Amèlia Bargalló

Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social | IPHES

The aim of this paper is to apply a previously published method (Bargalló and Mosquera, 2014) to the archaeological record, allowing us to identify the hand laterality of our ancestors and determine when and how this feature, which is exhibited most strongly in humans, appeared in our evolutionary history. The method focuses on identifying handedne...

Cultural deposits, especially those accumulated in caves and rock shelters, are usually the results of several occupational events in the same space, forming palimpsests. In addition, the materials of these occupational events tend to be deposited along with remains of natural origin and may be altered, partially destroyed or reworked due to the pr...

In this paper we present a new method for inferring handedness from lithic evidence. The study was conducted by means of an experimental programme in stone-knapping, after which the resulting lithic products (tools) were analysed. These lithic tools were produced by 15 inexpert knappers (8 right-handed and 7 left-handed), because we were not able t...

The reconstruction of human behavior is the main goal of Paleolithic archaeology. To interpret archaeological assemblages and the activities associated with them, a homogeneous and high resolution corpus of information is needed, especially to place these assemblages and activities in time and space. The way to achieve this is to use a variety of p...

Situated in southern Spain's Guadix-Baza basin, Barranco León and Fuente Nueva 3 (Orce, Andalusia, Spain) are two of the most important western European Oldowan archeological sites. After 30 years of quasi-uninterrupted excavations, these two occurrences have yielded exceptional lithic and faunal records in precisely dated stratigraphic situations,...

The identification of Oldowan hominin knapping skill levels has been a focus of numerous studies, with apparent variation in technical abilities identified between a number of Early Stone Age archaeological sites. Raw material variability, however, can play a significant role in the outcomes of knapping events as well as in the accuracy of analysis...

This paper presents the limestone reduction sequences documented in levels M and Ob at Abric Romaní from a technological point of view. At level M, a recurrent knapping system has been identified, resulting in the frequency of pseudo-Levallois blanks. At archaeolevel Ob, the presence of Levallois methods are observed in association with this knappi...

Barranco León (Orce, Andalusia, Spain) provides the oldest case of knapping and percussive activities on an ancient raw material reservoir deposit. This site has already proven to be one of the oldest and most significant Oldowan open-air sites in Europe (1.4 Ma), with an exceptionally rich flint and limestone lithic assemblage, in association with...

This paper focuses on the study of some Middle Palaeolithic assemblages from Mediterranean Iberia to examine Neanderthal occupation patterns and territory management strategies, paying special attention to raw material procurement and technological behaviours, zooarchaeological data and microspatial patterning. The site occupation types are variabl...

The Atapuerca localities present evidence of a long series of hominin occupations from the Early Pleistocene onward and are a key site for understanding the continuity and discontinuity of Western European technological and settlement dynamics. The TD10 unit from Gran Dolina is located in the upper part of the sequence and divided into four lithost...

This study represents the first integrated approach to the lithic raw materials exploited by the Neanderthals that occupied the Abric Romaní site (NE Iberia). Focusing on chert as the most abundant raw material (>80% of the assemblages), we determine the potential procurement areas and the mobility patterns. Geo-archaeological surveys within a radi...

The phenomenon of microlithism continues to be one of the most interesting topics in the prehistoric archaeology of the Middle Palaeolithic period because it is key to understanding the technology and cultural and economic organisation of Neanderthal societies. The aim of this research is to characterise small-flake industries based on two archaeol...

The lithic assemblage of Barranco León (BL), attributed to the Oldowan techno-complex, contributes valuable information to reconstruct behavioral patterning of the first hominins to disperse into Western Europe. This archaic stone tool assemblage comprises two, very different groups of tools, made from distinct raw materials. On the one hand, a sma...

Isolating the various occupational events in the Palaeolithic record is hard work, because the remains from different occupations commonly overlap, creating archaeological palimpsests. We can differentiate two different types of palimpsest: vertical and horizontal ones. These two types are very important for identifying and defining short-or long-t...

After deconstructing the palimpsest of level O, we present a cross-disciplinary study on a short occupation of the Abric Romaní rock shelter conducted by means of an analysis of the record of archaeo-level Oa, a Middle Palaeolithic assemblage dated to ca. 54 Ka BP by U/Th series. In this study, we present the steps we took to puzzle out the palimps...

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The intrasite mobility of lithic artifacts is one of the most relevant issues that can be approached from the spatial study of refitting. In many sites, researchers have determined that some artifacts were abandoned at a considerable distance from the place where they were produced. Once natural causes of a post-depositional nature are ruled out, t...

Social learning informs us of the cognitive abilities to acquire knowledge transmitted between generations as adaptive strategies (Tomasello et al. 1993). In the archaeological record, the transmission of knowledge and skills are identified through repetitive patterns, however, the majority of these only remain in the best-preserved archaeological...

The intra-site spatial patterns of lithic artefacts and their density are traditionally used in Prehistory as proxies for activity areas and social organisation of past human groups. This approach allows identifying domestic units, inferring number of co-resident, understanding site function and duration of occupation. These topics are especially i...

Ethnoarchaeological research has shown that the intra-site spatial distribution of material is related to the social behaviour of human groups. As a consequence, intra-site spatial analysis of archaeological remains can be very informative on past human behaviour. However, several handicaps due to intrinsic features of the archaeological record hin...

Stone tools are the most represented archaeological remains in Pleistocene sites. Firstly, for the better preservation of the lithic remains, and secondly, because they are direct ev-idences of human activity. However, the traditional technological studies are currently in non-use, and new research addressed to cognitive evolution, socialization an...

Isolate different occupational events in the Palaeolithic record is a hard work, because the overlapping of the remains from different occupations is very common, and this phenomenon creates archaeological palimpsests. We can differentiate two types of palimpsest: the vertical and the horizontal ones. These two types are very important to identify...

The skill spectrum for stone tool knappers is very wide. Concepts such as connaissance, savoir-faire, know-how, knowledge cognition, and motor ability are more difficult to track in human evolution. However, it is possible to identify if we search for the prehistoric individual , and analyse his/her lithic production. In this paper, we present the...

In the last decades, we have witnessed crucial advances to describe and explain the variability of Mousterian lithic productions across Europe. This variability has important implications in terms of adaptive responses at the environmental and cultural changes that Neanderthals faced between ca. 250-30 kyr BP. The production of small tools is part...

The Abric Romaní site (Capellades, Barcelona, Spain) constitutes a key site for understanding the latest Neanderthal occupations in Western Europe. Here we present a comprehensive systematic and taphonomic analysis of a small-mammal assemblage from Level O of the Abric Romaní site, with the aim of reconstructing the paleoecological context in which...

Ramification is the term used to classify branched productive sequences in which a functional item (the flake) was exploited as a productive item (the core). This technological behaviour was present in Europe and the Levant beginning in the Lower and Early Middle Palaeolithic, but ramified productions were intensely developed in the Late Middle Pal...

Determining hand laterality during human evolution is important in order to identify brain hemispheric lateralization for motor tasks and, indirectly, to gain information on the complex cognitive functions of the human brain. In this paper, we present a new method for inferring handedness from lithic evidence. The study is based on an analysis of t...

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Practically all archeological assemblages are palimpsests. In spite of the high temporal resolution of Abric Romaní site, level O, dated to around 55 ka, is not an exception. This paper focuses on a zooarcheological and taphonomic analysis of this level, paying special attention to spatial and temporal approaches. The main goal is to unravel the pa...

Level TE9c of the Sima del Elefante site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain) is one of the oldest sites with evidence of human occupation in western Europe. We began excavating level TE9c in 2003, and the work there continues today. The studies of the archaeology, palaeontology and geology from this locality have provided an indispensable dataset with whi...

Technological changes have been identified in several European Middle Palaeolithic sites. Specifically, the turnover in discoid and Levallois knapping methods has traditionally been explained by raw material constraints that are usually related to foraging areas and mobility strategies of Neanderthal groups. While Levallois production requires high...

Technological changes have been identified in several European Middle Palaeolithic sites. Specifically, the turnover in discoid and Levallois knapping methods has traditionally been explained by raw material constraints that are usually related to foraging areas and mobility strategies of Neanderthal groups. While Levallois production requires high...

Nurturing e xce lle nce by me ans of cros s-borde r and cros s-s e ctor mobility EU co nt ribut io n: EUR 195 454,80 PREKARN Pro ject ID: 702584 T he learning o f prehisto ry o f knapping sto ne Fro m 2016-07-01 t o 2018-06-30, ongoing proje ct Pro ject details Objective "The aim of this s tudy is to ide ntify the me chanics of cultural trans mis s...

Abstract This paper expands upon the preliminary refit analysis of the NW area of unit TD10.1 at Gran Dolina (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain) (López-Ortega et al., 2011). The refit study described here has been conducted on the quartz and quartzite assemblage recovered from unit TD10.1, consisting of a total of 4302 artefacts (709 quartz and...

The reconstruction of human behavior is the main goal of Paleolithic archaeology. To interpret archaeological assemblages and the activities associated with them, a homogeneous and high resolution corpus of information is needed, especially to place these assemblages and activities in time and space. The way to achieve this is to use a variety of p...

The aim of this paper is to present a general overview of the lithic recycling identified in the Middle Paleolithic layers of the Abric Romaní site. The archeological layers excavated thus far, spanning from 40 to 56 ka BP, have provided significant evidence suggesting that recycling of artifacts was a behavior fully integrated in lithic provisioni...

According to the results from the three archaeological campaigns carried out in the Cave of the Dead Man (Mort Cave) (2007-2009), sheltered by Mont-rebei’s gorge (Montsec Mountains Range), confirmed human occupation throughout Recent Prehistory has been. Ceramics have been recovered from the Late Neolithic with Saint Pons and Treilles affinity, lin...

The site of Balma de la Massana is located in the town of Sant Esteve de la Sarga, in Pallars Jussà. The archaeological research conducted at this site was carried out in three excavation campaigns conducted in 2008, 2009 and 2010. The reason for this excavation project was based on establishing the cronocultural framework of the occupation and ass...

The Sierra de Atapuerca sites offer a chronological sequence that allows the evolution of technology at a local scale during the Early and Middle Pleistocene to be reconstructed. This paper presents updated information on the main lithic assemblages recovered from the various levels of the Sima del Elefante, Gran Dolina, Galería, and Sima de los Hu...

The Sierra de Atapuerca sites offer a chronological sequence that allows the evolution of technology at a local scale during the Early and Middle Pleistocene to be reconstructed. This paper presents updated information on the main lithic assemblages recovered from the various levels of the Sima del Elefante, Gran Dolina, Galería, and Sima de los Hu...

Because its stratigraphic sequence covers more than 30,000 years of human occupation, the Middle Palaeolithic site of Abric Romaní (Capellades, Spain) provides crucial information to reconstruct Neanderthal behaviours in southern Europe. In this paper we present evidence of the technological behaviours of the Neanderthals groups that settled at lev...

Clear hand laterality patterns in humans are widely accepted. However, humans only elicit a significant hand laterality pattern when performing complementary role differentiation (CRD) tasks. Meanwhile, hand laterality in chimpanzees is weaker and controversial. Here we have reevaluated our results on hand laterality in chimpanzees housed in natura...

The human use of fire generates a cultural sedimentary record that can be used to characterize prehistoric activity areas. The aim of this paper is to develop a field guide for recognizing and describing combustion structures. The use of fire as suggested by the results of ethnoarchaeological and prehistoric archaeological studies has served as the...

Address (personal billing address): Puig d'en Sitges, 3, 3-2, 43003 TARRAGONA, SPAIN 5. Abstract The human use of fire generates a cultural sedimentary record that can be used to characterize prehistoric activity areas. The aim of this paper is to develop a field guide for recognizing and describing combustion structures. The use of fire as suggest...

A refugium is generally understood as an area where temperate species survive cold periods, such as the Iberian, Italian, or Balkan Peninsulas in Europe. Strictly speaking, this definition refers to what is known as a glacial refugium. However, there are various types of lesser-known refugia such as the interglacial refugium, which denotes a mounta...

RESUMEN El estudio transdisciplinar de la fosa EE1 de la Cova Colomera ha proporcionado un conjunto de datos que aportan importante información sobre las prácticas do-mésticas y económicas desarrolladas en ella, y sobre las características paleoambientales de esta zona del noreste peninsular en el tránsito III-II milenio cal. AC. Los resultados apu...

The transdisciplinary study of the EE1 pit of the Cova Colomera has provided a group of data that can bring some important information about the domestic and eco- nomical practices developed in the cave and also about the paleoenvironmental characteristics of this area of the Northeast of the peninsula during the third to second mil- lennia cal. BC...