Paleolithic Landscapes and Seascapes of the West Coast of Portugal

Haws, Jonathan; Funk, Caroline; Benedetti, Michael M.; Bicho, Nuno; Daniels, Jack; Minckley, Thomas A.; Denniston, Rhawn F.; Jeraj, Marjeta; Gibaja, Juan Francisco; Hockett, Bryan; Forman, Steven L.

doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-8219-3_9

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…The zooarchaeological studies done in these sites show that Neanderthal diet was based on medium and large-sized animals, and only some sites like Cova del Bolomor show significant capture of small game (Table 1). Overall, these results do not differ greatly from those observed in other southern regions of the Iberian Peninsula (Haws et al, 2011). 3 IV (c7) Unknown 6.8 3 IV (c6) Unknown 19.9 Cueva Antón (Sanchis, 2012) …”

Section: Murciasupporting

confidence: 51%

Neanderthal diets in central and southeastern Mediterranean Iberia

Salazar‐García

Power

Serra³

et al. 2013

Quaternary International

112

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a b s t r a c tDuring recent decades, Neanderthal diet has been a major research topic in palaeoanthropology. This has been accelerated by the maturation of different techniques, which have produced a plethora of new information. However, this proliferation of data has led to confusing and contradictory results. Furthermore, most of the ecological dietary studies have been carried out on specimens drawn from different time periods and regions, almost exclusively those characterized by cold, open environmental conditions. Subsistence models based on these fragmentary data have been applied to Neanderthals living in a variety of different regions and environments, even though their dietary strategies may have been as variable as regions they inhabited. In this paper we integrate different dietary approaches (studies of the zooarchaeology, stable isotopes and plant remains) from the central and southeastern Mediterranean coast of Iberia in order to develop a broader and more complex picture of Neanderthal diet in different Mediterranean environmental conditions. Our results suggest that there may have been some minor dietary variation due to climatic or environmental differences, but that Neanderthal diet focussed on large terrestrial game, supplemented by plant foods when these were available.Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. Neanderthal dietary ecologyThe dietary behaviours of Neanderthals and the relationship between their diet and their social organization, technological abilities, and even their eventual disappearance, have been hotly debated in the anthropological literature. Examining the diets of Neanderthals requires the synthesis of data that have been collected by numerous researchers over the last 150 years. In many cases, the differences between Neanderthal and early modern human diets have been emphasized, at the expense of cogent discussion of the variation within each group. Early modern humans lived in a wide variety of environmental contexts and likely pursued a variety of behaviours throughout this range of environments. The exclusively Eurasian distribution of Neanderthals did not include as many environments, but neither was it the exclusively cold Arctic climate that many have supposed it to be. A more detailed examination of the Neanderthal range and the effects of shifting global climates reveals that this group would have been exposed to a diverse range of environments (Hoffecker, 2009;MacDonald et al., 2009). Just as modern human dietary behaviour likely varied with environments, so, too, can we predict that Neanderthals had different diets in different environments.Our understanding of the diets of Neanderthals comes from three main lines of evidence. The first is the study of the human remains themselves, including the isotope signal recorded in their bones, the microwear on their teeth, and how factors of their lifehistory are related to diet. The second line of evidence includes the study of the remains of their food, in the form of animal and plant remains preserved ...

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Section: Murciasupporting

confidence: 51%

Neanderthal diets in central and southeastern Mediterranean Iberia

Salazar‐García

Power

Serra³

et al. 2013

Quaternary International

112

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“…This date approximates the age of the oldest-known evidence for shellfish collecting in South Africa, at Pinnacle Point Cave 13B. Younger Mousterian sites, including Üçağızlı Cave II, Turkey (Stiner, 2009); Moscerini Cave, Italy (Stiner, 1993); los Aviones Cave (Montes, 1991;Zilhão et al, 2010) and Perneras Cave (Carrión et al, 1999;Montes, 1988), Spain; Devil's Tower, Vanguard Cave and Gorham's Cave, Gibraltar (Barton, 2000;Stringer et al, 2008); and Ibn Ammar and Figuiera Brava Caves, Portugal (Bicho and Haws, 2008;Haws et al, 2011) have also provided intertidal shells. Moscerini, Vanguard, Gorham's, and Ibn Ammar caves are further notable for a few bones of marine vertebrates.…”

Section: Did the Neanderthals Shellfish Routinely?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Shellfishing and human evolution

Klein

Bird

2016

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology

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Southern and northwestern Africa have provided the oldest known shell middens, dating from the Last Interglacial (MIS 5, ~128-71 ka) and the early part of the succeeding glaciation (MIS 4, ~71-59 ka). However, when and if older, suitably situated, stratified coastal sites are found, they are likely to show that routine shellfishing began much earlier, perhaps from the time that people first occupied coasts. Ethnohistoric records suggest that ancient people would have shellfished mainly during twice-monthly periods when the intertidal zone is maximally exposed. Caloric and nutrient return for coastal shellfishing effort can be quite high, but only when the intertidal is exposed, and archaeology implies that like ethnohistorically observed groups, ancient shellfish collectors depended more on terrestrial and marine vertebrates and on plants. Shellfishing can generate highly visible and durable archaeological signatures, and only a few collecting episodes each year could have produced the oldest middens, which span many millennia. Shell middens are so far unknown in European Neanderthal (Mousterian) and succeeding Upper Paleolithic sites, probably because suitably situated sites have yet to be found. Consistently large gastropod size in the oldest known middens suggests that human population growth cannot explain either the occasional presence of "symbolic" artifacts or the innovative burst that coincides with the spread of fully modern Africans to Eurasia 60-50 ka.

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“…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.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Calcareous massifs, mostly composed of Jurassic limestone with significant karst development, can be found in five major mountainous areas located close to the western and southern borders (Manuppella and Moreira, 1975). Traces of Pleistocene coastal landforms are known in many areas along the coast, even though most of the Pleistocene littoral areas have been destroyed or drowned due to sea‐level fluctuations (Haws et al ., 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The spatial patterning of Middle Palaeolithic human settlement in westernmost Iberia

Cascalheira

Gonçalves

Maio

2021

J Quaternary Science

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Currently available data on the Pleistocene human occupation of the westernmost territories of Iberia attest to the presence of Middle Palaeolithic industries from c. 240 ka cal bp until c. 37 ka cal bp. Previous studies focusing on this time frame have suggested that Middle Palaeolithic populations were highly mobile and predominately utilised locally available raw materials, with many cave and open‐air sites being located near fluvial settings. Other than these observations, no specific studies have focused on exploring the factors influencing human site location choice during that time range. Employing statistical and GIS approaches, this paper provides an initial assessment of spatial patterning in human settlement during the Middle Palaeolithic of westernmost Iberia. Results show that site locations are biased towards lower elevations and riverine settings and suggest that distance to rivers might have impacted the diversity and specific types of lithic raw materials used at each site. These results help to shed light on the particularities of Neanderthal adaptations in a region regarded as a refugium during periods of unfavourable climate during the Middle Palaeolithic.

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Paleolithic Landscapes and Seascapes of the West Coast of Portugal

Cited by 9 publications

References 68 publications

Neanderthal diets in central and southeastern Mediterranean Iberia

Neanderthal diets in central and southeastern Mediterranean Iberia

Shellfishing and human evolution

The spatial patterning of Middle Palaeolithic human settlement in westernmost Iberia

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