First modern human settlement recorded in the Iberian hinterland occurred during Heinrich Stadial 2 within harsh environmental conditions

Alcaraz-Castaño M. ; Alcolea-González J.J. ; de Andrés-Herrero M. ; Castillo-Jiménez S. ; Cuartero F. ; Cuenca-Bescós G. (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Kehl M. ; López-Sáez J.A. ; Luque L. ; Pérez-Díaz S. ; Piqué R. ; Ruiz-Alonso M. ; Weniger G.-C. ; Yravedra J.

Resumen: As the south-westernmost region of Europe, the Iberian Peninsula stands as a key area for understanding the process of modern human dispersal into Eurasia. However, the precise timing, ecological setting and cultural context of this process remains controversial concerning its spatiotemporal distribution within the different regions of the peninsula. While traditional models assumed that the whole Iberian hinterland was avoided by modern humans due to ecological factors until the retreat of the Last Glacial Maximum, recent research has demonstrated that hunter-gatherers entered the Iberian interior at least during Solutrean times. We provide a multi-proxy geoarchaeological, chronometric and paleoecological study on human–environment interactions based on the key site of Peña Capón (Guadalajara, Spain). Results show (1) that this site hosts the oldest modern human presence recorded to date in central Iberia, associated to pre-Solutrean cultural traditions around 26, 000 years ago, and (2) that this presence occurred during Heinrich Stadial 2 within harsh environmental conditions. These findings demonstrate that this area of the Iberian hinterland was recurrently occupied regardless of climate and environmental variability, thus challenging the widely accepted hypothesis that ecological risk hampered the human settlement of the Iberian interior highlands since the first arrival of modern humans to Southwest Europe. © 2021, The Author(s).

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-94408-w

Año: 2021

Publicado en: Scientific reports (Nature Publishing Group) 11, 1 (2021), 15161 [24 pp]
ISSN: 2045-2322

Factor impacto JCR: 4.997 (2021)

Categ. JCR: MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCES rank: 19 / 74 = 0.257 (2021) - Q2 - T1

Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 1.005 - Multidisciplinary (Q1)

Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EUR/ERC/ERC-2018-STG-805478
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/FP7/628179/EU/Testing population hiatuses in the Late Pleistocene of Central Iberia: a geoarchaeological approach/HIATUS LPLEIS IBERIA
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MICINN/HAR2017-82483-C3-3-P

Tipo y forma: Artículo (Versión definitiva)

Área (Departamento): Área Paleontología (Dpto. Ciencias de la Tierra)