Metrical analysis of bovine bone remains from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age at the El Portalón site (Atapuerca, Burgos) in the Iberian context

Abstract

The discrimination of wild and domestic forms of animals is crucial to understanding the subsistence strategy of a site's inhabitants. In this study, a metrical analysis was carried out for the taxonomical identification of Bos taurus and Bos primigenius. Abundant bovine bone remains have been recovered from the El Portalón site's Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Bronze Age levels. A metrical analysis and sex determination have been completed for these bone remains. The results of the metrical study suggest a significant decrease in bovine size during the transition from the Chalcolithic to the Bronze Age. The similar sex ratio (bulls/cows) among the levels and the similar mortality profile rule out management differences as a possible cause for this size change. The global trend towards aridification from the Middle Holocene onwards or the general climate event (4.2 Ka: transition Chalcolithic to Bronze Age) where social, demographic, and subsistence strategic changes occurred are considered probable causes of this decrease in cattle size.

The Genomic Legacy of Human Management and sex-biased Aurochs hybridization in Iberian Cattle

“…Aurochs were probably present in Iberia until Roman times (28) leaving possibilities for interbreeding but we cannot exclude that various factors such as hunting or changing vegetation had led to a substantial decline in the wild aurochs population around the early Bronze Age. A previous study on cattle morphology from the site of El Portalón described a decrease in size from the Neolithic to the Chalcolithic and a further significant size decrease from the Chalcolithic to the Bronze Age (57) and associated this change in size to the aridification of the area at this time (58). Indeed, this climatic change could also be related to a reduction of the aurochs population contributing to the stabilization of the levels of ancestry in domestic cattle from the Bronze Age to the present.…”

Estudio morfológico de los restos mandibulares del género Canis en el yacimiento holoceno de El Portalón (Sierra de Atapuerca). Implicaciones en la aparición del perro en la prehistoria

“…De hecho, el tamaño en sí mismo es una variable muy importante para tener en cuenta en el estudio de las especies, ya que está relacionada con la biología de la especie (Damuth y MacFadden, 1990). Esto es de especial relevancia en la neolitizaciónproceso en el que se observa un descenso de talla entre hace 10.000-6.300 BC-en varios animales, y que es interpretado como parte del proceso de domesticación en regiones mediterráneas (Zeder, 2006) y, en concreto, en El Portalón (Galindo-Pellicena et al, 2019, 2020.…”

“…Dentro de esta amplia secuencia, la relacionada con la Edad del Bronce constituye un importante legado arqueo-paleontológico para la región central de la Península. Los primeros estudios sobre la fauna de El Portalón están realizados por Galindo-Pellicena (2014) y Galindo-Pellicena et al (2017, 2019, 2020 y el presente trabajo supone el primer estudio llevado a cabo en los restos de cánidos. En este período se registran la mayor parte de los procesos de domesticación de fauna silvestre (Larson y Fuller, 2014;Grandal-d'Anglade et al, 2019).…”

Human Activities, Biostratigraphy and Past Environment Revealed by Small-Mammal Associations at the Chalcolithic Levels of El Portalón de Cueva Mayor (Atapuerca, Spain)

“…Two bone remains of wild large mammals were found within the prepared floors: an atlas of Bos primigenius (ATP11.UE23a.862) and a distal part of a humerus of Sus scrofa (ATP11.UE23a.861) [44][45][46]. They might be allochthonous as well, considering that the wild large mammalian fauna is very scarce at the LC levels of El Portalón (accounting for only 2% of the identified taxa, otherwise largely dominated by domestic species), and that these two species are not present in the underlying EC levels [44].…”