Contexto geomorfológico y principales rasgos tecnológicos de nuevos yacimientos del Pleistoceno Medio y Superior en el Valle Inferior del Manzanares (Madrid, España) (original) (raw)

Abstract The archaeological works developed during the years 1996 in the site of Tafesa, 2005 in the 12 de Octubre Metro Station site and 2006 in the confluence of the Butarque Stream (Villaverde-Barrio de Butarque site) located south of the Madrid City (Spain), have provided new lithic assemblages. These assemblages have been stratigraphically contextualized in the Pleistocene deposits of the Lower Manzanares river valley within the so-called "Manzanares Complex Terrace" (TCMZ). This fluvial terrace constitutes an anomalous thickened (20-15m) deposit at +22-16m above the present river thalweg mainly developed along the right (southern) valley margin. This fluvial level has been traditionally considered of middle Pleistocene age on the basis of the acheulian lithics an faunal assemblages typically located within its lower stratigraphic layers. Certainly, the Tafesa is a fluvial terrace site at +22m with acheulian industry and middle Pleistocene faunal remains at its lower sedimentary sequence. However, the upper sedimentary levels of this same terrace in the 12 de Octubre and Villaverde-Butarque sites throw lithic assemblages of the lower and upper Paleolithic belonging to upper Pleistocene, as suggested by teh available set of TL and OSL dates for the zone. The analyses developed in this study indicate that the development of this thickened fluvial terrace started during the end of the middle Pleistocene, but also comprise the whole Oxygen Isotopic Stage OIS 5 during the upper Pleistocene. Keywords: Middle and upper Pleistocene, Palaeolithic, geomorphology, fluvial terraces, Manzanares river, Madrid Basin, Spain.