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San Quirce (Palencia, Spain). a Neanderthal Open Air Campsite with Short Term-Occupation Patterns

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San Quirce (Palencia, Spain). a Neanderthal Open Air Campsite with Short Term-Occupation Patterns Quaternary International 435 (2017) 115e128 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Quaternary International journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quaint San Quirce (Palencia, Spain). A Neanderthal open air campsite with short term-occupation patterns * Marcos Terradillos-Bernal a, , J. Carlos Díez Fernandez-Lomana b, Jesús-Francisco Jorda Pardo c, Alfonso Benito-Calvo d, Ignacio Clemente e, F. Javier Marcos-Saiz b a Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Internacional Isabel I de Castilla (UI1), C/Fernan Gonzalez, n 76, 09003 Burgos, Spain b Area de Prehistoria, Universidad de Burgos (UBU), Spain c Departamento de Prehistoria y Arqueología, Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia (UNED), Spain d Centro Nacional de Investigacion sobre la Evolucion Humana (CENIEH), Paseo Sierra de Atapuerca 3, 09002, Burgos, Spain e CSIC-Institucio Mila i Fontanals (IMF), Departamento de Arqueología y Antropología þ Grupo AGREST, Spain article info abstract Article history: San Quirce is an MIS 4 open-air site with a Neanderthal occupation in primary position. Expeditious Available online 15 January 2016 technology was used here, aimed at producing very simple tools. Meat consumption has been detected along with, more notably, work on hides, wood and plant fibres which could be processed for string. Keywords: Only a small part of the San Quirce Neanderthals campsite has been dug to date. Nevertheless, it is a Open air campsite reference site in the search for evidence of Neanderthal patterns, cultural exchanges (learning, shared Neanderthals space) and resource administration (food, deferred consumption, differential object deposition, etc). San Expeditious lithic technology Quirce is defined as a site with a high degree of variability in the context of the Middle Palaeolithic Refitting Diversified activities cultural record. This assemblage provides valuable information for the reinterpretation of Neanderthal technological, economic, cultural and social capacities in an open air campsite. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction team resumed excavation in 2009e2011 as part of a new survey and research project in the Pisuerga River valley. This paper presents an analysis of technology and use wear at San Quirce is the only Middle Palaeolithic site in the Douro River San Quirce, a newly excavated Neanderthal open air campsite. The basin that has been preserved in primary position. In the analysed site is in the Alar del Rey municipality (Palencia, Spain, Fig. 1), in the assemblage, we identified brief occupations and a wide range of middle reach of the Pisuerga River valley, close to the mouth of the activities from the early Upper Pleistocene. Although bone remains Horadada canyon, one of the main routes between the Cantabrian have not been preserved due to the acidic soil and the slow burial Range and the northern Iberian Plateau. process (Carlos Rad, in prep.), the evidence provides valuable in- Surveys were conducted in the 1980s and 1990s to identify formation about the technological and economic behaviour of the prehistoric occupations in the middle reaches of the Pisuerga River Neanderthals, the functions of their open air sites and their man- between Alar del Rey and Astudillo (Palencia), which resulted in the agement of a variety of resources (minerals, meat and plants). recovery of many Paleolithic series. The site was discovered during Technologically, the tool repertoire at San Quirce varies signifi- aggregate quarrying which cut through a river terrace to expose cantly from the major Middle Palaeolithic sites. The lithic assem- three main profiles measuring 34.5 m (east), 40 m (north) and blage lacks complexity, is highly specialized in light denticulates 38.5 m (south), with several archaeological levels attributed to the characterized by fast production and poor cutting ability. Middle Pleistocene (Arnaiz Alonso, 1990). The current research This assemblage contributes to the current interpretation of Neanderthal cultural and economic behaviour at open air campsites with short term-occupation patterns. Until recently, Neanderthals were considered to be basically erratic hominids with minimal * Corresponding author. long-term planning, a carnivore diet and essentially producers of E-mail addresses: [email protected] (M. Terradillos-Bernal), clomana@ lithic technology. However, new proof is emerging of a broader ubu.es (J.C. Díez Fernandez-Lomana). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2015.09.082 1040-6182/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. 116 M. Terradillos-Bernal et al. / Quaternary International 435 (2017) 115e128 Fig. 1. San Quirce site location. Geomorphological map legend: 1, Hillshaded bedrock; 2, Fluvial terraces (þ23, relative heigth above the river); 3, Glacis deposits; 4, Floodplain; 5, Valley beds; 6, Cones. range of technological, dietary, mobility and symbolism-related The San Quirce site is located on fluvial terrace T9, þ22e23 m activities amongst others, which is revolutionising their interpre- above the Pisuerga River. The sequences observed in other valleys tation. San Quirce can make a major contribution to this debate. of the Douro basin (Santonja and Perez Gonzalez, 1997; Moreno This paper seeks to contribute to the current body of knowledge et al., 2012; Benito-Calvo and Perez-Gonz alez, 2014; Benito-Calvo about Neanderthals with an analysis of lithic chaine operatoire:raw et al., in press), suggest that the fluvial terrace was formed at the materials, reduction and configuration sequences, refittings and end of the Middle Pleistocene. It is composed of alluvial gravel traceology. deposits with a clay matrix. It is partially fossilized by a glacis consisting of sediments generated by the erosion of the Neogene 2. Geology and chronology bedrock (Middle Miocene shales and sands) and the upper terraces. The terraces and this glacis were incised by lateral streams, which The San Quirce archaeological site, in the north of the Douro gave rise to alluvial fans in the lower gradient areas. River basin (UTM: X ¼ 392.828, Y ¼ 4.720.122, Z ¼ 861 m), is related The south profile exposed by the quarry contains four main to Quaternary sediments deposits on a fluvial terrace of the units, in descending order (Fig. 2): Pisuerga River, preserved on the left bank of the valley. The site was Level I: surface level, approximately 40 cm, on a colluvial excavated between 2009 and 2011. Although the boundaries of the deposit which culminates the sequence. This colluvium, campsite are still unknown, it is estimated to have a minimum area composed of sands and clays that have been intensely disturbed of 7 ha, of which 77 m2 have been dug. by ploughing, contains a large amount of organic matter. The In this area, the Pisuerga valley has a complex river terrace quartz, quartzite and schist cobbles are rounded (quantile 7 cm, sequence consisting of eleven levels, defined as T1 (þ130e133 m), mean 1 cm). Clasts float in the matrix, composed of fine and T2 (þ85e90 m), T3 (þ76e81 m), T4 (þ76e72 m), T5 (þ56e58 m), medium, angular to sub-angular quartz sands, along with silt and T6 (þ47e52 m) T7 (38e42 m) T8 (þ29e32 m) T9 (þ22e23 m) and clay. The sands are quartz, while the lutite fraction contains T10 (þ13e15 m), T11 (þ9e12 m) T12 (þ6 m), besides the current quartz, sodium and potassium feldspars, muscovite/illite and floodplain. kaolinite. This unit contains lithic industry in a secondary M. Terradillos-Bernal et al. / Quaternary International 435 (2017) 115e128 117 Fig. 2. Stratigraphy of the San Quirce site (south profile). position with morpho-technical features that initially seem more yielded lithic items from the upper terraces, similar to those primitive than the industry on Level III (Mode 2 material, not identified on Level I. discussed in this paper). Level III: distal facies from the alluvial fan, corresponding to a Level II: colluvium, approx. 20e30 cm deep. Its contact at the floodplain. This roughly 60 cm deep deposit consists of interspersed base is clearly erosive and it has a tabular geometry. The pebbles layers of clay and massive silt in gradual contact with underlying and gravels are quartzite, quartz, shale and sandstone (4 cm level. It contains quartz and quartzite cobbles (2 cm quantile, 1 cm quantile, 0.5 cm mean). The sands are quartz and feldspar, while mean). The quartz sands are accompanied by muscovite/illite, the lutite fraction contains quartz, sodium and potassium feld- kaolinite and montmorillonite, while the silt fraction is predomi- spars, muscovite/illite and kaolinite. Internally, these materials are nantly quartz, potassium and sodium feldspar, with phyllosilicates totally disordered, with a massive aspect. This colluvium has (muscovite/illite) and minerals from the clay group (kaolinite and 118 M. Terradillos-Bernal et al. / Quaternary International 435 (2017) 115e128 montmorillonite) in the clay fraction. The archaeological level sits on and morpho-potential characteristics (length, angle and shape of a15e25 cm deep yellowish silty layer on a SE slope. edges, and weight ratio, Airvaux, 1987; Terradillos-Bernal and Level IV: a 3e4 m deep terrace deposits composed of cobbles Rodríguez-Alvarez, 2012) on the basis of their position in the chaîne with a sparse matrix deposited by several interconnected channels. operatoire. At the top of these channelled deposits, there are interspersed Refitting was analysed on the basis of four degrees of identification deposits from the channel edge containing small-sized gravels and of the various lithological
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