A map of autumn precipitation for the third millennium BP in the Eastern Iberian Peninsula from charcoal carbon isotopes

Abstract Carbon isotope composition (δ13C) in tree-rings has become routinely used in palaeoclimatic research for the assessment of changes in plant water availability in seasonally dry climates. However, the distribution of long tree-ring records around the world is very limited. Alternatively, the original climate signal of wood δ13C is well preserved in fossil charcoal and, accordingly, charcoal δ13C can be used to quantify past changes in water availability (e.g. precipitation). We report a case study on spatial palaeoclimate reconstruction which aims to characterize the transition between Bronze and Iron Ages, the so-called Iron Age Cold Epoch (ca. 900–300 BCE), using charcoals of Quer…