This poster presents the anthracological results from a rather unique and spatially confined context called Feature A, in the Mesolithic shell-midden of Cabeço da Amoreira, Muge, Portugal, radiocarbon dated to 6633±20 BP. Through taxonomic and taphonomic analyses, the main objective was to contextualize and characterize the presence of charcoals in this specific context and to assess the ecological past.
The totality of collected charcoal fragments was analysed and the identified taxa were: Pinus sp., Pinus pinaster, Pinus cf. pinaster, Pinus pinea/pinaster, Pinus tp. sylvestris, Quercus sp., Quercus subg. quercus, gymnosperms and angiosperms, corroborating with other studies regarding Mesolithic landscapes in the surrounding archaeological sites in the Tagus valley.
The results point to the use of specific wood as fuel and the late deposition of charcoal by natural or anthropic means in this particular context, or deposited together with the other artefacts, namely red dear remains (Cervus elaphus) and lithics. As suggested by the spatial analysis study from Gonçalves (2017), this context was probably the place of a specific economic activity of carcass processing and extraction of bone narrow content and later used as a deposit zone, justified by the presence of charcoals and other materials.
| Subject : | : | Oral presentations |
| Topics | : | Session: Multidisciplinal approaches to the uses of plants as food, medicine and raw material by mesolithic communities |
| Keywords | : | Anthracology ; Taxonomy ; Taphonomy ; Landscape ; Mesolithic ; Muge |
| PDF version | : |  PDF version |
