About
304
Publications
98,316
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
8,837
Citations
Introduction
My work is focused on the subsistence strategies of the "archaic" hominins. I work on different sites: Atapuerca sites, Gibraltar, Qesem Cave and Toll and Teixoneres Caves.
Additional affiliations
January 2007 - present
Position
- Master: Arqueologia del quaternari i evolució humana (Erasmus Mundus
Publications
Publications (304)
Studying bone surface modifications (BSMs) in neotaphonomic research is an important aid to reconstruct agency in the archaeological and palaeontological record. The significance of correctly identifying BSMs has led to extensive debates about adequate methodological and interpretive frameworks to identify taphonomic agents and their bone-modifying...
The study of Neanderthal-Environment interactions very often lacks precise data that match the chrono-geographical frame of human activities. Here, we reconstruct Neanderthals’ hunting grounds within three distinct habitats using dental microwear analysis combined with zooarchaeological data. The predation patterns toward ungulates are discussed in...
Biased skeletal part representation is a key element for making inferences about transport decisions, carcass procurement, and use patterns in anthropogenic accumulations. In the absence of destructive taphonomic processes, it is often assumed that the abundance of different anatomical portions represents selective transport and discard patterns of...
Neo-taphonomic studies have allowed us to detect bone damage patterns linked to carnivore preferences and behavioral traits as well as to improve our understanding of the origin of different alterations on vertebrate fossil faunas. However, taphonomically speaking vultures are among the least studied of all common, obligate scavengers. The research...
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...
One of the most widely used methods to associate lithic tools and bone assemblage in archaeological sites is the identification of cut-marks. However, the identification of these marks is still problematic in some localities on account of the similarities with the modifications generated by non-human processes, including biostratinomic and post-dep...
Dental microwear is a common and well-established technique which allows the short-term reconstruction of the dietary behaviour in extinct and extant vertebrates, allowing inferences about daily, seasonal, or regional variations in diets. However, the use of this method may be limited because taphonomic processes
can affect enamel surfaces and mod...
In this article we announce the discovery of the first remains of Megaloceros giganteus found in Catalonia (north-eastern Iberia) from the Late Pleistocene: a fragment of maxillary. Dated between 35,000 and 37,000 cal BP, it is also among the youngest occurrence of this taxon in the Iberian Peninsula, while its last known occurrence is dated to the...
The application of dental wear study to murids has always been ruled out because of their omnivorous diet, which does not leave significant wear on the dentition. Nevertheless, in our work we select Apodemus sylvaticus (wood mouse) as the object of study for several reasons: its seasonal diet, its ability to resist the gastric juices of predators,...
Cervids, and especially the red deer Cervus elaphus, are among the most regularly and abundantly recorded ungulates in Pleistocene/Paleolithic bone assemblages. Numerous Pleistocene or Holocene subspecies have been described, reinforcing their status as essential proxies for environmental and chronological reconstructions. Despite this, at the begi...
Dietary traits of individuals and populations of both Neanderthals and animals, are essential for the reconstruction of biotic interactions among species. These kinds of dynamic relationships with other living species in a shared environment can be seen as a major influence in evolution and ecology, and the timing and type of interaction could have...
Dental microwear is a common and well-established proxy that shows a high temporal resolution in characterising the ungulate diet on a short time scale linked to the time of death. It is often the case that a high number of specimens from fossil assemblages are excluded from analyses due to structural or superficial damage, which can drastically re...
The northeastern region of Iberia constitutes a natural pass-area for arriving populations into the peninsula and becomes a key area to understand Neanderthal resilience to changing environmental conditions experienced during Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3; 60–30 ka). Short-term but repeated occupations by Neanderthal groups occurred in Teixoneres C...
Postdepositional damage to fossil remains are of great interest if considering the possible distortion they could produce in the archaeological and paleontological record. These damages are particularly relevant for the dietary reconstructions based on dental microwear which was formed during the lifetime of an animal. The taphonomic processes have...
Els grups humans del Paleolític mitjà no es poden entendre sense tenir en compte el medi en el qual es desenvolupaven. Des d'aquest punt de vista, les coves del Toll (Toll i Teixoneres) són un bon indret per analitzar les relacions dels humans d'aquest període amb les entitats biològiques del territori circumdant. Aquest treball intenta aportar llu...
Cooper et al . (Research Articles, 19 February 2021, p. 811) propose that the Laschamps geomagnetic inversion ~42,000 years ago drove global climatic shifts, causing major behavioral changes within prehistoric groups, as well as events of human and megafaunal extinction. Other scientific studies indicate that this proposition is unproven from the c...
The behaviour and mobility of hominins are dependent on the availability of biotic and abiotic resources, which, in temperate ecosystems, are strongly related to seasonality. The objective of this study is to establish evidence of seasonality and duration of occupation(s) of specific archaeological contexts at late Lower Palaeolithic Qesem Cave bas...
Proboscidean remains in Iberian Pleistocene sites were first discovered many centuries ago. Some of them were recovered together with lithic tools, leading researchers to associate them with human activities. However, in recent decades, several taphonomic works have provided a new perspectives based on more precise methods and analyses. Elephant sk...
Neanderthal's material remains have been studied from a variety of perspectives with the aim of reconstructing different life-aspects of these human groups. The arrangements of artefacts and features within archaeological sites have often been employed to isolate activity areas and draw inferences about site function. This assumes that objects foun...
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...
During the last International Congress of Paleobotany and Palynology
(Dublin, 2018), participants discussed Paleoecology through
the lens of Art and Science. These talks identified an urgent need
for a more synergistic interaction between the visual arts and the
sciences. Importantly, such consilience could inform research.
This is because, while f...
Equifinality constitutes a challenge when interpreting agency in archaeological sites. The fact that a specific type of damage frequently cannot be linked to a single actor, behavior, or ecological context, handicaps correct interpretations of site formation processes. Actualistic studies have been used to address this type of problem by creating m...
Deciphering the origin and depositional history of archaeological and paleontological deposits is fundamental to evaluate artifact and fossil contextualization. We present new rock magnetic data based on the anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) that allow the fabric analysis and characterization of depositional modes in cave sediments. This...
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...
The aim of this study is to understand the feeding habits of the cave bear, Ursus spelaeus by investigating the dental microwear patterns of 106 molars from six Late Pleistocene caves in Catalonia (Spain): Ermitons Cave, Arbreda Cave, Mollet Cave, Llenes Cave, Toll Cave, and Teixoneres Cave. Dental microwear patterns of U. spelaeus were compared wi...
Diet is closely connected to the habitat exploited by ungulates and is one of the main links between them and the surrounding environment. When climatic fluctuations modified the vegetal coverture and habitat, ungulates' dietary behaviours and ecological niches could have been impacted severely. During the Middle Palaeolithic, the Mediterranean pen...
A palynological study of the archaeological layers from the Neanderthal site of Teixoneres Cave, located in Northeastern Spain, is presented. Vegetation dynamics for the MIS 7-MIS 2 period are described, revealing the long-term resilience of mixed oak-pine forests throughout cold phases and a high diversity of woody taxa, including conifers, mesoph...
Palynological investigations of Toll Cave, a carnivore and archaeological cave site in northeastern Spain, are presented. The inferred vegetation reveals the long-term permanence of mixed pine-oak forests through a long period of environmental changes within the interval MIS 4 to MIS 1, and probably before. A relatively high diversity of woody taxa...
Skeletal profiles at archaeological bone assemblages can bear little resemblance to original hominin discarded bone elements. Resulting patterns might originate from different taphonomic problems, such as hominin-carnivore activities in alternate visits, and lead to interpretation issues. In this paper, we present a study of predepositional scatter...
Carnivores show a great variability as taphonomic agents, because of their own behaviour
and physical characteristics. The identifi cation and characterisation of the accumulator
agents is required to understand the relationships and diff erences between human and carnivore activities in archaeological sites. Thus, studies based on actualistic and...
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...
Like human groups, carnivores are able to act on the same faunal accumulation and generate important bone assemblages with their prey remains. In addition, both predators can share the same habitable areas and alternate their occupations, producing the well-known palimpsest at archaeological sites. As a discipline, taphonomy helps us understand the...
Studies on spatial settlement patterns have shed important light on Neanderthal intra-site behavior. Spatial analysis of the human occupations through bone and lithic refitting has contributed to the reconstruction of their settlements, offering temporal interpretations and reconstructions of their activities. Often archaeological units are a conse...
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...
Here we present the descriptive and comparative study of two immature scapulae recovered from the TD6.2 level of the Gran Dolina cave site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain) and assigned to Homo antecessor. This is the first time that data on the morphology and dimensions of the scapulae of a European late Early Pleistocene hominin population are provide...
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...
Actualistic studies have been commonly used as valid analogies in taphonomic research and, as the growing body of data demonstrate, have proved to be highly informative to explain the formation of terrestrial vertebrate fossil faunas. In Rosell et al. (2019), we conducted an experimental study with free-ranging brown bears (Ursus arctos arctos) wit...
Bone marrow and grease constitute an important source of nutrition and have attracted the attention of human groups since prehistoric times. Marrow consumption has been linked to immediate consumption following the procurement and removal of soft tissues. Here, we present the earliest evidence for storage and delayed consumption of bone marrow at Q...
The presence of fast-moving small game in the Paleolithic archaeological faunal record has long been considered a key variable to assess fundamental aspects of human behavior and subsistence. Birds occupy a prominent place in this debate not only due to their small size and to the difficulties in capturing them (essentially due to their ability to...
The composition and organisational patterns of Pleistocene human groups are a main research when it comes to the evolution of human behaviour. However, these studies are often limited by the restricted characteristics of the archaeological records and do not show enough resolution to make approaches with the necessary precision. The travertinic for...
Prehistoric human groups organize their subsistence strategies according to environmental parameters and socio-cultural variables. Functional analysis of artefacts allows researchers to recognize different activities and the characteristics of their utilization and to formulate hypotheses about the duration and the way that sites were occupied. Bon...
Neo-taphonomic studies of carnivores are commonly used to explain the formation processes of Pleistocene faunal assemblages. However, these works have been developed mostly with large carnivores—e.g. hyenas. On the contrary, small and medium-sized carnivores have been scarcely studied in spite of their presence in most of the archaeological sites....
Different agents can lead to similar damage patterns, and different causes can result in the same type of modification. This phenomenon was defined by Lyman (1987) as a problem of equifinality, with which the researcher warned about the risks of making direct systematic correlations. The fact that a specific type of damage cannot be linked to a sin...
Dietary habits of the extinct Ursus spelaeus have always been a controversial topic in paleontological studies. In this work, we investigate carbon and nitrogen values in the bone collagen and dental microwear of U. spelaeus specimens recovered in Level 4 from Toll Cave (Moià, Catalonia, NE Iberian Peninsula). These remains have been dated to > 49,...
Fire represented a real revolution in human lifestyles, transforming the way food was processed and leading to a new way of organising settlements and interacting socially. Yet, it is one of the most debated and controversial issues in the field of Palaeolithic archaeology. The scientific community generally proposes that the regular and controlled...
The interaction between hominins and carnivores can lead to archaeological scenarios where these relationships materialise in palimpsests. The alternate use of caves and shelters results in overlapped occupations where the action of both predators becomes difficult to trace. Their presence in archaeological sites like cave/shelter-environments have...
Vanguard Cave is an archaeological site located on the shoreline of the Rock of Gibraltar at the southwestern
extreme of the Iberian Peninsula. It is part of a limestone cave system facing the adjacent Governor's Beach on the south-eastern coast of Gibraltar and has been filled to the roof with more than 17m of sedimentary deposits. Due to its long...
The characterization of Neanderthal groups is approached by analyzing both their behavior patterns in several environments and their spatial organization in different types of occupations. The availability of resources, its management and exploitation, as well as other variables, such as seasonality, group size, occupational length and function or...
Neanderthal's material remains have been studied from various perspectives to reconstruct different life aspects of these human groups. The arrangements of artefacts and features within archaeological sites have often been employed to isolate activity areas and draw inferences about site function. This assumes that objects found close were used for...
From an archaeological point of view, the abandonment of remains allows past human activities and occupations to be reconstructed. In the case of faunal studies, once the nutritional value is exploited, bones are thrown, generating a set of accumulations that, together with other processes, leads to a deposit formation. One of the main problems is...
Small game seems to have increased during the Upper Palaeolithic to the detriment of large game on the
Iberian Peninsula. The economical and socio-cultural factors associated with this ecological shift represent
a widely discussed topic. The present work attempts to elucidate the subsistence strategies occurring
through the Late Pleistocene in Iber...
Neanderthal's material remains have been studied from a variety of perspectives with the aim of reconstructing different life-aspects of these human groups. The arrangements of artefacts and features within archaeological sites have often been employed to isolate activity areas and draw inferences about site function. This assumes that objects foun...
The so-called “Gran Dolina site” (Atapuerca mountain range, N Spain) is a karstic cavity filled by sediments during the Pleistocene, some of which contain a rich ensemble of archaeological and paleontological records. These sediments have contributed significantly to our understanding of early human dispersal in Europe but, in contrast, older, inte...
The cave - site of Gran Dolina in Atapuerca preserves one of the most abundant records of Early to Middle Pleistocene sediments known so far. Therefore, establishing the chronology for the stratigraphic levels within the cavity is crucial. Since the early 1990s, subsequent excavations have allowed better access to the older stratigraphic levels TD4...
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...
This paper deals with pollen analyses performed on hyaena coprolites from Vanguard Cave, Gibraltar, with the aim at depicting the vegetation landscapes of the southern Iberia Neanderthals during the MIS 3. The Palaeolithic vegetation in the surroundings would include pine, oak, juniper, Pistacia, and mixed woodlands, savannahs, riverine forest patc...
L’explotació de petites preses és un fenomen que sembla desenvolupar-se de manera sistemàtica a partir del Paleolític Superior. Això suposa un canvi en les estratègies de subsistència humanes, que pot deure’s a mútiples factors (econòmics, soco-culturals o ecològics, entre altres) i segueix sent encara avui dia un tema de debat. L’estudi que aquí e...
Morphological and morphometric variations in the first lower molars of Microtus arvalis and Microtus agrestis from the late Pleistocene site of Teixoneres Cave (Barcelona, Spain) have been investigated in order to understand the modifications in dental patterns occurring in these two species in a peripheral region of their distribution area. It was...
The refitting of both lithic and faunal remains is a basic field of research in Paleolithic archeology. In particular, the spatial dimension of lithic and faunal refitting is essential for resolving questions related to site formation processes and the organization strategies of hunter-gatherer bands. Unfortunately, although important insights can...
Carnivore damage on Neanderthal fossils is a much more common taphonomic modification than previously thought. Its presence could have different explanations, including predatory attacks or scavenging scenarios, which are both situations with important implications concerning Neanderthal behavior. In the present paper, we analyze several Neandertha...
Qesem Cave is a Middle Pleistocene site in Israel occupied between 420 and 200 ka. Excavations have revealed a wealth of innovative behaviors most likely practiced by a new hominin lineage. These include early evidence for the habitual and continuous use of fire, the repeated use of a central hearth, systematic flint and bone recycling, early blade...
In the last few years, the study of cut marks on bone surfaceshas become fundamental for the interpretation of prehistoricbutchery practices. Due to the difficulties in the correct iden-tification of cut marks, many criteria for their description andclassification have been suggested. Different techniques, suchas three-dimensional digital microscop...
Scientific Reports 6 : Article number: 37686; 10.1038/srep37686 published online: 25 November 2016 ; updated: 03 May 2017 . In the Supplementary Information file originally published with this Article, Figure S3 was elongated and of poor quality.
In the last few years, the study of cut marks on bone surfaces has become fundamental for the interpretation of prehistoric butchery practices. Due to the difficulties in the correct identification of cut marks, many criteria for their description and classification have been suggested. Different techniques, such as three-dimensional digital micros...
The spatial organization developed by Neanderthals in habitat places reflects different types of adaptive modes in response to internal and external constraints. An interdisciplinary study of archaeological records, spatial analysis and bone refits, properly compared with ethnographic data, are used as a methodology to facilitate the identification...