EFECTOS MEDIOAMBIENTALES E IMPACTO DE LA ACTIVIDAD MINERO-METALÚRGICA EN LA PREHISTORIA DE LA PENÍNSULA IBÉRICA: APORTACIONES Y NUEVOS DATOS DESDE EL ÁMBITO DEL UNIVERSO EMPÍRICO PORTUGUÉS

Abstract

The  archaeological  research  undertaken  during  recent  years  in  the  Iberian  Pyrite  Belt  has revealed the contours of an economy technologically and socially specialized in copper mining and  metallurgy that had developed during the III millennium B.C.E. Its magnitude and reach has been determined through direct and indirect markers that reveal a gradual process of strong deforestation that caused soil erosion and an increase of heavy metal contamination in the river basins (Guadalquivir, Tinto, Odiel, Guadiana) and thus by extension into the Gulf of Cádiz. This work completes the analysis of the impact of metallurgical activity in prehistoric chronologies by presenting new data and study cases (South of Portugal and Guadiana  river  basin),  def ining  the  scale,  intensity  and  diachrony  of the  process.