Lithic refitting and the analysis of Middle Palaeolithic settlement dynamics: a high-temporal resolution example from El Pastor rock shelter (Eastern Iberia)

Machado, Jorge; Mayor, Alejandro; Hernández, Constantino Criado; Galván, Bertila

doi:10.1007/s12520-019-00859-8

Cited by 26 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Reviewing the upper Pleistocene sites on the Iberian Peninsula, we found caves such as Axlor (Rios-Garaizar, 2017; Gómez-Olivencia et al, 2018), El Castillo (Bernaldo et al, 2014), Cueva Morín (Maillo-Fernández et al, 2014), Esquilleu (Cuartero et al, 2015; Baena-Preysler et al, 2019), Prado Vargas (Navazo and Díez, 2008), Arrillor (Iriarte-Chiapusso et al, 2019), Jarama VI (Jordá-Pardo et al, 2014), Gabasa (Montes and Utrilla, 2014), Abric Romaní (Marín et al, 2017), La Arbreda (Lloveras et al, 2018), Teixoneres (Rosell et al, 2017), Abric del Pastor (Machado et al, 2019), Bolomor (Sañudo et al, 2016), Cova Negra (Martínez Valle et al, 2016), El Salt (Leierer et al, 2019), Bajondillo (Cortés-Sánchez et al, 2019), and Boquete de Zafarraya (Barroso et al, 2014), among others, have shown several levels of Neanderthal occupation. However, most of them have been interpreted as short-term occupations separated by unoccupied gaps during which many of these caves were occupied bycarnivores.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Atapuerca Neanderthal landscape at Fuente Mudarra site in Burgos, Spain, during Marine Isotope Stages 5–3

et al. 2020

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Fuente Mudarra is on a gentle slope on the left bank of the Pico River, near Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain. A 12−m2 test pit was dug at this large open-air site between 2012 and 2017. Several upper Pleistocene archaeological levels were documented. Results from Fuente Mudarra confirm that Neanderthal groups, little represented at cave sites, occupied Sierra de Atapuerca from the end of the middle Pleistocene and during the upper Pleistocene. The site also provides insight into Neanderthal spatial organization in the Atapuerca area and whether they used the caves in an occasional, non-habitual way like the open-air sites.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Atapuerca Neanderthal landscape at Fuente Mudarra site in Burgos, Spain, during Marine Isotope Stages 5–3

et al. 2020

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“…Even in archaeological contexts of high temporal resolution, each stratigraphically-expressed palimpsest is acknowledged to integrate successive occupation events (i.e. Julien et al 1992;Vaquero 2008Henry 2012;Vaquero et al 2012a;Chacón et al 2015;Machado et al 2013Machado et al , 2019Mallol et al 2019;Real et al 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Late Neanderthal short-term and specialized occupations at the Abri du Maras (South-East France, level 4.1, MIS 3)

Moncel

Chacón

Vettese

et al. 2021

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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Level 4.1 from the Abri du Maras (Ardèche, France) is chronologically attributed to the beginning of MIS 3 and is one example of late Neanderthal occupations in the southeast of France. Previous work on the faunal and lithic remains suggest that this level records short-term hunting episodes of reindeer associated with fragmented lithic reduction sequences. During fieldwork, the high density of the material did not allow identification of clear spatial patterning of these activities. In order to try to decipher the palimpsest of these short-term occupations, we combined contextual micro-stratigraphic analysis with interdisciplinary and methodological approaches to obtain high-resolution intra-site spatial data. The former was performed by studying microfacies variability of occupation layers at meso to microscales. A combination of spatial techniques based on GIS and kernel density analysis, along with faunal and lithic refitting was used and focused on the horizontal distribution of the whole archaeological assemblage.The results demonstrate that quantitative approaches, associated with the interdisciplinary empirical processing of data, are suitable and adequate methods for describing the spatio-temporal formation of the archaeological assemblage. This integrated approach allowed us to identify a temporal succession of occupational events marked by distinctive anthropic imprints in the host matrix in well-preserved activity areas. The analysis of their spatial patterns reveals differential treatment of lithic and faunal remains. We describe the possible organization of the settlement patterns dynamics of these specialized short-term occupations.

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“…Hearths are key features for working towards the goal of dissecting the micropalimpsests (e.g. Machado et al 2013Machado et al , 2019Sañudo et al 2012), because the top of the burnt soils represent occupation surfaces.…”

Section: Lithic Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Methodologically, this has been approached through spatial analysis by combining archaeostratigraphy and lithic refitting to identify specific knapping sequences and intra-site dynamics (e.g. Bourguignon et al 2008;López et al 2017;Machado et al 2013Machado et al , 2019Nerudová and Neruda 2017;Romagnoli and Vaquero 2016;Sañudo et al 2016;Sumner and Kuman 2014;Takakura 2018;Vaquero 2008;Vaquero et al 2012bVaquero et al , 2017.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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On identifying Palaeolithic single occupation episodes: archaeostratigraphic and technological approaches to the Neanderthal lithic record of stratigraphic unit xa of El Salt (Alcoi, eastern Iberia)

Mayor

Hernández

Machado

et al. 2020

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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Within the framework of archaeological palimpsest dissection, stratigraphic association of lithic remains with hearths and other archaeological materials in undisturbed Neanderthal contexts allows us to seek patterns in lithic and faunal assemblage composition, assess the degree of time averaging within assemblages and investigate the spatial distribution of archaeological remains. So far, the European Neanderthal record shows variability in such spatial parameters, not only among different geographic regions but also across time. This approach has been employed to draw conclusions about the main features of Neanderthal occupations from in situ archaeological contexts within individual site sequences. As contribution to this topic, we present new results from our ongoing archaeostratigraphic investigation of stratigraphic unit Xa from El Salt (Alcoi, Alacant, eastern Iberia). Our previous study, based on stratigraphic analysis of the lithic record consisting of raw material units, yielded several micropalimpsests within unit Xa. Here, we carry out further technological and spatial analysis of the micropalimpsest units. The results obtained from it suggest that we may be able, in specific cases, to recognise indicators of diachrony within the context of these archaeostratigraphic units. This confirms the existence of a micropalimpsest, and suggests that we have the chance to find analytical frames that are even closer to the human temporal scale than the AU. This should be the target of future interdisciplinary behavioural study of El Salt unit Xa. This work illustrates the potential of a spatial and archaeostratigraphic approach to stone tool technology and brings to light the importance of archaeological palimpsest dissection as a first step for behavioural analysis in Palaeolithic research.

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Lithic refitting and the analysis of Middle Palaeolithic settlement dynamics: a high-temporal resolution example from El Pastor rock shelter (Eastern Iberia)

Cited by 26 publications

References 48 publications

Atapuerca Neanderthal landscape at Fuente Mudarra site in Burgos, Spain, during Marine Isotope Stages 5–3

Atapuerca Neanderthal landscape at Fuente Mudarra site in Burgos, Spain, during Marine Isotope Stages 5–3

Late Neanderthal short-term and specialized occupations at the Abri du Maras (South-East France, level 4.1, MIS 3)

On identifying Palaeolithic single occupation episodes: archaeostratigraphic and technological approaches to the Neanderthal lithic record of stratigraphic unit xa of El Salt (Alcoi, eastern Iberia)

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