Search results for "PLEISTOCENE"
showing 10 items of 298 documents
Neandertal spatial patterns and occupation dynamics: a regional focus on the central region in Mediterranean Iberia
2020
En el siguiente trabajo se estudian varios conjuntos pertenecientes al Paleolítico medio procedentes del mediterráneo peninsular ibérico con el objetivo de examinar los patrones de ocupación y las estrategias de gestión del territorio. Se presta especial atención al abastecimiento de las materias primas y los comportamientos tecnológicos, los datos procedentes de la fauna y los análisis microespaciales. La variabilidad en los tipos de ocupación de los distintos conjuntos nos muestra una gran diversidad y una multitud de factores, aunque no parece tener una sola explicación cultural, funcional, temporal o ambiental. Más bien son explicaciones que responden a una amplia variabilidad en los co…
Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherer subsistence in Mediterranean coastal environments: an isotopic study of the diets of earliest directlyt-dated huma…
2011
Abstract The subsistence of hunter-gatherers in the Mediterranean Basin has been the object of few studies, which have not fully clarified the role of aquatic resources in their diets. Here we present the results of AMS radiocarbon dating and of isotope analyses on the earliest directly-dated human remains from Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. The radiocarbon determinations show that the Upper Palaeolithic (Epigravettian) humans from Grotta di San Teodoro (15 232–14 126 cal. BP) and Grotta Addaura Caprara (16 060–15 007 cal. BP) date to the Late-glacial and were possibly contemporary. The diets of these individuals were dominated by the protein of large terrestrial mamma…
Paleoenvironments and human adaptations during the Last Glacial Maximum in the Iberian Peninsula: A review
2021
Abstract The Iberian Peninsula is considered one of the most well-suited regions in Europe to develop studies on the relationship between environmental changes and human adaptations across the Late Pleistocene. Due to its southwesternmost cul-de-sac position and eco-geographical diversity, Paleolithic Iberia was the stage of cyclical cultural/technological changes, linked to fluctuations in climate and environments, human demographics, and the size, extension, and type of social exchange networks. Such dynamics are particularly evident during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) timeframe, with a series of innovations emerging in the archaeological record, marking the transitions between the trad…
Lithic production in the centre and south of the Iberian Mediterranean region (Spain) throughout the Pleistocene–Holocene transition (14.5–10.5 ky ca…
2020
Abstract For the first time we compare lithic production systems from the three archaeological phases identified in the Iberian Mediterranean region between 14.5 and 10.5 ky cal BP: final Magdalenian, microlaminar Epipalaeolithic and sauveterroid Epipalaeolithic. These phases coincided with rapid palaeoenvironmental changes, whose effects on a peripheral region of southern Europe require a regional analysis. The basic blanks used in all three phases were blades and bladelets and there is considerable typological homogeneity. The results obtained in the study of the three phases identified at Coves de Santa Maira provide new grounds for discussion about lithic production systems during the P…
Pleistocene leopards in the Iberian Peninsula: New evidence from palaeontological and archaeological contexts in the Mediterranean region
2015
This study analyses the fossil record of leopards in the Iberian Peninsula. According to the systematic and morphometric features of new remains, identified mainly in Late Pleistocene palaeontological and archaeological sites of the Mediterranean region, they can be attributed to Panthera pardus Linnaeus 1758. The findings include the most complete leopard skeleton from the Iberian Peninsula and one of the most complete in Europe, found in a chasm (Avenc de Joan Guit on) south of Valencia. The new citations and published data are used to establish the leopard's distribution in the Iberian Peninsula, showing its maximum development during the Late Pleistocene. Some references suggest that th…
Calabrian and Ionian: A proposal for the definition of Mediterranean stages for the Lower and Middle Pleistocene
2006
The need to standardise stratigraphical subdivisions of continuous marine sedimentary successions that outcrop for hundreds metres, using clearly defined points fixed in the field is strongly felt. A proposal is presented here to formalize regional stages for the Lower Pleistocene (Calabrian) and for the Middle Pleistocene (Ionian) in Italy. The sections are well exposed, carefully investigated using multiple criteria (an integrated stratigraphical approach) and located in the central part of the Mediterranean. This area is recognized worldwide as a classical region for the Neogene and the Pleistocene sequences. The terrestrial record is directly correlated with the deep-sea record, as dete…
Calcareous Nannofossil and Planktonic Foraminifera Biostratigraphy of selected Piacenzian-Gelasian Laminites from Southern Italy
2011
Here we present the biostratigraphic and chronostratigraphic framework of a number of selected diatomaceous laminated intervals from the Crotone Basin (Calabria, Southern Italy). These layers, which we consider correlative to the Eastern Mediterranean Sapropel Layers, range in age from the early Piacenzian to the Gelasian, and show surprising thicknesses, suggesting that they were probably laid down in a landlocked, overfed basin. Specifically, a thick laminite from the surroundings of Cropani (Catanzaro) can be ascribed to nannofossil biozone MNN 16a and planktonic foraminifera biozone MPL 4b (lower Piacenzian) according to the Mediterranean calcareous plankton biostratigraphic zonations. …
Mediterranean Coastal Lagoons
2018
On the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula—between the Ebro Delta and Cape Palos—the conditions during the Pleistocene, and especially after the Flandrian transgression, favoured the development of beach barrier systems and lagoons along large segments of the coast. The very small tidal range made connections between the sea and lagoons difficult, and this favoured sedimentation processes, which was often accelerated by human activity. Three very different sectors have been differentiated: the Gulf of Valencia, where the largest number of lagoons is found; the cliffed Betic structural sector between Cape Sant Antoni and Cape de les Hortes, in which there are just a few very small lagoons…
Palaeogeographical evolution of the Egadi Islands (western Sicily, Italy). Implications for late Pleistocene and early Holocene sea crossings by huma…
2019
Abstract The continental shelf morphology offshore of western Sicily suggests that during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 20 ka cal BP), two of the Egadi Islands, Favignana and Levanzo, were connected to Sicily by a wide emerged plain, while Marettimo was only separated from the other islands by a narrow channel. We studied the relative sea-level variation from the LGM until today, focussing on two important time slices: the Mesolithic (9.5–13 ka cal BP) and the Neolithic (6.5–7.5 ka cal BP). In this research, we discuss a sea-level rise model by means of geomorphological, archaeological and geophysical observations and new radiocarbon dating of marine and terrestrial fossil fauna. The resul…
Human settlements in the Mediterranean and the sea level changes from 12 ka to the present
2012
Understanding past sea-level change plays an important role in determining the underlying causes, and also allows the extrapolation of past sea levels to locations and epochs for which there are no instrumental data. A compilation of global sea-level estimates based on deep-sea oxygen isotope ratios at millennial-scale resolution or higher was published since ‘70. These global sea level curves do not take in account isostasy and tectonics. Observed sea level change can be reconstructed from dated fossils, coral reef terraces, speleothems, emerged and forming terraces on coastal areas, archaeological and other markers well connected with sea level. Because of the lack of coral reefs in the M…