The Middle Pleistocene site of Torralba (Soria, Spain): a taphonomic view of the Marquis of Cerralbo and Howell faunal c
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ORIGINAL PAPER
The Middle Pleistocene site of Torralba (Soria, Spain): a taphonomic view of the Marquis of Cerralbo and Howell faunal collections Antonio Pineda 1,2
&
Palmira Saladié 1,2,3,4
Received: 11 February 2018 / Accepted: 23 August 2018 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2018
Abstract Since the first excavation work carried out by Cerralbo (1909–1913) at Torralba, the site has become a reference point for the study of the earliest settlers of the Iberian Peninsula, as well as for the evaluation of the hunting and cognitive abilities of Lower Paleolithic hominins. At Torralba, the abundance of elephant has directed the debate toward the link between these carcasses and human groups. However, the faunal record of Torralba is broader and includes greater species diversity. This work describes a taphonomic review of the macrofaunal materials from the classic excavations (Cerralbo, 1909–1913; Howell, 1961–1963) housed in the Museo Numantino de Soria, the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales of Madrid, and the Museo Arqueológico Nacional of Madrid. Our results show that other taxa, such as horse and bovid, are also represented. Evidence of anthropic activity on the bones is scarce. Carnivore activity is documented mainly in the form of tooth marks. There is no evidence of the co-occurrence of both agents on the same carcasses. The deposits are identified as spatial palimpsest, in which various independent events of different natures and characteristics in terms of ecological composition are recorded in the same place, one on top of the other. Middle Pleistocene hominins were clearly adapted to environments with an abundance of resources throughout the Lower Paleolithic on the Iberian Peninsula. Keywords Competition dynamics . Iberian Peninsula . Lower Paleolithic . Paleoecology . Zooarcheology
Introduction Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-018-0686-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Antonio Pineda [email protected]; [email protected] Palmira Saladié [email protected] 1
IPHES, Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution), Zona Educacional 4, Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3), 43700 Tarragona, Spain
2
Àrea de Prehistòria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Campus Catalunya, Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002 Tarragona, Spain
3
GQP-CG, Grupo Quaternário e Pré-História do Centro de Geociências (uI&D 73 – FCT), Maçao, Portugal
4
Unit associated with CSIC, Departamento de Paleobiología, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (MNCN), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Calle José Gutiérrez Abascal, 2, 28006 Madrid, Spain
The Torralba and Ambrona deposits, discovered in 1888 by Enrique de Aguilera y Gamboa, XVII Marquis of Cerralbo, placed the Lower Paleolithic of the Iberian Peninsula at the center of research during the twentieth century (e.g., Aguilera y Gamboa 1913; Howell et
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