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The Lowermost Tejo River Terrace at Foz do Enxarrique, Portugal: A Palaeoenvironmental Archive from c. 60–35 ka and Its Implications for the Last Neanderthals in Westernmost Iberia

Cunha, Pedro; Martins, António; Buylaert, Jan-Pieter; Murray, Andrew; Gouveia, Maria; Font, Eric; Pereira, Telmo; Figueiredo, Silvério; Ferreira, Cristiana; Bridgland, David; Yang, Pu; Stevaux, José; Mota, Rui

The Lowermost Tejo River Terrace at Foz do Enxarrique, Portugal: A Palaeoenvironmental Archive from c. 60–35 ka and Its Implications for the Last Neanderthals in Westernmost Iberia Thumbnail


Authors

Pedro Cunha

António Martins

Jan-Pieter Buylaert

Andrew Murray

Maria Gouveia

Eric Font

Telmo Pereira

Silvério Figueiredo

Cristiana Ferreira

Pu Yang

José Stevaux

Rui Mota



Abstract

Reconstruction of Pleistocene environments and processes in the sensitive geographical location of westernmost Iberia, facing the North Atlantic Ocean, is crucial for understanding impacts on early human communities. We provide a characterization of the lowest terrace (T6) of the Lower Tejo River, at Vila Velha de Ródão (eastern central Portugal). This terrace comprises a lower gravel bed and an upper division consisting of fine to very fine sands and coarse silts. We have used a multidisciplinary approach, combining geomorphology, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating, grain-size analysis and rock magnetism measurement, in order to provide new insights into the environmental changes coincident with the activity of the last Neanderthals in this region. In addition, we conducted palynological analysis, X-ray diffraction measurement and scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive spectra of the clay fraction and carbonate concretions. We discuss these new findings in the context of previously published palaeontological and archeological data. The widespread occurrence of carbonate concretions and rizoliths in the T6 profile is evidence for episodic pedogenic evaporation, in agreement with the rare occurrence and poor preservation of phytoliths. We provide updated OSL ages for the lower two Tejo terraces, obtained by post infra-red stimulated luminescence: (i) T5 is c. 140 to 70 ka; (ii) T6 is c. 60 to 35 ka. The single archaeological and fossiliferous level located at the base of the T6 upper division, recording the last regional occurrence of megafauna (elephant and rhinoceros) and Mousterian artefacts, is now dated at 44 ± 3 ka. With reference to the arrival of Neanderthals in the region, probably by way of the Tejo valley (from central Iberia), new dating suggests a probable age of 200–170 ka for the earliest Mousterian industry located in the topmost deposits of T4

Citation

Cunha, P., Martins, A., Buylaert, J., Murray, A., Gouveia, M., Font, E., …Mota, R. (2019). The Lowermost Tejo River Terrace at Foz do Enxarrique, Portugal: A Palaeoenvironmental Archive from c. 60–35 ka and Its Implications for the Last Neanderthals in Westernmost Iberia. Quaternary, 2(1), Article 3. https://doi.org/10.3390/quat2010003

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jan 11, 2019
Online Publication Date Jan 18, 2019
Publication Date Mar 31, 2019
Deposit Date Feb 8, 2019
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Quaternary
Publisher MDPI
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 2
Issue 1
Article Number 3
DOI https://doi.org/10.3390/quat2010003

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).





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