This paper presents the existing differences between the evolution of the
Holocene landscape of the Southeastern and Southwestern areas of the Iberian
Peninsula. Moreover, some palaeoenvironmental characteristics of OIS 4 and OIS 3
of the western Andalusia appear. The five presented sequences have been analyzed
from palynological and geomorphological point of view. The obtained results show
that during the Holocene no significant forest cover existed in the eastern area and
that the different phases identified mainly show an alternation of shrub and steppe
communities, taking place during the fifth millennium a radical transformation of
the landscape and the definitive establishment of the semi-desert conditions that
are registered at the present time. In the western area the evolution of the landscape
is determined basically by the changes of geomorphological conditions of the coast
and the marshland zones of the Guadalquivir and the Tinto-Odiel systems, registering
diverse moments of increase of the aridity conditions, without remarkable changes
in the vegetal landscape. Sequences obtained do not provide evidence of indicators
of human intervention that might be clearly attributable to the pattern of human
activities established in the area until a the two millennium ago
