RT Journal Article
T1 Human forager response to abrupt climate change at 8.2 ka on the Atlantic coast of Europe
A1 García Escarzaga, Asier
A1 Gutiérrez Zugasti, Igor
A1 Marín Arroyo, Ana B.
A1 Fernandes, Ricardo
A1 Núñez de la Fuente, Sara
A1 Cuenca Solana, David
A1 Iriarte, Eneko
A1 Simões, Carlos
A1 Martín Chivelet, Javier
A1 González Morales, Manuel R.
A1 Roberts, Patrick
AB The cooling and drying associated with the so-called ‘8.2 ka event’ have long been hypothesized as having sweeping implications for human societies in the Early Holocene, including some of the last Mesolithic hunter-gatherers in Atlantic Europe. Nevertheless, detailed ‘on-site’ records with which the impacts of broader climate changes on human-relevant environments can be explored have been lacking. Here, we reconstruct sea surface temperatures (SST) from δ18O values measured on subfossil topshells Phorcus lineatus exploited by the Mesolithic human groups that lived at El Mazo cave (N Spain) between 9 and 7.4 ka. Bayesian modelling of 65 radiocarbon dates, in combination with this δ18O data, provide a high-resolution seasonal record of SST, revealing that colder SST during the 8.2 ka event led to changes in the availability of different shellfish species. Intensification in the exploitation of molluscs by humans indicates demographic growth in these Atlantic coastal settings which acted as refugia during this cold event.
PB Nature publishing group
SN 2045-2322
YR 2022
FD 2022-05-02
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/71435
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/71435
LA eng
NO Unión Europea. Horizonte 2020
NO Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO)
NO Universidad de Cantabria
NO Basque Country Postdoctoral Programme
NO Universidad de La Rioja
NO Catalonia Postdoctoral Programme
NO Gobierno del País Vasco
DS Docta Complutense
RD 26 ago 2024