Carbonate microfacies reveal how Asturian shell middens formed in the Mesolithic

Abstract

The littoral platform of eastern Asturias (northern Spain) is a coastal karst modeled by the sea. During the Early Holocene, this landscape was exploited by successfully coastal-adapted hunter-gatherers. Intense coastal foraging resulted in accumulation of large amounts of shellfish in numerous karstic rockshelters. A century ago, the Count of Vega del Sella established the post-Paleolithic age of the Asturian shell middens, carbonate-cemented deposits hanging from the walls of karstic cavities. He argued that these were remnants from past shell accumulations filling up completely the rockshelters, as result of direct waste disposal, while the occupations occurred outside. Our geoarchaeological approach tested this long-lasting site-formation model with micromorphology and carbonate microfacies analysis of two sites: El Alloru and El Mazo. Novel outcomes are: 1) the carbonate cements correspond to calcareous tufa resulting from spring activity; 2) the deposits show a stratigraphic framework related to successive phases of debris accumulations and stasis; 3) tufa formation and accumulation of anthropogenic debris are syn-depositional; 4) biogenic and diagenetic cements reveal phreatic conditions. All these contradict a priori expectations from Vega del Sella's widely accepted model of anthropogenic mound constructions preserved in the currently cemented deposits. Microcontextual evidence suggest that shells were likely processed and produced also inside the rockshelters, which might have been used as occupation spaces as well instead of just for waste disposal, while the analyses exterior deposits at El Alloru also present occupational signs. This study also supports further evidence for higher water-table levels in the early Holocene at regional level, despite most caves show no signs of spring activity today.