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The Radiocarbon Approach to Neanderthals in a Carnivore Den Site: a Well-Defined Chronology for Teixoneres Cave (Moià, Barcelona, Spain)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 January 2016

Sahra Talamo ,
Ruth Blasco ,
Florent Rivals ,
Andrea Picin ,
M Gema Chacón ,
Eneko Iriarte ,
Juan Manuel López-García ,
Hugues-Alexandre Blain ,
Maite Arilla  and
Anna Rufà
...Show all authors
Sahra Talamo*
Affiliation:
Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, Leipzig, 04103, Germany.
Ruth Blasco
Affiliation:
Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Paseo Sierra de Atapuerca 3, 09002 Burgos, Spain.
Florent Rivals
Affiliation:
Àrea de Prehistoria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002 Tarragona, Spain. IPHES, Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3), 43007 Tarragona, Spain. ICREA, Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, Barcelona, Spain.
Andrea Picin
Affiliation:
IPHES, Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3), 43007 Tarragona, Spain. Bereich für Ur- and Frühgeschichtliche Archäologie, Friedrich Schiller Universität Jena, Löbdergraben 24a, Jena, 07743Germany. Neanderthal Museum, Talstrasse 300, 40822 Mettmann, Germany.
M Gema Chacón
Affiliation:
Àrea de Prehistoria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002 Tarragona, Spain. IPHES, Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3), 43007 Tarragona, Spain. UMR7194 - HNHP Département de Préhistoire, Muséum National d’Histoire naturelle1, rue René Panhard, 75013 Paris, France.
Eneko Iriarte
Affiliation:
Laboratorio de Evolución Humana, Departamento Ciencias Históricas y Geografía, Universidad de Burgos, Plaza de Misael Bañuelos, Edicio I+D+i, 09001 Burgos, Spain.
Juan Manuel López-García
Affiliation:
Sezione di Scienze Preistoriche e Antropologiche, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Università degli Studi di Ferrara, C.so Ercole 1d’Este 32, 44100 Ferrara, Italy.
Hugues-Alexandre Blain
Affiliation:
Àrea de Prehistoria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002 Tarragona, Spain. IPHES, Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3), 43007 Tarragona, Spain.
Maite Arilla
Affiliation:
Àrea de Prehistoria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002 Tarragona, Spain. IPHES, Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3), 43007 Tarragona, Spain.
Anna Rufà
Affiliation:
Àrea de Prehistoria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002 Tarragona, Spain. IPHES, Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3), 43007 Tarragona, Spain.
Carlos Sánchez-Hernández
Affiliation:
Àrea de Prehistoria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002 Tarragona, Spain. IPHES, Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3), 43007 Tarragona, Spain.
Míriam Andrés
Affiliation:
Department of Prehistory, Complutense University, Prof. Aranguren s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain.
Edgard Camarós
Affiliation:
Àrea de Prehistoria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002 Tarragona, Spain. IPHES, Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3), 43007 Tarragona, Spain.
Anna Ballesteros
Affiliation:
Àrea de Prehistoria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002 Tarragona, Spain. IPHES, Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3), 43007 Tarragona, Spain.
Artur Cebrià
Affiliation:
Àrea de Prehistoria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002 Tarragona, Spain. IPHES, Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3), 43007 Tarragona, Spain.
Jordi Rosell
Affiliation:
Àrea de Prehistoria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002 Tarragona, Spain. IPHES, Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3), 43007 Tarragona, Spain.
Jean-Jacques Hublin
Affiliation:
Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, Leipzig, 04103, Germany.
*
*Corresponding author. Email: sahra.talamo@eva.mpg.de.
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Abstract

During the Middle Paleolithic period, carnivores and hominids periodically occupied the same areas at different times and each predator generated significant palimpsests, rendering difficult their archaeological interpretation. Teixoneres Cave, a carnivore den site, located in the northeastern part of the Iberian Peninsula, demonstrates that it is possible to overcome these problems by using a careful strategy in selecting samples for radiocarbon dating, in order to produce an accurate chronology of the site in question and certainly attest the human occupation.

Keywords

Carnivore denradiocarbonsample selectionNeanderthalchronology
Type
Research Article
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 58 , Issue 2 , June 2016 , pp. 247 - 265
Copyright
© 2016 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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