Early atmospheric metal pollution provides evidence for Chalcolithic/Bronze Age mining and metallurgy in Southwestern Europe

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URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10347/16753
ISSN: 0048-9697
E-ISSN: 1879-1026
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.12.078

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2016-03-01

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Elsevier
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Abstract

Although archaeological research suggests that mining/metallurgy already started in the Chalcolithic (3rd millennium BC), the earliest atmospheric metal pollution in SW Europe has thus far been dated to ~ 3500–3200 cal. yr. BP in paleo-environmental archives. A low intensity, non-extensive mining/metallurgy and the lack of appropriately located archives may be responsible for this mismatch. We have analysed the older section (> 2100 cal. yr. BP) of a peat record from La Molina (Asturias, Spain), a mire located in the proximity (35–100 km) of mines which were exploited in the Chalcolithic/Bronze Age, with the aim of assessing evidence of this early mining/metallurgy. Analyses included the determination of C as a proxy for organic matter content, lithogenic elements (Si, Al, Ti) as markers of mineral matter, and trace metals (Cr, Cu, Zn, Pb) and stable Pb isotopes as tracers of atmospheric metal pollution

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Chalcolithic| Ancient metal pollution| Pb isotopes| Peat records| Iberian Peninsula

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Martínez Cortizas, A., López-Merino, L., Bindler, R., Mighall, T., Kylander, M E. (2016) Early atmospheric metal pollution provides evidence for Chalcolithic/Bronze Age mining and metallurgy in Southwestern Europe. Science of the Total Environment, 545: 398-406 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.12.078

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This work was funded by the projects CGL2010-20672 and HAR2008-06477-C03-03/HIST (Plan Nacional I + D + i, Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad), 10PXIB200182PR (General Directorate of I + D, Xunta de Galicia), and CDS-TCP (CSD2007-00058, Programa Consolider-Ingenio 2010). We are grateful to José Antonio López-Sáez, Fernando Gil Sendino, Carmen Fernández Ochoa and Roberto Zapico for their collaboration and assistance during the fieldwork, to José Rodríguez Racedo for helping with the geochemical analyses, and to Suzanne Leroy for perceptive comments on an earlier draft

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© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)

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Edafoloxía e Química Agrícola