From forest to settlement: Magdalenian hunter-gatherer interactions with the wood vegetation environment based on anthracology and intra-site spatial distribution

Abstract

This study aims to provide anthracological data on forest transformations on the north-eastern Iberian Peninsula during the transition from the last glacial GS-2a to the last isotopic event of interstadial GI-1. We present a complete anthracological sequence from Moli del Salt (Vimbodi i Poblet, Tarragona, NE Iberian Peninsula), a site assigned to the Late Upper Palaeolithic. Our results suggest a continuous forest cover transformation throughout the inter-GI-1. Forest opening was determined by the retreat of Pinus sylvestris type, which was dominant during the Late Pleistocene, in relation to the continuous expansion of Juniperus sp. Likewise, our results suggest a progressive increase in the diversity of cold- and drought-resistant mesophilic taxa, which would have begun with the more temperate climatic conditions occasioned by the positive isotopic oscillations of GI-1. A comparison with other paleoecological data from the Iberian Peninsula suggests the presence of different biogeographic regions, as evidenced by different frequencies of certain montane and meso-thermophilic taxa. Our research also made use of a new methodology based on the spatial distribution of the charcoal remains recovered from Late Magdalenian layer A of Moli del Salt. The results have provided data with which to evaluate the taphonomic alterations identified in the charcoal fragments, such as hyperfragmentation and the occurrence of postdepositional processes. This analysis has increased the temporal resolution of the archaeological fieldwork, allowing us to identify unique events of human activity in a context of cumulative palimpsests. Finally, the Kernel distributions according to the standard deviation of the tree taxa, projected both in plan (X-Y) and in section (X-Z1), indicate human strategies in fuel selection that differentiated between Pinus sylvestris type, Juniperus sp. and Prunus sp.