Pen management and livestock activities based on phytoliths, dung spherulites, and minerals from Cova Gran de Santa Linya (Southeastern pre-Pyrenees)

Reconstructing formation processes at the Canary Islands indigenous site of Belmaco Cave (La Palma, Spain) through a multiproxy geoarchaeological approach

“…Calcite and dahllite (carbonated hydroxyapatite) have also been detected through FTIR analyses in fumier contexts (Burguet-Coca et al, 2020;Cabanes et al, 2009), and both minerals are common in herbivore dung deposits more generally (Shahack-Gross et al, 2003).…”

“…One of them is the difficulty in identifying the diagenetic processes that are often associated with this kind of deposit (Polo Díaz & Fernández Eraso, 2010). Complementary inorganic geochemistry techniques such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X‐ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) have been valuable sources of information (Brochier et al, 1992; Burguet‐Coca et al, 2020; Cabanes et al, 2009). However, diagenetic pathways of fumier components in deposits associated with volcanic settings remain unexplored.…”

“…Another disadvantage is the difficulty in identifying plant sources, which are a key component of stabling deposits and may include fodder remains, digested plants within the dung pellets, bedding, and fuel. Multiproxy studies using phytoliths, pollen, calcium oxalates, ash pseudomorphs, charcoal, and other plant macroremains analyses have provided valuable information on plant sources and possible livestock diets (Allué et al, 2009; Alonso‐Eguíluz, 2012; Cabanes et al, 2009; Delhon et al, 2008; Expósito & Burjachs, 2016; Rodríguez et al, 2016; see also Delhon et al, 2023 and references therein), many of them following or combining these proxies with micromorphological analysis (Alonso‐Eguíluz et al, 2016; Burguet‐Coca et al, 2020; Euba et al, 2016; Lancelotti et al, 2014; Polo‐Díaz et al, 2016). Alternatively, micromorphology could be combined with lipid biomarker analysis, with certain types of lipids serving as proxies for plant sources.…”

Beyond Shapes: Core Reduction Strategies in the Magdalenian of Cova Gran de Santa Linya (NE Iberia)

“…Excavations in this sector have revealed a sequence of three levels separated by stratigraphic disconformities. At the top, the upper unit (N) (2980 ± 30 BP-6020 ± 50 BP) consists of a sequence of fine sediments with high organic content interpreted as pen deposits (Burguet-Coca et al, 2020;Polo Díaz et al, 2014) that present interstratified levels of sands and gravels, indicating erosional processes. This unit overlies unit M (9810 ± 40-9930 ± 40 BP), which consists of several layers with thicknesses ranging from 10 to 30 cm to 1-1.4 m. At the sedimentary level, it is composed of loose calcareous cobble breccias and brown sands of massive or coarsely stratified structure, including scattered angular or subangular clasts.…”

Archaeological and environmental cave records in the Gobi-Altai Mountains, Mongolia

“…This method of penning occurs in other modern herding regions of the world (Égüez et al, 2018). However, numerous examples of penning and burning of dung also exist during the Neolithic to Iron Age of Europe (Angelucci et al, 2009;Burguet-Coca et al, 2020). In Central Asia there are a few past examples of cave corrals such as Chegirtke cave, Kyrgyzstan (Taylor et al, 2018), and Denisova cave in the Russian Altai Mountains was used as a sheep corral in the early Bronze Age (Derevianko and Molodin, 1994).…”