A chrono-cultural reassessment of El Cuco rock-shelter: a new sequence for the Late Middle Paleolithic in the Cantabrian Region (northern Iberia) (original) (raw)
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Quaternary International
A large number of sites dated to the Late Middle Paleolithic and the Early Upper Paleolithic have been recorded in the Cantabrian region (northern Iberia), making this area a key location to investigate the lifeways of the last Neanderthals and the first anatomically modern humans. The stratigraphic sequence from El Cuco rock-shelter was originally attributed to the Early Upper Paleolithic based on radiocarbon dates measured on bone apatite. However, new radiocarbon dates on shell carbonates from the lower levels produced inconsistent dates with those previously published. In order to clarify this anomaly, a reassessment of the chronology of levels VI to XIV was undertaken. The review was based on new radiocarbon dates performed on bones and shells, and a re-evaluation of the lithic assemblages. Bone samples did not produce radiocarbon dates due to a lack of collagen preservation but radiocarbon dating of shell carbonates provided dates ranging from 42.3 to 46.4 ka BP. These dates are significantly older than that previously obtained for level XIII using biogenic apatite from bones (~30 ka uncal BP), suggesting that the bone apatite used for radiocarbon dating was rejuvenated due to contamination with secondary carbonate. Lithic assemblages, defined in the first place as Evolved Aurignacian, have now been confidently attributed to the Mousterian techno-complex. These results suggest a Middle Paleolithic chronology for this part of the sequence. The new chronology proposed for El Cuco rock-shelter has significant implications for the interpretation of Neanderthal subsistence strategies and settlement patterns, especially for coastal settlement and use of marine resources, not only in northern Iberia, but also in Atlantic Europe.
Quaternary International, 247, 15-25, 2012
This level has been dated at 38,763 to 40,604 ky. Both this and the previous data seem quite reliable, allowing the Zafarraya Neanderthal fossils to be dated between 38.7 ky and 44 ky.
Comptes Rendus Palevol, 2021
The Iberian Peninsula is one of the key areas for studying the last populations of Neanderthals and the arrival in Europe of the first anatomically modern humans. In the Cantabrian region, this process can be traced in just a few sites with levels dating to the final stages of the Middle Palaeolithic and the earliest phases of the Upper Palaeolithic. One of these singular enclaves is El Cuco rock-shelter, where the sequence was initially dated by 14C only to the early Upper Palaeolithic sensu lato. However, new studies and datings now place this archaeological sequence in the late Mousterian and the Aurignacian. In this article we present a chrono-cultural reassessment of the upper levels of El Cuco (III-V), including a study of the large mammals. Levels Vc and Vb (>43.5-40.5 ky uncal BP) date from the late Mousterian, whereas levels Va, IV and III (c. 36.5-30 ky uncal BP) cover an interval extending at least from the Early Aurignacian to the Evolved Aurignacian. Particularly not...
Methodological advances in dating the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition provide a better understanding of the replacement of local Neanderthal populations by Anatomically Modern Humans. Today we know that this replacement was not a single, pan-European event, but rather it took place at different times in different regions. Thus, local conditions could have played a role. Iberia represents a significant macro-region to study this process. Northern Atlantic Spain contains evidence of both Mousterian and Early Upper Paleolithic occupations , although most of them are not properly dated, thus hindering the chances of an adequate interpretation. Here we present 46 new radiocarbon dates conducted using ultra-filtration pre-treatment method of anthropogenically manipulated bones from 13 sites in the Cantabrian region containing Mousterian, Aurignacian and Gravettian levels, of which 30 are considered relevant. These dates, alongside previously reported ones, were integrated into a Bayesian age model to reconstruct an absolute timescale for the transitional period.
Journal of Human Evolution, 2014
Since the late 1980s, northern Iberia has yielded some of the earliest radiocarbon dated Aurignacian assemblages in Western Europe, probably produced by anatomically modern humans (AMHs). This is at odds with its location furthest from the likely eastern entry point of AMHs, and has also suggested to some that the Châtelperronian resulted from cultural transfer from AMHs to Neanderthals. However, the accuracy of the early chronology has been extensively disputed, primarily because of the poor association between the dated samples and human activity. Here, we test the chronology of three sites in northern Iberia, L'Arbreda, Labeko Koba and La Viña, by radiocarbon dating ultrafiltered collagen from anthropogenically modified bones. The published dates from Labeko Koba are shown to be significant underestimates due to the insufficient removal of young contaminants. The early (c.44 ka cal BP [thousands of calibrated years before present]) Aurignacian chronology at L'Arbreda cannot be reproduced, but the reason for this is difficult to ascertain. The existing chronology of La Viña is found to be approximately correct. Together, the evidence suggests that major changes in technocomplexes occurred contemporaneously between the Mediterranean and Atlantic regions of northern Iberia, with the Aurignacian appearing around 42 ka cal BP, a date broadly consistent with the appearance of this industry elsewhere in Western Europe.
2017
The late persistence in Southern Iberia of a Neandertal-associated Middle Paleolithic is supported by the archeological stratigraphy and the radiocarbon and luminescence dating of three newly excavated localities in the Mula basin of Murcia (Spain). At Cueva Antón, Mousterian layer I-k can be no more than 37,100 years-old. At La Boja, the basal Aurignacian can be no less than 36,500 years-old. The regional Middle-to-Upper aleolithic transition process is thereby bounded to the first half of the 37th millennium Before Present, in agreement with evidence from Andalusia, Gibraltar and Portugal. This chronology represents a lag of minimally 3000 years with the rest of Europe, where that transition and the associated process of Neandertal/modern human admixture took place between 40,000 and 42,000 years ago. The lag implies the presence of an effective barrier to migration and diffusion across the Ebro river depression, which, based on available paleoenvironmental indicators, would at that time have represented a major biogeographical divide. In addition, (a) the Phlegraean Fields caldera explosion, which occurred 39,850 years ago, would have stalled the Neandertal/modern human admixture front because of the population sink it generated in Central and Eastern Europe, and (b) the long period of ameliorated climate that came soon after (Greenland Interstadial 8, during which forests underwent a marked expansion in Iberian regions south of 40°N) would have enhanced the “Ebro Frontier” effect. These findings have two broader paleoanthropological implications: firstly, that, below the Ebro, the archeological record made prior to 37,000 years ago must be attributed, in all its aspects and components, to the Neandertals (or their ancestors); secondly, that modern human emergence is best seen as an uneven, punctuated process during which long-lasting barriers to gene flow and cultural diffusion could have existed across rather short distances, with attendant consequences for ancient genetics and models of human population history.
Quaternary International 326-327: 288-306, 2014
"This paper presents the results of the analysis carried out on different assemblages and stratigraphic contexts dated before MIS 4 in Cantabrian Region (in the northern of the Iberian Peninsula). Despite the reduced corpus available, it was possible to establish the existence of Mousterian settlements throughout the Cantabrian region at the end of the Middle Pleistocene, particularly during interstadial MIS 5e and MIS 6. Whereas the evidence for the Lower Palaeolithic is limited to a few sites such as Louselas, Cabo Busto or Irikaitz, which contain characteristic Acheulean tools, the Cantabrian coast was densely populated by Neanderthal settlements during the MIS 5e Climatic Optimum. This settlement pattern seems to include open air sites, together with uninterrupted habitat in caves from MIS 6 to the end of the Mousterian period in the region. This paper shows the results and conclusions of technotypological, geoarchaeological and spatial analysis of the Final Middle Pleistocene and Upper Pleistocene assemblages and settlements in the Cantabrian Region. The results of this analysis established some differences between two kinds of settlements in the area: Acheulean assemblages and sites; and the first Middle Palaeolithic evidence in the final Middle Pleistocene and in MIS 5e."