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Hunting strategy and seasonality in the last interglacial occupation of Cueva Antón (Murcia, Spain)

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Abstract

The Middle Palaeolithic site of Cueva Antón (Murcia, Spain) is a cave/rock shelter with short-term human occupations dated to marine isotopic stages 5a and 3 (MIS 5a and MIS 3). The site provides a high-resolution sequence because the cave’s living floors, organized around hearth features, present rich assemblages of artefacts and faunal remains rapidly buried by low-energy flooding. The accumulation and modification of the faunal remains are mainly due to human agency. Zooarchaeological, taphonomic and tooth-wear analyses provide new insights into the subsistence of the human groups that used the site. Deer is the most abundant prey. The cave was used mainly in late winter and late spring to early summer. During the latter, female herds of deer and ibex were the primary targets of the hunts.

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Archaeological fieldwork and research at Cueva Antón was funded by the Dirección General del Medio Natural de la Región de Murcia, the Municipality of Mula, the University of Murcia, the Fundación Séneca (Murcia), the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (grants HAR2011-24878, HAR2014-52671-P, HAR2017-85153-P and CGL2012-34717), the Generalitat Valenciana (grant PROMETEOII/2013/016), the Excellence Research Projects Program of the Andalusian Government (grant P11-RNM-7033) and the Leakey Foundation. M. Sanz was supported by a Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral grant (IJCI-2017-33908) and supported by the research projects 2017SGR-00011 (Generalitat de Catalunya), HAR2017-86509 and CGL2015-65387-C3-2-P (MINECO/FEDER from Spanish Government). F. Rivals is supported by research projects from the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (grant HAR2016-76760-C3-1-P) and the Generalitat de Catalunya (2017-SGR-836).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Grup de Recerca del Quaternari (GRQ)-SERP, Departament d’Història i Arqueologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Carrer Montalegre, 6, 08001, Barcelona, Spain

    Montserrat Sanz & David García

  2. ICREA, Pg. Lluís Companys 23, 08010, Barcelona, Spain

    Florent Rivals & João Zilhão

  3. Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES), Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3), 43007, Tarragona, Spain

    Florent Rivals

  4. Àrea de Prehistòria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002, Tarragona, Spain

    Florent Rivals

  5. Departament d’Història i Arqueologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Carrer Montalegre, 6, 08001, Barcelona, Spain

    João Zilhão

  6. UNIARQ-Centro de Arqueologia da Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Letras, Universidade de Lisboa, 1600-214, Lisbon, Portugal

    João Zilhão

Authors
  1. Montserrat Sanz
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  2. Florent Rivals
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  3. David García
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  4. João Zilhão
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Correspondence to Montserrat Sanz.

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Sanz, M., Rivals, F., García, D. et al. Hunting strategy and seasonality in the last interglacial occupation of Cueva Antón (Murcia, Spain). Archaeol Anthropol Sci 11, 3577–3594 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-018-0768-6

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