[Archport] When did the first 'modern' human beings appear in the Iberian Peninsula?

[Alexandre Monteiro <no.arame@gmail.com>]

When did the first 'modern' human beings appear in the Iberian Peninsula?

Science Centric | 15 March 2010 15:49 GMT


Research carried out by a group of archaeologists from the Centre for
Prehistoric Archaeological Heritage Studies of the Universitat
Autonoma de Barcelona (CEPAP_UAB) at the Cova Gran site (Lleida) has
contributed to stirring up scientific debate about the appearance of
the first 'modern' human beings on the Iberian Peninsula and their
possible bearing on the extinction of the Neanderthals. The samples
obtained at Cova Gran using Carbon 14 dating refer to a period of
between 34,000 and 32,000 years in which this biological replacement
in the Western Mediterranean can be located in time, although the
study regards as relative the use of Carbon 14 for dating materials
from the period of transition of the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic
period( 40,000 and 30,000). The results also support the hypothesis
that there was neither interaction nor coexistence between the two
species.

The work, published in the Journal of Human Evolution, was coordinated
by Rafael Mora, Professor of Prehistory and Director of the CEPAP-UAB.
Jorge Martinez-Moreno, a researcher at the CEPAP-UAB and Ignacio de la
Torre, Lecturer Institute of Archaeology of University College, London
also took part in the project.

Cova Gran is a large shelter discovered in 2002, located in the area
of Les Avellanes-Santa Linya -La Noguera- and is one of the rare
European archaeological sites to enable the study of what is known in
Paleoanthropology as 'transitions' or critical phases in which
transformations and remodelling that are essential for reconstructing
the history of our species can be detected.

The investigators from the UAB have worked on an area of 60 metres
squared, excavating a large area which has enabled them to reconstruct
the way in which the people who inhabited the shelter lived. This
system of working is not usual in archaeology since excavations are
generally restricted to smaller earth movements. They have been able
to recover archaeological materials from the Middle Palaeolithic
attributable to Homo neanderthalensis, and from the Upper
Palaeolithic, which corresponds to Homo sapiens, separated by sterile
strata of sediment which allows their differentiation.

The exceptional conditions of conservation of these archaeological
remains, which have remained unaffected by biological and geological
changes, have meant that the materials used by each of these species
has been conserved without the need for significant earth movements,
contrary to that which has been indicated in other archaeological
sites. This detailed analysis of the tool remains recovered allows
major differences to be observed in the way in which they were made,
implying that they were made by different species.

This is something that has also been recognised in other sites in
Western Europe, and it goes to strengthen the hypothesis that the two
species neither lived together nor interacted with each other,
although they may have lived in the same geographical area during the
period from 40,000 to 30,000 years, which is generally referred to as
the Middle/Upper Palaeolithic 'transition.'

Cova Gran was occupied successively by Neanderthals and 'modern'
humans in small groups of 15 to 20 people with a similar lifestyle:
hunting, gathering, making tools for their daily activities and
obtaining and processing food for which the use of fire was essential.
In spite of this, each species used very different techniques and
primary materials.

Among the remains found that are attributable to Homo sapiens are
several perforated sea snail shells, generally considered to be an
indicator of the distribution of the species throughout Africa, the
Middle East and Western Europe. They also denote the existence of a
symbolic language and cognitive capacities for which there is no
evidence during the Middle Palaeolithic These objects indicate that
Homo sapiens travelled widely across lands from the Mediterranean
coast to the Pyrenean foothills, a distance of over 150 kilometres,
although the researchers do not rule out the existence of social
networks which would connect groups separated by large distances and
through which these objects would circulate. If this were the case,
the ornaments would be a key symbolic element in the social structure
of this people and a clue to their identity.

The work also offers new data about the period in which the first
representatives of the so-called 'modern humans' appeared in the
Iberian Peninsula and the extinction of the Neanderthals, a question
that has generated some heated debate within the area of
Paleoanthropology. The Carbon 14 dated samples in Cova Gran make
references to a period of between 34,000 and 32,000 years in which
this biological replacement in the Western Mediterranean can be
located in time.

Notwithstanding, the study also discusses the validity of C14, the
method habitually used to date archaeological remains from that
period. Although C14 is a vital tool for dating archaeological sites,
one conclusion to emerge from the study is that the period between 40
and 30 thousand years cannot be considered as 'historic' years. This
observation has rekindled the controversy that has existed for some
time in archaeology about whether C14 is a totally reliable timepiece.
The radioactive isotope regularly disintegrates but from 30,000 years
its presence in samples is residual and, in many cases, the samples
have been exposed to processes of change that are difficult to
identify. The researchers argue that much of the data that is usually
obtained in studies of this period may correspond to samples that have
been contaminated or have been treated in laboratories using methods
that have failed to detect this type of problem. Currently
improvements are being developed which it is hoped will eliminate this
uncertainty.

The Cova Gran site covers a total surface area of 2,500 metres squared
and contains an important archaeological heritage. Future excavations
will enable more profound investigations into how modern humans
settled in the Iberian Peninsular and their evolution over the last
40,000 years.