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El Portalón of Cueva Mayor is one of the present-day entrances to the Cueva Mayor-Cueva del Silo karst system located in the Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain). It is an important archaeological site with extended Holocene occupation which has been subjected to a number of excavations since the nineteen seventies. From its significant collection of bone and antler industry, for this work, we have chosen artefacts indicating local production and others evidencing contact between this part of the Iberian Peninsula and other areas of the Mediterranean Basin.Wishing to emphasise this symbiotic relationship, we have likewise presented a special collection of Neolithic Boquique pottery. The data confirm that, far from being occasional, the relationship of the groups living in the area around the Atapuerca Mountains continues unbroken for several cultural episodes.

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The discrimination of wild and domestic forms of animals is crucial to understanding the subsistence strategy of a site's inhabitants. In this study, a metrical analysis was carried out for the taxonomical identification of Bos taurus and Bos primigenius. Abundant bovine bone remains have been recovered from the El Portalón site's Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Bronze Age levels. A metrical analysis and sex determination have been completed for these bone remains. The results of the metrical study suggest a significant decrease in bovine size during the transition from the Chalcolithic to the Bronze Age. The similar sex ratio (bulls/cows) among the levels and the similar mortality profile rule out management differences as a possible cause for this size change. The global trend towards aridification from the Middle Holocene onwards or the general climate event (4.2 Ka: transition Chalcolithic to Bronze Age) where social, demographic, and subsistence strategic changes occurred are considered probable causes of this decrease in cattle size.

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