The Abrigo de la Quebrada (Chelva, Valencia) stratigraphic succession comprises nine Middle Palaeolithic levels. Human selection of this rock shelter for occupation owes to its favourable location-at the gates of a blind valley where the trapping of large herbivores would have been practicable. The immediate environment is varied, with both abrupt and flat terrain, and would have supported a wide range of prey animals. Radiocarbon-dated charcoal samples from level IV, which is characterised by a high density of lithic (> 18,000) and bone (> 100,000) remains, yielded results of 43,930 ± 750 BP (Beta-244002) and > 51,6 ka BP (OxA-24855). There is no evidence of modification by carnivores or birds of prey, so this level's faunal remains must be anthropogenic in the main. Relative to the inhabited space, the location of level IV's many combustion features shows little variation. The level's typical palimpsest structure results from frequent, repeated occupations with intense on-site processing in a context of low sedimentation rates. The study of seasonality, carcass exploitation, taphonomy, stone tool refitting and raw material provenience patterns supports the notion that the different occupations subsumed in the level IV deposit were all short term. The comparison of our results with coeval contexts from the central area of Mediterranean Iberia sheds additional light on the adaptations of western Europe's Neanderthal groups.

Abstract:Different flint types from the Middle Palaeolithic site of Abrigo de la Quebrada (Chelva, Valencia) are characterized, both macro-and microscopically, and compared with types found at other localities in the region. Although procurement predominantly concerned the immediate vicinity of sites, our results show the presence of the same types in assemblages separated by distances of up to 120 km. The long distances involved are suggestive of a pattern of North-South mobility of human groups along the coastline of central Mediterranean Iberia.

This paper investigates the application of the Levallois technique to the knapping of nonflint raw materials (limestone and quartzite) in the upper levels of the Abrigo de la Quebrada rockshelter (Chelva, Valencia, Spain). Besides highlighting the significant flexibility that characterized Neandertal behavior, such an application is of singular interest because goodquality flint-lacking fissures and impurities and presenting a compact and homogeneous texture-is abundant in the site's immediate vicinity. In other assemblages, the scarcity or poor quality of flint often suffices to explain the recourse to alternatives, but in these Quebrada levels raw material choice must be primarily determined by other factors. Based on the dimensions of the different blank types, the percentage of Levallois blanks that were retouched into formal tools, and the presence of use-wear damage, combined with inferences derived from the study of the faunal remains, the hearths, and the spatial distribution of finds, it is proposed that such factors concern the length and function of the occupations and the wider systems of settlement, subsistence, and mobility of which such occupations were a part.

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