Early agriculture and palaeoenvironmental history in the North of the Iberian Peninsula: a multi-proxy analysis of the Monte Areo mire (Asturias, Spain)

A multi-proxy study (pollen and NPPs, geochemical composition and radiocarbon dating), combined with principal components analysis, was applied to a core sampled in the Monte Areo mire (Asturias, N Spain), which covers the last 11,600 years cal BP. Both signals of Holocene climate change and transformations by human activities were recorded. The cooler stage of the early Holocene, the Hypsithermal and the Neoglaciation periods, were indentified but later Holocene abrupt climate changes seem not to have been recorded due to the particular evolution of the fen/mire system and the impact of human activities on the local hydrology. Evidence for human activity included a first phase of pastoralism by 7300 cal BP, and an extraordinary record of adoption and establishment of agriculture. The first evidence of cereal pollen, dated to approximately 6700 cal BP, represents one of the earliest records of agriculture in northern Spain. Contrary to previous studies which, based on assumed biogeographical limitations, proposed a late adoption of agriculture in the area, our results indicate a rapid expansion of agriculture in northern Spain from the eastern to the westernmost areas more in agreement with recent archaeobotanical investigations (Zapata et al., 2004, 2005). The research also indicates that climate and human activities interplayed to determine the evolution of the studied area, and that a multi-proxy approach applied to natural archives appropriately located (in areas with evidence of past human occupation) is a productive way to obtain circumstantial evidence of early human activity. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.