First archaeobotanical contribution to the history of food production and agriculture at Aghmat (Morocco) between the 11th and the 17th c

Abstract

Aghmat, medieval city of the Haouz region (Marrakech), is described by textual sources as a prosperous commercial city, surrounded by fertile lands. Located at the foot of the High Atlas, at the opening of the Ourika valley, it benefited from a geographical situation favourable to the development of an important irrigated agriculture. However, Aghmat was hit by the great crisis that struck Morocco at the end of the 14th and during the 15th c., and was abandoned. It is only in the course of the 16th c. that the locality found a new dynamism, while knowing a deep spatial, demographic and economic reorganization. Indeed, Aghmat seems to take at this period the shape of a dispersed habitat, entirely dedicated to a new agricultural development.Since 2005, the extensive excavation of the medieval urban centre and of its levels of abandonment makes it possible to locally approach this transitional period between two socio-economic systems. Thus arises the question of the agricultural evolutions and of the role played by the various socio-economic components on lands management. The recent creation of an archaeobotanical program that includes both carpological and anthracological analysis seems to be the most promising way to document these questions. Based on nearly fifty archaeological samples extracted from varied contexts (hearths, dumps, plantation pits), dated between the 11th and the 17th c., this work allows proposing a first review on cultivated/gathered plants.