José Ramón Rabuñal

University of Santiago de Compostela | USC · Área de Prehistoria

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.

New methodological approaches focused on studying the reduction and use-life of stone tools have emerged in recent years, enabling researchers to move beyond strict technical and technological characterizations and explore specific aspects of occupation dynamics and economic management of resources. Previous studies have shown the importance of red...

Palimpsests are ubiquitous in the open-air archaeological record. Yet, integrated intra-site research strategies of palimpsest dissection to infer occupational histories, spatial behavioural patterns and site formation processes remain scarce in the postglacial archaeology. In this work, we apply an integrated protocol of palimpsest analysis to the...

This Special Issue seeks to assemble a collection of studies focused on different geographical, ecological, and cultural settings from across Eurasia, dealing with the impacts of the ‘8.2 ka BP event’ on human socio-ecological systems. Recognised across a plethora of globally distributed palaeoenvironmental proxies, the ‘8.2 ka BP event’ is a promi...

This study presents an exceptional collection of 54 Late Pleistocene human remains that correspond to at least three Neanderthal individuals from Simanya Gran, the main gallery of Cova Simanya, located in the northeastern Iberian Peninsula. The collection comprised 53 unpublished remains that were unearthed during the 1970s and an additional tooth...

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...

Unlabelled: Hearth-pits are some of the most common archaeological features documented in open-air Mesolithic sites, especially in coversand areas of NW Europe. However, very few geoarchaeological studies have addressed their formation, function and relationship with occupation surfaces. This work introduces new interdisciplinary investigations on...

Palimpsests are ubiquitous in the open-air archaeological record. Yet, integrated intra-site research strategies of palimpsest dissection to infer occupational histories, spatial behavioral patterns and site formation processes remain scarce in the Postglacial archaeology. In this work, we apply an integrated protocol of palimpsest analysis to the...

Open‐air sites represent a fundamental proxy of the Early Holocene adaptive systems in the Iberian Peninsula. However, its research potential for the study of human–environmental interactions has been minimally explored. In this work, we present the results of an integrated research programme focused on open‐area excavations at the Mesolithic site...

The Early Holocene was a period of climate amelioration, yet paleoclimate records show punctuated episodes of climate change. Premier among these is the '8.2 ka BP event'. While centered on 8.2 ka BP, the duration of this abrupt cooling oscillation was likely much longer, and its onset reaching back to 8.4 ka BP. The synchronicity of the event acro...

The ability of early hominins to overcome the constraints imposed by the characteristics of raw materials used for stone tool production is a key topic on the discussion about the evolution of hominin cognitive capabilities and technical behaviours. Thus, technological variability has been the centrepiece on this debate. However, the variability of...

Hearth-pits are some of the most common archaeological features documented in open-air Mesolithic sites, especially in coversand areas of Western and Central Europe. Yet, very few geoarchaeological investigations have addressed their formation, function and relationship with occupation surfaces. This work introduces new interdisciplinary investigat...

Open-air sites represent a fundamental proxy of the Early Holocene adaptive systems in the Iberian Peninsula. However, its research potential for the study of human-environmental interactions has just been minimally explored. In this work, we present the results of an integrated research programme focused on open-area excavations at the Mesolithic...

The open-air site of Cantacorbs is a Neolithic chert workshop located on a calcareous mountaintop plateau (1022 masl), overlooking one of the main routes through the Prades Mountains (Tarragona, NE Iberian Peninsula). The main characteristic of the site is the abundance of knapped lithic material on the surface, in which all stages of the blade pro...

El jaciment a l’aire lliure de Cantacorbs és un taller neolític de sílex localitzat a un altiplà calcari a 1022 m.s.n.m., d’es d’on es pot controlar una de les principals rutes que creuen les muntanyes de Prades. La característica principal del jaciment és l’abundància de material lític tallat en superfície, corresponent a tots els estadis de la ca...

Over the last years, functional analyses and projectile fracture analyses on non-chert tools are becoming widespread and are drawing more attention in the archaeological literature. The actual tendencies of conducting holistic studies of the archaeological sites and their materials is allowing to obtain a better quality of data and a better underst...

Knowing to what extent lithic cores have been reduced through knapping is an important step toward understanding the technological variability of lithic assemblages and disentangling the formation processes of archaeological assemblages. In addition, it is a good complement to more developed studies of reduction intensity in retouched tools, and ca...

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...

The intensity of reduction on lithic assemblages has implications in the understanding of hominin behaviors such as mobility patterns, type and intensity of occupations, raw material management and cognitive abilities, as well as in the formation of lithic assemblages. In the last decades, numerous methodological proposals have been developed aimed...

Este artículo presenta los trabajos realizados en el yacimiento de la Balma de la Vall (Montblanc, Tarragona). Las primeras excavaciones, a inicios de los 1980, identificaron distintos niveles de ocupación humana relacionados con el Paleolítico superior final. Entre los años 2011-2013 la excavación se reemprendió con los objetivos de definir la suc...

During the Early Holocene, the Mediterranean region of Iberia witnessed a major technological rupture. Between the micro-bladelet industries of Magdalenian filiation (Late Up- per Magdalenian and Microlaminar Epipalaeolithic) and the Late Mesolithic industries of trapezoid microliths (also called Geometric Mesolithic), the archaeological record sho...

In the mid of the past century a series of high-altitude chert workshops were found in the Prades Mountains (Montblanc, Catalonia). These workshops were ascribed to the Neolithic, but to date just one of them -Cantacorbs- become part of a wider archaeological project. This open-air site is located in the top of a calcareous high plateau (1022 masl)...

The detailed analysis of rock crystal assemblages has experienced a strong impulse lately. Nevertheless, the increasing research focused on this material does not allow yet to clearly discern some of the main issues involved in its analysis. The characteristics of the crystal, specially the transparency, but also the generally small size of the cry...

El análisis de industrias líticas en cristal de roca es controvertido. Entre las propuestas sobre su utilización, destaca la de uso como proyectiles. En este trabajo se presentan los resultados experimentales obtenidos a partir de un análisis macro y microscópico sobre proyectiles en cristal de roca, que han permitido caracterizar huellas diagnósti...

Functional analyses on rock crystal tools are scarce. Due to the microlithic character of some elements recovered in NW Iberian sites, we believe that some of them could have been used as projectiles. To test this hypothesis we carried out a pilot experiment that aims to evaluate if it is possible to identify projectiles in rock crystal. We followe...

Despite the abundance of studies about projectiles, adhesives have not been taken into account as part of the study, and the few works focused on this topic have revolved around the function of the ochre in the mix. This work is a preliminary approach to the evaluation of the behaviour, when facing the impact stress, of a series of adhesives based...

El análisis pormenorizado de industrias líticas en cristal de roca ha sufrido un fuerte revulsivo en los últimos años. Sin embargo, la aparición cada vez más frecuente de investigaciones sobre este material no permite todavía discernir con claridad algunos de los principales problemas que conlleva su análisis. Las características intrínsecas del cr...

Late Upper Magdalenian lithic technology from Cova de les Borres (La Febró): morphotechnical analysis and production strategies

From the archaeological project “Poboamento durante o Plistoceno medio / Holoceno nas comarcas orientais de Galicia” we promote a scientific dissemination effort focused on the archaeological, paleontological and natural heritage of the Eastern regions of Galicia. The support of the population, the Local Administration and the media configure an id...

The archaeological site of Valverde is placed on a slope of the Valverde Mount, near one of the entrances into the basin of Monforte de Lemos (Galicia, Lugo). After the finding of a lithic scatter a survey was carried out in 2007-2009, yielding more than 2400 implements. The lithic assemblage is characterized by the presence of expedient “chaines o...

Through the past few years there have been an increasing number of works related to the adhesives used to fix the lithic tools to hafts or shafts. These works are based on different methodologies such as ethnoarchaeology, experimental archaeology, residual and functional analysis, etc. , so their results have also been diverse. Experimental works h...

Functional studies in rock crystal industries from Cova Eirós (Lugo, Galicia) have given interesting results, suggesting a frequent use of this raw material (configured or not) in the elaboration of projectile elements. Rock crystal is a material that have barely been taken into account in archaeological literature, and even less in functional issu...

The archaeological site of Valverde is placed on a slope of the Valverde Mount, near one of the entrances into the basin of Monforte de Lemos (Galicia, Lugo). After the finding of a lithic scatter survey works were carried out in 2007-2009, yielding more than 1000 implements. The lithic assemblage is characterized by the presence of expedient “chai...

The archaeological site of Valverde is placed on a slope of the Valverde Mount, near one of the entrances into the basin of Monforte de Lemos (Galicia, Lugo). After the finding of a lithic scatter survey works were carried out in 2007-2009, yielding more than 1000 implements. The lithic assemblage is characterized by the presence of expedient “chai...

El yacimiento de Valverde se emplaza en una ladera del Monte de Valverde, en las proximidades de una de las entradas naturales a la Depresión de Monforte de Lemos (Lugo, Galicia, España).Tras el hallazgo de industria lítica en superficie, se realizaron varios sondeos y prospecciones durante las campañas 2007-2009, recuperando más de 2400 artefactos...