La morphométrie à la recherche des origines de la culture et de la domestication des arbres fruitiers : le modèle de l'olivier en méditerranée nord-occidentale

摘要

This study aims to determine in north-western Mediterranea the origins of culture and domestication of the olive tree {Olea europaea L.) and to understand processes responsible of the expansion and maintenance of olive populations during Prehistory. Morphometric analyses applied to archaeological material from French and Spanish settlements (quantitative anatomical analysis for charcoal and geometrical morphometric analysis for endocarps) allow us to discriminate between wild to cultivated olive. The identification of early cultivated specimens attests the beginnings of culture and domestication of the olive tree, long before the introduction of new cultivated varieties and oléiculture by classical peoples. Since the Neolithic, a phase of pre-domestication seems to occur. At the Bronze Age, domestication process might have been amplified. Pruning practises are revealing and several samples closely related to modern cultivated forms are identified. Finally, a phylogeographical model of the Mediterranean diffusion of olive cultivation is defined. It testifies the native origin of one cultivated form, as well as the scale of diffusion of olive cultivation through the Mediterranean Basin.