Wood uses at El Mirador Cave (Atapuerca, Burgos) based on anthracology and dendrology

Abstract

El Mirador cave contains a continuous sedimentary deposit of burnt sediments identified as fumier layers, corresponding to burnt sheep and goat dung. This sediment infilling has yielded a large number of charcoal remains. The general objective of this study is to contribute to the knowledge of western Mediterranean Holocene vegetation and land use history by combining classical wood charcoal analysis with dendrological charcoal studies. A specific aim of this work is to characterize the origin of the anthracological assemblage. Anthracological analyses show a continuous sequence dominated by oaks, in which deciduous oaks exhibit higher values during the early Neolithic, with an increase in evergreen oaks from the middle Neolithic onwards. The anthracological data suggests that human activities and climatic variations throughout the Holocene caused changes in the forests. The dendrology results on a small Quercus sp. deciduous sample suggests that the wood used corresponds to young branches bearing tree rings with a rapid growth rate, which might indicate that the trees were regularly shredded. Both approaches suggest that oak was probably used as leafy fodder, and its remains were burnt during repeated combustion processes.