An instance of Neanderthal mobility dynamics: a lithological approach to the flint assemblage from stratigraphic unit VIII of El Salt rockshelter (Alcoi, eastern Iberia)

The relationship between hunter-gatherer group mobility and lithic raw material procurement strategies is central to the study of Neanderthal productive behaviours. In this framework, determination of flint procurement sources through lithological analysis is key to infer Neanderthal group mobility patterns. El Salt rockshelter (Alcoi, Alacant, eastern Iberia) features different nearby flint sources, including primary outcrops and secondary deposits containing flint. In this study, we sourced the stratigraphic unit viii archaeological flint assemblage based on identification of geogenic and postgenetic lithological traits. Our results indicate that flint procurement at El Salt during the stratigraphic unit viii Neanderthal occupations was mainly linked to Pleistocene secondary deposits along the upper and middle courses of Serpis river. The artefacts were made predominantly on alluvially reworked nodules of different flint types. Connecting these procurement areas with their corresponding knapping products reveals a direct relationship between flint-source distance and degree of technical intervention, and defines a hypothetically unidirectional series of rivershore itineraries of procurement.This work has been accomplished during the valid period of the research project titled Clima e interacciones humanas en el Mediterráneo central ibérico durante el MIS 4 (IBEMIS4), granted by the Spanish central government (PID2019-107113RB-I00). The first author (AM) is funded by Universitat d’Alacant through a university faculty formation grant (UAFPU2018-049). The second (SSR) and the fourth (LP) are funded by the Valencian autonomous government through a predoctoral research-staff contracting grant (ACIF/2021/407) and a postdoctoral research-staff contracting grant (APOSTD/2020/202), respectively

Multidisciplinary evidence of an isolated Neanderthal occupation in Abric del Pastor (Alcoi, Iberian Peninsula)

Testing Neanderthal behavioural hypotheses requires a spatial–temporal resolution to the level of a human single occupation episode. Yet, most of the behavioural data on Neanderthals has been obtained from coarsely dated, time-averaged contexts affected by the archaeological palimpsest effect and a diversity of postdepositional processes. This implies that time-resolved Neanderthal behaviour remains largely unknown. In this study, we performed archaeostratigraphic analysis on stratigraphic units ive, ivf, ivg, va, vb and vc from Abric del Pastor (Alcoi, Iberian Peninsula). Further, we isolated the archaeological remains associated with the resulting archaeostratigraphic unit and applied raw material, technological, use-wear, archaeozoological and spatial analyses. Our results show a low-density accumulation of remains from flintknapping, flint tool-use and animal processing around a hearth. These data provide a time-resolved human dimension to previous high-resolution environmental and pyrotechnological data on the same hearth, representing the first comprehensive characterisation of a Neanderthal single occupation episode. Our integrated, multidisciplinary method also contributes to advance our understanding of archaeological record formation processes.This paper has been developed during the research project Clima e interacciones humanas en el Mediterráneo central ibérico durante el MIS 4 (IBEMIS4) funded by the Spanish Government (PID2019-107113RB-I00). This paper is part of SSR’s PhD thesis and all authors agree. Several authors developed their work within different research groups/projects/contrats: SSR by the Generalitat Valenciana through a predoctoral research-staff contracting Grant (ACIF/2021/407); AM by Universitat d’Alacant through a university faculty formation Grant (UAFPU2018-049); MB by the Spanish central government through a university faculty formation Grant (FPU17/02885); LP is beneficiary on postdoctoral research Grant (APOSTD/2020/202) funded by the Generalitat Valenciana and European Social Fund. CMH, BG and CM are part of the research group SCRP (Sociedades cazadoras recolectoras paleolíticas), MB and LP are part of the research group PREMEDOC (GIUV2015-213), CM is part of the research group MBA (Micromorfología y Biomarcadores arqueológicos), and MV is a part of the ‘Neanderthal behaviour and paleoecology in Mediterranean ecosystems’ project (PID2019-103987GB-C31)

Use-wear analysis applied in a dissected palimpsest at the Middle Palaeolithic site of El Salt (eastern Iberia): working with lithic tools in a narrow timescale

Los análisis de uso-desgaste son muy útiles para aumentar el conocimiento sobre las dinámicas económicas y de subsistencia llevadas a cabo por los neandertales. En términos generales, los resultados funcionales provienen tradicionalmente del análisis de herramientas pertenecientes a unidades estratigráficas cuya escala temporal se refiere al tiempo geológico. Esto se debe a que muchos yacimientos neandertales son palimpsestos de ocupaciones reiteradas a lo largo del tiempo, que deben ser diseccionadas para acercarnos a la escala temporal humana. En la unidad estratigráfica Xa de El Salt (Alcoi, este de Iberia) se han llevado a cabo estudios arqueoestratigráficos de alta resolución temporal. Se han identificado conjuntos de materiales diacrónicos, lo que nos permite analizar con mayor precisión la variabilidad del comportamiento de los neandertales a lo largo del tiempo. Entre estos conjuntos, se han seleccionado tres (i.e. 5.3.1, 5.3.2 y 5.3.3) para analizar la funcionalidad del material lítico. Los resultados obtenidos ponen de manifiesto la realización de diferentes tareas dentro de cada marco analítico: carpintería en 5.3.1, carpintería y procesamiento de animales en 5.3.2 y actividad de matanza en 5.3.3. Estos resultados reflejan la existencia de una serie de tareas diacrónicas realizadas en áreas de actividad superpuestas. De esta manera, este trabajo evidencia la variabilidad en el uso del pedernal en un área específica del sitio a lo largo del tiempo que podría haber sido reconocida solo por medio de marcos analíticos de alta resolución temporal.Use-wear analyses are very useful to increase knowledge about the economic and subsistence dynamics carried out by Neanderthals. In general terms, functional results traditionally came from the analysis of tools belonging to stratigraphic units whose timescale refers to geological time. This is due to the fact that many Neanderthal sites are palimpsests of reiterated occupations over time, which must be dissected to approach us to human timescale. In the stratigraphic unit Xa of El Salt (Alcoi, eastern Iberia), high temporal resolution archaeostratigraphic studies have been carried out. Diachronic material assemblages have been identified, allowing us to analyse more precisely the variability of Neanderthal behaviour over time. Amongst these assemblages, three have been selected (i.e. 5.3.1, 5.3.2 and 5.3.3) in order to analyse the lithic material functionality. The results obtained bring out the performance of different tasks within each analytical framework: woodworking in 5.3.1, woodworking and animal processing in 5.3.2, and butchering activity in 5.3.3. These results reflect the existence of a series of diachronic tasks carried out in overlapping activity areas. In this way, this work evidences flint use variability in a specific area of the site across time that could have been recognised only by means of high temporal resolution analytical frameworks

Micro-contextual identification of archaeological lipid biomarkers using resin-impregnated sediment slabs

Characterizing organic matter preserved in archaeological sediment is crucial to behavioral and paleoenvironmental investigations. This task becomes particularly challenging when considering microstratigraphic complexity. Most of the current analytical methods rely on loose sediment samples lacking spatial and temporal resolution at a microstratigraphic scale, adding uncertainty to the results. Here, we explore the potential of targeted molecular and isotopic biomarker analysis on polyester resin-impregnated sediment slabs from archaeological micromorphology, a technique that provides microstratigraphic control. We performed gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and gas chromatography-isotope ratio mass spectromety (GC-IRMS) analyses on a set of samples including drill dust from resin-impregnated experimental and archaeological samples, loose samples from the same locations and resin control samples to assess the degree of interference of polyester resin in the GC-MS and Carbon-IRMS signals of different lipid fractions (n-alkanes, aromatics, n-ketones, alcohols, fatty acids and other high polarity lipids). The results show that biomarkers within the n-alkane, aromatic, n-ketone, and alcohol fractions can be identified. Further work is needed to expand the range of identifiable lipid biomarkers. This study represents the first micro-contextual approach to archaeological lipid biomarkers and contributes to the advance of archaeological science by adding a new method to obtain behavioral or paleoenvironmental proxies.This study has been funded by an ERC-Paleochar Consolidator Grant Project (ERC-2014-CoG-648871-PALEOCHAR). Archaeological research at El Salt is currently funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Project PID2019-107113RB-I00) and was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (Project HAR2015-68321-P) when sampling for this study took place. Additional financial support for El Salt fieldwork is from the Cultural Heritage Department of the Valencia Government and the Archaeological Museum Camil Visedo Moltó of Alcoy. Research at the Axlor site is funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Project PID2019-107260GB-I00, PID2019-107113RB-I00). Research at Crvena Stijena is funded by the Montenegrin Ministry of Culture, the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences, the United States National Science Foundation (NSF-BCS 1758285), and the University of Minnesota’s Office of the Vice President of Research Grant-in-Aid program. Research at Cape Esperberg is funded by a collaborative grant from the US National Science Foundation (ARC-1523160, ARC-1523205, ARC-1523059, ARC-1523079) and from the Archeology Commission of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Recycling and Implications for Neanderthal Productive Strategies in the Stratigraphic Unit viii of the El Salt Rockshelter (Alcoi, Eastern Iberia)

Recycling was an activity carried out by ancient hunter-gatherer populations. It has been demonstrated by many studies on this matter. However, there are main issues in relation to it that are still under debate: what we call recycling, how we identify it, and what implications it has for the technoeconomic dynamics of these groups. In order to contribute to this topic, we present here the Neandertal flint materials from the stratigraphic unit viii of the El Salt rockshelter (Alcoi, Alacant, eastern Iberia). We have selected a series of artifacts exhibiting time-dependent postgenetic alterations (i.e. white patinas and thermal alteration) that affect previous technical intervention and, additionally, display subsequent anthropogenic actions that reveal an intermediate stage between the initial and the second use. The data obtained point to a principal relationship of recycling with mobility dynamics, and entail implications for Neandertal lithic technology and provisioning.This work was supported by Universitat d’Alacant [grant number UAFPU2018-049]; Institut Alacantí de Cultura Juan Gil-Albert [grant number 614303]; the Valencian Autonomous Government [grant number ACIF/2021/407]; the Spanish Central Government [grant number PID2022-138590NB-C41]; and Universidad de La Laguna [grant number 2022/20262]