## 5 Discussion
### Mid-Holocene Vegetation History and Neolithic Landscape Transformation in the Western Mediterranean
Although the evidence of deforestation during the early stages of Neolithisation in Iberia is often associated with farming activities, in Lake Banyoles the absence of Cerealia-t pollen and spores of coprophilous fungi is noticeable, but not exclusive in the Iberian context [72; 73; 74; 75; 76; 77; 78]. In that sense, the expansion of the first farming societies and the practice of intensive agriculture [79] implied limited impact on the landscape. However, sedentary life in permanent settlements and the practice of more intensive productive activities increasingly reiterated in the territory caused deforestation processes or, at least, small-scale forest modifications from the Neolithic onwards [23]. In that sense, Neolithic landscape transformation was expressed differently in the regions studied here. While, human activities caused the regression of maquis in South Corsica, leading to an open landscape, in North Corsica they affected riparian and sclerophyllous forests, and in NE Iberia the dominant broadleaf deciduous forests. In coastal wetlands in Corsica, evidence of Cerealia-t is clear from the Early Neolithic and repeatedly along the Neolithic. In NE Iberia, evidence of agriculture was invisible in Lake Banyoles during the Early Neolithic, restricted to the immediate surroundings of the archaeological site of La Draga [15; 48]. This could suggest either a very local impact of agriculture in Corsican coastal wetlands, or the fact that these lagoons or wetland areas provide a pollen signal from a smaller catchment area when compared with large lakes [80], as is the case of Lake Banyoles, whose pollen record reflects the regional landscape and so that it becomes more difficult to detect the signal of agriculture. In that sense, Cerealia-t is attested in Lake Banyoles after the transition from aquatic (larger catchment area) to an adler carr peaty environment (smaller catchment area) from 5.5 kyr cal BP onwards [38; 64]. Apart from evidence of agricultural activities, spores of coprophilous fungi are a relevant proxy to reconstruct the impact of husbandry, a factor to be considered in vegetation shifts from the Neolithic onwards [77; 81; 82], and well attested in this study. Another element which differs is fire, almost absent in NE Iberia [38] and, until further palaeofire studies are conducted in coastal wetlands, it seems evident that fire (whether natural or anthropogenic) played a major role in landscape configuration in Corsica due to the continuous presence of macro and micro charcoal in pollen samples [24]. In the Lake Banyoles area, despite the absence of Cerealia-t and spores of coprophilous fungi in pollen records during the Early Neolithic, the bioarchaeological record at La Draga enables an interpretation of the regression of broadleaf deciduous forests (mainly _Quercus_ deciduous) as the result of deforestation to acquire raw materials for construction (oak wood) and firewood [23; 83]. Finally, another useful proxy to detect human impact is the occurrence of soil erosion episodes (reflected in the occurrence of indicative fungal spores or even high peaks in Asteraceae), often induced by climate change or heavy rainfall, but amplified in phases of disturbed landscapes by deforestation, as attested during the Neolithic in SB2 record, Piantarella, Saint Florent, and at La Draga in Phase II, consistent with similar processes evidenced in the Mediterranean region, as on the Eastern coast of Iberia, where the combination of fire activity, the impact of farming and occurrence of soil erosion episodes have been documented during the Neolithic [84]. Local Palaeenvironmental Evolution in Lakes and Wetlands, the Value of Non-Pollen Pluynomorphs (NPP)  
The archaeoecological study of human-environment interactions involves different scales transcending in-site archaeology, from settlement surroundings to regional landscapes. As shown in the previous section, palynology is able to reconstruct vegetation history and attests signs of human impact in the landscape on regional or extra-local scales.