Antropologia

"The study of grave goods, including animal deposits, offers a deeper understanding
of social issues. This paper presents the results ofthe analysis of human and animal bone
samples from the Iberian necropolis of El Poblado, Murcia. The examination focusses on 18
deposits of ovicaprids radii and ulnae, mostly of the left side, that derive from 14 cremation
tombs of the 74 studied. By considering the human and animal remains together it is possible
to highlight differences in the rituals of certain graves and variations in animal symbolism
related to human sex and age. This provides a new understanding of the social and cultural
differentiation that existed in the Iberian communities of this period."

Stratigraphic study of the Cova del Gegant’s sedimentary fill revealed different cycles of accumulation of typical interior cave and delta facies. A precise chronology for these deposits, the faunal remains and stone tools contained therein was obtained by radiocarbon, U-Th and OSL. Our results indicate that the Upper Pleistocene archaeological sequence dates between 49.3
+-1.8 ka BP, the U-Th age of the overlying flowstone, and 60.0
+- 3.9 ka BP, the OSL age of the basal deposits. We have also directly dated the site’s Neandertal mandible to 52.3
+-2.3 ka by U-Th.

A human mandible from the site of Cova del Gegant is described here for the first time and compared with other Middle and Upper Pleistocene representatives of the genus Homo from Europe and Southwest Asia. The specimen was recovered from sediments which also yielded Mousterian stone tools and Pleistocene fauna. The preserved morphology of the mandible, particularly in the region of the mental foramen, clearly aligns it with the Neandertals, making the Cova del Gegant the only known site in Catalonia documenting diagnostic human skeletal remains in association with
Middle Paleolithic stone tools. This represents an important new addition to the human fossil record from the Iberian Peninsula and joins the Bañolas mandible in documenting the course of human evolution in the northern Mediterranean region of Spain.

L'atac al call de Tàrrega de 1348 és conegut a través de la documentació i l'arqueologia, el fossar dels jueus de les Roquetes. Aquest atac, on segons les fons 300 jueus foren assassinats -69 NMI documentats arqueològicament i sense estar esgotat el jaciment- tindria com a detonant l'arribada de la Pesta Negra.

Located on the Iberian Mediterranean coast, El Collado is an open-air site where a rescue
excavation was conducted over two seasons in 1987 and 1988. The archaeological work
excavated a surface area of 143m2 where 14 burials were discovered, providing skeletal remains
from 15 individuals. We have obtained AMS dates for 10 of the 15 individuals by
means of the direct dating of human bones. The ranges of the probability distribution of the
calibrated dates suggest that the cemetery was used during a long period of time (781–
1020 years at a probability of 95.4%). The new dates consequently set back the chronocultural
attribution of the cemetery from the initial proposal of Late Mesolithic to an older
date in the Early Mesolithic. Therefore, El Collado becomes the oldest known cemetery in
the Iberian Peninsula, earlier than the numerous Mesolithic funerary contexts documented
on the Atlantic façade such as the Portuguese shell-middens in the Muge and Sado Estuaries
or the funerary sites on the northern Iberian coast.

This palaeodietary study presents carbon and nitrogen stable isotope data from human and faunal skeletal
remains from the Copper Age settlement of Valencina de la Concepción–Castilleja de Guzmán, located in
Seville, Spain. Montelirio, the only Valencina–Castilleja human group from which we have obtained reliable
palaeodietary results, had a diet based on C3 terrestrial resources, including both plants and animals. The
protein component of the diet consisted mainly of meat, milk and dairy products from livestock as well as
C3 plant protein from cereals and pulses. This study compares data from Montelirio, the Copper Age group
from Valencina–Castilleja, with the published data from other Iberian Late Neolithic–Copper Age (LN-CA) societies.
This comparison reveals a homogeneous diet with some exceptions. Overall, the LN-CA diet in the
Iberian Peninsula consisted mainly of animal proteins from meat, milk and dairy products from livestock as
well as C3 plant sources from the characteristic agriculture of the societies of these periods. This study also
demonstrates the minor use of aquatic resources from the Neolithic to the Copper Age period in the Iberian
Peninsula.