0000000000062200
AUTHOR
Manuel R. González Morales
Microremains from El Mirón Cave human dental calculus suggest a mixed plant/animal subsistence economy during the Magdalenian in Northern Iberia
Abstract Despite more than a century of detailed investigation of the Magdalenian period in Northern Iberia, our understanding of the diets during this period is limited. Methodologies for the reconstruction of Late Glacial subsistence strategies have overwhelmingly targeted animal exploitation, thus revealing only a portion of the dietary spectrum. Retrieving food debris from calculus offers a means to provide missing information on other components of diet. We undertook analysis of human dental calculus samples from Magdalenian individuals (including the “Red Lady”) at El Miron Cave (Cantabria, Spain), as well as several control samples, to better understand the less visible dietary compo…
Los valles occidentales de Cantabria: el poblamiento de montaña durante la II Edad del Hierro y época romana
En el año 1994 se inicia, por parte del Area de Arqueología del Departamento de Ciencias Históricas de la Universi dad de Cantabria, una línea de investigación enfocada al estudio del poblamiento antiguo en el sector central de la Cordillera Cantábrica. Esta se tradujo en el desarrollo de una serie de proyectos, algunos de los cuales tomaron como marco geográfico los valles occidentales de Cantabria. Los motivos de esta elección territorial fueron diversos . La zona estaba siendo objeto de un estudio sobre la articulación del territorio durante la Prehistoria Reciente, por lo que resultaba interesante ampliar nuestro conocimiento sobre este tema desde entonces hasta época romana. Además, co…
Postglacial Coast & Inland: The Epipaleolithic-Mesolithic-Neolithic Transitions in the Vasco-Cantabrian Region
Después del final del Tardiglaciar, cuando el asentamiento humano se ha extendido alto en la Cordillera Cantábrica y a través de toda la región septentrional de la España atlántica, los bosques densos del Holoceno inicial parecen haber causado un cambio importante en las distribuciones humanas que incluía al menos el abandono sustancial del interior y la concentración a lo largo de la costa postglacial, especialmente cerca de los recien creados estuarios. Este hecho resultó en la formación de concheros y de tecnologías simplificadas que incluían el Asturiense y otras adaptaciones locales a los diversos subestratos y recursos costeros entre aproximadamente 9000-6000 años BP14C. Luego hubo ot…
The evolution and changing ecology of the African hominid oral microbiome
Significance The microbiome plays key roles in human health, but little is known about its evolution. We investigate the evolutionary history of the African hominid oral microbiome by analyzing dental biofilms of humans and Neanderthals spanning the past 100,000 years and comparing them with those of chimpanzees, gorillas, and howler monkeys. We identify 10 core bacterial genera that have been maintained within the human lineage and play key biofilm structural roles. However, many remain understudied and unnamed. We find major taxonomic and functional differences between the oral microbiomes of Homo and chimpanzees but a high degree of similarity between Neanderthals and modern humans, incl…
THE PLEISTOCENE–HOLOCENE TRANSITION IN THE IBERIAN PENINSULA: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN HUMAN ADAPTATIONS
Abstract Data obtained from recent excavations (as well as from selected older excavations) are used to outline the principal environmental, technological and economic aspects of the Pleistocene–Holocene transition in three distinct regions of the Iberian Peninsula: Portugal, Cantabrian and Mediterranean Spain. The period covered extends from the terminal Paleolithic Magdalenian period to the initial Neolithic. Despite proximity to SW France and many similarities with that classic prehistoric culture area in terms of artistic/symbolic expression and technology, the Iberian regions show significant differences, especially in terms of subsistence strategies and their development during the Ta…
Palaeogenomics of Upper Palaeolithic to Neolithic European hunter-gatherers
Acknowledgements: The authors thank G. Marciani and O. Jöris for comments on archaeology; C. Jeong, M. Spyrou and K. Prüfer for comments on genetics; M. O’Reilly for graphical support for Fig. 5 and Extended Data Fig. 9; the entire IT and laboratory teams at the Department of Archaeogenetics of MPI-SHH for technical assistance; M. Meyer and S. Nagel for support with single-stranded library preparation; K. Post, P. van Es, J. Glimmerveen, M. Medendorp, M. Sier, S. Dikstra, M. Dikstra, R. van Eerden, D. Duineveld and A. Hoekman for providing access to human specimens from the North Sea (The Netherlands); M. D. Garralda and A. Estalrrich for providing access to human specimens from La Riera (S…
Last Glacial Human Settlement in Eastern Cantabria (Northern Spain)
While the excavation of individual sites remains fundamental to the creation of the Palaeolithic archeological record, increasingly the focus of prehistoric research is on human adaptations to and within natural regions. Such a reorientation implies viewing sites and occupations as samples of different suites of activities in various habitats across space and time; it is dependent on the use of radiocarbon to date and relate occupation residues among sites; and it necessitates the application of methods to uncover patterns of human mobility as an integral aspect of subsistence economy, demographic arrangements and social relations. This paper contributes to the regional study of Last Glacia…