Chacón María Gema

Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social | IPHES

The earliest archaeological evidence from northern Africa dates to ca. 2.44 Ma. Nevertheless, the palaeoenvironmental setting of hominins living in this part of the continent at the Plio-Pleistocene transition remains poorly documented, particularly in comparison to eastern and southern Africa. The Guefaït-4 fossil site in eastern Morocco sheds lig...

The Cal Sitjo site consist of a new archaeological sequence located in the chert-rich region of the town of Sant Martí de Tous (Barcelona, Spain), in the northeastern part of the Iberian Peninsula. This region highlights for the frequent number of archaeological sites, quarries, and workshops (e.g., Vilars de Tous, La Guinardera) which were potenti...

Osseous industry has been observed at an increasing number of Neanderthal sites. Bone fragments were used for practical purposes, and a range of bone shaping techniques were employed. The variability of bone tools observed in different assemblages reflects considerable functional diversity. However, no bone spear points have been reported from thes...

New excavations at the Abri du Maras have revealed a thick sequence over 250 ka old with evidence of recurrent human occupations, first in a vast cavity and then in a collapsed shelter. The upper part, with a high density of material, is dated to MIS 3 with two distinct phases of occupation under a shelter. The lithic component is composed mainly o...

New excavations at the Abri du Maras have revealed a thick sequence over 250 ka old with evidence of recurrent human occupations, first in a vast cavity, then in a collapsed shelter. The upper part, with a high density of material, is dated to MIS 3 with two distinct phases of occupation under a shelter. The lithic component is composed mainly of f...

This paper introduces the virtual field trip organised on the occasion of the 13th International Symposium on Knappable Materials in Tarragona from 4th to 6th October 2021, showing the Abric Romaní site (NE Iberian Peninsula) and the chert procurement areas located within a 30 km radius. The Abric Romaní section consists of a general presentation o...

In this work, we present a new project that seeks to characterize lithic raw materials and the first results from a macroscopic and microscopic study of the archaeological material from sub-unit IIIb of Teixoneres Cave (NE Iberian Peninsula). During the late Middle Palaeolithic (MIS 3), multidisciplinary research has defined this site underwent sho...

MobiLithics is a multiscalar project aimed at characterizing the lithic resources exploitation and territorial adaptive responses among the last Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens to different climatic, cultural, and biological dynamics. The project focuses on the Middle-to-Later Stone Age, in North Africa, and the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic...

A través de l’estudi tafonòmic i espacial del registre faunístic del nivell P de l’Abric Romaní, es va definir que el conjunt va ser el resultat d’almenys dos tipus diferents d’ocupacions: 1) Un campament residencial transitori durant breus estades, centrat en l’explotació de cérvols; 2) Un campament de caça per a la captura especialitzada de caval...

The discovery of Tahya 3 (Guefaït) represents a significant breakthrough in our understanding of Homo sapiens occupations during the Late Pleistocene period in Eastern Morocco. This new open-air site holds great promise for shedding light on the activities, lifestyle, and cultural practices of our ancient human ancestors. By reformulating our knowl...

The Sant Genís Formation is located in the NE of the Iberian Peninsula (Catalonia, Spain) and is dated to the Priabonian (upper Eocene), being part of the evaporitic formations of the margin of the Ebro Basin. It is formed by a succession of sandy lutites, occasional limestone layers, marls, and local stratified gypsum and cherts, including the San...

Cal Sitjo is a new archaeological sequence located in a chert-rich region of the NE Iberian Peninsula, in the town of Sant Martí de Tous (Anoia, Barcelona). The area has undergone significant anthropisation and several archaeological sites (e.g., Vilars de Tous), quarries and workshops for the exploitation of chert (e.g., La Guinardera) have been d...

The intra-site spatial analysis of prehistoric assemblages is a topical way of assessing the use of space by ancient hominins. Such approaches can bring to light how prehistoric groups occupied their living space and organised activity areas, and thus describe their cultural and social behaviours. The Abri du Maras in Southeast France is a major Mi...

https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/qu/issue/view/6315

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 =...

Although intra-site spatial approaches are considered a key factor when interpreting archaeological assemblages, these are often based on descriptive, qualitative, and subjective observations. Currently, within the framework of research into spatial taphonomy and palimpsest dissection, several studies have begun to employ more quantitative and obje...

Much of what is known about human behavior and subsistence strategies in the Levantine Middle Paleolithic comes from long sequences from caves and rock shelters. In this context, studies of stone tool function have traditionally focused on determining the use of Levallois points and triangular elements, either as projectiles or, more rarely, multip...

This poster shows the conservation of a bird feather imprint in travertine rock. The specimen was recovered from Level Ra (ca 62 Ka BP) of the Middle Palaeolithic site of Abric Romaní (Capellades, Barcelona, Spain). The rock presented some granular desintegration. To stop the decay, the travertine was consolidated with the silica nanoparticle-based...

The continental Late Miocene is relatively well represented in North Africa, but stratigraphic gaps are present in the Vallesian due to the scarcity of localities from this time. In this paper, we present the small mammal association from the section of Guefaït 1, in the Aïn Beni Mathar Basin (Jerada, eastern Morocco). This sequence contains three...

This chapter presents the first collective synthesis of Late Middle Palaeolithic lithic technology (MIS 4–3, ≈ 70-40 ka) from the Altai mountains to the Atlantic coast of Western Europe and the Mediterranean regions of Europe and the Levant. As early as the first half of the twentieth century, archaeological debates focused on characterising and in...

The Abric Romaní rock-shelter (Capellades, Barcelona) is a key site for studying the use of fire among Neanderthal communities. The evidence of its use, including the identification of heated faunal remains, has led to infer the practice of some domestic activities in the site, such as cooking, use of bones as fuel, or habitat surface cleaning thro...

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

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....

Bifacial tools (especially handaxes and cleavers) have played an important role in the Lower Palaeolithic studies trying to decode Acheulean lifeways through them. The methodological approach based on classical metrical analysis, could be insufficient and often subjective, especially in instances of asymmetrical tools, and incorrect orientation for...

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...

In 2014, an anthropic accumulation of chert material was discovered in La Guinardera area, at the southwest of the Sant Martí de Tous town (Barcelona, NE Iberian Peninsula). In 2018 a first archaeological intervention was carried out in two locations: La Guinardera and La Guinardera Nord. After the fieldworks, these two accumulations were interpret...

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...

Book of Abstracts of the 13th ISKM conference that took place in Tarragona in virtual form

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...

Level 4.1 from the Abri du Maras (Ardèche, France) is chronologically attributed to the beginning of MIS 3 and is one example of late Neanderthal occupations in the southeast of France. Previous work on the faunal and lithic remains suggests that this level records short-term hunting episodes of reindeer associated with fragmented lithic reduction...

Teixoneres Cave (Moià, Barcelona, Spain) is a reference site for Middle Palaeolithic studies of the Iberian Peninsula. The cave preserves an extensive stratigraphic sequence made up of eight units, which is presented in depth in this work. The main goal of this study is to undertake an initial spatial examination of Unit III, formed during Marine I...

Teixoneres Cave (Moià, Barcelona, Spain) is a reference site for Middle Palaeolithic studies of the Iberian Peninsula. The cave preserves an extensive stratigraphic sequence made up of eight units, which is presented in depth in this work. The main goal of this study is to undertake an initial spatial examination of Unit III, formed during Marine I...

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...

The High Plateaus Basin is an important region to understand landscape evolution and human occupation in North Africa during the Quaternary. We focused on the Gara Soultana area, applying Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, photogrammetry and a submeter Global Navigation Satellite System, for large scale geomorphological mapping. This work in the upper Moulo...

The Montmaneu Formation is located at the NE margin of the Ebro Basin (Catalonia, Spain), and is dated to the Rupelian (Lower Oligocene). It is formed by 120 m of light grey stratified limestones with bedded-nodular chert, the Panadella chert, associated with the La Segarra lacustrine system. This chert is macroscopically characterized by very fine...

Neanderthals are widely known to be a resilient human species that successfully faced constant and strong environmental fluctuations modifying the landscapes they inhabited and the availability of their potential resources. It has been traditionally assumed that environmental features could strongly affect human behaviour due to the stretch relatio...

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 High Plateaus Basin is an important region to understand landscape evolution and human occupation in North Africa during the Quaternary. We focused on the Gara Soultana area, applying Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, photogrammetry and a submeter Global Navigation Satellite System, for large scale geomorphological mapping. This work in the upper Moulo...

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...

Currently, approximately 90% of the human population is right-handed. This handedness is due to the later-alization of the cerebral hemispheres and is controlled by brain areas involved in complex motor tasks such as making stone tools or in language. In addition to describing the evolution of laterality in humans, identifying hand preference in fo...

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. 300-30 kyr BP. The production of small tools is part...

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...

Recurrent long-and short-term Neanderthal occupations occurred in the Abric Romaní rock shelter (Capellades, Barcelona, Spain) for more than 20,000 years. This provides an opportunity to enhance our understanding of the evolution of behavioral strategies of these human groups. The site has a long and high-resolution sequence with 17 levels complete...

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...

Hunter-gatherers have a nomadic lifestyle and move frequently on the landscape based on the seasonal distribution of resources. During these displacements, carrying capacities are limited, and the composition of the transported gear is generally planned ahead of the activity to perform. During the Pleistocene, prehistoric hunter-gatherers faced sim...

A use-wear analysis was carried out on a specific mobile toolkit belonging to level M of the Middle Paleolithic site of Abric Romaní (Barcelona, Spain), which is dated to MIS 3, between 51 and 55 Ka BP. In an environment rich in local and regional chert sources and in a technological context marked by expedient behavior, a set of flakes, which also...

Short-term human occupations could occur in very distinct places and be related to very different behaviours. The low number of items left by the human groups in these sites, usually, generates discrete assemblages, which often are difficult to disentangle. In the European Middle Palaeolithic, short-term human occupations in caves and rock-shelters...

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...

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...

Level M and sub-level Oa at Abric Romaní (Capellades, Barcelona, Spain) are showing various types of technological contexts. The chaines opératoires of level M show expedient strategies. The lithic assemblage of sub-level Oa is associated to hierarchized strategies and Levallois chaines opératoires. Chert is the most used rock (level M = 80.8%; lev...

Principaux résultats : Cette campagne 2019 avait pour objectif de récupérer le matériel archéologique provenant de la détérioration progressive des coupes stratigraphiques depuis l’arrêt des anciennes fouilles en 1987. Cette nouvelle fouille a permis également de reconnaître sur le terrain les différentes couches qui composent le remplissage et de...