Hunter-gatherer ecodynamics and the impact of the Heinrich event 2 in Central and Southern Portugal

The impact of North Atlantic Heinrich 2 event (HE2) (26.5-24.3 ka cal BP) in Iberia is currently attested by a set of high resolution deep-sea cores, confirming a record of increasing aridity, lowered temperatures, and important changes in the vegetation cover. In Portugal, a reasonable number of archaeological sites are dated to this time-span, where significant changes in the economic and technological structures have been identified as a new cultural component: the Proto-Solutrean. Based on high-resolution paleoenvironmental data, chronological and archaeological evidence, our study demonstrates how HE2 might have been the main trigger for Proto-Solutrean cultural change. Technological intensification and diversification, as well as the adjustments made in land-use patterns towards an expansion of the social networks, are presented as the major climate-driven outcomes. Within the Panarchy and the Adaptive Cycle Model framework, these modifications consist of a Release and Reorganization moment of the hunter-gatherer cultural systems that will lead to the appearance of the Solutrean technocomplex in Southwestern Iberia.