Suchergebnisse

Las últimas décadas han presenciado un notable desarrollo de las investigaciones e intervenciones arqueológicas de urgencia en el medio rural del País Vasco. Ello ha generado un gran volumen de datos, que sin embargo resultan a menudo parciales y fragmentarios. Este artículo propone adoptar una perspectiva de paisaje, basada en una integración multiescalar de distintas fuentes de información, para afrontar esta dificultad. Esta aproximación se ha testado en Astigarribia, una localidad que cuenta con un importante volumen de fuentes documentales y registros arqueológicos y arqueosedimentarios, revelándose de gran utilidad para trazar una evolución diacrónica de la sociedad local y su relación con el medio. Los resultados obtenidos invitan, por tanto, a ampliar este tipo de estudios a otras localidades, con el fin de optimizar los registros existentes.

El caserío, entendido como un paisaje formado por unidades domésticas autónomas distribuidas de manera dispersa, constituye el principal modelo de ocupación del espacio rural en la vertiente atlántica del País Vasco. En las últimas décadas, el estudio arqueológico de muchos caseríos ha permitido definir series tipo-cronológicas de gran detalle para este tipo de edificios. El presente trabajo propone abordar el estudio de los paisajes culturales articulados por el caserío, integrando el estudio de las trazas materiales de los usos agrarios del pasado, como el acondicionamiento de espacios productivos específicos o determinadas prácticas de gestión, con la evolución de las formas arquitectónicas. El análisis se centra en el ejemplo de Zizurkil (Gipuzkoa). Junto con la recopilación de fuentes documentales y orales y el estudio de los elementos arquitectónicos, se ha implementado una metodología geoarqueológica basada en el análisis de diversos parámetros físico-químicos de los suelos de cultivo, con el fin de establecer estratigrafías de alta resolución. Los resultados obtenidos permiten distinguir tres fases en la evolución de este paisaje: un momento de (re)configuración de su estructura básica en los siglos XIV-XIV; una importante intensificación en los siglos XVII-XIX, de la mano de la revolución agraria que siguió a la introducción de cultivos americanos; y una rápida degradación desde mediados del siglo XX.

Las dataciones propuestas por diversos autores para la base de los depósitos del Flysch Calcáreo del Cretácico Superior, que afloran en el margen NW del macizo paleozoico de Bortziriak (margen NE de la Cuenca Vasco-Cantábrica) presentan diferencias, por lo que se ha procedido a realizar un estudio bioestratigráfico en detalle de estos sedimentos. Los resultados del análisis bioestratigráfico basado en el estudio de foraminíferos planctónicos, arrojan una edad diacrónica para su base. Por una parte, se constata la existencia de un hiato general que abarca desde el Cenomaniense inferior hasta el Turoniense superior y que alcanza el Campaniense superior en el anticlinal de Txoritokieta, reflejo de un paleoalto submarino que no fue cubierto completamente por lo menos hasta esa edad. Por otro lado, materiales de resedimentación, brechas, de edad Turoniense superior-Coniaciense indican procesos erosivos de unidades estratigráficas subyacentes, que localmente pueden ampliar el hiato general del área. La existencia de calizas someras de edad Cenomaniense medio-superior en la zona de Fagollaga, citada por varios autores, sugeriría la sedimentación y posterior erosión de materiales de plataformas someras cenomanienses durante la sedimentación del Flysch Calcáreo. Finalmente, este estudio constata una transgresión marina durante el Cretácico Superior, que inundó y cubrió de materiales marinos relativamente profundos el macizo paleozoico de Bortziriak.

The presence of ophicalcites in serpentinized peridotites together with fragments of these rocks in Cretaceous breccias along several North‐Pyrenean basins led to the interpretation of complete mantle exhumation to the seafloor. The westernmost outcrop of peridotites in the Pyrenean‐Cantabrian belt is located in Ziga (eastern Basque‐Cantabrian Basin), associated to a band of HT metamorphism related to the Leiza fault (Marble Unit). We present a petrological and geochemical study of the marbles and Ziga peridotite‐hosted calcite, including standard stable isotope composition and clumped isotope geothermometry. These isotopic techniques allow the determination of different types of formational fluids and crystallization temperatures, and are a useful tool for studying carbonation processes in hyperextended basins. Fieldwork and analytical studies lead us to conclude that during the opening of the Bay of Biscay, mantle rocks were unroofed at the base of the sedimentary pile of the eastern Basque‐Cantabrian Basin. However, the ophicalcite veins were recrystallized from meteoric fluids at low temperatures (≤49°C). The primary carbonate phase may have been formed either during the mid‐Cretaceous unroofing of the mantle or in a post‐exhumation stage. The process of mantle exhumation was accompanied with HT‐LP metamorphism and fluid circulation along major faults that reset the marine isotopic signature in the nearest marbles. For comparison, ophicalcites from Urdach and Lherz (North‐Pyrenean Zone) were included in the clumped isotope study. Results show that they were recrystallized from hot (∼200–230°C), saline fluids, and from meteoric fluids at near ambient temperatures (∼32–42°C), respectively. ; We thank the PhD financial support for IDF, given by the University of Oviedo‐Banco Santander, Government of the Principality of Asturias and the FPU grant of the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport. This is a contribution of the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness Project MISTERIOS (CGL2013‐48601‐C2‐2‐R), the Consolider‐Ingenio 2010 Project TOPO‐IBERIA (CSD2006‐00041), and the ESF TopoEurope Project PYRTEC (SV‐PA‐10‐03‐IP2‐PYRTEC). ; Peer reviewed

This work presents the results of the analysis of wood charcoal remains from a roof found in Tell Qarassa North (Early PPNB), southern Syria. The analysis was carried out in 50 burnt beams found in situ, as well as in 3 flotation samples from the same structure and in a flotation sample retrieved from a post hole. The taxa selected to build up the roof were Pistacia terebinthus/palaestina, Salicaceae and to a lesser extent Amygdalus sp. The structure was composed at least of a post of Pistacia wood which supported a structure made of branches and medium size trunks orthogonally disposed. The wood structure was covered with non-woody plant parts and adobe layers. Abundant xylophagous galleries and fungi remains identified in the charcoal remains point to a deterioration of the wooden structure previous to its burning. ; Basque Government (Pre-doctoral grant Number: BFI.09.249), UPV/EHU: Research Group IT-288-07 and I+D Project: BHA2003-09685-CO2-01. ; Peer Reviewed

[ES] Knowledge of the climatic and environmental changes of the start of Holocene and its impact on human populations and cultures is key to understanding both the predictive and future evolution of these. In this regard, the study using ditches and surveys of the holocene archaeosedimentary register in the area of the neolithic deposit of Los Cascajos (Los Arcos, Navarre) provides valuable information not only for establishing the environmental development of this area, but also for knowledge of the activities carried out by the residents of the deposit on the banks of the river Odrón. This work presents the results of the stratigraphic, sedimentological and geochemical study using high resolution XRF-CS of the LAC1 sounding. The data obtained indicate a trend towards aridification throughout the Holocene, represented by a cycle of agradation-incision in the river Odrón. The river sedimentary register also detects indicators of contemporary anthropic activity in the settlement of Los Cascgars, which makes it possible to place its occupation at hydrological times more humid than the current one, and to demonstrate the subsequent aridification of this area of the Ebro valley along the recent Holocene (Megalayense). The authors thank the Directorate-General for Cultura-Prince Viana Institution of the Government of Navarre for funding the research work carried out in the course of this project. We also appreciate the work of Dr Ángel Carrancho (UBU, Invitado Editor); to C. Tejedor-Rodríguez and I. García-Martínez de Lagrán, researchers from the Juan de la Cierva programme of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities; and Dr's corrections and suggestions Arantxa Aranburu (EHU/UPV) and an anonymous reviewer who have helped improve the manuscript ; [EN] The knowledge of climatic and environmental changes at the onset of the Holocene and its impact on human populations and cultures is key for the understanding of their both past and future evolution. In this sense, the study through trenching and cores of ...

We present the results of the microstratigraphic, phytolith and wood charcoal study of the remains of a 10.5 ka roof. The roof is part of a building excavated at Tell Qarassa (South Syria), assigned to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period (PPNB). The Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) period in the Levant coincides with the emergence of farming. This fundamental change in subsistence strategy implied the shift from mobile to settled aggregated life, and from tents and huts to hard buildings. As settled life spread across the Levant, a generalised transition from round to square buildings occurred, that is a trademark of the PPNB period. The study of these buildings is fundamental for the understanding of the ever-stronger reciprocal socio-ecological relationship humans developed with the local environment since the introduction of sedentism and domestication. Descriptions of buildings in PPN archaeological contexts are usually restricted to the macroscopic observation of wooden elements (posts and beams) and mineral components (daub, plaster and stone elements). Reconstructions of microscopic and organic components are frequently based on ethnographic analogy. The direct study of macroscopic and microscopic, organic and mineral, building components performed at Tell Qarassa provides new insights on building conception, maintenance, use and destruction. These elements reflect new emerging paradigms in the relationship between Neolithic societies and the environment. A square building was possibly covered here with a radial roof, providing a glance into a topologic shift in the conception and understanding of volumes, from round-based to square-based geometries. Macroscopic and microscopic roof components indicate buildings were conceived for year-round residence rather than seasonal mobility. This implied performing maintenance and restoration of partially damaged buildings, as well as their adaptation to seasonal variability. ; Research is sponsored by the former Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN, HAR2011-21545-C02-01 The last hunter-gatherers and the first producing societies in Central and Southern Syria), the Ministry of Culture Spanish Institute of Cultural Heritage (Excavations Abroad) and the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs. A. Balbo has worked on this paper on contracts from JAEDoc, SimulPast Consolider and European Social Found. A. Arranz has the financial support of the Basque Government (Pre-doctoral grant Number: BFI.09.249). L. Zapata is a member of Research Group UPV/EHU IT-288-07 (Basque Government), UFI11/09 Cuaternario of the UPV/EHU and Project HAR2011-23716 (I+D+i). She is also funded by the Programa de Movilidad del Personal Investigador del Gobierno Vasco 2012. C. Lancelotti has worked on this paper on a contract from AGRIWESTMED (European Research Council funded). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. ; Peer reviewed

[EN] Salt exploitation in the Villafáfila lagoon complex (Tierra de Campos, Zamora) is one of the most important events since Prehistory in the northern plateau of the Iberian Peninsula. Salt production is documented from the Bell Beaker (ca. 2450 cal BC). In 2013, a core drilling was performed in the salty swamp of the Laguna de las Salinas. The analysis of pollen and non-pollen palynomorphs of this record suggests the origin of the lagoon eight thousand years ago linked to the 8,2 ky cal BP climatic event, a very anthropized environment from the beginning of the Chalcolithic period ca. 3300 cal BC and the subsequent exploitation of salt, the gradual and definitive degradation of the holm oak forest from the Bronze Age onwards, and, in general, a wide climatic variability, with alternate humid and arid phases throughout the palaeoenvironmental sequence ; [ES] La explotación de la sal en el complejo lagunar de Villafáfila (Tierra de Campos, Zamora) es uno de los eventos más importantes de la meseta norte de la península ibérica desde la Prehistoria. La producción de sal se documenta a partir del periodo Campaniforme (ca. 2450 cal BC). En 2013, se efectuó un sondeo mecánico en los pastizales húmedos anexos a la Laguna de las Salinas. El análisis de polen y microfósiles no polínicos de este registro sugiere el origen de la laguna hace al menos ocho mil años vinculado al evento climático 8,2 ka cal BP, un ambiente muy antropizado desde los inicios del Calcolítico ca. 3300 cal BC y la posterior explotación de la sal, la degradación paulatina y definitiva del bosque de encinas a partir de la Edad del Bronce, y, en general, una amplia variabilidad climática alternando fases húmedas y áridas a lo largo de toda la secuencia paleoambiental. Los autores agradecen al organismo gestor de la Reserva Natural Lagunas de Villafáfila, dependiente de la Fundación Patrimonio Natural de la Junta de Castilla y León, las facilidades ofrecidas para el desarrollo de este trabajo. Éste ha sido financiado por una ayuda de investigación ...

The archeological work at Aranbaltza site is financed by the Diputacio'n Foral de Bizkaia (2147/2013; 1602/2014; 2396/2015; 1518/2016; 1797/2017), the Basque Government (Gobierno Vasco: 2015/04424; 2014/03867). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. ; Aranbaltza is an archaeological complex formed by at least three open-air sites. Between 2014 and 2015 a test excavation carried out in Aranbaltza III revealed the presence of a sand and clay sedimentary sequence formed in floodplain environments, within which six sedimentary units have been identified. This sequence was formed between 137-50 ka, and includes several archaeological horizons, attesting to the long-term presence of Neanderthal communities in this area. One of these horizons, corresponding with Unit 4, yielded two wooden tools. One of these tools is a beveled pointed tool that was shaped through a complex operational sequence involving branch shaping, bark peeling, twig removal, shaping, polishing, thermal exposition and chopping. A use-wear analysis of the tool shows it to have traces related with digging soil so it has been interpreted as representing a digging stick. This is the first time such a tool has been identified in a European Late Middle Palaeolithic context; it also represents one of the first well-preserved Middle Palaeolithic wooden tool found in southern Europe. This artefact represents one of the few examples available of wooden tool preservation for the European Palaeolithic, allowing us to further explore the role wooden technologies played in Neanderthal communities

The cooling and drying associated with the so-called '8.2 ka event' have long been hypothesized as having sweeping implications for human societies in the Early Holocene, including some of the last Mesolithic hunter-gatherers in Atlantic Europe. Nevertheless, detailed 'on-site' records with which the impacts of broader climate changes on human-relevant environments can be explored have been lacking. Here, we reconstruct sea surface temperatures (SST) from ?18O values measured on subfossil topshells Phorcus lineatus exploited by the Mesolithic human groups that lived at El Mazo cave (N Spain) between 9 and 7.4 ka. Bayesian modelling of 65 radiocarbon dates, in combination with this ?18O data, provide a high-resolution seasonal record of SST, revealing that colder SST during the 8.2 ka event led to changes in the availability of different shellfish species. Intensification in the exploitation of molluscs by humans indicates demographic growth in these Atlantic coastal settings which acted as refugia during this cold event. ; This research was performed as part of the projects HAR2016-75605-R and HAR2017-86262-P, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, MINECO. During the development of this research AGE was funded by the University of Cantabria through a predoctoral grant (no code available), by the Basque Country Postdoctoral Programme (Grant number POS_2020_2_0032), by the University of La Rioja through a posdoctoral grant (no code available) and he is currently supported by the Catalonia Postdoctoral Programme through a Beatriu de Pinos fellowship (grant number 2020 BP 00240). ABMA was funded by the SUBSILIENCE ERC-CoG project (Grant agreement No. 818299). This study has also been supported by the Prehistoric Research Consolidated Group of the Basque Country University (IT1223-19), funded by the Basque Country Government. We thank the Max Planck Institute for Science of Human History (MPI-SHH), University of Cantabria (UC), Instituto Internacional de Investigaciones Prehistoricas de ...

The sedimentological, geochemical and palynological analyses performed in the Conquezuela palaeolake (41°11′N; 2°33′W; 1124 m a.s.l.) provide a detailed, multiproxy palaeoenvironmental reconstruction in one of the key areas of inner Iberian Neolithic colonization. Combined with archaeobotanical and archaeological data from well-dated settlements along the Conquezuela–Ambrona Valley we investigate how environmental conditions may affect both socio-economic adaptations and livelihood strategies of prehistoric communities. The first evidences of early Neolithic occupation in the valley ca. 7250–6450 cal yr BP (5300–4500 BC) coincided with the onset of a period (7540–6200 cal yr BP, 5590–4250 BC) with higher water availability and warmer climate as alluvial environments were substituted by carbonate-wetland environments in the basin. The Conquezuela record supports an early Neolithic colonization of the inner regions of Iberia favored by warmer and humid climate features and with preferential settlement patterns associated to lakes. The maximum human occupation of the valley occurred during the mid–late Neolithic and Chalcolithic (6200–3200 cal yr BP, 4250–1250 BC) as evidenced by the high number of archaeological sites. Although a number of hydrological oscillations have been detected during this period, the intense landscape transformation at basin-scale, leading to a deforested landscape, was largely a consequence of widespread farming and pastoral practices. Socio-economic activities during Bronze, Iron and Roman times modified this inherited landscape, but the second largest ecosystem transformation only occurred during Mediaeval times when a new agrarian landscape developed with the expansion of stockbreeding transhumance. The current vegetation cover characterized by patches of holm and marcescent oaks and fields reflects an intense human management combining both extensive herding with agrarian activities in order to transform the previous forested landscape into a dehesa-like system. ; The funding for the present study derives from DINAMO2 (CGL-BOS 2012-33063) and AGRIWESTMED (ERC Grant Agreement #230561) projects, provided by the Spanish Inter-Ministry Commission of Science and Technology (CICYT) and the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013). XRF data were obtained at the XRF Core Scanner Laboratory (CRG Marine Geosciences, University of Barcelona). Josu Aranbarri acknowledges the predoctoral funding provided by the Basque Country Government (ref: FI-2010-5). Graciela Gil-Romera hold a post-doctoral contract funded by "Juan de la Cierva" (ref: JCI2009-04345) program. Eduardo García-Prieto and Maria Leunda are supported by predoctoral FPI grants BES-2010-038593 and BES-2013-063753, respectively. We also thank Elena Royo for her help with the lab procedures and the two anonymous referees for their valuable suggestions. ; Peer reviewed