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A High Temporal Resolution Zooarchaeological Approach to Neanderthal Subsistence Strategies on the Southeastern Iberian Peninsula: El Salt Stratigraphic Unit Xa (Alicante, Spain)

  • Chapter
Short-Term Occupations in Paleolithic Archaeology

Part of the book series: Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology ((IDCA))

Abstract

Analyses devoted to palimpsest dissection and archaeological assemblage formation are currently topics of growing interest in Palaeolithic research. For many researchers, it is becoming increasingly clear that the temporal dimension of archaeo-sedimentary deposits should not be overlooked, because approaches based on the analysis of diachronically deposited assemblages impede accurate behavioural interpretations. In this work, we present the results of the zooarchaeological and taphonomic analyses of faunal remains from several high-resolution analytical contexts defined by archaeostratigraphic techniques in Stratigraphic Unit Xa from the Middle Palaeolithic site of El Salt. Our main goal is to identify behavioural tendencies related to the treatment of animal resources at a temporal scale of analysis as close as possible to ‘ethnographic time’. The behavioural, spatial and temporal information resulting from this study and from previous works based on the lithic record is discussed in order to investigate the settlement dynamics of Neanderthal groups in the highlands of Alicante (southeastern Iberian Peninsula) during the MIS 3.

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Acknowledgements

Archaeological research at the site of El Salt is funded by the Spanish Government project Neandertales en la Montaña Alicantina. Un enfoque multianalítico (HAR2015-68321-P), Direcció General de Cultura (Consellería de Educació, Cultura i Esports. Generalitat Valenciana) and Municipal Archaeological Museum Camil Visedo (Alcoy, Alicante, Spain). This paper has also been realized with the financial support of the Generalitat de Catalunya, AGAUR agency, 2017 SGR 836 Research Group. Leopoldo Pérez is beneficiary of a FPU (FPU.13/01885) Spanish Government grant of Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport (MECD). We also thank the anonymous reviewers who helped improve the earlier versions of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IPHES, Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, Tarragona, Spain

    Leopoldo Pérez

  2. Àrea de Prehistoria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Tarragona, Spain

    Leopoldo Pérez

  3. Palaeolithic Hunter-Gatherer Societies Research Group, Universidad de La Laguna, Departamento de Geografía e Historia, Tenerife, Spain

    Leopoldo Pérez, Jorge Machado, Cristo M. Hernández, Carolina Mallol & Bertila Galván

  4. Museu de Prehistòria de València, Servei de Investigació Prehistòrica, Diputació de València, València, Spain

    Alfred Sanchis

  5. U.D.I. de Prehistoria, Arqueología e Hª Antigua (Dpto. Geografía e Historia), Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain

    Cristo M. Hernández, Carolina Mallol & Bertila Galván

  6. Archaeological Micromorphology and Biomarkers (AMBI Lab), Instituto Universitario de Bio-Orgánica Antonio González, Tenerife, Spain

    Carolina Mallol

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  1. Leopoldo Pérez
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  5. Carolina Mallol
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Correspondence to Leopoldo Pérez .

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  1. ICArEHB, University of Algarve, Faro, Portugal

    João Cascalheira

  2. Department of Human Evolution, Max Plank Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany

    Andrea Picin

Appendices

Appendix A

Table 8 Number of remains (NR/NISP) in Stratigraphic Unit Xa. The fragments ascribed to the archaeostratigraphic units of this paper are not being counted
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Appendix B

Table 9 Minimal number of elements (MNE) by associated taxa and weight-size in each archaeostratigraphic unit. Similar taxa have been associated to facilitate their analysis
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Appendix C

Table 10 %MAU by weight-size and anatomical element by archaeostratigraphic unit
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Appendix D

Table 11 Quantity of remains anatomically determined with cut marks (slicing and scraping) by AU, anatomical element and weight-size, according to several characteristics: location of the mark (1 = proximal part of diaphysis; 2 = middle part of diaphysis; d = dorsal; l = lateral; m = medial; palmar), morphology, distribution, direction (lg = longitudinal; ob = oblique; tr = transversal), intensity and quantity. Type of cut mark (Sl = slicing mark; Sc = scraping mark) and possible butchery activity (Da = disarticulation; Df = defleshing; Ev = evisceration; Pr = periosteum removal; Sk = skinning) are indicated in the last two columns
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Appendix E

Table 12a Quantity of remains anatomically determined with percussion marks by AU, anatomical element and weight-size according to several characteristics: origin, possible agent, location of the mark (1 = proximal part of diaphysis; 2 = middle part of diaphysis; d = dorsal; l = lateral; m = medial; palmar), morphology, distribution, direction (lg = longitudinal; ob = oblique; tr = transversal), intensity and quantity
Full size table
Table 12b Quantity of remains anatomically determined with percussion marks by AU, anatomical element and weight-size according to several characteristics: origin, possible agent, location of the mark (1 = proximal part of diaphysis; 2 = middle part of diaphysis; d = dorsal; l = lateral; m = medial; palmar), morphology, distribution, direction (lg = longitudinal; ob = oblique; tr = transversal), intensity and quantity
Full size table

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Pérez, L., Machado, J., Sanchis, A., Hernández, C.M., Mallol, C., Galván, B. (2020). A High Temporal Resolution Zooarchaeological Approach to Neanderthal Subsistence Strategies on the Southeastern Iberian Peninsula: El Salt Stratigraphic Unit Xa (Alicante, Spain). In: Cascalheira, J., Picin, A. (eds) Short-Term Occupations in Paleolithic Archaeology. Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27403-0_10

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