XOSE-PEDRO RODRIGUEZ-ALVAREZ

This paper is a new approach to the study of the Palaeolithic sites located in the Monforte de Lemos basin. Their distributional study allow us to charasterize the settlement patterns since the Lower Paleolithic (Mode 2) to the Upper Paleolithic (Mode 4) Geographic Information Systems have been applied in order to define the different patterns and to perform Terrain Analysis such as the calculation of aspect, slope, average height, least-cost paths, visibility and proximity to river courses and routes. This spatial and diachronic approach allow identifying the evolution and variability of the settlement patterns of the paleolithic sites adscribed to the Mode 2, Mode 3 and Mode 4.

The Atapuerca localities present evidence of a long series of hominin occupations from the Early Pleistocene onward and are a key site for understanding the continuity and discontinuity of Western European technological and settlement dynamics. The TD10 unit from Gran Dolina is located in the upper part of the sequence and divided into four lithostratigraphic subunits (TD10.4 to TD10.1, from bottom to top) dated between ca. 450 ka and ca. 250 ka (Marine Isotope Stage 11 to Marine Isotope Stage 8). The technological analysis of the lithic assemblages belonging to the TD10.1 sequence aims to determine the trends among its archeological levels and check its relation to late Middle Pleistocene technological evolution and site functionality. Archeostratigraphic studies have identified several occupation events within its approximately 1.5 m of thickness, whose artifact densities and occupational models differ. However, no remarkable technical differences have been observed among them. Lithic assemblages from those events show more evolved features than other Atapuerca Mode 2 assemblages. These changes are reflected in the selective raw material management strategies; more hierarchized and predetermined reduction methods; and the progressive decrease of large cutting tools in the lithic assemblages with respect to flake tools, the latter defined by a greater typological diversification. These technological changes did not lead to a clear break with respect to previous technological models and were accompanied by other sporadic but significant changes in subsistence and behavioral strategies (bone tools and retouchers; lithic recycling, and so on), which were consolidated during the Middle Paleolithic. Hence, the archeological record from the TD10.1 subunit of Gran Dolina reflects a local stratigraphic transition from Mode 2 to Mode 3 technocomplexes, paralleling that observed in other sites in southwestern Europe.

El hallazgo de un vaso cerámico parcialmente conservado en el curso de las excavaciones llevadas a cabo en Cova Eirós permite aportar nuevos datos sobre la cultura material del Neolítico regional. El recipiente, tanto por su forma de botella como por su decoración (impresión de concha), recuerda claramente a la cerámica cardial, tan característica del registro arqueológico entre los primeros grupos neolíticos del sur de la península ibérica. Se abordan las circunstancias del hallazgo y los paralelos más cercanos, que se encuentran entre las colecciones cerámicas del sur de Portugal. A modo de conclusión, sugerimos que la pieza analizada se remonta probablemente al final del VI milenio a. C.

Abstract This article analyses the use of quartz as a raw material during the Lower Palaeolithic in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula. We studied the use of quartz at 9 sites with chronologies ranging from the end of the Early Pleistocene to the end of the Middle Pleistocene. Quartz was used in all assemblages studied, and was always collected close to the sites, most of all in the form of pebbles from river basins. There was a differential selection of raw materials, including quartz, according to the technical strategy that humans wanted to implement. Despite the apparent simplicity of operational schemes carried out using quartz, we found factors that point to a remarkable conceptual complexity in the handling of this rock, as for example knowledge of the characteristics and mechanical possibilities of quartz, and the adaptation of operational schemes to the properties of this raw material.

The introduction of farming had far-reaching impacts on health, social structure and demography. Although the spread of domesticated plants and animals has been extensively tracked, it is unclear how these nascent economies developed within different environmental and cultural settings. Using molecular and isotopic analysis of lipids from pottery, here we investigate the foods prepared by the earliest farming communities of the European Atlantic seaboard. Surprisingly, we find an absence of aquatic foods, including in ceramics from coastal sites, except in the Western Baltic where this tradition continued from indigenous ceramic using hunter-gatherer-fishers. The frequency of dairy products in pottery increased as farming was progressively introduced along a northerly latitudinal gradient. This finding implies that early farming communities needed time to adapt their economic practices before expanding into more northerly areas. Latitudinal differences in the scale of dairy producti...

In this paper, we deal with the locational analysis of the Cova Eirós site (Triacastela, Lugo), occupied from the Middle Palaeolithic to the present. From GIS and statistics, we intend to approach those environmental factors that define its importance as a place of occupation over time and on a recurring basis. Once we have analysed the variables that characterize the site’s patterns of use, we have verified that Cova Eirós is an important, prominent and strategic point. The place is very close to the potential transit routes and has great visibility. It is also protected and set on a steep slope. Moreover, the site has hunting resources and raw materials sources nearby. So it is a settlement that presents ideal living conditions for hunter-gatherer groups.

Being at the western fringe of Europe, Iberia had a peculiar prehistory and a complex pattern of Neolithization. A few studies, all based on modern populations, reported the presence of DNA of likely African origin in this region, generally concluding it was the result of recent gene flow, probably during the Islamic period. Here, we provide evidence of much older gene flow from Africa to Iberia by sequencing whole genomes from four human remains from northern Portugal and southern Spain dated around 4000 years BP (from the Middle Neolithic to the Bronze Age). We found one of them to carry an unequivocal sub-Saharan mitogenome of most probably West or West-Central African origin, to our knowledge never reported before in prehistoric remains outside Africa. Our analyses of ancient nuclear genomes show small but significant levels of sub-Saharan African affinity in several ancient Iberian samples, which indicates that what we detected was not an occasional individual phenomenon, but a...

ABSTRACT El escaso desarrollo de las formaciones calizas en el Noroeste y la concentración de las investigaciones en los entornos de terrazas fluviales y abrigos rocosos han provocado que en el Noroeste contemos con un reducido número de yacimientos en cueva. El yacimiento de Cova Eirós está situado en el témino municipal de Triacastela (Lugo). La entrada a la cavidad está ubicada en la ladera NNW del Monte Penedo, en la Serra do Ouribio, a 780 metros de altura s.n.m. y a unos 25 metros sobre el arroyo de Bezcos. El sistema cárstico de Cova Eirós se desarrolla en las calizas de la Serie de Cándana, formadas durante el Cámbrico inferior. La cavidad tiene una longitud de 104 metros, con una boca de entrada de 2 metros de altura y 3,5 metros de anchura en la actualidad. La entrada se estrecha tras los siete primeros metros de recorrido, dando paso a una gatera de aproximadamente 15 metros de longitud. A continuación se accede a la sala de mayores dimensiones de la cueva ("Sala Principal o del Mamut"), con una longitud de 15 metros, una anchura máxima de 6 y una altura máxima de unos 5 metros. Inicialmente Cova Eirós fue reconocida como yacimiento paleontológico, debido a la existencia de restos de úrsidos, concretamente Ursus spelaeus. Tras las intervenciones del 2008-2014, el yacimiento ofrece la secuencia estratigráfica más completa para el estudio del Paleolítico medio y superior en Galicia. Este hecho nos permite comparar directamente la evolución de la tecnología, las estrategias de subsistencia, de adaptación y explotación del territorio entre los Neandertales y sapiens del Noroeste. Cova Eirós se convierte en un lugar de referencia para la reconstrucción de la evolución del poblamiento de las Serras Orientais de Galicia y su relación con los asentamientos al aire libre o en abrigo de otras regiones del Noroeste. Las características del registro arqueológico recuperado, así como las manifestaciones de arte rupestre, señalan la convergencia y las similitudes con los procesos históricos identificados en la Cornisa Cantábrica.

RESuMO Os traballos levados a cabo na cunca media do Miño están a ofrecer unha ampla secuencia de ocupacións tanto en xacementos ó aire libre (Monforte de Lemos) coma en cavidades cársticas (Cova Eirós e Cova de Valdavara). Estas ocupacións non só abranguen un marco cronolóxico que vai dende o Pleistoceno medio ata o Holoceno inicial, senón que amosan a variabilidade de actividades e comportamentos dos homínidos do Pleistoceno do NW peninsular.

Cova Eiros is emerging as a reference site in the northwestern Iberian Peninsula for the study of the development of the last Neanderthal populations and the first populations of Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH) in MIS 3. Cova Eir os is an archaeological site (with Middle and Upper Palaeolithic levels) located in Cancelo, Triacastela (Lugo, northwestern Iberian Peninsula), which has been systematically excavated from 2008 onwards. The small-vertebrate assemblage analysed came from the archaeo-palaeontological field seasons that took place from 2009 to 2014. At least 18 small-vertebrate taxa have been identified: 1 frog (Rana temporaria), 1 snake (Vipera sp.), 4 insectivores (Sorex minutus, Sorex sp., Talpa cf. occidentalis and Erinaceus europaeus), 4 chiropters (Myotis myotis/blythii, cf. Miniopterus sp., Myotis sp. and Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) and 8 rodents (Apodemus sylvaticus, Arvicola amphibius, Arvicola sapidus, Chionomys nivalis, Microtus (Terricola) lusitanicus, Microtus ag...

The geomorphological and geoarchaeological study made on the Paleolithic sites of Monforte de Lemosbasin (Lugo, Galicia), along with the available OSL datings, allowed us to correlate the Pleistocenedeposits found in the basin with erosion phases previously detected in the glacial and coastal sequencesof NW Iberia as well as in other Galician Paleolithic sites. Some of these phases may be attributed toHeinrich events. In this sense, the colluvial layers identified at Monforte de Lemos show the key roleplayed by morphogenetic processes in the configuration of the continental deposits during the H4 eventat the site of As Lamas and, probably, by H6 at the site of O Regueiral. These sites can be regarded asgood examples of the role played by erosion phases on site formation and post-depositional processes inNW Iberia archaeological sites. El estudio geomorfológico y geoarqueológico de los yacimientos Paleolíticos de la depresión de Monfortede Lemos (Lugo, Galicia), así como las datacion...

Las intervenciones arqueológicas efectuadas a partir del año 2008 en el yacimiento de Cova Eirós (Triacastela, Lugo), pusieron a la luz evidencias materiales de diferentes contextos cronológicos. En este trabajo se aborda el análisis e interpretación de uno de los elementos de la cultura material más representativo de los depósitos de Cova Eirós, correspondiente a la cerámica de época histórica. Destaca la amplia presencia de tipos de época medieval, principalmente de la fase inicial y plena y de manera testimonial de Época Romana y Tardorromana. El grueso de estos materiales cerámicos pertenece a la producción de cerámica gris medieval del noroeste peninsular, siendo identificadas formas inéditas, cuanto menos desde el punto de vista historiográfico. Asimismo, se destaca la excepcional posición estratigráfica de buena parte de estos materiales, vinculados a contextos cerrados (fosas), sobre las que se llevan realizando dataciones radiocarbónicas, permitiendo asociar estas formas a ...

At Cova Eirós, we discovered 13 panels with paintings and engravings that stylistically point to the final moments of the Upper Paleolithic. Scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and Fourier transform Raman spectroscopy were used to identify charcoal as black pigment. Although contamination from medieval fires inside the cave complicates the dating of these pictographs, analyses of unpainted rock backgrounds allowed calculation corrections for contaminated samples. We used plasma oxidation and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) to directly radiocarbon (14C) date two charcoal paintings—confirming that the images are more than 9000 yr old. As these paintings superimpose engravings, these14C dates also provide a minimum age for an engraving at Cova Eirós that is stylistically Final Magdalenian/Epipaleolithic. This is the first known evidence of Paleolithic cave art in Galicia of NW Iberia.

In Western Europe, Acheulean cultural evidence is well attested by ca. 0.5 Ma. However, recent work has proven that it was present earlier; at the end of the Early Pleistocene. The timing and mode of the Western European Acheulean needs still to be investigated, and this knowledge appears to be strongly dependent upon data from sites with sufficiently well preserved archeo-stratigraphical sequences and/or geophysical conditions that guarantee reliable dating. The karstic deposits from the Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain) represent one such case. They contain exceptionally long and continuous archeo-paleontological deposits that have yielded hominins, stone tools and faunal remains from a period covering the late Early Pleistocene up to the Holocene. Previous work has allowed us to reconstruct the evolution of technology on a local scale, from the late Early to the Middle Pleistocene, and to situate the appearance of the Acheulean more or less simultaneously in the sites of Galería, Gran Dolina-TD10 and the Sima de los Huesos, at around 0.5 Ma, after a hiatus of archeological evidence of approximately 300 Ka. These Acheulean assemblages appear in association with hominin fossils that have recently been identified as early members of the Neandertal lineage. Delving further into the description of the Acheulean from Atapuerca, we have recently focused on the technological features that we consider to be of particular evolutionary significance and attempted to identify them in other European key sites of comparable chronologies. Indeed, we identified some internal evolutionary trends, which led us to propose that there was a local transition at Atapuerca from the Acheulean to the early Middle Paleolithic techno-complexes. However, the chronological setting resulting from the intensive dating programs carried out in the Galería and Sima de los Huesos sites, and especially, the correlation of these dates with the ones available from Gran Dolina-TD10, confronts us with some apparent paradoxes underlining the need to reconsider the technological interpretation of the lithic technical record from Atapuerca. While great efforts are being made in dating and analysis at many European Middle Pleistocene sites, as well as in establishing correlations with which to build consistent regional sequences, single, long, continuous, and accurately excavated (i.e. over a large surface area) archeological successions remain crucial to properly interpret the appearance and evolution of the Acheulean throughout Europe. We further stress the importance of taking into account conditioning factors such as, raw material availability , environmental constraints and site function issues. Ollé et al. (2016). Quaternary International (411), pp: 316-328. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2016.01.042

The research project that we present is a study of two sites Puig Marí (Maçanet de la Selva) and Can Planiol (Santa Coloma de Farners). Both Puig Marí and Can Planiol sites are located in the Selva depression (north-east Catalonia) and it is framed within the research project The paleosettlers of the middle Plistocene: its technological evolution in the Selva

Abstract The Sierra de Atapuerca sites (Spain) have yielded excellent data and they represent the longest chronological sequence discovered in Europe to date, covering the late Early Pleistocene to the late Middle Pleistocene. In view of these exceptional characteristics, this work aims to meet three objectives: to characterise the technological features of various key European sites in relation to the significant factors observed through the Atapuerca sequence; to evaluate whether technological evolution in Europe during ...