Hominin-Carnivore Adaptive Strategies in Western Europe During the Early Pleistocene
Abstract
The fi rst peopling of Europe has been widely discussed for the last decades. The many fi ndings recorded in recent years have confirmed that Europe was occupied by hominins during the Early Pleistocene for over a million years. However, several issues are still questioned in the current debate about the fi rst peopling of Europe, including the continuity or discontinuity of this event. In this regard, a revision of the available zooarchaeological evidence for the Early Pleistocene in Europe is proposed in this article, discussing the infl uence on hominin behavior of meat-resource acquisition. The faunal evidence recovered from the European sites shows that hominins had access to a variety of meat resources, from small animals such as birds and reptiles to large variability of mammals like hippopotamuses and ungulates of varying sizes. This fossil record also suggests that hominins overcame the predation pressure exerted by hyaenids and felids, which competed for these same natural resources. The climatic fl uctuations which characterized this period, as well as the diversity of ecosystems found in the Mediterranean area and in the whole continent, make meat consumption a key resource concerning the adaptive possibilities of local hominins. Thus, the persistence and expansion of hominin settlement throughout Europe during the Early Pleistocene may have depended on the overcoming of these constraining factors, on the basis of the social cohesion of the groups and their capacity to provide with a Mode 1 technology a regular supply of meat resources.
About the Authors
J. Garcia Garriga
Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES) C/ Marcel·lí Domingo s/n (Edifi ci W3), Campus Sescelades URV, 43007, Tarragona, Spain
Universitat Rovira i Virgili Àrea de Prehistòria, Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002, Tarragona, Spain
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) Avinguda del Tibidabo 39−43, 08035, Barcelona, Spain
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
K. Martínez
Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES) C/ Marcel·lí Domingo s/n (Edifi ci W3), Campus Sescelades URV, 43007, Tarragona, Spain
Universitat Rovira i Virgili Àrea de Prehistòria, Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002, Tarragona, Spain
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
J. Yravedra
Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) Dpt. Prehistoria, Facultad de Geografía e Historia, 28040, Madrid, Spain
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
References
1. Arribas A., Palmqvist P. On ecological connection between sabre-tooths and hominids: faunal dispersal events in the Lower Pleistocene and a review of the evidence for the fi rst human arrival in Europe // J. of Archaeol. Sci. – 1999. – Vol. 26, N 5. – P. 571–585.
2. Arzarello M., Pavia G., Peretto C., Petronio C., Sardella R. Evidence of an Early Pleistocene hominin presence at Pirro Nord (Apricena, Foggia, southern Italy): P13 site // Quaternary Intern. – 2012. – Vol. 267. – P. 56–61.
3. Belmaker M. Community structure through time: ‘Ubeidiya, a Lower Pleistocene site as a case study: Ph.D. dissertation, Hebrew Univ. – Jerusalem, 2006. – 284 p.
4. Bermúdez de Castro J.M., Arsuaga J.L., Carbonell E., Rosas A., Martínez I., Mosquera M. A hominid from the Lower Pleistocene of Atapuerca, Spain: possible ancestor to Neandertals and Modern Humans // Science. – 1997. – Vol. 276. – P. 1392–1395.
5. Bermúdez de Castro J.M., Martinón-Torres M., Blasco R., Rosell J., Carbonell E. Continuity or discontinuity in the European Early Pleistocene human settlement: the Atapuerca evidence // Quaternary Sci. Rev. – 2013. – Vol. 76. – P. 53–65.
6. Bonifay E., Bonifay M.F. Le gisement préhistorique de Soleilhac (Blanzac, Haute-Loire) // Le bassin du Puy aux temps prehistoriques / ed. M.F. Bonifay. – Le Puy: Musée Crozatier, 1981. – P. 19–35.
7. Carbonell E., Bermúdez de Castro J.M., Arsuaga J.L., Díez J.C., Rosas A., Cuenca-Bescós G., Sala R., Mosquera M., Rodríguez X.P. Lower Pleistocene hominids and artifacts from Atapuerca-TD6 (Spain) // Science. – 1995. – Vol. 269. – P. 729–892.
8. Carbonell E., Bermúdez de Castro J.M., Arsuaga J.L., Allué E., Bastir M., Benito A., Cáceres I., Canals T., Díez J.C., van der Made J., Ollé A., Pérez-González A., Rodríguez J., Rodríguez X.P., Rosas A., Rosell J., Sala R., Vallverdú J., Vergés J.M. An Early Pleistocene hominin mandible from Atapuerca-TD6, Spain // Proc. Nat. Acad. of Sci. USA. – 2005. – Vol. 102, N 16. – P. 5674–5678.
9. Carbonell E., Bermúdez de Castro J.M., Parés J.M., Pérez-González A., Cuenca-Bescós G., Ollé A., Mosquera M., Huguet R., van der Made J., Rosas A., Sala R., Vallverdú J., García N., Granger D.E., Martinón-Torres M., Rodríguez X.P., Stock G.M., Vergès J.M., Allué E., Burjachs F., Cáceres I., Canals A., Benito A., Díez J.C., Lozano M., Mateos A., Navazo M., Rodríguez J., Rosell J., Arsuaga J.L. The fi rst hominin of Europe // Nature. – 2008. – Vol. 452. – P. 465– 469.
10. Carbonell E., Cáceres I., Lozano M., Saladié P., Rosell J., Lorenzo C., Vallverdú J., Huguet R., Canals A., Bermúdez de Castro J.M. Cultural cannibalism as a paleoeconomic system in the European Lower Pleistocene // Current Anthropol. – 2010. – Vol. 51, N 4. – P. 539–549.
11. Croitor R., Brugal J.-P. Ecological and evolutionary dynamics of the carnivore community in Europe during the last 3 million years // Quaternary Intern. – 2010. – Vol. 212, N 2. – P. 98– 108.
12. Díez J.C., Fernández-Jalvo Y., Rosell J., Cáceres I. Zooarchaeology and taphonomy of Aurora stratum (Gran Dolina, Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain) // J. of Hum. Evol. – 1999. – Vol. 37, N 3/4. – P. 623–652.
13. Duval M., Bahain J.-J., Falguères C., Garcia J., Guilarte V., Grün R., Martínez K., Moreno D., Shao Q., Voinchet P. Revisiting the ESR chronology of the Early Pleistocene hominid occupation at Vallparadís (Barcelona, Spain) // Quaternary Intern. – 2015. – Vol. 389. – P. 213–223.
14. Duval M., Moreno D., Shao Q., Voinchet P., Falguères C., Bahain J.-J., Garcia T., Garcia J., Martínez K. Datación por ESR del yacimiento arqueológico del Pleistoceno inferior de Vallparadís (Terrassa, Cataluña, España) // Trabajos de Prehistoria. – 2011. – Vol. 68, N 1. – P. 7–24.
15. Echassoux A. Les premiers Européens et la dynamique des interactions avec leur environnement: comportement écologique et niveau de cognition // L’Anthropologie. – 2009. – Vol. 113. – P. 191–197.
16. Espigares M.P., Martínez-Navarro B., Palmqvist P., Ros-Montoya S., Toro-Moyano I., Agustí J., Sala R. Homo vs. Pachycrocuta: Earliest evidence of competition for an elephant carcass between scavengers at Fuente Nueva-3 (Orce, Spain) // Quaternary Intern. – 2013. – Vol. 295, N 8. – P. 113–125.
17. Fosse P. Taphonomie paléolithique: Les grands mammifères de Soleilhac (Haute-Loire) et de Lunel-Viel (Hérault): Ph.D. dissertation. – Aix-en-Provence: Univ. de Provence, 1994. – 257 p.
18. Garcia J., Landeck G., Martínez K., Carbonell E. Hominin dispersals from the Jaramillo subchron in central and south-western Europe: Untermassfeld (Germany) and Vallparadís (Spain) // Quaternary Intern. – 2013. – Vol. 316. – P. 73–93.
19. Garcia J., Martínez K. Reviewing the chronology and palaeoenvironment of the early hominin occupation of Vallparadís EVT7 (Barcelona, Spain): Reply to Lozano- Fernández et al. (Quat. Int.) // Comptes Rendus Palevol. – 2015. – Vol. 14, N 8. – P. 671–674.
20. Garcia J., Martínez K., Carbonell E. Continuity of the first human occupation in the Iberian Peninsula: Closing the archaeological gap // Comptes Rendus Palevol. – 2011. – Vol. 10. – P. 279–284.
21. Garcia J., Martínez K., Carbonell E. The Early Pleistocene stone tools from Vallparadís (Barcelona, Spain): rethinking the European Mode 1 // Quaternary Intern. – 2013. – Vol. 316. – P. 94–114.
22. Garcia J., Martínez K., Carbonell E., Agustí J., Burjachs F. Defending the early human occupation of Vallparadís (Barcelona, Iberian Peninsula): A reply to Madurell- Malapeira et al. (2012) // J. of Hum. Evol. – 2012. – Vol. 63. – P. 568–575.
23. Garcia J., Martínez K., Cuenca-Bescós G., Carbonell E. Human occupation of Iberia prior to the Jaramillo magnetochron (>1.07 Myr) // Quaternary Sci. Rev. – 2014. – Vol. 98. – P. 84–99.
24. Gidna A., Yravedra J., Domínguez-Rodrigo M. A cautionary note on the use of captive carnivores to model wild predator behavior: a comparison of bone modifi cation patterns on long bones by captive and wild lions // J. of Archaeol. Sci. – 2012. – Vol. 40. – P. 1903–1910.
25. Huguet R., Saladié P., Cáceres I., Díez J.C., Rosell J., Blasco R., Esteban-Nadal M., Gabucio M.J., Rodríguez- Hidalgo A., Carbonell E. Successful subsistence strategies of the first humans in south-western Europe // Quaternary Intern. – 2013. – Vol. 295. – P. 168–182.
26. Huguet R., Vallverdú J., Rodríguez-Álvarez X.P., Terradillos-Bernal M., Bargalló A., Lombera-Hermida A., Menéndez L., Modesto-Mata M., van der Made J., Soto M., Blain H.-A., García N., Cuenca-Bescós G., Gómez- Merino G., Pérez-Martínez R., Expósito I., Allué E., Rofes J., Burjachs F., Canals A., Bennàsar M., Núñez-Lahuerta C., Bermúdez de Castro J.M., Carbonell E. Level TE9c of Sima del Elefante (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain): A comprehensive approach // Quaternary Intern. (in press). – URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2015.11.030
27. Isaac G. Bones in contention: competing explanations for the juxtaposition of early Pleistocene artefacts and faunal remains // Animals and Archaeology I: Hunters and their Prey / eds. J. Clutton-Brock, C. Grigson. – Oxford: BAR Intern. Ser., 1983. – P. 3–19. – (British Archaeol. Rep.; vol. 163).
28. Landeck G. Further evidence of a Lower Pleistocene arrival of early humans in Northern Europe – the Untermassfeld site (Germany) // Collegium Antropologicum. – 2010. – Vol. 34, N 4. – P. 1229–1238.
29. Landeck G., Garcia J. Jaramillo hominin presence at Untermassfeld (Thuringia, Germany) – Or the struggle against the early 20th century “Mauer mandible paradigm”: Reply to M. Baales (2014) // Quaternary Intern. – 2015. – Vol. 355. – P. 169–171.
30. Landeck G., Garcia Garriga J. The oldest hominin butchery in European mid-latitudes at the Jaramillo site of Untermassfeld (Thuringia, Germany) // J. of Hum. Evol. (in press). – URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2016.02.002
31. MacDonald K., Martinón-Torres M., Dennell R.W., Bermúdez de Castro J.M. Discontinuity in the record for hominin occupation in south-western Europe: Implications for occupation of the middle latitudes of Europe // Quaternary Intern. – 2012. – Vol. 271. – P. 84–97.
32. Madurell-Malapeira J., Alba D.M., Minwer-Barakat R., Aurell-Garrido J., Moyà-Solà S. Early human dispersals into the Iberian Peninsula: a comment on Martínez et al. (2010) and Garcia et al. (2011) // J. of Hum. Evol. – 2012. – Vol. 62. – P. 169–173.
33. Martínez K., Garcia J., Carbonell E., Agustí J., Bahain J.-J., Blain H.-A., Burjachs F., Cáceres I., Duval M., Falguères C., Gómez M., Huguet R. A new Lower Pleistocene archeological site in Europe (Vallparadís, Barcelona, Spain) // Proc. Nat. Acad. of Sci. – 2010. – Vol. 107. – P. 5762– 5767.
34. Martínez K., Garcia J., Burjachs F., Yll R., Carbonell E. Early human occupation of Iberia: the chronological and palaeoclimatic inferences from Vallparadís (Barcelona, Spain) // Quaternary Sci. Rev. – 2014. – Vol. 85. – P. 136–146.
35. Muttoni G., Scardia G., Kent D.V. A critique of evidence for human occupation of Europe older than the Jaramillo subchron (~1 Ma): Comment on ‘The oldest human fossil in Europe from Orce (Spain)’ by Toro-Moyano et al. (2013) // J. of Hum. Evol. – 2013. – Vol. 65. – P. 746–749.
36. Parfitt S.A., Ashton N.M., Lewis S.G., Abel R.L., Coope R.G., Field M.H., Gale R., Hoare P.G., Larkin N.R., Lewis M.D., Karloukovski V., Maher B.A., Peglar S.M., Preece R.C., Whittaker J.E., Stringer C.B. Early Pleistocene human occupation at the edge of the boreal zone in northwest Europe // Nature. – 2010. – Vol. 466. – P. 229–233.
37. Rodríguez J., Burjachs F., Cuenca-Bescós G., García N., van der Made J., Pérez González A., Blain H.-A., Expósito I., López-García J.M., García M., Allué E., Cáceres I., Huguet R., Mosquera M., Ollé A., Rosell J., Parés J.M., Rodríguez X.P., Díez J.C., Rofes J., Sala R., Saladié P., Vallverdú J., Bennasar M.L., Blasco R., Bermúdez de Castro J.M., Carbonell E. One million years of cultural evolution in a stable environment at Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain) // Quaternary Sci. Rev. – 2011. – Vol. 30, N 11/12. – P. 1396–1412.
38. Rodríguez-Gómez G., Mateos A., Martín-González J.A., Blasco R., Rosell J., Rodríguez J. Discontinuity of Human Presence at Atapuerca during the Early Middle Pleistocene: A Matter of Ecological Competition? // PLOS ONE. – 2014. – Vol. 9, iss. 7. – URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0101938
39. Rodríguez-Gómez G., Rodríguez J., Martín-González J.A., Mateos A. Carnivores and humans during the Early and Middle Pleistocene at Sierra de Atapuerca // Quaternary Intern. (in press). – URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2015.12.082
40. Rook L., Martínez-Navarro B., Howell C.F. Occurrence of Theropithecus sp. in the Late Villafranchian of Southern Italy and implication for Early Pleistocene “out of Africa” dispersals // J. of Hum. Evol. – 2004. – Vol. 47. – P. 267–277.
41. Saladié P., Huguet R., Díez J.C., Rodríguez-Hidalgo A., Cáceres I., Vallverdú J., Rosell J., Bermúdez de Castro J.M., Carbonell E. Carcass transport decisions in Homo antecessor subsistence strategies // J. of Hum. Evol. – 2011. – Vol. 61, N 3. – P. 425–446.
42. Saladié P., Huguet R., Rodríguez-Hidalgo A., Cáceres I., Esteban-Nadal M., Arsuaga J.L., Bermúdez de Castro J.M., Carbonell E. Intergroup cannibalism in the European Early Pleistocene: the range expansion and imbalance of power hypotheses // J. of Hum. Evol. – 2012. – Vol. 63, N 5. – P. 682–695.
43. Saladié P., Rodríguez-Hidalgo A., Huguet R., Cáceres I., Díez C., Vallverdú J., Canals A., Soto M., Santander B., Bermúdez de Castro J.M., Arsuaga J.L., Carbonell E. The role of carnivores and their relationship to hominin settlements in the TD6-2 level from Gran Dolina (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain) // Quaternary Sci. Rev. – 2014. – Vol. 93. – P. 47–66.
44. Tappen M., Lordkipanidze D., Bukhsianidze M., Ferring R., Vekua A. Are you in or out (of Africa)? Site formation at Dmanisi and actualistic studies in Africa // Breathing life into fossils. Taphonomic studies in honor of C.K. Bob Brain / eds. T.R. Pickering, K.D. Schick, N. Toth. – Gosport: Stone Age Inst. Press, 2007. – P. 119–136. – (Stone Age Inst. Publ. Ser.; vol. 2).
45. Toro-Moyano I., Lumley H., de, Fajardo B., Barsky D., Cauche D., Celiberti V., Grégoire S., Martínez-Navarro B., Espigares M.P., Ros-Montoya S. L’industrie lithique des gisements du Pléistocène inférieur de Barranco León et Fuente Nueva 3 à Orce, Grenade, Espagne // L’Anthropologie. – 2009. – Vol. 113. – P. 111–124.
46. Toro-Moyano I., Martínez-Navarro B., Agustí J., Souday C., Bermúdez de Castro J.M., Martinón-Torres M., Fajardo B., Duval M., Falguères C., Oms O., Parés J.M., Anadón P., Julià R., García-Aguilar J.M., Moigne A.-M., Patrocinio Espigares M., Ros-Montoya S., Palmqvist P. The oldest human fossil in Europe, from Orce (Spain) // J. of Hum. Evol. – 2013. – Vol. 65. – P. 1–9.
47. Turner A. Large carnivores and earliest European hominids: changing determinants of resource availability during the Lower and Middle Pleistocene // J. of Hum. Evol. – 1992. – Vol. 22. – P. 109–126.
48. Villa P., Lenoir M. Hunting and hunting weapons of the Lower and Middle Paleolithic of Europe // The Evolution of Hominin Diets: Integrating Approaches to the Study of Palaeolithic Subsistence / eds. J.-J. Hublin, M.P. Richards. – 2009. – Vol. XIV. – P. 59–85. – (Vertebrate Paleobiol. and Paleoanthropol. Ser.).
49. Zaidner Y., Yeshurun R., Mallol C. Early Pleistocene hominins outside of Africa: recent excavations at Bizat Ruhama, Israel // PaleoAnthropol. – 2010. – Vol. 2010. – P. 162−195.
For citation:
Garcia Garriga J., Martínez K., Yravedra J. Hominin-Carnivore Adaptive Strategies in Western Europe During the Early Pleistocene. Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia. 2016;44(2):19-29.
Views: 449
Email this article 