Use and selection of bone fragments in the north of the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Palaeolithic: bone retoucher
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Use and selection of bone fragments in the north of the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Palaeolithic: bone retouchers from level 4 of Prado Vargas (Burgos, Spain) Pedro Alonso-García 1
&
Marta Navazo Ruiz 1
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Ruth Blasco 2
Received: 19 July 2019 / Accepted: 29 May 2020 / Published online: 21 August 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Bone specimens showing a large amount of markings that include scratching, cutting, and fracture provide us with a clear idea of the use of animals from an archaeological site for butchery-related work. Nevertheless, there is one type of damage that stands out from the rest—the stigmas associated with retouch work. There is a great deal of evidence concerning the use of bones by Neanderthal groups as retouchers. In particular, we present a sample of 65 retouchers from the level 4 of Prado Vargas (Burgos, Spain). This level has yielded an important assemblage of retouchers; however, very few retouched tools have been retrieved, a fact that has led us to consider their peculiarity. Through this investigation, we seek to explore the question as to how the inhabitants of Prado Vargas used bone retouchers during the Middle Palaeolithic. Keywords Middle Palaeolithic . Bone retouchers . Bone tools . Iberian Peninsula . Prado Vargas
Introduction Researchers have for quite some time been recovering bone fragments that were of special interest and markings that neither correspond to the processing of food nor to intervention by animals. These fragments were later identified as a new type of tool, referred to as “bone retouchers”, bone fragments with anthropic marks on their cortical surface, due to have been used for retouching lithic industry. Patou-Mathis and Schwab (2002) defined bone retouchers as “fragments of teeth, long bones, phalanges or ribs of big mammals, which present on their exteriors one or more impressed areas, related to crushing marks, and/or cupules, and/or striations, made by impact against a sharp and hard artefact”. Even thinking that these bones were mainly for retouching labour, some authors have distinguished bone retouchers from compressors, those * Pedro Alonso-García [email protected] 1
Facultad de Humanidades y Comunicación, Departamento de Historia, Geografía y Comunicación, Área de prehistoria, Universidad de Burgos, Calle Paseo de los Comendadores S/N, Burgos 09001, Spain
2
Centro Nacional de Investigación Sobre La Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Paseo Sierra de Atapuerca 3, Burgos 09002, Spain
related strictly with pressure work (Mortillet and Mortillet 1910), anvils, distinguished as they do not present uniform spread (Baudoin 1907; Feustel 1973; David and Pelegrin (2009), or soft percussors, to extract flakes from cores (Semenov 1981; LeroyProst in Patou-Mathis 2002; Martínez-Moreno, 2006). We need to go back to the early twentieth century, in order to find the first examples of research into bone retouchers when Siret (1925) undertook the first study into such remains at the La Quina site in Fr
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