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Publications
Publications (200)
During the early development of archaeology in Spain, many of the materials obtained from excavations were later forgotten in museum deposits. However, re-investigation of these collections with contemporary methodologies can still contribute valuable knowledge. This study presents the case of El Bosquet Cave (Mont-ral, Tarragona, Spain), located i...
Dental and oral status is a valuable indicator of health, diet, and lifestyle of past populations. The assessment and diagnosis of bucco-dental pathologies has been improved through advances in microscopy applied to external surface observations. However, some of these microscopy analyses are not only expensive but also time-consuming and not alway...
Objective
This study seeks to contribute to the current understanding of dietary variation in the late Prehistory of the northeastern Iberian Peninsula by examining buccal dental microwear patterns alongside archeological data from the same populations.
Materials and Methods
Teeth from 84 adult individuals from eight distinct samples spanning the...
The bipolar technique is a flaking strategy that has been identified from 3.3 Ma until the twentieth century, with no geographical or chronological homogeneous distribution. It is represented by the intentional contact of an active percussive element against a core rested on an anvil. This tool composite has been described by some researchers as a...
In this manuscript, we explore the potential of studying metal residues in cut marks generated by copper and bronze knives. The method was developed in the forensic sciences for use with modern metals in order to identify microscopic particles of metal tools on bone surfaces. However, the study of residues in archaeological materials can be challen...
This volume presents the results of fifteen years of an interdisciplinary archeological research carried out in a mountainous territory in the central part of the Mediterranean basin. A surface survey, led by Vincenza Forgia for her PhD research project between 2006 and 2008 (with Dr. Andreu Ollé and Dr. Josep Maria Vergès as cotutors of the PhD),...
The improvement of the archaeomagnetic dating method requires compiling new and older data of the Earth's magnetic field (EMF) variations for the last millennia. Combustion events from fumier sequences have been proposed as good directional EMF recorders. However, they are subjected to diverse taphonomical processes and how these affect the archaeo...
Spheroids are one of the least understood lithic items yet are one of the most enduring, spanning from the Oldowan to the Middle Palaeolithic. Why and how they were made remains highly debated. We seek to address whether spheroids represent unintentional by-products of percussive tasks or if they were intentionally knapped tools with specific manuf...
The interest in the identification of animal species housed in caves or rock-shelters used as livestock pen and herding management along prehistoric and historic ages, is increasing to understand better the development of pastoral activities. In this manuscript, a method for the quantification of β-sterol/phytosterols, bile acids, hormones and horm...
Starting in the mid-6th millennium cal BCE, Neolithic groups occupied the midlands of Sicily. The economy of these groups was based primarily on livestock farming. Archaeological and archaeobotanical data indicate an intensification of livestock practices during the Early Bronze Age, leading to a change in the landscape in the form of more open for...
The use of resinous substances, certainly one of the earliest technologies developed by humans, was well-known by Holocene hunter-gatherers at the onset of the Neolithisation process across Europe. Recent research has revealed the use of birch bark tar in the central Mediterranean far from this taxon’s endemic regions both in the Paleolithic and Ne...
One of the markers of the Late Pleistocene is highly fluctuating climatic conditions, with the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 26.5–19 ka cal before present (BP)) known to be one of the coldest periods. This work explores how the environment of north-eastern Iberia changed in relation to global climatic changes experienced during the Late Pleistocene, s...
Paradigms such as the coexistence of incineration and inhumation funerary practices in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula during the Late Bronze Age are supported by the association of human remains with elements of material culture as guiding fossils. One example is the association established by Salvador Vilaseca in 1939 between the human rem...
This experiment was conducted to create a reference collection to identify the technological indicators of the bipolar on the anvil technique and freehand direct percussion. The obtained data was used to compare the lithic objects of the Middle Pleistocene site of La Cansaladeta (Ollé et al. 2016; Yeşilova et al. 2021). In this experimental study,...
El Mirador cave (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos) is one of the most significant sites for understanding the evolution of agricultural and livestock farming groups on the Iberian Peninsula. Its long sequence spans from the Early Neolithic (second half of the 6th millennium cal BCE) to the Bronze Age (second half of the 2nd millennium cal BCE). During t...
The excavation of different sectors of El Mirador cave has led to the discovery of the different types of contexts in which human remains were deposited at the site. Three different burial contexts have been identified: those related to cannibalism practices, a collective burial, and an individual burial. The timeframe spans from the Late Neolithic...
Biomarkers of fecal origin are useful in identifying animal husbandry. In this chapter, two different analytical strategies based on liquid and gas chromatography (LC-MS and GC-MS) were used to detect and quantify several biomarkers suitable for obtaining information regarding animal husbandry in fumier deposits from El Mirador cave (Sierra de Atap...
El Mirador cave has become a reference for the study of the economic, social organization and funerary behavior of first farming communities in the Iberian Peninsula. In this chapter we put into context the set of studies carried out to date and presented in this monographic volume. The Neolithic occupations of El Mirador cave are among the earlies...
The Lateglacial to Holocene transition is a key moment for understanding the extant configuration of bat populations in Western Europe, where several species are currently under threat. The Chiroptera fossil record for this period and region is poorly known. Here, we present the bat fossil record along the stratigraphical sequence of El Mirador (Bu...
Long and complex sequences of intentional organic rich sediments accumulation known as fumiers can often be found in many caves and rock shelters used for herding activities since the Neolithic to current times in the Mediterranean basin. These are mainly composed of burnt animal dung and vegetal remains and are commonly interpreted as the result o...
Body ornaments are one of the most common archaeological findings. Although they give
us information about the access, distribution of natural resources and trading relationship
among different human groups, they are poorly studied in Nubian archaeology. We present the results of a preliminary techno-typological study focused on a set of selected s...
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.
ABSTRACT
Neolithisation process arrived at the Iberian Peninsula (IP) around 5,500 calBC, having diverse impacts on genomic and cultural diversity. During the Late Neolithic–Chalcolithic, changes occurred at funerary and cultural material level, with also evidence of narrower exchange networks. Genomic diversity decrease at this period suggests hum...
Neolithisation was a relatively fast process that affected both the interior and coastal zones of the Iberian Peninsula, but it was also a heterogeneous process that had diverse impacts on genomic and cultural diversity. In the Late Neolithic–Chalcolithic, a change in funerary practices, cultural material and trade networks occurred, and genomic he...
Early husbandry practices that include herd management and the use of livestock areas such as sheepfold caves can be analysed in the context of different disciplines (e.g. zooarchaeology, micromorphology, and archaeobotany). In this study, a new and standard method for the determination of bile acids and steroidal hormones that incorporates microwa...
Faecal matter is commonly recovered from archaeological sites related to human/animal activity. The identification of its source is essential to understand the domestication process and the relationship between humans and domestic animals in ancient times. Additionally, faecal matter is useful for determining the diet of animals. Therefore, the use...
The poster shows the results of an experimental programme focused on macro and micro technical traces and how to detect possible residues on flakes and cores produced by knapping on anvil technique.
The video shows the results of an experimental programme focused to identify macro and micro technical traces and detect residues produced by knapping on anvil technique using several microscopes
As we know the archaeological levels E and J of the La Cansaladeta site were studied systematically, in terms of refitting and horizontal spatial density analyses with the quantitative mapping methods. The previous study showed a small-scale Middle Pleistocene site can be analyzed without long-distance refit / conjoin connections. Even though our s...
As we know the archaeological levels E and J of the La Cansaladeta site were studied systematically, in terms of refitting and horizontal spatial density analyses with the quantitative mapping methods. The previous study showed a small-scale Middle Pleistocene site can be analyzed without long-distance refit / conjoin connections. Even though our s...
This study presents the second systematic refit / conjoin analysis of MIS 11 site La Cansaladeta (Tarragona, Spain). Previous study of the lithic assemblage of levels E and J in terms of cluster / density, orientation refit / conjoin connections and technological investigations obtained incredibly good spatial information. Though our research initi...
In this manuscript, we present the first systematic refitting results of the small-scale Middle Pleistocene (MIS11) rock shelter site of La Cansaladeta. The lithic materials that have been recovered from the archaeological levels E and J were the main study materials. These levels were investigated regarding spatial pattern analysis and analyzed wi...
The beginning of husbandry in the Iberian Peninsula has been documented from the second half of the 6th millennium BCE and was based on the breeding of domestic caprines, mainly sheep. The first evidence of these practices comes from the Mediterranean region, but they quickly expanded inland. Previous studies have reported on the importance of the...
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...
This paper discusses the Middle Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age phases of the occupation of a rock shelter at Vallone Inferno (Scillato, Palermo) in Sicily. Vallone Inferno is a key site for studying the early establishment and development of pastoralism in the prehistoric mountainous environments of Sicily. Seasonal use of the site as a shelter...
Degenerative joint disease (DJD) is one of the most common pathological conditions identified in the archaeological record and remains a health problem in modern populations. This study aimed to evaluate DJD of the vertebral column in a sample from a Chalcolithic collective burial at El Mirador cave (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain) dated to 4,880–4,390...
Farming was one of the most significant events in human history, driving major biological and cultural change globally. The peasant way of life arrived in the Iberian Peninsula (IP) about 7500 years ago, during the Early Neolithic. It was a relatively fast process that affected both the interior and coastal zones, but it was also a heterogeneous pr...
Recently, there has been a proliferation of studies focused on traceological analyses of shell tools, most of which have been carried out using high magnifications. In contrast, wear patterns identified in other types of shell objects, such as ornaments, are usually analyzed at low magnifications. A new approach to the technological and functional...
Gigapixel and gigapixel-like (GPL) imaging strategies are a powerful means of communicating scientific results of visual observations in academic and public spheres. GPL images are made from a photomosaic of multiple, adjacent extended focus images, which allows users to “pan and zoom” across a surface to document or analyze specific features. Micr...
Dental microwear has been used for the reconstruction of diet for decades, and given its long history, substantial changes in the methodologies and technologies used to observe and quantify microwear have occurred. For instance, early work on microwear used optical microscopy (OM), before being largely replaced by scanning electron microscopy (SEM)...
Anurans, such as frogs and toads, are occasionally very abundant in archaeo-paleontological sites and representing >80% of the remains. These accumulations have been linked mainly to human consumption in the European context, by the preferential selection of body parts and by the presence of burning, and to a lesser extent, cut marks (as in Chalain...
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...
Over the last years, the knowledge of the children’s diet is a topic of growing interest in dental anthropology. Our aim seeks to establish patterns of interpopulation and intrapopulation variability in dietary microwear among children from four Iberian sites dated to the Neolithic through Bronze Age. Buccal and occlusal surfaces are compared to as...
Ancient dental calculus research currently relies on destructive techniques whereby archeological specimens are broken down to determine their contents. Two strategies that could partly remediate a permanent loss of the original sample and enhance future analysis and reproducibility include (1) structural surface characterization through spectrosco...
The mountains of Madonie Park in Sicily currently offer, situated between 1500 and 1979 m.a.s.l., one of the most southerly beech forests in Europe (Brullo et al. 2012). In this context two charcoal kiln sites have been excavated during recent survey campaigns led by the University of Palermo and IPHES at Piano Cervi (1504 m.a.s.l.) and Zottafonda...
We assembled genome-wide data from 271 ancient Iberians, of whom 176 are from the
largely unsampled period after 2000 BCE, thereby providing a high-resolution time transect of the Iberian Peninsula.We document high genetic substructure between northwestern and southeastern hunter-gatherers before the spread of farming.We reveal sporadic contacts be...
The study of cut marks in archaeological contexts is of great importance for understanding the subsistence strategies of past human groups. Many authors have indicated differences to exist between the cut marks produced by different tools and when the same types of tool have been made from different raw materials. The present work examines the cut...
Silver mirroring is a type of deterioration that appears in most gelatin developing-out paper (DOP) historical photographs and black-and-white films. Its treatment involves so many problems that it has often been ruled out. In this article we present a new and simple elimination procedure, which is efficient and offers stable results in the long te...
Heavy-duty scrapers are documented as a specific morphotype in ancient African and Eurasian toolkits from the Oldowan into the Acheulian. They are characterized by a flat platform perpendicularly oriented to a carinated edge. The convex surface of that edge displays semi-peripheral, unidirectional removals associated with steep retouch and/or crush...
Heavy-duty scrapers are documented as a specific morphotype in ancient African and Eurasian toolkits from the Oldowan into the Acheulian. They are characterized by a flat platform perpendicularly oriented to a carinated edge. The convex surface of that edge displays semi-peripheral, unidirectional removals associated with steep retouch and/or crush...
Dietary habits of past people are fundamental to understanding their subsistence economy and their way of life. Dental microwear analysis is a useful tool which provides important information about diet and feeding behaviour in our ancestors. It allows us to identify the physical properties of food, as it provides information about the hardness and...
Dental microwear allows us to identify the physical properties of food, as it provides information about the hardness and abrasiveness of the food and shows how it was processed before being consumed. Consequently, we can deduce the diet of the human groups analyzed. This poster focuses on the characterization of dental microwear patterns to infer...
The human impact on the environment in the Holocene has usually been characterized on the basis of palaeobotanical records, but attempts to distinguish the anthropogenic impact from natural events in landscape evolution have been the subject of much debate in recent years. The aim of this paper is to analyse small-mammal diversity and the presence...
El Mirador is a cave in the Sierra de Atapuerca (northern Iberian Peninsula) that contains 27 archaeological layers from the Lateglacial to the Late Holocene. A total of 4436 small-mammal remains have been analysed from these layers, and 19 taxa have been identified (three insectivores, seven chiropters and nine rodents). The palaeoenvironmental re...
The archaeological research focusing on El Mirador Cave (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain) has revealed a succession of occupation levels in a dung layers context that span from the early Neolithic to the middle Bronze Age. The robustness and coherence of the chronological dates of the sequence have contributed to framing the beginning of farming practic...
The research for referential data on current livestock contexts is essential for correctly interpreting archaeological records documented in prehistoric livestock spaces. Experimental programmes such as the one begun in 2014 in the Mas del Pepet pen (Rojals, Tarragona) has permitted an understanding, among other matters, of fold characteristics acc...
Ichthyoarchaeological analyses of the freshwater fish remains from levels 19 and 20 in El Mirador cave (Atapuerca, Spain) have been conducted. Fish were always present as a source of animal protein, although their importance in the human diet was not fully exploited by people during the Neolithic on the Iberian Peninsula. Two principal goals are tr...
This paper focuses on the study of bone alterations in fumier deposits from an experimental point of view. Fumiers are characteristic of livestock enclosures in the Mediterranean area used from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. They originate from the process of burning livestock dung piles to reduce the volume of dung accumulation and to rid these...
The polish generated by sheep and goats in the walls of caves and stone-made enclosures is a clear indicator about their use as a livestock folds. The study of the polish distribution and intensity, together with the data revealed by the sedimentary context, or even if it is absent, allows to understand the kind of management carried out with the a...
The archaeological site of El Mirador is located in the southern slope of the Sierra de Atapuerca. The work developed at the site is providing a substantial set of data from the Upper Palaeolithic and Early Neolithic to the Middle Bronze Age. Throughout at least about 4000 years of occupation, the cave was used for various activities, among which,...
Ancient DNA makes it possible to observe natural selection directly by analysing samples from populations before, during and after adaptation events. Here we report a genome-wide scan for selection using ancient DNA, capitalizing on the largest ancient DNA data set yet assembled: 230 West Eurasians who lived between 6500 and 300 bc, including 163 w...