Mikel Díaz Rodríguez

• PhD Prehistory (University of Santiago de Compostela)
• Temporary Lecturer in Prehistory at Universidade de Vigo

Cova Eirós is a key reference site for understanding the life of the late Neanderthal groups in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, offering an extensive Mousterian sequence with level 3 standing out due to its late chronology (c. 41 ka cal BP). Its significant zooarchaeological record is a valuable source of information when attempting to reco...

Despite the presence of a theoretical model describing the settlement patterns of Palaeolithic sites in Northwestern Iberia, it has not yet been empirically tested using statistical analysis. This study explores the settlement patterns of the Palaeolithic period in Northwestern Iberia within two regions that share similar chronology and research tr...

En este trabajo se presenta el estado de la investigación sobre el Paleolítico gallego desde sus inicios, con Villa-Amil y Castro, pasando por excavaciones tan emblemáticas como las Gándaras de Budiño u otras más actuales como las de Cova Eirós. Hemos identificado seis fases cuya problemática responde al contexto histórico en que se desarrolla cada...

Although a theoretical model for the settlement patterns of Galician Palaeolithic has been proposed in the last decades, it has not been statistically tested. The present paper aims to check whether this previous theoretical model can be verified statistically. For this purpose, a methodology based on the creation of a predictive model has been use...

The analysis of formation processes (e.g., degree of surface alterations, size ranges, orientation patterns, fabric features, density, spatial patterns, etc.) in archaeological sites provide relevant information about the type and intensity of sedimentary disturbances. This type of analysis is particularly important in Palaeolithic sites, especiall...

The present paper aims to offer an evaluation of the cluster method analysis to settlement distribution of archaeological sites (k-means, DBSCAN, percolation analysis) and to show the potentiality of such methods on a regional scale. We analyse the distribution of Palaeolithic sites in Galician territory (NW Iberia) in order to identify the cluster...

In this paper, we deal with the locational analysis of the Cova Eirós site (Triacastela, Lugo), occupied from the Middle Palaeolithic to the present. From GIS and statistics, we intend to approach those environmental factors that define its importance as a place of occupation over time and on a recurring basis. Once we have analysed the variables t...

Iberia, a natural cul-de-sac peninsula, plays a major role in the study of the Neanderthals demise and its eventual relationship with the spread of Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH) in Europe. The site of Cova Eirós (Galicia, Spain), located in NW Iberia, contains Middle and Upper Palaeolithic levels, based on the cultural remains recovered at the s...

Este libro recoge una síntesis con los principales resultados de las investigaciones desarrolladas en el yacimiento paleolítico de Arbo (Pontevedra). Con una datación mínima de 118.000 años, este lugar se perfila como unos de los yacimientos arqueológicos más antiguos del noroeste peninsular. A su vez, esta cronología es una de las más recientes, e...

In this paper, we deal with the analysis of the occupation pattern of the Lower Palaeolithic archaeological sites in the basin of Monforte de Lemos (Lugo, Galicia). The main locational variables that could condition the siting of these archaeological sites have been analysed, through the application of Geographic Information Systems and spatial sta...

[ESP] En las sierras septentrionales de Galicia (noroeste de la Península Ibérica) se desarrollaron diferentes trabajos arqueológicos, que tuvieron como resultado el descubrimiento de toda una serie de yacimientos, cronológicamente encuadrables entre el Paleolítico superior y el Epipaleolítico. De forma general fueron espacialmente identificados co...

As Gándaras de Budiño (GB) is a key locality for the Lower Palaeolithic record of the Iberian Peninsula. Although the site has been excavated in different occasions over the last decades, several geological and archaeological aspects are still not well known. Among other issues, the age of the lithic assemblage has been debated for a long time: des...

As Gándaras de Budiño es el yacimiento más emblemático del Paleolítico del noroeste pe-ninsular. la asociación de un registro lítico achelense con unas dataciones del Pleistoceno superior lo convirtió en uno de los yacimientos más controvertidos. Por ello, son numerosas las intervenciones arqueológicas y revisiones que intentaron comprender la prob...

As Gándaras de Budiño es el yacimiento más emblemático del Paleolítico del noroeste pe-ninsular. la asociación de un registro lítico achelense con unas dataciones del Pleistoceno superior lo convirtió en uno de los yacimientos más controvertidos. Por ello, son numerosas las intervenciones arqueológicas y revisiones que intentaron comprender la prob...

Since the first half of the 1970s a number of studies on the microvertebrates of the Late Pleistocene of the Iberian Peninsula have been undertaken. In northwest Iberia, however, we only have the small-vertebrate analyses of Valdavara-1 and A Valiña. In this paper we are going to present the data from Cova Eirós. Cova Eirós is emerging as a referen...

The stone knapping industry is largely unknown from Galician Iron Age hillforts. Research into the material culture of these settlements is increasingly diverse, meaning this research is no longer reduced to techno-typological studies of pottery and metals, but also includes a wide range of approaches, including anthracological and carpological ana...

Los análisis espaciales son un método de trabajo plenamente implantado en los estudios arqueológicos, a nivel macro, meso y micro espacial. Combinando el análisis de contextos arqueológicos a nivel microespacial con los análisis de materiales, estos cobran una nueva profundidad temporal y espacial. En este trabajo presentamos los resultados prelimi...

The site Castro de O Achadizo is an Iron Age hillfort in the Galician Atlantic coast, located in the Barbanza peninsula, in the right side of the Ria de Arousa, partially occupying the Cabo Cruz peninsula (Santa María do Castro, Boiro). In 1984 Vázquez Varela recognized a shell-midden and between 1991 and 1994 there were developed systematic excava...

This paper is a new approach to the study of the Palaeolithic sites located in the Monforte de Lemos basin. Their distributional study allow us to characterize the settlement patterns from the Lower Paleolithic (Mode 2) to the Upper Paleolithic (Mode 4). Geographic Information Systems have been applied in order to define the different patterns and...