Under the Skin of a Lion: Unique Evidence of Upper Paleolithic Exploitation and Use of Cave Lion (Panthera spelaea) from the Lower Gallery of La Garma (Spain)

ABSTRACT: Pleistocene skinning and exploitation of carnivore furs have been previously inferred from archaeological evidence. Nevertheless, the evidence of skinning and fur processing tends to be weak and the interpretations are not strongly sustained by the archaeological record. In the present paper, we analyze unique evidence of patterned anthropic modification and skeletal representation of fossil remains of cave lion (Panthera spelaea) from the Lower Gallery of La Garma (Cantabria, Spain). This site is one of the few that provides Pleistocene examples of lion exploitation by humans. Our archaeozoological study suggests that lion-specialized pelt exploitation and use might have been related to ritual activities during the Middle Magdalenian period (ca. 14800 cal BC). Moreover, the specimens also represent the southernmost European and the latest evidence of cave lion exploitation in Iberia. Therefore, the study seeks to provide alternative explanations for lion extinction in Eurasia and argues for a role of hunting as a factor to take into account

Cronología y periodización de las sociedades naviformes de Formentera (Islas Baleares)

Trabajo presentado en el congreso Iber-Crono 2016 (Cronometrías para la historia de la Península Ibérica), celebrado en Barcelona del 17 al 19 de octubre de 2016.Peer reviewe

Evidencias arqueofaunísticas de origen marino en Cap de Barbaria II (Formentera, Islas Baleares) durante la Edad del Bronce

Trabajo presentado en la VI Reunión Científica de Arqueomalacología de la Península Ibérica, celebrada en Malloraca (España), del 7 al 9 de noviembre de 201

Radiocarbon

AbstractDuring the Middle Paleolithic period, carnivores and hominids periodically occupied the same areas at different times and each predator generated significant palimpsests, rendering difficult their archaeological interpretation. Teixoneres Cave, a carnivore den site, located in the northeastern part of the Iberian Peninsula, demonstrates that it is possible to overcome these problems by using a careful strategy in selecting samples for radiocarbon dating, in order to produce an accurate chronology of the site in question and certainly attest the human occupation

Surviving on the isle of Formentera (Balearic Islands): Adaptation of economic behaviour by Bronze Age first settlers to an extreme insular environment

The isle of Formentera (Balearic Archipelago, Spain) was one of the latest insular contexts to be colonized in the Mediterranean. The first settlement occurred during the second millennium cal BCE, and this late human occupation is associated with insularity factors, including an extreme environment. Cap de Barbaria II is one of the biggest open-air naviform villages occupied during the first prehistoric settlement and for an extended period (ca. 1600–850 cal BCE). Multidisciplinary archaeological research conducted within the site reveals adaptation of the economic behaviour of these first settlers to an environment poor in resources. In this sense, aspects such as innovation, diversification, and intensification in the use of resources characterized the subsistence and technological patterns developed by the prehistoric inhabitants of Formentera. New data from different archaeological and paleoenvironmental studies, such as archaeobotanical, archaeozoological, or technological and functional, have been analyzed. In this sense, the assessed subsistence patterns, reveal adaptive strategies that encompass different local and exogenous resources and differ from those observed in the rest of the Balearic Islands.This paper was developed under the scientific objectives and funding of different research projects: HAR2015-67211-P; HAR2012-32602; HAR2011-29907-C03-03/HIST sponsored by the MINECO and MICINN (Spain). PS and EC had been funded by an FI grant (AGAUR-Catalonian Government); LPG by a BP Fellowship (BP A_00216) and the HAR2012-32602 project; JR is a beneficiary of FPU predoctoral grant sponsored by MECD (Spain) and MB received funding by Consell Insular de Formentera. Thanks to IMF-CSIC and LitoCAT (Barcelona) and IH·CSIC MicroLab and bioarchaeology group (Madrid) their support and infrastructural facilities during the lithic use-wear, starch grain and archaeometallurgical analysis.Peer Reviewe

Short-term Neanderthal occupations and carnivores in the North-East of Iberian Peninsula

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