For decades, taphonomists have dedicated their efforts to assessing the nature of the massive leporid accumulations recovered at archaeological sites in the northwestern Mediterranean region. Their ...interest lying in the fact that the European rabbit constituted a critical part of human subsistence during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. However, rabbits are also a key prey in the food webs of Mediterranean ecosystems and the base of the diet for several specialist predators, including the Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus). For this reason, the origin of rabbit accumulations in northwestern Mediterranean sites has proved a veritable conundrum. Here, we present the zooarchaeological and taphonomic study of more than 3000 faunal and 140 coprolite remains recovered in layer IIIa of Cova del Gegant (Catalonia, Spain). Our analysis indicates that this layer served primarily as a den for the Iberian lynx. The lynxes modified and accumulated rabbit remains and also died at the site creating an accumulation dominated by the two taxa. However, other agents and processes, including human, intervened in the final configuration of the assemblage. Our study contributes to characterizing the Iberian lynx fossil accumulation differentiating between the faunal assemblages accumulated by lynxes and hominins.
The archaeological record of the Lagar Velho rock shelter (Lapedo Valley, Leiria, Portugal) bears testimony to several significant Upper Palaeolithic occupations, most notably the Lapedo Child burial ...(LV1) dating from the Gravettian. Excavations undertaken at the site since 2018 have seen the recovery of a large quantity of coprolites, above all in layer 143 (c. 29 ka cal BP). The study of these fossilized remains points to the bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) as the main coprogenic agent and provides the first descriptions of these avian coprolites in archaeological assemblages. The analyses reported involved the comparison of the coprogenic samples with modern bearded vulture scats. A new morphotype is proposed for discriminating the faeces of this avian scavenger based on (1) macroscopic analyses, (2) morphometric comparisons with other fossil and modern scats and (3) their mineralogical and elemental composition. Among the criteria proposed here to identify the coprolites of the bearded vulture are their cylindrical shape, diameter, pointed extremities and homogeneous porous texture, as well as their massive internal texture, hard consistency and total absence of bone inclusions (attributable in all likelihood to a high digastric juice acidity capable of dissolving bones). Our results indicate that, as well as being used by humans for short-term stays, the Lagar Velho rock shelter was used by the bearded vulture as a nesting site. We provide new evidence from Iberia of the activity of this avian scavenger as a bone accumulator in archaeological sites.
The European climate during the Holocene period is characterised by frequent changes of temperature and precipitation. The North Atlantic plays a major role as a driver for European climate and is a ...dominant precipitation source, particularly for the western European and north African realm. Atmospheric pressure gradients over the Atlantic (North Atlantic Oscillation, NAO), Atlantic circulation patterns (Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, AMO) or positioning of the Atlantic jet stream have been suggested to be responsible for precipitation patterns across western Europe. However, proxy data provide an inconsistent picture on how precipitation responds to changes in the Atlantic realm such as changes of Atlantic temperature (IRD), atmospheric pressure (NAO), water circulation (AMO) or the jet stream. Here we present a record of speleothem-based winter precipitation amount from Portugal. The record covers most of the Holocene and demonstrates that wetter conditions were synchronous in western and southern Iberia during early and mid Holocene. The record also shows a correlation between increased winter precipitation amount in western Iberia and Atlantic cooling, evidenced by Bond events, between 10 and 4 ka.
The spread of farming out of the Balkans and into the rest of Europe followed two distinct routes: An initial expansion represented by the Impressa and Cardial traditions, which followed the Northern ...Mediterranean coastline; and another expansion represented by the LBK (Linearbandkeramik) tradition, which followed the Danube River into Central Europe. Although genomic data now exist from samples representing the second migration, such data have yet to be successfully generated from the initial Mediterranean migration. To address this, we generated the complete genome of a 7,400-year-old Cardial individual (CB13) from Cova Bonica in Vallirana (Barcelona), as well as partial nuclear data from five others excavated from different sites in Spain and Portugal. CB13 clusters with all previously sequenced early European farmers and modern-day Sardinians. Furthermore, our analyses suggest that both Cardial and LBK peoples derived from a common ancient population located in or around the Balkan Peninsula. The Iberian Cardial genome also carries a discernible hunter-gatherer genetic signature that likely was not acquired by admixture with local Iberian foragers. Our results indicate that retrieving ancient genomes from similarly warm Mediterranean environments such as the Near East is technically feasible.
Abstract
The site of Gruta da Aroeira (Torres Novas, Portugal), with evidence of human occupancy dating to ca. 400 ka (Marine Isotope Stage 11), is one of the very few Middle Pleistocene localities ...to have provided a fossil hominin cranium associated with Acheulean bifaces in a cave context. The multi-analytic study reported here of the by-products of burning recorded in layer X suggests the presence of anthropogenic fires at the site, among the oldest such evidence in south-western Europe. The burnt material consists of bone, charcoal and, possibly, quartzite cobbles. These finds were made in a small area of the cave and in two separate occupation horizons. Our results add to our still-limited knowledge about the controlled use of fire in the Lower Palaeolithic and contribute to ongoing debates on the behavioural complexity of the Acheulean of Europe.
New rhino remains recovered from Cova del Rinoceront (Castelldefels, Barcelona) confirm the presence of Stephanorhinus hundsheimensis (Toula, 1902) at the site and the taxon’s persistence until the ...late Middle–early Upper Pleistocene in Europe, that is, its latest documented occurrence. The three individuals recovered from the site are compared with specimens of other Pleistocene species, including those of S. hemitoechus, S. kirchbergensis and Coelodonta antiquitatis, but their anatomical characteristics (a long skull, moderate occipital elevation, partial nasal septum, and slender zygomatic arch) do not coincide with the latter’s documented features. Certain similarities are found with the most frequently occurring rhinocerotid at that time in the Iberian Peninsula, S. hemitoechus, but the cranial features of the latter differ. The anatomical characteristics of the Cova del Rinoceront individuals coincide most closely with those of S. hundsheimensis (i.e., a high occipital face, with rounded proximolateral angles and oblique lateral borders, as well as the frontoparietal angle, and facial development). Despite the marked overlaps in the general measurements of S. hundsheimensis and S. hemitoechus, many (cranial and postcranial) dimensions of the Cova del Rinoceront individuals coincide more closely with those of the former, although some bone proportions are more similar to those of the latter specimens. Therefore, S. kirchbergensis and C. antiquitatis can be discarded as they tend to be larger, more robust species.
The emergence of Neolithic societies was transformative, impacting many aspects of life, particularly diet. The process of Neolithization in Iberia is increasingly understood as the arrival of new ...people from the Central Mediterranean, who dispersed along the Iberian coasts introducing cereal production, herding, and Cardial pottery and associated material culture. Although research has clarified aspects of the cultigen-dominated economy of these new people, questions remain due to the limitations of conventional archaeobotanical and archaeozoological methods that tend to produce indirect evidence. The extent to which these early farmers adopted Mesolithic staples, which are often difficult to detect with other methods, remains unclear. Furthermore, questions surround the nature of methods of food preparation Cardial Neolithic people used when incorporating grains into their diet. In this study, we examined direct evidence of the diet from the Iberian Cardial Neolithic site of Cova Bonica (Vallirana, Baix Llobregat, Catalonia) using CN stable isotopes on bone and plant microremains trapped in dental calculus from six human individuals and associated fauna. Isotopes show a diet based on terrestrial C
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resources, with no isotopic evidence of aquatic or C
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resource consumption. Plant microremains (starches and phytoliths) provide evidence of cereal use, as well as of other plant foods. However, perhaps due to Bonica’s early farmers’ choice of grain variety, their grain processing methods, or due to specific dental calculus formation factors, the grain assemblages are rather limited and provide scarce information on food preparation.
Las cavidades han sido lugares utilizados reiteradamente a lo largo de la historia y con distintas funcionalidades tal y como evidencia la tipología de los restos arqueológicos hallados. Así, la ...presencia de materiales arqueológicos en cuevas y abrigos desde la protohistoria hasta la actualidad está documentada en un buen número de yacimientos, pero pocos han sido objeto de estudio específico. La baja tasa de sedimentación y la escasez del registro pueden haber sido el principal factor de su poco interés, así como por el hecho que el estudio en cronologías históricas se ha centrado en la excavación de estructuras, ya sean poblados, ciudades, necrópolis, construcciones militares, entre otras. Las cavidades, como parte del territorio que las integran, deben tenerse en consideración en los estudios de reconstrucción histórica. En este caso, presentamos los niveles con materiales arqueológicos (cerámica, metales, industria ósea, monedas, carbones, vidrios y fauna) de cova del Gegant (Sitges, Barcelona) procedentes de tres momentos distintos: épocas ibérica, romana y ocupaciones modernas. A lo largo de la secuencia, la cueva ha tenido distintas funcionalidades, desde cobijo y espacio utilitario en época moderna y altoimperial a un posible uso relacionado con la ritualidad en época ibérica. De este momento destacan los objetos metálicos de carácter singular, especialmente de bronce, relacionados con ornamentos personales y posiblemente relacionados con rituales en un momento en que la cueva podría haber sido utilizada como cueva-santuario. Esta diversidad de funciones y su uso reiterado a lo largo de los dos últimos milenios indican la importancia de las cuevas como parte del hinterland territorial que forman parte en cada uno de los momentos históricos.
A group of beads from the artificial cave of La Molina (Lora de Estepa, Sevilla) and Cova del Gegant (Sitges, Barcelona) were made from a biogenic raw material and intentionally covered by a layer of ...resin. This is the first time this type of treatment has been documented on elements of adornment in the Late Prehistory of the Iberian Peninsula. The composition and nature of the coatings are analysed and the symbolic role of such alterations and imitations of prehistoric adornments is discussed.
The Upper Pleistocene (MIS5) site known as Cova del Rinoceront near Barcelona, Spain, contains a large assemblage of ungulate remains, among which the most dominant, in the uppermost Layer I, are ...those of the rare Mediterranean deer, Haploidoceros mediterraneus. In this paper, zooarchaeological and coprogenic analyses are used to evaluate the taphonomic and geological processes involved in determining the nature of the Layer I assemblage. The assemblage cannot have been generated by either hyenids or humans, nor does it constitute an accidental collection, as seen in other Pleistocene accummulations. Instead, the skeletal frequencies, coprogenic tracemarkers and the diagnostic biological damage on bones suggest it accumulated as a result of the feeding of a carnivore. The homogeneous pattern of carcass utilization and the predation of similar-sized ungulates suggest a canid as the main biological agent.
•First report on the accumulation of the ungulate Haploidoceros mediterraneus.•The assemblage cannot be assigned to the well-documented Pleistocene accumulations generated by either hyenids or humans•Ungulate accumulation points to a canid as the most likely biological agent.
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