The Tejo river is one of the major drainages in Iberian Peninsula; it is a long-lived system (ca. 3.4 Ma) and provides an archive of long-term landscape development and environmental change controlled by tectonics, climate and eustasy. The most upstream Portuguese reach of the Tejo river, ∼ 200 km from the Atlantic coast, shows evidence for five fluvial terraces (T1 to T5) with elevations reaching more than 120 m above the modern river bed. A chronological framework for these terraces is established here by integrating geomorphological, stratigraphical and archaeological information with ages from luminescence dating. Optically stimulated luminescence dating of K-feldspar, (involving the correction for anomalous fading of the luminescence signal), indicates that the younger terraces have a probable age range of: T5 -31 to 40 ka; and T4 -100 to ∼ 280 ka. We deduce that the related major fluvial changes are likely to have been as follows:∼10 m of aggradation from ∼280 to 100 ka (0.06 m/ka); 14 m of incision from 100 to 40 ka (0.23 m/ka); 8 m of aggradation from 40 to 31 ka (0.89 m/ka); 16 m of incision during the last 31 ka (0.52 m/ka). These values indicate that the duration and rate of both aggradation and river downcutting episodes were variable. There is widespread evidence for neotectonic activity in this intraplate region. Neither eustatic nor climatic changes during the Quaternary provide clear trends that might explain the observed pattern of valley incision, thus we conclude that this tectonic activity is the most likely driving mechanism. In the study area, the probable age of the Tejo river sediments deposited before the beginning of valley incision allows the calculation of a time-averaged incision rate of ∼0.07 to 0.10 m/ka over the last ∼2.6 Ma. This long-term incision was probably determined by an increase in the relative uplift rate, resulting from the intensification of intraplate compressive stress. During the late Cenozoic fluvial incision stage, the Ródão depression underwent less uplift than the adjacent areas along the river, in which the Tejo has incised a narrow valley into basement rock, with almost no terrace development. Terrace formation was also promoted by soft bedrock (Tertiary arkoses) and by impoundment of alluvium behind resistant barriers crossed by the river. Geomorphological evidence for terrace tectonic offset was also supported by luminescence dating.
In the uppermost reach of the Lower Tejo River (eastern central Portugal), where the river crosses two quartzite ridges that separate the Ródão (upstream) and Arneiro (downstream) depressions, Palaeolithic artefacts have been recovered from three lower river terrace levels and a cover unit of aeolian sands. This paper presents data on the discovery of archaeological artefacts from the terrace levels and the aeolian sands that can be linked to Middle and Upper Palaeolithic industries from new field sites at Tapada do Montinho and Castelejo. The archaeological data when placed in a geomorphological, sedimentary and chronological framework, contribute new information on the understanding of human occupation in western Iberia during coldclimate episodes of the last 62 to 12 ka; and especially during the cooler and driest conditions that occurred between 32 and 12 ka, when the climate favoured aeolian sediment transport. In the Lower Tejo River, the integration of absolute age datasets with archaeological, geomorphological and sedimentary data indicate that in westernmost Iberia the first appearance of artefacts in river terrace sediments suggests that the earliest marker for human occupation dates from the lower Acheulian (Lower Palaeolithic), probably corresponding to an age of~340 ka. Data also suggest, for the first time, that Acheulian lithic industries were replaced by Middle Palaeolithic ones (namely the Levallois stone knapping technique) by~160 ka (~MIS6). Middle Palaeolithic industries were later replaced by Upper Palaeolithic industries at 32 ka. The post 32 ka period, dominated by aeolian sediment transport, is related to the onset of cold-dry climate conditions which resulted in low river flow discharges, floodplain exposure and reworking by NW winds. This colddry period is coeval with the disappearance of Megafauna and associated Neanderthal communities, and the replacement of the Middle Palaeolithic industries by Upper Palaeolithic ones in this westernmost part of Europe.
a b s t r a c tThe Vale do Forno archaeological sites (Alpiarça, central Portugal) document the earliest human occupation in the Lower Tejo River, well established in geomorphological and environmental terms, within the Middle Pleistocene. In a staircase of six fluvial terraces, the Palaeolithic sites were found on the T4 terrace (þ24 m, above river bed) which is made of a basal Lower Gravels unit (LG) and an overlying Upper Sands unit (US). Geomorphological mapping, coupled with lithostratigraphy, sedimentology and luminescence dating (quartz-OSL and K-feldspar post-IRIR 290 ) were used in this study. The oldest artefacts found in the LG unit show crude bifacial forms that can be attributed to the Acheulian. In contrast, the US unit has archaeological sites stratigraphically documenting successive phases of an evolved Acheulian. Luminescence dating and correlation with the Marine Isotopic Stages suggest that the LG unit has a probable age of ca. 335 to 325 ka and the US unit an age of ca. 325 to 155 ka. This is in contrast to previous interpretations ascribing this terrace (and lithic industries) to the Last Interglacial and early phases of the Last Glacial. The VF3 site (Milhar os), containing Micoquian (Final Acheulian) industries (with fine and elaborated bifaces), found in a stratigraphic level located between the T4 terrace deposits and a colluvium associated with Late Pleistocene aeolian sands, is younger than 155 ka but much older than 32 ka.© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. IntroductionUnderstanding of the Palaeolithic occupation of Northern Europe has been substantially based on evidence from rivers (e.g. Bridgland et al., 2006). For Western Europe and specifically in Iberia, insights into the Palaeolithic occupation is similarly derived from its major rivers (from north to south: Douro, Tejo/Tagus, Guadiana, Guadalquivir) (e.g. Santonja and Villa, 2006). Within this context, the Vale do Forno archaeological sites (Alpiarça, in central Portugal; Fig. 1) provide the earliest and most well documented human occupation in the Lower Tejo (the Portuguese part of the Tejo basin). Lower Palaeolithic bifacial sites are common, often well represented by lithic industries. Their local stratigraphy and technological characteristics indicate successive phases of what is commonly named as the Acheulian. However, they were chronologically poorly constrained.From the Spanish border to the Atlantic coast, the Tejo crosses major faults which provide a natural geomorphological subdivision of the river into a series of valley reaches (I to V;Cunha et al., 2005). * Corresponding author.E-mail addresses: pcunha@dct.uc.pt (P.P. Cunha), aam@uevora.pt (A.A. Martins), jabu@dtu.dk (J.-P. Buylaert), anmu@dtu.dk (A.S. Murray), 3raposos@sapo.pt (L. Raposo), paolo.mozzi@unipd.it (P. Mozzi), m.stokes@plymouth.ac.uk (M. Stokes).
The stratigraphy and sedimentology of the Q3 middle terrace alluvial sequence in the lower Tagus river valley, Portugal, were studied near the village of Alpiarça, approximately 40 km upstream from the estuarine area. Two main stratigraphic units were recognized, separated by an important uncomformity. The Lower Gravels unit (LG) consists of intercalations of medium to coarse gravel deposits, mainly quartzitic, with coarse sandy matrix, organized in tabular bodies. The overlying Upper Sands unit (US) consists of tabular sandy channel deposits and overbank fines, the latter containing well-developed paleosols and backswamp deposits, showing a general aggrading trend, apparently with varying rates; available data indicate that deposition of the US took place under temperate climatic conditions. Within US deposits are several paleolithic archaeological sites, the lower ones in the alluvial stratigraphy being Middle Acheulian, whereas those embedded in overlying deposits are, from bottom to top, Upper Acheulian and Micoquian. Some of these sites have been recently excavated. The quartzite artifacts were apparently abandoned by early humans on the flood plain surface during deposition of the US unit and were subjected to limited reworking during their incorporation in the alluvium. TL/OSL dating of sandy-silty sediments, though imprecise, support archaeological evidence pointing to an age of 150,000 to 70,000 yr B.P. for the US unit.
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