The Early Acheulean technology of Barranc de la Boella (Catalonia, Spain)

Abstract

a b s t r a c tSince 2007, excavations at Barranc de la Boella (Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain) have revealed three localities with rich archaeo-paleontological assemblages: La Mina, El Forn and Pit 1. Palaeontology, palaeomagnetism and cosmogenic analyses have dated these localities to close to 1 Ma. The presence of Mammuthus meridionalis, Hippopotamus antiquus, Stephanorhinus cf. hundsheimensis, Mimomys savini and Victoriamys chalinei stand out in the sample of macro and micro-mammals.The lithic assemblages from the three sites are made up of percussion cobbles, choppers, choppercores, cores, simple flakes, and some retouched flakes: mainly denticulates and notches. In the case of the El Forn and Pit 1 localities, two large cutting tools have been recovered: a cleaver-like tool and a pick made of hard-wearing schist. The lithic assemblage of Pit 1, which includes several refitting lithic sets, is closely associated with the remains of a young-adult Mammuthus meridionalis, in a clear butchering site context. This evidence suggests that Barranc de la Boella is the oldest European Early Acheulean site, and one of the oldest butchering site on the subcontinent during the late Early Pleistocene. The study of the variability among these three localities in similar environmental conditions, together with information from other sites, are discussed in order to gain further knowledge about the appearance of the Acheulean in Europe, and its continuity or discontinuity in relation to pre-existing technologies.

Barranc de la Boella (Catalonia, Spain): an Acheulean elephant butchering site from the European late Early Pleistocene

“…The Acheulean sites of La Noira (Moncel et al ., ) and lower levels at Arago (Barsky and de Lumley, ; Falguères et al , ) (France) and Notarchirico (Piperno and Tagliacozzo, ; Lefèvre et al ., ) (Italy) are younger, and dated to between 700 and 550 ka. The matter of how the Acheulean technology evolved, emerge, or arrived in Europe, particularly at this Mediterranean site of BB, remains open (Mosquera et al ., ).…”

“…BB is the oldest site in Europe with a large cutting tool, namely a schist pick. This tool, together with the cleaver found at the contemporary level 2 of the El Forn locality at BB (Vallverdú et al ., ), makes these kind of tools the oldest in the European Early Pleistocene (Mosquera et al , ). The presence of large cutting tools marks the appearance of the Acheulean, particularly the occurrence of picks and handaxes (Beyene et al , ).…”

Early hominins in Europe: The Galerian migration hypothesis

“…It is not clear what level early hominins occupied in the food pyramid, whether they were active hunters or scavengers (e.g., Domínguez-Rodrigo, 2002), but their dependence on animal proteins, and particularly animal fat from large herbivores, seems well established (e.g., Ben-Dor et al, 2011;Bolus, 2015). The late Early Pleistocene record of sites with evidence of butchery of large mammals, albeit still scanty (Gaudzinski et al, 2005;Mosquera et al, 2016;Pawłowska, 2017), seems to support this inference: Lower Paleolithic artifacts have been found in association with Fig. 6.…”

The early pleistocene site of la Terre-des-Sablons at Lunery-Rosières (Cher department, Centre region, France): sedimentary units, ESR dating, geoarchaeological studies, prehistory.

“…Des découvertes faites ces trente dernières années dans les formations alluviales fossiles de rivières et de lacs ou dans diverses cavités karstiques confirment la présence, dès le Pléistocène inférieur, des homininés en Europe (Aguirre & Carbonell, 2001 ;Carbonell et al, 2001Carbonell et al, , 2010Muttoni et al, 2010 ;Sala Ramos et al, 2011 ;Parés et al, 2013 ;Bermudez de Castro et al, 2013 ;Garcia et al, 2013 ;Barsky et al, 2015 ;Mosquera et al, 2016). Les techniques utilisées pour la fabrication des artefacts lithiques de ce très ancien Paléolithique parfois appelé « Oldowayen » sont classées dans le « Mode 1 » (Leakey, 1966(Leakey, , 1971Clark, 1969).…”