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The Neolithic transition, since decades in a particular focus of the Western Mediterranean archaeological research, recently receives new input concerning the chronological frame (Carvalho 2010), the development of regional groups (Manen et al. 2010) or raw material supply (Binder et al. 2010). One of the most interesting topics about this is the variability of the archaeological record in the Southern Iberian Peninsula. This seems to be closely linked to the complexity of the environment and the...

Abstract (The Palaeolithic site Sima de las Palomas de Teba, Southern Spain Site formation processes and chronostratigraphy: The rockshelter sequence consists of 6 m thick stonerich silty clay loam including several archaeological levels with artefacts of Mousterian affinity, bone and charcoal. Stratigraphy and site formation processes were characterised by sedimentological, geochemical and micromorphological investigations. Sediments were dated using IRSL and OSL and the time of the last heating of burnt...

Past environmental changes were frequently accompanied by changes in fire regimes. However, the extent to which the residue of ancient fires (black carbon, BC) is abundant in Pleistocene palaeosols remains largely unknown, and whether, and to which degree its occurrence and composition relates to pedogenetic processes and palaeoenvironmental change. We studied three Pleistocene loesspalaeosol sequences from western Germany for systematic variation in BC quantity and quality during Marine Isotope Stages 5e...

The littoral site of Ifri Oudadane is one of the most important recently excavated sites in the Mediterranean Maghreb. The shelter presents Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic layers and therefore offers the possibility to investigate the Neolithic transition in the region. Besides introducing the archaeological context, this paper focuses on palaeobotanical data in order to reconstruct Holocene environmental change and human use of plant resources for the period c. 11 to 5.7 ka cal. BP. Results show intense...

The cave of Arbreda provides a detailed archaeological record of the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic and is a key site for studying human occupation and cultural transitions in NE Iberia. Recently, studies of lake archives and archaeological sites presented new evidence on climate changes in NE Iberia correlating with Heinrich events. It, therefore, needs to be determined whether climate signals can be identified in the cave sequence of Arbreda, and if so, whether these signals can be correlated with...

Previous geochronological and archaeological studies on the rock shelter Jarama VI suggested a late survival of Neanderthals in central Iberia and the presence of lithic assemblages of Early Upper Paleolithic affinity. New data on granulometry, mineralogical composition, geochemical fingerprints and micromorphology of the sequence corroborate the previous notion that the archaeological units JVI.2.1 to JVI.2.3 are slackwater deposits of superfloods, which did not experience significant post-depositional...

Cleaning works in the cave of Las Palomas in Teba (Mlaga, Spain), developed by the Guadalteba Consortium, have provided a number of lithic tools and knapping products that may be ascribed to the Mode III technotypological tradition as well as remains of a number of large mammal species typical of Middle-Late Pleistocene times. Topographic measurements help to place this ancient cave within a karst landform. This discovery opens up new perspectives in the research on the Neanderthal groups that inhabited the...

A representative set of eight lithic tools suitably selected among the very rich Palaeolithic industry collected over the past years in different archaeological sites of the Guadalteba County (Mlaga, Spain) has been nondestructively investigated by means of Raman spectroscopy using both portable and benchtop Raman spectrometers. This article reports on the first archaeometric Raman analysis of these archaeological samples with the scope of checking if these readily available, nondestructive, fast and...

The disappearance of Neanderthals from the Palaeolithic record in Europe remains an enigma, even after more than 150 years of research. This paper identifies Rapid Climate Change during the Glacial period as a major factor that influences a variety of cultural, economic and demographic processes during the European Palaeolithic. In particular, and in agreement with many previous authors, climatic deterioration is put forward to explain multiple population breakdown during the European Palaeolithic, as well...