Cueva De Nerja Research Articles

A Review of Splintered Pieces from Two Lithic Assemblages in Mediterranean Europe: Grotta Della Serratura (Marina di Camerota, Italy) and Cueva de Nerja (Málaga, Spain)

ABSTRACT The interest of this paper lies in the analysis of variability detected within the group of splintered pieces, establishing distinctions within this broad category. A technological and traceological reading has been used for this purpose. These analyses have been applied to two geographically distant, chronologically disparate assemblages, which make up our case study, Grotta della Serratura, (Italy) and Cueva de Nerja (Spain). Addressing these assemblages together has allowed us to compare the different contexts in which they developed. We have found that the presence of these pieces can be correlated with different points in the chaîne opératoire, knapping, retouch or use; they may all be found at the same site or may be the consequence of a single phase. We have taken these sites as the basis for defining the different categories. This work is therefore intended to be used as a reference for researchers studying lithic assemblages containing such pieces.

Mesolithic human remains at Cueva de Nerja (Málaga, Spain): anthropological, isotopic and radiocarbon data

The Iberian Peninsula is one of the European regions with the highest number of documented Mesolithic burials so far. For more than a century, many research projects have been carried out by several national and international teams, that have located most of these burials in three different geographical areas: Valencia region, northern Spain and the Portuguese estuaries of the Rivers Muge and Sado. Only one inhumation from this period is known in the south of Spain. It was discovered in Nerja Cave (Malaga), an exceptional site with continuous occupations during different periods of prehistory. This burial of a woman, known as ‘Pepita’, is rarely cited in the academic world, probably because the first radiocarbon date was obtained with the conventional 14C method and the result would not be acceptable today. In recent years, the new AMS dates have shown that the Mesolithic chronology was correct. In consequence, a new series of analyses have studied anthropological, diet and mobility aspects of the female in detail. These have provided new information about the time in which Mesolithic communities began to practice a funerary model based on burials in graves, but also about her diet, mobility strategies and possible relationships with other groups. The chronological data show that this is one of the earliest Mesolithic burials in the Western Mediterranean and the diet was based on the consumption of terrestrial animal protein along with marine resources. This type of diet has been found in other contemporary individuals in the east of the Iberian Peninsula.

Polythiophenes as markers of asphalt and archaeological tar pitch aging. Characterization using solid-state electrochemistry

The voltammetry of immobilized microparticles (VIMP) was used to characterize organosulfur components from ovens found at the Spanish archaeological sites of Cueva de Nerja (ca. 35,000cal BC), la Illeta dels Banyets (4th century BCE) and Gestalgar (12th–13th CE), and asphalt probes subjected to PAV and SUNTEST aging protocols. The voltammetric responses of the archaeological samples and the asphalt probes after photodegradation were quite similar, indicating the presence of polythiophene components which could act as age/degradation markers.

Mediterranean monk seal hunting in the regional Epipalaeolithic of Southern Iberia. A study of the Nerja Cave site (Málaga, Spain)

During the Late Glacial–Early Holocene transition Southern Iberia has an extensive record of Palaeolithic coastal sites, wich have been preserved due thanks to the morphology of the continental shelf. This is was a period with rapid palaeoclimatic oscillations and changes in sea level. However, the sites show an apparent continuity in technology and subsistence trends, although human groups made increasingly intense use of marine resources. In this paper we will focus on the study of Mediterranean seal remains from the Vestíbulo hall of Cueva de Nerja (Málaga, Spain), unit NV4, dated 12,990–11,360 cal. BP. The presence of these bones at the site are interpreted as direct exploitation of seals by humans, who processed different parts of the animal like the flesh, blubber and skin. These data allow us to assess the changing role of marine mammals in the regional Palaeolithic economy.

Lighting the dark: Wood charcoal analysis from Cueva de Nerja (Málaga, Spain) as a tool to explore the context of Palaeolithic rock art

This study examines 100 charred plant macroremains from the inner galleries of Cueva de Nerja in order to better understand the context of Palaeolithic rock art and obtain information about possible lighting systems. The remains were retrieved on the surface, very close to Palaeolithic cave paintings, and also from inside possible points of fixed lighting. The predominant wood-type is Pinus sp., especially Pinus tp. sylvestris/nigra. The taphonomic alterations recorded are attributable to the combustion process (vitrification and cracks), the possible gathering of dead wood (fungal hyphae/mycelia), the use of branches and twigs (reaction wood) and the burning of resinous taxa (resin marks). The identification of a vegetative bud of Pinus sylvestris furnishes information about the use of tree branches, as well as the time of year at which the Cueva de Nerja may have been frequented by prehistoric groups.

Throwing More Light. Static Lighting in Palaeolithic “Sanctuaries”: the Example of Cueva de Nerja (Málaga, Spain)

Throwing More Light. Static Lighting in Palaeolithic “Sanctuaries”: the Example of Cueva de Nerja (Málaga, Spain)

The End of Magdalenian in Andalusia: Cueva de Nerja (Spain)

The End of Magdalenian in Andalusia: Cueva de Nerja (Spain)

La función del utillaje lítico neolítico: el ejemplo de la Cueva de Nerja (Málaga)

This paper focus on the results on the function of flint implements recovered during the 1965-1967 field seasons from the Neolithic levels from Cueva de Nerja (room of the Mina). The new data help to understand, on one hand, the importance of the daily activities carried out by the human groups that lived in the cave and, on the other hand, how the artifacts were and what they were used for.

On the origin and domestication of Olea europaea L. (olive) in Andalucía, Spain, based on the biogeographical distribution of its finds

The remains of Olea europaea in archaeological contexts in the southern Iberian Peninsula have been found in the Epipalaeolithic levels of Cueva de Nerja (10860±160 b.p.). The abundant appearance of charcoal and some seed remains from the Copper Age (3rd millennium b.c.) in the coastal zones of the southeast indicate that this species formed part of the vegetation of the Thermo-mediterranean zone and that its fruits were collected during these periods. However, Olea did not appear in the Meso-mediterranean zone until the Roman period, when olive cultivation was introduced there. The presence of charcoal and olive stones from the 1st century a.d. onwards is abundant, together with remains of structures for oil pressing.

The far south: the Pleistocene–Holocene transition in Nerja Cave (Andalucı́a, Spain)

The archaeological site of Cueva de Nerja (Málaga, Spain) provides significant data about the bioclimatic conditions of one of the most southern European temperate regions. The bioclimatic and palaeogeographic changes that have occurred during the 20,000 years of human occupation of the site can be analysed by relating the geodynamic processes, the palaeobotany and the palaeofauna recovered from its archaeological deposits.

<i>Hypoponera ragusai</i> (Emery, 1895) a cavernicolous ant new for the Iberian Peninsula (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)

In this study, we cite Hypoponera ragusai for the first time in the Iberian Peninsula, this species being distributed throughout the North Africa, southern Italy and southern France. This species shows cavernicolous behaviour in Sicily. In Spain the only three localities known until the moment are also cavities, one in the province of Almeria (Sima Termal), other in the province of Malaga (Cueva de Nerja) and the other in the province of Granada (Cueva del Barranco Inate). The population studied in the Cueva del Barranco Inate presents, throughout the year, three castes typical of formicids —that is, workers, females and males— in addition to eggs and larvae. The constant presence of brood, aptery in the females and males, as well as their limitation to the cavernicolous environment raise the possibility that this might even be a species, or at least populations, that are strictly cavedwelling, considerations discussed in depth in this paper.

Late Upper Paleolithic Subsistence Strategies in Southern Iberia: Tardiglacial Faunas from Cueva de Nerja (Malaga, Spain)

Faunal reports from Magdalenian levels at Cueva de Nerja have been surveyed from both a taxonomic and a paleocultural standpoint in order to spot overall and specific patterns concerning the exploitation of animal resources. Although both diachronic and inter-site comparisons are limited due to the scarcity of data and the assemblages themselves have been studied by different scientists with different aims and methods, both first- and second-order magnitude patterns emerge from this study. The most important pattern concerns the constancy of the main subsistence basis throughout the periods under consideration despite dramatic differences in the diversity of cropped resources. Such a result substantiates, to a certain extent, the hypotheses concerning an intensification of cropping by humans during the latest stages of the upper Paleolithic (a phenomenon which we have named the 'Tardiglacial paradigm').

Late Upper Paleolithic Subsistence Strategies in southern Iberia: Tardiglacial Faunas from Cueva de Nerja (Málaga, Spain)

Faunal reports from Magdalenian levels at Cueva de Nerja have been surveyed from both a taxonomic and a paleocultural standpoint in order to spot overall and specific patterns concerning the exploitation of animal resources. Although both diachronic and inter-site comparisons are limited due to the scarcity of data and the assemblages themselves have been studied by different scientists with different aims and methods, both first- and second-order magnitude patterns emerge from this study. The most important pattern concerns the constancy of the main subsistence basis throughout the periods under consideration despite dramatic differences in the diversity of cropped resources. Such a result substantiates, to a certain extent, the hypotheses concerning an intensification of cropping by humans during the latest stages of the upper Paleolithic (a phenomenon which we have named the ‘Tardiglacial paradigm’).

Late upper Paleolithic subsistence strategies in southern Iberia: Tardiglacial faunas from Cueva de Nerja (Málaga, Spain)

Faunal reports from Magdalenian levels at Cueva de Nerja have been surveyed from both a taxonomic and a paleocultural standpoint in order to spot overall and specific patterns concerning the exploitation of animal resources. Although both diachronic and inter-site comparisons are limited due to the scarcity of data and the assemblages themselves have been studied by different scientists with different aims and methods, both first- and second-order magnitude patterns emerge from this study. The most important pattern concerns the constancy of the main subsistence basis throughout the periods under consideration despite dramatic differences in the diversity of cropped resources. Such a result substantiates, to a certain extent, the hypotheses concerning an intensification of cropping by humans during the latest stages of the upper Paleolithic (a phenomenon which we have named the ‘Tardiglacial paradigm’).