2025/07/30 by Verónica Romero, Francisco Ruiz Muñoz, María Luz González-Regalado Montero +10 · 1 voice
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Heavy metals in environment #Mercury impact and mitigation studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.3390/min15080801
openalex publication_date 2025/07/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22
Estuaries are excellent containers for the prehistorical and historical pollution that develops in their river basins. This paper studies the Au contents obtained by inductively coupled plasma spectrometry of two cores extracted from the Doñana National Park (Guadalquivir Estuary, SW Spain). Concentrations of this precious metal have been associated with the different prehistoric and historical stages of exploitation of the Iberian Pyritic Belt. The three detected peaks correspond to the first mining operations in the area around the park, the first systematic Tartessian mining and strong exploitation during the Roman period. Consequently, Au is an appropriate marker of the contamination phases prior to its current extraordinary biological diversity.