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The Ache ulean fro m A tap u erca: T h ree ste p s forw ard,one step ba ck
Andreu O lle
a
,
b
,
*
,M arina M osquera
b
,
a
,Xose Pe dro Rodríguez-Alvarez
b
,
a
,
Pa ulaGarcía- M edr ano
a
,
b
,D e bora h Ba rsky
a
,
b
, A rtu ro d e Lo m b era-H erm ida
c
,
a
,
Euda ldCarbonell
b
,
a
a
IPH ES ,InstitutCata la de Paleoecologia H um ana iEvo lucioSocial,Zona e duc a c ional4 (Edif.W 3),Cam pus S e sc e lades U RV,43007,T arrago na,Spain
b
Are a de Pre historia,U niver sitat Rovira iVirgili(U RV),F ac.de L let res, A v. C a taluny a 35,43002,Tarrago na,S pa in
c
Grupo de Estudos para a Pre historiadoNoroeste(GEPN),Dpto.de H isto riaI,U niver sidade de Sa ntiag o de Com postela,Praz a da U niver sidade,1,15782,
Sant iago de Com postela,Spain
article info
Articl ehisto ry:
Availableonline xxx
Keyw o rd s:
Lith ictechnology
Low er Paleolithic
Acheulean
MiddlePleisto cen e
WesternEurope
abstract
InWesternEurope,Acheulean cultu ra l e v idence isw ella ttested by ca. 0.5Ma.However,recentworkhas
pr oven that it w as pr es ent earlier;atthe end ofthe EarlyPleis tocene. The timing and m ode of the
W estern European Acheulean needs s tillto be investiga te d,a nd thisknowledge appears to be strongly
dependentupon data fro m site s w ith su f cientlywellpres erved ar c heo- s tratigra phicalsequence sand/or
geophysical con d i tions thatgua rantee r eliabledating.
The ka rsticdeposits fro m th e Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos,Spain) represent one such case.They
con tai nexceptionallylong and continuous archeo-paleontological d ep osits th a t h a v e y ielded hom inins,
stone toolsand faunal r em ains fro m a p e riod c over ing the late Ear lyPleistocen e u p to th e H ol oce ne .
Prev ious w ork ha s a llow ed us to reconstructthe evolution oftechnology on a localscale,fro m th e late
Ea rlytotheMiddlePleisto cen e, an d to si t uat e t he appear ance of t he A cheulean m ore or les s s imulta-
neousl
yinthesite s o f G a ler ía,G r an D olina-TD 10 and the Simadelos H uesos,a taround 0.5 M a,afte r a
hiatus of ar cheological evi dence ofapproximately 300 K a.These Acheulean as s em blages appear inas-
so ciat ion w ith h o m ininfo ssi ls that have recentlybeenidenti ed as early m e m b e rs o f th e N e a n d e rta l
lineage.
Delving furtherinto the description ofthe Ac heulean from A tapu erca,w e have recen t lyfoc used on the
technolog ical f eatur es that w e c ons ider to be ofparticul ar evolutiona ry signi c anc e and attem pted to
identifythem inotherEuropeankeysite s o f c o m p a ra b lechronolog ies .Indeed,w e identiedsomein-
ter nal evolutiona ry trends,w hich led us to propose thatthere w as a localtra nsition atAtapuerca fro m
th e A ch e u le a n to th e e a rlyMiddlePaleolith ic techno-com plexes .
H o w e v e r, th e c h ro n o logical setting resulting fro m th e intensive dating program s carried out inthe
GaleríaandSimadelosH uesos sites,an d esp eci ally,t he cor relation ofthese dates w ith th e o n e s a v a ilable
fro m G ra n D o lina-TD10,confron ts u s w ith som e apparentparado xes underlining the need to r ec ons ider
th e te c h n o logical interpr etation ofthe lith ictechnical record f rom Atapuerca.
Whilegreatefforts a re being m ade indating and analys isatm any European M iddlePleisto cen e site s,
as w ellas inestablish i n g co rre lations w ith w h ich t o bu ildconsistent regio n al seq u en ces, single,long,
con tinuous,and accuratelyexcavated(i.e. over a lar ge sur face ar ea) ar cheological successi ons re m ain
cru ci al to pr oper lyinterpret the appearance and evolution of the Ac heulea n throughout Europe.W e
fu rth e r stre ss th e importanceoftaking int o accou n t con di tioning fac tor s s uch as , r aw m ater ial avail-
abili
ty , e n v iro n m en tal co n stra ints and site function issu es.
©2016Elsev i er Ltd and INQUA.Allrights reserved.
1. Introduction
Know ledge per tainin g to th e E u ro p e a n A c h e u lean has cons id-
er ablyim p ro v e d d u ring recent years. Data show in g th a t th e
Acheulian w as pr es entinEuropeearlier than pr eviouslythoughtis
one ofthe importantdiscoveri es thathas rec ently been con rm ed
* C o rresp o n d ing author. IPH ES , Institut Cat aladePaleoec ologiaHumanai
EvolucioSocial, Z o n a ed u caci ona l 4 (Edif. W 3), Cam pus Ses celades U RV , 43007,
Tarrag o n a, Sp ain.
E- m ail ad d resses: aolle@ iphes.cat,andr eu.olle@ ur v .cat (A . O lle).
ContentslistsavailableatScience D ire c t
Quaternary Internationa l
journalhom epage:www.elsevier.com/locate/quaint
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.qua int.20 16.01.042
1 040-6182/©2016Elsev ier L t d and INQUA.Allrights reserved.
Quaternary Internationa lxxx (2016) 1e13
Pleas e citethisarticleinpressas:Olle,A .,et al.,The Acheulean fr om A tapuerc a:Thr ee s teps for w ar d,on e step back,Q uater nar y Internationa l
(2 0 1 6 ), h ttp ://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.qua int.20 16.01 .042
at insite s su ch a s, L a N o ira (M onc elet al., 20 13,20 16)and Barranc
de laBoella(Mosqueraetal.,20 15, 20 16). In addition,detailed r e-
visi ons considering technological bu t al so b road p aleo-
enviro n m en tal issu es (Despriee et al., 2010, 2011; Ashton a nd
Lew is , 2012; Preec e and Par tt, 2012; N icou d , 2 013a; C erul eo
et al.,2015; Gallotti a nd Peretto , 2 0 1 5 ; M o n ce l e t a l.,2015;
Serangeli and Conard, 2015; Rubio-Jar a et al.,2016;Santonja
et al.,2016 ), a s w e llas intensive dating program s (Antoine etal.,
2007; D em uro et a l.,2014;Antoine et al.,2015;Falgueres et al.,
2015; L opez-Re cioetal.,2015), h av e h e lped to updatemanyas-
pectsregarding the Acheulian techno- c om plex in W estern E u ro p e.
New inform a tion m ade ava ilable has been cruc ial to face the
mainopenquestionson the hum an settlem entofEurope fro m th e
late EarlyPleistocen e to th e m id-late M iddlePleis tocene. Thes e
issu es i nclude: population dyna m ics (con t i nuity , sin k-an d -so u rce
and other popu lation m odels, h u m an m i grations), relationships
be tw e en differ ent groups of hom inins, technological variability
(w h ich relates to th e de nition ofthe Acheulean itse lf),phenom ena
explaining the appearanc e of speci c types of tec hnological
know how (diffusion, c onver gence … ), re lationships betw een
te c h n o logy a nd environm ental changes, possibleinuencesof
hom ininspeciation e vents on te chnological d i ve rsity , e tc. O f
course,a m ore am plearcheologicalrecord than the one currently
availablewouldberequired ifw e are to properlyf
ace such issu es.
Thecurrentstateofknowledge indicates that onlyalimite d
num berofsite s d a tin g to th e e n d o f th e E a rlyPleistocen e m ay b e
a ttribute d to the earlyEuropeanAcheulean.Pres ently,w e observe
that there s eem s to ha v e be e n a coexis tenc e betw een thes e early
si te s inwhich h om inins practiced bi facial technology ,w ith o th e r
si te s inwhich th ey didnot.Inthelatter cas e,toolkits re e ct o n ly
th e u se o f simplecoreand aketechnologies .M or eover,accor ding
to m o st o f th e b ro a d ly accepted dates ,a gener al dissem i nation of
bifacialtec hnologies inWesternEuropecanonlybeattes ted fro m
th e M IS12 onw ar ds (M onc elet al.,201 6).
H ow ever, recent r esear c h offer s another s c enar iofor the
appearance and implantation ofthe Ache ulean inWesternEurope
that appear s to have been a m ore continuous process than previ-
ouslybelieved.Thisfact pointstow a rdsthe possibili
ty th a t w e m a y
be dealing w ith a q u ite “unexplored” re ality,so that som e of the
infer ences w e c an c ur rentlymakewith re sp e ct to th e a for em en-
tioned “big” issu es are sti lllacking the require d e m p irical robu st -
n ess. Inthissense,special caut ion m ust be a pplied w hen
con side ring the signi cance ofthe a bsence ofe vidence,especially
si ncethe gapsinthearcheologicalrecord are of te n simplyre ective
ofa lack ofr es ear c h.
In any c as e,phas es ofpeopling and depopulation s eem to have
been quite co m m o n in s ever alareas ofW es ter n Eur ope dur ing the
MiddlePleisto cen e (Despriee et al.,2011; M osquera et al.,2013,
20 16). Inthis context, the Atapuerca and Caune de l’A rago se-
quence s,both loca te d insouthernEurope,areofspecial interes t.
Thisregion has been propos ed by s everalauthor s as a likelysource
ar ea for coloni
zing higher latitu d e s (Dennelletal.,2011; A shton
and Lew is, 2 012 ; M acD o n al detal.,2012). Itisreasonabletohy-
po thesize that the populat ions m oving into the m ore northerly
te rrito ries w ouldhaverequire d h ighlyefcient and innovative
te c h n ical strategi es w ith w h ich t o co p e su ccessfullywith th e
environm entalstresses posed by higher latitu d e s (M on cel et al.,
2015). W e therefore suggest tha t s ourc e area s w ouldconstitu te
likelycandidates inwhich t o i nvestigate the prese nc e of suc h
te c h n o logical lyadaptive innovations. F urthe rm ore, these a reas,
si mplybythefact ofhaving been po pulated inamorecontinuous
way,wouldtheoretical ly r ecor d sequences w ith lessgapsthan the
northern ones.
The currentlyavailabledatadoesnotallow usto elabor at
em uch
fur ther upon the gener al discu ssi on on the Europea n Acheulean
(fore xa m ple, M onceletal.,2 016).T h e a im ofthispaperis, rstly,t o
su m m ari ze the updated inform ation fro m A ta p u erca, p o inting out
th e signi c a ntva lue oflo n g arch e o -stratigraphicalsequencesw hen
try ing to explaincomplex phenom ena,s uch as the appear ance and
evolution of the Acheulean on a continental scale. Secondly, w e
present the contradictory asp ects d erived from r ec ent r es earch
madeonthelong se quence s fro m A tapuerca.
During the lastyears,w e h ave achieved s ever a ls teps w hich th e
Atapuer ca r ecor d can contr ibute to debate s a bout the W estern
Europe Acheulea n.The rst ste p w as to e xpose a deta iled analysis
o f e ach re co rd from the Atapuerca site s (e .g. Carbonelletal.,1 999a,
1 999b,2001;Rodrígue z,2004).Thesecondstepwastoreconstruct
th e te ch n o logical evolution on a locals calefro m th e lateEarlyto
th e M iddlePleistocen e (Te rrad illos, 201 0; O lleetal.
,2013). T h e
th ird step w as to assess th e si gni c a nc e of the long e volutiona ry
tre n d s re co g n ized at Atapuerca, and to extrapo late them to the
Europe a n lat e Ear lyandearlyMiddlePleisto cen e co n tex t
(Mosquera etal.,2013). In addition, w e de sc ribe d the e arlier
Acheulean oc cur renc es in Atapuerca (García- M edrano et al.,2014),
ta k ing into accountissu es relating to raw m aterials'm anagem ent
and site function a t G a ler íaandGranDolina-TD 1 0 (Te rrad illos-
Ber naland Rodr íguez -A lvar ez,2014; G ar cía- M edrano et al.,2015).
The m ore restricted A cheulean recor d at SimadelElefantesite h a s
been also recen tl ydiscu ssed (De Lom bera-Herm ida etal.,2015).
At the sam e time,importantadvancesinotheraspectsofthe
Acheulean rec ord fro m A tap u e rca w ere p u b lish ed , am o n g w h i ch
th o se re g a rd ing hom ininsubsi
sten ce p attern s (Blas co etal.,2013a,
2013b; Rodríguez -H idalgo,201 5; Rodríguez -H idalgo et al.,2015)
and chr onological is s ues (s ee r eferences in Sec tion 3).The form er
are es peciallyimportantbecausetheyhighlight how differ ent the
features of the ar c heological assem b lages can be even w hen suc-
cessi ve occ upations e chronological lyclose-occurre d inthesame
enc lave.
B u t th e c e n tra l q u e stion w e a re treating here regardsthe chro-
nological f ram ew or k at A tapuer c a, as itisakeyissu e w h en
assessi ng technologicalevolutionary tre nds, a sw ellasw hen trying
to ex tra p o lat e these tr ends t ow ar ds a w ider evaluation of the
WesternEuropeanAcheulian context.Ther efore ,w e aim to assess
up to w hich p ointthe Atapuerca sequence m ay be representative of
th e W e stern European Acheulean as a w hole,es peciallyinlight of
new evidence.A reliabl
e chronological f ram e w o rk is ofparam ount
importancefor suc h a rev iew ; both fro m th e A tapuerca and other
W es ter n Eur opean s equences .
Itis w o rth n o tin g h e re th at so m e re ce n tlypublish ed d ates o b -
ta ined byapplying avariety ofgeoc hronologicalm eth od s to several
Atapuer ca site s (a n d levels) sti llshow slightinconsistencies and,in
som e cases, l ead to a technological p arad ox: th e l ate A cheulean
identied atGran Dolina-TD10.1, w here som e cultu ra l features
wereconsidered as transitional tow ar ds the ear lyMiddlePaleo-
lith ic,are presen t ly evaluated to be
olderthan thetypicalA ch eu lean
re p o rted at G a ler ía(especiallythelow e rlevels).I tisprecisel ythis
paradox thatthis paper aimstoexplore.Inlightofthisproblem atic,
which s eem s tobetaking us
“one ste p ba ck”,w e discu ss h o w
technological stu dies m ay contr ibute to clar ifying these phenom -
ena w hen taking into account external inuencesthatcould
explaintechno-morphological variability , su ch a s site function or
occu p ati on patte rns.
2. The Ache ulean at A tapuer c a
Studies concerning the Sierra de Atapuerca site s a llow to
c ons truc ta generalfram ew o rk w ith w h ich to an alyze the evolution
oflar ge and sm allver t ebrate fauna, paleo- enviro n m e n ts,h o m inins,
cultu ra l su b sisten ce strategi es , etc.,throughoutthe lat e Earlytothe
lateM iddlePleis toc ene.Thishasbeen m ade possible thanksto the
A.Olleetal./Q uaternary Internat ional xxx ( 2016) 1e 132
Pleas e cite th isarticl einpressas:Olle,A .,et al.,The Acheulean fr om A tapuerc a:Thr ee s teps for w ar d,one s tep back,Q uaternary Internationa l
(2 0 1 6 ), h ttp ://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.qua int.2016.01 .042
long sequence of hum an o ccupation events at Atapuerc a, w hich
cover a cu m u lative period of1 M yrs.The site s h a v e y ielde d stone
tool a ssem blages fro m a single geogr aphical area th at d oes n ot
sh ow extrem e en vi ronm ental changes through time(Ro dríguez
et al.,201 1).The hom inins presentatthe site s e x p loitedthesame
loc a le nvir onm ent: a kar s tic s ys tem develope d inasmoothrelief
cl ose to a uvial basin.Furtherm ore,they share a similar petr o-
graphicenvironm entand dem onstrate the sam e lith icraw m aterial
procurem ent patterns . Finally, t he Sierra de Atapuerca sequence
has provided a vastam ountofcontext ualinform ation indiffer ent
elds of know ledge: paleontology , z ooarc heology, paleoanthr o-
pology,geochronology,etc.O n the w hole,A tapuer c a pr ovides an
except io nal opportunity to look for technological f eatur es w ith
evolutiona ry signi c a nc e (Olleetal.,2013
), a n d to u se th isinfor-
mation a s a re fer entialfor the W es ter n European Low er Paleolith ic
(Mosqueraetal.,2013).
In sum , w e observe that Atapuerca has yielded evidence of
M ode 1 techno logy inthelow e rlevelsofthe SimadelElefanteand
Gran Dolina site s, a sso ciated w ith H o m o sp.and Ho m o antecessor
rem ains,respectively.There follow s a hiatus of m or e than 300 K a
with o u t a n y e v idence ofa hom ininpresence,mainlyrepresented
by layer s TD 7 and TD 8 at G r an D olina (Mosqueraetal.,2013;
Rodríguez-G om ez et al.,2014), cover ing the timerangefro m c.
900 to c.550 ka (Ber geretal.,2008;Pa re setal.,2 0 13 ; M o ren o et al.,
2015). Interestingly,the A cheulean appears m ore or les s s imulta -
neouslyinthesite s o f G a lería,G r an D olina-TD10 and Simadelos
Huesos.These assem bl
ages ar e associated w ith ‘pr e- N eander tal’
hom ininremains (Arsuaga etal.,2014) , an d re ect com p lex and
diverse beha vioral and subsis tence patter ns . M iddlePleistocen e
bifacial technology that w e consider indicative of the A c heulian
techno-com plex isalso p resen t i nupperlevelsoftheSimadel
Elefante s ite (De Lom bera-Herm ida etal.,2015).
2.1. The G aler íalithictechnological record
The c om pletestratigraphicsequenceofGaler íashowsclear
Acheulean features (s ee below ). Italso p rovi desa generalimageof
technological stabi lity th ro u g h time,likelyinuencedbythe
maint enance oft he s am e occ upationalpattern.Thissite w a s likel
y
nev er use d a s a ba se -cam p,but rather for spora dicand repeated
low intensity v isits to e x p loitthe resourcesprovided by the her-
bivores that had fallen into th e n atu ral trap crea ted by the s haft
(Olleetal.,2005; Caceres et al.,2010).The hom ogeneity a n d th e
rep etitiv e w a y s th a t th e c a v e w a s u se d o v e r timecontribute to the
general image oftechnological stab ility o f G a ler íaalong the
seq u en ce (García- M edr ano et al.,2014,2015).
The Acheulean fro m G aler ía(Carbonelleta l.,1 995,1 999b,2001;
García- M edr ano, 2011; G ar cía- M edr ano et al., 201 3, 2014, 2015;
Olleetal.,2013)ischaracterized by t he dom inance of the cen -
tripetalknapping m etho d;the abundance o fdivers i ed and stan-
dardized sm allretouche d tools, w i th long a nd intensively
retouc hed edges (Fig. 1); th e v i
rtual absence of choppers and
cho pping-tools; an d th e rel ative ab undance of handaxes and
cl eaver s (Fig. 2). T h e o p e ra tive s equences alw ays appear
Fig. 1. Selection of cores(Ae G )and sm allt ools(H e L)fro m G aler ía. A , A ta'90 TN 07 F 27,28; B,Ata'93 TZ G IIIK06,22;C,Ata '90 TN 07 H 26,1;D ,Ata'91TN 6DA F 25 ,82; E,Ata'93 TG 10C H 22,
6;F,Ata '96 TZ G IId L03, 246;G, Ata '93 TN 2B G23,2;H ,Ata '85 TG11 G SU11 F 19,5 1;I,A t a'93 TN 05 E25,36;J,A t a'92 TG1 0B F 17,34;K , Ata'92 TN 05 G 25,45;L ,Ata'91 TN 6DA F25,36.
A.O lleetal./Q uaternary Internat ional xxx ( 2016) 1e 13 3
Pleas e citethisarticleinpressas:Olle,A .,et al.,The Acheulean fr om A tapuerc a:Thr ee s teps for w ar d,on e step back,Q uater nar y Internationa l
(2 0 1 6 ), h ttp ://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.qua int.20 16.01 .042
frag m en te d , w ith k n a p p ing activities m ainly undertaken outside
th e ca v e .
Inspite o f th e re lative s tability ofthe technology throughoutthe
seq u en ce,w e h ave identi ed som e subtle changes.The low erlevels
of G a ler ía(UnitGIIa) ar e char acter ized by t h e m assive use of
qua rtz ite cobbles to produce ake s and also to elabor ate the han-
daxes and cleaver s .The latter w er e m ade using simplestrategies
and t aking advantage ofthe or iginalcharacteristics ofthe cobbles ;
maintaining corticalsurf aces and focusing on shaping speci c tool
portions.
Som e tec hnolog ical changes have been identi ed half-w ay
through the sequence (UnitGIIb) and upw ards: there isawide r
divers ity o f raw m a te rials and the use of chertand sandstone in-
creases; l ar ge akes w er e us ed as blanks forcore sa nd L CT s,and the
intens ity ofhandaxe shaping inc r eas es .
In the upper levelsofthesequence(UnitGI
II), th e size an d
sh ap i ng intens ityoftheLCTsdecreaseinfavor of ret ouched akes
(d e n ticu l ates ,s cr aper s,points).M ore com plex knapping schem es
werealso gr adualpr ogr es s ivelyintroduced,no tablybifacialdiscoi d
strateg i es w ith co re su rface hierarchizat ion.The se featureshave led
s om e res ear c her s to s ugges t that thes e levelsshow sometransi-
tiona l chara cteristi cs t ow ardsthe M ouste rian (Te rrad illosand D íez,
2012).
Cleaver s ( ake cleavers , but also b i facial clea vers and other
pieces w ith tra n sv e rsa l e d g e tips)are m ore frequentatthe base of
thesequence and absentfrom theupperlevels(Sub-unitGIIIb).The
te ch n ique s em ploy e d to m ak e these toolsalso var y. Th ey w er e
m ade both on akes(cleaver ss ens u s tricto)andoncobbles ,and very
few ofthem pres ent a slightlyretoucheddistaled ge.T yp ol ogical ly,
th e m o st fre q u en t cl
eaver types are 1 ,2 and 5 (Tixier,1 956).
Fig.2. Selec tion ofhandaxes and cleaver s fro m G aler ía.A ,A t a'90 TG1 0A G 21, 90;B,Ata '90 TN 07 E29,1;C, Ata'88 TG 10A G 17, 83;D , Ata'85 TG11 G S U11 G 21,48;E,Ata'95 TN 05 G 25,
30;F ,Ata'92 TG 10 B H 20,25;G,Ata'94 TG07 F2 0,4;H ,Ata'93 TN 05 F25,32;I,Ata '94 TN2B F 27,2;J,A ta'94 TN 2B F 22, 3.
A.Olleetal./Q uaternary Internat ional xxx ( 2016) 1e 134
Pleas e cite th isarticl einpressas:Olle,A .,et al.,The Acheulean fr om A tapuerc a:Thr ee s teps for w ar d,one s tep back,Q uaternary Internationa l
(2 0 1 6 ), h ttp ://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.qua int.2016.01 .042
H andaxesare the m ostfre q u en t la rg e to o l ty p e ,a n d th e y a re a ll
pres ented inthelast s tages of t heirshapin g p rocesses.W h ilethey
disp lay m ainly oval m or phologies, w e have identi ed som e evo-
lution intheir sh ap e,si ze and technicalch aracteristi cs over ti me:in
th e basal levels ,they are m ade m ainlyonquartzite cobbles ,w ith
sh ap ing focuse d only on a spe ci c a re a of the tool (m a inlythe
medial-d istalsecti on)so thatthe tool'ssurface p re serves p art o f th e
originalcortex.The nish i ng s tages w er e freq u en tly carried out by
m ean s o f se co n d ary retouch inordertogeneratecarefullyshaped
si lh o u e tte s. C o n tra stingly,m or e signi c a ntte c hnologicalch an ge i s
obse rv e d in the upper levels(UnitGIII) w her e the handaxes w ere
m ade on akes and ar e s m aller- s ized.Inthispartofthesequence
th e sh a p ing processes affec t a la rger are a of the toolsperiphery,
resu lting in a t otalabsen ce of cort ex.I
n addition, the sha ping took
place us ing few er blow s . Ther efor e, s econdary retouch w a s not
used and the silhouetteswereles s c ar efullymanaged.Alth o u g h
th e re a re stilla num berofpiec es w ith o v a l m o rp h o logies , ther e isa
cl ear tendency tow ards the production ofm ore triangular s hapes
(García- M edr ano et al.,2015).
2.2. T he S imadelos H uesos technological record
The Sima de los H ue sos ne v e r se rved a s a place of hum an
occupation.The pa rticu l ar com position ofits ar c heological record,
an ac cum ulation ofhom inins and a single handaxe,as w ellasthe
unusualconditions underw hich it w as acc um ulated,has led us to
proposeasymbolicexplanation. At leas t 28 hom inincorpses
appear to have been intentionallythrowninto the Sima(orchasm).
Interpreted as the rs t evidence of m ortuary practices, th e
assem bl age includesa si
ngle,w ell-shaped handaxe thatcouldhave
been deposite d so m e k ind ofoffer ing orperhapsasa sign ofgroup
identity (Carbonelle tal.,2003; Carbonelland M osquera,2 006).
Th e handaxe w as m ade fro m a red d ish -l ight brow n, veined
quartzite , w h ich i sahigh-qua lity m a te rialt hat isquite ra re inthe
enviro n m e n t.Itrepr es ents a nals tage ofc on gur ation.Itpres ents
an oval contour and, alth o u g h itissomewhatlar ger
(1 5 4 9 7 4 8 m m ), its featur es clear lylink itw ith th e L C T s fro m
th e G a leríasub-unitG IIa(García- M edrano et al.,2014)(Fig.3).
2.3. T he Gra n D o lina-TD 10 technolog ical record
The G ran D olina-TD 1 0 unitcontains num ericallyrich lith icas-
sem bl ages ,including allofthe el
em ents of the different oper ative
seq u en ces. T h i s se em s to be be ca use the spa cious entrance and
outer part of the c ave w as r epeatedly u sed as a b ase-cam p , alte r-
nating w ith sh o rter and m ore s poradicvisi ts, e sp e ciallyintheup-
perm ost part ofthe sequence (upper TD10 .1).The e x cav ations of
Unit TD 10 cov e raround 95 m
2
.Sub-units T D 1 0 .1andTD10.2have
been entirelyexcavated,whilein sub-units T D 1 0 .3andTD10.4
workisstillinprogress.
Indeed,TD 10 contains the riches t r ecord s o far exhum ed fro m
th e A ta p u e rca site s; to g e th e r th e T D 1 0 . 1andTD10.2collections
con t ai nmorethan158,000 faunaland lith ic r em ains,com pared to
th e ca .1 4 ,000 fro m allthe G aler íaunits.S tu d iesofboth sub-units o f
Gran Dolina revealed the exis tence of s ever alr epeated long-term
occu pati ons,ea ch cha racterized by d ifferent proportions offaun al
sp ecies (Blasco et al.,201 3b;Rodríguez -H idalgo,2015; Rodríguez -
Hidalgo et al.,2015), ra w m a te rialsselec tion and technological
decisi ons.
Although several genera l technical trai ts o f th e T D 10 assem -
blages are s imila r to th e o n e s fro m G a ler
ía(intermsofraw material
m anagem entand knapping behavior), signi c a nt differ ences have
be en highlighted betw ee n the tw o site s. R e g a rd ing shaping stra-
tegies ,TD 10 globa llyshowsahighervariety and s ta ndardizat ion of
th e sm a lla nd m edium -sized ret ouched akes com pared toGaler ía
(i.e.denticu l ates ,s ide-scrapers and points).Inaddition, thishigher
inter estforthe sm alltools w asc or related w ith a low e rfreq u en cy o f
th e large cutting toolsmadeon akeblanks (Olleetal.,2013;
García- M edr ano et al.,2015).
Actually, TD 10.1showsawider and m ore selective procure-
mentstrategies w hich are re ected inahigher degree of e xploi-
ta tion of the ra w m a te rial (Te rrad illos-Be rna l a nd Rodríguez -
Alvar ez, 2014
). T h e k n a p p ing strategies ar e de ned by a dom i-
nance ofthe centripetalm ethod,w ith a h igher freq u e n cy o f th e
hierarc hized str ategies and, nam ely, t h e clear em ergenc e of the
Levallois knapping m ethod atthe end ofthe TD10 sequence (up-
per TD10 .1) (Fig.4).
How ever,the evolution of the technological b eh avi ors inside
the T D10 sequence are difcultto assessup to now.Firstly,
be ca use publish ed d ata refers only to the upper sub-unit:TD10.1.
Secondly, b ecause sub-units T D 1 0 .3andTD10.4arestillunder
excavat ion.Third ly, because som e layer s s how extr em elypartic-
ular features .Thisisthe case ofthe m ainlayer insub-unitTD 10.2,
which sh o w s a stri kinglymarkedspecializat ion concerning both
th e faunals pectrum (w ith b iso n reach ing 99% ofthe a sse m blage,
Rodríguez -H idalgo, 2015)and the exploita tio n of th e ch e rt re-
so u rces w i th n o p a ra llel i
ntheotherAtapuercasite s. T h e o n ly
si gni c a nttechnicalf eaturewecanhighlightisthat the size ran ge,
degree o fshaping and regular m or phologies of the lar ge cutting
toolsseemstodecreasefro m T D 10 . 2 to the end of the TD10
seq u en ce (Fig.5).
The technological ch an ges i denti ed inTD10.1andTD10.2do
notpreclude a clear-cutrupture w ith re sp e ct to th e te ch n o logical
modelsiden ti ed in otherA cheulean rec ords fro m A tap u e rca (i.e.
the upper sequence of Galería, García- M edr ano et al.,2015).
How ever,the TD10 record isaccompanied by other punctuated
but signi cant changes insubsisten ce (regu l ar hunting, fro m
wide ran ge pr ey s tr ategies to m onos peci c lar ge her bivore
com m unalhunting,and long-te rm use ofthe site s a s a re sidential
ba se cam p)(Blas co et al., 2013a,2013b;Rodríguez -H idalgo,2015;
Rodríguez-H idalgo et al.,2015). T h e y a lso i nclude technologi
cal
innovations (tool hafting, bone tools and bone retouch ers)
(Carbonelletal.,2001; Roselletal.,2011;Rodríguez - H idalgo
et al.,2015)thatare presentin ear lyMiddlePaleolith icsite s
(M oncel et al.,2012). O th e r ten d e n cies,such as the differ ential
repr es entation of sm a lltoolsatTD10 compared toGalería, m ay
resu ltfro m d isti n ct u ses o f th ese cav i ties dur ing the M iddle
Pleis tocene.
These and other featur es (i.e. . ake elongation, r e nem ent,
th ickn ess an d volum e;García- M edr ano et al.,2015) together w ith
th e A ch e u lean char ac ter isti cs of th e G aleríarecord,allow ed us to
cl as s ifyTD10.1asalate A c heulean,w ith som e tran si tiona lfeatures
tending tow ards the earl
yMiddlePaleolith ic(Olleetal.,2013).
Fig.3. Q ua rtz ite h a n d a x e fro m th e S imadelos H uesos site .
A.O lleetal./Q uaternary Internat ional xxx ( 2016) 1e 13 5
Pleas e citethisarticleinpressas:Olle,A .,et al.,The Acheulean fr om A tapuerc a:Thr ee s teps for w ar d,on e step back,Q uater nar y Internationa l
(2 0 1 6 ), h ttp ://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.qua int.20 16.01 .042
3. The c hronological f ram ew ork
The a ge of the S ie rra d e A tap u erca k arsticinllshasbeen a
major issu e fro m th e b e g innin g o f th e sy ste m a tic r esearch pr oject
in 1978.O ver the year s ,intensive inves tiga tions have been car ried
o utapplying a variety ofdating technique s (Fal g ue res,1986;G rün
and A guirre ,1 987;Pare s a nd Pe rez-Gonzale z,1995;Bisch o ffet al.,
1997; Falgueres et al., 1999; Pares and Perez - G onzalez, 1 999;
Pa res e t a l., 2000; Falguer es et al.,2001;Bisch offetal.,2003,
2007; Pare s et al.,2006; Berger et al., 2008; Ca rbone lletal.,
2008). T h e re su lts fro m a ll thes e analys is h av e b e e n co rrelat ed
with the huge body of r es ear c h on biochronology and pa leoenvir-
onm ents from the study of the fossil assem b l ages (e.g. Cuenca-
Bescos and García ,2007; Blainetal., 2009; Cuenca-Bes cos et al.,
2010). The c om bined results fro m a l
l of these studies allow us
to d a y toelabor ate a gener alr econs t ruction ofthe biostratigraphical
and chr onologicalrecord f ro m th e Sie rra d e A tap u e rca d e p o sitional
seq u en ces, w h ich i sso crucial for fram ing the cultu ra l e v idence
(Rodríguez et al.,201 1).
Furt her dat ing efforts of the Atapuerca deposits have been
su ccessfully undertaken during the las t few year s,w ith a focus on
improving the available m easu rem en ts, o n l ling som e gaps,and
also on introducing new technique s (Morenoetal.,2012;Arnold
et al.,2015; M oreno et al.,2015). W h ilefor the oldest inlling
phas es atG r an D olina and SimadelElefa nte the m os trece ntw orks
have re ned or onlyslightlyadjusted the availabledates(Pares
et al.,2013; A rnol
d and Dem uro,2015; M oreno et al.,2015), th e
resu lts o n layer s bear ing Ach eulean evidence have presented
importantdiffer ences inrelation to pre viouslyobtained data,thus
ra isi ng questions re garding the general fram ew o rk o f h o m inin
cultu ra l e v o lution a tthissite .
Atthe Simadelos H ue sos site ,m u ltipledating techniqueshav e
nallyconvergedtowardsam inimum agefor the hom ininlayer of
427 ± 12 Ka (Arnoldetal.,201 4). T h issitu a tes the A c heulean evi-
dence fro m th issite w ith inthesametimefr am e as t hat of th e
modernhuman/N eander talm os t recent com m on ancestor ; s om e-
timebefore ca . 430 Ka (pre-M IS11)(Arsuaga etal.,2014).
AtG alería,tw o m aindating program s have recently been pub-
lish ed (Falguer es etal.,2013;D em u r o et al.,2014)and thei
rresults
have challenged par t of the chr on o- technological sequ en ce p ro-
posed forAtapuerca (Olleetal.,2 013),a s w e llas c ertaininsights on
the r s tappear ance ofthe A cheulean there (García- M edrano et al.,
20 14). Infa ct, so m e o f th e n e w d a te s a p p e a r tobesigni c a ntly
yo ungerthan those previously publis hed; s ugges ting thatthe true
burial age of s om e of the G aleríadeposits w o u ldhadbeenprevi-
ously overestimated.Ifwe take intoaccounttheESR/US dates
(Fal guer es etal.,2013), th e low e rlayers(GIIa) w ouldbesitu a te d a t
350e 363 Ka ,and the re stofthe se q ue nce (fro m G IIbtoGIII)w ould
be pla ced betw een 280 and 220 Ka .H ow e v er,the age estimates
obta ined by TT-OSL and pIR-IRmethods(Dem uro et al.,2014)
movesupwardsallthe se quenc e ,pointing to a w eighte d m ean age
of3 1 3þ -14 K a for the lo w erm o st su b -u n i tG IIa,and a r ange of220
to 260 for the upperm ostsub-uni
ts G IIbtoGIII(Fig.6).
The implicati ons ofthisnew scenarioareevident:ifthe form e r
TL da tes situated the low er-m ost Ache ulean assem b lages fro m
Galer íaatMIS13(Ber ger et al.,2008), the subsequent w orks
Fig. 4. Se lection ofc ores (Ae E)and sm alltools(FeK)fro m G ra n D o lina-TD 10.A,Ata'00 TD 10.1I15,2; B ,A t a'01 TD 10.1 K22,7;C, Ata '02 TD 10.1J19,76;D ,Ata'10 TD 10.2 N 1 9,52;E,
Ata'08 TD 1 0.2 M 21,70;F, Ata '00 TD10.1 N 21,23;G, Ata'00 TD10.1 N 20,66;H , Ata'03 TD 1 0.1K21,412;I,A ta'04 TD1 0.2M12,49;J,A ta'10 TD 10.2 N 21,350;K, Ata '10 TD 10.2N22,2.
A.Olleetal./Q uaternary Internat ional xxx ( 2016) 1e 136
Pleas e cite th isarticl einpressas:Olle,A .,et al.,The Acheulean fr om A tapuerc a:Thr ee s teps for w ar d,one s tep back,Q uaternary Internationa l
(2 0 1 6 ), h ttp ://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.qua int.2016.01 .042
su g g est th a t th e y a re m o re re ce n t, situ a tin g th e m rstlyatthe
be g inning ofM IS11(ESR/Us),and then atM IS9(TT-OSL/pIR-IR).
Fu rth erm o re, rese arch at T D 10 , including a rec ent s tudy
(Moreno etal.,2015), a lth o u g h k e e p ing som e discrepancy and
inconsisten cy i nside the TD 10 s equence, s eem toagreeinsitu a ting
th isunit betw een 350 and 450 Ka; that is, sl ightlyolder than the
oldestlayer s of G aler ía(broadly,M IS12-MIS11).Thesenew esti-
mations there fore lead to a s or t of par adox,m aking the so-called
ty p ical A cheulean fro m G aleríayoungerthanthelate A c heulean/
earlyMiddlePaleolith icfro m G ra n D o lina (TD10.1).
Inthissense,currentworkisfocuse d on re nin g th e stra ti-
graphicprecisi on concerning the location ofa llofthe datesinthe
strati graphy,on detailed c om parison s of th e resu l
ts a v a ilablefor
eac h given pointdated,and on com bining thisinform a tion w ith th e
bioc hronological an d en vir onm entaldata.W e are also w o rk ing to
exploitnew dating technique s tofu rth e r re n e th e av a ilablesetof
dates.Infact, system ati csampling for pIR-IRandTT-OSLdatesin
th e e n tireuppersequence hasbeen carried out(fro m T D 8 to T D 11 ),
and w e ar e pr es entlyawaiting these new results.
Intermsofsmallver tebrate biostratigraphy,allthe assem blages
fro m G aleríaandGranDolina-TD 10 are situ a ted w ith intheAta-
puerca FaunalUnit6 (Cuenca-Bescos et al.,2010),thus providing
limite d b iochronologicalp reci si on.
Thism ultiplici ty o f a v a ilable dates and dating m ethods for the
sam e d ep o si
ts issom ew hatunusualinmostoftheEuropeansite s.
Itappearsthatwhatwe may lear n from the Atapuerca chrono-
logical dat a as it stands toda y, isthat,inarcheolog ical si te s in
general, th e te n d e n c y to d ra w co n clusions ba sed upon onlyafew
datesshouldbetreatedwith m o re ca u tion. W e rem a rk tha tinfact,
Galer íaand GranDolina have yielded so m any dates that,instead of
cl arifying the chronological f ram e w o rk for th e su ccessi on ofoccu-
pational events ,they ha ve s om etimesled to c ontradict ory situ a -
tions (a s de scribe d a bove).
4. Fa cin g the par adox
According to our initial technolog ical i nter pretations,the cul-
tu ra l e v idence fro m G aler ía(attrib u te d to a ty p ical A ch eu l ian)
sh ou l d pre- date thatofthe upper par tofTD 10 (attr ibuted to a lat e
Acheulian).H ow ever,the new datesprovided by geochronological
methodsindicate another scenario,cha ng ing the timing for the
earlies tA c heulean fro m G aleríafro m M IS13 to M IS9.Thisleads us
to a paradoxical situ a tion inwhich an earlyMiddlePaleolith ic
techno-com plex s eem s to have em er ged at TD 10.1before the
Acheulean one at G aler ía.Ifw e w ere w orking intwodistan t si tes
for w hich on l yoneorafew dates had been obtained, this
Fig.5. Se lec tion of handaxes,cleavers and other lar ge cut ting toolsfro m G ra n D o lina-TD10.A,Ata'88 TD 10 J15,10; B ,A ta'00 TD10.1N19,120;C,Ata'00 TD 10.1J21 , 13; D ,A ta'00
TD 10.1L13,6;E,Ata'03 TD1 0.1J10,34; F,A t a'01 TD 10.1 N 14,320;G,Ata'09 TD1 0.2 H 20,82; H ,Ata'12 TD 10.2J11,1; I,Ata '12 TD 1 0.2.2H14,1;J,A ta '93 TD1 0.3I1 6, 229.
A.O lleetal./Q uaternary Internat ional xxx ( 2016) 1e 13 7
Pleas e citethisarticleinpressas:Olle,A .,et al.,The Acheulean fr om A tapuerc a:Thr ee s teps for w ar d,on e step back,Q uater nar y Internationa l
(2 0 1 6 ), h ttp ://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.qua int.20 16.01 .042
circu m stan ce m ay h av e b e en inter preted as a ‘technologicaldelay’
in th e m o re re cen t o f th e tw o site s. T h e fac t is thatthe data w e are
com p aring fro m A tapuer ca com es fro m site s th a t a re situ a te d o n ly
50 m a part, m a k ing ithighlyunlike ly that such different
technological trad i tions couldhaveco-existed i nsuchgeographi-
callyclose site s.
Inordertoface the A tapuer ca par adox,ther e ar e s everalm atter s
to c o n sider. Firstly, th er e ar e s t illsome errors intheavailable
Fig.6. Stratigraphiclogs fro m G ran D o lina and G aleriasite s. A v a ilablenumericaldates betw een the units b e a ring Acheulean as sem blages .D ates c om ing fro m GrünandAguirre
(1987),Fa lgueres et a l.(1999,2001, 201 3),Berger e ta l.(2008),Dem uro etal.(20 14),Arnoldetal.(2015);M oreno e tal.(2015);(m odi ed fro m García- M edr ano et al.,2015).
A.Olleetal./Q uaternary Internat ional xxx ( 2016) 1e 138
Pleas e cite th isarticl einpressas:Olle,A .,et al.,The Acheulean fr om A tapuerc a:Thr ee s teps for w ar d,one s tep back,Q uaternary Internationa l
(2 0 1 6 ), h ttp ://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.qua int.2016.01 .042
num erical d ates, p art i cular lyconcerning the low e rm ost and the
upperm ostlevels.I nthiscase,w em ustw aituntilt he specialists can
elabor ate m ethodologies that w illm ore a de quate lydealwith th is
problem .A s w e know ,the pr oble m o f co rrelations isaccentuated
whenwearedealing w ith d iffer ent r adiom e tricm ethodsand w ith
th e e p iso d i c natur e of sedimentinlling and erosion incaveenvi-
ro n m en ts (Dem uro etal.,2014).
Secondly, if the new dates are correct,thiswould m ean that
Gran Dolina-TD10 isslightlyolderthan Galer ía. Ther efor e,w hatw e
previouslyinterpr eted as the tr ans ition totheearlyMiddlePaleo-
lith ic (upper TD 10) fro m th e A ch e u lean (G alería) couldinfact
repr esent:
a) Tw o di
ffer enttechnologic altraditionstha ta re note v olutionary -
rela te d , b u t rath e r p arallelintime.Inthissense,som eauthors
havedisti nguish ed tw o clear ly- differ entiated techno-com plexes
in the SW European Pleistocen e (Santonjaetal.,20 14,20 16).In
our view , thiswould m ean that TD 10 lith icrecord might be
ro oted inprevious te chnologicaltr ad itions (i.e.European M ode
1)notrelated to the developed Ache ulean ofG aler ía.
b) A situ a tion inwhich TD 10 w ou l d not be r epres entative of the
end of the Acheulean, but r ather its b e g inning inAtapuerca,
which w as t h en d eveloped at the G aler íacaveafte r th e G ra n
Dolin a cave collapsed.Inthis(unlikely) c ase,w e shouldtota lly
rev isi
twhatwe previouslyconsidere d as “tra n sitiona l” inthe
Acheulean and M iddlePaleolith ic.
For bot h of t h e above scen arios,w e m ust w a itfor TD 1 0.3and
TD 1 0.4tobefully excavat ed,in o rd e r to se e w h e th e r th e se u n its
pres ent or not s imilar ities w ith G a ler ía,and s o that w e m ay better
addresssom e ofthese new lyarisi ng questions.Both sce na riospoint
tow a rd s a ra th e r co n tinuous hom inin presence at the Sie rra d e
Atapuerca.
c) TD 10 and G aleríacouldbetwofacets of a s ingletechno-
com plex, w hos e var iability co u ldbeexplained by a ‘si nk
and s our c e’scen ari o(Dennelletal.,2011), inwhich m an y
differ ent hum an, s ocial and/or cultu ra l g ro u p s m a y h a v e
occupied the cavesduring differ enttimesandforvar ied uses .
Thishypothesiscouldsuggestthatthereistoo much vari-
ability g ro u p e d into the w ord “Acheulean”,and that we
sh o u l drathertalkabout“manyAcheuleans” (Monceletal.,
2016). C u riously, t hisscenariomightmean thatthe word
“Acheulean” sh o u l d accou n t f or even m ore variability , g iven
thatwewouldhavewronglyinterpr eted the TD 10 and the
Galeríatechnological rec or ds as tr ansitional and develope d
Acheulean, res pectively. Thisscenario r ecreat es an ar ea
fre q u en tly occupied by differentgroups,butwith o u t a
con ti nuoussettlem ent.
d) The sam e hum an grou ps m ay have occupied G aler íaand
Gran Dolina-TD10 fro m M IS1 1 to M IS9 w ith v e ry d iffer ent
so rts o f to o ls and m ethods to produce them ,due simplyto
functionaldiff
eren ces ofthe occu pat i ons.Actually,functiona l
differ ences are gr eater than climaticonesin Atapuerca,so
th e y p ro b a b lyexplain m uch ofthe te chnological variability .
But w ouldthesedifferencesbesostrongasto confound
MiddlePaleolith ic and Acheulean featur es ?
5. D iscu ssi on
During the las t years , m uc h has been done to increase our
know ledge about the Acheulean inEurope.Thisincludes a deep-
ened under s tanding ofthe classicalsite s,th e d is covery ofnew s ites,
th e imple m e n ta tion ofnew approachesand techniq u e s to stu d y th e
lith icrecords,improvementsinthewayweinter pr etthe behaviora l
and paleo- ec ologicalconte x tofthese a ssem blages ,as w ella s clear
progress inprecisi ons reg arding the chronological situ a tion ofthe
si te s.
Co ntrary to the sparse paleoanthr opological record , inwhich
each new nd r epres entsa challenge f
orthe e stablish ed p arad igm s ,
th e lith icrecordisextrem elyrich ,an d itallow sus to m anage a lar ge
qua ntity o f d a ta . N o w a d a y s, th isshouldencourageustosearchfor
consensuson the technologicalcrite riaforstudying the Acheulean
phenom ena. A lso , i tshouldenableustosuita b lyarrangeand
inter pret the body of data availableinsuchawaythatsingle-s ite
long stra tigraphies play t he r ole of ag s equences or repr es enta-
tive colum ns,w ith w h ich t o p roj ec tw ell-ltered data(unequivoc a l,
unam biguous data)c om ing fro m o th e r importantsite s, lling inthe
gaps o fthe ag sequence.Finally,w e need to further explore the
ext ent to w hich these l ong archeo-stra tigra phical sequ en ces
r epr es ent the A c heulean in W este rn Europe on a continentalscale.
On the one hand,lith icspecialis ts need to com e toanagreem ent
about the fe a tu re s to ta k e into account w hen assessing typo-
technological evol ution on a continental scale. The com par iso n s
th a t w e n e e d to ca rry o u t stro n g ly depend on the availability o f long
seq u en ces,w i th re liablechronological,a rc heological an d enviro n -
mentalcontext s .In addition,trends observed throughoutlong se -
quence s m ustbe e xam ined,and then checked againstthe features
obs erved inother,more“punctual”,high-resolution occupations.
We musttake intoconsideration tha t functional para m ete rs
stro n gl yaffect lith ic assem b lage com positio n , a n d th a t th ismay
blurthe archeological cl as s i cations.
On the otherhand,w e highlight the c ontribution ofsuc h long
seq u en ces, i nresolving issu es rel ating to debates about pop-
ulations'continuity o r d isco n tinuity inEurope(Berm údezde Castro
et al.
,2013; M osquera et al.,2013). Ibe rian and other souther n
Europe an Ache ulian s ite s a re likelytohaveprovided a potential
source population for the e a rlies t hom inin gro u p s p rese n t in
n o rth e rn E u ro p e (Ashton and Lew is , 2012;M a c D onaldetal.,2012),
act ing probablyasa“sou rce-sink d y nam icfro m the southwithphases
ofdepo pulation and re colonisa tion” (M onc elet al.,2016).
Long ar c heo- s tr atigraphical s equences allow:1)to eliminate
fa cto rs th a t c o n tribute to the v ariability o f th e te ch n o log icalrecords
(i.e.r aw m ater ialsavailability , ty p e o f se ttlem ent, enviro n m e n tal
con ditions,etc.); 2 ) tospecifywhensigni c a nt te c hnolog ical oc-
cur rences appear for the rst ti
meinthesameenviro n m en t (i.e.
lar ge ake pr oduction,bifacials haping,sm alltoolproduc tion,etc.),
and how they evolve; 3) to identifylinks w ith pre and postoccu-
pations;4)to detect tr ends ,br eaks ,gaps ,etc.both incultu ra l a n d
enviro n m e n tal m a tters; 5 ) to follow the evolution ofthe use of a
si nglesite o r a re a ,in or der to evalu a te th e ro leofsite function and
its e ffe cts o n th e a rch e o logica l re co rd ; 6 ) to g u a ra n te e th ro u g h
strati graphiclaw s th e su ccessi on intimeofthecultu ralasso ciations
obs erved; and 7) to follow the loca l tra nsform ation of behav iors
and adaptations to localconditions and to improveourknowledge
ofinter-asse m b lage divers ity (e sp e ciallyifthe scen arioofmultiple
hom inin arrivalsisretained).
The Atapuerca site s o ff
er the follow ing opportunities :
1) G ran D olina:ongoing TT-O SL and pIR-IRdating,and continued
excavations and inter disciplinary studies of units T D 1 0 .3,
TD 1 0.4, TD9,T D8 and TD 7 (untilconnecting w ith T D 6 ). A lso,as
alread y a d m itted,“Gran D olina representsthe onlylong seq uence
withevide nce for hom inin p resen ce a n d a b sen ce” (MacDonald
et al.,2012:92).
2) G a lería: ongoing excavations of the w hole sequence and
do ubling of the excavated surface ar ea.Increasing the available
sam p lew illallow to c hec k the evolutiona ry te chnologicaltrends
obse rv e d so far.
A.O lleetal./Q uaternary Internat ional xxx ( 2016) 1e 13 9
Pleas e citethisarticleinpressas:Olle,A .,et al.,The Acheulean fr om A tapuerc a:Thr ee s teps for w ar d,on e step back,Q uater nar y Internationa l
(2 0 1 6 ), h ttp ://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.qua int.20 16.01 .042
3) T he upperlevelsofthe SimadelElefante belong totheMiddle
Pleis tocene,and m ay have a cor r elation w ith the upperlevelsof
Gran Dolina and w ith th o se fro m G alería.Soilstra tigraphy data
(Vallverdú,2016), a s w e llas ongoing ge ochronological an d
paleoenvironm ental studies w illprovide us w ith d a ta to
stre n g th e n su ch co rrelations a nd to e xpa nd our know ledge
about A tapuer ca'ssynchronicvariability .
The Ca une de l'Arago site provides another rare exam pleof
long-single arch eo -stratigraphical sequen ces w ith su cc e ssive
hom inin occupations a nd w he re m ost of the a va ilabledating
methodsfor the Q ua ternary have been applied (Yokoy a m a a nd
N guy e n,1 981; Yoko yam a e t a l.,1982a,1982b; D e Lum ley et al.,
1984,2004;Fa lguer es et al.,2004,20 15;M oigne et a l.,2006;F ei,
2007). T h e re , th e o ldest Acheulean assem b lages pr es ently
re ach e d b y th e o n g o ing excavations (a rcheostra tigra phicall ayers P
and Q ) have r ecen tly be en date d to ca .550 ka (Fal guer es et al.,
2015). M e a n w h ile, the c hronology oflayer G has a m ean age eval-
uation of438 ± 31 Ka. La yer G istherefore conte m pora ry w ith S H
and TD 10.3,ra ising the is sue ofone or tw o hum an s pecies pres ent
aro und 400e 450 Ka inWesternEurope(Arsuaga et al.,2014;De
Lum ley, 2015b). A n a log ous typo-te chnological change has also
be en obse rve d from the ba se to the top ofthe stratigra phy at the
Caune de l'A rago cave,w hich indicat es s om e ofthe pathw ays that
need tobefurther explored: for ex a m ple, changes inhandaxe
morphology from m ore num e rous a nd m ore sym m etrical an d
com p l ex w or ked form s (P levels) to l es s er and m or e irreg u lar an d
partialbifacialtoolshigher up inthesequence(Ba rsky ,201 3). H i-
erarchical d iscoi dcoreswith clea r s eparatio n o f th e p re p aration
and extr act ion surfaces appear fro m arch e o stratigraphi
cal u n itG,
denticu late tool t ypes ar e m or e num er ous inthelow e r levels
com p ared w ith scra p e r ty p e s in the higher levels ,etc.W e s ugges t
that the data fro m th ese tw o m ajor site s-th e m o st co m p lete,long-
te rm , n o n -inter rupted s tratigraphical s equences datin g to th is
period in W estern E u ro p e , m a y se rv e as a u sefulguide for inter-
pre ting data fro m o th er site s. O b v iously,extr apolating inform ation
from th ese site s e n ta ilscertain dangers; such as the absence of
som e vari ant s of th e A cheulian or s om e phenom ena that m ay be
tightlyrelated to s ite-speci c conditions.
W epropose thatourknow ledge ofthe Eur opean A cheulean m ay
be improved by integrating the availableinform a tion by the
follow in g step s.Fi rstly , to stu d y th e single- sitelong se quence s(i.e.
Gran Dolina,SimadelElefante, Caune de l’Arago, N otarchirico).
Sec ondly,t o study t he r ecor ds com ing fro m site s for m ed by several
localities w ith m u lti-layer s equences (i.e. Sierra de Atapuerca,
Cagny,Barra nc de laBoella ).Third ly,t o incorporate the site s w ith
sh orters equences(i.e.O r gnac ,Bolom or,Ter ra A m ata, Cansaladeta).
Finally,t ointegr atetheinform a tion c om ing fro m single- layer site s:
high-res olutio n reco rd s rep rese n ting justsingleorsynchronicim-
pacts,fro m w h ich tem por al tr ends are difcultto identify, even
w hen they r e pres e nt c om plete and non bias ed archeological re-
cord s ( i .e.Boxgr ove,A ridos,Sch
€
oningen “Spear H or izon ”,Barranc
de laBoellaLocality 1 ). C e rta inly, regio n al sy n th esisareofpara-
mountimportance(i.e.M iddl
eLoire,Som m e,Yonne,Th am es,Tajo,
Ter),b u t th e ex ertion to tin w e a k ge o-chronologicalcon texts and/
ornon-reliableexcavations m a y lead us to m isinter pr etations.
Fut ure com parison s m ay al low us to considerissu es su ch as:
-Can we follow in oth er sequ en ces the t ech n olog ical t ren d s
observ e d inthelong “ ag s equenc es ”,r egar ding trends inthe
exploita tion m ethods,sha ping techniques,e tc .?
-Is th e re ch ro n o log ic alagreem entbetw een the r eferentialsingle-
si te se q u e n ce s a n d th e o th e r w e ll-d ated site s? T h a t is, are th e
“bestre prese nte d e piso d es”inthelong s equences inagreement
with th e e v idence fro m singlesite s?
- D o the sequences show similar ities r egarding the dem ography
and paleo- enviro n m e n tal co n d itions?
-Is there any gener alpatter n inthetypologicaland m orpholog-
ical vari ability a m o n g th e l
ar ge cutting tools? C an th istypo-
logical var iability b e u se d to infer m igration ev e nts (Santonja
et al.,2016)?
- A re th ere p ossi blecorrelat ions am ong subsis tenc e and other
be hav iora lpatterns and lith icvariability ? W h ich f actors related
tothetypeofenclave orthe nature ofoccupationsc an co ndition
th e te ch n icalrecord?
Finally, yet importantly,t he big m a tte r: th e A c h e u lean itse lf.
Recently,som e auth or s h ave ar gued fore sta blish i ng the plurality
and com plexity o f w h a t w e ca ll “Acheulean”,suggesting th at
th e re isagreatdivers ity o f assem b l ages included inthe
Acheulean conceptualfra m ew o rk (Nicoud,2013a,2013b;M oncel
et al.,20 15,20 16). T h e re a re indeed m osaics o f st rat egies that
cann ot be interpreted w i
th in s chem es that are too r igid.Inthis
sen se, i t m ay be ar gued that s ever al “Acheulean features ” are
identi ed inmany“non-Acheulean ” si t es, such as, Sch
€
oningen
(Serangeliand Conard,2015)orIsern ialaPineta (Gallotti a nd
Pere tto, 201 5). B u t b a sically, w h at leads us to applytheterm
“Acheulean”,continues to be m ainly the presence of handaxes
and the w idespread use of the centripetal,mostlybifacial
kna pping m ethods.Notw ith sta n d ing,itnow appearsthatasin-
gle assem bl age m ay be cons idered to be both Low e r a nd M idd le
Pa leolith ic, dependin g on the authors' inter pr etative m odel.
Indeed,the limits b e tw e e n th e se tw o m a jor c ultu ra l fram es are
notclear,as s om etimeshasbeenclaimed(Santonjaetal.,2016).
Also , th i
sproblem aticdealswith debates about the co existen ce
or a lte rn a ting nature ofassem blages w ith a n d w ith o u t h a n d a x e s
(i.e.Ashton et al.,1998;W hite,2000). Infact inWesternEurope
th e A ch e u le an seem s to be broadly contem pora ry w ith th e e a rly
MiddlePaleolith ic(i.e.Levallois technolog y ) (White a n d A sh to n ,
2003;Bates,2014).
Therefore,in order to proper lyassesstheuniform ity (Nicou d ,
20 13a ), invention/innovation/disp ersal (Nicoud, 2013b ), v a ri-
ability /diversity (Carbonelletal.,2016), c o e x istence of different
tra d itions (Santonjaetal.,2016), e tc.,inside w hatallofus include
i
nto the European Acheulean,w e w ill,infuture,stronglydepend
u p o n b o th th e g e o ch ro n o logical and the archeological d ata ob-
ta ined fro m long stra tigraphicalsequences,and w e shouldavoid
making correlations base d on insuf cient r egionalfra m ew o rk s.
6. F inalrem arks
Signi cantchangeshave occurred inourvision ofthe Europe a n
Acheulian over onlythelas t25 years ofr esearch,es pec iallythanks
to n e w w o rk insites such as Atapuerca,Caune de l'Arago (De
Lum ley et al.,2014), h u g e p ro jects s uch as A H O B (Ashton e t al.,
20 11),m onographicstudies like the one fro m Terra A m ata (De
Lum ley, 2015a), illustrating how m uch w e have improved our
know ledge, but also “ho w w ea k ly g ro und ed m a ny of our current
models”maybe(MacDonald and Roebroeks ,2012:3).
Esta blish ing stratigraphiccorrelations betw een diff
erent s uc-
cessions isverydifcult,even w hen they are geographical lyclose,
shareasingleenvironm ent,and have been s ubject to a variety of
dating m ethods .Ther efore,reg iona lsche m e s ba sed,for exam ple,
on stratigra phic co rrelations betw een punctually dated oc cur-
re n ce s, lack the r equired accu racy t o p rop erly assess evo l utiona ry
changes w ith intheEuropeanAcheulean.
Inthis s ens e,rec ons tr uctions base d on ov e rlysimplisti ctech-
nological cat egorizat ions, a nd/or partial and clearlyinsuf cient
re g iona lfram ew o rk s (including proposa lsof liations w ith “older”
and “younger” assem blages ) alth o u g h so m e times resulting in
A.Olleetal./Q uaternary Internat ional xxx ( 2016) 1e 1310
Pleas e cite th isarticl einpressas:Olle,A .,et al.,The Acheulean fr om A tapuerc a:Thr ee s teps for w ar d,one s tep back,Q uaternary Internationa l
(2 0 1 6 ), h ttp ://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.qua int.2016.01 .042
interesting hypothesis, l ead us tooversimplied view s and
misi nterpretations.
As inter-site co rre lations prov e to be problem atic, w e n eed a
refer ential com ing fro m asse m b lages belonging tosingle- locality
lo n g su ccessi ons,w he re the problem s r elat in g to th e a p p licat i on
of different dating m ethods (and theirdiscrep an cies ) m ight be
over c om e at le ast by the phy sical d i sp o si tion ofthe arche ological
layer s .Inthissense,fore xam ple,the com pletion ofthe e x cav ation
inthenearfuture ofTD 10.3andTD10.4sub-units inGranDolina
willallow us to c heck ifw e w ill nd ther e a developed Acheulean
si milar t o th at r ec or ded inGalería, as initiallypredi
ct ed. A lso ,
achieving higher resolution fr om the age evaluations w ouldfacili-
ta te our reconstructions of the M iddlePleistocen e reco rd fro m
A tap u erca, p e rh ap s m o re closelyinterconnecting th e Galer íaand
TD 1 0 layer s than pr esently.Inaddition,the developm ent of w ide
interdisci plin ary research p rogram s cap ab l e of providing integral
se ts o f d a ta to b e c o m p a re d w ith th a t from Atapuerca w illbe
cru ci al.Site s sh o w ing thispotentialt o beginwith m a y b e laCaune
de l'Arago,Venosa-N otarchirico as w el las regiona l uvialsystem s
with close lycorrelated high-re s olution de posits. Inanycase,we
willrequire m o re w ides pread num er ical d ating ofkey late Ear ly
and M iddlePleistocen e arch eo l ogi
cal si tesacrossEurope,asthe
only w ay to testand re ne ourm odelsoftechnological evol ution.
However,adisp rop orti ona tefocuson da ting isalso ri sky.Th i sisthe
exam pleofGaler ía,w her e,bes ides the very w ide con d en ce i n-
te rv a lsoffered by eac h different dating m ethods,the results m a y
yieldmorethantwoMISwith inthetemporalspan.
Acknow ledgem ents
Wewouldlike toacknowledge allthe researchersand students
involved in th e reco ve ry, p rep aration and study of the archaeo-
logical record f ro m S ier ra de A tapuerca.A num ber of colleagues
have provided valuableinsights a nd com m e nts conce rning these
si te s,a n d to th e m w e e x tend our gratitude.Fieldw ork atAtapuerca
is supported by Junta de Castilla y Leon and Fundacion Atapuerca.
Res earch has been developed inthefram ew o rk o f th e Sp a n ish
Ministeri odeEconomíayCompetitividad proj
ec ts CG L2012-
38434-C03-03 and H AR2012-32548, as w ellas the Catalan
AG AU R projects2014S GR899 a nd 2014SGR901.S pe cialt hanks go to
M-H.MoncelandD.Schrevefororganising and kindlyinviting usto
th e c o n ference European Ac heuleans, N orther v. S o uthern Europe:
Hom inins, technical behaviour,chronological an d en vi ron m en tal
con text s, h e ldintheMNHN,Paris, i n N ov e m ber 20 14.F inancial
su p p o rt w as received to attend the conferenc e fro m th e Sp a n -
ish e Fren ch p ro j ect of cooper a tion (M erimee).Wealso w an t to
ac know ledge an anonym ous review er for the very c onstructive
com m en ts h e/ shemadeonaprevious ve rsion ofthism anuscript.
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