Resumen de Charcoal analysis in the A750-A75 motorway (Clermont l'Heìrault / Saint Andreì de Sangonis - Beìziers, southern France): a case-study in Preventive Archaeology

Isabel Figueiral, Laurent Fabre, Christophe Tardy

• The drawbacks and advantages of preventive archaeology and the implications for archaeobotanical studies are assessed based on the example of work carried out prior to the construction of the A 750 / A 75 motorway in southern France. Emphasis is given to the most significant charcoal analysis results obtained in sites destined to be rapidly destroyed. They provide a large scale insight on human settlement and land exploitation from the Middle Neolithic to the height of the Roman Empire.