Antonio Rodríguez-Hidalgo

Complutense University of Madrid | UCM · Department of Prehistory

The genus Macaca belongs to Cercopithecidae (Old World monkeys), Cercopithecinae, Papionini. The presence of Macaca in North Africa is well known from the Late Miocene to the Late Pleistocene. However, the diet of fossil Macaca has been poorly described in the literature. In this study, we investigated the feeding habits of Macaca cf. sylvanus (n =...

In a recent review paper, Palomares et al. (2022) questioned whether the current behaviour of some carnivorous mammals supports zooarchaeological interpretations of the origin and authorship of certain fossil accumulations in Quaternary sites, concluding that it is questionable. The authors develop classical approach based on actualism to interpret...

Human cannibalism is a behavior documented as far back as the Lower Paleolithic, but during the Neolithic the number of cases increased throughout prehistoric Europe. Taphonomic studies help identify bodies that were processed for consumption. However, the presence of symbolic or ritual components can be more ambiguous and difficult to identify. At...

Rodents gnaw bones to wear down their upper and lower incisors, which grow continuously. These gnawing marks are conspicuous and have long been identified in the fossil record. Archaeological taphonomy studies link modifications made by rodents to weathered and dried bones, while forensic taphonomy indicate that rodents also act on fresh corpses, c...

Large, conglomerate caves in north-eastern Iberia have been significant places since the Neolithic through to historical times; however, their significance during the Palaeolithic has barely been explored. This project is the first systematic study of the use of these iconic geological landmarks among Pleistocene hunter-gatherers.

The Aïn Beni Mathar – Guefaït (ABM-GFT) region in Eastern Morocco is the object of anarchaeological, palaeontological, geological and geochronological research project, led by an interna-tional team since 2006. The research in this former fluvio-lacustrine basin, roughly 2000 km2, hasrevealed a significant number of Pleistocene and Holocene sites....

Most biogeographers considered the Maghreb to be part of the Palearctic biogeographic region, though it is relatively recently that the proportion of Palearctic species increased there. How and when exactly these biogeographic changes occurred is not well understood, but they are probably the result of the increasing aridification of the Sahara and...

Humans are unique in their diet, physiology and socio-reproductive behavior compared to other primates. They are also unique in the ubiquitous adaptation to all biomes and habitats. From an evolutionary perspective, these trends seem to have started about two million years ago, coinciding with the emergence of encephalization, the reduction of the...

We describe small-sized specimens of the metailurine felid Dinofelis from a new Plio-Pleistocene site in North Africa. Dinofelis is a genus of saber-toothed cats mainly recorded from East and South Africa with numerous leopard to jaguar-sized species. The described specimens, clearly smaller than all the other African Dinofelis, resemble isolated r...

Since the end of the XIX century ornamental objects have been recognized as one of the main sources of information on the behavior of Paleolithic hunter-gatherer societies. During last decades, research on personal ornaments has been gaining importance in relation to the study of past societies. Most researchers recognize that ornaments constitute...

The TD6 unit of the Gran Dolina contains an assemblage of the Early Pleistocene, interpreted firstly as a home base. More recently has been proposed a transported origin of the remains according to the sedimentology. Following this model, the remains should be dragged or lagged in a predictable pattern related to their weight, density, shape, and s...

The interior of the Iberian Peninsula has orographic conditions that make this territory especially vulnerable to Quaternary climate oscillations and which actually could have made it decisive for Paleolithic human populations at critical points. For this reason, the information provided by paleon-tological sites is important for reconstructing cli...

The study of ungulate assemblages is essential to understand hominins and carnivore behavior and interactions. For this reason, many studies involve the taphonomic analysis of faunal remains, focusing on the identification of the various biotic actors. This study looks at the horse assemblages from Mousterian and Aurignacian Units I, II and III fro...

The Aïn Beni Mathar-Guefaït Basin is located in the High Plateau Region (E Morocco). Along the northern margin of the basin, the upper Za River, which is the main eastern tributary of the Moulouya – the largest catchment in Morocco, incises more than 150 meters into Plio-Pleistocene sediments. The main goal of our study is to provide a geochronolog...

Corrigendum Corrigendum to "Neanderthal faunal exploitation and settlement dynamics at the Abri du Maras, level 5 (South-eastern France)" [Quat. Sci. Rev. 243 (2020) 106472]

Over the past two decades, taphonomic and zooarchaeological studies have focused on Neanderthal settlement patterns and subsistence strategies. The south-eastern margins of the Massif Central constitute one of the regions with the most abundant archaeological evidence of Neanderthal occupations in France. The faunal record of level 5 of Abri du Mar...

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...

Lumentxa is a classic site in Basque Prehistory, excavated in three different phases during the 20th century, which has yielded evidence of both Pleistocene and Holocene occupations. In this article, we present a detailed study of the human remains from this site including paleobiological, taphonomic, biomechanical and chronological perspectives. T...

The destroyed site(s) of Koskobilo (Olazti, Navarre, Northern Iberian Peninsula) have yielded unique archaeopaleontological evidence in the Western Pyrenees region. The quarry uncovered a karstic site with faunal remains in 1940, and fossils were recovered both in situ and from the quarry dump. Ten years later, while the quarry was still working, a...

For decades, taphonomists have dedicated their efforts to assessing the nature of the massive leporid accumulations recovered at archaeological sites in the northwestern Mediterranean region. Their interest lying in the fact that the European rabbit constituted a critical part of human subsistence during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. How...

The presence of skull cups (bowls made from human calvaria) is considered evidence of the ritualistic treatment of human bodies. These artefacts are characterised by careful manufacturing which can be taphonomically observed in bone surface modifications (BSM) as cut marks and percussion marks. These BSM show morphological similarities across Upper...

Mobility strategies of Neanderthal groups are studied through the characterization and analysis of archaeological sites and traditionally compared to the types of settlements present-day hunter-gatherer groups, based on their mobility strategies. The faunal record of level P of Abric Romaní is a unique source of information for analysing the foragi...

Evidence for the symbolic behavior of Neandertals in the use of personal ornaments is relatively scarce. Eagle talons, which were presumably used as pendants, stand out due to their abundance. This phenomenon seems to appear concentrated in a specific area of Southwestern Europe during a span of ca. 80 Ka. Here we present the analysis of one eagle...

Evidence for the symbolic behavior of Neanderthals in the use of personal ornaments is relatively scarce. Among the few ornaments documented, eagle talons, which were presumably used as pendants, are the most frequently recorded. This phenomenon appears concentrated in a specific area of southern Europe during a span of 80 thousand years. Here, we...

Rosell et al. (2019) warn about potential equifinality problems between human and bear tooth marks in their type, morphology, and measurements. They also note the possibility that both agents generate peeling on some bones, such as ribs and apophyses of vertebrae. However, we think that from an epistemological point of view, the authors fail to tur...

Archaeological records of the treatment of human skulls for ceremonial or cult purposes appear at the end of Palaeolithic and are shown in different ways, being able to identify through the taphonomic modifications. According to this, the presence of skull cups (bowls from human calvaria) is currently considered evidence of ritualistic treatment of...

Small mammals, especially rodents, constitute valuable proxies for continental Quaternary environments at a regional and local scale. Recent studies have demonstrated the relation between the stable oxygen isotope composition of the biogenic phosphate from rodent teeth (δ18Op), and the oxygen isotope composition of meteoric waters (δ18Omw), which i...

The Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic transition in Europe covers the last millennia of Neanderthal life together with the appearance and expansion of Modern Human populations. Culturally, it is defined by the Late Middle Paleolithic succession, and by Early Upper Paleolithic complexes like the Châtelperronian (southwestern Europe), the Protoaurignacian,...

Categorical variables identifying microscopic features of cut marks produce high accuracy in discrimination of bone surface modifications, but are vulnerable to variable degrees of inter-analyst subjectivity. Metric analyses of cut mark width and depth are presented by Merritt et al. (2018) as a more objective method of identifying cut marks. Howev...

Ethological studies have shown that besides human groups, large-medium carnivores have bone-collecting habits. The research developed since the last half of the twentieth century has attempted to characterise the carnivore’s accumulations and to identify them in the archaeo-paleontological record. At present, we have diagnostic criteria that define...

En este trabajo realizamos el estudio de nuevos materiales arqueo-paleontológicos recuperados en las dos escombreras de la cantera de Koskobilo (Olazti, Nafarroa) y proporcionamos nuevos datos sobre las colecciones recuperadas durante el s. XX en esta localidad. En este trabajo consideramos probable que los restos arqueo-paleontológicos de Koskobil...

Middle Pleistocene unit TD10 of the Gran Dolina site is nearly four metres thick and is divided into four subunits (TD10.1, TD10.2, TD10.3, TD10.4). To date, the upper two subunits (TD10.1 and TD10.2) have been completely excavated and have been studied from zooarchaeological, taphonomic and occupational perspectives. The top of the sequence (Upper...

The use of personal ornaments by Neandertals is one of the scarce evidence of their symbolic behaviour. Among them stand up the eagle talons used presumably as pendants, in an analogous way than anatomically Modern Humans ( Homo sapiens ) did. Considering the broad range and time scale of Neandertals distribution across Eurasia, this phenomenon see...

The use of personal ornaments by Neandertals is one of the scarce evidence of their symbolic behaviour. Among them stand up the eagle talons used presumably as pendants, in an analogous way than anatomically Modern Humans ( Homo sapiens ) did. Considering the broad range and time scale of Neandertals distribution across Eurasia, this phenomenon see...

Archaeological studies of human cannibalism and its causes have never lacked controversy. The reasons for this are both the difficulties in identifying cannibalism and the inherent complexity, by the many nuances that can have the behaviour of eating other humans. After Turner’s detailed studies in the Southwestern USA, reports were published in th...

Ungulate mortality profiles are commonly used to study Neanderthal subsistence strategies. To assess the hunting strategies used by Neanderthals, we studied the ages at death of the cervids and equids found in levels E, H, I, Ja, Jb, K, L and M of the Abric Romaní sequence. These levels date between 43.2 ± 1.1 ka BP (¹⁴C AMS) and 54.5 ± 1.7 ka BP (...

Number of equids and cervids mandibles and maxillae at Abric Romaní, indicating level, archaeological reference, MNE, size, dental series, crown height of teeth and code of wear stage. (XLSX)

The Aïn Beni Mathar-Guefaït basin provides a long stratigraphic sequence and a faunal record that covers the Early and Middle Pleistocene. During the Pliocene and Early Pleistocene, a fluvio-lacustrine basin developed in the area. This landscape has been occupied by hominin developing a Mode 1 technology. This fluvio-lacustrine basin has its final...

A series of experimental cut marks have been analyzed by eleven taphonomists with the goal of assessing if they could identify similarly 14 selected microscopic variables which would identify those marks as cut marks. The main objective was to test if variable identification could be made scientifically; that is, different researchers using the sam...

There is the tendency to assume that endangered species have been both genetically and demographically healthier in the past, so that any genetic erosion observed today was caused by their recent decline. The Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) suffered a dramatic and continuous decline during the 20th century, and now shows extremely low genome- and spec...

Coprolites are commonly identified in the Pleistocene archaeo-palaeontological record. They have often been described as indirect evidence for the presence of carnivores (usually hyenids) during the formation of a depositional sequence. However, coprolites are a much larger source of information that can provide data relating to factors affecting a...

Zooarcheological research is an important tool in reconstructing subsistence, as well as for inferring relevant aspects regarding social behavior in the past. The organization of hunting parties, forms of predation (number and rate of animals slaughtered), and the technology used (tactics and tools) must be taken into account in the identification...

We evaluated the skeletal profiles from several levels of the sequence of the Neanderthal site of Abric Romaní. All the levels have been described as product of the anthropic activities, been the carnivore activities testimonial. The mainly taxa recorded are the Cervus elaphus, which represent the medium-sized animals, and equids (Equus ferus/Equus...

We evaluated the skeletal profiles from several levels of the Neanderthal site of AbricRomaní, focusing on the methodology proposed by Faith and Gordon (2007): differencesin the skeletal distribution of animals in accordance with their size and weight; the sta-tistical correlation between the skeletal profiles and standard food utility index; and t...

The middle Pleistocene assemblage of Gran Dolina TD10.2 bone bed level (Atapuerca, Spain) is composed primarily by bison remains (Bison sp.) belonging to a minimal number of individuals of 60. The mortality and taphonomical features suggest an anthropogenic origin product of mass predation. The large number of mandibles and mandibular teeth of a si...

The Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) is a significant taphonomic agent in Iberian ecosystems. Its diet is based almost exclusively on rabbits and it is complemented mainly with birds from the Phasianidae, Anatidae and Corvidae families. We present here the results of actualistic taphonomic research conducted to assess modifications produced by Iberian...

In a recent paper, Stiner reviewed certain trends in the Middle Palaeolithic (MP) economy and social behaviour, including most notably galvanization of the prime-age ungulate hunting niche, and the intensification of occupations in the form of domestic-residential camps. However, the emergence of these trends is blurred when we observe the European...

A number of authors have studied the variability of total perikymata counts on permanent incisors in different modern human populations, finding that some populations show a significantly lower number of perikymata than others. However, little is known about the overall variability of these traits in archaeological populations of modern humans. Our...

Two archaeological assemblages from the Sierra de Atapuerca sites show evidence of an-thropogenic cannibalism. These are the late Early Pleistocene level TD6-2 at Gran Dolina, and the Bronze Age level MIR4 in the Mirador Cave. Despite the chronological distance between these two assemblages, they share the common feature that the human remains exhi...

The Iberian lynx is an endemic predator of the Iberian Peninsula currently restricted to southern Spain. It is one of the primary predators of rabbits in Iberian ecosystems and probably an important taphonomic agent. Few experimental taphonomic research has focused specifically on this aspect because the Iberian lynx is currently the world's most e...

Since the 1950s, archaeological activity has been especially prolific in Spanish regions such as Catalonia. This process brings the possibility to discover and excavate some of the most important archaeological sites in order to study the main cultural events in the past. This has been the case of Cova del Toll and Cova de la Font Major, whose card...

The entrance to the South Gallery of the Toll Cave was discovered in the 40's of the last century. Since then, several works have highlighted the importance of the archaeo-pale-ontological site at both regional and peninsular levels. Focusing on the Holocene levels, the research suggests prolonged use of it, at least from Epicardial times to the la...

The most common prey of humans during the European Middle Palaeolithic was large and medium-sized ungulates. In contrast, evidence of human processing of small animals and carnivores is very scarce in this chronology. In Level O of the Abric Romaní site, dated to 55 ka, various evidence of human activity has been identified in Cervus elaphus, Bos p...

Pleistocene level TD6-2 of the Gran Dolina site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain) is the result of anthropogenic accumulation. Hominin groups occupied the cave as a home base, where they brought in, butchered and consumed the carcasses of ungulates and other hominins. In this paper, we reassess the role of carnivores in the formation and/or modification...

The entrance to the South Gallery of the Toll Cave was discovered in the 40’s of the last century. Since then, several works have highlighted the importance of the archaeo-paleontological site at both regional and peninsular levels. Focusing on the Holocene levels, the research suggests prolonged use of it, at least from Epicardial times to the lat...