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An international group of scientists led by Manuel Alcaraz Castaño from the University of Alcala (Spain) has published a paper in the journal Scientific Reports, which presents new data on the settlement of the first modern humans on the Iberian Peninsula in the Upper Paleolithic era. Contrary to previous beliefs, the first hunter-gatherers of our species did not avoid the interior of the peninsula during the glacial maximum.

The new data were obtained during archaeological excavations in the Peña Capón cave in the province of Guadalajara, where field work has been conducted since 2015. The cave is located in a rock shelter on the banks of the Sorbe River. The sedimentary layer contains remnants of materials corresponding to hunter-gatherers. Scientists attributed some of the samples to the Solutrean (15-18 thousand years BC) archaeological culture, but the other part is clearly earlier - possibly Gravettian (21-28 thousand years BC) culture. Homo sapiens occupied this region at least 26,100 years ago. Apparently, people used the shelter as a place of seasonal habitation: they hunted in those parts, and then butchered the prey.

The analyses carried out at Pena Capon included carbon-14 dating and statistical modeling of the age of bone and charcoal samples, paleoecological analysis of pollen, charcoal and small mammals present in the sediments, geoarchaeological study of sedimentary deposits, as well as archaeological analysis of stone tools and remains of large fauna found in the cave. This made it possible to establish the exact chronological framework of the sequence of human settlements recorded in this place, as well as to reconstruct the vegetation landscape and fauna of the surrounding area at that time.

In general, the first groups of Homo sapiens came to the Iberian Peninsula from Africa about 42 or 43 thousand years ago. Previously, the scientific world believed that because of the harsh continental climate, they did not go to the central plateau, but stayed near the coast. However, the results of recent excavations prove that the first inhabitants in Peña Capon appeared 26,100 years ago. This happened during the so-called Heinrich-2 event, during the coldest period of the last glacial cycle.

It turns out that the Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherers were quite able to adapt to the harsh environmental conditions prevailing in the center of the peninsula at that time: lack of precipitation, cold and strong winds. Scientists hope that in the future they will be able to obtain evidence of a wider settlement of people of that time on the Iberian Peninsula. They believe that excavations focused on the Upper Paleolithic period are not particularly popular, including due to the bias of the research tradition, historically more focused on the coastal regions than on the interior (fortunately, it was believed that the latter were hardly inhabited at that time).

Let's note one more point. Yes, today these are the earliest traces of the presence of a modern human species in the interior of the peninsula. But there is still a large population gap between their arrival and the disappearance of the last Neanderthals in the region about 42 thousand years ago. All this remains to be found out. The question is especially important because it can also clarify the general causes of the extinction of Neanderthals - both on the Iberian Peninsula and in Eurasia as a whole. If their extinction occurred everywhere only after the arrival of modern humans, this may indicate its violent nature.

The work is carried out within the framework of the MULTIPALEOIBERIA project, which is funded by the European Union. Specialists from various fields are studying the dynamics of settlement and cultural adaptation of the last Neanderthals and early modern humans on the Iberian Peninsula. And there are already preliminary data obtained by other research groups in several regions of the central plateau, which may indicate an even older presence of hunter-gatherers of our species than that recorded in Pena Capon.

The article was published in the journal Scientific Reports
PHOTO: Pre-Lutrean microliths from the Peña Capon cave (Spain) © M. Alcaraz-Castaño et al.

Source: naked-science.ru, sci-dig.ru

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