Geoarchaeology of the Cobrinhos site (Vila Velha de Ródão, Portugal) - a record of the earliest Mousterian in western Iberia

Abstract

Cobrinhos (Vila Velha do Ródão, central eastern Portugal) is a Mousterian site found during factory construction in 2014. This area is located in the Lower Tejo valley, which is characterized in terms of geomorphology by six river terraces, numbered downwards (T1 to T6), with Palaeolithic industries associated only with T4 to T6. Terrace T4 was recently dated as spanning ca. 340 ka to 155 ka, with Acheulean in the basal and middle levels and early Mousterian in the uppermost levels. The geological context at Cobrinhos is a colluvial unit that links to the top of T4. It has evidence for palaeoweathering with the same characteristics as seen in T1 to T4, considerably different from that seen in T5 and T6. Despite disturbance by ploughing, the site shows a uniform distribution of sizes and shapes of lithic artefacts, with thousands of implements < 30 mm and a coherent Mousterian assemblage including Levallois and discoidal reduction pieces, Levallois flakes, blades and points, pseudo-Levallois points, notches, denticulates, sidescrapers, and an absence of Acheulean or Upper Palaeolithic tools. The available data suggest that the colluvial unit is coeval with the topmost T4 deposits and that the Cobrinhos industry is in its original geomorphological context. Although the colluvial unit cannot be dated directly, from the combination of site data and available published luminescence ages for T4, we suggest a probable age of ca. 165 to 155 ka for this industry. These results are of relevance in the investigation of the demise of archaic Pleistocene human populations and the proliferation of Neanderthal groups in Iberia.

Late Pleistocene Landscape and Settlement Dynamics of Portuguese Estremadura

“…The co-occurrence may be a palimpsest of Acheulean and Middle Palaeolithic artifacts, or it could indicate Early Middle Palaeolithic deposits (ca. 200-165 kya according to Pereira et al 2019). None of the finds have associated radiometric dates, making a precise age estimation all but impossible.…”

The spatial patterning of Middle Palaeolithic human settlement in westernmost Iberia

“…On the one hand, the reinvestigation of previously known sites has exposed exceptional new data: from the systematic exploitation of aquatic resources and stone pine economy at Gruta da Figueira Brava during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5 (Zilhão et al ., 2020) to the confirmation of the importance of small‐size prey and slow‐moving species in the Neanderthal diet (Carvalho et al ., 2018; Nabais and Zilhão, 2019). On the other hand, the discovery of new sites, such as Cobrinhos (Pereira et al ., 2019), Praia do Rei Cortiço, Mira Nascente (Haws et al ., 2010, 2011), or Gruta da Companheira, as well as the excavation of novel stratigraphical units in previously known sites such as Lapa do Picareiro (Benedetti et al ., 2019) and Cardina‐Salto do Boi (Aubry et al ., 2020), have allowed for expansion of the chrono‐cultural evidence of the Neanderthal presence in the region.…”