1What constitutes an inhospitable environment? It is a place in which we have no points of reference, no habits, a milieu that does not correspond to our “ecological niche”, a bewildering and threatening world. But the landmarks familiar to some are not those of others, and we must therefore ensure that when we study these environments we take account of the way those who inhabited or exploited these landscapes perceived them.

2For an environment to be really hostile it has to deny any form of human occupation, i.e. it would be impossible for people to satisfy their vital needs (such as protecting and feeding themselves). And this is rare! Numerous ethnographic examples illustrate how adaptable humans were, in all sorts of settings. Examples include the way the Inuit managed to ward off the cold and feed themselves, the Touaregs’ continual search for water and grazing grounds, the slash-and-burn, hunting and fishing economy of the people living in the Amazonian rainforest or the central mountains of Papua New Guinea, or the advanced knowledge of plants displayed by the Australian aboriginal people.

3It therefore makes no sense to pass value judgments on a territory or a given natural environment. It is up to archaeologists to reveal how people adapted to such climates, reliefs, or available resources and to understand how societies organised themselves over the centuries and millennia to survive or simply to live. How did people end up there? How did they manage to stay? This is what archaeology attempts to understand.

4Although the lure of other worlds is strong, as expounded in issue 360 of Archéopgaes dedicated to exoticism, more often it is prosaic factors, like a reduction in the availability of natural resources, a deterioration in the environmental conditions or a worsening of the climate, that have caused migratory movements. Such phenomena can be identified from prehistoric times onwards; it is becoming increasingly possible to establish which zones were abandoned in favour of other areas, less cold, better sheltered from strong and icy winds, or richer in game. In all cases, was the perception of the new environment not geared towards seeking a better quality of life rather than towards its potentially hostile aspects?

5Another situation perceived as hostile is when humans find themselves thrown into a new environment abruptly, against their will and even without the means to survive. The shock must have been overwhelming, and quite different from a slow adaptation. What could the mindset of the slaves left on the island of Tromelin have been, when, abandoned, they had to organise themselves to survive, not just in material terms but also socially? One can also imagine to what the Maroon slaves on the island of La Réunion were reduced to, hiding in the cirque of Mafate, in high, inaccessible places and risking their lives, almost permanently surrounded by clouds and suffering from the cold, only to emerge from time to time, when the sparse food resources available locally became scarce, to steal a few animals around the farms of the white colonisers occupying the heights.

6Finally, a third form of approaching an inhospitable environment consists of temporary stays, where the focus is on organising life and work in the best possible conditions until the time comes to return to more clement places. This is the case of the miners who settled in the Bronze Age at Saint-Véran in the Hautes-Alpes or in medieval times on the Alpes-d’Huez in the Isère. There they worked at high altitudes, when it was possible to work in the warmest season, when snow had melted or was scarce. It is not so long ago that iron, silver-lead ore and coal were exploited in these alpine mines. The same scenario applies to the seal hunters who settled in the far-distant and icy Kerguelen islands.

7A solution was found for each challenge; it is up to us to understand and analyse it.

Just 50 metres narrow and 450 metres long, and situated at an altitude of over 2,200 metres, the "secret valley" on the island of Réunion is virtually inaccessible.

Agrandir Original (jpeg, 1,9M)

It served as a refuge for runaway slaves, who lived there in dry stone shelters. These remains were surveyed in 2011 and 2012 as part of A.-L. Dijoux's doctoral thesis.

Photo : A.-L. Dijoux.