Environmental changes and evolution of settlement in the Limagne of Clermont-Ferrand (Massif Central, France)

International audienceThis paper presents a geomorphological work realised in an interdisciplinary CNRS programme called Zone Atelier. Its purpose is to analyse the relationships between the hydrological constraint in its complexity and the evolution of settlement between the First Iron Age and the Early Middle Ages in the swamp of Limagne (french Massif Central). This paleoenvironmental research has combined the results of geomorphological and paleohydrological studies with the data on land use collected by archaeologists. On the one hand, a geomorphological study has shown the evolution of humidity in space and time. The apparent homogeneity of the topography in the Limagne swamp, with a very even plain, actually disguises a mosaic of territories. Moreover, this humidity was linked to the climatic variations, the anthropogenic impacts and the possible subsidence of the plain. On the other hand, systematic fieldwalking conducted these last few years have revealed a density of population contradicting the idea of a marshland inhospitable to settlers in the protohistoric period and in Antiquity. The spatialisation of both geomorphological and archaeological data reveals the link between the evolution of the damp areas, the forms and densities of settlement, and the economic use of these territories