Abri du Maras (Ardèche, France), located on the southeastern margins of the Massif Central, yields a long sequence of occupation from MIS 7 to MIS 3, first under a cave and then under a shelter resulting from the cave collapse. Middle Palaeolithic assemblages record different technological traditions of human groups regularly and recurrently occupying the site. Dental mesowear and low-magnification microwear are combined to re...

In this paper we investigate the seasonality of site occupation at Amud Cave (Israel). This site presents a long sedimentary sequence featuring two main late Middle Paleolithic occupation phases (70 – 55 Ka BP) rich in anthropogenic remains, and displaying very high densities of lithic artifacts, faunal remains and evidence of combustion. The abundance of these features appears high relative to the thickness of the sequence, t...

The identification of the duration of Neanderthal occupations is a tricky topic by the palimpsest nature of archaeological assemblages. This study explores the challenges associated with distinguishing between long and short-term occupations, using qualitative and quantitative data from relevant archaeological sites in the Late Middle Palaeolithic in Spain and south-eastern France. We highlight the proposed occupation models a...

The Gruta da Aroeira (Torres Novas, Portugal), with evidence of human occupancy dating back ∼ 400,000 years, is one of very few Middle Pleistocene cave sites to provide a fossil hominin cranium in association with Acheulean bifaces and the by-products of fire usage. Zooarchaeological, taphonomic and tooth-wear analyses suggest that the accumulation of the faunal remains and their modification are anthropogenic. Large game cons...

Horse tooth retouchers have been identified in several Middle and Upper Palaeolithic sites. They have been typically characterised as ‘soft’ hammers and/or grouped into the category of ‘bone retouchers’ at a technical level. Bone and teeth have different chemical compositions; teeth are denser and heavier than bone, and consequently, their technological features should not be considered homologous. In this work, we experimenta...

Understanding the relationship between Neanderthal groups and their environment and they it is essential to comprehending their ways of life. In this article, we use both zooarchaeology and taphonomy to study the fauna assemblages found in Level 4 of Prado Vargas Cave (Cornejo, Burgos, Spain). The results point to a site in which the main accumulating agent was Neanderthal groups, who transported small- and medium-sized animal...

The aim of this work is to provide evidence about the mobility of hunter-gatherer groups from the north-east of the Iberian Peninsula during the Epipaleolithic, more specifically, those from the Balma del Gai site (Moià, Barcelona, Spain). To do so, a study of the dental meso- and microwear of ungulates hunted by the groups that occupied the Balma del Gai site during the Epipaleolithic was carried out with two main objectives....

The Mazama genus is one of the more diverse genera among deer (Cervidae); its classification is controversial because of its complex phylogenetic relationships. The Central American red brocket deer ( Mazama temama ) is distributed from Central America to the northwest of South America. Studying the diet of mammals gives us information about the environment in which they live, considering that animals select food according to...

Dietary traits in ungulates from Lazaret Cave were analysed for possible changes in ecological niches throughout the marine isotopic stage (MIS) 6 sequence of the site and to investigate the duration of the occupations corresponding to the accumulation of ungulate remains by human groups. The analysis revealed changes in dietary diversity throughout the sequence related to the climatic and environmental changes of the MIS 6. T...

Herbivore teeth are a valuable source of information for inferring the hunting season of past hunter-gatherers, the spatial–temporal organization of their activities, their socio-economic organization, and their adaptation to the seasonal fluctuation of the resources. Numberless of studies have been conducted on Neanderthals across Eurasia, but only few of them rely on the application of cementochronology and tooth wear analys...

In the last few decades, bioarchaeological studies have grown exponentially on the Balearic Islands. In general, animal husbandry based on domestic triad and a Mediterranean macchia landscape is well-attested during the prehistory of this archipelago. Despite providing meaningful data about dietary patterns and livestock practices, dental microwear analyses on animal teeth have not been previously applied to the research of th...