2026-04-18T02:28:36Zhttps://riubu.ubu.es/oai/request

oai:riubu.ubu.es:10259/104472025-05-10T00:05:09Zcom_10259_9737com_10259_5086com_10259_2604col_10259_10448

00925njm 22002777a 4500 dc Rodríguez Gómez, Guillermo author Mateos, Ana author Martín González, Jesús Ángel author Blasco, Ruth author Rosell, Jordi author Rodríguez, Jesús author 2014-07 Increasing evidence suggests that the European human settlement is older than 1.2 Ma. However, there is a fierce debate about the continuity or discontinuity of the early human settlement of Europe. In particular, evidence of human presence in the interval 0.7−0.5 Ma is scarce in comparison with evidence for the previous and later periods. Here, we present a case study in which the environmental conditions at Sierra de Atapuerca in the early Middle Pleistocene, a period without evidence of human presence, are compared with the conditions in the previous period, for which a relatively intense human occupation is documented. With this objective in mind, the available resources for a human population and the intensity of competition between secondary consumers during the two periods are compared using a mathematical model. The Gran Dolina site TD8 level, dated to 0.7−0.6 Ma, is taken as representative of the period during which Atapuerca was apparently not occupied by humans. Conditions at TD8 are compared with those of the previous period, represented by the TD6-2 level, which has yielded abundant evidence of intense human occupation. The results show that survival opportunities for a hypothetical human population were lower at TD8 than they were at TD6-2. Increased resource competition between secondary consumers arises as a possible explanation for the absence of human occupation at Atapuerca in the early Middle Pleistocene. http://hdl.handle.net/10259/10447 10.1371/journal.pone.0101938 1932-6203 Discontinuity of Human Presence at Atapuerca during the Early Middle Pleistocene: A Matter of Ecological Competition?