Recycling economy in the Mousterian of the Iberian Peninsula: The case study of El Esquilleu

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

“…More similar to our case are the few Iberian examples of a single territory containing several sites with the same chronologies; this includes El Habario and El Esquilleu (Cuartero et al, 2015), the Pinilla del Valle sites (Márquez et al, 2016; Sánchez-Romero et al, 2017), Roca del Bous together with Cova Gran (Mora et al, 2018) and Cova de L'estret (Casanova et al, 2014), and Fuente Mudarra and the other Sierra de Atapuerca sites. Occupations at all these sites were short but recurrent and were generally associated with seasonal cycles and other nearby locations that are exactly the same.…”

“…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.…”

From petrographic analysis to stereomicroscopic characterisation: a geoarchaeological approach to identify quartzite artefacts in the Cantabrian Region

“…The use of different environments where different types of quartzite (or other raw materials) was caught/ selected also contributes to this variability, as it was suggested by other authors (Castanedo 2001;Manzano et al 2005;Rios-Garaizar 2012;Roy et al 2017). Finally, lithic assemblages also show a complex management as a consequence of the different human decisions for taking advantage in the changeable environment where societies inhabited (Carrión et al 2013;Cuartero et al 2015;Santamaría et al 2010). We would like to underline that these human and socio-economic standpoints based on complex management of lithic resources in Middle-Palaeolithic contexts are being proposed not only in the Cantabrian Region, but also in other parts of Europe (Richter 2016;Turq et al 2013Turq et al , 2017.…”

“…Carrión et al 2008;Gonzalez-Urquijo et al 2005; Rios-Garaizar 2012). These researches accomplished not only a description of lithic assemblages using typological characterisation of retouched artefacts, but they also unveiled catchment mechanisms (Carrión and Baena 1999;Castanedo 2001;Manzano et al 2005), technological procedures (Carrión 2002;Cuartero et al 2015;Maillo 2007;Santamaría et al 2010) or use practices (Rios-Garaizar 2010). These studies have opened new perspectives to discover a complex and varied economy from geographic, chronological and human standpoint.…”

Defining and Characterizing Archaeological Quartzite: Sedimentary and Metamorphic Processes in the Lithic Assemblages of El Habario and El Arteu (Cantabrian Mountains, Northern Spain)

“…Determining the size, shape and arrangement of the quartz grains in the quartzite that make up most of the sample was another objective of the study, taking into account the important role devoted in previous attempts of archaeological quartzite classification (Sarabia ; Manzano et al ; Cuartero et al ). Representative sectors of the thin sections were photographed at a high resolution and 200× magnification with a Keyence VH‐Z20R/VH‐Z20W 3D scanning microscope and a VHX‐200E camera in the Geography Department, University of Cologne, Germany.…”