Underwater warehouse installed to preserve plant remains of the La Draga site

The wooden remains of the Neolithic site of La Draga (Banyoles) are preserved in an underwater warehouse within the lake of Banyoles. Over 1,200 wooden pieces gathered over 30 years of archaeological digs at the site will be stored there. This week was the last of this year's dig campaign, which tool place during the month of September and were conducted both on land and in the water adjacent to the site.

The archaeological digs were concentrated in a 30-square-metre surface of Sector A, the southernmost and innermost part of the site. The land where the Neolithics lived had been excavated already during these past three years, and in this dig campaign the wooden pillars still existing from the homes that were built were extracted. The co-directors of the dig, Toni Palomo (MAC), Raquel Piqué (UAB) and Xavier Terradas (CSIC) explained that “a total of 80 wooden pillars were extracted, mainly made out of oak and in an exceptional state of conservation in which even the bark had been fully presesrved”, and added that "some of these logs are of such great dimensions that they measure over two metres in length”. A detail that stands out in these wooden pillars is the abundance of cutting marks found in the logs, made when sharpening the edges of the pillars or to eliminate small branches.

These pillars are part of the total of 600 which until now had been conserved from the same site and extracted in several of the previous dig campaigns conducted during these past 30 years of archaeological work at La Draga. Once these wooden remains were sampled and studied, they are put into an underwater warehouse to ensure that their conditions of preservation stay the same as they were in these past 7,000 years. The underwater warehouse has been built within the lake of Banyoles, in an area previously dug up near the site, and allows preserving the different samples of wood in optimal conditions, also for any future studies that may be carried out. A total of 15 cubic metres of wood are stored within the water.

All logs were sampled and catalogued with the aim of creating the tree-ring dating curve, in order to establish the dates of the growth rings and determine the exact period, and thus connect them with the diverse tree felling moments needed to build the settlement dwellings. Moreover, samples were also gathered to be study as part of the international research project on entitled WOODPLAKE (Habitatges arqueològics sobre puntals de fusta en llacs mediterranis europeus: estratègies per a la seva explotació, monitoratge i conservació), in which the archaeological site of La Draga is also involved.

This European project is focused on assessing the effects climate change has on lacustrine sites and their organic heritage, with the final objective of establishing preservation policies for these unique and essential parts of European heritage, and also of facing the challenges of climate change in the near future. The project is funded by the Spanish State Research Agency under the European project ‘Joint Projects in Cultural Heritage (JPICH): Conservation, Protection and Use’, of which the La Draga site is a member, alongside the Italian lacustrine sites of Bolseno and Mezzano.

Underwater works

Parallel to works on land, archaeologists also conducted underwater prospects at the eastern part of the lake to document several isolated vestiges discovered in earlier digs, as well as discover new ones. All evidence points to the possibility of these vestiges being from Roman occupations, although it is also possible that more prehistoric samples be found there, as are found in other parts of the lake.

This year's archaeological dig forms part of the four-year research projects in Archaeology and Palaeontology for the 2018-2021 period, organised by the Ministry for Culture of the Government of Catalonia, under the name of La Draga (Banyoles) i el procés de neolitització en la plana prelitoral i el Prepirineu de comarques de Girona.

La Draga

The Neolithic site of La Draga is unique in Catalonia and in Europe for several reasons. First, for its antiquity, since it estimated to be one of the oldest Neolithic settlements in the northeast of the peninsula. Second, because it is an open-air settlement with a certain continuity in place and time. And third, for its excellent conditions of preservation due to being partially submerged, which has provided the site with special anaerobic conditions that favour the preservation of organic material such as wood and plant fibres.

The digs at La Draga began in 1990, and practically since 1991, archaeological digs have been conducted and over one thousand square metres have been excavated. The works at the La Draga site are coordinated by the Archaeological Museum of Banyoles, the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC-IMF, Barcelona), the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and the Archaeological Museum of Catalonia (MAC). This year the Catalan Institute for Human Palaeoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES) also took part.

The differentiated nature and objectuves of these institutions allow conducting a more comprehensive approach to the uniqueness of this site, making it possible to conduct different research tasks, form new researchers, preserve the remains found at the site, and share the data collected. The digs at La Draga and the research activities are funded by the Archaeological Museum of Banyoles, the Ministry for Culture of the Government of Catalonia, the CSIC, the UAB and the MAC, in addition to the Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation.