Cave natural deposit alterations: microsedimentological study of accumulation carried out in the Neolithic Valencian by ovicaprine stabulation

Abstract

Ovicaprine manure deposits appearing in caves and rockshelter may be altered in Nellithic by anthrophic burning or natural mineralization processus. This may result in the development of a characteristic inner structure of the sediments with ash and brown layers, limited by a thin charcoal level. Manure burning is carried out since neolithic times, this activity being well documented in the archaeologicals sites. However, ovicaprine deposits of slow natural mineralization are more difficult to recognize, when they are not associated to ash layers. A microsedimentological analysis of these deposits, from inorganic material identification (spherulites, druses, phytoliths) allows us to understand this process of soil formation.