Cargando…

Early evidence of fire in south-western Europe: the Acheulean site of Gruta da Aroeira (Torres Novas, Portugal)

The site of Gruta da Aroeira (Torres Novas, Portugal), with evidence of human occupancy dating to ca. 400 ka (Marine Isotope Stage 11), is one of the very few Middle Pleistocene localities to have provided a fossil hominin cranium associated with Acheulean bifaces in a cave context. The multi-analyt...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Sanz, Montserrat, Daura, Joan, Cabanes, Dan, Égüez, Natalia, Carrancho, Ángel, Badal, Ernestina, Souto, Pedro, Rodrigues, Filipa, Zilhão, João
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7374095/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32694542
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-68839-w
_version_ 1783561622183215104
author Sanz, Montserrat
Daura, Joan
Cabanes, Dan
Égüez, Natalia
Carrancho, Ángel
Badal, Ernestina
Souto, Pedro
Rodrigues, Filipa
Zilhão, João
author_facet Sanz, Montserrat
Daura, Joan
Cabanes, Dan
Égüez, Natalia
Carrancho, Ángel
Badal, Ernestina
Souto, Pedro
Rodrigues, Filipa
Zilhão, João
author_sort Sanz, Montserrat
collection PubMed
description The site of Gruta da Aroeira (Torres Novas, Portugal), with evidence of human occupancy dating to ca. 400 ka (Marine Isotope Stage 11), is one of the very few Middle Pleistocene localities to have provided a fossil hominin cranium associated with Acheulean bifaces in a cave context. The multi-analytic study reported here of the by-products of burning recorded in layer X suggests the presence of anthropogenic fires at the site, among the oldest such evidence in south-western Europe. The burnt material consists of bone, charcoal and, possibly, quartzite cobbles. These finds were made in a small area of the cave and in two separate occupation horizons. Our results add to our still-limited knowledge about the controlled use of fire in the Lower Palaeolithic and contribute to ongoing debates on the behavioural complexity of the Acheulean of Europe.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7374095
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher Nature Publishing Group UK
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-73740952020-07-22 Early evidence of fire in south-western Europe: the Acheulean site of Gruta da Aroeira (Torres Novas, Portugal) Sanz, Montserrat Daura, Joan Cabanes, Dan Égüez, Natalia Carrancho, Ángel Badal, Ernestina Souto, Pedro Rodrigues, Filipa Zilhão, João Sci Rep Article The site of Gruta da Aroeira (Torres Novas, Portugal), with evidence of human occupancy dating to ca. 400 ka (Marine Isotope Stage 11), is one of the very few Middle Pleistocene localities to have provided a fossil hominin cranium associated with Acheulean bifaces in a cave context. The multi-analytic study reported here of the by-products of burning recorded in layer X suggests the presence of anthropogenic fires at the site, among the oldest such evidence in south-western Europe. The burnt material consists of bone, charcoal and, possibly, quartzite cobbles. These finds were made in a small area of the cave and in two separate occupation horizons. Our results add to our still-limited knowledge about the controlled use of fire in the Lower Palaeolithic and contribute to ongoing debates on the behavioural complexity of the Acheulean of Europe. Nature Publishing Group UK 2020-07-21 /pmc/articles/PMC7374095/ /pubmed/32694542 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-68839-w Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Sanz, Montserrat
Daura, Joan
Cabanes, Dan
Égüez, Natalia
Carrancho, Ángel
Badal, Ernestina
Souto, Pedro
Rodrigues, Filipa
Zilhão, João
Early evidence of fire in south-western Europe: the Acheulean site of Gruta da Aroeira (Torres Novas, Portugal)
title Early evidence of fire in south-western Europe: the Acheulean site of Gruta da Aroeira (Torres Novas, Portugal)
title_full Early evidence of fire in south-western Europe: the Acheulean site of Gruta da Aroeira (Torres Novas, Portugal)
title_fullStr Early evidence of fire in south-western Europe: the Acheulean site of Gruta da Aroeira (Torres Novas, Portugal)
title_full_unstemmed Early evidence of fire in south-western Europe: the Acheulean site of Gruta da Aroeira (Torres Novas, Portugal)
title_short Early evidence of fire in south-western Europe: the Acheulean site of Gruta da Aroeira (Torres Novas, Portugal)
title_sort early evidence of fire in south-western europe: the acheulean site of gruta da aroeira (torres novas, portugal)
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7374095/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32694542
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-68839-w
work_keys_str_mv AT sanzmontserrat earlyevidenceoffireinsouthwesterneuropetheacheuleansiteofgrutadaaroeiratorresnovasportugal
AT daurajoan earlyevidenceoffireinsouthwesterneuropetheacheuleansiteofgrutadaaroeiratorresnovasportugal
AT cabanesdan earlyevidenceoffireinsouthwesterneuropetheacheuleansiteofgrutadaaroeiratorresnovasportugal
AT egueznatalia earlyevidenceoffireinsouthwesterneuropetheacheuleansiteofgrutadaaroeiratorresnovasportugal
AT carranchoangel earlyevidenceoffireinsouthwesterneuropetheacheuleansiteofgrutadaaroeiratorresnovasportugal
AT badalernestina earlyevidenceoffireinsouthwesterneuropetheacheuleansiteofgrutadaaroeiratorresnovasportugal
AT soutopedro earlyevidenceoffireinsouthwesterneuropetheacheuleansiteofgrutadaaroeiratorresnovasportugal
AT rodriguesfilipa earlyevidenceoffireinsouthwesterneuropetheacheuleansiteofgrutadaaroeiratorresnovasportugal
AT zilhaojoao earlyevidenceoffireinsouthwesterneuropetheacheuleansiteofgrutadaaroeiratorresnovasportugal