The Archaeology of the Iberian Peninsula (original) (raw)
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Trabajos de Prehistoria, 2018
Archaeological investigations of the agrarian communities of the 6 th-2 nd millennia BC in the Iberian Peninsula have undergone fundamental transformations over the past 25 years. This paper attempts to provide an overview of this research by considering three topics: 1) changes in theory, perspective, and practice, 2) the discovery of new sites or site types, and 3) developments in analytical methodologies and techniques. It concludes with some thoughts about possible future challenges and directions for research. RESUMEN Las investigaciones arqueológicas de las comunidades agrarias del VI al II milenios a. C. en la Península Ibérica han sufrido transformaciones fundamentales en los últimos 25 años. Este artículo trata de proporcionar una visión general de esta investigación considerando tres temas: 1) los cambios en la teoría, la perspectiva y la práctica, 2) el descubrimiento de nuevos sitios o tipos de sitios, y 3) la evolución de las metodologías y técnicas analíticas. Se concluye con algunas reflexiones sobre posibles futuros desafíos y direcciones para la investigación.
Bajondillo Cave is located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula. The stratigraphy of the cave comprises a long chrono-cultural sequence (Middle Paleolithic, Aurignacian, Gravettian, Solutrean, Magdalenian, Epipaleolithic and Neolithic). One of the outstanding elements of this site is the presence of Aurignacian levels overlaying late Mousterian levels, unknown in other sites of the region. In this paper we present new data (techno-cultural, chronological, environmental, landscape usage and use-wear analysis of lithic tools) from the late Middle Paleolithic level Bj/14. We also compare this information to previous knowledge of the late Middle Paleolithic from Southern Iberia. Available data suggests that there is little change within the local Middle Paleolithic and that an abrupt transition to the Upper Paleolithic took place between 3.5 and 7 kyr later than in the northern Iberian Peninsula.
Testing Neanderthal behavioural hypotheses requires a spatial-temporal resolution to the level of a single human occupation episode. Yet, most of the behavioural data on Neanderthals has been obtained from coarsely dated, time-averaged contexts affected by the archaeological palimpsest effect and a diversity of postdepositional processes. This implies that time-resolved Neanderthal behaviour remains largely unknown. In this study, we performed archaeostratigraphic analysis on stratigraphic units ive, ivf, ivg, va, vb and vc from Abric del Pastor (Alcoi, Iberian peninsula). Further, we isolated the archaeological remains associated with the resulting archaeostratigraphic unit and applied raw material, technological, use-wear, archaeozoological and spatial analyses. Our results show a low-density accumulation of remains from flintknapping, flint tool-use and animal processing around a hearth. These data provide a time-resolved human dimension to previous high-resolution environmental ...
The excavation of buried articulated Neanderthal skeletons at Sima de las Palomas (Murcia, SE Spain)
Quaternary International, 2011
At Sima de las Palomas del Cabezo Gordo (Murcia, Spain) remains of several Neanderthals have been excavated recently. From about 50,000 years ago articulated parts of 3 adult skeletons (including skulls with mandibles, vertebral column, rib cages, shoulder blades, hip bones, upper and lower limbs, hands and feet, often in anatomical connexion) were excavated from the lower part of a cemented accumulation of scree and large stones (éboulis) sloping downwards and inwards into the cavity, along with burnt bones of large mammals and Mousterian implements. The excavation of the skeletons is the subject of this paper (palaeoanthropological skeletal descriptions are soon to be published elsewhere). Behind the cemented scree there accumulated a layer of finer sediment containing burnt animal bones, followed by more fine sediment that filled the cavity up to the overhanging rock roof and contained isolated teeth and unburnt bone fragments of Neanderthals, including 3 mandibles, as well as Mousterian implements and faunal remains, all dating from before 40,000 years ago. Altogether, at least 9 Neanderthals are represented by finds from the site (including 3 unstratified mandibles), ranging from babies to adults. Dating methods include radiocarbon, uranium-series, and optical luminescence. Pollen analysis implies conditions less severe than those of the Heinrich 4 cold oscillation at 40,000 years ago.
Quaternary International (2011), doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2011.03.034, 2011
At Sima de las Palomas del Cabezo Gordo (Murcia, Spain) remains of several Neanderthals have been excavated recently. From about 50,000 years ago articulated parts of 3 adult skeletons (including skulls with mandibles, vertebral column, rib cages, shoulder blades, hip bones, upper and lower limbs, hands and feet, often in anatomical connexion) were excavated from the lower part of a cemented accumulation of scree and large stones (éboulis) sloping downwards and inwards into the cavity, along with burnt bones of large mammals and Mousterian implements. The excavation of the skeletons is the subject of this paper (palaeoanthropological skeletal descriptions are soon to be published elsewhere). Behind the cemented scree there accumulated a layer of finer sediment containing burnt animal bones, followed by more fine sediment that filled the cavity up to the overhanging rock roof and contained isolated teeth and unburnt bone fragments of Neanderthals, including 3 mandibles, as well as Mousterian implements and faunal remains, all dating from before 40,000 years ago. Altogether, at least 9 Neanderthals are represented by finds from the site (including 3 unstratified mandibles), ranging from babies to adults. Dating methods include radiocarbon, uranium series, and optical luminescence. Pollen analysis implies conditions less severe than those of the Heinrich 4 cold oscillation at 40,000 years ago.
Quaternary Science Reviews, 2021
In order to better understand the causes and geographic patterns of Neanderthal demise it is necessary to broaden the focus of existing Neanderthal studies to include new sites from understudied regions, particularly those containing multi-level fossil and lithic records, and to improve regional-scale Neanderthal extinction frameworks using multiple dating techniques. To this end, we present an interdisciplinary study of the stratigraphy, chronology, pollen, fauna, lithic technology and human remains of the last Neanderthal level (Level N4) of Prado Vargas e a cave in northern Iberia, whose geographic location and chronology are ideal for investigating possible socioeconomic and climatic influences on Neanderthal decline. Level N4 has yielded a rich Late Mousterian palimpsest indicative of repeated seasonal occupations, as well as a deciduous Neanderthal tooth, confirming the presence of children at the site. A wide range of human activities are detected in Level 4, with subsistence strategies demonstrating knowledgeable exploitation of the natural environs around the area. The site provides evidence for a distinctive recycling economy, including bone retouchers, recycling of cores, and intense (re)use of raw materials, which may reflect recurrent occupations or the particular cultural traditions of a regional group. Level N4 is dated to between 54.7 and 39.8 thousand years ago (ka) according to our new OSL and radiocarbon study. The late Neanderthal inhabitants of Prado Vargas were cold-adapted, and may have already been living in small, separate groups with marked territories and cultural traditions prior to the arrival of Homo sapiens in the Iberia Peninsula.
Neanderthal settlement in the interior of the Iberian Peninsula: new perspectives and new sites
56. Jahrestagung in Braunschweig und Schöningen: 13 ISBN.978-3-933474-91-9, 2014
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