6 research outputs found
Cueva de los Torrejones revisited. New insights on the paleoecology of inland Iberia during the Late Pleistocene
34 p.The interior of the Iberian Peninsula has orographic conditions that make this territory especially
vulnerable to Quaternary climate oscillations and which actually could have made it decisive for
Paleolithic human populations at critical points. For this reason, the information provided by paleontological
sites is important for reconstructing climatic and environmental conditions during the Late
Pleistocene and understanding how they influenced the species that inhabited them, including humans.
Nevertheless, the archaeo-paleontological record is scarce in central Iberia for the Late Pleistocene. A
central Iberian site that is key to addressing this issue is Cueva de los Torrejones, which was discovered
and excavated during the nineties. Clues indicating the presence of Neandertal populations near the cave
site were announced during prior field excavations, including Neandertal remains, Middle Paleolithic
artifacts, and evidence of anthropic exploitation of faunal resources at the site. Here we report the new
results from the recent excavations and research, including detailed studies on stratigraphy, micromorphology,
macro and microvertebrate paleontology, physical and molecular anthropology, taphonomy
and zooarchaeology, and analysis of lithic and pottery remains. Our research has led to the detection of
three Prehistoric chronologies recorded at the site. The oldest episode corresponds to between MIS 5 and
MIS 4 in which the cave was used by carnivores. The second episode is represented by a faunal association
dated to 30.0 ka cal BP and is indicative of cooler and more arid environmental conditions and,
therefore, compatible with the worsening climate detected previously for MIS 3 in this area. The last
episode corresponds to the Chalcolithic, directly dated to ~5000 cal BP in which humans used the cavity for funerary purposes. The DNA analysis of the human remain was assigned to mtDNA haplogroup K,
which was originated in the Near East and reached western Europe through the Neolithic expansion.
Human occupation during the Paleolithic has been ruled out, including Paleolithic human remains and
any kind of anthropic intervention on the Hermann’s tortoise and leopard as was previously proposed at
the site.European Research CouncilJunta de Comunidades de Castilla la
ManchaMinisterio de Ciencia e InnovaciónCentro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH
Lethal Interpersonal Violence in the Middle Pleistocene
Evidence of interpersonal violence has been documented previously in Pleistocene members of the genus Homo, but only very rarely has this been posited as the possible manner of death. Here we report the earliest evidence of lethal interpersonal violence in the hominin fossil record. Cranium 17 recovered from the Sima de los Huesos Middle Pleistocene site shows two clear perimortem depression fractures on the frontal bone, interpreted as being produced by two episodes of localized blunt force trauma. The type of injuries, their location, the strong similarity of the fractures in shape and size, and the different orientations and implied trajectories of the two fractures suggest they were produced with the same object in face-to-face interpersonal conflict. Given that either of the two traumatic events was likely lethal, the presence of multiple blows implies an intention to kill. This finding shows that the lethal interpersonal violence is an ancient human behavior and has important implications for the accumulation of bodies at the site, supporting an anthropic origin.This research was supported by the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad of the government of Spain (Project Nos. CGL2012-38434-C03-01, 02 & 03). CT scanning was carried out in collaboration with the Laboratorio de la Evolucion Humana at the Universidad de Burgos (Spain) with funding provided by the Junta de Castilla y Leon Project No. BU005A09. Fieldwork at the Atapuerca sites was funded by the Junta de Castilla y Leon and the Fundacion Atapuerca. N.S and A.P.P. have received postdoctoral and predoctoral respectively grants from the Fundacion Atapuerca. R.M.Q. has received financial support from Binghamton University (SUNY)