ref: Before Farming 2009/2 article 1

Vale Boi: rendering new understandings of resource intensification & diversification in southwestern Iberia

Tiina Manne
Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85731-0030, USA
tmanne@email.arizona.edu

Nuno F Bicho
FCHS, Campus de Gambelas, Universidade do Algarve, Faro, Portugal

Keywords: Upper Palaeolithic, zooarchaeology, Iberia, taphonomy, bone-grease rendering

Abstract

Archaeofaunal assemblages from southwest Portugal reveal evidence of Upper Palaeolithic resource intensification. Faunal remains recovered from the coastal Upper Palaeolithic site of Vale Boi demonstrate that humans were exploiting rabbits and intensively processing ungulate carcasses by the early Gravettian. Taphonomy of the rabbit assemblage shows no evidence of density-mediated attrition or of specific signatures left by non-human predators. Additionally, the placement of rabbit remains alongside faunal remains clearly deposited by humans, strongly suggests that the leporid assemblage was accumulated by humans. Examination of red deer and horse remains reveals a high percentage of impact damage from stone tools and that nearly all major elements were opened for marrow. Further analysis of medium ungulate long bone epiphyses suggests that humans were preferentially targeting long bone ends containing high yields of bone-grease. Co-occurrence of fire-cracked rock, stone anvils and hammerstones corroborates the suggestion that humans were intensively processing ungulate carcasses. This early coupling of rabbit exploitation with bone grease rendering is distinctive in that it occurs relatively early in the European Upper Palaeolithic.

ref: Before Farming 2009/2 article 2

Continuity in animal resource diversity in the Late Pleistocene human diet of Central Portugal

Bryan Hockett
US Bureau of Land Management, Elko District Office,
3900 East Idaho Street, Elko, NV 89801 USA
Bryan_Hockett@nv.blm.gov

Jonathan Haws
Department of Anthropology, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292 USA
jonathan.haws@louisville.edu

Keywords: Palaeolithic, diet, nutritional ecology, Portugal, Neanderthals

Abstract

Archaeologists studying the human occupation of Late Pleistocene Iberia have identified the Late Upper Palaeolithic, including the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, as a time of resource intensification, diversification and specialisation. The primary drivers for these changes were argued to be the result of population-resource imbalances triggered by the postglacial climatic warming and human population growth. Recent research, however, has pushed resource intensification and diversification back in time to the Early Upper Palaeolithic in Iberia and beyond. Dietary diversity may have given anatomically modern humans a selective advantage over Neanderthals. In this article we review the accumulated evidence for Late Middle and Upper Palaeolithic diet in central Portugal, emphasising the importance of small animal exploitation. We incorporate results from on-going research at Lapa do Picareiro and other sites to explore the possibility that the dietary choices of modern foragers in Iberia contributed to the extinction of the Neanderthal populations occupying the region until ca 30,000 14C BP.

ref: Before Farming 2009/2 article 3

Economic adaptations during the Late Glacial in northern Spain: a simulation approach

Ana Belén Marín Arroyo
Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, University of Cambridge
Henry Wellcome Building, Fitzwilliam Street, Cambridge CB2 1QH
abm38@cam.ac.uk

Keywords: Palaeodemography, diet breadth, climatic change, Late Glacial, Cantabrian coast

Abstract

The archaeozoological record provides direct evidence of the subsistence strategies of ancient groups, and thus can be used to test hypotheses about cultural and economic human evolution. Along the Cantabrian coast (northern Spain) the shift from the specialised procurement of high-ranked prey to more diversified resource exploitation during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition has traditionally been explained from two contrasting points of view. On the one hand, the demographic theory proposes the progressive growth of human population and its energetic requirements as the determining factor. On the other hand, the environmental theory argues that climatic amelioration and resulting reforestation were the primary cause. To study this phenomenon in detail a mathematical model has been created to simultaneously simulate ungulate population dynamics and their environmental and demographic stochasticity, the effects of topography on resource allocation, and human foraging behaviour in terms of prey choice. The results corroborate the demographic argument.

ref: Before Farming 2009/2 article 4

Economic transitions in finis terra: the western Mediterranean of Iberia, 15–7 ka BP

JE Aura
Departament de Prehistòria i Arqueologia, Universitat de València,
Avda Blasco Ibañez, 28, 46010 València, Spain
emilio.aura@uv.es

JF Jordá
Departamento de Prehistoria y Arqueología, Facultad de Geografía e Historia
Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia,Ciudad Universitaria
Senda del Rey, 7, 28040 Madrid, Spain

JV Morales
Departament de Prehistòria i Arqueologia, Universitat de València
Avda Blasco Ibañez, 28, 46010 València, Spain
Grupo de Investigación Sociedades cazadoras-recolectoras prehistóricas
Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain

M Pérez
Departament de Prehistòria i Arqueologia, Universitat de València
Avda Blasco Ibañez, 28, 46010 València, Spain

M-P Villalba
Departamento de Paleontología, Facultad de Geología
Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria, 28040 Madrid, Spain

JA Alcover
Universitat de les Illes Balears, Ciutat de Palma, Mallorca, Spain

Keywords: Pleistocene-Holocene transition, palaeoeconomy, marine resources, Iberia, western Mediterranean

Abstract

A gradualist approach has been taken in describing the evolution of the last foragers in the Iberian Mediterranean Region (IMR) up to their rapid collapse, brought about by the appearance of the first prehistoric farmers. This point of view assumes that the post-Last Glaical Maximum (LGM) climatic change brought about a certain restructuring of the mammal fauna and exerted a direct influence by flooding the changing coastal plain and submerging coastal sites related to marine resource use. This paper proposes that small prey was a constant and structural resource in the IMR that did not signal intensification, since human consumption of rabbits goes back to the Middle Palaeolithic. At the same time, it proposes that the diversification-intensification associated with the Pleistocene-Holocene transition must be assessed mainly based on marine resources but integrated with the tool kits used to process them, symbolic imagery and the transportation of marine resources to some inland sites as evidence of the use of these resources extends to the Middle Palaeolithic. With this goal in mind, two different regions (Valencia and Andalusia) are compared by means of two sites which are respectively an example of inland mountainous areas near the coast (Coves de Santa Maira) and of southern Iberian coastal sites (Cueva de Nerja).