Efficiency of gathering and its archaeological implications for an European Early Palaeolithic population

Prado‐Nóvoa, Olalla; Cachorro, Ana Mateos; Zorrilla‐Revilla, Guillermo; Vidal‐Cordasco, Marco; Rodrı́guez, Jesús

doi:10.1016/j.jaa.2016.12.002

Cited by 15 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 122 publications

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“…For the outdoor trials, energy expenditure was monitored using an Oxycon Mobile JAEGER® portable device. The calorimetry device has been lab-validated as criterion standard system (Akkermans et al, 2012 ; Sjöberg et al, 2021 ) and has been used in previous field experiments in reenacted activities (Mateos et al, 2019 ; Prado-Nóvoa et al, 2017 ; Vidal-Cordasco et al, 2017 ; Zorrilla-Revilla et al, 2021 ). All of the ventilatory tests, both indoors and outdoors, were performed under standard environmental conditions of temperature, barometric pressure, and relative humidity, calibrated automatically using ambient STPD conditions (standard temperature, pressure, and dryness).…”

Section: Methods and Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Let’s Play at Digging

Cachorro

Zorrilla‐Revilla

Rodrı́guez

2022

Hum Nat

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Extractive foraging tasks, such as digging, are broadly practiced among hunter-gatherer populations in different ecological conditions. Despite tuber-gathering tasks being widely practiced by children and adolescents, little research has focused on the physical traits associated with digging ability. Here, we assess how age and energetic expenditure affect the performance of this extractive task. Using an experimental approach, the energetic cost of digging to extract simulated tubers is evaluated in a sample of 40 urban children and adolescents of both sexes to measure the intensity of the physical effort and the influence of several anatomical variables. Digging is a moderately vigorous activity for inexperienced girls and boys from 8 to 14 years old, and it requires significant physical effort depending on strength and body size. However, extracting subterranean resources is a task that may be performed effectively without previous training. Sex-specific and age-specific differences in the net energy expenditure of digging were detected, even though both sexes exhibited similar proficiency levels when performing the task. Our results highlight that both boys and girls spend considerable energy while digging, with differences largely driven by body size and age. Other factors beyond ability and experience, such as strength and body size, may influence the proficiency of juveniles in performing certain physically intensive foraging tasks, such as gathering tubers.

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Section: Methods and Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Let’s Play at Digging

Cachorro

Zorrilla‐Revilla

Rodrı́guez

2022

Hum Nat

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“…Finally, the use of a diversity of nuts and other plant foods during autumn and winter months has been documented in the Cantabrian region. For example, hazelnut shells, which have a high energy return (Prado-Nóvoa et al 2017), have been recorded at El Mazo (López-Dóriga 2015). As a result, the necessity of utilising P. lineatus as a fallback food during the colder periods of the year also seems unlikely.…”

Section: Seasonality Of Subsistence Strategies and Human Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stable oxygen isotope analysis of Phorcus lineatus (da Costa, 1778) as a proxy for foraging seasonality during the Mesolithic in northern Iberia

García-Escárzaga

Gutiérrez-Zugasti

Cobo

et al. 2019

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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The Mesolithic period in the Cantabrian region, a coastal area located in northern Spain, is characterised by a marked increase in the human use of coastal resources in comparison with previous periods, resulting in the formation of so-called "shell middens". Archaeological investigations have provided insights into the formation processes of these shell middens, as well as long-term changes in human exploitation of different marine resources and the relationship of foraging strategies to past climate changes. However, efforts to reconstruct the key environmental factor governing coastal subsistence and foraging resilience, the seasonal availability and use of different marine resources, have been limited in the region and, indeed, across coastal Mesolithic Europe more widely. Here, we use stable oxygen isotope analysis of Phorcus lineatus (da Costa, 1778), one of the most widespread molluscs in northern Iberian mesolithic coastal sites, in order to determine the season in which humans collected key coastal resources at the site of EL Mazo (Llanes, Asturias). We demonstrate that P. lineatus was exclusively collected in late autumn, winter and early spring. An experimental programme, in which modern P. lineatus specimens were collected in situ over the course of three years, established that relative meat yield varied within this species throughout the annual cycle, with higher relative meat yield during colder months. We argue that mollusc collection patterns were driven by a cost-benefit principle during the Mesolithic in the Cantabrian region and human populations had intimate knowledge of the seasonal developmental cycles of exploited marine taxa. This also highlights the importance of developing intra-annual records of resource use and climate change if coastal foraging is to be properly understood in prehistory.

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“…Lower Palaeolithic surface finds including archaic handaxes on high terraces of the Nahe River near its confluence with the Rhine River have been known since their discovery by H. Bell in the late 1940s and were later also recovered from fluvial deposits of denuded high terraces in the Middle Rhine area (Fiedler 1975(Fiedler /1977(Fiedler , 1990Prado-Nóvoa et al 2017). Unfortunately, most archaeologists did not take notice of these finds or rejected their identification as intentional artefacts (Baales et al 2000).…”

Section: Münster-sarmsheim (Rhineland-palatinate Germany)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Several Lower Palaeolithic Sites along the Rhine Rift Valley, Dated from 1.3 to 0.6 Million Years

Fiedler¹,

Humburg²,

Klingelhöfer³

et al. 2019

Humanities

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The important discoveries of Lower Palaeolithic artefacts in stratigraphical context within Lower and early Middle Pleistocene deposits in the western continental part of Europe along the rift systeme of the Rhine Valley are pointing at the possible continuous presence of hominins since the Lower Pleistocene. This paper reports on lithic industry from its early appearance at around 1.3 million years (Ma) at the site of Münster-Sarmsheim to the latest pre-Elsterian period at around 0.6 Ma at Mauer, Mosbach, and Miesenheim.

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Efficiency of gathering and its archaeological implications for an European Early Palaeolithic population

Cited by 15 publications

References 122 publications

Let’s Play at Digging

Let’s Play at Digging

Stable oxygen isotope analysis of Phorcus lineatus (da Costa, 1778) as a proxy for foraging seasonality during the Mesolithic in northern Iberia

Several Lower Palaeolithic Sites along the Rhine Rift Valley, Dated from 1.3 to 0.6 Million Years

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