The Acheulean Technocomplex of the Iberian Atlantic Margin As an Example of Technology Continuity Through the Middle Pleistocene
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Manuscript Click here to access/download;Manuscript;Text.docx Click here to view linked References The Acheulean technocomplex of the Iberian Atlantic margin as an example of technology continuity through the Middle Pleistocene 1 2 3 4 5 Eduardo Méndez-Quintas 1,2*; Manuel Santonja 3,2; Lee J. Arnold 4; João Pedro Cunha-Ribeiro 5; Pedro Xavier 6 6 4 7 7 6 7 da Silva ; Martina Demuro ; Mathieu Duval ; Alberto Gomes ; José Meireles ; Sérgio Monteiro-Rodrigues 9 2 8 ; Alfredo Pérez-González 9 10 11 1 Grupo de Estudos de Arqueoloxía, Antigüidade e Territorio (GEAAT), University of Vigo, Campus As Lagoas, 32004 12 13 Ourense, Spain. 14 2 IDEA (Instituto de Evolución en África), University of Alcalá de Henares, Covarrubias 36, 28010 Madrid, Spain 15 16 3 Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH). Paseo de Atapuerca, 3. 09002 Burgos, 17 España. 18 19 4 School of Physical Sciences, Environment Institute, and Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS), 20 University of Adelaide, North Terrace Campus, Adelaide SA 5005, Australia. 21 22 5 Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa, Centro de Arqueologia da Universidade de Lisboa (UNIARCH) e 23 Lab2pt, 1600-214 Lisbon, Portugal. 24 25 6 Universidade do Minho; Lab2pt, 39 av. Central, 4700-Braga, Portugal 26 7 27 Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution. Environmental Futures Research Institute, Griffith University, 170 28 Kessels Road Nathan, QLD 4111, Australia. 29 8 30 Faculdade de Letras, Universidade do Porto; Centro de Estudos de Geografia e Ordenamento do Território (CEGOT). 31 Via Panorâmica s/n, P 4150-564, Porto, Portugal 32 9 Faculdade de Letras, Universidade do Porto; Centro de Investigação Transdisciplinar “Cultura, Espaço e Memória” 33 34 (CITCEM). Via Panorâmica s/n, P 4150-564, Porto, Portugal 35 36 37 * Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] 38 39 40 41 Eduardo Méndez-Quintas: 0000-0001-8272-873X 42 43 Manuel Santonja: 0000-0001-5848-9011 44 45 Lee J. Arnold: 0000-0001-9603-3824 46 47 João Pedro Cunha-Ribeiro: 0000-0003-2614-3555 48 49 Pedro Xavier da Silva: 0000-0002-4217-0126 50 51 Martina Demuro: 0000-0002-5799-4216 52 Mathieu Duval: 0000-0003-3181-7753 53 54 Alberto Gomes: 0000-0001-8600-0383 55 56 José Meireles: 0000-0002-8416-0591 57 58 Sérgio Monteiro-Rodrigues: 0000-0002-2532-3602 59 60 Alfredo Pérez-González: 0000-0003-1122-9313 61 62 1 63 64 65 Abstract This article provides a synthesis of the Middle Pleistocene hominin record of West Iberia, which comprises sites displaying abundant concentrations of large flake Acheulean (LFA) assemblages, as well as isolated 1 2 examples of Early Middle Palaeolithic (EMP) technology. These sites typically have age ranges spanning 3 4 Marine Isotopic Stages (MIS) 11-6, within the second half of the Middle Pleistocene, and are primarily located 5 in fluvial environments related to the main regional river basins. The LFA sites display extensive occurrences 6 7 of handaxes and cleavers on flake blanks (detached from large cores), with a large number of knapping 8 9 remains, such as flakes or small-medium cores, showing elementary reduction patterns. Over the identified 10 age range of these sites, especially during the MIS 9-6 interval, we observe constant technological stability, 11 12 without strong variations over time, and independent of the functionality of individual sites. These fixed 13 14 technological and behavioural patterns reinforce the African affinities of the southwestern European 15 Acheulean, in contrast to Acheulean assemblages identified in the northernmost areas of Europe. 16 17 18 Keywords 19 20 Middle Pleistocene; Lower Palaeolithic; Large Flake Acheulean (LFA); Early Middle Palaeolithic (EMP); West 21 22 Iberia 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 2 63 64 65 INTRODUCTION The Iberian Peninsula is an important region for understanding the biological and cultural processes that 1 shaped human history in Europe during the Lower and Middle Pleistocene (~1.4 to 0.125 million years ago 2 3 (Ma)). The presence of numerous archaeological sites from the Guadix-Baza basin (Toro-Moyano et al. 2011; 4 Toro-Moyano et al. 2013) and the Atapuerca complex (Carbonell et al. 1995; Carbonell et al. 2008; Ollé et 5 6 al. 2013), as well as those of La Boella (Vallverdu et al. 2014), Ambrona (Falguères et al. 2006; Santonja et 7 8 al. 2017), Torralba (Sánchez-Cervera et al. 2015), Áridos (Santonja et al. 1980), Cuesta de la Bajada 9 (Santonja et al. 2014) and Cueva de Bolomor (Fernández Peris et al. 2012), have provided important 10 11 information in this context. Most of these sites are located in the interior of the Iberian Peninsula, and, until 12 13 recently, relatively little was known about the age or representative industry assemblages of in situ sites 14 located on the western side of the Iberian Peninsula. Over the last few decades, the expansion of 15 16 archaeological research into different parts of the Iberian Atlantic margin (such as the Miño River and Lis 17 18 River basins), and the detailed examination of previously known sites across the region (such as in the lower 19 Tagus basin), has significantly increased the scope and coverage of the Iberian Middle Pleistocene 20 21 archaeological record (Daura et al. 2017; Méndez-Quintas et al. 2019; Méndez-Quintas et al. 2018b; Proença 22 23 Cunha et al. 2017a; Proença Cunha et al. 2017b; Texier et al. 1995). A synthesis of these records and 24 examination of their regional significance is therefore timely. 25 26 27 The cultural and biological changes associated with the Middle Pleistocene human occupation of Europe is 28 29 a focus of constant debate (Antoine et al. 2019; Arsuaga et al. 2014; Bermúdez de Castro and Martinón- 30 31 Torres 2013; Bermúdez de Castro et al. 2016; Dennell et al. 2011; Harvati et al. 2019; Hérisson et al. 2016a; 32 Muttoni et al. 2018; Rocca 2016; Santonja et al. 2016; Soriano and Villa 2017; Villa et al. 2016). The role of 33 34 the Acheulean technocomplex is especially important for these ongoing debates, as it shows strong variability 35 36 throughout Europe, both in terms of its chronological development and its basic technological features 37 (Antoine et al. 2019; Pereira et al. 2018; Santonja et al. 2016; Santonja and Villa 2006). In this paper we 38 39 provide an overview of the contributions made to these discussions by archaeological research undertaken 40 41 on the western side of the Iberian Peninsula, which includes extensive examples of sites with large flake 42 Acheulean assemblages (LFA sensu Sharon 2010) spanning the second half of the Middle Pleistocene. 43 44 45 CHRONOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK 46 47 48 The first human occupation of the Iberian Peninsula occurred more than 1 Ma (Carbonell et al. 2008; Martínez 49 et al. 2010; Toro-Moyano et al. 2013) and was characterized by non-Acheulean core and flake industries 50 51 (Mosquera et al. 2018; Toro-Moyano et al. 2011). Some researchers consider that the first Acheulean 52 53 presence in the region is registered at the site of La Boella (Tarragona) (but see discussions in Santonja et 54 al., 2016 and Méndez Quintas et al., 2018), which has been dated to between 1.0 and 0.8 Ma (Vallverdu et 55 56 al. 2014). Further examples of sites that may have analogous chronologies (although without numerical 57 58 dating) include several small lithic assemblages associated with fluvial terraces at heights of more than +40 59 m in the large river basins of the Iberian plateau (Rubio-Jara et al. 2016; Santonja and Pérez-González 2010); 60 61 62 3 63 64 65 some of which contain elements that would suggest an Acheulean attribution. The majority of Lower Palaeolithic sites in the Iberian Peninsula (those containing Acheulean and Early Middle Palaeolithic (EMP) implements) are dated to the Middle Pleistocene, emerging mainly after Marine Isotopic Stage (MIS) 13 and 1 2 prevailing until MIS 6, or even MIS 5 (Méndez-Quintas et al. 2019; Proença Cunha et al. 2017b; Rubio-Jara 3 et al. 2016; Sánchez-Cervera et al. 2015). In this interval of around 400 ka, the number of sites increases 4 5 exponentially over time (Santonja and Villa 2006; Turq et al. 2010). The majority of these sites are associated 6 7 with the middle terraces of Atlantic basins in the Iberian hinterland (Miño, Duero, Tajo, Lis, Guadiana and 8 Guadalquivir), which exhibit elevations of +40-20 m (Cunha Ribeiro 1999; Rubio-Jara et al. 2016; Santonja 9 10 and Pérez-González 2010; Santonja and Villa 2006), as well as a smaller number of cave and open-air sites 11 12 not directly associated with specific fluvial terrace heights (Santonja and Pérez-González 2010; Santonja and 13 Villa 2006). Dating of the archaeological deposits in these hinterland Iberian basins confirms an age range 14 15 of 450-180 thousand years ago (ka) for the expansion of the Acheulean tradition in the region (Martins et al. 16 17 2010; Moreno et al. 2012; Rosina et al. 2014; Silva et al. 2017). Within this same age range, other European 18 regions contain sites displaying EMP industries, which are technologically different and not directly related to 19 20 the LFA (Hérisson et al. 2016b; Locht et al. 2016; Santonja et al. 2016; Turq et al. 2010). 21 22 23 Over recent years, an extensive volume of chronological data (mainly luminescence and electron spin 24 resonance (ESR) ages) has been produced for the middle fluvial terraces of the lower Atlantic rivers (Cunha 25 26 et al.