Multidisciplinary evidence of an isolated Neanderthal occupation in Abric del Pastor (Alcoi, Iberian Peninsula)

Testing Neanderthal behavioural hypotheses requires a spatial-temporal resolution to the level of a human single occupation episode. Yet, most of the behavioural data on Neanderthals has been obtained from coarsely dated, time-averaged contexts affected by the archaeological palimpsest effect and a diversity of postdepositional processes. This implies that time-resolved Neanderthal behaviour remains largely unknown. In this study, we performed archaeostratigraphic analysis on stratigraphic units ive, ivf, ivg, va, vb and vc from Abric del Pastor (Alcoi, Iberian Peninsula). Further, we isolated the archaeological remains associated with the resulting archaeostratigraphic unit and applied raw material, technological, use-wear, archaeozoological and spatial analyses. Our results show a low-density accumulation of remains from flintknapping, flint tool-use and animal processing around a hearth. These data provide a time-resolved human dimension to previous high-resolution environmental and pyrotechnological data on the same hearth, representing the first comprehensive characterisation of a Neanderthal single occupation episode. Our integrated, multidisciplinary method also contributes to advance our understanding of archaeological record formation processes.

Automated summary

To test hypotheses about Neanderthal behavior, it is important to analyze their behavior at a spatial-temporal resolution similar to that of a single human occupation episode. However, previous research on Neanderthal behavior has relied on coarsely dated contexts and a variety of post-depositional processes, which makes it difficult to understand their behavior in detail. In this study, the researchers conducted archaeostratigraphic analysis on several stratigraphic units from the Abric del Pastor site and applied various methods to analyze the archaeological remains associated with these units. The results provide a detailed understanding of a single occupation episode by Neanderthals, shedding light on their tool use and activities such as flintknapping and animal processing.