Eneko Iriarte

Universidad de Burgos | UBU · Departamento de Ciencias Históricas y Geografía

In European and many African, Middle Eastern and southern Asian populations, lactase persistence (LP) is the most strongly selected monogenic trait to have evolved over the past 10,000 years1. Although the selection of LP and the consumption of prehistoric milk must be linked, considerable uncertainty remains concerning their spatiotemporal configu...

Recent hydroclimate studies on the Iberian Peninsula have shown a complex regional pattern in timing and intensity of climate change spanning the Younger Dryas and the Holocene. These changes are due to multifaceted interactions between climate variability that characterizes the Atlantic Ocean region and hydroclimatic processes associated with the...

Volcanic eruptions are key drivers of climate variability, with complex environmental consequences at regional and local scales that are rarely documented in high-resolution sedimentary records. In this work we present the results of a 15 m long paleolake core (Pla de les Preses core, Vall d’en Bas, Girona, NE Spain) covering the Late Pleistocene-H...

In northwestern Africa, lifestyle transitioned from foraging to food production around 7,400 years ago but what sparked that change remains unclear. Archaeological data support conflicting views: (1) that migrant European Neolithic farmers brought the new way of life to North Africa1–3 or (2) that local hunter-gatherers adopted technological innova...

We present new datings and a new anthropological study of Early Neolithic human remains found in Galería del Sílex in 1979. This gallery is part of the Cueva Mayor system in the Sierra de Atapuerca. The human fossils attributed to the Neolithic period correspond to a minimum number of three individuals that have been radiocarbon dated to the last t...

El texto presenta los resultados de la excavación arqueológica desarrollada en 2022 en el yacimiento de Resa (Andosilla). Los trabajos se han concentrado en el sector 1/100 del yacimiento, donde desde hace algunos años se vienen documentando evidencias de un complejo eclesiástico de cronología medieval. Se ha procedido a delimitar el gran edificio...

Cattle have been a valuable economic resource and cultural icon since prehistory. From the initial expansion of domestic cattle into Europe during the Neolithic period, taurine cattle (Bos taurus) and their wild ancestor, the aurochs (B. primigenius), had overlapping ranges leading to ample opportunities for intentional and unintentional hybridizat...

Como en sucesivas campañas, en verano de 2022 un equipo de la Sociedad de Ciencias Aranzadi ha llevado a cabo una serie de trabajos arqueológicos en el poblado de la Edad del Hierro del yacimien­to de Irulegi, en el municipio de Laquidaín (Valle de Aranguren). Se ha continuado una excavación en área abierta, siguiendo áreas en las que se intervino...

Volcanism can cause major impacts, including climate change and mass extinctions. However, the impact of monogenetic volcanism is often considered as limited in volcanological research. This work provides for the first time an interdisciplinary approach to the socio-ecological impact of monogenetic volcanism in a key region, the La Garrotxa Volcani...

Human activity is a primary factor of environmental transformation in coastal and estuarine areas. The appropriation and exploitation of a given space and its resources is conditioned by socially driven practices, which are of a different nature depending on the historical contingencies and result in a variety of material imprints. This paper addre...

Las dataciones propuestas por diversos autores para la base de los depósitos del Flysch Calcáreo del Cretácico Superior, que afloran en el margen NW del macizo paleozoico de Bortziriak (margen NE de la Cuenca Vasco-Cantábrica) presentan diferencias, por lo que se ha procedido a realizar un estudio bioestratigráfico en detalle de estos sedimentos. L...

Se presentan los resultados de las excavaciones (2006, 2017 y 2021) en un sector de la aldea del Hierro I del Cerro de San Vicente (Salamanca). Se ha exhumado un agregado informal de edificios y estructuras adjetivas de adobe cuyo patrón espacial es afín al esquema transcultural patrilocal. El artículo se centra en la casa 1 y sus cenizales. Tal vi...

Although volcanism may and has caused major impacts during Earth evolution, including climate change and mass extinctions, the impact of monogenetic volcanism is usually considered as limited or underestimated in volcanological research. During the Late Glacial- Early Holocene (14 − 8.6 kyr cal BP) transition, intense monogenetic volcanic activity...

Como en sucesivas campañas, en julio y junio de 2021 un equipo de la Sociedad de Ciencias Aranzadi ha llevado a cabo una serie de trabajos arqueológicos en el poblado de la Edad del Hierro del yacimiento de Irulegi, en el municipio de Laquidáin (Valle de Aranguren). Se ha realizado una excavación en área abierta, incluyendo áreas en las que se inte...

The results of the geoarchaeological study of the sedimentary profiles at the Resa site are presented here, connecting them to the archaeological and documentary evidence available. The stratigraphic, sedimentological, elementary and mineralogical characterisation of the sedimentary deposits allows to trace a long chronological sequence which exten...

El Portalón de Cueva Mayor cave (Atapuerca, Spain) is a settlement site at the entrance of a natural cave. This Holocene archaeological site shows a record of a long archaeological sequence that includes a Chalcolithic occupation starting from 3090 to 2240 cal. BC 20. During this phase, different human activities have been identified: habitational...

En el presente texto se exponen los trabajos realizados en el sitio de Ube en el municipio de Lizoain (Valle de Lizoain-Arriasgoiti). En dichos trabajos se ha realizado un primer acercamiento al lugar y se ha valorado la potencialidad arqueológica del sitio, en gran parte mediante metodologías no destructivas. Los resultados han mostrado un uso agr...

En el marco del proyecto de «Caracterización del macizo y sistema kárstico de Alkerdi, de la cueva de Alkerdi y de su entorno de protección», se continúa con el estudio científico de la cavidad de Alkerdi 2. Las labores de prospección espeleológica del desarrollo kárstico de la cavidad han permitido localizar una galería decorada inédita en 2020. E...

The finding of Upper Paleolithic engravings in 2016 triggered a multidisciplinary investigation of the Alkerdi cave system (Urdazubi, N Spain). The study of the speleogenetic processes led to the identification of at least 6 paragenetic cave levels with associated sedimentary infill. In order to unravel the timing of changes in the karst dynamics a...

La excavación arqueológica en Pariburu (Durana, Álava) ha revelado un conjunto de estructuras megalíticas muy originales, considerando la naturaleza de sus elementos constructivos y su diseño final. Cada edificio tiene como núcleo una cámara ortostática circular, donde las losas no mantienen contacto lateral. Le rodea un torus construido como un mu...

The Middle East plays a central role in human history harbouring a vast diversity of ethnic, cultural and religious groups. However, much remains to be understood about past and present genomic diversity in this region. Here we present a multidisciplinary bioarchaeological analysis of two individuals dated to the late 7th and early 8th centuries, t...

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-rele...

Evidence of dog consumption at the El Portalón de Cueva Mayor site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain) from the Holocene is revealed for the first time. The taxonomical and taphonomical studies of the animal bones from the El Portalón site have been carried out. The morphological and metrical analyses indicate that 130 dog bone remains have been identifie...

Land reclamation is the process of creating new land from regularly flooded surfaces. This paper explores the role of land reclamation on the historical transformation of estuarine landscapes in the Basque coast (N Spain & SW France) during the Early Modern period (sixteenth-nineteenth centuries). Documentary sources, historical cartography, and fi...

The Châtelperronian open-air site of Aranbaltza II presents a set of very particular characteristics, such as the large number of well-preserved lithic materials in a small area and the presence of lobular accumulations that represents the 33% of different size and shape of lithic materials of the whole assemblage. Through the application of densit...

Multiple factors have been proposed to explain the disappearance of Neandertals between ca. 50 and 40 kyr BP. Central to these discussions has been the identification of new techno-cultural complexes that overlap with the period of Neandertal demise in Europe. One such complex is the Châtelperronian, which extends from the Paris Basin to the Northe...

The Irulegi castle, located at the top of Mountain Iru- legi or Peña de Lakidain (Aranguren, Valley), is one of the most outstanding examples of medieval castles within the Kingdom of Navarre. The castle was built for defensive purposes and to control the surrounding territory between the 11th and early 12th centuries, and it was occupied unine- te...

LABURPENA. Euskal Herriaren isurialde atlantiarreko landa-espazioaren okupazio eredu nagusia da baserria, sakabanatutako etxe-unitate autonomoz osatua. Azken hamarkadetan, baserriaren arkitektura ikuspegi arkeologiko batetik ikertu da, serie krono-tipologiko zehatzak definituz. Lan honetan, baserriak artikulatzen dituen paisaia kulturalak aztertzea...

We report an archeomagnetic study from the Early Iron Age archeological site of Cerro de San Vicente (Salamanca, Spain). The studied materials were sampled from one roundhouse and its central fireplace, a surrounding burnt floor, and slags with a twofold objective. First, to archeomagnetically determine the last use of the central fireplace, becaus...

– New approach to mineral-magnetic characterization. – Evaluation of factors influencing geophysical results. – Origin of a fringe without magnetic contrast explained by waterlogging.

El Portalón de Cueva Mayor located in the UNESCO World Heritage Centre of Atapuerca, is a unique reference Late Prehistory archaeological site in the Iberian Peninsula, covering some 7 kyr of Holocene occupations. Herein we present the study of lipid residue analyses from 108 pottery sherds coupled with faunal kill-off patterns from the Neolithic,...

Mountain landscapes reflect the interaction between human groups and their environment. This relation relies on social practices aimed at the appropriation and management of mountain resources, like agriculture, forestry, and husbandry. This paper proposes a reconsideration of mountain landscapes in the Atlantic sector of the Basque Country as high...

The Chalcolithic levels of El Portalón de Cueva Mayor (Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain) offer a good opportunity to test whether the small-mammal contents of different archaeo-stratigraphical units may be useful to characterize them as independent entities. With that purpose, we studied representative samples of small-mammal remains from the two main cont...

Major disruptions in the North Atlantic circulation during the last deglaciation triggered a series of climate feedbacks that influenced the course of Termination I, suggesting an almost synchronous response in the ocean-atmosphere system. We present a replicated δ18O stalagmite record from Ostolo cave in the northern Iberian Peninsula with a robus...

Entre los años 2019 y 2020 un equipo de la Sociedad de Ciencias Aranzadi ha llevadoa cabo una serie de trabajos arqueológicos en el poblado de la Edad del Hierro del yacimientode Irulegi, en el municipio de Laquidáin (valle de Aranguren). Durante variascampañas se han realizado prospecciones visuales, prospecciones geofísicas, sondeosgeoarqueológic...

En el marco del proyecto de «Caracterización del macizo y sistema kárstico de Alkerdi, de la cueva de Alkerdi y de su entorno de protección», se procede a la exploración de la cavidad de Alkerdi 2. Las labores coordinadas han permitido identificar un conjunto de arte parietal asociado a evidencias arqueológicas en superficie. El estilo de las grafí...

The Modern period in Europe is marked by the introduction of deep agricultural changes. In the Basque Country (northern Spain), the implantation of an intensive crop rotation was made possible by the expansion of agricultural liming, although the extent and implications of this practice have not been previously explored in depth. The present paper...

The ‘Asturian culture’ is an archaeological techno-complex characteristic of the coastal areas of central and eastern Asturias and western Cantabria in northern Spain. Despite a long tradition of research on this archaeological phenomenon, little information has been acquired about domestic structures. Even locations of living areas have been po...

Speleothems are a recognized source of palaeoclimatic information, but their value as a source of signals from human activities in caves with an archaeological record has rarely been explored. Previous studies of speleothems in the Sierra de Atapuerca karst system (Burgos, northern Spain) revealed an important human fossil record, provided informat...

Kontinenteen apurketa luzaroan ikertu den prozesu geologikoa da. Rifting deritzon prozesu honek milioika urte irauten ditu eta fenomeno tektoniko honen aztarnak kontinente-ertzetan, mendikateetan eta bestelako ingurune geologikoetan topatzen dira. Plaka tektonikoen banaketaren interpretazioa, ordea, ikertzaileen ulermenaren eta aurrerapen teknologi...

Supporting material of the 'Phyllosilicate-content influence on the spectroscopic properties and antioxidant capacity of Iberian Cretaceous clays' paper. Photographs, IR and EPR spectra and assignments, XRF and ICP-MS analyses and lipid peroxidation scavenging capacity of the sediment samples.

Kaolinite-rich Cretaceous clay sediment samples from Burgos (Spain) have been analyzed by elemental analylis, X-ray fluorescence, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, X-ray diffraction and different spectroscopic techniques, as Fourier Transform Infrared, ultraviolet-visible and electron paramagnetic resonance. The clay sediment samples ma...

En este trabajo se hace una presentación de las investigaciones arqueológicas desarrolladas en el yacimiento de Aranbaltza (Barrika, Bizkaia), uno de los escasos yacimientos paleolíticos al aire libre conservados en la región cantábrica. Su registro es especialmente rico en ocupaciones realizadas por grupos de neandertales, desde finales del Pleist...

Abstract: The archaeological research at Els Trocs cave is a good example of a successful transdisciplinary project. Together with a great team of specialists in different areas of knowledge, we present an update of our research process. The site is a cave that was occupied for more than two millennia, from the Early Neolithic (the end of the 6th m...

The Middle East plays a central role in human history harbouring a vast diversity of ethnic, cultural and religious groups. However, much remains to be understood about past and present genomic diversity in this region. Here, we present for the first time, a multidisciplinary bioarchaeological analysis of two individuals dated to late 7th and early...

During the Early Neolithic in the Near East, particularly from the mid ninth millennium cal BC onwards, human iconography became more widespread. Explanations for this development, however, remain elusive. This article presents a unique assemblage of flint artefacts from the Middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (eighth millennium BC) site of Kharaysin in...

The discrimination of wild and domestic forms of animals is crucial to understanding the subsistence strategy of a site's inhabitants. In this study, a metrical analysis was carried out for the taxonomical identification of Bos taurus and Bos primigenius. Abundant bovine bone remains have been recovered from the El Portalón site's Neolithic, Chalco...

Cremation is an unusual burial practice in the Neolithic of the Near East. At Kharaysin, a Pre-Pottery Neolithic site in Jordan, we found a secondary burial with evidence of burnt human bones. This paper assesses (1) the intentionality of fire-induced alterations on human bones, (2) the pre-burning condition of the human remains, and (3) their sign...

The most commonly used paleoclimatic proxies in speleothem studies are the carbon and oxygen stable isotopes and the trace elements of calcite. However, assessing the incorporation of other components, such as organic matter, may also be of interest in interpreting and reconstructing the climate during speleothem growth. In this work, the incorpora...

Submerged sequences of marine terraces potentially provide crucial information of past sea-level positions. However, the distribution and characteristics of drowned marine terrace sequences are poorly known at a global scale. Using bathymetric data and novel mapping and modeling techniques, we studied a submerged sequence of marine terraces in the...

Cremation is a widespread funerary practice that aims to burn the body and create a new appearance of human remains. It has been interpreted as a ritual transition that includes a sequence of acts and processes aimed at commemorating the dead on an individual and collective scale. In the Near East, fire-induced manipulation or cremation was not a u...

Cultural landscapes are the result of human societies interacting with their environment, which is reflected in the onset and evolution of social practices such as settlement and agricultural production. This paper discusses the results of a transdisciplinary research program carried out on the vineyard landscape of the Rioja Alavesa district, one...

In this paper we report the results of an archaeomagnetic and rock-magnetic study performed on a set of Ne-olithic and Chalcolithic potsherds from El Portalón de Cueva Mayor site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain) to investigate their thermal history and obtain information about their function during ancient times. Two types of palaeomagnetic beh...

The last deglaciation (from ≈19 kyr BP to the beginning of the Holocene) is a time interval in which all components of the climate system underwent large-scale changes associated with global warming that led to the end of the last glacial period (Dansgaard et al. ., 1993). Although it is well known that this trend was marked by several heating and...

In this work we study the genetic link between calcretes, speleothems and alluvial deposits developed on the epikarst and endokarst of the Nerja Cave (Nerja, Málaga, Spain) and the adjacent Quaternary (Pleistocene) alluvial fan. Field and petrographic observations, and 18O and 13C isotopic data analysis of the host rock, distinct calcrete types a...