Search

In the Huelva Coast of SW Spain erosion by recent marine storms revealed the presence of a paleosol where an extensive tracksite known as “Matalascañas Trampled Surface” (MTS) has been documented. The MTS includes tracks and trackways of large species of mammals, along with bird trace fossils, invertebrate burrows and root traces. Within this record, the presence of several hominin footprints and trackways stands out. Despite previous uncertainties about the producer of these footprints, new OSL age of 151 ± 11 ka secures their attribution to Neanderthals, the only hominins known to have been present in the Iberian Peninsula during the MIS6-5 transition. Moreover, typical Mousterian lithic industry with Levallois knapping was found associated with the ichnological record. This lithic industry is characterized by the selection of raw materials from outcrops in a short-distance range to the tracksite. The general characteristics of the lithics are derived both from the nature of the raw material and from the nature of the site itself, which cannot be seen as a settlement, but rather as a place of passage for fauna, including Neanderthals, where a few human individuals performed short-term activities, such as food procurement and/or meat processing.

The major changes that occurred in the southwestern estuaries of the Spanish Atlantic coast during the last 6500 yr BP were simultaneous to human settlement and therefore the understanding of their coastal evolution will help interpreting human patterns in these areas. The study of the morpho-sedimentary features of new outcrops appearing in the middle sector of Saltés Island (Huelva Estuary, Spain) has been used to develop a model to understand the complex evolution of sand barriers than can be applied to similar inlets along the Atlantic Iberian coast. The first human settlements (6000–4000 yr BP) in the early Huelva Estuary (Tinto and Odiel rivers) were located in the ancient coastal banks or in the nearby hills. From 4000 yr BP onwards, the estuarine sediments started to emerge as sand barriers and chenier plains, prograding towards the mouth. As the littoral strands stabilized morphologically, they were colonized by human settlements in successive periods, the oldest inland (Almendral) and more recent outward (Cascajera). The study of the upper sedimentary layers of La Cascajera barrier display a tempestitic sequence of landward progradational washover-fans. The calibrated and modelled AMS dates in marine shells provide a storminess time range between the second half of first century BCE and the entire first century CE. Sedimentary records are useful to evaluate environmental changes, either from natural or anthropogenic causes, such as global and climate change. The interrelationship between the archaeological findings (mainly salting fish factories and old ports) and the morpho sedimentary evolution at the mouth of the Tinto and Odiel rivers allows us to highlight not only the Huelva Estuary's dynamics evolution, but also the possible regional patterns of human habitation from the beginning of the present sea-level highstand (middle Holocene).

Doñana Natural Park is a good global example of the sedimentary filling of a broad tidal estuary during the Mid-Late Holocene, after the last postglacial sea-level rise. The timing of this rise is not well defined yet in the Gulf of Cádiz, since the oldest evidence of coastal sedimentation, located at the right bank of the mouth of the old Guadalquivir Estuary, dates ack to ca. 5,000 ears ago. The first evolutionary stages of the embayment indicate an obvious marine influence, dominated by waves and storms from the SW. Since ca. 4,000 years ago, protection provided by the growing coastal spit barrier of Doñana favored the development of a sheltered marsh dominated by tides and fluvial currents. About 2,200 years ago, since the time Romans controlled the area, the estuary was dominated by marshlands with a wide lagoon at its mouth (Lacus Ligustinus), and the current landscape of Doñana started to form. The evolution of the last 2,000 years includes the quick and continuous growth of coastal barriers by longshore drift, the origin of the present-day marshland landscape and the development of dune fields migrating inland towards the wetlands.

This paper reviews the sedimentological and geomorphological imprints of prehistoric and historical tsunamis in the four main estuaries of SW Spain. These imprints include beach erosion, filling of intertidal channels, deposition of bioclastic layers, washover fans and reworked aeolian sheets and the breaching of spits and tombolos. Most of these imprints were caused by the 218-209. BC and AD. 1755 tsunamis, although evidence of other tsunamis has been identified. In these two events, effects on human populations were severe and diverse, such as human loss of life, changes in coastal settlements and international borders, damage to port infrastructure or flooding of marsh and inhabited areas. New radiocarbon reservoir data were included in order to obtain an approach to the recurrence period of these high-energy events (700-1000. years) in this area. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

This study utilizes geomorphology, marine sediment data, environmental reconstructions and the Gorham's Cave occupational record during the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition to illustrate the impacts of climate changes on human population dynamics in the Western Mediterranean. Geomorphologic evolution has been dated and appears to be driven primarily by coastal dune systems, sea-level changes and seismo-tectonic evolution. Continental and marine records are well correlated and used to interpret the Gorham's Cave sequence. Specific focus is given to the three hiatus sections found in Gorham's Cave during Heinrich periods 4, 3 and 2. These time intervals are compared with a wide range of regional geomorphologic, climatic, paleoseismic, faunal and archeological records. Our data compilations indicate that climatic and local geo-morphologic changes explain the Homo sapiens spp. occupational hiatuses during Heinrich periods 4 and 3. The last hiatus corresponds to the replacement of Homo neanderthalensis by H. sapiens. Records of dated cave openings, slope breccias and stalactite falls suggest that marked geomorphologic changes, seismic activ-ity and ecological perturbations occurred during the period when Homo replacement took place.

El Abalario area includes the most recent part of the sedimentary fill of the western Guadalquivir basin. It records the interaction of sedimentation on a coastal plain (including sea level changes of varying magnitudes) and upwarping of the underlying Pliocene-Pleistocene prograding deltaic sequence. Upwarping is probably related to escape of over-pressurized fluids, accomp~nied by dewaterihg, prior to (7) and during 015 (Oxygen Isotope Stage) S. Continued upwarping produced the large gravitational fault of Torre del Loro (TLF) in the south-western flank of the dome in NW-SE direction, roughly parallel to the present coastline during 015 5-015 4. El Abalario Dome is an NW-SE elongated, elliptical=shaped topographic feature (Fig. 3).

Four phases are distinguished in the Late Holocene evolution of the southwestern Doñana National Park (SW Spain), based on a multidisciplinary analysis of the sediments present in drill cores. In the oldest phase (>2400-2500 cal. yr BP), a coastal lagoon (the Roman Lacus Ligustinus) was recognized in the central part of this area, partly closed by the Doñana spit and limited by fluvial levees. The following phase (∼2400-2200 cal. yr BP) is characterized by high-energy events, which caused the breakthrough of the Doñana spit and the creation of new littoral strands in the inner areas. In the third phase (∼2200-2050 cal. yr BP), this new outlet was closed, coinciding with the progradation of the Doñana spit. The last phase (∼2050 cal. yr BP-Recent) comprises three periods: (a) an unstable period (∼2050-1950 cal. yr BP), with the deposit of cheniers over the previous levees; (b) an infilling period, with a diminution of the marine influence; and (c) the appearance of temporary ponds between the emerged levees and cheniers.