Quaternary Science Reviews 217 (2019) 284e296 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Quaternary Science Reviews journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quascirev Shellfish collection on the westernmost Mediterranean, Bajondillo cave (~160-35 cal kyr BP): A case of behavioral convergence? Miguel Cortes-S anchez a, b, c, María D. Simon-Vallejo a, b, c, * Francisco J. Jimenez-Espejo d, e, , María del Carmen Lozano Francisco b, Jose Luis Vera-Pelaez b, Adolfo Maestro Gonzalez f, Arturo Morales-Muniz~ g a Departamento de Prehistoria y Arqueología, Facultad de Geografía e Historia, Universidad de Sevilla, C/. Dona~ María de Padilla, S/n, 41004, Sevilla, Spain b HUM-949 Group, Universidad de Sevilla, Spain c ICArEHB-Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and Evolution of Human Behaviour, Universidade Do Algarve, Portugal d Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de La Tierra, CSIC-Univ. de Granada, Armilla, 18100, Spain e Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokosuka, Japan f Instituto Geologico y Minero de Espana,~ Madrid, 28003, Spain g Laboratorio de Zooarqueología, Departamento de Biología, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Madrid, E-28049, Spain article info abstract Article history: The Middle (MP) and Early Upper Paleolithic (EUP) evidences of shellfish collection on the southern Received 28 November 2018 Iberian site of Bajondillo cave are presented and compared with Westernmost Mediterranean archaeo- Received in revised form logical sites. The main feature is stasis for Mytilus galloprovincialis represents the dominant taxon during 4 February 2019 a ~120kyr temporal sequence. The second feature is the decrease of the shellfishing signal when site Accepted 4 February 2019 distance to the coast increases. The data reveal that shellfish collection was practiced during Marine Available online 19 February 2019 Isotopic Stage 4, a poorly documented stage in terms of aquatic adaptations. Striking is also that mollusc assemblages evidence an uninterrupted decreasing trend in terms of remains from the earliest to the Keywords: Pleistocene latest levels, in particular when H. sapiens replaced H. neanderthalensis. Although taxa of secondary Western Europe importance are too scarce to make reliable inferences, another difference between the MP and EUP Malacology collections is the substantial increase of infaunal bivalves in the latter cultural period. Warm and cold Shellfish harvesting water mollusc records match temperature rises and drops although the scarcity of data do not allow one Middle Paleolithic to proceed beyond qualitative statements. Likewise, the prevalence of fresh and brackish water mollusc Upper Paleolithic hint at a permanent presence of freshwater around the site at all times. When compared with assem- Geomorphology blages from the Alboran sea region (Westernmost Mediterranean Sea), the Bajondillo cave collections are Coastal remarkable for their abundance of mussels. Comparison between Bajondillo cave and Pinnacle Point reveal that infaunal bivalve abundances in the South African site are far higher than those recorded in the MP levels, though not those from the EUP. Whether this feature hints at subtle differences existing between the collection of shellfish by H. sapiens and H. neanderthalensis,reflects a behavioral conver- gence between the two hominine lineages or represents an inherited cognitive trait from a common ancestor is an issue in need of further analysis. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction the association of shellfish collection with a putative cognitive development taking place in anatomically modern humans (AMH) The origin and evolutionary implications of marine resource but presumably not in other hominines is one major reason that exploitation in hominins has been hotly debated for nearly three accounts for this (vid. e.g. Cunnane et al., 1993; Parkington, 2001; decades. Although the reasons for this controversy are manifold, Langdon, 2006; Foley and Lahr, 2014, Erlandson, 2017). * Corresponding author. Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra, CSIC-Univ. de Granada, Avda. de las Palmeras nº4, Armilla, 18100, Spain. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (M. Cortes-S anchez), [email protected] (M.D. Simon-Vallejo), [email protected] (F.J. Jimenez-Espejo), gaiadidactica@gmail. com (M.C. Lozano Francisco), [email protected] (J.L. Vera-Pelaez), [email protected] (A. Maestro Gonzalez), [email protected] (A. Morales-Muniz).~ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.02.007 0277-3791/© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. M. Cortes-Sanchez et al. / Quaternary Science Reviews 217 (2019) 284e296 285 Bajondillo cave has provided the earliest evidences of shellfish In terms of shellfishing activities, except for the temporal depth collection in the northern Hemisphere at ~160kyr BP, demon- that improved dating methods permitted, no attempt has been strating that a coastal adaptation was present in the Alboran Sea made to provide a unitary interpretative frame for the origins of (Westernmost Mediterranean sea, Fig. 1) at essentially the same shellfish collection in the Alboran sea region. For such reason, time that shellfish collection is documented in South Africa certain particulars of the shellfish collection practice, including (Pinnacle Point: ~164kyr BP) (Cortes-S anchez et al., 2008). A changes in sea level and temperature dictating accessibility to the remarkable difference between these two sites is that at Bajondillo resource, foraging range within tidal zones, substrate type where cave it was Neanderthals, not Anatomically Modern Humans shellfish are documented or dietary preferences will be attempted (AMH), the hominines carrying out such practice (Marean et al., in this paper. 2007; Cortes-S anchez et al., 2008; Jerardino and Marean, 2010). Cortes-S anchez et al. (2011) published the taxonomic compo- In view that systematic collection of shellfish has been increasingly sition of the mollusc assemblage from Marine Isotope Stage (MIS6) recognized as a crucial element of human adaptation to aquatic at Bajondillo cave (archaeological level Bj/19). In this new study we ecosystems and evidence associated with the appearance of Homo include the mollusc assemblages from eight levels (Bj/19 to Bj/11) sapiens, the synchronicity of these findings raise the possibility of a that range from the Middle Paleolithic (MP) to the Early Upper behavioral convergence existing in the two hominine lineages Paleolithic (EUP). One major aim of our study is to contrast how, in triggered by causes yet to be determined. terms of taxa and taxonomic abundances, the shellfish assemblages Bajondillo cave harbors the most important record of shellfish of six Neanderthal levels compare with those generated by AMH (2 collection to date in the Alboran Sea but not the only one. The first levels). In so doing, data will be provided for shellfish collection evidences of shellfish collection in the area (Fig. 1) were reported in during MIS4 (~51e74kyr BP), a poorly documented isotopic stage in the 1924e1925 excavations of the Mousterian rock-shelter of terms of aquatic adaptations that corresponds with a marine Devil's Tower in Gibraltar on the basis of (sic.) “large quantities” of regression episode that lowered sea levels worldwide by marine shells that, unfortunately, were never described in detail some À70 m (vide Erlandson, 2017). (Fischer, 1928). The 1951e1954 excavations on the dune (outer zone) of Gorham's cave (Gibraltar) also reported an MIS5-MIS3 2. Geographic setting sequence featuring substantial numbers of molluscs (Baden- Powell, 1964). More recently, in Gibraltar, marine molluscs have Bajondillo cave is found on a sheltered estuary where the rivers been reported on Vanguard's Cave (MIS3) and the inner portion of from the Sierra de Mijas drain (Figs. 2 and 3). As such, it qualifies as Gorham's Cave (MIS3), and also on the MIS8-MIS5 North African an inlet shielded from the open sea by a rocky shore. The cave rock shelter at Benzú (Ceuta, Spain) and in two MIS3 sites on the features a sequence with 20 archaeological levels that range from coast of Malaga (Abrigo 3 and Nerja Cave) (Barton, 2000; Cortes- an advanced Middle Pleistocene to the early Holocene. Based on Sanchez et al., 2008; Ramos Fernandez et al., 2012; Fa et al., techno-cultural and chronological data (i.e. 48 14C/AMS, TL and U/ fi 2016). Hints of shell shing by Iberian Neanderthals do not seem Th dates from 6 different laboratories), this sequence documents to be restricted to the Alboran sea, as both in Murcia (SE Spain) and four chrono-cultural stages (Cortes-S anchez, 2007; Cortes-S anchez the Algarve (S. Portugal) sites exist that report evidences of such et al., 2011, 2019). These include a Middle Palaeolithic (MP: Bj/19- activity (see Cortes-Sanchez et al. (2011) with references therein). Bj/14, <162 and >43.1 cal kyr BP) that is the main focus in this Fig. 1. Site location and Northern Westernmost Mediterranean region and archaeological sites mentioned in the text. P: location of Padul Lake (Camuera et al., 2018). O: location ODP site 977 (Martrat et al., 2007) 286 M. Cortes-Sanchez et al. / Quaternary Science Reviews 217 (2019) 284e296 Fig. 2. Overview of the travertine perimeter within the Sierra de Mijas, Torremolinos springwater and Bajondillo cave. paper, along with an Upper Palaeolithic (Bj/13-Bj/6: ca. 43- increased aridity during past glacial periods (Camuera et al., 2018), 16 cal kyr BP), an Epipalaeolithic (Bj/5-Bj/4, ca. 16e7.5 cal kyr BP) freshwater availability would have been the major agent dictating and a Neolithic (Bj/3- Bj/0, ca. 7.5e4 cal kyr BP) (Fig. 4). the permanent occupation of any given site and, for coastal sites, The coastlines of the Alboran Sea feature a far from homo- the year-round availability of molluscs. geneous and quite discontinuous archaeological record. The The main hydrogeological feature of the western sector of the reason for this is a geo-morphological dynamism due, among Bay of Malaga is the aquifer associated with the marble deposits of others, to the pushing of the African plate against the European the Sierra de Mijas (Martín-Arias et al., 2018).