A multidisciplinary approach to reconstructing the chronology and environment of southwestern European Neanderthals: the contribution of Teixoneres cave (Moià, Barcelona, Spain) Juan Manuel López-García a, b, * , Hugues-Alexandre Blain a, b , Francesc Burjachs a, b, c , Anna Ballesteros a, b , Ethel Allué a, b , Gloria Ericka Cuevas-Ruiz d , Florent Rivals a, b , Ruth Blasco a, b , Juan Ignacio Morales a, b , Antonio Rodríguez Hidalgo a, b , Eudald Carbonell a, b, e , David Serrat f , Jordi Rosell a, b a IPHES, Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, C/Escorxador s/n, 43003 Tarragona, Spain b Àrea de Prehistòria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002 Tarragona, Spain c ICREA (Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats), Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain d Museo de Paleontología, Área Académica de Biología, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo, Ciudad Universitaria s/n, Carretera Pachuca-Tulancingo km 4.5, C.P. 42184 Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico e Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of Beijing (IVPP), China f Departament de Geodinàmica i Geofísica, Universitat de Barcelona, Facultat de Geologia, C/Martí i Franquès s/n, 08028 Barcelona, Spain article info Article history: Received 17 January 2012 Received in revised form 5 April 2012 Accepted 6 April 2012 Available online xxx Keywords: Pollen Charcoal Herpetofauna Small and large mammals Biochronology Paleoenvironment Paleoclimate Neanderthals Southwestern Europe abstract According to pollen analysis and the 18 O-isotope curve, the first part of the Late Pleistocene (ca 128e30 ka) is mainly characterized by a dynamic that alternates cold phases (Heinrich Events) and temperate phases (interstadials). These rapid fluctuations provide the context for the Neanderthal occupations in the northeastern part of the Iberian Peninsula. In this paper we present the chronological, environmental and climatic data obtained by analyzing the pollen, the charcoal, the small vertebrates (amphibians, squamates and small mammals) and the large-mammal dental wear at the Neanderthal site of Teix- oneres cave, Northeastern Iberia. Levels II and III from this cavity have provided Mousterian industries and other evidence of Neanderthal occupations, such as cut-marks in large-mammal bones. A multiproxy study such as this constitutes a new approach to the chronological, environmental and climatic context in which Neanderthal populations lived in southwestern Europe (Iberian Peninsula). The results allow us to establish a relative chronology for these two levels of between ca 30e90 ka and show that they are associated with different environmental and climatic conditions: temperate and humid for Level III and cold and dry for Level II. This demonstrates that the Neanderthals were well adapted to the territory that they occupied, irrespective of the climatic conditions. Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The Late Pleistocene climatic history of the Iberian Peninsula has been well known since 1995, when the Iberian marine margin was cored as part of the IMAGES program (International Marine Global Change Study). The samples obtained show the continuous and detailed development of the north and south ecosystems of the Iberian Peninsula and the climatic changes produced in the northeast Atlantic over the last 140,000 years (Cacho et al., 1999; Sánchez-Goñi and d’Errico, 2005). The Greenland 18 O-isotopic curve detects forty sudden changes in temperatures during the last 123,000 years, called DansgaardeOeschger events (DeO events) (Johnsen et al., 1992; Dansgaard et al., 1993; Cacho et al., 1999). Among these oscillations certain cold phases marked by the concentration of Iceberg Rafted Detritus (IRD), indicating an influx of icebergs to the Iberian shores (Cacho et al., 1999; Bard et al., 2000; Sánchez-Goñi et al., 2000; Naughton et al., 2009), have been identified; these are called Heinrich Events (Heinrich, 1988). Six of these phases have been clearly identified in the surveys of the southwestern Iberian margin. The climate of the Late Pleistocene began with Marine Isotope Stage 5 (MIS 5) (ca 128e74 ka BP), characterized by a first mild phase called the Eemian or MIS 5e (ca 128e110 ka BP), which saw the maximum expansion of the * Corresponding author. IPHES, Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evo- lució Social, C/Escorxador s/n, 43003 Tarragona, Spain. E-mail address: jmlopez@iphes.cat (J.M. López-García). Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Quaternary Science Reviews journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quascirev 0277-3791/$ e see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2012.04.008 Quaternary Science Reviews 43 (2012) 33e44