A symbolic Neanderthal accumulation of large herbivore crania. Nature Human Behaviour
Evidence of a neanderthal-made quartz-based technology at Navalmaíllo Rockshelter (Pinilla del Valle, Madrid Region, Spain)
The present work describes a preliminary study of a primarily quartz-based Mousterian lithic assemblage deposited about 75,000 years ago by Neanderthals in Navalmaíllo rockshelter (Pinilla del Valle, Madrid, Spain). Although archaeological assemblages dominated by quartz are not common in the central Iberian Peninsula, they are more common in peripheral areas such as Catalonia and Galicia. As documented in other European sites, the abundance of quartz led to its becoming the main raw material used in tool-making in the area, even though it seems to be more diffi cult to knap than other, more homogeneous types of rock that fracture conchoidally. Moreover, the cores found at the Navalmaíllo site appear to have been intentionally worked to a very small size, a finding also reported for other European assemblages of similar age. The other raw materials
found at the site include chert, quartzite, porphyry, rock crystal, and sandstone, all of which appear to have been worked in the same manner as the quartz. The scarcity or quality of raw materials is not the reason for this behavior.
Lagomorph predation represented in a middle Palaeolithic level of the Navalmaíllo Rock Shelter site (Pinilla del Valle, Spain), as inferred via a new use of classical taphonomic criteria.
a b s t r a c t
Lagomorph remains at Pleistocene sites may accumulate through the action of hominins, raptors or carnivores. Actualistic studies have described reliable taphonomic indicators that allow human and nonhuman involvement in such accumulations to be distinguished. However, discriminating between possible animal predators is not easy, because the prey remnants they leave may undergo the same kinds of taphonomic transformation. The main aim of the present work was to identify the agent, human or non-human, that accumulated the lagomorph remains at the Navalmaíllo Rock Shelter site (Pinilla del Valle, Madrid). For this, 1) established taphonomic criteria, such as anatomical representation, were taken into account, 2) the presence of infant lagomorphs was examined by determining the age of the individual animals, 3) and coprolite remains adhered to fossils were identified. This new use of the latter two criteria aided in the identification of the predator responsible for the accumulation of remains. The results suggest that this was a small carnivore, probably an Iberian lynx.
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Last Interglacial (MIS 5) ungulate assemblage from the Central Iberian Peninsula: The Camino Cave (Pinilla del Valle, Madrid, Spain), Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 374: 327–337.
ABSTRACT.
The fossil assemblage from the Camino Cave, corresponding to the late MIS 5, constitutes a key record to understand the faunal composition of Central Iberia during the last Interglacial. Moreover, the largest Iberian fallow deer fossil population was recovered here. Other ungulate species present at this assemblage include red deer, roe deer, aurochs, chamois, wild boar, horse and steppe rhinoceros; carnivores and Neanderthals are also present. The origin of the accumulation has been interpreted as a hyena den.
Abundant fallow deer skeletal elements allowed to statistically compare the Camino Cave fossils with other Pleistocene and Holocene European populations. The morphological comparison of the dentition and morphometrical analyses of the metapodials suggest that the fallow deer from the Camino Cave are closer to the subspecies Dama dama geiselana and Dama dama tiberina than to the recent Dama dama dama.
Estimations of the age at death in several fallow deer young individuals provided information on seasonality, suggesting that the cave was occupied by the hyenas almost all year round.
The ungulate composition provides a clear example of an interglacial faunal complex which agrees with the published pollen, charcoal and small vertebrate data that indicate a continental Mediterranean climate. This interglacial character was also registered at other Iberian MIS 5 sequences coming from the Mediterranean margin.