Marco de la Rasilla

University of Oviedo | UNIOVI · Department of History

El libro se adentra en el campo más actual de la Arqueología Prehistórica gracias a su multidisciplinar acercamiento metodológico. Con ese fin, la obra aparece estructurada en cinco grandes bloques. Por un lado, el primero de ellos se centra en el análisis del pensamiento simbólico, con especial atención al estudio del arte prehistórico de la penín...

The highly fragmented nature of Palaeolithic faunal assemblages is a regular limitation in archaeozoological analyses as it prevents a precise taxonomic identification following comparative anatomy criteria. In this paper, we integrate Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) analysis of unidentifiable bone fragments within archaeozoological and...

The rock shelter of La Viña, located on the northern Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula, contains a rich archaeological sequence dated from the Mousterian to the Magdalenian. This site preserves an extended Gravettian occupation where a diversified assemblage of fauna, lithic and bone tools has been attested. In this paper, we undertake the ar...

La Cueva del Pindal (Ribadedeva, Asturias) y su arte rupestre paleolítico forman parte de la Lista del Patrimonio Mundial de la UNESCO desde 2008. Actualmente está abierta al público con visitas limitadas y en ella se desarrolla un proyecto de investigación sobre actividad microbiana en ecosistemas naturales subterráneos y su aplicación al diseño d...

Count Vega del Sella’s research marked the beginning of the long tradition of Mesolithic studies in Asturias (North Spain). Another pioneer, L. Sierra, explored a number of caves in Cantabria with Mesolithic shell-middens, but no specific research line was developed on this kind of deposit in the province. The early excavation at Santimamiñe Cave r...

El abrigo de La Viña (La Manzaneda, Oviedo, Asturias) cuenta con una excepcional secuencia estratigráfica y un conjunto de arte parietal que lo convierten en uno de los yacimientos más importantes tanto a nivel de la región cantábrica como a nivel peninsular. Durante las excavaciones arqueológicas en el nivel XII -adscrito al Auriñaciense Evolucion...

El Abrigo de La Viña es uno de los yacimientos claves para el estudio del Paleolítico Superior de la región cantábrica, debido a su larga secuencia arqueológica y a sus grafías parietales pre-magdalenienses. En este trabajo se presenta el estudio arqueozoológico y tafonómico de los restos faunísticos hallados en los niveles solutrenses del Sector O...

Animal emblématique des Pyrénées, le bouquetin peuple ses deux versants depuis les temps les plus anciens. En s’adaptant à cet environnement, une forme typiquement pyrénéenne Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica apparaît, il y a plusieurs millénaires. Consommé pendant la Préhistoire, le bouquetin est devenu, au cours du Paléolithique récent, une figure incont...

Animal emblématique des Pyrénées, le bouquetin peuple ses deux versants depuis les temps les plus anciens. En s’adaptant à cet environnement, une forme typiquement pyrénéenne Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica apparaît, il y a plusieurs millénaires. Consommé pendant la Préhistoire, le bouquetin est devenu, au cours du Paléolithique récent, une figure incont...

El Sidrón Cave is an archaeological and anthropological reference site of the Neanderthal world. It shows singular activity related to cannibalisation, and all existing processes are relevant to explain the specific behaviour of the concerned individuals. This paper presents geoarchaeological data, primarily based on mineralogical and petrographic...

Many caves and rockshelters have been repeatedly inhabited by Neanderthals and AMH in the Cantabrian region, alternating in some cases with carnivores. This leads us to consider to what extent competition for shelter is a priority for these groups, their interactions and the development of the occupations, which factors determine them as well as th...

The presence of human groups during the Last Glacial Maximum has been witnessed along all Iberian regions [1]. Nevertheless, the paleoenvironmental and biogeography conditions show differences, with clear influence in the settlement dynamics, subsistence strategies and social behaviour of Palaeolithic people. Under this precept, our objective is to...

Birds are abundant in fossil assemblages of Quaternary sites; they can be used in landscape reconstruction as they are well adapted to the environment. Here we present the analysis of the avian assemblage from the Middle Paleolithic levels of the Llonin Cave, where 558 bird remains have been recovered from levels G-VI and CP-VIII, belonging to at l...

Resumen Se realiza una revisión historiográfica de los principales episodios epidémicos sufridos por la humanidad desde la Prehistoria hasta el siglo XX, con el propósito de analizar la incidencia que han tenido las sucesivas enfermedades infecto-contagiosas en las diferentes sociedades en cada época, atendiendo a cuatro variables de estudio: la so...

Coastal adaptations of Palaeolithic foragers along the north Atlantic seaboard have received renewed attention in the last decade and include growing evidence for exploitation of whale bone by Late Glacial Magdalenian groups to the north of the Pyrenees. Here we present a systematic revision of Magdalenian osseous industries from the Cantabrian reg...

This work analyses the diachronic evolution of dental and postcranial size in Pleistocene dhole (genus Cuon) populations from the Iberian Peninsula. Based on these data we consider two questions: is there a direct relationship between the decrease in tooth size and body size? Or is the process of tooth size evolution related to specific adaptations...

Y chromosome evolution in Neanderthals The genomes of archaic hominins have been sequenced and compared with that of modern humans. However, most archaic individuals with high-quality sequences available have been female. Petr et al. performed targeted sequencing of the paternally inherited Y chromosomes from three Neanderthals and two Denisovans (...

The Palaeolithic rock engravings that are located along the Nalón river basin in Northern Spain (central area of Asturias) have been studied from various perspectives (morphology, depth, style, manual range), but no use-wear studies on the stone tools used to produce such engravings have ever been undertaken. This paper aims to explore a new approa...

An international group of archaeologists specializing in cave art explain the difficulties they faced to publish their response to another paper, previously published in Science (Hoffmann et al. 2018), reporting a Neanderthal origin of some Spanish cave paintings according to Uranium-thorium method. In their reply, they underlined the different sou...

The evolution of the body form in Homo and its potential morphological connection to the arrangement of different skeletal systems is of major interest in human evolution. Patella morphology as part of the knee is potentially influenced by body form. Here, we describe for the first time the patellae remains recovered at El Sidrón Neandertal site an...

The sites of La Viña and Llonin have an important archaeological sequence corresponding to Marine Isotope Stage 3: Mousterian, Aurignacian and Gravettian periods. La Viña is a complex rock shelter with continuous occupations, being some (basically the Mousterian and the Aurignacian in contact levels) altered by post-depositional processes as a cons...

Ancient DNA has allowed the study of various aspects of human history in unprecedented detail. However, because the majority of archaic human specimens preserved well enough for genome sequencing have been female, comprehensive studies of Y chromosomes of Denisovans and Neandertals have not yet been possible. Here we present sequences of the first...

An international group of archaeologists specializing in cave art explain the diffi- culties they faced to publish their response to another paper, previously published in Science (Hoffmann et al. 2018), reporting a Neanderthal origin of some Spanish cave pain- tings according to Uranium-thorium method. In their reply, they underlined the diffe- re...

X Jornadas de Innovación Docente 2017 Redes para la innovación de la docencia: la participación del alumnado 2 X Jornadas de Innovación Docente 2017 Redes para la innovación de la docencia: la participación del alumnado Vicerrectorado de Recursos Materiales y Gutiérrez González, J. A., Carrocera Fernández, E., Rasilla Vives, M. d. l., García Álvare...

Les montagnes sont souvent perçues comme des espaces peu et tardivement peuplés, en marge des grands axes d’échanges. Cependant, les recherches récentes ne cessent de faire reculer dans le temps et augmenter en altitude les plus anciennes traces de présence humaine en milieu montagnard. De nombreuses études environnementales et archéologiques ont p...

RESUMEn Hasta el año 2000 en Asturias había poca información sobre las fuentes de mate-rias primas silíceas relacionadas con las industrias líticas prehistóricas. Desde esa fecha contamos con varios trabajos que profundizan en la ubicación, identificación y explotación de esas materias primas. Se expondrá lo conocido desde el punto de vista geológi...

Ontogenetic studies help us understand the processes of evolutionary change. Previous studies on Neandertals have focused mainly on dental development and inferred an accelerated pace of general growth.We report on a juvenile partial skeleton (El Sidrón J1) preserving cranio-dental and postcranial remains.We used dental histology to estimate the ag...

This paper presents a study of the macromammalian fauna recovered from Mousterian levels of Llonin Cave. The sample is highly heterogeneous and comprises six species of ungulates, including Rupicapra pyrenaica, Capra pyrenaica, and Cervus elaphus, and seven species of carnivores, predominantly Ursus spelaeus, Crocuta spelaea, Canis/Cuon and Panther...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0194708.].

Radiocarbon AMS dates produced in this study. Collagen was extracted using the ultrafiltration protocol in all the samples. A contextual information of each archaeological level is provided, including a description of the lithic and bone artefacts and the archaeological context. Also, sample reference, animal species and skeletal element sampled in...

En el yacimiento del Pleistoceno Superior de la cueva de El Sidrón, con una datación de ~49.000 ka, conocido por sus numerosos restos fósiles de neandertales, se han recuperado restos de micromamíferos cuyo estudio detallado se realiza en este trabajo. La asociación determinada es la siguiente: Sorex araneus–Sorex coronatus, Neomys cf. fodiens, Tal...

Methodological advances in dating the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition provide a better understanding of the replacement of local Neanderthal populations by Anatomically Modern Humans. Today we know that this replacement was not a single, pan-European event, but rather it took place at different times in different regions. Thus, local conditi...

Supporting information manuscript with a detailed description of each archaeological site sampled in this study. (DOCX)

Radiocarbon AMS dates produced in this study. Collagen was extracted using the ultrafiltration protocol in all the samples. A contextual information of each archaeological level is provided, including a description of the lithic and bone artefacts and the archaeological context. Also, sample reference, animal species and skeletal element sampled in...

Radiocarbon accelerator dates from the Cantabrian region mentioned in this work. Only bone samples with ultrafiltration methods are included. ABA: charcoal fragment treated with a series of acid and base washes; ABOx-SC: charcoal treated with acid and base washes, followed by an oxidation stage and pre-combustion; UF AMS: collagen extracted using t...

Radiocarbon dates from El Cuco modelled in OxCal4.2 [41,43] against INTCAL13 [42]. (TIF)

Results of sensitivity test conducted on regional models. (DOCX)

Radiocarbon dates from Covalejos modelled in OxCal4.2 [41,43] against INTCAL13 [42]. (TIF)

Radiocarbon dates from Amalda modelled in OxCal4.2 [41,43] against INTCAL13 [42]. (TIF)

CQL individual codes. (DOCX)

CQL regional codes. (DOCX)

Results of the Order function comparing the PDF’s of the boundaries dating the start and the end of the archaeological industries from the Cantabrian region. Cells containing probabilities of >95% are coloured in green, 68–94% in orange and <68 in grey. (DOCX)

Results of sensitivity test conducted on individual models. (DOCX)

Radiocarbon dates from Ekain modelled in OxCal4.2 [41,43] against INTCAL13 [42]. (TIF)

The comment by DeSilva challenges our suggestion that brain growth of the El Sidrón J1 Neandertal was still incomplete at 7.7 years of age. Evidence suggests that endocranial volume is likely to represent less than 90% adult size at El Sidrón as well as Neandertal male plus Krapina samples, in line with further evidence from endocranial surface his...

The sedimentary infill bearing the archaeological and anthropological record of the Ossuary Gallery (the Sidrón cave) shows high complexity in both sediment types and their spatial distribution in the cavity. The main factors that govern this complexity are the episodic and highly energetic nature of the recorded sedimentary infill units and the ir...

Twenty-nine carpal bones of Homo neanderthalensis have been recovered from the site of El Sidrón (Asturias, Spain) during excavations between 1994 and 2009, alongside ∼2500 other Neandertal skeletal elements dated to ∼49,000 years ago. All bones of the wrist are represented, including adult scaphoids (n = 6), lunates (n = 2), triquetra (n = 4), pis...

Se presentan en este trabajo los grabados paleolíticos del abrigo de La Viña (La Manzaneda, Oviedo, Asturias). A partir de la fotogrametría realizada por J. Fortea a finales de la d.cada de 1990, se documentan los grabados exteriores de surco profundo conservados en el gran frente parietal que protege el asentamiento. Se incluyen los dos horizontes...

Neandertal growth patterns The ontogeny of different parts of the Neandertal skeleton has been derived from isolated bones and fragments. Rosas et al. present a more complete skeleton of a Neandertal child, aged 7 to 8 years, from a 49,000-year-old site in northern Spain. The skeleton preserves dental, cranial, and postcranial material, allowing th...

Objectives: The El Sidrónn tali sample is assessed in an evolutionary framework. We aim to explore the relationship between Neandertal talus morphology and body size/shape. We test the hypothesis 1: talar Neandertal traits are influenced by body size, and the hypothesis 2: shape variables independent of body size correspond to inherited primitive f...

Well preserved thoracic vertebrae of Neandertals are rare. However, such fossils are important as their three-dimensional (3D) spatial configuration can contribute to the understanding of the size and shape of the thoracic spine and the entire thorax. This is because the vertebral body and transverse processes provide the articulation and attachmen...

Tracing our ancestors in cave sediments Analysis of DNA from archaic hominids has illuminated human evolution. However, sites where thousand-year-old bones and other remains can be found are relatively rare. Slon et al. wanted to exploit any trace remains that our ancestors left behind. They looked for ancient DNA of hominids and other mammals in c...

Recent genomic data have revealed multiple interactions between Neanderthals and modern humans, but there is currently little genetic evidence regarding Neanderthal behaviour, diet, or disease. Here we describe the shotgun-sequencing of ancient DNA from five specimens of Neanderthal calcified dental plaque (calculus) and the characterization of reg...

Introduction: The El Sidrón site represents one of the most complete neandertal fossil assemblages of the Iberian Peninsula, where every part of the skeleton is represented [1, 2]. The site has yielded more than 2500 skeletal remains, from which 268 are costal remains. Despite the fragmentary nature of these ribs, 168 remains could be attributed to...

We undertook a three-dimensional geometric morphometric (3DGM) analysis on 12 new Neandertal clavicle specimens from the El Sidrón site (Spain), dated to 49,000 years ago. The 3DGM methods were applied in a comparative framework in order to improve our understanding of trait polarity in features related to Homo pectoral girdle evolution, using othe...

Analysis of dental calculus is increasingly important in archaeology, although the focus has hitherto been on dietary reconstruction. Non-edible material has, however, recently been extracted from the dental calculus of a Neanderthal population from the 49 000-year-old site of El Sidrón, Spain, in the form of fibre and chemical compounds that indic...

It has been shown that Neanderthals contributed genetically to modern humans outside Africa 47,000-65,000 years ago. Here we analyse the genomes of a Neanderthal and a Denisovan from the Altai Mountains in Siberia together with the sequences of chromosome 21 of two Neanderthals from Spain and Croatia. We find that a population that diverged early f...

Resumen Presentamos una síntesis a partir de los datos y resultados presentes en varios yacimientos de Asturias relativos, por un lado, a la problemática de la cronología y los procesos tafonómicos y, por otro, a las novedades ofrecidas en diferentes aspectos de nuestros antepasados neandertales. Asimismo, se pone de manifiesto la necesidad de revi...

Na monografía clásica de Puig y Larraz (1896: 250-252) amiéntense delles cavidaes del Conceyu de Piloña, pero non la Cueva d’El Sidrón (Fig. 1). Esta conocíase, ensin dulda, dende la Guerra Civil y el maquis al servir d’abellugu a persiguíos políticos, y guarda una alcordanza imborrable nuna de les sos múltiples entraes, yá qu’ellí ta enterrada Olv...

The archaeological project in the Gallery of the Osario of the cave of El Sidron (Asturias, Spain) has recently concluded after 13 field seasons of detailed, methodical excavation. We present here a summary of the lines of research and the paleoanthropological studies carried out to date, as well as a brief perspective of the ongoing investigations...

We present here the first cases in Neandertals of congenital clefts of the arch of the atlas. Two atlases from El Sidrón, northern Spain, present respectively a defect of the posterior (frequency in extant modern human populations ranging from 0.73% to 3.84%), and anterior (frequency in extant modern human populations ranging from 0.087% to 0.1%) a...

La Viña rock shelter (La Manzaneda, Oviedo, Asturias) is the easternmost of the thirteen open sites with rock engravings spread along the Nalón river basin. La Viña is the largest settlement in that valley and contains the most extensive archaeological sequence, from the Middle Palaeolithic to the Holocene, as well as an important set of engravings...