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.
