Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica Mexicana Volumen 71, núm. 2, 2019, p. 261 ‒ 273 http://dx.doi.org/10.18268/ BSGM2019v71n2a3

Contexto paleoambiental del yacimiento Neolítico de Los Cascajos (Navarra, España): quimioestratigrafía de la secuencia sedimentaria holocena del río Odrón

Eneko Iriarte^1,*, Miren del Val², Iñigo García-Martínez de Lagrán³, Cristina Tejedor-Rodríguez⁴, Jesús García-Gazólaz⁵, Jesús Sesma-Sesma⁵, Manuel A. Rojo-Guerra³

¹Laboratorio de Evolución Humana, Departamento de Historia, Geografía y Comunicación, Universidad de Burgos, Plaza Misael Bañuelos, Edificio de I+D+i, 09001 Burgos, España. 

²Departmento de Mineralogía y Petrología, Facultad de Ciencias y Tecnología, UPV/EHU Universidad del País Vasco, Barrio Sarriena s/n, 48940 Leioa, España.

Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Paseo Sierra de Atapuerca, 3, 09002 Burgos, España.

³Departamenteo de Prehistoria y Arqueología, Universidad de Valladolid, Plaza del Campus, 47011 Valladolid, España.

⁴Instituto de Ciencias del Patrimonio-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (INCIPIT-CSIC), Avda. de Vigo s/n, 15705 Santiago de Compostela, España. 

⁵Dirección General de Cultura-Institución Príncipe de Viana, Gobierno de Navarra, C/ Navarrería 39, 31001 Pamplona, España.

^*This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Abstract

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 the Holocene archaeosedimentary record in the surroundings of the Los Cascajos Neolithic archaeological site (Los Arcos, Navarra), provides valuable information not only for the establishment of the environmental evolution of this area, but also for the knowledge of the activities that the inhabitants of the settlement developed in the Odrón riverbanks. In this work the results of the stratigraphic, sedimentological and geochemical study (XRFCS) of the LAC1 core are presented. The obtained data denote a trend towards long term aridification throughout the Holocene, recorded by an aggradation-incision  cycle in the fluvial evolution of the Odrón River. In the fluvial sedimentary record, anthropic activity proxies coetaneous to Los Cascajos settlement are also detected during a relatively more humid period than nowadays, this fact evidences the subsequent aridification of this area of the Ebro valley along the late Holocene (Meghalayan).

Keywords: fluvial sedimentation, Holocene, chemostratigraphy, palaeoenvironmental evolution, Neolithic, Los Cascajos.