Lateglacial to Late Holocene palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of El Mirador cave (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain) using the small-mammal assemblages

• Published in: Palaeogeography, palaeoclimatology, palaeoecology palaeoclimatology, palaeoecology, 2017-04, Vol.471, p.71-81
• Main Authors: Bañuls-Cardona, Sandra, López-García, Juan Manuel, Morales Hidalgo, Juan Ignacio, Cuenca-Bescós, Gloria, Vergès, Josep María
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: African humid period; Heinrich Event 1; Iberian Peninsula; Lateglacial; Middle Holocene; Small mammals
• ISSN: 0031-0182; 1872-616X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2017.01.019

El Mirador is a cave in the Sierra de Atapuerca (northern Iberian Peninsula) that contains 27 archaeological layers from the Lateglacial to the Late Holocene. A total of 4436 small-mammal remains have been analysed from these layers, and 19 taxa have been identified (three insectivores, seven chiropters and nine rodents). The palaeoenvironmental reconstruction based on a small-mammal analysis suggests that the entire sequence is dominated by a woodland landscape. Our climatic analysis characterises the climate in terms of an evolution from a cool and arid period in the Pleistocene layers (16,000 to 14,000calyr BP), probably related to Heinrich Event 1, to humid conditions and temperatures similar to nowadays in the Holocene layers in general. In MIR23 and MIR22 (7300 to 6800calyr BP) we detect an increase in temperature to levels above current values and an important decrease in rainfall. These climatic characteristics could be related to the end of the African Humid Period. Moreover, a short, slightly cooler event is registered in MIR11 (ca. 6300 to 5900calyr BP), coinciding with a change in the economic pattern in El Mirador. The results obtained on the basis of small-mammal studies are compared with multiproxy terrestrial data (pollen, charcoal, phytoliths, geochemistry, large mammals) and the Greenland ice-core record, as well as various other core records closer to the coasts of the Iberian Peninsula (MD95-2042, MD99-2331, MD95-2043 and SMP02-3). These comparisons show the agreement of the palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic results with all the previous multiproxy and core-record data. •El Mirador contains a continuous sequence from the Latest Pleistocene to Holocene.•The palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic reconstruction is based on small mammals.•Heinrich Event 1 has been detected in the lower part of the sequence.•The Holocene Climate Optimum is registered in the Neolithic layers (MIR23-MIR22).•A slightly cooler event is registered in layer MIR11 (ca. 6300 to 5900cal. BP).