Boletín de la RSEHN. Sección Geológica

Presentamos los cambios paleogeográficos, paleoclimáticos y paleoambientales acontecidos en la costa mediterránea meridional de la Península Ibérica durante el Pleistoceno superior y comienzos del Holoceno, analizados a partir de la cartografía batimétrica y geomorfológica de la franja costera submarina del este de Málaga, del registro de la temperatura de la superficie del mar de Alborán obtenido en el sondeo MD95-2043 y de los datos radiométricos, paleobiológicos y arqueológicos proporcionados por el registro estratigráfico del yacimiento de la Cueva de Nerja (Nerja, Málaga, España). Este registro sedimentario, con doce etapas de erosión y sedimentación, se emplazó en las salas más exteriores de la cavidad entre los estadios finales del Pleistoceno superior y el Holoceno medio en un lapso cronológico comprendido entre 29600 y 3940 años cal BP. Durante ese tiempo, la posición del mar estuvo situada a diferentes cotas por debajo de su posición actual, lo que condicionó la emersión de una franja costera de diferente amplitud a lo largo del tiempo, en la que las poblaciones humanas que habitaron la Cueva de Nerja desarrollaron sus actividades. Igualmente se observa una notable variación en la temperatura superficial del agua del mar y una serie de cambios en la composición de la vegetación y la fauna de vertebrados e invertebrados explotadas por los habitantes de la Cueva de Nerja. En este contexto cabe señalar la presencia en el registro de la cavidad de diferentes especies marinas de latitudes septentrionales y aguas más frías, actualmente ajenas al Mediterráneo.

We present the palaeogeographic, palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental changes occurred during the Upper Pleistocene and the Early Holocene in the southern Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula in the eastern sector of the province of Malaga, at south of the Sierra de Almijara. The study of these changes has been made from the analysis of bathymetric and geomorphological mapping of the underwater coastal in the studied area, the record of the sea surface temperature of the Alboran Sea from the MD95-2043 core and the radiometric, archaeological and palaeobiological data provided by the stratigraphic record of the external chambers of the ancient entrance of the Nerja Cave (Nerja, Malaga, Andalusia, Spain). This sedimentary record was placed in the cavity between the final stages of the Late Pleistocene and the Holocene, covering the end of OIS 3, the OIS 2 and the first half of OIS 1 with a chronological span between 29600 and 3940 years cal BP, according to the information provided by radiocarbon dating. To be more precise: this sedimentation began in the interstadial complex GI 4 immediately after Heinrich event 3 and ended in the chronozone Subatlantic with twelve stages of development of erosion and sedimentation that have six occupational episodes well-defined (Gravettian, Solutrean, Magdalenian, Epipaleolithic, Neolithic and Chalcolithic) and a worse delimited period (Mesolithic) separated by hiatuses of varying duration. During the Upper Pleistocene and Early Holocene the position of the sea surface was located at different levels below their current position, which conditioned the emergence of a coastal strip of varying amplitude over time, in which, humans populations living in the Nerja Cave developed their activities. Throughout that period we also observed a marked variation in the surface temperature of sea water and a series of changes in the position of the bioclimatic belts in the Sierra de Almijara and in the composition of vegetation and vertebrate and invertebrate fauna that were consumed by the prehistoric inhabitants of the Cave of Nerja. In this context it should be noted the abundant presence in the record of the cavity of marine fauna (echinoids, crustaceans, molluscs, fish, birds, mammals), among which, several species of northern latitudes and colder waters are included, currently outside the Mediterranean.