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Sala N, Alcaraz-Castaño M, Arriolabengoa M, Martínez-Pillado V, Pantoja-Pérez A, Rodríguez-Hidalgo A, Téllez E, Cubas M, Castillo S, Arnold LJ, Demuro M, Duval M, Arteaga-Brieba A, Llamazares J, Ochando J, Cuenca-Bescós G, Marín-Arroyo AB, Seijo MM, Luque L, Alonso-Llamazares C, Arlegi M, Rodríguez-Almagro M, Calvo-Simal C, Izquierdo B, Cuartero F, Torres-Iglesias L, Agudo-Pérez L, Arribas A, Carrión JS, Magri D, Zhao JX, Pablos A. Nobody's land? The oldest evidence of early Upper Paleolithic settlements in inland Iberia. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2024; 10:eado3807. [PMID: 38924409 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ado3807] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/30/2024] [Accepted: 05/17/2024] [Indexed: 06/28/2024]
Abstract
The Iberian Peninsula is a key region for unraveling human settlement histories of Eurasia during the period spanning the decline of Neandertals and the emergence of anatomically modern humans (AMH). There is no evidence of human occupation in central Iberia after the disappearance of Neandertals ~42,000 years ago until approximately 26,000 years ago, rendering the region "nobody's land" during the Aurignacian period. The Abrigo de la Malia provides irrefutable evidence of human settlements dating back to 36,200 to 31,760 calibrated years before the present (cal B.P.) This site also records additional levels of occupation around 32,420 to 26,260 cal B.P., suggesting repeated settlement of this territory. Our multiproxy examination identifies a change in climate trending toward colder and more arid conditions. However, this climatic deterioration does not appear to have affected AMH subsistence strategies or their capacity to inhabit this region. These findings reveal the ability of AMH groups to colonize regions hitherto considered uninhabitable, reopening the debate on early Upper Paleolithic population dynamics of southwestern Europe.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nohemi Sala
- Centro Nacional de Investigación Sobre Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Burgos, Spain
- Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, Madrid, Spain
| | - Manuel Alcaraz-Castaño
- Área de Prehistoria, Departamento de Historia y Filosofía, Universidad de Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Spain
| | - Martin Arriolabengoa
- Departamento de Geología, Facultad de Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad del País Vasco-Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (UPV/EHU), Leioa, Spain
| | - Virginia Martínez-Pillado
- Centro Nacional de Investigación Sobre Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Burgos, Spain
- Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, Madrid, Spain
| | - Ana Pantoja-Pérez
- Centro Nacional de Investigación Sobre Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Burgos, Spain
- Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, Madrid, Spain
| | - Antonio Rodríguez-Hidalgo
- Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Instituto de Arqueología-Mérida (CSIC-Junta de Extremadura), Mérida, Spain
- Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES-CERCA), Tarragona, Spain
| | - Edgar Téllez
- Centro Nacional de Investigación Sobre Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Burgos, Spain
| | - Miriam Cubas
- Área de Prehistoria, Departamento de Historia y Filosofía, Universidad de Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Spain
| | - Samuel Castillo
- Área de Prehistoria, Departamento de Historia y Filosofía, Universidad de Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Spain
| | - Lee J Arnold
- School of Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences, Environment Institute, and Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS), University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
| | - Martina Demuro
- School of Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences, Environment Institute, and Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS), University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
| | - Mathieu Duval
- Centro Nacional de Investigación Sobre Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Burgos, Spain
- Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
- Palaeoscience Laboratories, Department of Archaeology and History, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - Andion Arteaga-Brieba
- Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES-CERCA), Tarragona, Spain
| | - Javier Llamazares
- Centro Nacional de Investigación Sobre Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Burgos, Spain
| | - Juan Ochando
- Department of Plant Biology (Botany Area), Faculty of Biology, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain
- Department of Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - Gloria Cuenca-Bescós
- Aragosaurus-IUCA-Departamento Ciencias de la Tierra, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain
| | - Ana B Marín-Arroyo
- Grupo de I+D+i EVOADAPTA (Evolución Humana y Adaptaciones Durante la Prehistoria), Departamento de Ciencias Históricas, Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, Spain
| | - María Martín Seijo
- Instituto de Ciencias del Patrimonio (INCIPIT), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Santiago de Compostela, Spain
| | - Luis Luque
- Área de Prehistoria, Departamento de Historia y Filosofía, Universidad de Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Spain
| | - Carmen Alonso-Llamazares
- Departamento de Biología Animal, Ecología, Parasitología, Edafología y Química Agrícola, Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
| | - Mikel Arlegi
- McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3ER, UK
| | | | - Cecilia Calvo-Simal
- Centro Nacional de Investigación Sobre Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Burgos, Spain
| | | | - Felipe Cuartero
- Área de Prehistoria, Departamento de Historia y Filosofía, Universidad de Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Spain
| | - Leire Torres-Iglesias
- Grupo de I+D+i EVOADAPTA (Evolución Humana y Adaptaciones Durante la Prehistoria), Departamento de Ciencias Históricas, Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, Spain
| | - Lucía Agudo-Pérez
- Grupo de I+D+i EVOADAPTA (Evolución Humana y Adaptaciones Durante la Prehistoria), Departamento de Ciencias Históricas, Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, Spain
| | - Alfonso Arribas
- Estación Paleontológica Valle del río Fardes, Instituto Geológico y Minero de España (IGME), Tres Cantos, Madrid, Spain
| | - José S Carrión
- Department of Plant Biology (Botany Area), Faculty of Biology, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain
| | - Donatella Magri
- Department of Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - J-X Zhao
- Radiogenic Isotope Facility, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
| | - Adrián Pablos
- Centro Nacional de Investigación Sobre Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Burgos, Spain
- Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, Madrid, Spain
- Departamento de Geodinámica, Estratigrafía y Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias Geológicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
- Departamento de Prehistoria y Arqueología, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain
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García-Escárzaga A, Gutiérrez-Zugasti I, Marín-Arroyo AB, Fernandes R, Núñez de la Fuente S, Cuenca-Solana D, Iriarte E, Simões C, Martín-Chivelet J, González-Morales MR, Roberts P. Human forager response to abrupt climate change at 8.2 ka on the Atlantic coast of Europe. Sci Rep 2022; 12:6481. [PMID: 35444222 PMCID: PMC9021199 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-10135-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/26/2021] [Accepted: 04/01/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
The cooling and drying associated with the so-called ‘8.2 ka event’ have long been hypothesized as having sweeping implications for human societies in the Early Holocene, including some of the last Mesolithic hunter-gatherers in Atlantic Europe. Nevertheless, detailed ‘on-site’ records with which the impacts of broader climate changes on human-relevant environments can be explored have been lacking. Here, we reconstruct sea surface temperatures (SST) from δ18O values measured on subfossil topshells Phorcus lineatus exploited by the Mesolithic human groups that lived at El Mazo cave (N Spain) between 9 and 7.4 ka. Bayesian modelling of 65 radiocarbon dates, in combination with this δ18O data, provide a high-resolution seasonal record of SST, revealing that colder SST during the 8.2 ka event led to changes in the availability of different shellfish species. Intensification in the exploitation of molluscs by humans indicates demographic growth in these Atlantic coastal settings which acted as refugia during this cold event.
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Affiliation(s)
- Asier García-Escárzaga
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany. .,Departamento de Ciencias Humanas, Universidad de La Rioja, Logroño, Spain. .,Department of Prehistory and Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA) , Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain.
| | - Igor Gutiérrez-Zugasti
- Instituto Internacional de Investigaciones Prehistóricas de Cantabria, Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, Gobierno de Cantabria, Santander, Spain.
| | - Ana B Marín-Arroyo
- Grupo de I+D+I EVOADAPTA, Departamento de Ciencias Históricas, Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, Spain.,Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3DZ, UK
| | - Ricardo Fernandes
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany.,School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.,Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Sara Núñez de la Fuente
- Instituto Internacional de Investigaciones Prehistóricas de Cantabria, Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, Gobierno de Cantabria, Santander, Spain
| | - David Cuenca-Solana
- Instituto Internacional de Investigaciones Prehistóricas de Cantabria, Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, Gobierno de Cantabria, Santander, Spain.,Centre de Recherche en Archéologie, Archeosciences, Histoire (CReAAH), UMR-6566, Université de Rennes 1, Rennes, France
| | - Eneko Iriarte
- Laboratorio de Evolución Humana-IsoTOPIK Stable Isotope Laboratory, Universidad de Burgos, Burgos, Spain
| | - Carlos Simões
- ICArEHB-Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and the Evolution of Human Behaviour, Universidade Do Algarve, Faro, Portugal
| | - Javier Martín-Chivelet
- Facultad de Ciencias Geológicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid & Instituto de Geociencias (CSIC-UCM), Madrid, Spain
| | - Manuel R González-Morales
- Instituto Internacional de Investigaciones Prehistóricas de Cantabria, Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, Gobierno de Cantabria, Santander, Spain
| | - Patrick Roberts
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany.,School of Social Sciences, University of Queensland, Queensland, Australia
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3
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Milano S, Schöne BR, González-Morales MR, Gutiérrez-Zugasti I. Temporal and spatial variability of prehistoric aquatic resource procurement: a case study from Mesolithic Northern Iberia. Sci Rep 2022; 12:3111. [PMID: 35210501 PMCID: PMC8873316 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-07239-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2021] [Accepted: 02/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Prehistoric shell middens hold valuable evidence of past human-environment interactions. In this study, we used carbon (δ13C) and oxygen (δ18O) stable isotopes of Mytilus galloprovincialis shells excavated from El Perro, La Fragua and La Chora, three Mesolithic middens in Cantabria, Northern Spain, to examine hunter-gatherer subsistence strategies in terms of seasonality and collection areas. Furthermore, we used shell δ18O to reconstruct water temperature during the early Holocene. Stable isotopes reveal a shellfish harvesting diversification trend represented by the gradual establishment of the upper estuaries as new procurement areas and an increase of harvesting mobility in both coastal and in-land sites. These innovations in subsistence strategies during the Mesolithic coincided with major changes in the surrounding environment as attested by the water temperature reconstructions based on δ18O and backed by several global and regional records. Overall, our results show that shell δ13C and δ18O stable isotopes have an underexplored potential as provenance proxies which stimulates their application to the archaeological record to further understand prehistoric human resource procurement and diet.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefania Milano
- Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany. .,Department of Evolutionary Ecology, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Berlin, Germany.
| | - Bernd R Schöne
- Institute of Geosciences, University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany
| | - Manuel R González-Morales
- Instituto Internacional de Investigaciones Prehistóricas de Cantabria, Universidad de Cantabria, Gobierno de Cantabria, Banco Santander), Santander, Spain
| | - Igor Gutiérrez-Zugasti
- Instituto Internacional de Investigaciones Prehistóricas de Cantabria, Universidad de Cantabria, Gobierno de Cantabria, Banco Santander), Santander, Spain
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