Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-jr42d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T09:28:41.342Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Differential Raw Material Use in the Middle Pleistocene of Spain: Evidence from Sierra de Atapuerca, Torralba, Ambrona and Aridos

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2008

Marina Mosquera Martinez
Marina Mosquera Martinez
Affiliation:
Institut Universitari d'Arqueologia i Estudis del Món Antic Universitat Rovira i Virgilic. Comte de Rius, 2 43003 TarragonaSpain
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This article reviews the evidence for planning behaviour in Middle Pleistocene hominids. It documents the way in which raw material procurement and tool production were structured during the Middle Pleistocene occupations of the Spanish sites of Sierra de Atapuerca, Torralba, Ambrona and Aridos. Differences in the use of raw materials for different kinds of tool or end-product allow inferences to be drawn about pre-Neanderthal intentionality and cognitive ability. The overall pattern of technological behaviour demonstrated by this study is far removed from the purely ‘opportunistic’ and can reasonably be described as involving both forethought and planning. The work is presented from a techno-economic perspective based on the differential use of raw material types present in the lithic assemblages of these sites, and the proximity of sources of these raw materials in the surrounding landscape.

Type
Articles
Information
Cambridge Archaeological Journal , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , April 1998 , pp. 15 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aguirre, E., 1992. Atapuerca: land change, caves and humans over Middle Pleistocene. Journal of Human Ecology 2/3, 227–70.Google Scholar
Aguirre, E., Arsuaga, J.L., Bermúdez de Castro, J.M., Carbonell, E., Ceballos, M., Díez, C., Enamorado, J., Fernández-Jalvo, Y., Gil, E., Gracia, A., Martín Nájera, A., Martínez, I., Morales, J., Ortega, A., Rosas, A., Sánchez, A., Sesé, C., Soto, E. & Torres, T.J., 1990. The Atapuerca sites and the Ibeas hominids. Human Evolution 5(1), 55–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Apellániz, J.M. & Uribarri, J., 1976. El santuario de la Galeía del Sílex. Estudios sobre Atapuerca (Burgos) I. Cuadernos de Arqueología de Deusto 5.Google Scholar
Apellániz, J.M. & Domingo Mena, S., 1987. Los materiales de superficie del santuario de la Galería del Sílex. Estudios sobre Atapuerca (Burgos) II. Cuadernos deArqueologia de Deusto 10,1–278.Google Scholar
Arsuaga, J.L., Martínez, I., Gracia, A., Carretero, J.M. & Carbonell, E., 1993. Three new human skulls from the Sima de los Huesos Middle Pleistocene site in Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain. Nature 362,534–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bailey, G.N. & Callow, P. (eds.), 1986. Stone Age Prehistory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bermúdez de Castro, J.M., 1993. The Atapuerca dental remains. New evidence 1987–1991: excavations and interpretations, journal of Human Evolution 24, 339–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bermúdez de Castro, J.M. & Díez, J.C., 1995. Middle Pleistocene mortality pattern and fertility: the Atapuerca hominids (Sima de los Huesos site, Burgos, Spain). Revista Espaňola de Paleontología 10(2),259–72.Google Scholar
Bermúdez de Castro, J.M., Arsuaga, J.L. & Carbonell, E. (eds.), 1995. Human Evolution in Europe and the Atapuerca Evidence [Evolución Humana en Europa y los Yacimientos de la Sierra de Atapuerca]. Valladolid: Junta de Castilla y León.Google ScholarPubMed
Bermúdez de Castro, J.M., Arsuaga, J.L., Carbonell, E., Rosas, A., Martínez, I. & Mosquera, M., 1997. A hominid from the Lower Pleistocene of Atapuerca, Spain: possible ancestor to Neandertals and modern humans. Science 276,1392–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beyries, S., 1987. Variabilité de l'industrie lithique au Mousterien: Approche fonctionelle sur quelques gisements francais. (British Archaeological Series 328.) Oxford: BAR.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Binford, L.R., 1987. Were there elephant hunters at Torralba?, in Nitecki & Nitecki (eds.), 47–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Binford, J.L., 1989. Isolating the transition to cultural adaptations: an organizational approach, in The Emergence of Modern Humans, ed. Trinkaus, E.. Cambridge: S.A.R., 18–41.Google Scholar
Butzer, K.W., 1965. Aheulean occupations sites at Torralba and Ambrona, Spain: their geology. Science 150,1718–22.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Byers, A., 1994. Symbolling the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic transition: a theoretical and methodological approach. Current Anthropology 35(4), 368–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carbonell, E. & Rodríguez, X.P., 1994. Early Middle Pleistocene deposits and artefacts in the Gran Dolinasite (TD4) of the Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain). Journal of Human Evolution 26, 291–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carbonell, E., Mosquera, M., Ollé, A., Rodríguez, X.P., Sala, R., Vaquero, M. & Vergès, M., 1992. New elements of the logical analytic system. First international meeting on technical systems to configure lithic objects of scarce elaboration (Montblanc, 1992). CahierNoir 6.Google Scholar
Carbonell, E., Bermúdez de Castro, J.M., Arsuaga, J.L., Díez, C., Rosas, A., Cuenca-Bescós, G., Sala, R., Mosquera, M. & Rodríguez, X.P., 1995a. Lower Pleistocene hominids and artefacts from Atapuerca-TD6(Spain). Science 269, 826–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carbonell, E., Rodríguez, X.P., Giralt, S., Mosquera, M., Ollé, A., Sala, R., Vaquero, M. & Vergès, J.M., 1995b. The litho-technical assemblage of the Sierra de Atapuerca in the frame of the Iberian Middle Pleistocene, in Bermúdez de Castro et al. (eds.), 445–55.Google Scholar
Carbonell, E., Márquez, B., Mosquera, M., Ollè, A., Rodríguez, X.P., Sala, R., Vaquero, M. & Vergès, J.M., 1995c. Atapuerca Trinchera Galería (Spain): strategies and operational models of lithic industry. Cahier noir 7,41–83.Google Scholar
Cerralbo, M. de., 1913. Torralba, le plus ancienne station humaine de l'Europe? Actes du XlVe Congres Internat. d'Anthropologie (1912), 277–90.Google Scholar
Chase, P. & Dibble, H., 1987. Middle Palaeolithic symbolism: a review of current evidence and interpretations. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 6, 263–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davidson, I., 1991. The archaeology of language origins: a review. Antiquity 65, 39–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davidson, I. & Noble, W., 1993. Tools and language in human evolution, in Gibson & Ingold (eds.), 363–88.Google Scholar
Delagnes, A., 1992. L'Organisation de la Production Lithique au Paléolithique Moyen. Approche Technologique à partir de l'Etude des Industries de la Chaise-de-Vouthon (Charente). Unpublished Doctoral Thesis, Laboratorie de prehistoric et technologie comparée (ERA 28).Google Scholar
Delagnes, A., 1995. Faible élaboration technique et complexité conceptuelle: deux notions complémentaires. Cahier Noir7, 7 101–10.Google Scholar
D'Errico, F., 1987. Technologie et fonction du burin de Ripabianca dans le cadre culturel du Neolithique ancien de l'Italie septentrionale. L'Anthropologie 91(2), 411–32.Google Scholar
Dibble, H., 1989. The implications of stone tool types for the presence of language during the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic, in The Human Revolution, eds. Mellars, P. & C, Stringer. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 415–31.Google Scholar
Díez, J.C, 1992. Zooarqueología de Atapuerca (Burgos) e Implicaciones Paleoeconómicas del Estudio Tafonómico de Yacimientos del Pleistoceno Medio. Unpublished Doctoral Thesis, Universidad Complutense de Madrid.Google Scholar
Enamorado, J., 1992. Aprovechamiento del Entorno por los Grupos Humanos del Pleistoceno Medio en la Península Ibérica. Unpublished Doctoral Thesis, Universidad Complutense de Madrid.Google Scholar
Falguères, Ch., 1986. Datations de Sites Acheuléens et Mousteriens par la Méthode de Résonance de Spin Electronique. Unpublished Doctoral Thesis, Museum Nationale d'Histoire Naturel, Paris.Google Scholar
Fernández-Jalvo, Y., & Andrews, P., 1992. Small mammal taphonomy of Gran Dolina, Atapuerca (Burgos), Spain. Journal of Archaeological Science 19,407–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fernández-Jalvo, Y., Bermúdez de Castro, J.M., Carbonell, E. & Arsuaga, J.L., 1995. Evidences of early cannibalism. Science 271, 277–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foley, R., 1991. Language origins: the silence of the past. Nature 353,14–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Freeman, L.G., 1994. Torralba and Ambrona: a review of discoveries, in Integrative Paths to the Past: Paleoanthropological Advances in Honor of F.C. Howell, eds. Corrucini, R.S. & Ciochon, R.L.. Englewood Cliffs (NJ): Prentice Hall, 597–637.Google Scholar
Freeman, L.G. & Butzer, K.W, 1966. The Acheulean station of Torralba (Spain): a progress report. Quaternaria 8, 9–21.Google Scholar
García-Antón, M. & Sainz-Ollero, H., 1991. Pollen records from the middle Pleistocene Atapuerca site (Burgos, Spain). Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 28,199–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geneste, J-M., 1985. Analyse Lithique d'Industries Moustériennes du Périgord: une Approche Technologique du Comportament des Groupes Humaines au Paléolithique Moyen. Unpublished Doctoral Thesis, Université de Bordeaux I, 2t.Google Scholar
Geneste, J-M., 1988. Les industries de la Grotte Vaufrey: technologie du dèbitage, economie et circulation de la matière première lithique, in La Grotte Vaufrey a Cenacet Saint-Julien (Dordogne). Palèoenvironment, Chronologieet Activitats Humaines, ed. Rigaud, J.P.. (Mèmoires XIX.) Paris: Société Préhistorique Françhise, 441–517.Google Scholar
Gibson, K.R. & Ingold, T. (eds.), 1993. Tools, Language and ognition in Human Evolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gowlett, J.A.J., 1984. Mental abilities of early man: a look at some hard evidence, in Hominid Evolution and Community Ecology, ed. Foley, R.. London: Academic Press, 167–92.Google Scholar
Gowlett, J.A.J., 1986. Culture and conceptualisation: the Oldowan-Acheulean gradient, in Bailey & Callow (eds.), 243–60.Google Scholar
Grün, R. & Aguirre, E., 1987. Datación por «ESR» y por la serie del «U», en los depósitos cársticos de Atapuerca, in El Hombre Fósil de Ibeas y el Pleistoceno de la Sierra de Atapuerca, eds. Aguirre, E., Carbonell, E. & Bermúdez de Castro, J.M.. Valladolid: Junta de Castilla y León, Consejería de Cultura y Bienestar Social, 201–4.Google Scholar
Guilbaud, M., 1987. Le débitage comme expression d'une réalité psychique, in Sistemes d'Anàlisi en la Prehistòria, eds. Carbonell, E., Guilbaud, M. & Mora, R.. Girona: Centre de Recerques Paleo-Eco-Socials, 149–79.Google Scholar
Guilbaud, M., 1995. Introduction sommaire au concept de champ opératorie. Cahier Noir 7,121–33.Google Scholar
Howell, F.C., 1962. El yacimiento achelense de Torralba (Soria), in Actas VII Congreso Nacional de Araueología. Barcelona: Zaragoza, 110–16.Google Scholar
Howell, F.C., 1965. Yacimiento achelense de Ambrona. Noticiario Arqueológico Hispánico T.VII, 7–23.Google Scholar
Howell, F.C., 1986. The evolution of human hunting: lead review, Journal of Human Evolution 18, 583–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howell, F.C. & Freeman, L.G., 1982. Ambrona: an early stone age site on the Spanish Meseta. The L.S.B. Leakey Foundation News 22,11–13.Google Scholar
Howell, F.C, Butzer, K.W & Aguirre, E., 1962. Noticia preliminar sobre el emplazamiento achelense de Torralba. (Excavaciones Arqueológicas en Espaňa 10.) Madrid: Ministerio de Educatión Nacional.Google Scholar
Isaac, G.L., 1972. Early phases of human behaviour: models in Lower Palaeolithic archaeology, in Models in Archaeology, ed. Clarke, D.L.. London: Methuen, 13–36.Google Scholar
Isaac, G.L., 1986. Foundation stones: early artefacts as indicators of activities and abilities, in Bailey & Callow (eds.), 221–41.Google Scholar
James, S.R., 1989. Hominid use of fire in the Lower and Middle Pleistocene. Current Anthropology 30,1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jaubert, J., 1995. Schémas opératoires et outillages peu élaborés: le cas du Paléolithique inférieur et moyen du Coudoulous (Lot). Cahier Noir 7, 85–100.Google Scholar
Jones, P.R., 1980. Experimental butchery with modern stone tools and its relevance for Palaeolithic archaeology. World Archaeology 12(2), 153–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, P.R., 1981. Experimental implement manufacture and use; a case study from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Philisophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. B292,189–95.Google Scholar
Keeley, L.H., 1980. Experimental Determination of Stone Tool Uses: a Microwear Analysis. Chicago (IL): University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Klein, R.G., 1987. Reconstructing how early people exploited animals: problems and prospects, in Nitecki & Nitecki (eds.), 11–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuhn, S.L., 1992. On planning and curated technologies in the Middle Palaeolithic. Journal of Anthropological Research 48(3), 185–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuhn, S.L., 1995. Mousterian Lithic Technology: an Ecological Perspective. New York (NY): Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
López Martínez, N., 1980. Análisis tafonómico y paleoecológico de los vertebrados de Aridos 1 (Pleistoceno medio, Arganda, Madrid), in Santonja et al. (eds.), 307–17.Google Scholar
Meignen, L., 1988. Un exemple de comportement technologique differentiel selon les matieres premieres: Marillac, cauches 9 et 10, in Otte (ed.), 71–9.Google Scholar
Meignen, L. & Bar-Yosef, O., 1988. Variabilité technologique au Proche Orient: l'example de Kebara, in Otte (ed.), 81–95.Google Scholar
Mellars, P., 1989. Major issues in the emergence of modern humans. Current Anthropology 30, 349–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mellars, P., 1991. Cognitive changes and the emergence of modern humans. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 1(1), 63–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mithen, S.J., 1994. Technology and society during the Middle Pleistocene. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 4(1), 1–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mithen, S.J., 1995. Palaeolithic archaeology and the evolution of mind. Journal of Archaeological Research 3(4), 305–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moncel, M.H., 1989. L'Industrie Lithique du Site d'Orgnac 3 (Ardèche, France). Contribution à la Connaissance des Industries du Pléistocène Moyen et Leur Evolution dans le Temps. Unpublished Doctoral Thesis, Institute de Paleontologie Humaine, Paris.Google Scholar
Moreno, M.V., 1993. Estudio Arqueológico del Nivel 10A de Galeía, Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos). Unpublished Tesis de Licenciatura, Madrid, Universidad Complutense, Depto. de Prehistoria y Etnografía.Google Scholar
Mosquera, M., 1995. Procesos Técnicos y Variabilidad en la Industria Lítica del Pleistoceno Medio de la Meseta: Sierra de Atapuerca, Torralba, Ambrona y Áridos. Unpublished Doctoral Thesis, Depto. de Prehistoria y Etnología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid.Google Scholar
Mosquera, M., 1996. Differential use of the space and raw materials at the Sierra de Atapuerca sites (Burgos, Spain): an approach to some economical and ecological inferences, in Non-Flint Raw Materials and the Palaeolithic Occupation of the Iberian Peninsula. Tempus Separatum, eds. N, Moloney, Raposo, C. & Santonja, M.. (British Archaeological Reports International Series 649.) Oxford: BAR, 81–7.Google Scholar
Mosquera, M. & Carbonell, E., 1992. La talla lítica en Atapuerca (Burgos). Trabajos de Prehistoria 49,131–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nitecki, M.H. & Nitecki, D.V. (eds.), 1987. The Evolution of Human Hunting. New York (NY)& London: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Otte, M. (ed.), 1988. L'Homme de Néandertal, vol. 4: La technique. Liège: Eraul.Google Scholar
Parès, J.M. & Pérez-González, A., 1995. Paleomagnetic age for hominid fossils at Atapuerca archaeological site, Spain. Science 269, 830–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Peretto, C, 1994. Le Industrie Lithiche del Giacimento Paleolitico di Isernia la Pineta. Isernia: Instituto Regionale per gli studi storici del Molise ‘V. Cuoco’.Google Scholar
Pérez-González, A., 1980. Geología y estratigrafía de los yacimientos en la llanura aluvial de Arganda (Madrid), in Santonja et al. (eds.), 49–61.Google Scholar
Potts, R., 1991. Why the Oldowan? Plio-Pleistocene toolmaking and the transport of resources, journal of Anthropological Research 47(2), 153–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robson-Brown, K., 1993. An alternative approach to cognition in the Lower Palaeolithic: the modular view. Cambridge Archaeological journal 3(2), 231–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosas, A., 1995. Structure of the morphological variability of the Atapuerca hominids: a study of the mandible sample, in Bermúdez de Castro et al. (eds.), 305–32.Google Scholar
Sala, R., 1993. Introducció d'un Model Reològic de les Deformacions Microscòpiques per Us en Objectes Lítics. Desenvolupament d'un Nou Procediment Metodològic, Tècnic i Analític. Primers Resultats al Complex del Plistocè Mig de la Sierra de Atapuerca. Unpublished Tesis de Licenciatura, Barcelona, Universitat de Barcelona, Facultat de Geografia I Història.Google Scholar
Santonja, M. & Pérez González, A., 1991. Nuevas prospecciones en los yacimientos pleistocenos de Torralba y Ambrona. Raňa 10, 30.Google Scholar
Santonja, M. & Pérez González, A., 1995. Los yacimientos de Torralba y Ambrona. Adas Excursión de la IX Reunión de Cuaternario Ibérico (Madrid, Septiembre 1995), 1–17.Google Scholar
Santonja, M., Lopez, N. & Pérez González, A. (eds.), 1980. Ocupaciones Achelenses en el Valle del jarama. Madrid: Diputación Provincial de Madrid.Google Scholar
Thieme, H., 1997. Lower Palaeolithic hunting spears from Germany. Nature 385, 769–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Toth, N., 1982. The Stone Technologies of Early Hominids at Koobi-Fora, Kenya: an Experimental Approach. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Toth, N., 1985. The Oldowan reassessed: a close look at early stone artefacts. Journal of Archaeological Science 12,101–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toth, N. & Shick, K., 1993. Early stone industries and inferences regarding language and cognition, in Gibson & Ingold (eds.), 346–62.Google Scholar
Turq, A., 1992. Le Paléolithique Inférieur et Moyen entre les Valleès de la Dordogne et du Lot. Unpublished Doctoral Thesis, n 778. Université de Bordeaux 1,2 vols.Google Scholar
Valet, J-P. & Meynadier, L., 1993. Geomagnetic field intensity and reversals during the past four million years. Nature 366, 234–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Villa, P., 1983. Terra Amata and the Middle Pleistocene archaeological record of Southern France. Anthropology 13.Google Scholar
Villa, P., 1990. Torralba and Aridos: elephant exploitation in Middle Pleistocene Spain. Journal of Human Evolution 19, 299–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wynn, T., 1981. The intelligence of Oldowan hominids. Journal of Human Evolution 10, 529–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wynn, T., 1991. Tools, grammar and the archaeology of cognition. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 1(2), 191–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wynn, T., 1993. Layers of thinking in tool behaviour, in Gibson & Ingold (eds.), 389–406.Google Scholar