Javier Baena Preysler

• Phd
• Professor (Full) at Autonomous University of Madrid

Technological skills associated with the Paleolithic culture have been explored extensively in recent years, with regard to the production of stone tools. Aspects of skill related to the use of these tools, however, have yet to be comprehensively explored. In this paper, we use a combined experimental-traceological approach to explore aspects of sk...

Polyhedrons, spheroids and bolas (PSBs) are exceptionally perennial and ubiquitous objects found in Palaeolithic sites throughout the Old World over two million years. This study proposes an integrative and comparative analysis of PSBs from nine assemblages from France and North Africa, dated between 1.77 and 0.169 Ma. A technological analysis, com...

Article available here : https://exarc.net/issue-2024-2/ea/experimental-approach-flint-shaft-mining Since prehistory, human populations have developed specific knowledge related to the excavating and exploitation of underground resources. These abilities are reflected in the tools used to extract and process raw materials and the use of specific...

Polyhedrons, spheroids and bolas (PSBs) have been found in lithic series spanning two million years, but their purpose remains largely unknown. In this study, we propose a functional analysis of PSBs from nine assemblages from France and North Africa, ranging from 1.78 to 0.169 Ma. By combining use-wear, ergonomic and metric analyses with sequentia...

Résumé : L’expérimentation est un outil méthodologique privilégié pour l’étude des techniques en lien avec l’exploitation des roches au cours de la Préhistoire et de la Protohistoire. Matériau essentiel pour les populations anciennes, la pierre est extraite, employée pour bâtir ou encore utilisée comme réceptacle de structures souterraines. Dans ce...

Durante los últimos años las investigaciones sobre Paleolítico en la provincia de Ciudad Real han brindado nuevos yacimientos y datos sobre los grupos humanos del Pleistoceno Medio y Superior en la región. El yacimiento paleolítico de El Sotillo (Malagón, Ciudad Real) se conoce desde varias décadas atrás, aunque de manera superficial. Las evidencia...

Resumen: La relación entre los neandertales y el oso cavernario-Ursus spelaeus durante el Pleistoceno Superior ha sido objeto de controversia debido a que la historiografía tradicional sugería ideas relativas a un posible culto hacia esta especie, junto con otras teorías que respaldan la caza masiva de estos animales. Sin embargo, las pruebas que v...

La arqueología Experimental ha tenido una amplia difusión tanto en el ámbito investigador como en el divulgativo en las últimas décadas. No obstante, su empleo en la generación de modelos arqueológicos simulados ofrece un recurso de enorme potencialidad para poder profundizar en el campo de la interpretación del registro arqueológico. En este traba...

Shaped stone balls (SSBs) were an integral part of human culture across the Old World for nearly 2 million years. They are one of the oldest implements made and used by humans. In this significant era, which was characterised by biological and cultural transformations, these round implements were a stable hallmark throughout the Lower Paleolithic p...

The mobility of objects and the people behind them constitutes the most outstanding topic addressed by lithic sourc-ing in Palaeolithic Archaeology. The historiography generally highlights the discovery of the longest contact in a determined period or region, but also a broad historical construct consisting of a continuum evolutionary trend towards...

Lithic artefacts are usually associated with the different knapping methods used in their production. Flakes exhibit metric and technological features representative of the flaking method used to detach them. However, lithic production is a dynamic process in which discrete methods can be blurred, and in which features can vary throughout the proce...

Predicting original flake mass is a major goal of lithic analysis. Predicting original flake mass allows for researchers to make estimations of remaining mass, lost mass, and other features. All these measures relate to the organization of lithic technology by past societies. The present work tests three different models to predict log of flake mas...

The use of the indirect percussion technique in the production of bifacial elements during advanced stages ofthePrehistory has been taken into consideration in a very superficial way by prehistoric archaeologists and technologists. The widespread assumption of the use of soft direct percussion as the main technique involved in bifacial reductions h...

Polyhedrons, spheroids and bolas (PSBs) are present in lithic series from the Lower Palaeolithic onwards and are found in several regions of the world. Nevertheless, very little is known about them. We propose here to summarise, illustrate and discuss the current state of our knowledge about these artefacts. Based on the available data in the liter...

In the upper basin of the Guadiana River, especially in the sectors drained by its right-bank tributaries, the Bullaque and Becea rivers, important concentrations of Acheulean and Mousterian industries can be found in a superficial position. These industries have provided series containing tens of thousands of pieces. Deposits in stratigraphic posi...

The consideration of quartzite as a secondary raw material has relegated in-depth research of this raw material in favour of such other rocks as flint or obsidian. The latter two are the most researched raw materials because of the information derived from their study: long-distance transport of rocks and mobility of people. In contrast, informatio...

Shaped stone balls are ubiquitous in Oldowan and Acheulian sites worldwide. Despite years of research, very little is known about the shaping process of these items. A comprehensive literary review indicates variability in the types of rocks from which these items were shaped. At a number of sites, however, selectivity in the choice of materials us...

The third edition of the Chronostratigraphic Chart for the Quaternary of the Iberian Peninsula (v 3.0) substitutes the older 2007 and 2009 versions. The International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), and more specifically the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy (SQS), has been working since 2009 both in the formal definition of the Quaternary...

Initial slide and abstract for the presentation "In between methods: a Machine Learning approach to Levallois, Discoid and intermediate systems" of session 11. KNAPPING TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES FOR COMPARATIVE STUDIES

En este trabajo abordamos las actividades de Arqueología Experimental desarrolladas en las Cuevas de La Araña. Éstas, cubren los campos más significativos de la Arqueología y sus protocolos -de campo y laboratorio-, así como la reproducción de los procesos tecnológicos con que se tuvieron que enfrentar los grupos prehistóricos para su supervivencia...

The third edition of the Chronostratigraphic Chart for the Quatemary of the Iberian Peninsula (v 3.0) substitutes the older 2007 and 2009 versions (Silva et al., 2009). The International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), and more specifically the Subcommission on Quatemary Stratigraphy (SQS), has been working since 2009 both in the formal definitio...

El Esquilleu cave has one of the most complete Middle Paleolithic stratigraphies of northern Iberia with a complete chronological framework almost continuous from the beginning of MIS3. The complete analysis of the materials including the last section of the sequence corresponding to the last chronological interval of the occupation in the region s...

Estimating flake mass based on remaining attributes bears an important relationship for the interpretation of lithic assemblages. Previous works have pointed out the relationship between flake attributes and prediction of flake mass. This study builds on previous works by using data from an experimental collection of flakes. Estimated mass was arri...

Raw material characterization in Paleolithic archaeology has widened our knowledge of Middle Paleolithic societies. Procurement of raw material, specifically flint, has allowed the tracing of the mobility of both stones and people, as well as selective processes to obtain specific types or even extraction activities. The analysis of quartzite has a...

More and more contributions to the field of lithics are taking into consideration skill levels and learning processes in prehistory, with the aim of clarifying not only how individuals acted when they produced their tools but also of addressing the processes of change or continuity in the technocultural traditions of past societies and the particip...

The presence of shaped stone balls at early Paleolithic sites has attracted scholarly attention since the pioneering work of the Leakeys in Olduvai, Tanzania. Despite the persistent presence of these items in the archaeological record over a period of two million years, their function is still debated. We present new results from Middle Pleistocene...

Either for food or as raw material, plants were probably the most important resource for past hunter-gatherer communities in the temperate regions of the planet. For this reason, if we want to know the economic and social organization of past societies, there is an urgent need to understand their relationship with plants. On the other hand, despite...

Many Paleolithic lithic collections are found in contexts where post-depositional alterations, such as those made by water streams or sedimentary displacement, have affected the surface of most of the lithic artifacts. A major alteration often observed is the rounding of lithic artifacts. Although there have been some proposals on how to classify d...

One of most recent Mousterian sites discovered in Madrid (Spain) is El Cañaveral-Area 3 archaeological site, an open-air raw material quarrying site occupied during the MIS 3. In this site, we have excavated a total surface area of around 164 m² of coluvionar sediments affected by edaphic processes that have had an impact on the distribution of the...

The consideration of quartzite by prehistorian as a secondary raw material has avoided in-depth research of this raw material as other rocks, such as flint or obsidian. The two latter ones are the better studied raw materials because of the information derived from its study: long-transport of rocks and mobility of people. In contrast, the informat...

The study of the lithic assemblage from Charco Hondo 2 (Madrid, Spain) indicates the existence of intense activities related to the quarrying of Miocene flint outcrops, within a drainage context inside the interfluvial plateau of the Manzanares and Jarama rivers (Madrid region). This lithic production was oriented to produce the first stages of lar...

Retouched artifacts are one of the most common elements of Middle Paleolithic lithic assemblages. Resharpening of the edges by retouch is integral to key concepts of lithic technology and patterns of site occupation dynamics. This has led to the development of indexes that quantify retouch among artifacts, allowing comparisons according to raw mate...

In this work, we present a regional study with which we intend to analyze the possible exploitation models that on different ecosystems, were used the human groups throughout the Upper Pleistocene in the Madrid region. This area is not only characterized by abundant resources of different nature and especially abiotic, but also by its varied ecolog...

The development of raw material characterisation in Palaeolithic Archaeology in the last fifty years has widened our knowledge about the societies who inhabited Europe in the past. The characterisation of raw material, specially flint, has allowed defining the mobility of stones and people, selective processes to obtain specific varieties and proto...

Las primeras evidencias achelenses en la Península Ibérica, tecnocomplejo de origen africano, se remontan a 1 Ma aproximadamente, si bien hasta el MIS 15-13 no se extiende de forma significativa en la cuenca media del Tajo. Mediante el estudio tecnológico de las muestras líticas de Pinedo, Cien Fanegas y Tafesa en la cuenca media del Tajo y las dat...

El Esquilleu cave provides one of the most interesting Mousterian sequences in recent decades. The upper part of its stratigraphic sequence has provided significant lithic materials with preliminary dating that places human occupation during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Both the regional chronological context and the dating question preliminary...

El presente trabajo pretende sintetizar los estudios realizados en las últimas décadas sobre los yacimientos paleolíticos situados en el valle inferior del río Manzanares, para contextualizar desde el punto de vista geoarqueológico, geocronológico y cronocultural los yacimientos allí localizados. La multiplicación de actuaciones arqueológicas de ur...

The development of raw material characterisation in Palaeolithic Archaeology in the last fifty years has widened our knowledge about the societies that inhabited Europe in the past. The characterisation of raw material, specially flint, has allowed defining the mobility of stones and people, selective processes to obtain specific varieties and prot...

In this work, we present a regional study with which we intend to analyze the possible exploitation models that on different ecosystems, were used the human groups throughout the Upper Pleistocene in the Madrid region. This area is not only characterized by abundant resources of different nature and especially abiotic, but also by its varied ecolog...

READ THE REVIEW AT: https://exarc.net/issue-2018-01/mm/conference-review-fifth-international-congress-experimental-archaeology-tarragona-spain-october-25 Experimental archaeology is an important methodological resource for academic and historical scientific research, not separated from the rest of archaeological and historical sciences, and usuall...

RESUMEN La talla experimental de rocas duras es una práctica esencial para entender la evolución de la experimentación en España. De hecho, está estrechamente vinculada con el desarrollo de la experimentación en nuestro país, así como de su integración en las instituciones cientíícas y aca-démicas. En este artículo pretendemos hacer un repaso histó...

Abstract This work presents a synthesis on the stratigraphy and geochronology of the Quaternary Period after the chronological updating ratified by the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS-IUGS) and the International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA). We show the more recent (updated) stratigraphic, chronologic and paleoclimatic data...

Ethnographic and archaeological evidences showed that hunter-gatherers adaptive capacity was expressed, among other things, by strategy of raw material selection and diversification. The variability of lithic raw materials used included resources such as limestone, quartz, schist, and other highly inhomogeneous and less isotropic stone resources. F...

Variability and efficiency of limestone knapping

Introduction and objectives Although the Iberian Peninsula is a key area for understanding the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition and the demise of the Neandertals, valuable evidence for these debates remains scarce and problematic in its interior regions. Sparse data supporting a late Neandertal persistence in the Iberian interior have been re...

Supporting tables on micromorphology and archeozoology and taphonomy. (PDF)

Characteristic pedunculated points have traditionally been assigned to the Upper Solutrean period. Evidence from the populations that inhabited thein El Higueral-Guardia Cave region indicate that this region was also occupied during this chronocultural period. In the first excavation season in August 2012 at El Higueral-Guardia Cave (Málaga, Spain)...

The recent excavations (2008–2009) conducted at the open-air site of Las Delicias, located in the Manzanares River valley (Madrid), have revealed new important data for the understanding of the human settlement of Central Iberia during Solutrean times. In this paper, we present a geomorphological and taphonomic study of the Pleistocene deposits of...

During Prehistory, shells have been used for subsistence, ornamentation, symbolic behaviour and tools. The investigation of shell tools has been mainly carried out from the viewpoint of functional analysis by investigating use-wear traces to reconstruct the functional value of these artefacts. Little attention has been devoted to investigating the...

The existence of a more or less complex handling technology with the lithic tools during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic is an interesting topic for understanding aspects of the human behavior during these periods. In this work we present a preliminary experimental evaluation of the possible functionality of prehensile area in some of the most rep...

En el presente trabajo utilizamos la caracterización del experimento científico propuesta por el filósofo de la ciencia Mario Bunge para presentar una serie de cuatro experimentos en el campo de la tecnología lítica. Nos centramos en evaluar el grado de control de variables asumido en dichos experimentos, presentándolos de menor a mayor según dicho...

We present partial results obtained in an interdisciplinary research project focused on the human settlement of the Guadalajara province (Spain) during the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic. The excavation of the Peña Capón, Peña Cabra and Los Casares sites have shown outstanding evidence for investigating population dynamics and human-environment inte...

We present partial results obtained in an interdisciplinary research project focused on the human settlement of the Guadalajara province (Spain) during the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic. The excavation of the Peña Capón, Peña Cabra and Los Casares sites have shown outstanding evidence for investigating population dynamics and human-environment inte...

In this paper we use the characterization of scientific experiment put forward by the philosopher of science Mario Bunge to present a series of four experiments in the field of lithic technology. We pay especial attention to how these experiments deal with control of variables and we present them in order from the lowest to the highest level of con...

The existence of a more or less complex handling technology with the lithic tools during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic is an interesting topic for understanding aspects of the human behavior during these periods. In this work we present a preliminary experimental evaluation of the possible functionality of prehensile area in some of the most rep...

La "enseñanza colegiada" (Finkel y Arney, 1995, p.199 y ss; Finkel, 2008, p.227-236) es un tipo particular de docencia en equipo que consiste en la presencia simultánea de al menos dos profesores en el aula, de los que se espera establezcan entre ellos debates ante los alumnos sobre diversas cuestiones relevantes para la asignatura.En este trabajo...

The Solutrean settlement of the Manzanares River valley (Madrid basin) has been a controversial topic over the history of the discipline. Despite the large number of bifacial assemblages, often considered Solutrean, known in the valley since the beginnings of the 20th century, their lack of stratigraphic references, chronometric dates and environme...

The presence of thermally altered and broken flint artifacts is common at archaeological sites. Most studies focus their attention on the effects of heat treatment on flint to improve knapping qualities, disregarding the effects of fire over flint under uncontrolled conditions. This paper aims to show how under uncontrolled heating processes flint...

The basins of the Manzanares and Jarama rivers have been connected to human activity since the early Palaeolithic. At the boundary between these rivers the abundance of flint has given place to exploitation and mining activities even in historical times. In recent years, projects related to urban expansion in the southeast of Madrid have brought to...

No me cabe la menor duda que a estas alturas del desarrollo de la investigación en la Prehistoria, la Arqueología Experimental es aceptada por todos como una fuente esencial de información sobre actividades del pasado, tan importante como la propia etnoarqueología, la palinología, la paleontología o cualquier otra disciplina ligada a la Prehistoria...

A lo largo de las campaña de excavación realizadas en el yacimiento cántabro Paleolítico Medio de la Cueva de El Esquilleu, Cantabria, y en especial en la campaña del año 2002, han sido localizados algunos fragmentos óseos cuyos atributos macroscópicos permitieron inicialmente encuadrarlos como piezas óseas retocadas. Concretamente en el nivel XX,...

Uno de los aspectos más relevantes en la práctica de la experimentación dentro de la arqueología ha sido la falta de centros de investigación de referencia dentro de nuestro ámbito. A diferencia de nuestro país, en general, el norte de Europa ha impulsado con mayor intensidad este tipo de procedimientos como línea fuerte de la investigación. Desde...

A lo largo de las campaña de excavación realizadas en el yacimiento cántabro Paleolítico Medio de la Cueva de El Esquilleu, Cantabria, y en especial en la campaña del año 2002, han sido localizados algunos fragmentos óseos cuyos atributos macroscópicos permitieron inicialmente encuadrarlos como piezas óseas retocadas. Concretamente en el nivel XX,...

Uno de los aspectos más relevantes en la práctica de la experimentación dentro de la arqueología ha sido la falta de centros de investigación de referencia dentro de nuestro ámbito. A diferencia de nuestro país, en general, el norte de Europa ha impulsado con mayor intensidad este tipo de procedimientos como línea fuerte de la investigación. Desde...

Neanderthal shell tools have been discovered in several coastal sites along the Mediterranean Sea in the past 50 years. These technological artefacts have rarely been investigated, and only typological considerations have been published. Recent studies have investigated retouched shell tools at Grotta del Cavallo with a new multidisciplinary method...

Middle Paleolithic catchment patterns have been exhaustively studied in the past. However, it is essential to clearly define Neanderthal technical and strategic abilities in relation to raw materials self-provide, from a temporal perspective. Here we present a study of quarrying activities in open air sites occupied during Mousterian period in Madr...

Middle Paleolithic catchment patterns have been exhaustively studied in the past. However, it is essential to clearly define Neanderthal technical and strategic abilities in relation to raw materials self-provide, from a temporal perspective. Here we present a study of quarrying activities in open air sites occupied during Mousterian period in Madr...

New investigations carried out over the last few years in the Madrid Tertiary basin have revealed a large number of Acheulean sites used for the exploitation of flint. The find is significantly important because it adds context to the understanding of the intense human activity in the central parts of the Iberian Peninsula during the middle Pleisto...

Durante los ?ltimos a?os, la investigaci?n sobre el Paleol?tico en la regi?n de Madrid ha proporcionado nuevos yacimientos y datos que permiten llevar a cabo una actualizaci?n de nuestro conocimiento del poblamiento humano de esta regi?n durante el Pleistoceno superior. Las condiciones geo-litol?gicas de la cuenca sedimentaria madrile?a, sumada a l...

In this paper we present a new interdisciplinary project focused on the investigation of the Late Pleisto-cene deposits still preserved in the Room A of Los Casares cave (Riba de Saelices, Guadalajara, Spain). We first make a historical reconstruction of the research carried out in the cave, then we present our objectives, working hypotheses and me...

(Late Pleistocene population dynamics in Central Iberia: a new geoarchaeological project): We present a new research project aimed at investigating population dynamics and human-environment interactions during the second half of the Late Pleistocene in Central Iberia. In this communication we discuss the state-of-the-art on the Middle and Upper Pal...

During the last years, thanks to the collaboration between the Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, Argea S.L company and the Direccción General de Patrimonio of the Community of Madrid, a mixed model of practical learning and research has been developed in the Paleolithic site of Los Ahijones (Vicávaro-Madrid). In that site, the students of t...

Poster presented at the 5th Annual Meeting of the ESHE, 10-12 September 2015. London / UK