Paula García-Medrano

• PhD
• Researcher at French National Centre for Scientific Research

Bone diagenesis is a complex process that modifies bone components in response to burial conditions. These modifications help to understand deposit formation and classify fossils by stratigraphy. The combined techniques of X-ray diffraction with Rietveld refinement and infrared spectroscopy were used to study the bone diagenetic processes along the...

Magnetic properties of iron oxides provide invaluable data for environmental reconstruction during sediment deposition. Encouraged by the results of our previous studies in the near Gran Dolina site, we investigate the GI waterlain facies sediments that fill Galería Complex cave (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain), in particular the Covacha de los Zarpazo...

This paper presents the zooarchaeological, technological, use-wear, and spatial analyses of the earliest sedimentary subunits of TD10 (TD10.3 and TD10.4) of the Gran Dolina site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain), dated to c. 400 ka. Both units have yielded Acheulean technology, with occupational models characterized by the superimposition of mul...

Since the oldest known Acheulean lithic techno-typological features in Europe were reported at the site of Barranc de la Boella (Tarragona, Spain), continuous fieldwork has been conducted there in archeological deposits of the late Early Pleistocene age (0.99–0.78 Ma). As a result, excavations in two of the three open-air localities have significan...

In the context of the Western European Acheulean Project, this study aims to characterize Acheulean technology in Western Europe through the analysis of handaxes and cleavers from 10 key sites (Britain 4, France 4, and Spain 2) to acquire a regional view of the occupation. The historically different systems used to categorize and analyze the data h...

Quaternary faunal remains are key for the understanding of the effect of climatic changes on both animal and human populations. Here we show for the first time in Atapuerca the analysis of an avian assemblage through the MIS9/8 boundary, a moment of climatic deterioration that coincides with the spread of Neanderthals and the adoption of Levallois...

The appearance of the Acheulean and the production of new bifacial tools marked a revolution in human behavior. The use of longer and complex operative chains, with centripetal and recurrent knapping, adapted to different raw materials, created long useful edges, converging in a functional distal end. How and why these handaxes vary has been the su...

The archaeological sequence of la Noira (Centre region, France) yielded two phases of occupation: ca 700 ka (stratum a) and ca 450 ka (stratum c). No site between these two dates has yet been discovered in the area, and this chronological period has thus been interpreted as a gap in settlement from MIS 16 to MIS 12, two crucial phases of occupation...

The establishment of the Acheulean in Europe occurred after MIS 17, but it was after the harsh glaciation of MIS 12 and during the long interglacial of MIS 11 that human occupation of Western Europe became more sustained, with an increased number of sites. Menez-Dregan I (Brittany, France) is one of the key sites in Western Europe that dates from t...

Some areas in Western Europe indicate hiatuses in human occupations, which cannot be systematically attributed to taphonomic factors and poor site preservation. The site of la Noira in the center of France records two occupation phases with a significant time gap. The older one is dated to around 700 ka (stratum a) with an Acheulean assemblage, amo...

Archaeological remains have highlighted the fact that the interglacial Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11 was a threshold from the perspective of hominin evolution in Europe. After the MIS 12 glaciation, considered one of the major climate-driven crises experienced by hominins, the archaeological records show an increasing number of occupations, evidenc...

The archaeological sequence of la Noira, in the Middle Loire Basin (Centre region, France) yielded two phases of occupation: ca 700 ka (stratum a) and ca 450 ka (stratum c). No site between these two dates has yet been discovered in the area, and this chronological period has thus been interpreted as a gap in settlement from MIS 16 to MIS 12. Here,...

This paper presents a unified methodology to describe critical features in lithic assemblages, in order to better interpret the Middle Pleistocene hominin occupation of western Europe, in the context of the Western European Acheulean Project (WEAP). This project aims to characterise the Acheulean technology of the western side of Europe by the anal...

The Atapuerca localities present evidence of a long series of hominin occupations from the Early Pleistocene onward and are a key site for understanding the continuity and discontinuity of Western European technological and settlement dynamics. The TD10 unit from Gran Dolina is located in the upper part of the sequence and divided into four lithost...

Nowadays, the fruitful discussion regarding the morphological variability of handaxes during the Middle Pleistocene has reached a decisive moment with the use of more accurate statistical methods, such as geometric morphometrics (GM) and multivariate analyses (MA). This paper presents a preliminary methodological approach for checking the utility o...

The morphological variability of large cutting tools (LCT) during the Middle Pleistocene has been traditionally associated with two main variables: raw material constraints and reduction intensity. Boxgrove — c.500 ka — is one of the most informative sites at which to analyze shaping strategies and handaxe morphological variability in the European...

The term “Mental Template” has been used frequently, especially in discussions about Acheulean handaxes. Nevertheless, the standardization of shape not only affects handaxes but also cleavers. The aim is to analyze the whole sense of the cleaver tool-type through the study of the quartzite cleavers of the Middle Pleistocene sites of Gran Dolina -TD...

The Acheulean technology marked a revolution and its presence can be clearly tracked along the European seaboard from the lberian Peninsula to Great Britain, mainly between 700 to 300ka. Nevertheless, to go beyond the local perspective and gain a regional point of view requires a deep understanding of the underlying technology to identify the diffe...

The different criteria used to analyze and to categorize the results through the different research traditions make difficult to compare data. Although many technological approaches have been developed, there are still differences in method between the different countries in the study of the Middle Pleistocene industries in the Western side of Euro...

The re-use and recycling of artefacts can be studied through a number of avenues, including refitting, diacritical and use wear analyses. Reuse could refer to different stages in the life of a tool whilst in the possession of a single hominin individual but sometimes the presence of a discard phase between the different technical/functional episode...

Boxgrove-c.500ka-represents one of the richest and more interesting sites at which to analyse shaping strategies and morphological variability inthe European Middle Pleistocene handaxes, due to the high quantity of finished handaxes and also to the presence of complete operative chains. The morphological variability of Large Cutting Tools during th...

The Acheulean technology marked a revolution and its presence can be clearly tracked along the European seaboard from the Iberian Peninsula to Great Britain, mainly between 700 to 300ka. Nevertheless, to go beyond the local perspective and gain a regional point of view requires a deep understanding of the underlying technology to identify the diffe...

Les dades que exposem en aquest article són fruit dels treballs preliminars associats a la rea-lització de la memòria tècnica. En aquest sentit, hem de dir que caldrà una reflexió molt més acurada i profunda per comprendre l'evolució del jaciment. Igualment, hem d'assenyalar que la dinàmica constructiva mateixa del jaciment, així com l'evolució his...

Principal components 1 and 2 morphometric shape data of the planform and profile form, showing morphological variations (Boxgrove-Q1/B), according to the different shaping stages: testing (black dots), rough-outs (green diamonds), fragmented rough-outs (turquoise triangles), shaping (blue squares), and finishing (red crosses). On the left, the PCA...

a) Summary of the shaping strategies documented at Q/1B, Boxgrove (modified from García-Medrano, 2011). Note that multiple options exist to get the final shapes. Blue square inset shows the possible use of irregular fragments (resulting from the initial roughing-out phase) as cores. b) Boxgrove-Q1/B handaxe examples, showing morphological variabili...

The Western European Acheulean Project (WEAP) aims to characterize the occupational pattern of western Europe during the Middle Pleistocene (MP) -700 to 300Ka-, through the study of Acheulean technology. Recent research has shown that the Atlantic seaboard is the most likely route for colonisation due to the more oceanic climate compared to eastern...

Galería is one of the main sites of the Trinchera del Ferrocarril (railway trench) in Atapuerca, together with Gran Dolina and Sima del Elefante. The Galería excavations took place mainly during the 1980s and 1990s and continued until 2010. Work has recently resumed in the upper levels of the sequence, which has prompted us to summarize the previou...

The experimental replication of lithic artefacts, specifically handaxes and cleavers, has contributed to im-prove our knowledge and interpretation of the archaeological record. This work consists of the experimental reproduction of the shaping strategies of large flint cutting tools based on specimens recovered from the Acheulean Boxgrove site (Sus...

In Western Europe, Acheulean cultural evidence is well attested by ca. 0.5 Ma. However, recent work has proven that it was present earlier; at the end of the Early Pleistocene. The timing and mode of the Western European Acheulean needs still to be investigated, and this knowledge appears to be strongly dependent upon data from sites with sufficien...

The morphological variability of Large Cutting Tools during the Middle Pleistocene has been traditionally associated with two main variables: the raw material constraints and the reduction intensity. Boxgrove –c.500ka– represents one of the richest and more interesting sites at which to analyse shaping strategies and morphological variability in Eu...

This article focuses on the origins for technological variation during the Middle Pleistocene through the analysis of the lithic assemblages from Galería and Gran Dolina-subunit TD10.1 (Atapuerca, Spain). The technological study was organized into three main levels of analysis. The first stage consisted of the technological characterization of the...

This work presents a study of the oldest Acheulean lithic assemblages from the Galería site, specifically the GIIa subunit, which has been dated to c. 503 ± 95 ka, and compares them with the subsequent subunit in the sequence, GIIb, dated to around 237–269 ka. The main goals of this study are to offer a detailed technological characterization of th...

Résumé La variabilité est l’un des sujets les plus débattus dans les études lithiques. En ce qui concerne la période du Pléistocène moyen, ce débat s’est centré spécifiquement autour de la signification des grands outils standardisés comme les bifaces et les hachereaux. Cet article présente l’assemblage lithique de Covacha de los Zarpazos qui fait...

The Sierra de Atapuerca sites offer a chronological sequence that allows the evolution of technology at a local scale during the Early and Middle Pleistocene to be reconstructed. This paper presents updated information on the main lithic assemblages recovered from the various levels of the Sima del Elefante, Gran Dolina, Galería, and Sima de los Hu...

The Sierra de Atapuerca sites offer a chronological sequence that allows the evolution of technology at a local scale during the Early and Middle Pleistocene to be reconstructed. This paper presents updated information on the main lithic assemblages recovered from the various levels of the Sima del Elefante, Gran Dolina, Galería, and Sima de los Hu...

El yacimiento de Galería es uno de los múltiples depósitos localizados en la Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos, España). Su registro arqueopaleontológico se enmarca cronológicamente entre los c. 500 ka y los 180 ka. Diferentes estudios multidisciplinares han puesto de manifiesto que Galería funcionó como una trampa natural para los animales que merodeaba...