Application of geoarchaeological evolutionary models for the interpretation of complex archaeological structures in the central Ebro Basin (Spain)

Abstract

In landscapes that are extremely sensitive to small environmental changes, like some Mediterranean areas, archaeological contexts could present some problems to their interpretation and evolutionary reconstruction. This is the case of Los Pedregales archaeological site, located in the Hoya de Huesca (NE of Spain), where several stone mounds of unknown age and function were found in an extensive badland. The geomorphological, edaphological, and archaeological study, together with radiocarbon and OSL datings and contextualization into the geomorphological regional framework, made it possible to interpret these structures and to establish an evolutionary model. It was determined that they were silos excavated in Pleistocene sands and silts (Unit 1) during the Visigothic and Early Muslim epochs (6th-7th centuries), and that they were later filled with limestone blocks. Successive aggradational and degradational stages (Units 2, 3 and 4) during MCA (Medieval Climatic Anomaly) and LIA (Little Ice Age) periods covered and incised the area, leaving the shape of positive structures included in the badland.