Two Deciduous Human Molars from the Early Pleistocene Deposits of Barranco León (Orce, Spain)

Ribot, F.; Gibert, Luís; Ferràndez-Cañadell, Carles; Olivares, Enrique G.; Sánchez, F.; Lería, María

doi:10.1086/679615

Cited by 27 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…There is currently general agreement that early humans occupied the Orce area between 1.3 and 1.2 million years ago, based on a limited number of stone tools and on evidence of anthropic actions on bones detected at Venta Micena quarry 3 [ 31 ]. Additional evidence has come from nearby sites: two human deciduous molars, probably belonging to the same individual, were discovered at the Barranco Leon site [ 32 , 33 , 34 ], and stone artefacts were found at the Fuentenueva-3a and Barranco León-5 sites [ 35 , 36 ]. However, as often occurs in paleoanthropology, the Orce fossils became the subject of intense controversy [ 37 ].…”

Section: The Case Of Orce Manmentioning

confidence: 99%

Twentieth-Century Paleoproteomics: Lessons from Venta Micena Fossils

Torres

Borja

Gibert

et al. 2022

Biology

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Proteomics methods can identify amino acid sequences in fossil proteins, thus making it possible to determine the ascription or proximity of a fossil to other species. Before mass spectrometry was used to study fossil proteins, earlier studies used antibodies to recognize their sequences. Lowenstein and colleagues, at the University of San Francisco, pioneered the identification of fossil proteins with immunological methods. His group, together with Olivares’s group at the University of Granada, studied the immunological reactions of proteins from the controversial Orce skull fragment (VM-0), a 1.3-million-year-old fossil found at the Venta Micena site in Orce (Granada province, southern Spain) and initially assigned to a hominin. However, discrepancies regarding the morphological features of the internal face of the fossil raised doubts about this ascription. In this article, we review the immunological analysis of the proteins extracted from VM-0 and other Venta Micena fossils assigned to hominins and to other mammals, and explain how these methods helped to determine the species specificity of these fossils and resolve paleontological controversies.

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Section: The Case Of Orce Manmentioning

confidence: 99%

Twentieth-Century Paleoproteomics: Lessons from Venta Micena Fossils

Torres

Borja

Gibert

et al. 2022

Biology

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“…This site, alongside the nearby locality of Fuente Nueva 3, presents evidence of hominin behaviour, including the earliest lithic assemblages documented in the Iberian Peninsula (Turq et al, 1996;Gibert et al, 1998;Barsky et al, 2010Barsky et al, , 2015Titton et al, 2019Titton et al, , 2020Titton et al, , 2021Toro-Moyano et al, 2009, 2010aYravedra et al, 2021). Barranco León has also produced hominin remains, specifically a mandibular left dm1 (Toro Moyano et al, 2013, although see also Gibert et al, 1999;Ribot et al, 2015). Bone modifications by biotic agents, including hominins, have also been documented at the site Espigares et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Unravelling Hominin Activities in the Zooarchaeological Assemblage of Barranco León (Orce, Granada, Spain)

et al. 2022

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Little is known about the subsistence practices of the first European settlers, mainly due to the shortage of archaeological sites in Europe older than a million years. This article contributes to the knowledge of the subsistence of the first Europeans with new zooarchaeology and taphonomic data from the Palaeolithic site of Barranco León (Orce, Granada, Spain). We present the results of the analysis of the faunal assemblages retrieved in the context of new excavations undertaken between 2016 and 2020. We have followed a standard methodology for the identification and quantification of species, mortality profiles, skeletal representation and taphonomic analysis. With regard to the taphonomic evidence, we have documented the extent of rounding, abrasion and other alterations. Finally, we examined traces from the activities of carnivores and hominins that led to the accumulation and alteration of the bone assemblages. Results indicate that the archaeo-paleontological deposits from Barranco León present a dual-patterned mixed taphonomic origin. The first phase primarily involved waterborne processes (BL-D1), which led to the accumulation of lithic raw materials, a few archaeological stone tools, and some faunal remains with percussion and cutmarks. The second phase (BL-D2) contains several stone tools associated with faunal remains with more anthropogenic alterations, such as cutmarks and percussion marks. After analysing the Barranco León zooarchaeological assemblage, the present study concludes that hominins had access to the meat and within-bone nutrients of animals of diverse sizes. However, the specific carcass acquisition mechanisms that hominins followed are less certain because the presence of tooth marks suggests that carnivores also played a role in the accumulation and modification of the Barranco León faunal assemblage.

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“…1.2 -1.1 Ma (Bermúdez de Carbonell et al 2008;de Lombera-Hermida et al 2015;Huguet et al 2017;Parés et al 2006;Rosas et al 2006), and at the eastern Andalusian sites of Barranco León-5, where tooth fragments assigned to Homo sp. were found, and Fuente Nueva-3, which dated from 1.4 -1.2 Ma (Álvarez et al, 2015;Barsky et al, 2015;Carbonell and Rodríguez, 2006;de Lumley et al, 2009;Duval et al, 2012a,b;Fajardo 2009;Gibert, J. et al, 1998;1999a,b, 2001Martínez-Navarro et al, 1997;Oms et al, 2000;Ribot et al, 2015;Toro-Moyano et al, 2003, 2011. Different conjectures have been put forward about how often Early Pleistocene Homo was present in western Europe, about possibly available routes of access from Africa, and about what were the corresponding technological behaviours (Bar-Yosef and Belfer Cohen, 2001;Carrión and Walker, 2019;Galliotti and Mussi, 2018;Gibert, L. et al, 2016;Gonen, 2006: Goren-Inbar et al, 2000;Hovers and Braun, 2009;Ollé et al, 2016;Sharon and Barsky, 2016;Shea, 2013Shea, , 2016Vallverdú et al, 2014;Walker, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cueva Negra del Estrecho del Río Quípar: a Dated Late Early Pleistocene Palaeolithic Site in Southeastern Spain

Walker¹,

Uriarte²,

Jiménez³

et al. 2020

J Paleo Arch

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Systematic excavation and multidisciplinary research undertaken over three decades have deepened our understanding of the early Palaeolithic archaeology at Cueva Negra del Estrecho del Río Quípar (Caravaca de la Cruz, Murcia, Spain). New results from biochronology and combined ESR and U-series dating corroborate previous magnetostratigraphy, placing the entire excavated sequence between the Jaramillo sub-chron and the Matuyama-Brunhes boundary (i.e., ca. 990-772 thousand years ago [ka]); palaeontological and palynological findings reflect temperate environmental conditions. A bifacially-flaked limestone hand-axe was excavated one metre below the top of the Pleistocene sequence. The Equus cf. altidens tooth that provided the ESR estimate was excavated one metre below the hand-axe. Throughout its five-metre-deep sedimentary sequence, small nodules, fragments, and struck flakes make up the bulk of the Palaeolithic assemblage. Stratigraphical analysis points to undisturbed continuous sedimentary deposition above a layer of ashy sediment, encountered 4.5 m below the top of the Pleistocene sequence, which contained thermallyaltered bone and heat-shattered chert cores and flakes. Cueva Negra is among the earliest European sites with firm evidence of combustion..Introduction Context Geographical locationCueva Negra del Estrecho del Río Quípar is a large, north-facing, rock-shelter (ca. 10x10 m in area), in Upper Miocene (Tortonian) biocalcarenite rock, lying at 740 m above sea level, a.s.l. (38° 02' 12.5" N; 1° 53' 5.8" W) on the right bank 40 m above the Quípar River where it flows northwards from a one-kilometre-long gorge (the Estrecho, i.e., "the Narrows") below the hamlet of La Encarnación in Caravaca de la Cruz municipality (Murcia, Spain) (Figure 1). The Quípar is a tributary of the Segura River that reaches the Mediterranean Sea 110 km E of Cueva Negra, even though the cave lies only 70 km N of the Murcian coast. Important geological faults determine the alignment of tributaries in the Segura drainage basin. The Estrecho follows the sinistral reverse Quípar Fault, active since the Late Miocene (Messinian). Activity caused uplift of the right bank of the river, thereby saving from riverine erosion the fine-grained fluviatile sediments that had accumulated in Cueva Negra under conditions of low transport energy by intermittent overflow of an erstwhile swampy lake fed by the Quípar during the late Early Pleistocene. The Quípar enters the gorge at 725 m a.s.l. and leaves it at 690 m a.s.l.. The height of the land above sea level during the Early Pleistocene is unknown. The Upper Miocene (Tortonian) calcarenite formed under the Tethys Sea, arising to become a shoreline surface in the Upper Pliocene. Cueva Negra is a vestige of a trapezoidal endokarstic cavity that likely developed in relation to low-lying lagoons or lakes. LithostratigraphyThe fluviatile sediments inside Cueva Negra include clasts eroded from the cave roof and walls. Palaeolithic and faunal remains are present throughout the five-metre depth, implying...

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Two Deciduous Human Molars from the Early Pleistocene Deposits of Barranco León (Orce, Spain)

Cited by 27 publications

References 25 publications

Twentieth-Century Paleoproteomics: Lessons from Venta Micena Fossils

Twentieth-Century Paleoproteomics: Lessons from Venta Micena Fossils

Unravelling Hominin Activities in the Zooarchaeological Assemblage of Barranco León (Orce, Granada, Spain)

Cueva Negra del Estrecho del Río Quípar: a Dated Late Early Pleistocene Palaeolithic Site in Southeastern Spain

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