A HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY MODEL POINTS TO POST-NEOGENE SURVIVAL OF THE MEDITERRANEAN OLIVE

Research on the subfossil record and paleoecology of Olea europaea suggests a new interpretation of its history and ecology with reference to the Mediterranean climate since the Neogene. New results are based on the wood anatomy of ancient and extant Olea and a model estimating hydraulic conductance established for wild forms belonging to Olea europaea subsp. europaea. These suggest that during glacial periods wild olive populations survived in protected microenvironments, particularly riparian habitats. Thereafter, the postglacial expansion of olive associated with climatic warming took place from these refuge areas. This new evidence suggests that the continued existence of Olea in Medite…

Identification of plant cells in black pigments of prehistoric Spanish Levantine rock art by means of a multi-analytical approach. A new method for social identity materialization using chaîne opératoire

We present a new multi-analytical approach to the characterization of black pigments in Spanish Levantine rock art. This new protocol seeks to identify the raw materials that were used, as well as reconstruct the different technical gestures and decision-making processes involved in the obtaining of these black pigments. For the first of these goals, the pictorial mat- ter of the black figurative motifs documented at the Les Dogues rock art shelter (Ares del Maestre, Castello ́ n, Spain) was characterized through the combination of physicochemical and archeobotanical analyses. During the first stage of our research protocol, in situ and non- destructive analyses were carried out by means of…

Primero la ciencia....después, la ficción

Se relaciona el nacimiento de la Prehistoria con las novelas del siglo XIX que tratan temas prehistóricos.

From the real to the imaginary. A flora and fauna database of the Iberian Iron Age.

'From the real to the imaginary,' a project developed between 2005 and 2012, studies Iberian flora and fauna in order to understand (and even approximate) the use and symbolism of plants and animals within Iberian Iron Age societies. Our methodology combines a paleobiological approach, based on palinology, anthracology, paleocarpology and paleozoology, with an iconographic approach. We record all the representations of plants and animals that appear on different Iron Age media: pottery, architectonic stone, stone sculpture, metallic objects and coins. All these data are catalogued taking into account the context and chronology of the archaeological remains for each entry. This information i…

Land Snails as a Diet Diversification Proxy during the Early Upper Palaeolithic in Europe

Despite the ubiquity of terrestrial gastropods in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene archaeological record, it is still unknown when and how this type of invertebrate resource was incorporated into human diets. In this paper, we report the oldest evidence of land snail exploitation as a food resource in Europe dated to 31.3-26.9 ka yr cal BP from the recently discovered site of Cova de la Barriada (eastern Iberian Peninsula). Mono-specific accumulations of large Iberus alonensis land snails (Ferussac 1821) were found in three different archaeological levels in association with combustion structures, along with lithic and faunal assemblages. Using a new analytical protocol based on taphonomic…

Paleoflora y Paleovegetación de la península Ibérica e islas Baleares: Plioceno-Cuaternario

Libro que reune yacimientos ibéricos con resgistros de paleovegetación, tanto de macrorestos (carbón, semillas, maderas) como de microrrestos (poles, esporas). The book meets Iberian sites with records of palaeovegetation. There are sequencies of macroremains (coal, seeds, wood) and microrrestos (poles, spores).

Neolithic landscape management at Cova de l'Or (Alicante, Spain)

Vegetation changes and human action from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age (7000?4000 B.P.) in Alicante, Spain, based on charcoal analysis

Charcoal analysis reveals various palaeo-ecological phases from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. Agriculture starts about 7000 B.P. in favourable ecological conditions. Most of the charcoal spectra from sites on the coast represent thermomediterranean holm-oak forest; those from the inland mountains represent mesome-diterranean holm-oak forest. The Neolithic I Impressed Ware people were the first to clear the forest to plant their crops. This clearance of primary woodland resulted in the development of secondary vegetation of pine woods or scrub. The scrub reached its maximum during the Bell Beaker phase and Bronze Age in the Cova de les Cendres. In the Neolithic II open air sites, the perc…

Bioindicadores leñosos para conocer los cambios climáticos y antrópicos en Portugal

Los carbones recuperados en contextos arqueológicos son bioindicadores claves para reconstruir la historia de las especies vegetales, su área de repartición espacial y cronológica. Su identificación botánica es una herramienta precisa para descifrar los cambios climáticos y las actividades humanas en el territorio, ya que las especies vegetales se pueden datar directamente por Acelerador de Espectrometría de Masas (ASM) para interpretar los cambios. En el presente trabajo revisamos los datos antracológicos de Portugal para identificar y distinguir los bioindicadores climáticos y antrópicos, y situarlos en una secuencia temporal basada fundamentalmente en las mencionadas dataciones asm.

Cueva Antón: A multi-proxy MIS 3 to MIS 5a paleoenvironmental record for SE Iberia

Overlying a palustrine deposit of unknown age (complex FP), and protected from weathering and erosion inside a large cave/rock-shelter cavity, the sedimentary fill of Cueva Antón, a Middle Paleolithic site in SE Spain, corresponds in most part (sub-complexes AS2-to-AS5) to a ca.3 m-thick Upper Pleistocene terrace of the River Mula. Coupled with the constraints derived from the deposit’s paleoclimatic proxies, OSL dating places the accumulation of this terrace in MIS 5a, and radiocarbon dates from the overlying breccia cum alluvium (sub-complex AS1) fall in the middle part of MIS 3; the intervening hiatus relates to valley incision and attendant erosion. The two intervals represented remain …

Dating of the hominid (Homo neanderthalensis) remains accumulation from El Sidrón cave (Piloña, Asturias, North Spain): an example of multi-methodological approach to the dating of Upper Pleistocene sites

The age of Neanderthal remains and associated sediments from El Sidrón cave has been obtained through different dating methods (14CAMS, U/TH, OSL, ESR and AAR) and samples (charcoal debris, bone, tooth dentine, stalagmitic flowstone, carbonate-rich sediments, sedimentary quartz grains, tooth enamel and land snail shells). Detrital Th contamination rendered Th/U dating analyses of flowstone unreliable. Recent 14C contamination produced spurious age-values from charcoal samples as well as from inadequately pretreated tooth samples. Most consistent 14C dates are grouped into two series: one between 35 and 40 ka and the other between 48 and 49 ka. Most ESR and AAR samples yielded concordant age…

The early Upper Palaeolithic of Cova de les Cendres (Alicante, Spain)

Abstract This paper presents a synthesis of the Early Upper Palaeolithic of Cova de les Cendres. Points of special attention are the sedimentary and micromorphological characterisation of level XVI, the analysis of the vegetal and animal resources and their incidence on the economy of the Gravettian human groups, and the characterisation of the landscape during this period. Furthermore, the paper offers important information of the lithic and bone assemblages, economic behaviour and radiocarbon dates of sub-levels XVIA and XVIB, related to the Gravettian, and XVIC and XVID, corresponding to the Aurignacian. Finally, the Gravettian and Aurignacian regional contexts in the Mediterranean Basin…

Occurrence of whale barnacles in Nerja Cave (Málaga, southern Spain): Indirect evidence of whale consumption by humans in the Upper Magdalenian

A total of 167 plates of two whale barnacle species (Tubicinella major Lamarck, 1802 and Cetopirus complanatus Morch, 1853) have been found in the Upper Magdalenian layers of Nerja Cave, Mina Chamber (Maro, Malaga, southern Spain). This is the first occurrence of these species in a prehistoric site. Both species are specific to the southern right whale Eubalena australis, today endemic in the Southern Hemisphere. Because of Antarctic sea-ice expansion during the Last Glacial Period, these whales could have migrated to the Northern Hemisphere, and reached southern Spain. Whale barnacles indicate that maritime-oriented forager human groups found stranded whales on the coast and, because of th…

Wood and charcoal evidence for human and natural history

El registro paleobiológico cuaternario del yacimiento arqueológico de la Cueva de Nerja (Málaga, España)

Entre los 24.000-4.000 años B.P. (Pleistoceno superior final - Holoceno) se depositó en la entrada de la Cueva de Nerja una potente serie estratigráfica caracterizada por la presencia a lo largo de toda su extensión vertical de importantes manifestaciones de actividad antrópica, que constituyen uno de los registros arqueológicos más amplios de esa cronología en el Mediterráneo occidental. Corresponden a los restos tecnológicos propios de los diferentes complejos culturales que se suceden a lo largo de la secuencia (Paleolítico superior inicial, Solutrense, Magdaleniense, Epipaleolítico, Neolítico y Calcolítico), que aparecen acompañados por numerosos restos vegetales y animales relacionados…

In glacial environments beyond glacial terrains: Human eco-dynamics in late Pleistocene Mediterranean Iberia

The Iberian Peninsula south of the Ebro River enjoyed one of the mildest climates of Pleistocene Europe, but still experienced significant and rapid environmental shifts caused by global climate regimes. We examine the interplay between technological, social, and land-use dynamics as culturally mediated responses to climate change outside the periglacial zone. We combine information from excavated sites across eastern and southeastern Spain with systematic survey data from an intensive study area within this larger region to examine Upper Paleolithic behavioral adaptations to the environmental shifts of the late Pleistocene (late MIS-3 through MIS-2). We define indexes that serve as proxies…

Could the central‐eastern Iberian Mediterranean region be defined as a refugium? Fauna and flora in MIS 5–3 and their implications for Palaeolithic human behaviour

Comida para la eternidad

Concheros del sur de Iberia en el límite Pleistoceno-Holoceno

El núcleo de yacimientos costeros pleistocenos de la costa de Málaga permite valorar los cambios técnicos y económicos ocurridos en el tránsito Pleistoceno-Holoceno, lo que actualiza una discusión abierta por F. J. Fortea: la relación entre el Magdaleniense y el Epipaleolítico en la región mediterránea ibérica. Estos yacimientos constituyen una documentación decisiva para el conocimiento del uso de los recursos marinos durante el Paleolítico europeo. The concentration of coastal Pleistocene sites along Malaga’s coast allows us to study the technical and economical changes which occurred during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition and thereby to update an open discussion begun by…

New insights into the daily and symbolic use of plants during initial occupations of Formentera (Balearic Islands, Spain)

The island of Formentera, with its small extension and flat orography, was settled relatively late in Mediterranean prehistory between the third and second millennium BC. The sites presented in thi...

La Cueva del Sidrón (Piloña). Campañas de excavación e investigación 2007-2012

Se presentan las intervenciones arqueo- lógicas en la Cueva del Sidrón y las investigaciones derivadas, durante las campañas de 2007 a 2012 las actuaciones se han organizado en los ámbitos de la Arqueología, Geología, Antropología, Paleogenética y Paleobiología. The archaeological interventions in Sidron Cave are presented and derivative research, bells during 2007-2012 performances are organized in the fields of Archaeology, Geology, Anthropology, Palaeogenetics and Paleobiology.

Last Interglacial Iberian Neandertals as fisher-hunter-gatherers.

Fruits of the sea The origins of marine resource consumption by humans have been much debated. Zilhão et al. present evidence that, in Atlantic Iberia's coastal settings, Middle Paleolithic Neanderthals exploited marine resources at a scale on par with the modern human–associated Middle Stone Age of southern Africa (see the Perspective by Will). Excavations at the Figueira Brava site on Portugal's Atlantic coast reveal shell middens rich in the remains of mollusks, crabs, and fish, as well as terrestrial food items. Familiarity with the sea and its resources may thus have been widespread for residents there in the Middle Paleolithic. The Figueira Brava Neanderthals also exploited stone pine…

Mid-Holocene vegetation dynamics in the Tejo River estuary based on palaeobotanical records from Ponta da Passadeira (Barreiro-Setúbal, Portugal)

This paper presents the results of pollen and charcoal analyses carried out in the sedimentary formation of Ponta da Passadeira, south of the Tejo River estuary, Portugal. The data provide information regarding the evolution of the coastline and ecosystem of the estuary during the mid and late Holocene. The study focuses on a group of upright woody fossilized tree remains that, together with those identified earlier by Garcia-Amorena et al. (2007), form part of the fossil forest of Ponta da Passadeira. Eight remains were identified as Pinus pinaster, four as Pinus pinea and one as Pinus sp. Two specimens of these species were dated to 6523 and 5805 cal. a BP. Pollen analysis was undertaken …

Precise dating of the Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic transition in Murcia (Spain) supports late Neandertal persistence in Iberia

Abstract The late persistence in Southern Iberia of a Neandertal-associated Middle Paleolithic is supported by the archeological stratigraphy and the radiocarbon and luminescence dating of three newly excavated localities in the Mula basin of Murcia (Spain). At Cueva Anton, Mousterian layer I-k can be no more than 37,100 years-old. At La Boja, the basal Aurignacian can be no less than 36,500 years-old. The regional Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic transition process is thereby bounded to the first half of the 37th millennium Before Present, in agreement with evidence from Andalusia, Gibraltar and Portugal. This chronology represents a lag of minimally 3000 years with the rest of Europe, where th…

Evolución paleogeográfica, paleoclimática y paleoambiental de la costa meridional de la Península Ibérica durante el Pleistoceno superior. El caso de la Cueva de Nerja (Málaga, Andalucía, España).

Presentamos los cambios paleogeográficos, paleoclimáticos y paleoambientales acontecidos en la costa mediterránea meridional de la Península Ibérica durante el Pleistoceno superior y comienzos del Holoceno, analizados a partir de la cartografía batimétrica y geomorfológica de la franja costera submarina del este de Málaga, del registro de la temperatura de la superficie del mar de Alborán obtenido en el sondeo MD95-2043 y de los datos radiométricos, paleobiológicos y arqueológicos proporcionados por el registro estratigráfico del yacimiento de la Cueva de Nerja (Nerja, Málaga, España). Este registro sedimentario, con doce etapas de erosión y sedimentación, se emplazó en las salas más exteri…

The fire of Iberian Neanderthals. Wood charcoal from three new Mousterian sites in the Iberian Peninsula

Wood Charcoal Analysis:

Estudio arqueobotánico de los niveles neolíticos de Knossos (creta). Por medio de los carbones se reconstruye la vegetación, el clima y el paisaje del yacimiento. Archaeobotanical study of Neolithic levels of Knossos (Crete). Through charcoal remains vegetation, climate and landscape of the site is rebuilt.

La Cueva de El Sidrón (Piloña Asturias)

Estado de las excavaciones y estudios en la Cueva de El Sidrón (PIloña, Asturias).

LA OCUPACIÓN SOLUTRENSE DEL ABRIGO DE LA BOJA (MULA, MURCIA, ESPAÑA)

El relleno pleistoceno del Abrigo de la Boja (ADB) empieza con un nivel adscrito al Magdaleniense superior, seguido de un potente paquete con ocupación difusa bajo el cual se desarrolla una secuencia depositada durante el último máximo glacial caracterizada por una serie de estructuras de combustión, de tipo hogar plano/amorfo (open hearth), existiendo también hogares de cubeta. Destaca un hogar enlosado, completo y muy bien conservado, excavado en 2012 y adscrito provisionalmente al Solutreogravetiense. Los niveles solutrenses subyacentes son ricos en elementos de adorno, entre los cuales conchas perforadas de Littorina obtusata y Smaragdia viridis; su industria lítica incluye raspadores, …

Aportaciones de la antracología al estudio del paisaje vegetal y su evolución en el Cuaternario reciente, en la costa mediterránea del País Valenciano y Andalucía (18.000-3.000 B.P.)

Mangos y maderas en el mundo ibérico

Uso de la madera, artesanía y comercio de la misma. Wood use, crafts and ancient wood trade.

Expected trends and surprises in the Lateglacial and Holocene vegetation history of the Iberian Peninsula and Balearic Islands

18 páginas, 13 figuras.

We expose the preliminary results of the archaeological excavations developed between 2000-2002 in Sidron's Cave, according to the three main objectives that concern the human fossil record: the anthropological characteristics, how and when they arrived there and the relation between fossils and culture. We conclude preliminarily that the record belongs to Horno Neanderthalensis, archeological remains to the Middle Paleolithic techno-complex, and they are in a secondary position.

De la realitat a l'imaginari. L'us dels vegetals en el món ibéric. Mètode 63: 18-22.

En les últimes dècades, amb la posada en marxa de tecnologies de la informació, hi ha una nova manera de difondre els coneixements científics: Internet. Aquesta va ser l'aposta de l'equip que ha realitzat el projecte De la realitat a l'imaginari. Aproximació a la flora ibèrica durant l'Edat de Ferro finançant pel Ministeri d¿Educació i Ciència des del 2004 al 2007 i els resultats de la qual estan a disposició pública en

El paisatge vegetal de la Marina, a partir dels carbons prehistòrics

Badal Garcia, Ernestina - Ernestina.Badal@uv.es

Climate, environment and human behaviour in the Middle Palaeolithic of Abrigo de la Quebrada (Valencia, Spain): The evidence from charred plant and micromammal remains

Abstract The Abrigo de la Quebrada rock shelter was occupied by Neanderthal groups during the early Upper Pleistocene, yielding evidence for their subsistence practices and local resource exploitation. This paper focuses on the plant macroremains and the micromammals, which provide information about occupation patterns, the surrounding landscape, the use of resources, and the environment. Mountain pine forests and permanent grass formations containing humid zones and open spaces that would have harboured an eurythermal microfauna were the dominant landscape type. Cold-climate pines provided most of the firewood. The data are consistent with a recurrent, seasonal occupation pattern, in which…

Holocene history of Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis Mill.) woodlands in the Ebro Basin (NE Spain). Climate-biased or human-induced?

Abstract This paper reviews the past distribution of Aleppo pine woodlands in the Ebro Basin, Northeastern Iberia, from the Mesolithic to Modern times based on wood charcoal data. The aim is to detail the chronological timing and the drivers explaining the long-term presence of Aleppo pine woodlands and associated thermophilous flora. The available charcoal data support the early spread of Pinus halepensis during the Mesolithic (ca. 9000 cal BP) accompanied by Mediterranean trees and shrubs like Quercus sp. evergreen, Juniperus sp., Arbutus unedo, Pistacia lentiscus, Rhamnus/Phillyrea, Cistaceae, and Rosmarinus officinalis, as a local response to global climate change in the Early Holocene.…

Olea europaea L. in the North Mediterranean basin during the Pleniglacial and the Early–Middle Holocene

17 páginas, 5 figuras, 2 tablas.

Corema album archaeobotanical remains in western Mediterranean basin. Assessing fruit consumption during Upper Palaeolithic in Cova de les Cendres (Alicante, Spain)

[EN] Information about plant gathering by Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers in Europe is scarce because of the problems of preservation of plant remains in archaeological sites and due to the lack of application of archaebotanical analysis in many of them. Botanical macroremains wood charcoal, seeds, fruits, leaves, etc. - provide information not only about palaeoeconomy of hunter-gatherers, but also about climate, landscape and vegetation dynamics. In Gravettian and Solutrean levels of Cova de les Cendres (Alicante, Spain), Corema album pyrenes (Empetraceae or crowberries family) have been identified. On the contrary, wood charcoal of this species has not been documented among the remains of f…

An approximation to the study of black pigments in Cova Remigia (Castell on, Spain). Technical and cultural assessments of the use of carbon-based black pigments in Spanish Levantine Rock Art

International audience; Spanish Levantine Rock Art is a unique pictorial expression within the prehistoric European context. Located in shelters in the inland regions of the Iberian Mediterranean basin, this art form, which must be necessarily studied in the frame of the process of neolithization of this territory, still lacks direct dating, and therefore its authorship is still open to debate. In this paper we present the first characterization of black pigments used in the Cova Remigia shelters in the Valltorta-Gassulla area (Castell on, Spain) by means of EDXRF spectrometry combined with SEM-EDS and Raman spectroscopy. Our aim is both to identify the raw material used for the preparation…

Early evidence of fire in south-western Europe: the Acheulean site of Gruta da Aroeira (Torres Novas, Portugal)

The site of Gruta da Aroeira (Torres Novas, Portugal), with evidence of human occupancy dating to ca. 400 ka (Marine Isotope Stage 11), is one of the very few Middle Pleistocene localities to have provided a fossil hominin cranium associated with Acheulean bifaces in a cave context. The multi-analytic study reported here of the by-products of burning recorded in layer X suggests the presence of anthropogenic fires at the site, among the oldest such evidence in south-western Europe. The burnt material consists of bone, charcoal and, possibly, quartzite cobbles. These finds were made in a small area of the cave and in two separate occupation horizons. Our results add to our still-limited know…

A mediterranean perspective of the neolithization process. The cave of Nerja in the context of andalusia (Spain)

[EN] This paper offers an overview for the Early Neolithic of the southern coast of Andalusia (Spain). Analyses of materials recovered during the 1979-87 excavations in Nerja cave by professor Francisco Jordá Cerdá, including new radiocarbon dates on domestic taxa, allow us to examine the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition. Paleoenvironmental and paleoeconomic data (stratigraphy and bioarcheological data) combined with archaeological data (ornaments, bone tools, lithics, and ceramics were analysed) to provide a regional perspective on the neolithisation of the western Mediterranean. There is an apparent 500-year gap between occupations by the last coastal foragers and the earliest Neolithic fa…

Preservation and decay of plant remains in two Palaeolithic sites: Abrigo de la Quebrada and Cova de les Cendres (Eastern Spain). What information can be derived?

Abstract Plant remains are quickly affected by post-depositional processes once they are deposited in archaeological sites. In normal conditions, decomposing organisms cause their decay and final disappearance unless a preservation agent, as carbonisation or mineralisation, inhibit their activity. Moreover, physical and chemical processes could also lead to the partial or total destruction of the archaeobotanical assemblage. Thus, an analysis of their characteristics is useful for an assessing of the taphonomic processes. Archaeobotanical assemblages from two Palaeolithic sites, Abrigo de la Quebrada and Cova de les Cendres, have been analysed in terms of taxonomic composition of the assemb…

Neolithic woodland in the north Mediterranean basin: A review on Olea europaea L.

The aim of this paper is to specify the natural distribution of Olea europaea L. during the Early Holocene in the Northern Mediterranean by means of the identification of wood charcoal remains of this species at prehistoric sites. For this purpose, we have reviewed the relevant literature and extracted the data in which Olea charcoal has been identified. We have taken into consideration the biogeographical and chrono-cultural contexts in which the species is present, its frequency of occurrence at different locations and the associated plant taxa with the aim of tracking the Holocene history of the oleaster. Based on this information we suggest that the species started expanding during the …