Evolving shores, hidden stones: The impact of sea level change and sedimentation on lithic procurement in Valencian coastal sites

Reconstructing the mobility strategies of Neanderthal and anatomically modern human populations requires an accurate mapping of the raw material outcrops. In the coastal zones of Valencia, the distance between archaeological sites and raw material outcrops is frequently calculated based on current topography, but there are some limitations of these models if we consider several taphonomic filters that flint can suffer: 1. The burial of Pleistocene river terraces due to past or recent sedimentation; 2. The inundation of secondary deposits on the continental shelf during interglacial highstands and 3. The mechanical selection of materials during transport. Specifically, we account for the fact that flint can survive high-energy transport over longer distances over limestone. This is enough to create a compositional bias where distant secondary sources are naturally enriched in high quality lithic materials.

By modelling the exposure and predicted composition of these secondary sources during glacial maximum and minimums, we suggest that many raw materials classified as “distant” or “exotic” in the archeological recod may have been locally available in now vanished landscapes. This reconstructive approach forces a reevaluation of procurement economy, suggesting that human groups could have been able to exploit a resource rich landscape that extended kilometers beyond the modern shoreline.