Combined dental wear and cementum analyses in ungulates reveal the seasonality of Neanderthal occupations in Covalejos Cave (Northern Iberia)

Abstract

We propose for the first time the use of the combination of two high-resolution techniques, dental wear (meso- and microwear) and dental cementum analyses, to gain a better understanding of Neanderthal subsistence strategies and occupational patterns. Dental wear analysis provides information not only on ungulate palaeodiet and palaeoenvironments but also on hunting time and seasons. Dental cementum analysis allows the accurate determination of the age and season at death of a prey. Our study has focused on the Cantabrian region and has applied both methods to investigate the Mousterian faunal assemblages in Covalejos Cave. Identification of the ungulate palaeodiet reveals information on the environmental conditions of the studied region. Moreover, it may facilitate observation on the evolution of both palaeodiet and palaeoenvironment throughout the site sequence. Results show a general stability in the palaeoenvironmental conditions and in the ungulate palaeodiet throughout the Mousterian sequence; this finding may be attributed to the role of the area as a climate refuge, and slight differences in levels 8, 7 and 4 suggest long- or short-term but repeated Neanderthal occupations at different seasons in the annual cycle.

Neanderthals’ hunting seasonality inferred from combined cementochronology, mesowear, and microwear analysis: case studies from the Alpine foreland in Italy

“…We prepared and described the sample to be analyzed following the well-established protocol (Solounias and Semprebon 2002; Semprebon et al 2004;Semprebon 2011, 2012;Rivals et al 2007, 2009a, b, c a, b, Rivals et al 2015a, b, Rivals et al 2018Sánchez-Hernández et al 2019, 2020, among the others). The occlusal surface of each specimen was cleaned with acetone and then 96% ethanol, and once dry, it is molded with vinylpolysiloxane, a high-resolution dental silicone.…”

“…By contrast, microwear analysis investigates microscopic features which are the recording of the diet of the last days or weeks before the death of the animal (Merceron et al 2004;Semprebon et al 2004;Rivals and Semprebon 2012). So, the combination of these two dental wear techniques gives access not only to the degree of attrition and abrasiveness of food in an annual cycle (mesowear), but also to any possible variations due to seasonal environmental influences (microwear) (Sánchez-Hernández et al 2019). Moreover, microwear analysis is also useful to assess the duration of accumulation events and, consequently, the extent of the human occupation.…”

“…In addition to that, the cementochronology technique, which is based on the observation of the microscopic incremental tissue of the teeth (see "Materials and methods") enables us to estimate the age at death of each individual and the season when the animal was killed (Lieberman 1991;Pike-Tay 1991a;Gourichon 2004;Rendu 2007;Naji et al 2015, among the others). This allows us to correlate the seasonal feeding pattern with a specific period of the annual cycle (Sánchez-Hernández et al 2019, 2020.…”

Cementochronology Protocol for Selecting a Region of Interest in Zooarchaeology

“…3) determine the nature and stage of growth of the last increment for estimating the season of death. Regarding the last step, the procedure followed the method usually applied in zooarchaeology for the identification of the nature and growth stage of the last increment (Pike-Tay 1995 ;Gourichon 2004;Naji, Gourichon, and Rendu 2015;Sánchez-Hernández et al 2019):…”

Connecting Middle Palaeolithic Datasets: the Interplay of Zooarchaeological and Lithic Data for Unravelling Neanderthal Behaviour

“…García-Moreno et al 2016;McPherron 2018) and refit studies (Vaquero et al 2017;Discamps et al 2019;Romagnoli and Vaquero 2019), can further help to understand the distribution of material across a site. Site use and function, including occupation duration and intensity, can be further explored by looking at patterns of burning (Pop et al 2016;Leierer et al 2019), seasonality data (Rendu and Armand 2009;Rendu 2010;Sánchez-Hernández et al 2019;Britton et al 2019) and raw material transport distances (Turq et al 2017;Moncel et al 2019).…”