded. However we want to thank all those people who have helped us improve and complete this synthesis. P. González Sampériz, (CSIC, Zaragoza) has made available the unpublished pollen data of Taxus recorded in El Portalet. Dr Mª F Sánchez-Goñi, (CNRS Université Bordeaux 1) has provided some unpublished and very old palynological data from the Iberian margin. Guillem Pérez Jordá (University of Valencia) has also provided relevant unpublished archaeobotanical information about Taxus from the Mas Cremat archaeological site. Our gratitude is due to S. Fernández and JS Carrión (University of Murcia) for their technical support in the redrawing of the palynological and anthracological curves of Taxus presented here. B. Ruiz-Zapata from (University of Alcalá de Henares, Madrid) for her assistance in the elaboration of the two charcoal synthetic histograms included here as well. A final thanks to Aixa Vidal for her assistance with the English text. FA and RP are members of the consolidated research group AGREST (2009 SGR 734) funded by the AGAUR and of MINECO Projects HAR2012-38838-C02-01 & HAR2012-38838-C02-02. The research of EA and FB was funded within the projects MINECO CGL2012-38434-C03-03 and MICINN (HAR2008-01984/HIST).). LZ is part of the Research Group in Prehistory IT622-13/UFI 11-09 at the Universidad del País Vasco (University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU) and HAR2011-23716 project (Plan Nacional I + D+i, Spain). One last thanks to the reviewers, in particular to O. Brinkkemper, for their wise remarks and especially because they have valued the long and arduous task that lies behind these lines.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dpto. de Prehistoria, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), C/Mediodia Grande 17, 28005, Madrid, Spain

    Paloma Uzquiano

  2. IPHES, Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, C/Marcel.lí Domingo, s/n. Campus Seceslades URV (Edifici W3), 43007, Tarragona, Spain

    Ethel Allué & Francesc Burjachs

  3. Àrea de Prehistòria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Av. Catalunya, 35, 43002, Tarragona, Spain

    Ethel Allué & Francesc Burjachs

  4. Department of Environmental Sciences, Integrative Prehistory and Archaeological Science (IPNA/IPAS), Basel University, Spalenring 145, 4055, Basel, Switzerland

    Ferran Antolín

  5. ICREA, Passeig Lluís Companys, 23, 08010, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

    Francesc Burjachs

  6. UMR 7209 Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique:Sociétés, Pratiques et Environnement, CNRS-Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle, 55 Rue Buffon, 75005, Paris, France

    Llorenç Picornel

  7. Departament de Ciències Històriques i Teoria de les Arts, ArqueoUIB: Grup de recerca en cultura material i gestió del patrimoni arqueològic, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Carretera de Valldemossa, Km 7,5, 07122, Palma, Mallorca, Spain

    Llorenç Picornel

  8. Dpto. de Prehistoria, Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Spain

    Raquel Piqué

  9. Depto. Geografía, Prehistoria y Arqueologia, Universidad del País Vasco (UPV/EHU), C/Tomás y Valiente s/n. Apdo. 2111, 01006, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain

    Lydia Zapata

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  1. Paloma Uzquiano
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  2. Ethel Allué
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Correspondence to Paloma Uzquiano.

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Communicated by C. C. Bakels.

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Uzquiano, P., Allué, E., Antolín, F. et al. All about yew: on the trail of Taxus baccata in southwest Europe by means of integrated palaeobotanical and archaeobotanical studies. Veget Hist Archaeobot 24, 229–247 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-014-0475-x

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