The Early Pleistocene sites of Orce in southeastern Spain, including Fuente Nueva-3 (FN3),
Barranco León (BL) and Venta Micena (VM), provide important insights into the earliest hominin
populations and Late Villafranchian large mammal communities. Dated to approximately 1.4 million
years ago, FN3 and BL preserve abundant Oldowan tools, cut marks and a human primary tooth,
indicating hominin activity. VM, approximately 1.6 million years old, is an outstanding site because it
preserves an exceptionally rich assemblage of large mammals and predates the presence of hominins,
providing a context for pre-human conditions in the region. Research suggests that both hominins and
giant hyenas were essential to the accumulation of skeletal remains at FN3 and BL, with secondary
access to meat resources exploited by saber-toothed felids. This aim of this study aims to correlate the
relative abundance of large herbivores at these sites with their estimates of Carrying Capacity (CC)
and Total Available Biomass (TAB) using the PSEco model, which incorporates survival and mortality
profiles to estimate these parameters in paleoecosystems. Our results show: (i) similarities between
quarries VM3 and VM4 and (ii) similarities of these quarries with BL-D (level D), suggesting a similar
formation process; (iii) that the role of humans would be secondary in BL-D and FN3-LAL (Lower
Archaeological Level), although with a greater human influence in FN3-LAL due to the greater
presence of horses and small species; and (iv) that FN3-UAL (Upper Archaeological Level) shows
similarities with the expected CC values for FN3/BL, consistent with a natural trap of quicksand
scenario, where the large mammal species were trapped according to their abundance and body
mass, as there is a greater presence of rhinos and mammoths due to the greater weight per unit area
exerted by their legs. Given the usefulness of this approach, we propose to apply it first to sites that
have been proposed to function as natural traps.
