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| 174 | W ood charcoal is the most frequent macro-archaeobotanical material found at El Mirón. The wood was most likely brought to the cave as fuel for domestic hearths and also for other purposes, such as animal fodder, construction, or crafts. The subproducts of these activities could also end up in the fire. Unlike pollen, charcoal in an archaeological site is a direct product of human activities, but it also reflects, at least partially, the woody vegetation of the vicinity of the site. The aims of the charcoal analysis at El Mirón are (1) to help reconstruct the past vegetation near the site during the Holocene, (2) to assess environmental change through time, (3) to study the diversity of exploited woods, and (4) in combination with other archaeobotanical remains, to develop the ethnoecological modeling of plant resources exploited by humans. El Mirón is a large cave located on Monte Pando, at about 250 m above sea level in one of the coastward ranges of the Cantabrian Cordillera, at the eastern edge of the province of Cantabria. It is immediately surrounded by peaks that reach 600–900 m. It is about 100 m above the bed of the Calera river (a tributary of the Asón) and 20 km away from the coast of the Bay of Biscay as the crow flies. Present climatic conditions are oceanic, with mild temperatures and very high rainfall (1,707 mm in Ramales, 80 m above sea level). Good syntheses of the present vegetation of the areas of the Asón basin and adjacent western Vizcaya can be found in Herrera (1995) and Onaindia (1986) respectively. The modern theoretical climax vegetation of the area is assumed to be dominated by forests, which have been decimated by human action. Two important climatic vegetation series that currently grow on well-drained soils are Polysticho setiferi-Fraxineto excelsioris S. and Hyperico pulchri-Querceto roboris S., both with Quercus robus as the main arboreal component of mature phases together with other trees, such as Corylus avellana and Fraxinus excelsior. In siliceous hilly areas with poor, dry soils Melampyro-Querceto pyrenaicae S. is also present, with Quercus pyrenaica as the main arborealcomponent.InrockycalcareousareaswithdrysoilsLauro nobilis-QuercetoilicisS. ChAPter eleVen holocene wood Charcoal from el mirón Cave Vegetation and wood use Lydia Zapata Holocene Wood Charcoal | 175 | pieces too small to be identified. The total number of fragments for each context that we give in the tables and diagrams are pieces that come from the summing of different samples. The grouping of samples has been done with the following criteria: (1) all samples combined come from the same stratigraphic context; (2) wood charcoal in these samples was scattered through the sediment—it was not concentrated charcoal or charcoal from hearths; (3) samples come from stratigraphically reliable areas or grid squares; (4) samples with only fragments smaller than 2 mm were rejected, since their identification by anatomical observation is difficult; and (5) when possible, a minimum of 100 fragments were identified for each context. In some contexts, all available charcoal has been identified (Levels 2, 9.6, 9.7, 9.8, 303.1, and 303). Following this criteria, table 11.1 shows the samples that have been combined for each context. Identification of wood charcoal was done using epi-illuminated light microscopy, with reference to Schweingruber (1978, 1990) and to our own reference collection of modern woods from western Europe. Most of the wood taxa identified display characteristic anatomical features that clearly distinguish them and that are well defined in the bibliography, so we will comment only on those that pose particular problems. When a genus has several anatomically similar species but only one presently lives in the Iberian Peninsula, we assume we are dealing with this species (for example, Cornus sanguinea). The nomenclature used here corresponds to Castroviejo et al. (1980). Regarding the identification and classification of the genus Quercus, we have followed Schweingruber (1990) and have recognized two groups: (1) evergreen oaks, Quercus ilex L./Q. coccifera L., species impossible to distinguish anatomically; and (2) Quercus Subgenus Quercus Oersted, which includes all deciduous and semi-deciduous oaks that now grow in the region, also impossible to distinguish anatomically: Quercus faginea Lam., Quercus petraea (Mattuschka) Liebl., Quercus pubescens Willd., Quercus pyrenaica Willd., and Quercus robur L. Rosaceae is a big family with several woody species thatdisplaysimilaranatomy.Atleasttwomaingroups— the Pomoideae group and the genus Prunus—may be distinguishable. Pomoideae includes different genera of trees and shrubs that are very difficult...

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