The ecodynamics of the first modern humans in Southwestern Iberia: The case of Vale Boi, Portugal

Quaternary International 318 (2013) 102e116

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The ecodynamics of the first modern humans in Southwestern Iberia: The case of Vale Boi, Portugal Nuno Bicho a, *, Tiina Manne b, João Marreiros c, João Cascalheira c, Telmo Pereira c, Frederico Tátá c, Marina Évora c, Célia Gonçalves c, Leandro Infantini c a b c

FCHS, Arts and Humanities, Universidade do Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal School of Social Science, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia NAP, Universidade do Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history: Available online 21 November 2013

This paper will focus on the ecology of the first Anatomically Modern Humans in SW Iberia based on the rock shelter of Vale Boi (Algarve, Portugal), a site with a long stratigraphic record starting with Late Middle Paleolithic followed by early Gravettian, Proto-Solutrean, Solutrean, and Magdalenian. Early Gravettian remains are present in various areas and different levels of the site, and are dated to c. 32 ka cal BP, corresponding to the earliest modern human occupation in SW Iberia. These communities most likely came from the Iberian Mediterranean coast as bone technology and body ornaments seem to confirm. The Gravettian of Vale Boi provides clear evidence of an intensification and diversification of dietary resources from very early, including the use of grease-rendering. Here, reconstruction of the Gravettian human ecology at Vale Boi is based on the diversity of human occupations, focusing mostly on diachronic changes in the patterns of resources acquisition and land-use, but also on subsistence, technological, social and symbolic elements. Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction With the advent of the Heinrich event 3 (H3), c. 32,000 years ago (Sánchez Goñi and Harrison, 2010), Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH) definitely crossed the Ebro frontier (Zilhão, 2000) and fairly rapidly occupied SW Iberia (Bradtmöller et al., 2012; Bicho et al., 2013), replacing the Neanderthal population that may have been patchily resident in the region (Hublin and Roebroeks, 2009) and likely marked by a low demographical situation (Sepulchre et al., 2007; Mellars and French, 2011), if at all existent (Wood et al., 2013). The first clear evidence for the expansion and consolidation of AMH in Southern Iberian Peninsula is associated with Gravettian technology. During this period, modern populations spread both to southern and eastern directions likely following, respectively, the Mediterranean Iberian margin and the course of major rivers, such as the Douro and the Tagus (Bicho, 2005). This range expansion,

* Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected] (N. Bicho), t.manne@ uq.edu.au (T. Manne), [email protected] (J. Marreiros), [email protected] (J. Cascalheira), [email protected] (T. Pereira), [email protected] (F. Tátá), [email protected] (M. Évora), [email protected] (C. Gonçalves), [email protected] (L. Infantini). 1040-6182/$ e see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2013.06.029

however, might have found some snags along the way, not only because of the potential presence of late isolated Neanderthal groups in specific niches, but also due to very different and patchy landscapes and animal biomass as well as raw material availability. In addition, this was a time of particularly harsh and variable climatic conditions that might have impacted the ecological settings of the newly occupied regions by the Gravettian people (Schmidt et al., 2012). New ecological factors, in a context certainly marked by a very low human demographic milieu, especially for Southern Iberia (Bocquet-Appel et al., 2005), as seen by the low numbers of sites dated to the H3 event and fairly low technological and functional diversity during the Gravettian in Portugal, caused Modern Humans to differentially adapt to each occupied territory. One of the new regions occupied during this rapid process of expansion was the Southwestern tip of Iberia, near Sagres, where the site of Vale Boi is located (Fig. 1). Vale Boi was discovered in 1998 during systematic survey of the Western section of the Algarve region in Southern Portugal (Bicho et al., 2007, 2010; Manne et al., 2012). Testing started in 2000 and since then excavation of w75 m2 took place in various areas of the site, out of a total of more than 10,000 m2. The sequence includes various Gravettian, Proto-Solutrean, Solutrean and Magdalenian horizons as well as an early Neolithic occupation and very scarce

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Fig. 1. Map of Central and Southern Portugal with sites mentioned in the text. 1. Praia de Cortegaça; 2. Buraca Escura and Buraca Grande; 3. Caldeirão; 4. Cabeço do Porto Marinho; 5. Vale Boi.

evidence of Mesolithic presence with a single radiocarbon dated human tooth (Carvalho, 2008; Bicho et al., 2010). There are abundant lithic materials, well preserved mammal and shellfish remains, bone tools, body adornments, and portable art. The site is located in a limestone stepped slope, facing west and with a high solar exposure during year round. On the top of the slope there is a 10 m cliff face that overlooks a wide area to the west and north of the site, as well as over the river and its flattish alluvial plain, some 30 m below. The site is 2.5 km from the actual coastline, in a wide section of a small river valley that runs to the sea through a low, narrow and winding cannon that ends in a filled paleolake in a flat and open area next to the present shore.

There are three main areas in the site: the collapsed Shelter, near the cliff face; the Slope area, used mostly for garbage dumping that in some areas has been partially washed and eroded; and the Terrace, in the low part of the slope. Both the Shelter and the Terrace areas have evidence for likely seasonal residential preserved occupations (Manne et al., 2012). During Gravettian times, Vale Boi, corresponding to one of the earliest recorded presences of AMH in Portugal (Bicho et al., 2012), holds clear evidence for an early diversification and intensification of resources, both mineral and organic (dietary or not), that include a wide diversity of activities, namely inland and coastal foraging, procurement and intensive processing of small (both slow and fast

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prey) and large game (marine and terrestrial), likely the processing of edible plants, and the production of lithic and bone tools, body adornments and portable art. Some of these elements suggest the presence of long distance networks and social ties (that likely preserved the quality of the local genetic pool) as well as a particular ecodynamic adaptation to the region. This paper will address the Vale Boi data and present a new explanatory model regarding the Gravettian adaptation to the new ecological setting of the Vale Boi area within a theoretical framework of evolutionary ecology, bringing together two different perspectives e that of the Optimal Foraging and the Nutritional Ecology. 2. Theoretical framework Resource intensification has been seen mainly as a result of resource depression caused by various independently occurring factors such as, among others, environmental change, restricted territoriality or demographic pressure (Binford, 1968; Flannery, 1969; Cohen, 1977; Keeley, 1988; Kelly, 1995). The concept of resource intensification in archaeology assumes frequently that there is an increase in productivity by a specific human population, usually hunteregatherers, independently of a possible decrease of their foraging efficiency. Strategies to improve or increase productivity include changes in mobility, usually associated to adjustments in the settlement systems, technological innovations, frequently to deal with new and more intensive forms of traditional food acquisition and processing, and, finally diet breadth amplification. In cultural terms, this set of economic strategies was the basic explanation for the so-called Broad Spectrum Revolution (Flannery, 1969, but see Stiner, 2001 for a historical overview) that according to the traditional views took place during the PleistoceneeHolocene Boundary (Boserup, 1965; Binford, 1968; Flannery, 1969; Cohen, 1977). A decade ago, the traditional “Tardiglacial paradigm of resource intensification” (Bicho and Haws, 2008) was easily adopted in Iberia (Aura et al., 1998, 2002), and pushed back into Solutrean times with the increase in the use of fish (salmonids) and shellfish in the bay of Biscay and in the Spanish Mediterranean coast (Aura et al., 1998; Clark and Straus, 1986; Cortés-Sánchez et al., 2008; Morales et al., 1998; Morales-Muñiz and Roselló-Ezquierdo, 2008). More recently, however, this view has been altered with the discovery of new sites and the reanalysis of materials from previous excavations, pushing back the timing for broadening of resources to the Late Middle Paleolithic times in Iberia (Bicho and Haws, 2008; Zilhão et al., 2010a,b; Bicho et al., 2011; Brown et al., 2011; Finlayson, 2008; Haws et al., 2011), perhaps as far back as c. 150 ka (Cortés-Sánchez et al., 2011). In any case, the intensification and diversification of dietary resources in Iberia is seen as the inclusion of low ranked resources (Stiner et al., 1999, 2000), both fast and slow prey such as shellfish, fish, birds, and lagomorphs (Bicho and Haws, 2008; Brown et al., 2011; Cortés-Sánchez et al., 2011; Finlayson, 2008; Haws et al., 2011), in a similar scenario to that of eastern and central Mediterranean during the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition (Tchernov, 1992; Stiner, 1994; Stiner et al., 2000). There, however, the explanation for the intensification and diversification of food resources was human demographic pressure. In Portugal, the explanation for resource intensification diverges from human demographic pressure, seasonal and spatial prey constraints, that is to say, resource depression (Manne et al., 2012), to an increase in the diversity and availability of new resources due to regional environmental circumstances (Bicho and Haws, 2008). The difference in explanations stems from the disparity of theoretical perspectives within evolutionary ecology applied in Archaeology. While some authors follow closely solely energydependent models (i.e., Optimal Foraging and its variants), others

have a more flexible position and incorporate variables that reflect a model where there is a diverse set of elements necessary for the sustainment and growth of a specific human group (i.e., Nutritional ecology). In any case, potential problems in the application of either perspective tend to derive from the tendency in the archaeological literature of using a generalized single explanatory model. Optimal Foraging Theory (Winterhalder, 1981, 1986; Hill et al., 1987; Jochim, 1988; Kelly, 1995) is based on an estimation of the economic cost of each resource. It assumes that humans will use or exploit resources that are within the reach of their own technology, and that land use is bounded by space and time constraints. In fact, assumes that there is a threshold in the distance and length of time people will travel from their home to gather, hunt or fish. There are various Optimal Foraging models, developed by Winterhalder (1981, 1986), Hill et al. (1987) and Jochim (1988), among others. These were based on evolutionary ecology perspectives (Broughton and O’Connel, 1999), directly from papers on prey choice (MacArthur and Pianka, 1966; Rapport, 1971), based themselves on microeconomic theory (Baumol, 1961; Watson, 1963). The main assumption of Optimal Foraging Theory (and its variants e Diet Breadth, Patch Choice and Central Place Foraging Models) is that humans (and other predator species) adapt locally in such a manner that harvesting of resources is carried out with maximum efficiency within an ecological and environmental context. The main unit to measure adaptation is net energy capture and success is determined by the net acquisition rate (Winterhalder, 1981). In these models, economic value is represented by a set of variables such as the weight, density, aggregation size and patchiness, mobility, fat content, and general behavior of the resource, risk (both the probability of encountering and hunting e or gathering, harvesting or fishing e a specific resource and the physical danger implicated in the process of capture), processing time, storage production, search and pursuit/capture time. Resources are ranked according to return rates, estimated in slightly different manners, but based on the energy (kilocalories in a single unit of resource multiplied by the amount acquired) per unit time after procurement (usually kcal/h) and capture and handling. Large game is usually the highest ranked resource, in spite of longer search and handling times and higher risk. The reason is that the caloric return is much greater than all of the above mentioned costs. Small game tend to be more abundant and have lower search costs, but pursuit costs, especially in fast moving species such as birds or some lagomorphs, are usually believed to be higher (Stiner et al., 1999, 2000). And while capturing and handling tend to have lower costs than the larger species, their small package size results in a much lower return rate. Plant foods, though abundant and often very reliable, very much like some small animal species, such as shellfish, rank even lower due to a very low caloric yield per item. In fact, these types of resources need to be very productive (and produce a large harvest) to overcome the large costs of the pursuit and capture process (Haws, 2003). The diet-breadth model, thus, predicts that the abundance of the resource does not determine its place in the resource rank. It seems that the amount of energy yielded by each unit may be a more important factor to label the resource as high-ranked and, naturally, the lowest ranked resources though possibly easily available around the site, will only be added to the diet only as last resort and after the highest ranked ones decline or become extinct (Bettinger, 1980; Kelly, 1995). In the case of the Patch-Choice Model, environments are seen as different and thus, resources are distributed in the landscape heterogeneously or in patches and foragers encounter them randomly (MacArthur and Pianka, 1966; Winterhalder, 1981; Kelly, 1995). As resources decrease due to exploitation pressure or environmental deterioration, predators need to decide how long they stay in the

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patch before they move to the next one. The time and intensity of exploitation of a patch depends on the cost of relocation and the resource potential of other neighbor patches. In contrast, Hockett and Haws have recently introduced the Nutritional Ecology model in Archaeology to explain the late survival of Neanderthals in Southwestern Iberia (Hockett, 2012; Hockett and Haws, 2003, 2005). Unlike the Optimal Foraging perspective, the nutritional ecology perspective argues that a more diverse diet including a large variety of essential macronutrients (fats, carbohydrates, and proteins) and micronutrients (non-caloric vitamins and minerals) provides a much healthier life, increasing fertility and decreasing significantly the mortality rate, both of neonates, infants and juveniles. This essential nutrient diversity is given by a range of groups of species (and not only by a variety of species) and should include three or more groups such as ungulates, lagomorphs, marine mammals, shellfish, fish, birds, fruits or plants (instead of, for example, red deer, aurochs, ibex, and roe deer, species all in the same group). Two examples of essential micronutrients are the cases of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and arachidonic acid (AA) present in the Omega 3 and Omega 6 series (Cunnane et al., 1993; Broadhurst et al., 1998, 2002; Crawford et al., 1999; Parkington, 2001; Uauy and Dangour, 2006) that are fundamental for the development and expansion of the human brain and retinal quality. These long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids are invaluable during pregnancy and early childhood, are not produced in the human body (Broadhurst et al., 2002; Jensen, 2006; Milligan and Bazinet, 2008) but occur naturally in, among others, aquatic plants and animals. Thus, an important source of essential nutrients for brain development can be marine shellfish. Within the edible species of shellfish, those that produce the highest amounts of AA and DHA are mussels and limpets (Brazão et al., 2003; Colonese et al., 2011; Gardner and Riley, 1972) highly abundant in SW Iberian coast and very common in SW Iberian Paleolithic sites, and especially in Vale Boi. 3. Paleoenvironment Apart from the information extracted from marine cores offshore of the Portuguese coast (MD99-2331, MD95-2039, MD952042, 3KL SO75-, SO75-6KL, SO75-12KL, SO75-26KL, SU18-81 e Fletcher et al., 2010; Naughton et al., 2007; Roucoux et al., 2005; Sánchez-Goñi et al., 2008; Schönfeld and Zhan, 2000; Turon et al., 2003), data on the Portuguese paleoenvironment dated to the period between the beginning of H3 and the H2 are rare (Haws, 2012). There are some wood charcoal results obtained from the archaeological deposits of Buraca Grande and Buraca Escura near Coimbra, Cabeço Porto Marinho in the Rio Maior area (Figueiral, 1993; Zilhão et al., 1995; Zilhão, 1997; Figueiral and Terral, 2002; Figueiral and Carcaillet, 2005) and a single charcoal fragment recently identified by P. Monteiro from Vale Boi. The studies of the charcoal remains from Buraca Escura, Buraca Grande and Cabeço do Porto Marinho, show that during the period from H3 to H2, the vegetation cover was mainly characterized by the presence of pine in Central Portugal. The species found in the Gravettian levels of Buraca Escura and Buraca Grande, in the Coimbra area, dated around 29 ka cal BP, indicate a diverse vegetation with the presence of Olea europaea, Arbutus unedo, Pinus sylvestris, Pinus pinaster/pinea, deciduous Quercus and Prunus (Figueiral and Terral, 2002; Figueiral and Carcaillet, 2005). Although the range of species from the Gravettian levels of Cabeço do Porto Marinho is not as diverse, the species composition suggests a similar vegetation cover (Figueiral, 1993; Zilhão et al., 1995). These species clearly marked a stage of mixed temperate climate that allowed the development of Mediterranean species, especially in those refugia closer to the coast. The presence of a single

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identified charcoal fragment of wild strawberry tree (A. unedo) in Vale Boi dated to c. 32 ka cal BP suggests that the vegetation cover was then likely similar to today’s open Meso- to ThermoMediterranean (Quézel, 1985) vegetation seen in Algarve (González-Sampériz et al., 2010). This is congruent with the combined data from the oceanic cores taken off Portuguese coast (e.g., SU81-18 and MD95-2042) where the Mediterranean forest shows considerable resilience during the colder phases (Sanchez-Goñi et al., 2008). In addition to the charcoal evidence, there are paleobotanical data from the Praia de Cortegaça which is part of Praia de Maceda Formation, near Espinho, on the northern coast of Portugal (Granja and Carvalho, 1995; Granja et al., 2008). This formation is composed of a set of eolic sand layers alternating with lacustrine layers of fine silt, dated between the H3 and H2 stadia (Thomas et al., 2008). A paleoforest was identified with remains of Pinus sylvestris, Quercus robur and Fraxinus. The radiocarbon dates from the tree stumps suggest continuity and stability in the local vegetation, likely representing a sheltered temperate forest on the northwest coast of the Iberian Peninsula (Haws, 2012). The same situation can be seen in the marine cores off the coast of Portugal. The H3 and H2 phases are marked by decrease in Pinus and rare deciduous Quercus (Roucoux et al., 2001, 2005). Juniperis is the most common tree form in the northern Portuguese marine cores that also include the presence of Erica arborea, sandwiched between cold and dry phases towards the end of the Gravettian when the development and expansion of steppe species such as Artemisia is more common (Fletcher et al., 2010). In the more southern marine deep-sea cores, such as SU18-81 the scenario is similar, with the exception of a more stable and extensive presence of Pinus and Erica, that decrease toward the H2 with the slow and progressive replacement by Artemisa (Turon et al., 2003). Faunal data is present in half a dozen sites in central and southern Portugal (Haws, 2012). The more common species are rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), red deer (Cervus elaphus), horse (Equus caballus), ibex (Capra ibex/pyrenaica), although aurochs (Bos primigenius), wild ass (Equus Hydruntinus), chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra), wild boar (Sus scropha) are also present during all of MIS 3 and MIS2 (Brugal and Raposo, 1999; Antunes, 2000; Valente, 2004; Manne and Bicho, 2009; Zilhão et al., 2010a,b; Haws, 2012; Manne et al., 2012). Some of these have differential regional presences (chamois in central-northern Portugal, and the wild ass in Algarve), while others signal specific types of vegetation cover or topography (e.g., respectively the aurochs and the ibex). Just before H3 and the beginning of the Gravettian, there is also the presence of large mammals such as the elephant and possible mammoth as well as rhinoceros (Brugal and Raposo, 1999; Antunes, 2000). Carnivores are also present showing a fairly wide diversity of species across central and southern Portugal. The most common species are the lynx, fox, wolf, and wild cat. In addition there are also remains of Panthera pardus, P. spelaea and Panthera leo (mostly in the southern sites), as well as bear, hyena and badger. Based on the faunal diversity, Haws (2012) has suggested that SW Iberia was marked by a very patchy ecological mosaic, which seems to fit well with the paleobotanical scenario presented above. In general, climatic conditions were probably somewhat colder and drier than at present in the early part of the Gravettian. Along the Iberian Atlantic margin, sea-surface temperatures (SST) ranged during the MIS3 from c. 15 in the northern coast to 18.2 in SW Iberia. These are slightly cooler than present day. Nevertheless, SST dropped to c. 8 during all Heinrich Events (Salgueiro et al., 2010). As it got closer to the end of the Gravettian and the development of the Proto-Solutrean (Cascalheira and Bicho, 2013), cooler conditions were heightened, showing the first true signs of cold and dry

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conditions that characterize the Glacial Maximum and the H2 stadial. 4. Chronology The Portuguese Gravettian has been recently dated to between c. 33 and 26.5 ka cal BP, that is between the beginning of H3 and the beginning of H2 (Bicho et al., 2013). It was argued that there were two main Gravettian phases, the early Gravettian dated to the span of the H3 and characterized by the presence of small, bipointed double backed bladelet points; and the later Gravettian dating to between the end of the H3 and the beginning of the H2 (c. 31e 26.5 ka cal BP), and characterized by the common microlithic weaponry including Microgravettes, and single backed bladelets (Bicho et al., 2013). Vale Boi radiocarbon dates were a main element to develop the model. However, in late 2012 we carried out new excavations due to, among other things, doubts about the stratigraphic and cultural interpretation in the earliest levels of the sequence, including a potential Mousterian layer and the early Gravettian occupations. One of issues appeared to be inversions of radiocarbon dates. While the presence of the Mousterian is not yet resolved, the stratigraphy was reviewed and resulted in a better fit for the radiocarbon results. There are now 27 AMS dates, out of 23 samples and 2 more dates from the H2, corresponding to the Proto-Solutrean phase (Table 1).

however, were not dated with the ABOx-SCm but rather with the ABA protocol. Shell samples include four different species, Acanthocardia, Patella, Pecten and Littorina obtusata. Until recently, the preferred species for dating was Patella, as this is a very common species in the Gravettian layers of Vale Boi (Manne and Bicho, 2011; Manne et al., 2012). However, since the results were thought to be reversed, we had to investigate the cause for such differences that in some cases were as much as 2000 years. There were three possible problems that might explain the differences: a) the marine reservoir effect; b) mineral recrystallization and the incorporation of modern carbon; and c) vertical movements of the samples within the deposits. The first case is not likely since there is no evidence of any such error. In fact, the tendency is exactly the opposite with local reservoir effects of close to 1000 years along the Portuguese coast for the last 10,000 ka (Soares and Dias, 2006). A similar error of c. 1000 years was found in Gibraltar for modern Patella samples due to incorporation from old carbon from the limestone cliffs (Ferguson et al., 2011). Thus, it would be highly unlikely to have a marine reservoir effect making the samples younger than they truly are. The second possibility, the recrystallization was investigated with a series of paired results from each sample. The basic assumption was that recrystallization would occur in certain sections of the limpets. Aragonite is present in the interior and apex of

Table 1 Gravettian radiocarbon dates from the site of Vale Boi. Area

Level

Phase

Lab.

Date

Material

Date CAL BPa

Notes

Shelter Terrace Terrace

D4 4 4

Gravettian? Gravettian Gravettian

Wk-26803 Wk-24762 Wk-31090

21,859  186 24,769  180 24,549  165

Patella Charcoal Bone

b

Terrace

4

Gravettian

Wk-32144

Slope Slope Slope Slope Terrace

3 3 3 3 5

Gravettian Gravettian Gravettian Gravettian Early Gravettian

Wk-13686 Wk-16414 Wk-12132 Wk-17841 Wk-31089

24,381 23,613 22,470 23,995 24,300 24,560 24,183

      

258 240 235 230 205 570 161

Patella Patella Bone Patella Charcoal Patella Bone

29,307e27,981 28,440e26,919 27,844e26,288 28,741e27,650 29,522e28,539 30,211e27,743

Terrace Terrace

5 5

Early Gravettian Early Gravettian

OxA-25710 Wk-30677

Early Gravettian Early Gravettian

Wk-32145 Wk-30679

Pecten Patella

30,200e28,600 30,141e29,246 30,331e28,970

Terrace Terrace Terrace Terrace Terrace Terrace

5 6 6 6 6 6

Early Early Early Early Early Early

Wk-26801 Wk-30678 Wk-35713 Wk-35714 Wk-35712 Wk-30676

100 103 173 293 99 255 370 98 122 110 114 90 284 365 422 192 195

29,565e28,636 29,906e28,620

5 5

                

Patella Patella

Terrace Terrace

25,050 25,196 22,235 25,181 25,317 25,390 27,720 25,579 25,930 25964 26,026 24,318 26,353 27,141 28,321 28,012 28,140

Calcite e Minimum age e small sample with low collagen yield Calcite Aragonite e Calcite e Calcite Minimum age e small sample with low collagen yield Calcite Calcite Aragonite Minimum age e burnt sample Calcite Aragonite e Calcite e e e Calcite Aragonite Aragonite Calcite e Aragonite

Terrace Terrace Terrace Shelter a b

6 6 6 D4

Early Early Early Early

Gravettian Gravettian Gravettian Gravettian Gravettian Gravettian Gravettian Gravettian Gravettian Gravettian

Wk-32147 Wk-32146 Wk-35717 Wk-31087

30,211e29,287 29,825e28,608

b

b

Charcoal Patella Pecten Pecten Nassarius Patella Acanthocardia Pecten Arbutus Littorina obtusata

b

30,232e29,487 30,482e29,599 30570e29585 30,590e29,645 b

31,096e29,740 31,502e30,474 33,070e31,240 32,875e31,566 32,324e31,253

Calibration with OxCal version 4.2 (Bronk Ramsey, 1995) with the IntCal09 curve (Reimer et al., 2009). Marine data (Delta-R 209  102) from Reimer et al. (2009). Non-calibrated results due to inversion, contamination or recrystallization of samples.

Samples include charcoal, bone and marine shells. From the three bone samples, two were prepared for AMS using the collagen extraction ultrafiltration protocol (e.g., Higham et al., 2006; Wood et al., 2010; Higham, 2011). Unfortunately, all three samples yielded low collagen content, and the results should be considered as minimum ages. The four charcoal results do not seem to present any problems, although one is clearly reversed, indicating that it most likely came from the lower level (Wk-32147). These samples,

the shell (Cuenca, 2012) while calcite is present in the rim, starting about half way along the height of the shell. If aragonite is present in other areas, it would be a good indication of the recrystallization of the sample. R. Denniston is analyzing some of the Vale Boi Patella shells for isotopic determination. The results thus far show that the shells are frequently heavily recrystallized (Denniston, personal communication, 2012). This would be confirmed if when dating the two mineral sections separately the results are different in the two

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sections. We followed this procedure outlined above for 4 individual Patella samples and dated the two sections of each shell and the results confirm that half of the shells have been recrystallized and that the dates are not statistically identical for both mineral sections of each shell (Wk-30676 and Wk-30677). As one would expect, the aragonite fraction is more unreliable than the calcite fraction, although theoretically one cannot define if the calcite has new carbon or not. Nevertheless, and after the stratigraphic revision, the calcite results are in good accordance with the rest of the dates, with a single exception where the aragonite fraction is in agreement with the other results (Wk-30676). However, it is now fairly clear that layer 6 in the Terrace section represents two different human occupations, respectively dated to c. 32 and 29 ka cal BP, seen by the clustering of the dates around those two times. The deposit, however, is at least in the excavated area, clearly mixed and it is not possible to differentiate the two Gravettian horizons. The general sequence, thus, is fairly consistent during the Gravettian of Vale Boi: Early Gravettian occupations date between around 33 and 29,5 ka cal BP, while the Gravettian ended just before the beginning of H2, when the Proto-Solutrean starts. Thus, this new refined chronology for Vale Boi, moves the boundary between the two Gravettian phases to slightly later than previously thought (Bicho et al., 2013). 5. Resources 5.1. Lithic raw materials During the Gravettian in Vale Boi, there are three main lithic raw materials: quartz, chert, and greywacke. In addition to these, there are scarce examples of limestone, schist, and quartzite artifacts, all three used for the production of individual flakes. The most significant of these raw materials is the schist, used for the production of engraved plaquettes with various artistic designs (Bicho et al., 2012; Simón Vallejo et al., 2012). Although quartzite is not local as it can only be found in the river valleys, some 20 km away to the east, schist and limestone are locally available. The site’s bedrock is limestone, while small schist fragments, although rare, can be found in the local stream. Even if schist was not present in the site’s vicinity at the same time, it could be located no more than 10 km away from Vale Boi, in the western Atlantic coastal cliffs. Quartz was brought to the site in at least two different forms; small cobbles and pebbles, likely gathered in either the river bed, next to the site, or at the Atlantic shore, at a distance of no more than 5 km e in general, these are characterized by fairly homogenous grain and good quality for knapping; and large blocks, coming from the metamorphic outcrops no more than a 1 km from away from the human settlement. The quartz quality is highly diverse, from very poor and altered and impossible to knap, to a grain that is more homogenous grain and within the limits of producing bad quality and irregular blanks (Marreiros et al., 2012). These two quartz types served very different purposes. While the first type was exploited entirely for flake and rare bladelet production, it was frequently transformed in a second phase into formal tools such as thick endscrapers, notches, and scaled pieces (Manne et al., 2012; Marreiros et al., 2012). The second type was used very rarely for blank production and tool manufacture. It usually appears as small, irregular, broken chunks; shape and coloration are usually associated with modification by fire. These artifacts were interpreted as fire-cracked rocks resulting from the eating process necessary for the heat-in-liquid technique present from the early times of Modern Humans in Vale Boi (Manne and Bicho, 2009).

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Chert comprises close to 50% of the Gravettian lithic assemblages (quartz is c. 30%, and higher, and increase to close to 50% by Proto-Solutrean times). There is a wide variety of chert types, although there seems to be no special predominance by any single type of this raw material, with frequencies ranging between 5 and 15% each. The most common types are of light colored (white, light blue, light grey, pinkish white) but there also finer grained dark red, dark brown, and honey colored examples. There is also a medium quality chalcedony, white to bluish colored. The regional geologic context seems to have three main chert groups. The first is found in the coastal dolomitic limestone of Jurassic age. It is mostly located in the western most section of the Sagres region. This chert is a fine-grained and light colored, ranging from white-gray to beige. It is usually of nodular morphology, with sizes generally less than 20 cm. In addition, it also occurs in lenticular bodies of between 3 and 15 cm thick. It tends to be in a very altered form with strong white patina and eroded cortex. The mapped sources (Veríssimo, 2004; Boix et al., 2011) are all in primary position, with the exception of Praia do Belixe cliffs, where the flint nodules appear in a 15 m thick band currently at the modern sea level, with colors ranging from the white to reddish and pinkish colored nodules. On the top of these cliffs the same type of flint nodules can be located loosely on the surface due to erosion of the limestone. This area is some 10e15 km west of Vale Boi. The second type of chert has a hydrothermal origin within volcanic materials and is located in the marl-carbonated Triassic Silves formations. The siliceous materials from these geologic contexts are a whitish heterogeneous fine grained chalcedony, located in a band directly north of the Jurassic limestone. There are three mapped sources, two of which are in primary position. They are some 15 km northwest of Vale Boi and it appears both in the nodular and tablet forms. The third type can be found in the volcanic-Sedimentary complex of the lower Pyritic belt, directly north of the Triassic Silves complex. The flint found in this area is of fine to very fine grain, light to dark gray and red to dark green. The only source known in the region is in secondary position with small cobbles and pebble sized elements some 10 km northeast from the site of Vale Boi. These known sources seem to make up for most of the siliceous materials used in Vale Boi. However, there are a few artifacts of reddish color that clearly are not from local sources. It is interesting that no cortex can be found on those pieces, while with other raw materials the full repertoire of blank and tool production is found at the site. Thus, it suggests that the very fine grained red flint of usually very high quality is not local or even regional, and suggestions have been made that it originates from the Rio Maior area (Bicho, 2004b), although no microscopic analyses or chemical tests have been carried out. Greywacke is pretty much ubiquitous within a range of 1 km around the site. It is present in the local stream as well as directly north as part of the Carboniferous basement, with schist, greywacke and quartzite. It is highly abundant in the site vicinity as pebbles, cobbles and slabs, including in the Vale Boi stream. It can vary from very fine to very coarse grain. When collected as cobble and pebble, it was used to produce blanks and formal retouched tools (endscrapers, notches, denticulates, points, and scaled pieces). But, when gathered as large coarse slabs, it was used as ground stones, hammerstones and anvils. 5.2. Dietary resources The Gravettian fauna assemblage (Tables 2 and 3) indicate that a rich variety of habitats were within reach of the site. Foragers were

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able to exploit resources from grasslands, forest and wetlands as well as the marine coastline, and it is likely this, in conjunction with the ready supply of lithic resources, that kept humans returning to the site for well over 10,000 years. All body parts of ungulates are relatively well represented, indicating that most animals were brought back to the site whole and that grasslands were in proximity (Manne, 2010). Though forest-dwelling species such as the Iberian lynx, wild cat and boar are found in low numbers at Vale Boi, their presence does imply that this habitat was within reach of the site. During the Gravettian, the marine coastline was also close, 5e10 km away (Bicho, 2004b).

Table 2 Gravettian vertebrate NISP and NISP% for Vale Boi. Taxon observed

Terrace NISP

Ungulates Bos primigenius Equus caballus Equus sp. (possibly E. hydruntinus) Cervus elaphus Sus scrofa Capra/Ovis Small mammals Oryctolagus cuninculus Microtus sp. Carnivores Vulpes vulpes Canis lupus Canis sp. Panthera leo Lynx pardina Felis sylvestris Mustela sp. Marine mammals Cetacea Aves Medium bird Large bird Reptiles Testudo sp. Agamidae Serpentes Totals

NISP%

Mid-slope

Rockshelter

NISP

NISP%

NISP

NISP%

10 81 3

1.0 8.5 0.3

14 194 15

0.3 3.5 0.3

4 17

0.5 2.2

215

22.5

813 1 7

14.6 0.0 0.1

41

5.3

1

0.1

774 1

81.1 0.1

4486 8

80.4 0.1

697 2

89.7 0.3

2 5 1 3 2

0.2 0.5 0.1 0.3 0.2

14

0.3

4

0.5

1

0.1 0.3

0.1

0.1 0.2 0.0

2

1

6 10 1 1

0.0

2 2

0.0 0.0

4

0.5

1

0.0

1 3

0.1 0.4

3 5578

0.1

1

0.1

1099

777

Table 3 Vertebrate NISP and NISP% for Terrace Layers 4 and 6. Taxon observed

Ungulates Bos primigenius Equus caballus Equus sp. (possibly hydruntinus) Cervus elaphus Small Mammals Oryctolagus cuninculus Microtus sp. Carnivores Vulpes vulpes Canis lupus Canis spp. Panthera leo Lynx pardina Mustela sp. Aves Medium bird Totals

Layer 4

Layer 6

NISP

NISP%

9 71 3 190

1.0 8.2 0.3 21.9

581

67.0

2 5 1 3

0.2 0.6 0.1 0.3

1

0.1

1 867

0.1

NISP

NISP%

1 10

0.4 4.3

25

10.8

193 1

83.2 0.4

2

0.9

232

5.2.1. Terrestrial resources The Gravettian vertebrate assemblage is dominated by three species: rabbit, red deer and horse (Table 2), a combination that is similar to patterns observed from the Solutrean and Magdalenian assemblages (see Manne and Bicho, 2009; Manne, 2010; Manne et al., 2012). Terrestrial faunal remains were largely accumulated by people, as there is very little evidence of carnivore activity (see Manne and Bicho, 2009; Manne et al., 2012). The early Gravettian timing of intensive rabbit exploitation at Vale Boi is in accordance with other Upper Paleolithic sites in southern Iberia (see Hockett and Haws, 2002 for review). Taphonomic marks, fragmentation and patterns of bone loss, in addition to lithic markers, indicate that ungulate bones at Vale Boi were both marrow processed and intensively rendered for their grease (Manne and Bicho, 2009; Manne, 2010; Manne et al., 2012). While grease rendering is most frequently documented (both archaeologically and ethnohistorically) from temperate regions during autumn, this was not the case at Vale Boi (see Vehik, 1977; Saint Germain, 1997 and references within). The best indicators of seasonality of site occupation at Vale Boi originate from the ungulate assemblage, as remains from very young red deer and horse were recovered (Manne, 2010; Manne et al., 2012). The presence of fetal/neonate individuals in conjunction with fully adult red deer and horse implies that the site was used periodically during spring and early summer and not while juveniles were maturing during the fall (see Seal and Plotka, 1983; García et al., 1999; Goodwin, 2007). Although ungulates (and other animals) may have been exploited from Vale Boi during other parts of the year, the site’s location, its Atlantic-influenced Mediterranean climate, and the behavior and ecology of the hunted ungulates created conditions that favored the exploitation of maternal herds in spring. Both horses and red deer are mixed or intermediate feeders, preferring graminoids (grasses and grass-like plants such as sedges), but also consuming herbs, shrubs and other woody plants when grasses are reduced in availability (Straus, 1981; CluttonBrock et al., 1982; Bugalho et al., 1998, 2001; Sánchez-Prieto et al., 2004; Christianson and Creel, 2007; Goodwin, 2007). Along with improved body condition, larger red deer herd size is attained during times of increased graminoid availability, when there is less competition for forage (Clutton-Brock et al., 1982). Female red deer may also be more easily targeted in the spring, since there is some evidence to suggest that male red deer retreat to secluded areas during this time, to cast their antlers (see Gaspar-López et al., 2010). As grasses senesce and forage becomes more difficult to locate, deer break away from larger herds and begin to browse in forested areas in smaller numbers (Clutton-Brock et al., 1982). The Mediterranean region with its xeric climate regime has a moist cool winterespring growing season and a hot, dry summer during which there is rapid decomposition of grasses (Bugalho et al., 2001; Haidouti et al., 2001). Thus in southern Iberia, highquality forage is most widely available during the spring. This contrasts to more temperate habitats where the growing season is during the summer, and loss of palatable vegetation occurs in late autumn to winter (Carranza et al., 1991). Ungulates in xeric climates therefore experience different ecological constraints than those in temperate climates. Instead of winter and early spring having the least resources, it is late summer and fall, a period that also coincides with red deer and horse breeding season (Carranza et al., 1990; Malo et al., 2005; Goodwin, 2007). The breeding season produces increased energetic requirements for ungulates. Following summer, many female red deer have a reduced body condition and resource patches become particularly important, as they must attain a certain body fat percentage in order to fall pregnant again (Carranza, 1995; Carranza et al., 1995).

N. Bicho et al. / Quaternary International 318 (2013) 102e116

Male red deer have considerable energetic requirements in order to successfully mate as they must either defend females, or the resource patches that attract females, from other males (Carranza et al., 1990, 1995). During rutting season the body weights of male red deer fall, as they decrease their food intake while engaging in these activities (Gaspar-López et al., 2010). While male horses generally mate-guard, defending other males from a band of mares, there are a few modern examples of feral stallions guarding resources when food and particularly, fresh-water, is in short supply (Goodwin, 2007). Both red deer and horse deliver their young during spring and early summer (generally between April and June), and in temperate regions this is well timed for lactating females to take advantage of the peak in summer vegetation biomass (Seal and Plotka, 1983; García et al., 1999; Goodwin, 2007). In southern Iberia, peak vegetation biomass occurs during Marche May, indicating that heavily pregnant/new ungulate mothers would benefit. These ecological variables and physiological constraints imply that despite the energetic tolls that pregnancy produce for female ungulates, their body condition is likely to have been relatively good in late spring. Vale Boi may have presented an attractive spot for red deer and horse in spring, likely due to its proximity to water and grazing opportunities. Females may have congregated in slightly larger numbers in nearby grasslands, making capture easier compared to drier summer months when they withdrew into forested areas. Today, the small creek that runs adjacent to the site does not contain surface water during summer and autumn. It is difficult to surmise what the size and characteristics of the creek were during the Gravettian and whether freshwater was available beyond spring. However, there are large rivers some kilometers to the east of Vale Boi, such as the Bensafrim and Odiáxere, that are likely to have contained freshwater during drier parts of the year. It is possible that resource-guarding may have been the preferred option for both red deer and horse in southern Iberia and that ungulate herds relocated to more permanent water sources in the east during the late summer and autumn, or to another region with better availability of resources. Foragers may have followed the herds to these areas or alternatively, moved closer to the coast. The majority of rabbit bones in the Gravettian assemblage are from adults. Based on tooth eruption and epiphyseal fusion of the humerus, femur and tibia (Jones, 2006), there are no individuals below the age of two months and few between the age of two and 10 months in the assemblage. The proportion of adults on the Iberian landscape is greatest during autumn, with young juveniles being most prominent during spring (Rueda et al., 2008). This is because although the European rabbit is able to produce young year-round in southern Iberia, rabbit births peak during March and April (Rogers and Myers, 1979; Gonçalves et al., 2002). Breeding is dictated by climate, since both temperature and precipitation affect the availability of vegetation and water, which in turn influences rabbit reproduction as well as the occurrence and visibility of adults on the landscape (Gonçalves et al., 2002; Rueda et al., 2008). Rabbits prefer to remain on the boundaries between vegetation zones and thus are well-adapted to the patchy Iberian landscape (Rogers and Myers, 1979; Rueda et al., 2008). During the spring, when vegetation biomass is high and green vegetation is readily available, both adults and juveniles tend to stay close to their warrens (Rueda et al., 2008). However, as green vegetation becomes scarce during summer, adults begin to forage further afield, particularly in wetlands where vegetation remains greener longer (Rueda et al., 2008). Unlike red deer, rabbits are less likely to retreat to more forested zones during summer, since these are the areas where there is an increased abundance of their natural predators (Moreno et al., 1996; Rueda et al., 2008). However, as the home ranges of adult rabbits increase with the senescence of vegetation,

109

they become increasingly at risk for predation (Rueda et al., 2008). When considering the spring timing of ungulate exploitation at Vale Boi, the dominance of adult rabbits suggests that this pattern is a reflection of hunting preference, since sub-adult rabbits are increasingly visible on the landscape during spring and into summer (Hockett and Bicho, 2000; Hockett and Haws, 2002). 5.2.2. Marine resources Marine remains from the Gravettian at Vale Boi comprise of shellfish in addition to a few goose barnacles, one fish vertebra and a single centrum of a vertebra from a small cetacean (Table 2). The shellfish originate from rocky, sandy and muddy environments, and this combination of environments is found today on the nearby coast, which is dominated by rocky headlands and sandy bays, in addition to small estuarine wetlands in creek mouths. The western coast of Portugal contains rich and abundant marine resources, due largely to the coastal upwelling that occurs a short distance offshore (Abrantes, 2000; Loureiro et al., 2005; Salgueiro et al., 2010). Coastal upwelling brings cold, nutrient-rich waters up from the deep ocean, replenishing warm, nutrient-depleted waters at the surface. On the southwestern coast of Portugal, upwelling is facilitated by westerly winds during spring and summer, causing the ocean waters to overturn and increase primary productivity that in turn, benefit coastal marine communities (Loureiro et al., 2005). Shellfish recovered from the Gravettian layers at Vale Boi (Tables 4 and 5) are dominated (95% of total MNI) by limpets, a rocky shore species. Limpets are an attractive food source, since they are highly visible in the intertidal. In the Northeast Atlantic, they are considered to be keystone species of coastal ecosystems, where they control the growth of algae through grazing (Coleman et al., 2006). Limpets are found abundantly along the Portuguese coast in exposed to moderately exposed environments as either solitary individuals or in loosely aggregated groups (Guerra and Gaudêncio, 1986; Boaventura et al., 2002). While limpets may be harvested during low tide at any time of the year, they contain the most lipids (influencing nutrition and likely taste) during the period directly proceeding spawning, with the timing of spawning being dictated by species type and water temperature (see Manne and Bicho, 2011). Southwestern Portugal is likely to have served as an excellent habitat for limpets, as it is an area with good exposure, abundant grazing opportunities and water temperatures suitable for supporting a variety of limpet species. This diversity may have resulted in limpets rich in fats being available for a good part of the year, including the late spring, when Vale Boi was occupied.

Table 4 Gravettian MNI counts of shellfish (and Pollicipes pollicipes) for Vale Boi assemblages. Taxon observed Mytilus edulis Pecten maximus Acanthocardia sp. Cerastoderma edule Callista chione Ruditapes decussatus Veneridae Patella sp. Gibbula sp. Nucella sp. Thais haemastoma Turritella comunis Cerithiidae Littorina Naticidae Pollicipes pollicipes Totals

Terrace 1 1 1 1 1 1 70

1 1

1 79

Mid-slope 25 2 1 1 1 12 2 1137 1 1 2 2 2 1 4 1194

Rockshelter 1 1

1 12

15

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N. Bicho et al. / Quaternary International 318 (2013) 102e116

Table 5 Shellfish MNI counts for Terrace Gravettian layers. Taxon observed Mytilus edulis Pecten maximus Acanthocardia sp. Cerastoderma edule Ruditapes decussatus Veneridae Patella sp. Turritella comunis Cerithiidae Pollicipes pollicipes Totals

Layer 4

Layer 5

Layer 6

1 1

1 1

1 1 1 1 34

1 20 1

16 1

1 40

23

19

5.3. Other organic and mineral raw materials The organic raw materials found in the Gravettian of Vale Boi include two main sets: bone tools and body ornaments. Bone tools are very rare in Portugal during the Upper Paleolithic but the exception is Vale Boi, where there are a few dozen fragments of bone tools that include a few complete bone points dated to the Gravettian, Proto-Solutrean and Solutrean (Évora, 2008, 2013). The Gravettian assemblage is composed of projectiles, awls and fish hooks, a typical range for southern Iberia (Table 6). The interesting aspect is that antler does not dominate as raw material, as both bone and antler have identical frequencies. Antlers, however, would be available since Vale Boi was occupied during late spring and early summer. It is true, though, that it appears that the hunters tended to hunt adult females, frequently pregnant, as well as very young red deer, which do not provide antler materials. This suggests perhaps that the few antlers that were used as raw materials may have been gathered during shedding in the more wooded areas in the region, likely a few km away from Vale Boi. Thus, bone would have been the local and immediate raw material available. In addition, because of the process of grease rendering (Stiner, 2003), the bones were intensively fragmented and this would have decreased the complexity of the chaine opératoire to prepare the bone blanks, as well as to reduce the specific investment time for tool production. Table 6 Gravettian bone and antler tools. Tool type

Antler

Bone

Projectiles Awl Fishhook Debris

9 2

10 1 1 11

7

Gravettian ornaments were made typically on marine shells (mostly L. obtusata/fabalis, but also Dentalium) although there are a few examples of the riverine Theodoxus fluviatilis, as well as a single canine of red deer (Bicho et al., 2004; Bicho, 2009; Regala, 2011). While the latter two were likely immediately local, the shell from the local stream and the tooth from a hunted prey, the marine shells came from the Atlantic shore. While Dentalium elements could have been gathered as single empty shell in the beach sands, Littorina was possibly gathered as live individuals in the rocky low intertidal zone, since the diverse shell colors tend to disappear rapidly with the wave action and sand erosion. If this is true then the Gravettian hunteregatherers had already a map and calendar of the tides, to be able to gather the live shells during low spring tide (see Fa, 2008 for a detailed study on the effects of tidal amplitude on shellfish availability).

It is not clear yet, how far and exactly where the shore was located during the Gravettian in southern Algarve. The traditional view is that the sea level was 30e40 m below the modern sea level. If only bathymetry is used for the location of the paleoshore, than the distance from Vale Boi to shore is greater than 20 km. However, there are clear indications that tectonics was an important variable in the SW Algarve region and that in fact, the shore before and during the Last Glacial Maximum was much closer than initially estimated (Bicho, 2004b; Infantini et al., 2012). Thus, during the Gravettian, the Atlantic shore would not have been less than 4 km away from Vale Boi. The remaining set of raw materials used in the Gravettian at Vale Boi is minerals for coloring. There seems to be two main sources for coloring materials: dark brown to black iron oxide blocks, found ubiquitously on the surface of western Algarve in the form of small nodules as well as small cobbles and pebbles in the streams and river beds. There are many such cobbles and pebbles in the Vale Boi assemblage, likely picked up at the local stream bed or on the coarse sands that cover the small river valleys north of the site, no more than 2e5 km. The second type of coloring material is also an iron oxide, but in the form of reddish to yellowish veins included in the local and regional metamorphic outcrops. This is a soft material, with the color easily obtained and prepared from the rock. The rocks can either be gathered locally in the stream in the surrounding area or in the coastal schist outcrops some 10 km to the northwest. 6. An ecological model for the earliest anatomically modern humans in the southern Atlantic Iberia Recently, Wood et al. (2013) have suggested the possibility that Neanderthals died out ca. 42 ka, and thus there was a hiatus in human occupation in southern Iberia between the beginning of H4 and the first wave of AMH. As in SW Iberia there is no unequivocal evidence for the Aurignacian (Bicho, 2005), Wood’s hypothesis embraces a 10,000 year gap before the arrival of Modern Humans to the Vale Boi region, at the beginning of the H3. Beyond the traditional techno-typological contrast, there are important differences between the Middle Paleolithic and the early Upper Paleolithic in the region (Bicho, 2004a; Bicho et al., 2010, 2013), such as site location or raw material sources. This clearly points for either the non-existence of a continuum in the human occupation in the region, or for a cultural break between Neanderthals and AMH, represented in SW Iberia, respectively during Mousterian and Gravettian times. For the present paper, it is irrelevant to know if the break was chronological or simply bio/cultural, since in both cases the Gravettian occupation corresponds to a new human group that arrived to a brand new unknown territory, likely devoid of human population, just at the beginning of a severe climatic phase, that of the H3, ca. 32 ka. Marean (2010, 2011), following the principles of patch choice theory (Charnov, 1976), proposed that when human populations sparsely occupied a specific landscape, people tended to positioned themselves adjacent to the highest ranked habitat e the coast. This hypothesis was applied to the emergence of AMH in South Africa, in a very similar context, though over 100 ky before, to Southern Portugal, both in terms of geology, environment, climate and resource availability and productivity. It is very clear that the Gravettian hunteregatherers in southern Portugal, sparsely occupied the region near the coast and rapidly learned the economic potential of the area in a great detail, with a rigorous mapping and calendar of the patchy resources: all types of rocks and variety of prey were fully exploited. It is also evident that there was already an important specialization of raw materials for

N. Bicho et al. / Quaternary International 318 (2013) 102e116

different types of artifacts, technical or symbolic, from very early on, taking advantage of the diversity of economic resources existing in the area. The red deer and horse remains indicate that this was a seasonal site, occupied certainly during the Spring and early summer, with rabbits suggesting the possibility, though unlikely, that the humans may have occupied the site during the summer and into the early fall. Other species, such as ibex and aurochs, point to the occasional and episodic use of other local prey. The occasional bird, fish and even the single cetacean element, show a sporadic exploitation that was likely embedded in the daily activities of shellfish gathering or hunting. The presence of the large number of rabbits indicates that this was a fairly specialized hunting, probably with nets and traps. The numbers of newborn and fetal specimens of red deer and horse suggest some level of specialized hunting of those species as well, possibly with traps related to river crossing in the vicinity of the site as those animals were moving on the local landscape looking for fresh water. The site was clearly a residential camp (wide diversity of materials, full reduction sequences of many different types of tools, from stone tools, ground stones, engraved slabs, bone tools, pendants, coloring materials.). The diversity of materials, dietary or not, come from an area that in the majority of the cases were within a 10 km range, and in a few cases reached 15 km (Table 7; Fig. 2). All resources were found and brought in with a maximum of a day’s walk, clearly within a residential mobility pattern. In general, the Gravettian of Vale Boi, from the beginning ca. 32 ka, was marked by an intensive and extremely diverse economic blueprint.

111

and an occasional aurochs from the open plains in the vicinity of the human residential camp site; the occasional ibex from the rugged hilly areas was likely hunted while the Triassic chert was gathered; rabbits were hunted in the site vicinity, possibly carried out by the women; marine shellfish, mostly limpets, but also other rocky-shore types such as mussels were also episodically gathered as well as sandy bottom species such as Acantochardia, Pecten and, to a lesser extent, Venerupis taking advantage of the daily low tide cycles; although they can be accessed during nip tides, L. obtusata and goose barnacles were possibly gathered during low Spring tides (that take place about once a month), as this would provide a higher return rate. A diversity of lithic raw materials were gathered from a variety of areas within a range of less than 15 km (Table 7), each for a specific function and from a set of specific sources: retouched daily stone tools (endscrapers, burins, scaled pieces, etc) and projectiles from chert and a specific quartz type; anvils, ground stone and hammerstones from heavy and course materials such as greywacke and quartzite, not all from local proveniences; small schist slabs, likely from both local and non-local origins for portable art; low quality quartz, from nearby for the extraction of bone grease; and coloring materials from both local and nonlocal sources. The general picture is marked by the use of extremely wide variety of resources, highly intensive exploitation (both at the species and at the specimen levels, as seen respectively in the limpets and the red deer/horse exploitation, as well as with the grease rendering) and, at the same time, with a high degree of

Table 7 General resources location during the Gravettian of Vale Boi. Group

Type

Raw material/species

Local

Non-local

Lithic materials

Stone tools

Quartzite Limestone Schist Quartz Greywacke Jurassic Chert Triassic Chert Vulcano-Sedimentary chert Red Chert Quartzite Greywacke Schist Iron oxide blocks Iron oxide veins Red deer Horse Rabbit Fish Cetacean Shellfish

e Bedrock Stream Stream Stream e e e e e Stream Stream Stream e Local valley Local valley Local e e e

Red deer bone Red deer antler Red deer tooth Dentalium Littorina obtusata

Local valley Local valley Local valley e e

Theodoxus fluviatilis

Local valley

>25 km e e S Atlantic shore <5 km W. Atlantic shore <20 km S. Atlantic coast <15 km Inland outcrops <15 km Inland outcrops e 20 km Exotic non-regional >25 km W. Atlantic coast <15 km W. Atlantic coast <15 km Dune surfaces <15 km W. Atlantic coast <15 km Wooded areas <15 km e e Atlantic shore <5 km Atlantic shore <5 km Rocky and sandy bottom Atlantic shore e Wooded areas <15 km e Atlantic shore <5 km Low intertidal zone Atlantic shore <10 km e

Anvils, hammerstones and ground stone Engraved slabs Coloring materials Dietary sources

Terrestrial

Marine

Organic artifacts

Tools Pendants

Accumulating energy was not the single objective of those hunteregatherers. More important was the exploitation of a wide range of resources, both dietary and not. Food was provided from both terrestrial and marine contexts: red deer, horse

Location

Seasonality

Springesummer Spring, early summer Spring to fall

Springesummer Summer? Springesummer

specialization (e.g., limpets, red deer and horse newborns and pregnant females, schist slabs), based on an economic embedded form of exploitation, maximizing the efficiency, and taking advantage of the patchy distribution of the regional resources.

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Fig. 2. Cartography of elevation, bathymetry, lithology and geology, and resource location around Vale Boi.

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The economic (and social) form of exploitation in the early Gravettian of Vale Boi during H3, at a time of climatic stress ca. 32 ka, in a new unknown area seems potentially one of local and regional resource depletion and as a response humans adapted in the shape of resource intensification (Manne et al., 2012). However, even if this was the case, as the time went by, both the resource availability and the climate greatly improved in the area during five thousand years up to the moment of the beginning of H2, 26.5 ka, when the Proto-Solutrean appeared (Cascalheira and Bicho, 2013). So, why keep the same strategy of resource intensification and diversification if was not necessary? The reason was likely that deprivation of resources was never the sole basis for the adoption of such a model. Many other regions of Western Europe suffered similar or likely even worse climatic impacts at the time of the Gravettian and thus likely resource diminution. There is, however, no other evidence of a similar economic adaptation of resource intensification during the Gravettian anywhere in Europe. The most parsimonious explanation is that resource intensification was a mixed result of economic stress from occupying a new area and the availability and local diversity at the time of the arrival of the first AMH in Southwestern Iberia, some 32 ka. As demonstrated before (Bicho and Haws, 2008), the region was extremely rich (Loureiro et al., 2005) in marine biomass (3e5 times the biomass of today) due to the high levels of the regional Upwelling system in Springesummer times (Abrantes, 2000). Gravettian hunters arrived to the land’s end and repeatedly camped in a rich spot for half of the year, where a wide diversity of resources existed in a range of 15 km, or less than a day’s walk, based on a residential mobility pattern. Resource exploitation strategies during the Gravettian show a preference for a highly diverse diet that maximized energy and micronutrient intake, consistent with both evolutionary ecological models outlined above. 7. Conclusions This paper focuses on the ecodynamics of the first anatomically modern humans in SW Iberia the Gravettian hunters of Vale Boi. They occupied the region from the beginning of H3, some 32 thousand years ago, and maintained the same way of life and technology for 6 millennia, coming back frequently to the same location. The area was marked by a great diversity of resources, both organic and mineral, in a small radius of 15 km around the site. The diet was based on terrestrial and marine prey, large and small, fast and slow, characteristic of a resource intensification context. However, true it may be e as seen by the presence of intensive use of resources (e.g., grease rendering), specialization (e.g., limpets; pregnant red deer and horse; rabbit), diversification (wide range of marine and terrestrial resources) e it likely does not reflect resource depletion but, instead, a wide availability of a diverse set of local resources. This made possible the installation of a long term residential camp, based on residential mobility pattern. The diet seems to indicate both a rich energy intake based on a variety of fatty foods (ungulates, shellfish, grease rendering), but at the same time a very diverse source of proteins, vitamins as well as other essential micronutrients (e.g., Omega 3 and 6) fundamental for a healthy diet with an increase in fertility and low mortality rate, both of neonates, infants and juveniles, and a better development of the human brain and the nervous system. This would likely lead to increase an increase in human population. Unfortunately, in SW Iberia there are still very little data on human population during the Gravettian and, thus, virtually impossible to test the hypothesis of an increasing population. The sites, however, seem to be heavily and intensively used during this period, with examples of multicomponent stratified large sites such as Vale Boi, Cabeço do Porto Marinho or Caldeirão (Bicho et al., 2013). In southern Portugal, the

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issue is even more complex due to the lack of preserved sites other than Vale Boi, but the diversity and number of artistic and ornamental elements at the Gravettian of Vale Boi certainly indicates the presence of territoriality (Dyson-Hudson and Smith, 1978; Petersen, 1975, 1979), and thus, of human demographic pressure in the region. One would expect an impact on the terrestrial prey regional availability. However, data are scarce in southern Portugal, coming only from Vale Boi and there are no indicators of changes in the terrestrial biomass in the region. Acknowledgments We would like to thank Jonathan Haws for his comments on the paper as well as to two anonymous reviewers. We would like to thank a diversity of institutions that provided funding to the work in Vale Boi in the last decade. These are Archaeological Association of Algarve, Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Instituto Português de Arqueologia, National Geographic Society, and WennerGren Foundation for Anthropological Research. References Abrantes, F., 2000. 200 000 yr diatom records from Atlantic upwelling sites reveal maximum productivity during LGM and a shift in phytoplankton community structure at 185 000 yr. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 176, 7e16. Antunes, M., 2000. Gruta da Figueira Brava: Pleistocene marine mammals. Memórias da Academia das Ciências de Lisboa. Classe de Ciências XXXVIII, 245e 258. Aura, J.E., Villaverde, V., Morales, M.G., Sainz, C.G., Zilhao, J., Straus, L.G., 1998. The PleistoceneeHolocene transition in the Iberian Peninsula: continuity and change in human adaptations. Quaternary International 49e50, 87e103. Aura, J.E., Jordá, J.F., Perez, M., Rodrigo, M.J., Badal, E., Guillem, P., 2002. The far south: the PleistoceneeHolocene transition in Nerja Cave (Andalucia, Spain). Quaternary International 93e94, 19e30. Baumol, W., 1961. Economic Theory and Operational Analysis. Bettinger, R., 1980. Explanatory/predictive models of hunteregatherer adaptation. In: Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory, 3, pp. 189e255. Bicho, N., 2004a. The Middle Paleolithic occupation of southern Portugal. In: Conard, N. (Ed.), 2004a. Settlement Dynamics of the Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age, vol. II. Kerns Verlag, Tübigen, pp. 513e531. Bicho, N., 2004b. As comunidades humanas de caçadores-recolectores do Algarve Ocidental e perspectiva ecológica. In: Ferro, A.A., Tavares, M.J., Cardoso, J. (Eds.), Evolução Geohistórica do Litoral Português e fenómenos correlativos. Universidade Aberta, Lisbon, pp. 359e396. Bicho, N., 2005. The extinction of Neanderthals and the emergence of the Upper Palaeolithic in Portugal. Promontoria 3, 173e228. Bicho, N., 2009. Fashion and glamour: weaponry and beads as territorial markers in Southern Iberia. In: Djindjian, F., Kozlowski, J.K., Bicho, N. (Eds.), Le concept de territoires dans le Paléolithique supérieur européen, Proceedings of the XV Congress of UISPP, pp. 243e252. Bicho, N., Gibaja, J., Haws, J., Hockett, B., 2007. El análisis traceológico como medio de aproximación a las actividades realizadas en los asentaientos: el ejemplo de los yacimientos del Paleolítico superior de vale Boi e Lapa do Picareiro (Portugal). Rampas 9, 15e33. Bicho, N., Haws, J., 2008. At the land’s end: marine resources and the importance of fluctuations in the coast line in the prehistoric hunteregatherer economy of Portugal. Quaternary Science Reviews 27, 2166e2175. Bicho, N., Haws, J., Davis, L., 2011. Prologue. In: Bicho, N., Haws, J., Davis, L. (Eds.), Trekking the Shore: Changing Coastlines and the Antiquity of Coastal Settlement. Springer, pp. xvexxx. Bicho, N., Haws, J., Marreiros, J., 2013. Desde el Mondego al Guadiana: la ocupación Gravetiense de la fachada atlántica portuguesa. In: Pensando el Gravetiense: Actas del Coloquio Internacional del Gravetiense Cantábrico. Museo de Altamira, Santilla del Mar (in press). Bicho, N., Manne, T., Cascalheira, J., Mendonça, C., Évora, M., Gibaja, J., Pereira, T., 2010. O Paleolitico superior do sudoeste da Península Ibérica: o caso do Algarve. In: Mangado, X. (Ed.), El Paleolítico Superior Peninsular, Novedades del Siglo, XXI. SERP, Barcelona, pp. 219e238. Bicho, N., Simón Vallejo, M., Cortés, M., 2012. A Solutrean zoomorphic engraved plaquette from the site of Vale Boi, Portugal. Quartär 59, 153e164. Bicho, N., Stiner, M., Lindly, J., 2004. In: Spiritualité, La, Otte, M. (Eds.), Shell Ornaments, Bone Tools and Long Distance Connections in the Upper Paleolithic of Southern Portugal. ERAUL, Liege, pp. 71e80. Binford, L., 1968. Post-pleistocene adaptations. In: Binford, S., Binford, L. (Eds.), New Perspectives in Archeology. Aldine, Chicago, pp. 313e341. Boaventura, D., Cancela da Fonseca, L., Hawkins, J., 2002. Analysis of competitive interactions between the limpets Patella depressa Pennant and Patella vulgata L.

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