Examinando por Autor "Vaquero, Manuel"

Mostrando 1 - 3 de 3

Connecting areas: Faunal refits as a diagnostic element to identify synchronicity in the Abric Romaní archaeological assemblages.
(2012) Rosell Ardévol, Jordi; Blasco, Ruth; Fernández-Laso, María Cristina; Vaquero, Manuel; Carbonell, Eudald
The anthropogenic accumulations at the sites are often the product of overlapped activities and/or occupations that also involve disruptive processes such as cleaning, transport or even trampling. The results are palimpsest with a disordered appearance that can confuse the interpretations of the spatial organization of human groups. In this regard, the Abric Romaní site (Capellades, Spain) can provide significant data to interpret these questions. This site, dated in MIS 3, is composed by a sequence of travertine platforms, which are more than 20 m high. The human occupations are located between these platforms, which are isolated from each other. This fact, in addition to a high rate of identified sedimentation, allows analyzing the archaeological accumulations more accurately. The current excavations (approx. 300 m2) have documented several different kinds of anthropogenic assemblages, which go from very simple to complex human occupations. In this study, we present faunal data from Level H and Level Ja. Both levels show the same processing patterns on animal resources, but a different spatial distribution of the faunal remains. Level H presents short distance refits that suggest the presence of isolated activity areas without temporal relationships between them. In contrast, Level Ja shows several long distance refits that connect two or more activity areas. The observed differences between both levels could be explained from dissimilar human occupational patterns: presence of small groups with reduced use of the space at Level H and occupations composed by large groups with important spatial requirements at Level Ja. From this perspective, the aim of this paper is to provide criteria from faunal refits to understand the diversity of human occupations at Abric Romaní. This fact shows the importance of these studies to understand the diversity of occupational patterns and ways of life of the human communities of the European Middle Palaeolithic.
Moving things: Comparing lithic and bone refits from a Middle Paleolithic site.
(2017) Vaquero, Manuel; Fernández-Laso, María Cristina; Chacón, María Gema; Romagnoli, Francesca; Rosell Ardévol, Jordi; Sañudo, Pablo
The refitting of both lithic and faunal remains is a basic field of research in Paleolithic archeology. In particular, the spatial dimension of lithic and faunal refitting is essential for resolving questions related to site formation processes and the organization strategies of hunter-gatherer bands. Unfortunately, although important insights can be gained by comparing the spatial patterns of faunal and lithic refits there are relatively few sites from which both types are available. Some processes causing the movement of archeological items are common to both bone and lithic remains, but others are specific to each. The similarities and differences between the lithic and faunal connections can be particularly informative when considering the type and timing of the archeological assemblage formation dynamics. This comparison may be especially useful for disentangling the roles of natural and cultural processes in these formation dynamics. To illustrate this, we will compare the refitting patterns of lithic and faunal remains in level M from Abric Romaní (Capellades, Barcelona, Spain), a Middle Paleolithic assemblage dated between 51 and 55 kyr BP. The results of such a comparison provide new insights into various formation processes, including the intrasite movement of archeological items and the relationships between activity areas.
Refitting bones: spatial relationships between activity areas at the Abric Romaní Level M (Barcelona, Spain).
(Journal of Archaeological Science Reports, 2020) Fernández-Laso, María Cristina; Rosell Ardévol, Jordi; Blasco, Ruth; Vaquero, Manuel
Studies on spatial settlement patterns have shed important light on Neanderthal intra-site behavior. Spatial analysis of the human occupations through bone and lithic refitting has contributed to the reconstruction of their settlements, offering temporal interpretations and reconstructions of their activities. Often archaeological units are a consequence of an undetermined number of events, overlapped activities and/or accumulations produced by different taphonomical agents, involving in turn various post-depositional processes. Strict behavioral conclusions may only be valid at sites with a simple taphonomic history; however, biological and non-biological processes seem to alter the most of faunal sets after hominin activity involving even the destruction of some items. The result is a palimpsest that can lead to confusing and mixed events of different nature and independent activities. The deposit of the Abric Romaní site (Capellades, Spain), dated to MIS 3-5, was generated by a sequence of sterile travertine platforms of quick formation, among which silty and sandy units containing evidence of human occupations are located. These exceptional geological conditions allow us to isolate anthropogenic units along the sedimentary sequence. Spatial analysis and bone refits from Level M have shown a highly complex occupational organization. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the knowledge of Neanderthal occupations, suggesting that the inclusion of bone refits in the studies developed in the archaeological sites is a fundamental tool to reconstruct the social and spatial organization patterns.