2024-03-28T11:57:48Zhttps://riubu.ubu.es/oai/requestoai:riubu.ubu.es:10259/61102022-11-25T13:51:59Zcom_10259.4_2560com_10259_5086com_10259_2604col_10259.4_2561
Fire and brief human occupations in Iberia during MIS 4: Evidence from Abric del Pastor (Alcoy, Spain)
Mallol, Carolina
Hernández Gómez, Cristo M.
Mercier, Norbert
Falguères, Christophe
Carrancho Alonso, Ángel
Cabanes, Dan .
Vidal-Matutano, Paloma
Connolly, Rory
Pérez, Leopoldo
Mayor, Alejandro
Ben Arous, Eslem
Galván, Bertila
Arqueología
Prehistoria
Archaeology
Prehistoric peoples
There is a relatively low amount of Middle Paleolithic sites in Europe dating to MIS 4. Of the few that
exist, several of them lack evidence for anthropogenic fire, raising the question of how this period
of global cooling may have affected the Neanderthal population. The Iberian Peninsula is a key area
to explore this issue, as it has been considered as a glacial refugium during critical periods of the
Neanderthal timeline and might therefore yield archaeological contexts in which we can explore
possible changes in the behaviour and settlement patterns of Neanderthal groups during MIS 4.
Here we report recent data from Abric del Pastor, a small rock shelter in Alcoy (Alicante, Spain) with
a stratified deposit containing Middle Palaeolithic remains. We present absolute dates that frame
the sequence within MIS 4 and multi-proxy geoarchaeological evidence of in situ anthropogenic fire,
including microscopic evidence of in situ combustion residues and thermally altered sediment. We also
present archaeostratigraphic evidence of recurrent, functionally diverse, brief human occupation of the
rock shelter. Our results suggest that Neanderthals occupied the Central Mediterranean coast of the
Iberian Peninsula during MIS 4, that these Neanderthals were not undergoing climatic stress and they
were habitual fire users.
This research was funded by a Leakey Foundation General Grant, Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation
and Universities Projects HAR2008-06117/HIST and HAR2015-68321-P, Junta de Castilla y León-FEDER
Project BU235P18, the LabEx Sciences Archéologiques de Bordeaux (LaScArBx ANR-10-LABX-52) and ERC
Consolidator Grant ERC-CoG-2014. Archaeological excavations at Abric del Pastor are supported by the
Archaeological Museum of Alcoy and the Government of Valencia Cultural Heritage Department.
2021-11-05T09:15:00Z
2021-11-05T09:15:00Z
2019-12
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
2045-2322
http://hdl.handle.net/10259/6110
10.1038/s41598-019-54305-9
eng
Scientific Reports. 2019, V. 9, 18281
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-54305-9
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/MICIU//HAR2008-06117%2FHIST/ES/Territorio Neandertal. Caracterización de las primeras sociedades cazadoras-recolectoras de los valles alcoyanos (Alicante, España)
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/MICIU//HAR2015-68321-P/ES/NEANDERTALES EN LA MONTAÑA ALICANTINA. UN ENFOQUE MULTIANALITICO
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/Junta de Castilla y León//BU235P18//Análisis arqueomagnéticos en materiales arqueológicos quemados de edad holocena y pleistocena
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ANR//ANR-10-LABX-52
Atribución 4.0 Internacional
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
application/pdf
Springer Nature