Ana B. Marín-Arroyo

Late-glacial recolonization and phylogeography of European red deer (Cervus elaphus L.).

The Pleistocene was an epoch of extreme climatic and environmental changes. How individual species responded to the repeated cycles of warm and cold stages is a major topic of debate. For the European fauna and flora, an expansion–contraction model has been suggested, whereby temperate species were restricted to southern refugia during glacial times and expanded northwards during interglacials, including the present interglacial (Holocene). Here, we test this model on the red deer (Cervus elaphus) a large and highly mobile herbivore, using both modern and ancient mitochondrial DNA from the entire European range of the species over the last c. 40 000 years. Our results indicate that this species was sensitive to the effects of climate change. Prior to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) haplogroups restricted today to South‐East Europe and Western Asia reached as far west as the UK. During the LGM, red deer was mainly restricted to southern refugia, in Iberia, the Balkans and possibly in Italy and South‐Western Asia. At the end of the LGM, red deer expanded from the Iberian refugium, to Central and Northern Europe, including the UK, Belgium, Scandinavia, Germany, Poland and Belarus. Ancient DNA data cannot rule out refugial survival of red deer in North‐West Europe through the LGM. Had such deer survived, though, they were replaced by deer migrating from Iberia at the end of the glacial. The Balkans served as a separate LGM refugium and were probably connected to Western Asia with genetic exchange between the two areas.

Chronological reassessment of the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition and Early Upper Paleolithic cultures in Cantabrian Spain

Methodological advances in dating the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition provide a better understanding of the replacement of local Neanderthal populations by Anatomically Modern Humans. Today we know that this replacement was not a single, pan-European event, but rather it took place at different times in different regions. Thus, local conditions could have played a role. Iberia represents a significant macro-region to study this process. Northern Atlantic Spain contains evidence of both Mousterian and Early Upper Paleolithic occupations, although most of them are not properly dated, thus hindering the chances of an adequate interpretation. Here we present 46 new radiocarbon dates conducted using ultrafiltration pre-treatment method of anthropogenically manipulated bones from 13 sites in the Cantabrian region containing Mousterian, Aurignacian and Gravettian levels, of which 30 are considered relevant. These dates, alongside previously reported ones, were integrated into a Bayesian age model to reconstruct an absolute timescale for the transitional period. According to it, the Mousterian disappeared in the region by 47.9–45.1ka cal BP, while the Châtelperronian lasted between 42.6k and 41.5ka cal BP. The Mousterian and Châtelperronian did not overlap, indicating that the latter might be either intrusive or an offshoot of the Mousterian. The new chronology also suggests that the Aurignacian appears between 43.3–40.5ka cal BP overlapping with the Châtelperronian, and ended around 34.6–33.1ka cal BP, after the Gravettian had already been established in the region. This evidence indicates that Neanderthals and AMH co-existed <1,000 years, with the caveat that no diagnostic human remains have been found with the latest Mousterian, Châtelperronian or earliest Aurignacian in Cantabrian Spain.

New Opportunities for Previously Excavated Sites: Paleoeconomy as a Human Evolutionary Indicator at Tabun Cave (Israel)

Tabun Cave, located at Mount Carmel (Israel), is a key site in our understanding of human evolution, as it held alternate occupations of Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH) and archaic species during MIS 7-MIS 5. Unlike the well-studied paleoanthropological and lithic assemblages, faunal remains have received less attention due to a clear excavation bias. Nonetheless, the application of modern archaeozoological and taphonomical techniques has overcome the existing difficulties, providing new insights on the economic behavior of these human species. Consequently, evidence of a higher logistic mobility amongst AMH, probably favored by their particular anatomy, has been identified at Tabun and other contemporaneous sites, which could be regarded as a reasonable cause of an evolving hunting specialization. These differences, however, were not enough to guarantee their survival in a region that went through radical climatic changes, a fact that might be related to a lack of a more efficient technology to maximize the carrying capacity of the ecosystem.

Dietary habits in the endangered Bearded Vulture Gypaetus barbatus from Upper Pleistocene to modern times in Spain: a paleobiological conservation perspective

Ana B. Marin-Arroyo has a contract within the Ramon y Cajal Program (RYC-2011-00695), at the Instituto Internacional de Investigaciones Prehistoricas de Cantabria, University of Cantabria.

Changing environments during the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic transition in the eastern Cantabrian Region (Spain): direct evidence from stable isotope studies on ungulate bones

Environmental change has been proposed as a factor that contributed to the extinction of the Neanderthals in Europe during MIS3. Currently, the different local environmental conditions experienced at the time when Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH) met Neanderthals are not well known. In the Western Pyrenees, particularly, in the eastern end of the Cantabrian coast of the Iberian Peninsula, extensive evidence of Neanderthal and subsequent AMH activity exists, making it an ideal area in which to explore the palaeoenvironments experienced and resources exploited by both human species during the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition. Red deer and horse were analysed using bone collagen stable isotope analysis to reconstruct environmental conditions across the transition. A shift in the ecological niche of horses after the Mousterian demonstrates a change in environment, towards more open vegetation, linked to wider climatic change. In the Mousterian, Aurignacian and Gravettian, high inter-individual nitrogen ranges were observed in both herbivores. This could indicate that these individuals were procured from areas isotopically different in nitrogen. Differences in sulphur values between sites suggest some variability in the hunting locations exploited, reflecting the human use of different parts of the landscape. An alternative and complementary explanation proposed is that there were climatic fluctuations within the time of formation of these archaeological levels, as observed in pollen, marine and ice cores.

Deciphering archaeological palimpsests with bone micro-fragments from the Lower Magdalenian of El Mirón cave (Cantabria, Spain)

Abstract Modern excavation techniques aim accurately to recover extant archaeological data. Usually bone micro-fragments are gathered as a result, however, during archaeological analysis these remains are often set apart as indeterminate bones and generally do not contribute to the interpretation of the deposits. How to decipher archaeological palimpsests using these small bone fragments is the aim of this paper. El Mirón Cave, located in northern Iberia, contains a very rich Cantabrian Lower Magdalenian deposit (17–15 uncal ka BP) with high densities of faunal remains and artefacts. Here, we present zooarchaeological, taphonomic and spatial distribution analyses of macromammal finds, including those small bone fragments, accumulated during a series of intensive and repeated human occupations found in the outer vestibule excavation area. Our results show that a broad spectrum of activities was performed there, including meat, marrow and grease processing and waste abandonment. We propose that bone micro-fragments must be considered when addressing human subsistence reconstructions from animal remains, as they represent the leftovers of the chaîne opératoire of animal carcass exploitation. The archaeological implications of their inclusion are extremely valuable, especially when deciphering palimpsests. A multidisciplinary approach to study these small animal remains provides information that otherwise would be missed.

Disentangling faunal skeletal profiles. A new probabilistic framework

Abstract Faunal skeletal profiles from archaeological assemblages have been long analysed regarding differential transport of carcasses to infer hunting preferences, human mobility, or even dietary stress. However, the existence of several possible accumulating agents, together with the effect of bone attrition, is known to introduce a potential bias, thus hindering the possibilities of meaningful concussions. In order to overcome this problem, several methods were proposed during the late 90s and early 2000’s, although a consensus was not reached, mainly because the different approaches were based on a certain initial hypothesis that significantly affected the output. Building on that previous experience, a new methodological framework is proposed and compared here. Moving from rather deterministic techniques, a Bayesian alternative approach based on a Monte Carlo Markov Chain sampling is presented and applied to several ethnographic and Pleistocene key sites. This new method makes use of the available information to constrain the possible degrees of attrition and carcass processing strategies, leading to easily comparable results.

Late Pleistocene foot infection in Dama mesopotamica from Tabun B (Mount Carmel, Israel)

Tabun is one of the most important Palaeolithic sites in the near East, with levels dating from the Lower through to the Upper Palaeolithic. The faunal collection from Tabun Cave (Israel) was recovered by Dorothy Garrod during archaeological excavations carried out during the 1920-30s in Mount Carmel. Since then this collection has been housed at The Natural History Museum, London. In this brief communication, a frequently occurring pathology in the phalanges of fallow deer (Dama mesopotamica) from Level B is reported. The pathology consists of bone resorption on the cortex of the axial surface of the proximal phalanges, most likely as a result of a localized osteitis produced by an infection, initially on the hoof, and later on the phalanges and even metapodials. These pathologies were probably caused by bacterial infection, possibly linked to environmental and climatic conditions at the site.