Dragged, lagged, or undisturbed: reassessing the autochthony of the hominin-bearing assemblages at Gran Dolina (Atapuerca, Spain)

The Technological Behaviours of Homo antecessor: Core Management and Reduction Intensity at Gran Dolina-TD6.2 (Atapuerca, Spain)

“…This resolution is directly dependent on factors such as the time of formation of the assemblages and depositional and postdepositional processes as well as sampling size. In spite of being characterised as a residential site (Carbonell et al, 1999;Díez et al, 1999;Mosquera et al, 2018;Saladié et al, 2011Saladié et al, , 2014Saladié et al, , 2021, TD6.2 is a time-averaged unit resulting from the overlap of many occupational events with different characteristics (Canals et al, 2003;Vallverdú et al, 2001) and therefore may reflect a cumulative combination of different strategies and/or occupation dynamics that in many cases cannot be isolated from one another (Saladié et al, 2011(Saladié et al, , 2014.…”

“…More than 800 lithic remains, including 50 cores, and over 6000 faunal remains have been recovered from subunit TD6.2, in addition to 165 human remains attributed to Homo antecessor (Bermúdez de Castro et al, 1997Carbonell et al, 2005). Multidisciplinary works have interpreted TD6.2 as a residential camp (Carbonell et al, 1999;Díez et al, 1999;Mosquera et al, 2018;Saladié et al, 2014Saladié et al, , 2011Saladié et al, , 2021, where complex behavioural dynamics have been documented, from the identification of cannibalistic practices to the hunting and selective transport of large ungulates, food sharing and social cooperation (Fernández-Jalvo et al, 1996;Saladié et al, 2011Saladié et al, , 2014.…”

“…In addition, more recent studies analysing the anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) (Parés et al, 2020) point to a very low-energy hydrodynamic sedimentation regime, with no signs of postdepositional disturbance or massive transport. In addition to these studies, Saladié and colleagues (Saladié et al, 2021), based on the spatial co-dependence between lithic tools and osteological remains, proposed an undisturbed character or the remains of TD6.2. In sum, despite the Campaña et al (2016b) arguments, the multidisciplinary evidence supports the primary position of the archaeological remains.…”

The technological behaviours of Homo antecessor: core management and reduction intensity at Gran Dolina-TD6.2 (Atapuerca, Spain)

“…Furthermore, the resolution of the reduction distribution curves depends directly on the resolution of the assemblage (Morales, 2016). Despite it being characterised as a residential site (Carbonell et al, 1999;Díez et al, 1999;Mosquera et al, 2018;Saladié et al, 2021Saladié et al, , 2014Saladié et al, , 2011, TD6.2 is a timeaveraged unit resulting from the overlap of many occupational events with different characteristics (Canals et al, 2003;Vallverdú et al, 2001), and therefore may reflect a combination of different strategies and/or occupation dynamics that in many cases cannot be isolated from one another (Saladié et al, 2014(Saladié et al, , 2011.…”

“…More than 800 lithic pieces, including 50 cores and over 6000 faunal remains have been recovered from subunit TD6.2, in addition to 165 human remains attributed to Homo antecessor (Bermúdez de Castro et al, 1999, 1997Carbonell et al, 2005). Multidisciplinary works point at TD6.2 as a residential camp (Carbonell et al, 1999;Díez et al, 1999;Mosquera et al, 2018;Saladié et al, 2021Saladié et al, , 2014Saladié et al, , 2011, where complex behavioural dynamics has been documented, from the identification of cannibalistic practices to the hunting and selective transport of large ungulates, food sharing and social cooperation (Fernández-Jalvo et al, 1996;Saladié et al, 2014Saladié et al, , 2011. In this study, we have followed the division into layers of TD6.2 proposed in Mosquera et al, (2018), describing three archaeo-stratigraphic groups of layers, TD6.2.4, TD6.2.2-3 and TD6.2.0-1 from base to top (Figure 1).…”