El Mirador cave (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain): A whole perspective

Vergès, Josep María; Allué, Ethel; Fontanals, Marta; Morales, Juan Ignacio; Martín, Patricia; Carrancho, Ángel; Expósito, Isabel; Guardiola, Miquel; Lozano, Marina; Marsal, Roser; Oms, Xavier; Euba, Itxaso; Rodriguez, A.

doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2016.01.044

Cited by 50 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 25 publications

(3 reference statements)

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“…The zooarchaeological study suggests that the cave was used in winter and early spring during the ovicaprine breeding period and that, in most of the occupations, the cave was used for penning pregnant livestock and breeding (Martín et al, 2016). Additionally, acorn remains are not abundant and are only present in eight of the 18 layers analysed for this study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…The systematic and recurrent use of oaks over the course of the timescale in which the cave was used could indicate the existence of specific exploitation patterns, suggesting forest management or intense activity in the woodland. The archaeobotanical material, including seeds and palynological records, clearly indicate the presence of forests (oaks and pines) and open land related to agriculture and pastures, as well as disturbed lands in the immediate surroundings of the cavity and on a regional scale (Allué and Euba, 2008:;Cabanes et al, 2009;Expósito, 2016). Palynological data from the El Mirador sequence suggest that on the regional scale a mosaic landscape would have been equally distributed according to biogeography (Expósito, 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The archaeobotanical material, including seeds and palynological records, clearly indicate the presence of forests (oaks and pines) and open land related to agriculture and pastures, as well as disturbed lands in the immediate surroundings of the cavity and on a regional scale (Allué and Euba, 2008:;Cabanes et al, 2009;Expósito, 2016). Palynological data from the El Mirador sequence suggest that on the regional scale a mosaic landscape would have been equally distributed according to biogeography (Expósito, 2016). Therefore, oak forests were important but did not cover the entire landscape.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, livestock management has been observed throughout the sequence, indicating patterns related to the exploitation of small herds (Martín et al, 2009;Martín et al, 2016). The zooarchaeological study suggests that the cave was used in winter and early spring during the ovicaprine breeding period and that, in most of the occupations, the cave was used for penning pregnant livestock and breeding (Martín et al, 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The archaeological record recovered in the 6 m2 test trench is mainly made up of archaeobotanical remains, including charcoal and seeds (Allué and Euba, 2008;Rodríguez and Buxó, 2008). Microremains from sediment samples include pollen and phytoliths (Cabanes et al, 2009;Expósito, 2016). There are also faunal remains dominated by sheep and goat bone remains as well as a few ceramic and lithic remains.…”

Section: Site Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Wood uses at El Mirador Cave (Atapuerca, Burgos) based on anthracology and dendrology

Euba

Allué

Burjachs

2016

Quaternary International

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El Mirador cave contains a continuous sedimentary deposit of burnt sediments identified as fumier layers, corresponding to burnt sheep and goat dung. This sediment infilling has yielded a large number of charcoal remains. The general objective of this study is to contribute to the knowledge of western Mediterranean Holocene vegetation and land use history by combining classical wood charcoal analysis with dendrological charcoal studies. A specific aim of this work is to characterize the origin of the anthracological assemblage. Anthracological analyses show a continuous sequence dominated by oaks, in which deciduous oaks exhibit higher values during the early Neolithic, with an increase in evergreen oaks from the middle Neolithic onwards. The anthracological data suggests that human activities and climatic variations throughout the Holocene caused changes in the forests. The dendrology results on a small Quercus sp. deciduous sample suggests that the wood used corresponds to young branches bearing tree rings with a rapid growth rate, which might indicate that the trees were regularly shredded. Both approaches suggest that oak was probably used as leafy fodder, and its remains were burnt during repeated combustion processes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Site Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Wood uses at El Mirador Cave (Atapuerca, Burgos) based on anthracology and dendrology

Euba

Allué

Burjachs

2016

Quaternary International

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Characterization of ancient lipids in prehistoric organic residues: Chemical evidence of livestock‐pens in rock‐shelters since early neolithic to bronze age

Gea

Sampedro

Vallejo

et al. 2017

J of Separation Science

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The characterization of ancient lipids from prehistoric sediments (fumiers) located in a rock-selter has been possible after the optimization of an analytical method based on the microwave-assisted extraction and solid-phase extraction clean-up step and a final derivatization step followed by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry. Eight sterols and two bile acids were detected just in the partially burned and unburned layers of the fumiers (animal organic residues deriving from manure/dung). The relationship between some of these compounds can be used to distinguish the biogenic origin of the samples, concluding that these strata (from Early Neolithic to Late Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age) can be classified as ruminant residues. Three main periods of activity are observed over a period of 2000 years: one from 3990 ± 40 before present (4530-4410 calibrated before present) to 4100 ± 40 before present (4820-4750/4730-4510/4470-4450 calibrated before present), the second from 4470 ± 40 before present (5300-4970 calibrated before present) to 5490 ± 30 before present (6310-6275/6230-6220 calibrated before present) and the third from 5880 ± 30 before present (6775-6765/6750-6645 calibrated before present) to 6010 ± 30 before present (6940-6780/6765-6755 calibrated before present). Chemical data obtained are in concordance with the previous results obtained in the area.

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Degenerative joint disease in the Chalcolithic population of El Mirador cave (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain): The vertebral column

Yustos

Lozano

Morales

et al. 2020

Intl J of Osteoarchaeology

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Degenerative joint disease (DJD) is one of the most common pathological conditions identified in the archaeological record and remains a health problem in modern populations. This study aimed to evaluate DJD of the vertebral column in a sample from a Chalcolithic collective burial at El Mirador cave (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain) dated to 4,880–4,390 years cal. BP. Most of the human remains recovered were commingled and are in a good state of preservation. Traditionally, far too little attention has been paid to skeletal remains from secondary contexts. Bearing in mind the limitations inherent to this type of study, in this work, we applied an adapted methodology to examine the degree of vertebral degeneration considering the skeletal changes associated with DJD (i.e., osteophyte formation, porosity, lipping and/or eburnation). All data were evaluated at the 0.05 level using the chi‐squared statistic, and comparisons were made between age groups and between the spine regions. Our results showed a higher prevalence of DJD in the lumbar region, although eburnation was the least observed marker in the sample. Additionally, significant differences were found between age groups, with a greater manifestation of DJD in vertebral elements associated with the adult group. These results are consistent with those of other studies and are based on the hypothesis that DJD is highly correlated with age. Overall, the degree of vertebral degeneration is low, but taken together, these results suggest that some individuals from El Mirador cave may have suffered from DJD. Furthermore, the methodology proposed has demonstrated that valuable information can be obtained from commingled skeletal assemblages.

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El Mirador cave (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain): A whole perspective

Abstract: Aquest arxiu PDF conté el manuscrit acceptat per a la seva publicació.

Cited by 50 publications

References 25 publications

Wood uses at El Mirador Cave (Atapuerca, Burgos) based on anthracology and dendrology

Wood uses at El Mirador Cave (Atapuerca, Burgos) based on anthracology and dendrology

Characterization of ancient lipids in prehistoric organic residues: Chemical evidence of livestock‐pens in rock‐shelters since early neolithic to bronze age

Degenerative joint disease in the Chalcolithic population of El Mirador cave (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain): The vertebral column

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