Social networking is an essential feature of hunter-gatherer societies. It fosters the circulation of goods and information and enables kinship ties across different scales, including long-distance contacts. While such behaviors are known since at least the Upper Palaeolithic, evidence for geographically extensive social networks remains scarce. This evidence is limited to indirect inferences based on shared cultural traits, "art" styles, and symbolic items, while lithic raw material movements are mostly local and regional, with few cases exceeding 300 kilometers. We provide geochemical evidence for the largest confirmed distance between the source and discard location of a knapped lithic object in Palaeolithic Europe. Solutrean artifacts discarded at Peña Capón, Central Iberia, were sourced in Southwest France, 600 to 700 kilometers away. This demonstrates social networks of unprecedented geographic scale maintained during ∼1400 years during the Last Glacial Maximum. It also suggests that stone tools were exchanged as symbolic items to solidify social contacts and sustain far-reaching networks as risk-buffering mechanisms among widely dispersed hunter-gatherers.

Two new sites, identified during a survey of the Taju & ntilde;a River Valley, central Iberia, show evidence of both flint extraction and working, specifically for the production of long blades. These are an important addition to the limited number of such sites known in Eurasia.

The authors present results of a recent project that challenges the perceived absence of Late Pleistocene human settlements in high-altitude areas of inland Spain. Despite the apparent geographic and bioclimatic constraints, these areas may contain archaeological material from diverse prehistoric periods.

Understanding site formation and post-depositional processes is critical for analysing and interpreting the nature, function and environmental setting of human occupations recorded in Pleistocene archaeological deposits. Here we study the sedimentary and post-depositional processes that operated at the Middle Palaeolithic sequence of the Pena Cabra site and its role in the distribution of archaeological remains. This site is located in central Iberia (Guadalajara province, Spain), in a nowadays almost inaccessible spot placed on a vertical rock face, in the slope of the fluvial valley of the Sorbe River (Tagus basin). The geomorphological, sedimentological and micromorphological studies conducted, combined with the intra-site spatial analyses of the archaeological record and the chronometric dating of the sequence, shows that the formation and post-depositional history of the stratigraphic deposit is related to complex geological overlapped processes. These include (1) fluvial dynamics, (2) catastrophic flood events, (3) slope sediment deposition during the human occupation, (4) the freezing and thawing of soil under periglacial climate and (5) the later sudden sedimentary isolation of the cavity from the sediment source due to a rock wall collapse. Some of these events conditioned the periods of occupation of the site by Neanderthals groups during MIS 5, including the accessibility to the rock shelter. Furthermore, they have been a relevant factor affecting the current distribution of the archaeological record due to sediment bed deformation. Our results illustrate the necessity of conducting interdisciplinary geoarchaeological and taphonomic research in Pleistocene sites as a key prerequisite for interpreting the spatial distribution of archaeological assemblages in behavioural terms. Although this is a well-known necessity in current research, issues such as sediment deformation affecting archaeological layers are not yet widely investigated, even though many Pleistocene sites could have been affected by cryoturbation processes during cold periods.

Los Casares cave is a site in inland Iberia that preserves evidence of Late Pleistocene Neanderthal and carnivore occupations. In this paper, we report small mammal assemblages from layers C and B-C of the "Seno A" cavity which date from MIS 3 (44-42 cal kyr BP). Taphonomic evidence suggests a mixed predator origin for the assemblage, with contributions from both mammalian carnivores and avian raptors. The presence of Cricetulus bursae, Pliomys coronensis, and Alexandromys oeconomus supports the Late Pleistocene age of the deposit. Our results show that the surrounding landscape was characterized by open areas with humid meadows, forest patches, and abundant water sources. Paleoclimatic reconstruction based on the study of small mammals indicates that the region experienced a relatively stable, warm, and humid typical temperate-Mediterranean ecotonal climate. Inferred temperatures were similar to those today for the area, while annual precipitation was slightly higher. These conditions would have provided a favourable setting for Neanderthal subsistence, offering diverse natural resources within a suitable climatic context. As such, our findings provide an updated palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic framework for the last Neanderthals of inland Iberia.

The Iberian Peninsula is a key region for unraveling human settlement histories of Eurasia during the period spanning the decline of Neandertals and the emergence of anatomically modern humans (AMH). There is no evidence of human occupation in central Iberia after the disappearance of Neandertals ~42,000 years ago until approximately 26,000 years ago, rendering the region “nobody’s land” during the Aurignacian period. The Abrigo de la Malia provides irrefutable evidence of human settlements dating back to 36,200 to 31,760 calibrated years before the present (cal B.P.) This site also records additional levels of occupation around 32,420 to 26,260 cal B.P., suggesting repeated settlement of this territory. Our multiproxy examination identifies a change in climate trending toward colder and more arid conditions. However, this climatic deterioration does not appear to have affected AMH subsistence strategies or their capacity to inhabit this region. These findings reveal the ability of AMH groups to colonize regions hitherto considered uninhabitable, reopening the debate on early Upper Paleolithic population dynamics of southwestern Europe.

The extended period of coexistence between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens in Europe coincided with the emergence of regionally distinctive lithic industries, signalling the onset of the Upper Palaeolithic. The Iberian Peninsula was on the periphery of pioneering Upper Palaeolithic developments, with archaeological remains primarily found in northern territories. We report the discovery of an initial Upper Palaeolithic lithic industry at Cueva Millán in the hinterlands of Iberia. This industry, termed here Arlanzian, not only represents the earliest and southernmost evidence of such industries in Iberia but also lacks a direct counterpart. However, it exhibits chronological and technological parallels with the lithic industries associated with the earliest expansion of Homo sapiens throughout Eurasia. We interpret this as potential evidence of its intrusive nature, but not necessarily associated with a migration event, as more complex scenarios derived from inter-population connectivity must be also considered. The biological identity of the Arlanzian makers remains unknown, but they coexisted with declining Neanderthal groups from neighbouring territories.

The settlement of cold and arid environments by Pleistocene hunter-gatherers has been a heated topic in Paleolithic Archaeology and the Quaternary Sciences for years. In the Iberian Peninsula, a key area for studying human adaptations to such environments is composed by the large interior and upland regions of the northern and southern plateaus ( Mesetas ) and bordering areas. As, traditionally, these regions have been relatively under-investigated compared to the ecologically more favored coastal areas of the peninsula, our knowledge of the human settlement of the whole Iberian hinterland remains scarce for the Last Glacial. In this paper we present the discovery and first geoarcheological, paleoenvironmental and chronometric evidence obtained at Charco Verde II, a new site close to the southwestern foothills of the Iberian system range (Guadalajara province, Spain), bearing a sequence of Magdalenian human occupations starting at least at 20.8–21.4 ka cal BP during the Last Glacial Maximum, and covering Greenland Stadial 2 until ∼15.1–16.6 ka cal BP, including Heinrich stadial 1. As this site is located in an upland region which today faces one of the harshest climates in Iberia, such occupation sequence, occurred during some of the coldest and most arid phases of the Last Glacial, has relevant implications for our understanding of human-environment-climate interactions and population dynamics in Iberia and Western Europe. These findings support the hypothesis that the Iberian hinterland was not avoided by Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherers due to ecological constraints, but it hosted a complex and relatively dense settlement at least in some areas, even during cold periods. This suggest, one more time, that the historical scarcity of Upper Paleolithic sites in inland Iberia is, to a significant extent, an artifact of research bias.

In this paper, we present the first results obtained after new fieldwork and laboratory studies of chert catchment sources during the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic in inland Iberia, a region that has been traditionally depicted as marginal and sparsely populated during the last glacial due to its harsh ecological conditions compared to the coastal areas of the Iberian Peninsula. Our main aim is to determine the mobility strategies and social networks of the last Neandertals and first modern humans settled in inland Iberia and neighbouring regions, and eventually test the hypothesis that the last glacial human settlement in the Iberian hinterland was more dense and complex than previously thought. In this study, we focus on the cherts exploited at two archaeological sites: the Peña Cabra and Peña Capón rock shelters. These sites are located in the southeastern foothills of the Central System range, in the province of Guadalajara (Spain), and they have yielded a sequence of human occupations from the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic, respectively. To obtain a detailed picture of the mobility patterns and catchment strategies of the hunter‐gatherers settled at these sites, our fieldwork focussed on identifying chert outcrops that could have been frequented and exploited by them. After two field seasons, 22 chert outcrops from eight geological formations were identified and more than 300 samples were collected and analysed. We conducted textural, micropalaeontological, petrographical and geochemical analyses, with the aim of comprehensively characterising the various rock resources available in the study area. Results have shown that different siliceous varieties were available in the area surrounding the sites and both Neandertals and modern humans could have provisioned there. Also, they suggest the potential existence of a network connecting the Tagus and Ebro valleys, but this is a working hypothesis to be tested with future research.

Se presenta un nuevo yacimiento de arte rupestre esquemático en el valle del río Sorbe, junto a la población de Muriel (Tamajón, Guadalajara). Se localiza en el interior de una covacha abovedada contigua a una cavidad de mayores dimensiones y contiene un único panel con un total de 6 unidades gráficas: cuatro antropomorfos y un signo en pintura roja en torno a dos cazoletas parcialmente superpuestas. En el centro de la península ibérica, junto a los grandes conjuntos esquemáticos de Valonsadero (Soria) y el Duratón (Segovia), se comienza a conformar un tercer grupo en la vertiente sur del sistema Central, del cual Haza la Viña constituye uno de sus ejemplos mejor conservados. Asimismo, la aparente sincronía de las representaciones permite ahondar en los esquemas compositivos de este horizonte gráfico, cuya cronología situamos en el Neolítico-Calcolítico. Se trata del único conjunto rupestre prehistórico conservado en la actualidad en este valle.

The Pleistocene record of Peninj, dated to 1.5-1.4 Ma and located on the Western shore of Lake Natron (Tanzania), is one of the classic archaeo-paleontological sources for the study of the early Acheulean in Africa. Beginning with the seminal project led by Glynn Isaac in the decades of 1960s and 1980s, other research programs have been carried out in Peninj since then, particularly the landscape archaeology approach undertaken by M. Dominguez-Rodrigo between 1995 and 2005. In 2007, fieldwork was resumed in the area and a new project is currently in progress. As a result of this long-lasting scientific effort, the variety of geological, contextual, technological, and spatial information gathered so far can shed light on a number of aspects related to the early Acheulean record identified in the three different archaeological areas of Peninj (the Type Section, the North and the South Escarpments). This paper presents a synthesis of the history of research in Lake Natron and the geology of the Peninj Group. It also reviews some of the main discussions related to the Type Section technology, the bifacial hierarchical centripetal method hypothesis, and the Oldowan-Acheulean dichotomy for the attribution of the lithic samples in the framework of the archaeological record of Peninj. The paper includes a synthesis of the new data gathered in the Acheulean sites of the Escarpments in the course of the present research project and, finally, a regional interpretation of the early Acheulean of the Lake Natron.

The aim of this paper is to undertake the technological description of ES2-Lepolosi, one of the Acheulean sites located on the Sambu Escarpment in the Lake Natron Basin (Tanzania) and dated to 1.5-1.4 Ma. Through the combination of three different lithic collections (Glynn Isaac's 1961-81, Dominguez-Rodrigo's 1999-2002 and the sample retrieved during our own excavations carried out between 2007 and 2011), we provide here a comprehensive description of the technological characteristics seen in this classic African Early Acheulean site. Sedimentological, archaeostratigraphic, and soil micromorphological information, acquired during the course of the 2008-2011 fieldwork, is used as a contextual framework for assessing the environmental and post-depositional history of the site. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.

This article describes the sedimentological characteristics of dinosaur ichnites at three sites within the municipal area of El Castellar (in the Province of Teruel, Aragón, Spain): El Castellar (CT-1), El Pozo (CT-2), and Camino El Berzal (CT-3). These sites possess large concentrations of footprints made by quadrupedal (sauropod, stegosaurid and ornithopod) and bipedal theropod dinosaurs. Among the more than 800 documented footprints at CT-1 is a trail left by a large theropod, and at least one other made by a stegosaurid (the holotype of Deltapodus ibericus). CT-3 contains some of the largest sauropod footprints ever found in the Iberian Peninsula. The three sites lie within the Villar del Arzobispo Formation, which was deposited over the Tithonian-Berriasian period in an environment under tidal influence. Tidal carbonates host the largest number of footprints. Different footprint shapes and degrees of preservation are apparent, even within a single layer, reflecting the characteristics of the original sediment in which the footprints were made. The grain size and water content of the original sediment, primarily the micritic mud derived from the pellets when it contains some water, appear to have been the most important factors in determining the quality of the preserved prints. The presence of algal mats appear to have been less important, because the mats detected inside the massive or pelletoidal micrite were broken and deformed, and would therefore not have invested the substrate with cohesion enough to favor footprint preservation.

Recent fieldwork carried out in EN1-Noolchalai between 2009 and 2011, one of the most significant Acheulean sites located on the Sambu Escarpment of Peninj (Tanzania) and dated to 1.5-1.4 Ma, has allowed us to undertake more complete geomorphologic and sedimentological research at this site. This contextual research has allowed us to clarify the geoarchaeological interpretation of this taphonomically complex site in order to assess its relevance within the Early Acheulean in East Africa. New stratigraphic work suggests that the archaeological site has been severely affected by fluvial erosion and redeposition. Our 2009-2011 archaeological excavation has also unearthed a new lithic collection that, along with the samples retrieved in the course of previous research projects, makes it possible to present a more complete assessment of the Early Acheulean technology of this site. The new technological interpretation confirms that the toolmakers at Noolchalai were aware of the volumetric principles related to the production of bifaces and cleavers. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.

The accurate timing of biogeographic dispersal can be determined by examining the age of fossiliferous strata on either side of a physical barrier. Here we show that African mammals migrated to Iberia and European mammals migrated to North Africa at the same time before isolation of the Mediterranean Sea during the Messinian. The fossil site of Venta del Moro (Spain) exhibits western Europe’s most complete vertebrate fauna for the latest Miocene. Its uniquely cosmopolitan assemblage is evidence of faunal dispersals from Africa and Asia to Europe during the latest Miocene glaciation. A preliminary paleomagnetic study suggested an age of 5.8 Ma for this site, but our expanded magnetostratigraphy dates the site at 6.23 Ma. In addition, we recalibrated the paleomagnetic age of the Librilla site (Spain) and the North Africa site of Afoud-1 (Morocco) using the Astronomical Tuned Neogene Time Scale. Our results show a two-way African-Iberian mammal dispersal just before 6.2 Ma. These new ages indicate that an ephemeral land corridor existed between the two continents 250 k.y. before the onset of the Messinian Salinity Crisis, reflecting a tentative initial isolation of the Mediterranean Sea. This corridor developed after tectonics closed the Betic Seaway at 6.3 Ma and during the intensification of the latest Miocene glaciation at 6.26 Ma, when water circulation in the Mediterranean became very restricted.

El estudio de un sondeo (JAN99-J) realizado sobre los depositos que rellenan la Depresion de la Janda (Cadiz) ha aportado mas informacion acerca de la evolucion de esta depresion a lo largo del Holoceno. Tras el ultimo maximo transgresivo flandriense (6500 a BP) la depresion fue inundada por el mar a traves del surco de Vejer-Barbate. A partir de al menos 3800 a BP la depresion se colmata y cierra la conexion con el mar abierto, dando comienzo la sedimentacion aluvial. Solo en tiempos relativamente recientes se llega a formar una verdadera laguna. [ABSTRACT] The study of a log (JAN99-1) carried out in the filling deposits of La landa Depression (Cadiz) throw new information about the more recent Holocene evolution of this ancient lacustrine environment. After the last transgressive maximum (Flandrian: 6500 yr BP) the depression was occupied by the sea through the Vejer-Barbate trough. From at least 3800 a BP the depression was eventually filled promoting the end of sea-connection and giving place to alluvial sedimentation. Only during the recentmost times the lacustrine environment is developed.