THE MIDDLE - UPPER PLEISTOCENE OPEN-AIR SITE OF RIBEIRA DA PONTE DA PEDRA (MIDDLE TAGUS BASIN, CENTRAL PORTUGAL)

The prehistoric site of Ribeira da Ponte da Pedra is located on the slope of an ancient valley where tertiary deposits, quaternaly fluvial terraces and colluvial deposits alternate. The excavation of this site over the last years falls within the TEMP OAR project, whose main research goals are the establishment of the chronology and succession of the Low and Middle terraces of the Tagus river in the Vila Nova da Barquinha region, together with the achievement of a clearer interpretation regarding the chronocultural framework of the lithic remains coming from these stratigraphic contexts. Moreover, this research aims correlating the terrace levels with the lithic industries of the Tagus Valley. Recently, new dates for the fluvial terraces have been provided that allow us to discern a chronological framework for the middle terrace (300,000 bp) and the low terrace (90,000 bp). Lithic industries seem to confirm this chronology and our interpretations regarding the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic of this site. In this paper, we aim to present the general lithic industry characterisation as well as a geomorphologic study of the terraces' levels.