title: Early metal pollution in southwestern Europe: the former littoral lagoon of El Almarjal (Cartagena mining district, S.E. Spain).A sedimentary archive more than 8000 years old.
abstract: A borehole drilling campaign has allowed the study of a former littoral lagoon located next to the harbour city of Cartagena in South-East Spain (close to the Sierra de Cartagena polymetallic ore deposits). This lagoon, which developed during the Holocene, was first a shallow sedimentary marine environment and later evolved into a swampy semi-endorheic basin named "Almarjal" (after the Arab term from the fourteenth century). The lagoon eventually dried out and at present forms part of the substratum of the modern sector of the city urban area. The basin representative sediments are sapropelic black silty facies forming a continuous sedimentary archive, accounting for more than 8000 years of depositional phenomena. The geochemical study of these sediments, together with their absolute calibrated dating by14C, allows definition of successive stages of mining and metallurgical activities in the area. In turn, this information provides a more comprehensive perspective regarding metal pollution, particularly lead contamination during different periods of the Recent Prehistory and the Classical Age. The results indicate that the beginning of contamination by lead and other heavy metals occurred as early as 4500 years ago, when the Final Chalcolithic period was taking place in the South-East of the Iberian Peninsula. This finding provides further insights regarding the debate on the origins of lead mining and metallurgy in SE Spain.
authors.affiliation: Technical University of Cartagena, Cartagena, Spain. nacho.manteca@upct.es.
authors.forename: José-Ignacio
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6264-8193
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Manteca
authors.affiliation: University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: Milagros
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ros-Sala
authors.affiliation: University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: Sebastián
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ramallo-Asensio
authors.affiliation: University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: Francisca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Navarro-Hervás
authors.affiliation: Technical University of Cartagena, Cartagena, Spain.
authors.forename: Tomás
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Rodríguez-Estrella
authors.affiliation: University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: Felipe
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cerezo-Andreo
authors.affiliation: Technical University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: José-Eugenio
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Ortiz-Menéndez
authors.affiliation: Technical University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Trinidad
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: de-Torres
authors.affiliation: Archaelogical Museum of Cartagena, Cartagena, Spain.
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Martínez-Andreu
mesh_terms: D002947:Cities; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D005060:Europe; D019015:Geologic Sediments; D006801:Humans; D019216:Metals, Heavy; D008906:Mining; D013030:Spain
chemical_list: D019216:Metals, Heavy
keywords: Ancient mining and metallurgy; C-14 dating; Cartagena (SE Spain); Heavy metal pollution; Holocene littoral basin; Lacustrine sediments