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Celtis australis remains are usually present in Palaeolithic sites of the Mediterranean Basin. However, their uncharred state of preservation and the absence of wood charcoal remains of this species raise some doubts regarding the contemporaneity of the remains and the deposit wherein they were found. The mineral composition of their endocarps and their possible use as food lead us to discuss the available data of Celtis australis during Prehistory. In this paper, the history of this species from the Lower Pleistocene to the Middle Holocene is reconstructed, considering the impact of the Quaternary climatic changes on its geographical distribution. The nutritional composition of Celtis australis fruits is analysed to assess their current value and potential as food, especially in Palaeolithic contexts. Based on these issues, the doubts about its presence in these contexts are dispelled and possibly explained by intentional human gathering in some sites, considering the high content in carbohydrates, proteins and minerals of their fruits. The chronological and geographical distribution of the Celtis spp. remains shows a coherence, which only the variations in the distribution of this taxon according to the regional climatic conditions can explain, especially disturbed by cold fluctuations, such as MIS 10 or 2. The radiocarbon dating presented here demonstrates the unquestionable presence of Celtis sp. in the Iberian Mediterranean Basin during MIS 3.

The Mediterranean basin constitutes one of the best areas to analyse Neanderthal populations and lifestyles in South-Western Europe. In this context, new excavations conducted in the Middle Palaeolithic site of Cova del Puntal del Gat expand the information available regarding this rich region. In this study, new results are reported, including detailed studies on stratigraphy, lithic technology, anthracology, carpology, and zooarchaeology and taphonomy of macro and micromammals, with the final objective of characterizing the Neanderthals’ subsistence strategies and occupational patterns. These results are framed within a broader regional study perspective that includes MIS 5 and 4 sites. Chronostratigraphic review has enabled us to reorganize many sites that were originally included in MIS 3, towards older stages belonging to the end of MIS 4 and throughout MIS 5. Le bassin méditerranéen constitue l’une des meilleures zones pour analyser les populations et les modes de vie néandertaliens dans le sud-ouest de l’Europe. Dans ce contexte, les nouvelles fouilles menées dans le site paléolithique moyen du Cova del Puntal del Gat élargissent les informations disponibles pour cette riche région. Nous rapportons ici les nouveaux résultats, y compris des études détaillées sur la stratigraphie, la technologie lithique, l’anthracologie, la carpologie, ainsi que la taphonomie et la zooarchéologie de macro- et micro-restes de mammifères, dans le but de caractériser les stratégies de subsistance des Néandertaliens et leurs modes d’occupation. Ces résultats s’inscrivent dans une perspective d’étude régionale plus large qui inclut des sites MIS 5 et 4. La révision chronostratigraphique nous a permis de réorganiser de nombreux sites qui étaient initialement inclus dans le MIS 3, vers des stades plus anciens appartenant à la fin du MIS 4 et tout au long du MIS 5. The research programme has been funded by Servei d’Investigació Prehistòrica and Museu de Prehistòria ordinary archaeological excavation campaigns and the projects Caracterización tecnológica y funcional de los elementos líticos apuntados durante el Paleolítico medio en la región central del mediterráneo ibérico (GV/2021/054) and PID2021-122308NA-I00 project funded by MCIN/ AEI /10.13039/501100011033/ and FEDER Una manera de hacer Europa. C2TN authors gratefully acknowledge the FCT (Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation) support through the UID/Multi/04349/2020 and Ana Luísa Rodrigues research work supported by postdoctoral grant SFRH/BPD/114986/2016.

Open-air sites represent a fundamental proxy of the Early Holocene adaptive systems in the Iberian Peninsula. However, its research potential for the study of human–environmental interactions has been minimally explored. In this work, we present the results of an integrated research programme focused on open-area excavations at the Mesolithic site of Arenal de la Virgen (Alicante, Spain). Novel multi-scalar geoarchaeological and archaeo-stratigraphic studies, coupled with featured-based palaeobotanical analysis, were used to design an extensive radiocarbon dating programme and produce different Bayesian chronological models. Our results distinguish two different Mesolithic occupation phases, dating to 9.3–9.1 and 8.6–8.3k cal a bp respectively, consisting of combustion features and lithic scatters. The comparison of occupational dynamics with the nearby palaeoecological records of Salines and Villena indicated that both Mesolithic phases occurred under relatively stable environmental conditions. The second Mesolithic phase, however, ended during the onset of the 8.2k cal a bp climatic event, when sedimentation processes shifted from soil formation to accretion of aeolian sands. We demonstrate that the end of the Mesolithic occupations at Arenal de la Virgen coincides with the cessation of radiocarbon-dated activity in other open-air Postglacial sites in the central Mediterranean region of Iberia. This research is primarily part of a project that has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No. 683018) to JFLdP. Additional analyses on the pollen data sets have been produced in the context of the research project HAR2017-88503-P supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. JFLdP is additionally supported by the Plan Gen-T programme (Ref.CIDEGENT-18/040) from the Generalitat Valenciana. JRR is currently supported by a Margarita Salas fellowship (ref. MARSALAS21-22) at the University of Alicante, and AP-D is holder of a María Zambrano fellowship at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) both funded by the European Union-Next Gene and the Ministry of Universities (Government of 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...

In this paper, the first results of charcoal analyses carried out at Cova des Moro (Manacor, Mallorca, Spain) are presented. This cave is an archaeological but also palaeontological site that provides information on endemic fauna (the extinct caprine Myotragus balearicus) before the arrival of humans and, later, the relationship between the first farmers and the landscape. Several human occupations in the cave have been documented, from the Chalcolithic (end of the 3rd millennium cal BC), the Bronze Age (2nd millennium cal BC) and, finally, the Almohad period (13th century AD), during which the cave was used for different purposes. The first results of charcoal analyses at Cova des Moro provide information about the natural plant communities exploited by humans for comparison with later sequences, enabling us to evaluate how humans managed this territory over time. The results point to the exploitation of Mediterranean woodlands with wild olive (Olea europaea), mastic (Pistacia lentiscus), green olive tree (Phillyrea), Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis), rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), juniper (Juniperus) and rockrose species (Cistus), among others; these taxa would become the main elements of Mallorca's coastal landscape in later times, and it has been proven that they would already have been present as the island's natural flora at the time humans arrived there.

The Coval Simó shelter provides some of the oldest evidence for settlement on the island of Mallorca and the Balearic archipelago. It also has the peculiarity of being a habitat in a mountain area, so that the human groups that settled there had to adapt their agricultural and farming sys­tem to this environment. The plant remains (wood charcoal and seeds) recovered in the occupation levels allow us to address these issues, since they are the result of the different activities developed in this cavity: fuel for domestic activities, food for livestock, etc. The results of this study show that between the III and II millennium cal BC, an agricultural system based on livestock and cereal farming was implement­ed, which exploited local forest formations to obtain resources, among them, firewood. The plants that were exploit­ed show the existence of juniper forests, with the presence of maples and legumes, among other shrubs and bushes., El Coval Simó constituye una de las evidencias más antiguas de poblamiento en la isla de Mallorca y en el ar­chipiélago balear. Tiene, además, la particularidad de ser un hábitat en zona de montaña, de modo que los grupos huma­nos que se asentaron allí debieron de adaptar su sistema agropecuario y de explotación del entorno a este medio. Los restos vegetales (carbones y semillas) recuperados en los niveles de ocupación del yacimiento permiten aproximarse a estas cuestiones, ya que son resultado de las distintas ac­tividades desarrolladas en esta cavidad: combustible para las actividades domésticas, alimento para el ganado, etc. Los resultados de este estudio muestran que entre el III y II milenio cal BC se implantó un sistema agropecuario basado en la ganadería y en el cultivo de cereales, que realizaba una explotación de las formaciones forestales locales para la ob­tención de recursos, entre ellos, el combustible leñoso. Las formaciones vegetales explotadas remiten a la existencia de bosques de enebros o sabinas, con presencia de arces y ma­torrales de leguminosas, entre otros arbustos y matas.

The Mediterranean coast of Spain is marked by several clusters of Palaeolithic sites: to the south of the Pyrenees, in the area around the Ebro River, in the central part, and on the south coast, one of the southernmost regions in Europe. The number of sites is small compared with northern Iberia, but like that region, the Palaeolithic occupations are accompanied by several rock art ensembles. The archaeological material (both biotic and abiotic resources) and radiocarbon dates presented here were obtained during archaeological fieldwork of professor J. Fortea in the Late Pleistocene deposits in Cueva Victoria, located near the modern coastline and about 150 km north of the Strait of Gibraltar. In the three occupation phases, marine resources were acquired by shell-fishing (focusing almost exclusively on the clam Ruditapes decussatus), fishing, and the use of beached marine mammals. This contrasts with the limited data about the exploitation of terrestrial resources by hunting and gathering animals and plants. The study is completed by the study of artefacts (lithic and bone industry and objects of adornment) that help to understand the subsistence strategies of the cave occupants and enable a comparison with other groups inhabiting the Mediterranean coasts of the Iberian Peninsula during Greenland Interstadial 1, between ca. 15.1 and 13.6 cal BP., This work was supported by the University of Salamanca GIR PREHUSAL, the Ministry of Science and Innovation-Spanish Government (PaleontheMove-PID2020-114462GB-I00), the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (Madrid) and Dirección General de Universitat, Investigacio i Ciencia of the Valencian Regional Government (Project Aico/2020/97).

The pioneering nature of Mediterranean pines and their phytosociological role have been largely discussed in relation to different agents (e.g., edaphic, climatic or anthropogenic). In this context, Aleppo pine is one of the most widespread pine species in the Mediterranean basin, as it is especially adapted to climatic constraints, such as drought and high seasonality, and has a high tolerance for salinity and strong coastal winds. It is also well adapted to regeneration after anthropogenic landscape disturbances, highlighting its important after-fire regeneration rates. In this sense, phytosociological studies conducted in Mediterranean landscapes have found that this species' wide distribution is mostly due to its rapid regeneration after human landscape transformation, including fire, and the abandonment of agricultural lands. Aleppo pine is considered to broadly develop after human action in sclerophyllous formation, in which it would be scarce or absent without human intervention. Parallel, paleoenvironmental and archaeobotanical studies have attempted to trace these trends back to prehistoric times to investigate this species' role in Late Pleistocene and Holocene vegetation and evaluate the role of climate and human action in its diachronic dynamics. In this study, we present a compendium of anthracological, dendro-anthracological and archaeopalyonological data with the objective of (i) investigating the nature and distribution of Aleppo pine on the island of Mallorca and (ii) evaluating the possibility that human action could have resulted in the spread of this pine species during the first two millennia of permanent human occupation of the island (c. 2300 cal. BCE–1st-century ACE). Investigating these archaeobotanical datasets, as well as making comparisons with anthracological and paleoenvironmental studies in neighbouring Mediterranean zones (Iberia), allowed us to attest that Aleppo pine is a natural, pre-human component of the Holocene vegetation of the island, and it is especially well-adapted to coastal environments. Moreover, we describe the trends and characteristics of the human management of pine woodlands through anthracology and dendro-anthracology, suggesting that human action did not provoke widespread growth of Aleppo pine in Mallorca at the expense of other vegetation types during prehistory. Such processes, well-documented by current phytosociological studies, probably began at some unknown point after the Romanisation of the island., This study was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (the work of LPG -IJCI-2015-24550- and GSV -IJCI-2016-30581- was founded by Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación fellowships), the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (projects HAR2015-67211-P, PID2019-108692 GB-I00 and HAR2017–83656P), and by the Direcció General de Innovació i Recerca of the Government of the Balearic Islands (project PRD2018/19). Andrés Currás was funded by the Galician Innovation Agency (GAIN).

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The site of Ifri El Baroud has one of the longest sequences excavated in recent times in NE Morocco, covering a chronology of ca. 23–13 ka cal BP. The sequence includes Early and Late Iberomaurusia...

Les datations par le radiocarbone permettent de dater une séquence, un niveau ou du matériel isolé, mais leur résultat numérique doit être confronté aux données archéostratigraphiques, bioarchéologiques et à la culture matérielle du contexte daté. Dans ce travail, nous allons présenter l’étude d’une intrusion de restes bioarchéologiques du Mésolithique dans un niveau solutréen sur le site des grottes de Santa Maira. Nous avons effectué l’analyse taphonomique en comparant la distribution spatiale et l’âge radiocarbone des restes anthracologiques et anthropologiques, identifiés au préalable au niveau taxonomique. Ce protocole a permis de délimiter aussi bien la zone affectée par l’intrusion que sa nature et son origine possible. Dans ce cas, l’identification du matériel daté a été primordiale pour son interprétation ultérieure, car l’identification des marqueurs typiques du Solutréen (Pinus tp. nigra), et l’association de certaines espèces (Quercus et Homo), ont été déterminantes pour en détecter le caractère intrusif dans le contexte du Solutréen. Radiocarbon dating makes it possible to date a sequence, level or isolated material, but the numerical result obtained must be compared with the archaeostratigraphic and bioarchaeological data and the material culture from the dated context. In this paper we present the study of an intrusion of Mesolithic bioarchaeological remains in a Solutrean level at the Santa Maira caves site. The taphonomic analysis has been carried out by comparing the spatial distribution and radiocarbon age of the anthracological and anthropological remains previously identified at a taxonomic level. This protocol has made it possible to define both the nature and possible origin of the intrusion and the area affected by it. In this case, the identification of the dated material has been crucial to its subsequent interpretation, as the identification of typical markers of the Solutrean (Pinus tp. nigra) and the association of certain species (Quercus and Homo) have been the key to detect the intrusive nature of the latter in a Solutrean context.

Remains of fauna, charcoal and timber from Castalla Castle (Alicante) have been studied between 2010 and 2016, within the Castalla Castle Heritage Site Social Regeneration Project. Their analysis has helped to better understand the fortification, as well as the exploitation of those resources made by people who lived there during the Middle Ages. In this regard, the faunal assemblage shows the practice of a traditional husbandry model in which herds of goats and sheep are highlighted. Other domestic animals with a less important number, as the pig, complete a panoramic view of the agricultural economy at that time. In terms of hunting resources, red deer was recovered. On the other hand, it has been determined that pinewood was used in those beams located in the Palace. Furthermore, an approached time framework of two beams has been established throughout the radioactive carbon method. Pinewood also appears among the charred timber from other room structures of Taifal Andalusian, Almohad Andalusian and Christian stages (late Middle Ages). The presence of olive and kermes oak has been documented in Almohad occupancy, although kermes oak is also present at Christian stage (late Middle Ages). Finally, this project is a contribution to medieval anthracological and zooarchaeological studies in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula, particularly in different heritage landmarks of the current province of Alicante –Aljau Castle, Ambra Castle, Mola Castle, Rio Castle, Petrer Castle, Pobla d’Ifac and Rabita of Guardamar–. They are still scarce for these historical periods, but necessary to improve the knowledge that written sources do not always provide.

In this article we present the anthracological study of the settlement of Ses Paisses, located in north-eastern Mallorca (Balearic Islands, Western Mediterranean). A total of 25 charcoal samples have been analysed, corresponding to both concentrated (hearth and oven content) and dispersed charcoal fragments. The samples come from four different buildings of the settlement, each one showing different phases of occupation. The site presents a long sequence of occupation (from c.1212-1005 cal BC to the 1st century cal AD), expanding from the last centuries of the Bronze Age (Naviform), through the Early (Talayotic) and Late (Post-Talayotic) Iron Age up to the beginning of Roman occupation of the island. During this time span, different plant formations are identified in the anthracological record, forming the characteristic mosaic-like Mediterranean landscape. The diachronic trends observed in the anthracological record do not indicate any notable changes or substitutions of vegetation types. Most likely, any variations point to the reformulation of landscape practices related to the procurement and consumption of forest resources. In this regard, two main uses of wood have been identified: firewood and construction timber.

In the Mediterranean watershed of the Iberian Peninsula, Palaeolithic rock art remains a rare phenomenon. Thanks to the discovery of the Cova del Comte, where the art is accompanied by an archaeological deposit, we are able to study it within a defined chronological context. The stylistic features of some of the figures correspond to ancient pre-Magdalenian art, which places it within the Gravettian and early Solutrean period; this information is consistent with the results of the excavation.

We assembled genome-wide data from 271 ancient Iberians, of whom 176 are from the largely unsampled period after 2000 BCE, thereby providing a high-resolution time transect of the Iberian Peninsula. We document high genetic substructure between northwestern and southeastern hunter-gatherers before the spread of farming. We reveal sporadic contacts between Iberia and North Africa by ~2500 BCE and, by ~2000 BCE, the replacement of 40% of Iberia's ancestry and nearly 100% of its Y-chromosomes by people with Steppe ancestry. We show that, in the Iron Age, Steppe ancestry had spread not only into Indo-European-speaking regions but also into non-Indo-European-speaking ones, and we reveal that present-day Basques are best described as a typical Iron Age population without the admixture events that later affected the rest of Iberia. Additionally, we document how, beginning at least in the Roman period, the ancestry of the peninsula was transformed by gene flow from North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean., J.M.F., F.J.L.-C., J.I.M., F.X.O., J.D., and M.S.B. were supported by HAR2017-86509-P, HAR2017-87695-P, and SGR2017-11 from the Generalitat de Catalunya, AGAUR agency. C.L.-F. was supported by Obra Social La Caixa and by FEDER-MINECO (BFU2015- 64699-P). L.B.d.L.E. was supported by REDISCO-HAR2017-88035-P (Plan Nacional I+D+I, MINECO). C.L., P.R., and C.Bl. were supported by MINECO (HAR2016-77600-P). A.Esp., J.V.-V., G.D., and D.C.S.-G. were supported by MINECO (HAR2009-10105 and HAR2013-43851-P). D.J.K. and B.J.C. were supported by NSF BCS-1460367. K.T.L., A.W., and J.M. were supported by NSF BCS-1153568. J.F.-E. and J.A.M.-A. were supported by IT622-13 Gobierno Vasco, Diputación Foral de Álava, and Diputación Foral de Gipuzkoa. We acknowledge support from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (PTDC/EPH-ARQ/4164/2014) and the FEDER-COMPETE 2020 project 016899. P.S. was supported by the FCT Investigator Program (IF/01641/2013), FCT IP, and ERDF (COMPETE2020 – POCI). M.Si. and K.D. were supported by a Leverhulme Trust Doctoral Scholarship awarded to M.B.R. and M.P. D.R. was supported by an Allen Discovery Center grant from the Paul Allen Foundation, NIH grant GM100233, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. V.V.-M. and W.H. were supported by the Max Planck Society.

With the onset of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), hunter-gatherers of the so-called Iberomaurusian techno-complex appeared in what is now the Mediterranean Maghreb. During a period of about seven thousand years, these groups left sandy occupation layers in a limited number of archaeological sites, while at the beginning of Greenland Interstadial (GI) 1, the sudden shift towards the deposition of shell-rich sediments and the increase in number of sites document clear changes in subsistence strategies as well as occupation density. It is highly likely that these shifts in human behaviour are related to paleoenvironmental changes in the area, which, so far, are poorly documented in geological and archaeological archives. Ifri El Baroud (Gunpowder Cave, northeast Morocco) contains a well-stratified archaeological sequence covering both phases of Iberomaurusian occupation separated by a sharp sedimentary change. In this paper, new chronological data and detailed investigations on site formation using sedimentology and micromorphology are presented. In addition, results of the analyses of fauna, pollen, macrobotanical remains, and phytoliths are included. This data contributes to a full-scale paleoenvironmental interpretation of the site’s archaeological deposits, highlighting the fluctuations of landscape conditions at the transition from the cold-arid Greenland Stadial (GS) 2.1 to the warmer and moister Greenland Interstadial 1., Permission to carry out new field research at Ifri El Baroud and to export sediment and micromorphological samples was granted by the Institut National des Sciences de l’Archéologie et du Partimoine of Rabat, Morocco. The excavation was financially supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – Projektnummer 57444011 – SFB 806. AMS Radiocarbon dates have been financed by the SFB 806 and the “Paleoplant” (ERC-CG-2013-SH6) Consolidator Grant. At the time of this research, AP was PhD candidate at the SFB 806 - University of Cologne. MP research has been funded by PALEOPLANT and EU Horizons 2020 MICROARCHAEODUNG (H2020-MSCA-IF-2015-702529). YCM and JM are beneficiaries of a Ramón y Cajal research fellowship funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad. Part of the charcoal analysis was performed with the financial support of a research technician contract to PVM (CPI-16-432) funded by the additional budget from the Ramón y Cajal research programme. The authors wish to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and Taylor Otto for the editing of the English language.

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 the rock shelter was used for short periods in the context of an annual round characterized by a high degree of mobility.

In this study we present evidence of braided plant fibres and basketry imprints on clay recovered from Coves de Santa Maira, a Palaeolithic-Mesolithic cave site located in the Mediterranean region of Spain. The anatomical features of these organic fibre remains were identified in the archaeological material and compared with modern Stipa tenacissima (esparto grass). Based on direct dating, the fragments of esparto cord from our site are the oldest worked plant fibres in Europe. Sixty fragments of fired clay are described. The clay impressions have allowed us to discuss the making of baskets and containers. According to their attributes and their functional interpretation, we have grouped them into five types within two broad categories, hearth plates and baskets or containers. The clay pieces identified as fragments of containers with basketry impressions are less common than those of hearth plate remains and they are concentrated in the Epipalaeolithic occupation material (13.2–10.2 ka cal BP). The clay impressions from Santa Maira indicate that some fibres were treated or flattened, a preparation process that is known from historical and ethnological sources., This work is funded by the NPI of the Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competividad (Project: LongTransMed, HAR2013-46861-R) and Generalitat Valenciana (Project: AICO/2018/125). Y. Carrión Marco is benefciary of a Ramón y Cajal research fellowship funded by the Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competividad

Archaeological evidences date the expansion of grape vineyards in the territory of the Iberian Iron Age city of Kelin from the 5th to 3rd centuries BC; although the origins are documented in the 7th BC. One of the singularities of this territory is the existence of outdoors stone structures for the production of wine and oil. All are located in a specific area of the territory (la Alcantarilla and Los Morenos ravines) (Requena, Valencia), and are associated with archaeological materials that allow date them as Iberian. In this paper we approach the rural settlement pattern in la Alcantarilla ravine and we present in detail the archaeological sites of Rambla de la Alcantarilla and Solana de Cantos 2., Las evidencias arqueológicas datan la expansión del cultivo de la vid en el territorio de Kelin durante los siglos V-III a. C., aunque los primeros indicios se fechan ya en el siglo VII a. C. Una de las singularidades de este territorio es la existencia de estructuras de piedra al aire libre para la producción de vino y aceite. Todas ellas se localizan en una zona concreta del territorio (Ramblas de la Alcantarilla y de los Morenos) (Requena, Valencia) y aparecen asociadas a materiales arqueológicos que permiten datarlas como ibéricas. En este artículo abordamos cómo se organiza el poblamiento en la rambla de la Alcantarilla y presentamos en detalle los yacimientos de la Rambla de la Alcantarilla y Solana de Cantos 2.

Archaeological evidences date the expansion of grape vineyards in the territory of the Iberian Iron Age city of Kelin from the 5th to 3rd centuries BC; although the origins are documented in the 7th BC. One of the singularities of this territory is the existence of outdoors stone structures for the production of wine and oil. All are located in a specific area of the territory (la Alcantarilla and Los Morenos ravines) (Requena, Valencia), and are associated with archaeological materials that allow date them as Iberian. In this paper we approach the rural settlement pattern in la Alcantarilla ravine and we present in detail the archaeological sites of Rambla de la Alcantarilla and Solana de Cantos 2.

This paper presents new data regarding agricultural developments in the Balearic Islands between the end of the third millennium bc and the arrival of the Romans in the 2nd century bc. Data available so far reveals that agriculture, together with raising livestock, were the population’s source of livelihood. Agriculture in the third and second millennium consisted essentially of growing cereals and legumes. The available data point to an agricultural development similar to that of the continent, in the region stretching between the south of France and the south of the Iberian Peninsula. The similarities, in fact, possibly reflect contacts. Arboriculture was first introduced in the island of Ibiza in the first millennium in contexts linked to Phoenician colonisation. Olive oil and wine production developed remarkably on this island and were oriented toward export. Although the chronology of this process is still unclear, it seems that in Mallorca and Menorca it took place at a later period.

This paper presents a study of the macromammalian fauna recovered from Mousterian levels of Llonin Cave. The sample is highly heterogeneous and comprises six species of ungulates, including Rupicapra pyrenaica, Capra pyrenaica, and Cervus elaphus, and seven species of carnivores, predominantly Ursus spelaeus, Crocuta spelaea, Canis/Cuon and Panthera pardus. The archaeozoological and taphonomic study of the remains shows preferential use of basal levels of the cave as a den for hyenas and leopards. Neanderthals were also present during this phase and they would have acted mainly on deer and some caprines, while the action of hyenas would mainly have been linked to scavenging of elements left by humans and the introduction of bear remains. Leopards would have transported caprines in order to consume them. The study of several coprolites confirms that hyenas and leopards were the main occupants of the cave. The information from the animals processed by humans together with other archaeological evidence and the intervention of various carnivores in these basal levels enables us to characterise a palimpsest of occupations that would have been short and sporadic in the case of humans.

Carrión Marco Y., Morales J., Portillo M., Pérez-Jordà G., Peña-Chocarro L., Zapata L. (2018) The Use of Wild Plants in the Palaeolithic and Neolithic of Northwestern Africa: Preliminary Results from the PALEOPLANT Project. En: Mercuri A., D'Andrea A., Fornaciari R., Höhn A. (eds.) Plants and People in the African Past. Springer, Cham, This contribution presents preliminary results from PALEOPLANT, a European Research Council (ERC) multidisciplinary research project that focuses on the analyses of plant remains from Palaeolithic and Neolithic sites in North Africa. The project aims are to: (1) characterize wild plant exploitation among human communities; (2) refine current knowledge on past landscapes; and (3) improve archaeological methodology and fieldwork when studying plants. We discuss preliminary results from charred plant macroremains (wood, seeds and fruits) and plant microfossils (phytoliths and calcitic ash pseudomorphs), as well as dung spherulites recorded in several northwestern African sites spanning the Late Pleistocene to the Early-Middle Holocene (c. 33 to 2 ka BC). Charcoal assemblages indicate the presence of mixed oak/juniper woodlands during the Late Pleistocene while conifers become the dominant element of the vegetation during the transition from Late Glacial to Early Holocene. In these contexts, some of the main species of thermo- and meso-Mediterranean Holocene landscapes (Olea europaea, Pistacia, etc.) were already present but their spread occurred during the Middle Holocene, concurrently with Neolithic occupations. The combination of wood charcoal, other plant macroremains (seeds and fruits) and plant microfossils, including both plant and dung indicators, provide new insights not only into the presence of a wide range of plant resources (wild pulses, Ziziphus lotus, Pinus halepensis, Quercus sp., Stipa tenacissima and Chamaerops humilis) but also on the variability of their potential uses (including fuel, food, fiber, bedding, fodder). Archaeobotanical results suggest continuity in the use of wild plants during the Neolithic. In addition, wood charcoal assemblages reflect significant changes that occurred in plant composition including the expansion of thermo-Mediterranean species., Research has been carried out within the framework of the PALEOPLANT project (ERC 2013 CoG 614960). Y. Carrión and J. Morales are beneficiaries of a Ramón y Cajal research fellowship funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Innovation of Spain. M. Portillo research is currently funded by the EU Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie action MICROARCHAEODUNG (H2020-MSCA-IF-2015-702529). G. Pérez Jordà work has been carried out within the postdoctoral contract FPDI-2013-16034 and IJCI-2015-25082 funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad. We would like to express our special gratitude to J. Bouzouggar and Y. Bokbot (Institut National des Sciences de l’Archéologie et du Patrimoine, Morocco), S. Merzoug and F. Kherbouche (Centre National de Recherches Prehistoriques, Anthropologiques et Historiques, Algeria), L. Belhouchet and N. Aouadi, (Institut National du Patrimoine, Tunisia), N. Barton (University of Oxford, UK), L. Humphrey (The Natural History Museum, UK), J. Lindstädter (Deutsches Archälogisches Institut, Germany), S. Mulazzani (University of Aix-Marseille, France), A. Polo-Díaz (UPV/EHU, Spain), J.C. Vera Rodríguez (University of Huelva, Spain) and R.M. Martínez Sánchez (University of Granada, Spain) for long-term, amicable cooperative work and for providing access to the site data.

En este trabajo se dan a conocer los resultados de las excavaciones llevadas a cabo en la Puerta Oeste de a Bastida de les Alcusses entre los años 2010 y 2011. Asociado a una renovación de las estructuras de la entrada y la muralla, se documentó un depósito de varios centenares de objetos incluyendo herrajes, maderas, armas, cerámica, semillas, frutos, fauna y restos constructivos. Presentamos el estudio multidisciplinar de todos los materiales y las varias líneas de interpretación que nos sugiere este extraordinario contexto., Las investigaciones en la Bastida de les Alcusses tuvieron el apoyo financiero del Museu de Prehistòria de la Diputación de Valencia. Se enmarcan en parte en el proyecto HAR2008/0435

Population genetic studies of widespread Mediterranean shrubs are scarce compared with those of trees and narrow endemics or studies from phylogeographical perspectives, despite the key role these species may play in Mediterranean ecosystems. Knowledge on the effect of ecological factors in shaping their genetic patterns is also limited. In this study we investigate genetic diversity and population structure across 18 populations of Rosmarinus officinalis, a Mediterranean shrubland plant. Populations were sampled along two elevational gradients, one each on calcareous and siliceous soils in a mountain system in the eastern Iberian Peninsula, to decipher the effect of ecological factors on the genetic diversity and structure based on 11 microsatellite loci. We found overall high levels of genetic diversity and weak population structure. Genetic diversity increased with elevation, whereas population differentiation was stronger among populations growing on siliceous soils. The nested analysis of elevational gradients within soil types revealed that these general patterns were mostly driven by siliceous populations, whereas calcareous populations were more homogeneous along elevational belts. Bayesian analysis of population structure revealed genetic membership of lowland and high-elevation populations to different genetic clusters and a higher admixture of intermediate-elevation populations to both clusters. High-elevation populations were less differentiated from a hypothetical ancestral cluster, suggesting the persistence of their gene pool during the Pleistocene glaciations. In contrast, lowland populations resulted from more recent divergence. We propose that life-history and reproductive traits mostly contribute to explain the high levels of genetic diversity and weak population structure, whereas ecological and historical factors mostly contribute to the stronger differentiation of siliceous populations and a rapid expansion of R. officinalis on calcareous soils possibly mediated by human landscape transformations.

The exceptional preservation of organic remains in a well-reservoir at the site of La Tabacalera (Asturias, Spain) is the subject of an interdisciplinary study regarding past human-environmental interaction. The feature, dated to Late Antiquity, corresponds to a large well containing a wide range of organic material (animal bones, pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs (NPPs), mites, seeds, wood and wooden artefacts, etc.). This article examines both plant micro (pollen and NPPs) and macro-remains (seeds and wood) dated between the late 5th–8th c. AD. The palynological evidence suggests that the structure investigated was colonised by different species dominated by ivy, while the surrounding anthropised area was characterised by the presence of open areas, probably occupied by meadows and pastures. A mixed deciduous forest was also present not far from the site. The abundant plant macro-remains include the presence of water-loving woody species, which inform us about the vegetation growing around the well-reservoir. The seed record comprises cultivated plants, and a wide range of wild species typical of humid environments. Among the remains there are also some wooden artefacts. Plant remains have provided significant information, not only to reconstruct the landscape around the site, but also on the formation of the feature’s backfill. Moreover, the remains offer us information regarding objects of daily life and the maintenance of the feature.

[EN] A method for identifying vegetal species in wooden objects using microextraction-assisted voltammetry of microparticles is described. The proposed methodology, aimed at facilitating tasks of patrimony conservation, is based on the recording of the voltammetric response of microparticulate films of compounds resulting from microextraction with organic solvents (ethanol, acetone, and chloroform) of micro- or sub-microsamples of wood in contact with aqueous buffers. Upon application of bivariate and multivariate chemometric techniques, the obtained voltammetric responses led us to identify different taxonomic groups from the characteristic voltammetric profiles. Application to a series of samples of wooden objects of cultural heritage of different European and American provenances dated to ca. 375¿ 350 BC and to historical periods, namely 14th and 17¿19th centuries, is described, Financial support from the MICIN Projects CTQ2014-53736-C3-1-P and CTQ2014-53736-C3-2-P, which are also supported with ERDF funds, is gratefully acknowledged. Thanks to the Museum of Prehistory of Valencia, especially to the director Helena Bonet.

An overview of woodland history in the north-western Mediterranean region, based on charcoal analysis (Anthracology) from Mesolithic and Neolithic sites, is proposed for the Mediterranean areas of France, Spain and Portugal. The taxonomic identification of charcoal fragments and the diachronic variations of taxa frequencies provide, for each settlement, an accurate image of the local vegetal cover. During the end of the last glaciation, beginning of the Holocene, vegetation dynamics reflects the evolution of climatic and geographic conditions. Any potential ecological impact by hunter-fisher-gatherer communities (Mesolithic) remains invisible; the same comment applies to the farming-herding communities from the beginning of the Neolithic. Charcoal data from the Preboreal onwards testify to the increasing diversity of the plant cover, with open formations dominated by conifers (Juniperus, Pinus type sylvestris), later replaced by temperate forests in association with Mediterranean species and light-demanding plants. Important regional variations, correlated with the bioclimatic conditions, pinpoint the dominance of deciduous Quercus in eastern Spain and southern France, Olea europaea in southern Spain and southern Portugal, Pinus halepensis in southern Catalonia, the Ebro valley and in the extreme south-east of France. From the Middle Neolithic onwards, farming/pastoral activities instigate important changes in woodland composition, with the development of mixed coppiced/pollarded woods, followed by open matorrals. Transformations identified in different sites were not synchronous and were still reversible; the rapidity of the process depended on the complex interaction between human activities and regional climatic characteristics.

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 in a clay layer located at the same point as the fossil forest, which is currently below sea level; the base of the clay layer was dated to 4906 cal. a BP. The pollen spectra reflect the dynamics of the vegetation that grew on this deposit, whereas the sporopollinic input masks the contribution of the regional vegetation. Wood charcoal remains recovered at an adjacent Final Neolithic settlement were also analysed, and a Pinus sp. specimen was radiocarbon dated to 5050 cal. a BP. The correlation amongst the three records provides key ecological markers for the understanding of the evolution of coastline ecosystems, and helps to clarify and understand the Holocene sea rise on the Atlantic seaboard of Iberia. The geographical location of Ponta da Passadeira is strategic because it enables a more clear definition of the configuration of landscapes that show an inflection point in this area of central Portugal.

The use of certain perishable materials for handicraft, such as wood, has been underestimated in archaeological investigation due to their poor preservation. Its study through indirect evidence (other non-perishable materials, ethnographic sources) is partial, and does not account for the real importance of wood in domestic, craft and ritual contexts in past societies. In this review we reclaim the use of wood as a co-constitutive material of objects by focusing on Iron Age tools, weapons and carpentry elements from a case-study in the Western Mediterranean. We also suggest the adoption of protocols for sampling and analysing the remains of wood adhered to metal objects, which may contribute to increase our knowledge about the use of this raw material in the past.

15 páginas, 4 figuras, 2 tablas., The Holocene fire regime is thought to have had a key role in deforestation and shrubland expansion in Galicia (NW Spain) but the contribution of past societies to vegetation burning remains poorly understood. This may be, in part, due to the fact that detailed fire records from areas in close proximity to archaeological sites are scarce. To fill this gap, we performed charcoal analysis in five colluvial soils from an archaeological area (Campo Lameiro) and compared the results to earlier studies from this area and palaeo-ecological literature from NW Spain. This analysis allowed for the reconstruction of the vegetation and fire dynamics in the area during the last ca 11 000 yrs. In the Early Holocene, Fabaceae and Betula sp. were dominant in the charcoal record. Quercus sp. started to replace these species around 10 000 cal BP, forming a deciduous forest that prevailed during the Holocene Thermal Maximum until ∼5500 cal BP. Following that, several cycles of potentially fire-induced forest regression with subsequent incomplete recovery eventually led to the formation of an open landscape dominated by shrubs (Erica sp. and Fabaceae). Major episodes of forest regression were (1) ∼5500-5000 cal BP, which marks the mid-Holocene cooling after the Holocene Thermal Maximum, but also the period during which agropastoral activities in NW Spain became widespread, and (2) ∼2000-1500 cal BP, which corresponds roughly to the end of the Roman Warm Period and the transition from the Roman to the Germanic period. The low degree of chronological precision, which is inherent in fire history reconstructions from colluvial soils, made it impossible to distinguish climatic from human-induced fires. Nonetheless, the abundance of synanthropic pollen indicators (e.g. Plantago lanceolata and Urtica dioica) since at least ∼6000 cal BP strongly suggests that humans used fire to generate and maintain pasture., Joeri Kaal is supported by a Marie-Curie EST Fellowship of the European Community’s Sixth Framework Programme (contract number MEST-CT-2004-513915). This study was partly funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education under the framework of the CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010 program “Programa deInvestigación en Tecnologías para la conservación y valorización del Patrimonio Cultural (TCP)” (CSD2007-00058) and “Paleopaisaje y prehistoria del Futuro Parque de Arte Rupestre de Campo Lameiro, Pontevedra” (PGIDT02CCP60601). We thank Cruz Ferro Vázquez(LaPa-CSIC) for analytical support and César Parcero Oubiña (LaPa-CSIC), R. Scott Anderson and an anonymous reviewer for their valuable comments on the manuscript.

The shell deposit of Beg-an-Dorchenn has been the subject of an interdisciplinary study. The first aim of our work is to calculate the value of the sea reservoir effect for this area of the Atlantic coast. The second is to understand how the Mesolithic people living near the sea exploited their environment. The results presented are mainly based on a limited archaeological survey of 2 m2 carried out in 2001. Seven shells and a fragment of charcoal were dated to calculate the apparent age of the sea here for the late Mesolithic, estimated at 180 ± 65, with a R of -260 ± 65. The date of constitution of this shell level is placed in interval 5640-5550 BC. The fine sifting (2 mm) applied to this deposit has provided a very complete vision of the way of life of these Mesolithic people : microlithic industry, exploitation of the marine and terrestrial environments. This sampling shows that small, formerly neglected, remains such as fragments of crab fingers bear witness to alimentary resources which could have formed a considerable part of the food of these Mesolithic people. The arrowheads are made mostly by two truncations with a symmetrical shape, characteristic of the Beg-er-Vil facies of the Teviecian. The identified marine resources (shellfish, crabs, fishes and birds) correspond to a diversified exploitation of maritime environments accessible at low tide near Beg-an-Dorchenn. The terrestrial mammals and plants found also correspond to local exploitation of resources. Combination of the potential moments of access to all the alimentary resources allows assumptions to be made regarding the residence of these last Mesolithic populations. While the markers clearly indicate occupation during the spring or summer (fish and shellfish), the availability of marine resources would have allowed occupation at any other time, continuously or otherwise, Le niveau coquillier de Beg-an-Dorchenn (Plomeur, Finistère) a fait l’objet d’une étude interdisciplinaire visant, d’une part à calculer la valeur de l’effet réservoir pour cette zone du littoral atlantique, d’autre part à comprendre comment les hommes du Mésolithique installés à proximité de la mer ont exploité leur environnement, à partir notamment d’un sondage de 2 m2 réalisé en 2001. Par la datation conjointe de sept coquilles et d’un charbon, il semble que l’âge apparent de la mer à cet endroit au Mésolithique final soit de 180 ± 65, avec un R de -260 ± 65. La date de constitution de ce niveau coquillier se place dans l’intervalle 5640-5550 avant notre ère. Le tamisage fin (2 mm) opéré sur le site permet d’obtenir une vision plus complète du mode de vie et des industries lithiques. Ce mode d’échantillonnage montre que de petits restes autrefois négligés comme les fragments de doigts de crabe sont les témoins de ressources alimentaires qui ont pu composer une part non négligeable des régimes alimentaires. Les armatures lithiques sont principalement des trapèzes symétriques à troncatures concaves caractéristiques du faciès Beg-er-Vil du Téviecien. Les ressources marines identifiées (coquillages, crabes, poissons, oiseaux) correspondent à une exploitation très diversifiée des environnements marins accessibles près du site de Beg-an-Dorchenn à marée basse. Les mammifères terrestres et les végétaux correspondent également à une exploitation locale des ressources. La combinaison des moments potentiels d’accès à l’ensemble des ressources alimentaires permet d’émettre des hypothèses quant au mode de résidence de ces dernières populations mésolithiques. Si des marqueurs indiquent clairement une occupation à la belle saison (poissons et coquillages), la disponibilité des ressources marines autoriserait une occupation à n’importe quel autre moment, en continu ou non., Dupont Catherine, Marchand Grégor, Carrión Marco Yolanda, Desse-Berset Nathalie, Gaudin Loïc, Gruet Yves, Marguerie Dominique, Oberlin Christine. Beg-an-Dorchenn (Plomeur, Finistère) : une fenêtre ouverte sur l’exploitation du littoral par les peuples mésolithiques du VIe millénaire dans l’Ouest de la France. In: Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française, tome 107, n°2, 2010. pp. 227-290.

In this paper, the results of the dendrological analysis of timber from three archaeological sites are presented. This material comes from the wooden structures of different kinds of buildings (houses, walls and a funerary dolmen). For this task, a small number of vegetal species were used. Dendrological analyses are perfectly adapted to this research, since ecological, climatic and human events can be inferred from the observation and measurement of tree growth-rings. To implement the method in this region is particularly interesting because of the lack of palaeoenvironmental studies. Micro- and macroscopic observation of wood charcoal enables wood identification: mainly pine and juniper were selected for timber from among all the species identified from charcoal analyses in other archeological contexts (fireplaces, occupation levels, etc.). The samples with a longer radius were measured on a dendrological bench. Generally, the growth rate was very low in most of the specimens. Les résultats de l’étude dendrologique réalisée sur les bois de construction de trois sites archéologiques seront présentés. Il s’agit de bois de construction carbonisés sur place. Le principal intérêt de cette étude est la reconstitution des paléo-paysages, mais aussi des systèmes humains d’approvisionnement du bois et de gestion de la forêt, dans une région où l’information paléoenvironnemental en général est encore faible. L’examen microscopique et macroscopique du charbon de bois a permis de déterminer les essences végétales choisies pour la construction, essentiellement pin et genévrier, parmi un grand nombre d’essences utilisées que l’on connaît d’après l’analyse anthracologique en autres contextes (foyers, fours, sols d’occupation). La largeur des cernes de croissance radiale du bois, qui enregistrent les principaux événements climatiques et anthropiques, a été systématiquement mesurée. Ces données ont livré des informations intéressantes sur la densité des forêts, l’impact des conditions climatiques sur la croissance des plantes et l’évolution des formations végétales sur une longue séquence. La plupart des individus des trois sites présentent une taxe de croissance très basse.

We present a multiproxy characterization of a complex, polycyclic soil sequence from Les Alcusses, Moixent(Valencia, SE Spain). The area has abundant settlements dating from early Neolithic to Roman times. The sequence comprises six main units, dating back to 8.7-8.5kacalBP. We integrated mineralogy, inorganic (pH, grain size, elemental composition) and organic chemistry (pyrolysis gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, pyrolysis-GC/MS), micro-charcoal, pollen and non-pollen palynomorph (NPP) data. All data is contextualized within a framework of archaeological information and radiocarbon dating, with the aim of deciphering the Holocene environmental changes.We infer a shift from wetter and warmer, in the early-mid Holocene, to drier and cooler climatic conditions with increased fire occurrence, in the mid-late Holocene (particularly after 5.3kacalBP). Although the pollen record indicates a rapid forest retreat and expansion of grasslands for the Neolithic period, local proxies (molecular soil OM indicators and NPP) point to the presence of pine forest in the studied location well after the regional decline started. The same proxies suggest a sharp forest decline after about 7.0kacalBP. Strong soil erosion, likely linked both to climatic instability and the intensification of human exploitation, resulted in a hiatus from the late Neolithic to the Roman period. A certain climate amelioration, wetter conditions and land abandonment or, at least, lower human pressure, are suggested for the late Roman period/Early Middle Ages. Direct evidence of changes in soil properties due to agriculture was not detected in the sequence except for the upper soil unit studied, which reflects intense agricultural management (with the possible use of agrochemicals). © 2014 Elsevier Ltd., This study was funded by the European Research Council (Advanced Grant No. 2305619, project ‘AGRIWESTMED: Origins and spread of agriculture in the western Mediterranean region’) and the Diputación de Valencia-Museo de Prehistoria de Valencia (2009/CI585). Daniel Abel Schaad and Judith Schellekens were supported by AGRIWESTMED project.

This paper presents the results of a study of bones recovered in various current Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus) nests in a Mediterranean region of the Iberian Peninsula. The Egyptian vulture, a diurnal, scavenging, rupicolous bird of prey, is one of four vulture species that currently inhabit the Iberian Peninsula. An analysis of the remains found in the nests confirms that it has a heterogeneous diet that includes remains from human activities (butchery and food production) and the carcasses of dead animals, although it is possible that they also prey on small-sized taxa. The taphonomic study determines these birds' capability of transporting, accumulating and altering bone remains. Some of the elements show marks caused by beak and/or claw impacts brought about primarily during feeding, which have characteristic typologies. Despite the fact that this is not a bone-eating vulture, it can also be seen that some bones are swallowed. The characteristics of the bone set studied here are important for establishing the origin of bone accumulations on archaeological sites., The excavation of the Benaxuai caves has been carried out under the ordinary programme of excavations of the Servei d’Investigació Prehistòrica de la Diputació de València. This paper is part of the HAR2011-24878 project “Paleolítico medio final y Paleolítico superior inicial en la región mediterránea ibérica (Valencia y Murcia)”

Durante las tareas de seguimiento arqueológico de las obras de construcción del Acceso Sur a Gandia se localizaron diferentes estructuras negativas datadas en el Bronce final ubicadas en el perímetro de protección del yacimiento de La Vital. Las estructuras documentadas corresponden a un lugar de hábitat fechado en estos momentos. En este trabajo presentamos los resultados de dicha actuación, valorándolos en el marco del desarrollo histórico de este periodo en el propio yacimiento y en la costa mediterránea peninsular.