The sedimentary records in Mediterranean rockshelters and caves: Archives of environmental change

It is important to develop rigorous methods and robust conceptual models fo r the interpretation of rockshelter and cave sediment records so that the c ultural sequences they contain can be considered in their proper environmen tal context. Much of what we know about the prehistory of the Mediterranean region and adjacent areas has largely been pieced together from materials excavated from sedimentary sequences in these environments. The rockshelter s and caves of the region form important environmental and sedimentary arch ives. Recent work has begun to consider if the remarkable climatic variabil ity evident in the high resolution lacustrine and ice core records is manif est in the rockshelter and cave sediment records of the area, In this conte xt, the two main characteristics of a rockshelter or cave site which contro l its usefulness as an archive of environmental change are the temporal res olution of the sedimentary record and the environmental sensitivity of the site. Many rockshelters and caves can be described as either Active Karst S ettings (AKS) or Passive Karst Settings (PKS) and site type is an important influence on climatic sensitivity with a direct influence upon the usefuln ess of the sedimentary sequence as a proxy record of climate change. It is now clear that some sites may preserve detailed paleoclimatic records and t he climatic signal may be represented by distinctive suites of micromorphol ogical features, by variations in the input of allogenic sediment, or by fl uctuations in the mineral magnetic properties of the fine sediment fraction . It can be argued that data derived from the analysis of bulk coarse-grain ed samples often lacks the stratigraphic resolution and environmental sensi tivity that can be obtained from other approaches. The most favorable sites for detailed paleoclimatic reconstruction appear to be in active karst set tings such as Theopetra Cave (Greece) and Pigeon Cave (Morocco) where micro morphological analyses offer insights into the stratigraphic record that ar e not otherwise obtainable. The temporal resolution of a site can only be e stablished through a rigorous stratigraphic analysis and a comprehensive da ting program. These are fundamental considerations in the study of rockshel ter sediment records, especially when attempting to correlate between sites and draw comparisons with other proxy records of environmental change deri ved from sedimentary environments with rather different characteristics. Ro ckshelters and caves are part of a wider sediment system, and their investi gation must be accompanied by detailed geomorphological, sedimentological, paleoecological, and geochronological studies of the off-site Quaternary re cord. (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.