La ocupación paleolítica en los páramos del DueroNuevos datos procedentes de Valdecampaña (Olivares de Duero, Valladolid)

Resumo

In this paper, the results of an archaeological excavation, and the sedimentary and karstic studies carried out on the Valdecampaña plateaus (Olivares de Duero, Valladolid) are introduced. The fieldwork undertaken in the Valdecampaña area is situated in the framework of a long-term landscape archaeology research project carried out since 1996 on the river Duero Tertiary plateaus. This project has the main goal of understanding the Palaeolithic occupation on these tablelands adjacent to the river Duero. Firstly, the analysis of the stratigraphic columns in four exo-karstic formations enlarges our present knowledge on karst genesis in the Duero plateaus, offers fresh data on the Pleistocene palaeo-environmental conditions in this area, and allows introducing a framework for the human presence in this particular ecosystem, alternative to the nearby fluvial contexts. Secondly, the excavation of the sinkhole known as Valdecampaña 4 has allowed, for the first time in the Duero Tertiary plateaus and after more than ten text-excavations devoted to fulfil this goal, to document a lithic aggregate preserved in levels non-disturbed by ploughing. The techo-typological traits of the lithic assemblage are similar to those already observed in the surface collections retrieved on the Duero platforms. TL dating of a burnt quartzite brackets this assemblage to 143464 ± 10827 BP, and offers a chronological framework for the Palaeolithic human occupation in this region. In line with the dating furnished by TL in this and other sites of these highlands, human occupation of the Duero plateaus must be situated during the Middle/Upper Pleistocene interface and, therefore, can be linked to the Neanderthal occupational models.