Manuel Ramón González Morales

The genetic history of Ice Age Europe

Modern humans arrived in Europe ~45,000 years ago, but little is known about their genetic composition before the start of farming ~8,500 years ago. We analyze genome-wide data from 51 Eurasians from ~45,000-7,000 years ago. Over this time, the proportion of Neanderthal DNA decreased from 3–6% to around 2%, consistent with natural selection against Neanderthal variants in modern humans. Whereas the earliest modern humans in Europe did not contribute substantially to present-day Europeans, all individuals between ~37,000 and ~14,000 years ago descended from a single founder population which forms part of the ancestry of present-day Europeans. A ~35,000 year old individual from northwest Europe represents an early branch of this founder population which was then displaced across a broad region, before reappearing in southwest Europe during the Ice Age ~19,000 years ago. During the major warming period after ~14,000 years ago, a new genetic component related to present-day Near Easterners appears in Europe. These results document how population turnover and migration have been recurring themes of European pre-history.

EL MIRÓN CAVE AND THE 14 C CHRONOLOGY OF CANTABRIAN SPAIN

Excavations since 1996 in the large El Miron Cave in the Cantabrian Cordillera of northern Spain have revealed a cultural sequence of late Mousterian, early Upper Paleolithic, Solutrean, Magdalenian, Azilian, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze Age, and Medieval occupations. These components have been dated by 51 generally coherent radiocarbon determinations, all run by the Geochron labs, in association with the Lawrence Livermore labs for AMS. This series is one of the largest for a single prehistoric site in Iberia or even Europe. The series is consistent with the record from Cantabrian Spain and provides new detail on the age of the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition, on the various phases of the Magdalenian culture, on the appearance of the Neolithic in the Atlantic zone of Spain, and on the origins of the socioeconomic complexity in the metal ages. The stratigraphic relationship of (super 14) C-dated levels to a roof-fall block and adjacent cave walls (both with engravings) provides rare terminus post and ante quem ages for execution of the rupestral art in El Miron during the early to mid Magdalenian. The (super 14) C record has also been instrumental in revealing the existence of depositional hiati during the early Holocene.

The Pleistocene/Holocene transition in the Iberian Peninsula: Continuity and change in human adaptations

Abstract Data obtained from recent excavations (as well as from selected older excavations) are used to outline the principal environmental, technological and economic aspects of the Pleistocene–Holocene transition in three distinct regions of the Iberian Peninsula: Portugal, Cantabrian and Mediterranean Spain. The period covered extends from the terminal Paleolithic Magdalenian period to the initial Neolithic. Despite proximity to SW France and many similarities with that classic prehistoric culture area in terms of artistic/symbolic expression and technology, the Iberian regions show significant differences, especially in terms of subsistence strategies and their development during the Tardiglacial. While there are striking similarities among the three regions with respect to overall patterns of changes in technology, art and subsistence, there are interesting differences of detail, probably linked to environmental differences among these distinctive coastal zones. Changes in artistic activity are also examined, including the disappearance of cave art and the development of geometric motifs in mobile art in Cantabria, as well as a reinterpretation of Levantine art.

Extraordinary Early Magdalenian finds from El Mirón Cave, Cantabria (Spain)

Abstract The authors describe three splendid and newly discovered objects from the Upper Palaeolithic in northern Spain: an engraved scapula, a possible spearthrower and a decorated stone pendant. As well as adding to the corpus of iconic artefacts from the period, these new finds have the special virtue of being meticulously excavated and recorded in context.

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.

FURTHER RADIOCARBON DATES FOR THE UPPER PALEOLITHIC OF EL MIRÓN CAVE (RAMALES DE LA VICTORIA, CANTABRIA, SPAIN)

This article expands the date list from the Stone Age cave site of El Mirn in the Cantabrian Cordillera of northern Spain to a total of 62 radiocarbon determinations, one of the longest series from a single prehistoric site in Iberia. All the assays (accelerator mass spectrometry [AMS] and conventional, run on charcoal and bone collagen) were done by a single laboratory (Geochron, GX). The 11 new dates confirm 1) the late spread of Neolithic economy and technology into the Atlantic environment of Cantabrian Spain by about 4500 cal BC; 2) the horizontally extensive, but not intensive, use of the whole cave vestibule by Upper Magdalenian foragers about 12,00014,000 cal BC; 3) extensive and very intensive, repeated occupations of the cave during the Middle and Lower Cantabrian Magdalenian about 14,20017,000 cal BC; and 4) a long, gradual technological transition from the Solutrean to the Archaic Magdalenian between about 20,00017,000 cal BC. El Mirn joins a list of culturally very rich, frequently occupied, Lower Magdalenian residential hub sitesmost of the rest of which (including Altamira) are located in the coastal lowlands of Cantabriawhich have yielded distinctive red deer scapulae that are decorated with striated engraved images of game animals (mainly red deer hinds), now most precisely dated at El Mirn between 16,20017,200 cal BC.

Lower Magdalenian secondary human burial in El Mirón Cave, Cantabria, Spain

The authors describe the discovery of the first human burial of Magdalenian age to be found in the Iberian Peninsula—the partial skeleton of a young adult whose bones were stained with red ochre. The burial was well stratified in a sequence at the vestibule rear running from the Mousterian to the Mesolithic, and was adjacent to a large block that had fallen from the cave roof and been subsequently engraved. A preliminary AMS radiocarbon date on associated faunal remains from the ochre-stained, galena speckled burial layer yielded a date of 15700 BP, while a hearth directly above the burial is dated to 15 100 BP, placing the interment of this individual in the Lower Cantabrian Magdalenian, the period of most intensive human occupation of El Mirón Cave during the Upper Palaeolithic.

THE RADIOCARBON CHRONOLOGY OF EL MIRÓN CAVE (CANTABRIA, SPAIN): NEW DATES FOR THE INITIAL MAGDALENIAN OCCUPATIONS

Three additional radiocarbon assays were run on samples from 3 levels lying below the classic (?15,500 BP) Lower Cantabrian Magdalenian horizon in the outer vestibule excavation area of El Mir?n Cave in the Cantabrian Cordillera of northern Spain. Although the central tendencies of the new dates are out of stratigraphic order, they are consonant with the post-Solutrean, Initial Magdalenian period both in El Mir?n and in the Cantabrian region, indicating a technological transition in preferred weaponry from foliate and shouldered points to microliths and antler sagaies between about 17,000?16,000 BP (uncalibrated), during the early part of the Oldest Dryas pollen zone. Now with 65 14C dates, El Mir?n is one of the most thoroughly dated prehistoric sites in western Europe. The until-now poorly dated, but very distinctive Initial Cantabrian Magdalenian lithic artifact assemblages are briefly summarized.

Early Magdalenian Variability: New Evidence from El Mirón Cave, Cantabria, Spain

Abstract One of the most important and longstanding debates in Paleolithic prehistory is over the significance of interassemblage variability. The problem of variability among artifact assemblages pertaining to the Lower Cantabrian Magdalenian phenomenon (ca. 16,000–14,000 uncalibrated years B.P.) is much like the Mousterian facies question, but with far less international attention. Are the different assemblage types temporal, stylistic, or functional in nature, or are they merely products of the vagaries of archaeological sampling? Ongoing excavations in separate areas of the large El Mirón Cave in the Cantabrian Cordillera are yielding the same range of assemblage variability demonstrated for classic lowland coastal zone sites such as Altamira and El Juyo. Here we present a preliminary comparative analysis of the extraordinarily rich and diverse Lower Magdalenian (and Initial Magdalenian, ca. 17,000–16,000 uncalibrated years B.P.) contents of a sondage excavated in the center of the El Mirón vestibule and contribute to the empirical basis for the debate regarding the existence and significance of cultural facies versus temporal phases. We also briefly summarize post-Magdalenian data from the larger area of the mid-vestibule trench in El Mirón, highlighting evidence for the abrupt appearance of a fully-formed Neolithic lifeway at ca. 4500 CAL B.P., the earliest yet found in northern Atlantic Spain.

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.