The ecodynamics of the first modern humans in Southwestern Iberia: The case of Vale Boi, Portugal

Bicho, Nuno; Manne, Tiina; Marreiros, João; Cascalheira, João; Pereira, Telmo; Tátá, Frederico; Évora, Marina; Gonçalves, Célia; Infantini, Leandro

doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2013.06.029

Cited by 22 publications

(14 citation statements)

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“…Examination of samples from levels E‐F under a hand lens shows a significant amount of crushed and burned bone in the fine sediment fraction, along with shell, charcoal, wood ash, limestone fragments, and some quartz sand. This is consistent with observations of Bicho et al () who concluded that the hearths were used to crush bones and extract marrow. Organic matter in these levels undoubtedly comes from a variety of sources, but their carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios fall within the range reported for bone and tooth collagen by Bocherens et al (), and the δ 13 C values are broadly similar to those obtained on bones analyzed for radiocarbon dating in this study (Table ).…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 93%

“…For the Paleolithic of the Iberian Peninsula, much of the dated lithic industry and virtually all of the human remains are known from cave and rockshelter sites, such as Gorham's and Vanguard Caves (Macphail & Goldberg, ), Atapuerca (Bermudez de Castro et al, ), El Mirón (Carretero et al, ), El Sidrón (Lalueza Fox, Rosas, & de la Rasilla, ; Rosas et al, ), Cueva del Esquilleu (Presleyer et al, ), El Castillo (Bernaldo de Quiros et al, ), the Almonda cave network (Angelucci & Zilhão, ; Daura et al, ; Trinkaus, Maki, & Zilhão, ), Vale Boi (Bicho et al, ), and many others (Butzer, ; Duarte et al, ; Zilhão et al, ; Carbonell, ; de la Torre, Martinez‐Moreno, & Mora, ; Zilhão et al, ; Zilhão et al, ;Trinkaus & Walker, ). Iberian cave and rockshelter sites play an important role in a number of contemporary debates in Paleolithic Geoarchaeology, including the emergence of coastal adaptations and settlement (Bicho & Haws, ; Finlayson, ; Haws et al, ; Marean, ; Stringer et al, ), the impacts of paleoenvironmental fluctuations on cultural transitions (Bicho, Cascalheira, Marreiros, & Pereira, ; Bicho, Haws, & Almeida, ; Mallol, Hernandez, & Machado, ; Moreno, Gonzalez‐Samperiz, Morellon, Valero‐Garces, & Fletcher, ; Naughton et al, ; Schmidt et al, ), and the causes of Neanderthal decline and replacement by Modern Human populations (Aubry et al, ; Bicho, ; Finlayson & Carrion, ; Finlayson et al, ; Galvan et al, ; Higham et al, ; Jimenez‐Espejo et al, ; Marin‐Arroyo et al, ; Mora et al, ; Polo‐Diaz, Benito‐Calvo, Martinez‐Moreno, & Mora Torcal, ; Straus, Bicho, & Winegardner, ; Tzedakis, Hughen, Cacho, & Harvati, ; Wood et al, ; Zilhão et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Late Pleistocene site formation and paleoclimate at Lapa do Picareiro, Portugal

et al. 2019

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The cave site of Lapa do Picareiro, Portugal contains a deep (~10 m) sedimentary sequence representing much of the Middle and Upper Paleolithic, with abundant animal bones, lithic/bone/shell artifacts, and charcoal/ash in hearths. A deposition model based on 49 radiocarbon ages demonstrates average sedimentation rates of 0.1-0.3 mm a −1 between 9 and 45 ka. Extrapolation suggests an age at the base of the excavation of 65-78 ka. The cave sediments are primarily limestone éboulis derived from roof spalling, and muddy fine sediment derived from weathered soil infiltrating through bedrock joints and crevices. Bone preservation in the cave is good and disturbance by bioturbation, dissolution, or erosional processes appears to be limited. Most sedimentological parameters vary conservatively with depth, indicating stable sediment sources over time. Several parameters show good agreement with paleoclimate records over the radiocarbon-dated section. The cold-arid Heinrich stadials are represented by coarse-clast beds with little fine sediment and magnetic susceptibility minima, and mild Greenland interstadials correspond with muddy beds and sharp peaks in magnetic susceptibility. This study complements ongoing archaeological excavation at the site and confirms that the sequence has the proper age, resolution, and preservation to inform on Late Pleistocene cultural and climatic transitions. K E Y W O R D S caves, Iberia, paleoclimate, Paleolithic, site formation 1 | INTRODUCTION Sedimentary deposits in caves and rock shelters are central to our understanding of human prehistory. Although caves represent only a fraction of the landscapes occupied by prehistoric humans, under the proper conditions they offer long-term preservation of valuable paleoenvironmental information in stratified sedimentary archives.The study of karstic sediments as environmental archives has a strong tradition in geoarchaeology, beginning with seminal works of the last century and advanced by developments in both methodology and theory (e.g., Collcutt). Recent geoarchaeological research in caves employs stateof-the-art dating techniques, isotope geochemistry, micromorphology, and spectroscopy to interpret site formation processes over timescales from hundreds of years to hundreds of millennia (e.g.,

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 93%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Late Pleistocene site formation and paleoclimate at Lapa do Picareiro, Portugal

et al. 2019

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“…A Canis specimen (LYEP3) was found during the 2003 excavations in Vale Boi (south of Portugal) directed by Nuno Bicho (Bicho et al, 2013(Bicho et al, , 2012. The highly-fragmented condition of this specimen prevented any measurements from being taken.…”

Section: Mesolithic Canis Samplesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The curious case of the Mesolithic Iberian dogs: An archaeogenetic study

Pires¹,

Detry²,

Chikhi³

et al. 2019

Journal of Archaeological Science

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We investigated the genetic composition of six Canis remains from western Iberia, directly radiocarbon dated to 7,903-7,570 years (cal BP). They were identified as dogs via their archaeological and depositional context, osteometry, and a high percentage of aquatic diet shared with humans. For comparison, genetic data were obtained from an additional 37 Iberian dog remains from the Neolithic to Late Antiquity, as well as two Palaeolithic and a Chalcolithic Canis identified as wolves. Previous data indicated that dog mtDNA haplogroup A (HgA) is prevalent in extant European dogs (>50%), in the Near East and Asia, but rare or absent (<10%) in European Canis older than 3,000 years (cal BP). We found a high frequency (83%) of dog HgA in Mesolithic Iberian dog remains. This is the first report of a high frequency of dog HgA in pre-Neolithic Europe. We show that, contrary to the current view, Canis with HgA did not necessarily arrive in Europe from East-Asia. This phylogeographical difference in HgA frequency demonstrates that genetic differentiation was high prior to, or as a consequence of, domestication which may be linked with pre-Neolithic local processes for Iberian wolf domestication. Our results emphasize that knowledge of both ancient wolves' and early dogs' genetic profiles from the European periphery should improve our understanding of the evolution of the European dog.

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“…The site of Vale Boi was discovered in 1998 and excavation started in 2000 (Bicho et al 2004(Bicho et al , 2013). There are four different loci (Terrace, Slope, Rock Shelter and Rock Shelter 2) with archaeological horizons dated to the early Gravettian (Bicho et al 2015(Bicho et al , 2017a, Solutrean and…”

Section: Case Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Use of Lithic Assemblages for the Definition of Short-Term Occupations in Hunter-Gatherer Prehistory

Cascalheira

Bicho

2020

Short-Term Occupations in Paleolithic Archaeology

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One of the main elements in prehistoric research is the study of settlement patterns. In the last five decades, stemming partially from Binford's research on the topic, the idea of settlement patterns is based on site typology, including the traditional residential and logistic concepts. Both models of land use and exploitation are certainly marked by the notion of short-term occupation. This concept, used freely by many archaeologists, tends to rely on two main ideas: an occupation lasted a short span of time and resulted in a limited amount of material culture. Our aim, based on our results from various archaeological case studies dated to the Upper Paleolithic of Portugal, is to show that neither idea is necessarily correct: e.g. there may be short-term occupations with the production of large amounts of artifacts, such as lithic workshops; there might be very small collections, such as lithic caches, resulting from short occupations but with very long uses of the site; and most times, both are hardly differentiated within complex palimpsests. Our study shows that the common use of lithic volumetric density and retouch frequency is not always sufficient to differentiate between short and long-term occupations. Also, there are other variables that are more sensitive to indicate the duration of occupation of an archaeological context that should be used in the identification of time length. The archaeological use of 'Short-term occupation' Prehistoric archaeology has been fighting hard to understand the archaeological record and how it relates to past human evolution and anthropogenic adaptations to the changing environment. The development of actualistic studies (sensu Binford 1981) in the last half century, including such specialized disciplines as Ethnoarchaeology, Geoarchaeology or Zooarchaeology, have greatly helped us to understand, not only the archaeological material culture, but also site formation processes (e.g. Schiffer 1983, 1987) in a wide and very diversified manner. Nevertheless, archaeologists still endure complex problems for the definition of universally used concepts related to past human adaptations. In some cases, however, archaeologists just freely use those concepts without the necessary careful or proper consideration of their meaning and the impact that they might have in further interpretations of the distant past. The concept of 'shortterm occupation' seems to be such a case. The idea of short-term occupation has been frequently used to succinctly describe site´s or lithic assemblage's characteristics (e.g. Porraz 2009; Rios-Garaizar 2016; Picin 2017). Most times, it is, in one way or another, related to work on settlement patterns, starting with the classic Binford' studies on the Nunamiut settlement system and related discussion of site structuring and intra-site spatial organization (e.g. Binford 1978a,

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The ecodynamics of the first modern humans in Southwestern Iberia: The case of Vale Boi, Portugal

Cited by 22 publications

References 94 publications

Late Pleistocene site formation and paleoclimate at Lapa do Picareiro, Portugal

Late Pleistocene site formation and paleoclimate at Lapa do Picareiro, Portugal

The curious case of the Mesolithic Iberian dogs: An archaeogenetic study

Use of Lithic Assemblages for the Definition of Short-Term Occupations in Hunter-Gatherer Prehistory

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