Objetivos – ORCEpluSZ

Objectives

General Objectives (GO) and Specific Objectives (SO)

The overall objective is to contribute to knowledge about human settlement in the Guadix-Baza basin, its evolution and its ecological contexts during the Pleistocene. To this end, five general objectives and 16 specific objectives to be developed during the course of this project are described.

OG1. Unravel, at the microfacies level, the environmental and biotic factors that determined the formation of the different deposits, as well as the post-depositional factors that have altered the original deposits.

OE1.1. Study and interpret the diachronic sequence of the VM, FN3, BL and SZ deposits at the micro scale by analyzing unaltered, oriented and disaggregated samples.

OE1.2. Interpret the conditions of formation of the different levels and sublevels by analysing the variations in the values of the d ¹³C y d ¹⁸O in pedogenic carbonates and ostracods and molluscs of the FN3 and SZ microfacies

OE1.3. Integrate the results of micromorphology, palynology and isotope geochemistry.

GC2. Establish a framework of palaeoecological evolution from the time before the arrival of hominins in the Guadix-Baza basin up to the Middle Pleistocene.

OE2.2. Reconstruct the vegetation cover from the palynomorphs contained in the sediments of the archaeological sites of the Guadix-Baza basin included in this application.

OE2.3. To establish taxonomic, palaeoecological and economic inferences from the coals recovered, especially at Solana del Zamborino.

OE2.4. Make retrodictions of herbivore diet and palaeoecological context from herbivore enamel samples for stable isotopes.

OE2.5. To taxonomically and anatomically assign the faunal evidences kept in the Provincial Archaeological Museum of Granada and those exhumed in the excavation campaigns.

OE2.6. To estimate regional climatic parameters from characters such as choroporal mass and dental mesowear of macromammals.

OE2.7. Estimate local climatic parameters from microvertebrate associations (micromammals and herpetofauna).

OG3. To reveal the biotic agents that acted at each of the levels, and even microfacies where possible, of the VM, BL, FN3 and SZ sites.

OE3.1. To study the modifications produced on the osteodontic material using traditional techniques.

OE3.2. To study the modifications produced on the osteodontic material using virtual reality and artificial intelligence.

GC4. To propose the chronological framework for the first human groups that developed technologies such as hierarchical and predetermined centripetal lithic carving and pyrotechnics in the Guadix-Baza basin.

OE4.1. Establish a reliable time span of the different SZ levels by U-Series/ESR (teeth) and TT-OSL (sediments).

OE4.2. Framing the dating in the regional geological context .

GC5. Unravel the technological, social and ecological aspects related to carvable rocks.

OE5.1. Characterising raw material sourcing patterns in SZ.

OE5.1. Approaching the patterns of lithic carved lithic production in SZ

OE5.3. Interpreting the social and ecological linkages of lithic carving and pyrotechnical technologies in SZ