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We acknowledge Víctor Fondevilla, who cooperated with sedimentology and was co-advisor for the master’s thesis of A.G. The funding of this research, together with the associated permission to conduct the field study, was provided by the ‘General Research Project of the Junta de Andalucía, First human occupations and paleoecological context from the Plio-Pleistocene deposits of the Guadix-Baza basin, Archaeological zone of the Orce basin (Granada, Spain)’. Servicio General de Análisis de Isótopos Estables (Nucleus, Salamanca University) is acknowledged for the quick delivery of isotopic data. Soledad Alvarez, from the XRD Service at GEO3BCN-CSIC, is acknowledged for technical support with the XRD measurements. O.O. is a member of the 2017SGR-1666 research group. A.K. was funded by the Academy of Finland. We are very grateful to L. Melim and an anonymous reviewer for their constructive and detailed review of this manuscript. Roy Siddall (Univ. Helsinki Language Centre) did an excellent revision of English language., Despite the paleontological relevance of the terrestrial Early Pleistocene Venta Micena bonebed (Baza Basin, Spain), it lacks a comprehensive geochemical/sedimentological study. Here, we demonstrate that the 1.5-m-thick Venta Micena limestone formed in a relatively small freshwater wetland/pond located at the periphery of the large saline Baza paleolake. Two microfacies are observed, with high and low contents of invertebrate fossils, and which originated in the centre and margin of the wetland, respectively. X-ray diffraction (XRD) mineralogy and paleohydrological characterization based on ostracod and bulk-rock geochemistry (δ13C and δ18O) indicate that the limestone reflects a general lowstand of the Baza lake, permitting the differentiation of freshwater wetlands that were fed by adjacent sources. Conversely, during highstands, the Baza lake flooded the Venta Micena area and the freshwater fauna was replaced by a saline one. Bulk-rock isotopic data indicate that the lower interval C1 of the limestone (bone-rich in marginal settings) displays general negative values, while the upper interval C2 (bone free) displays less negative values. The bones of predated mammals accumulated in the marginal areas, which were flooded and buried by recurring water-table fluctuations. Lake dynamics played a critical role in bone accumulation, which was previously considered as representing a hyena den., Academy of Finland, Junta de Andalucía

The sedimentary record of the maar lake succession at Camp dels Ninots (Pliocene, NE Spain) reflects mineralogical shifts that correlate with orbitally forced climate changes. X-ray powder diffraction was obtained from a 47 m-long core collected from a borehole drilled in the centre of the paleolake. The results show compositional variations in terms of allogenic/authigenic mineral assemblages which, in turn, correlate with climate proxies such as pollen. Intervals that are dominantly composed of allogenic minerals (quartz, feldspar, smectite) correlate with wet periods. These periods are characterised by an increase in the percentage of Abies pollen. Conversely, intervals enriched in carbonates correlate with dry periods, with decreased amounts of Abies pollen. This cyclicity is attributed to rainfall variations leading to hydrologically open lake conditions during periods of relative high precipitation (when clastic input is enhanced) and hydrologically closed lake conditions during drier periods (when precipitation of authigenic carbonates is enhanced). It is concluded that the mineralogy of maar paleolakes may be highly sensitive to record climate changes., We would like to thank the land owners for their permission to work in the area, and the Town Council of Caldes de Malavella and the Departament de Cultura de la Generalitat de Catalunya for the economic funding of the excavation under the project CLT009/18/00052. This study was partially funded by project of the Spanish Government and the SGR2017-859 and SGR-2017-1666 of the Generalitat de Catalunya. The research of B.G.S. and G.C. is funded by the CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya. The Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES-CERCA) has received financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the ‘María de Maeztu’ program for Units of Excellence (CEX2019-000945-M). XRD technical assistance was provided by Soledad Álvarez and José J. Elvira at the XRD Laboratory of GEO3BCN-CSIC (former ICTJA-CSIC), and by Laura Burrel.

Numerous and extensive 'Stone Walled Sites' have been identified in southern African Iron Age landscapes. Appearing from around 1200 CE, and showing considerable variability in size and form, these settlements are named after the dry-stone wall structures that characterize them. Stone Walled Sites were occupied by various Bantu-speaking agropastoral communities. In this paper we test the use of pXRF (portable X-ray fluorescence analysis) to generate a 'supplementary' archaeological record where evident stratigraphy is lacking, survey conditions may be uneven, and excavations limited, due to the overall site size. We propose herein the application of portable X-ray fluorescence analysis (pXRF) coupled with multivariate exploratory analysis and geostatistical modelling at Seoke, a southern African SWS of historical age (18th century CE). The aim of the paper is twofold: to explore the potential of the application of a low cost, quick, and minimally invasive technique to detect chemical markers in anthropogenic sediments from a Stone Walled Site, and to propose a way to analyse the results in order to improve our understanding of the use of space at non-generalized scales in such sites., This research is funded by Fundación Palarq, calls 2019 and 2020, project ”Geo-EtnoArqueologia y uso del espacio (GEA)” entrusted to SB. SM and FM received financial support from the Office of Research and Development at the University of Botswana. The work of SGA was funded by the European Union’s MapDung project funded by the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No H2020-MSCA-IF-2017-794823. SB, JAM, ARG, CL and SGA are members of CaSEs Research Group of the Catalan Research Agency (AGAUR SGR-212), which is an associated unit (Unidad Asociada) to the Institucion Mila Y Fontanals of the Spanish Research National Council (CSIC). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.