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Dragged, lagged, or undisturbed: reassessing the autochthony of the hominin-bearing assemblages at Gran Dolina (Atapuerca, Spain)

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Abstract

The TD6 unit of the Gran Dolina contains an assemblage of the Early Pleistocene, interpreted firstly as a home base. More recently has been proposed a transported origin of the remains according to the sedimentology. Following this model, the remains should be dragged or lagged in a predictable pattern related to their weight, density, shape, and size. Conversely, the debris generated in an undisturbed residential camp should retain spatial relations of codependence caused by the depositional process, not related to inherent variables of materials. To check if the remains were recovered in their original depositional place (aggregated) or are the product of transportation (segregated or random spatial relation), we have evaluated different variables: the spatial arrangement between osteological and lithic tools; the integrity of the bones and their structural characters (shape and tissue composition); postdepositional modifications; and the specimen size distribution. The combined results indicate that the layers that conform the TD6.2 subunit were undisturbed, while TD6.1 was affected by postdepositional processes, probably water flows, resulting in a lagged assemblage. In conclusion, TD6.2 is best interpreted as a well-preserved home base and should play a key role in studies of the behavior of the first European populations.

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Acknowledgments

We want to express our gratitude to our colleagues from the Atapuerca Research Team for the hard work that is done year after year. Raquel Pérez Martínez has provided us with all the drawings of the trench and Grand Dolina. We have had the support of Efstathia Robakis in the English edition. We want to express our gratitude to the two anonymous reviewers and editor Dr. Stephen Shennan, for their willingness and time invested in improving the manuscript.

Funding

The Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MICINN-FEDER) of the Spanish Government financed the research, project no. PGC2018-093925-B-C32 and project no. FJCI-037447-I (Subprograma Juan de la Cierva) and, also, the AGAUR (project no. 2017 SGR-1040) and the URV (project no. 2018PFR-URV-B2-91). IPHES research is framed in CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya. The funding for fieldwork came from the Cultural and Tourism Council of Castilla y León and the Atapuerca Foundation. This research was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the “María de Maeztu” excellence accreditation (CEX2019-000945-M).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES-CERCA), Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3), Zona Educacional 4, 43007, Tarragona, Spain

    Palmira Saladié, Antonio Rodríguez-Hidalgo, Josep Vallverdú, Marina Mosquera, Andreu Ollé, Rosa Huguet, Isabel Cáceres & Eudald Carbonell

  2. Departament d’Història i Història de l’Art, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002, Tarragona, Spain

    Palmira Saladié, Josep Vallverdú, Marina Mosquera, Andreu Ollé, Rosa Huguet, Isabel Cáceres & Eudald Carbonell

  3. Departamento de Paleobiologia, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, C/José Gutierrez Abazcal, 2, 28006, Madrid, Spain

    Palmira Saladié, Josep Vallverdú & Rosa Huguet

  4. Department of Prehistory, Ancient History and Archaeology, Complutense University of Madrid, C/Prof. Aranguren s/n, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Antonio Rodríguez-Hidalgo

  5. Institute of Evolution in Africa (IDEA), C/ Covarrubias 36, 28010, Madrid, Spain

    Antonio Rodríguez-Hidalgo & Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo

  6. Departamento de Historia, Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, Pza. San Diego, s/n, 28801, Alcalá de Henares, Spain

    Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo

  7. Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, C/Monforte de Lemos, 5, 28029, Madrid, Spain

    Juan Luis Arsuaga

  8. Departamento de Paleontología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, C/Prof. Aranguren s/n, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Juan Luis Arsuaga

  9. National Research Center on Human Evolution (CENIEH), Paseo Sierra de Atapuerca, 3, 09002, Burgos, Spain

    José M Bermúdez de Castro

Authors
  1. Palmira Saladié
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  2. Antonio Rodríguez-Hidalgo
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  3. Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo
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  4. Josep Vallverdú
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  5. Marina Mosquera
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  6. Andreu Ollé
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  7. Rosa Huguet
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  8. Isabel Cáceres
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  9. Juan Luis Arsuaga
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  10. José M Bermúdez de Castro
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  11. Eudald Carbonell
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Contributions

Palmira Saladié: conceptualization, investigation, formal analysis, methodology, interpretation, interpretation, writing (original draft), review and editing

Antonio Rodríguez-Hidalgo: conceptualization, investigation, formal analysis, methodology, writing (original draft), review and editing

Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo: conceptualization, methodology, and interpretation

Josep Vallverdú: conceptualization, investigation, stratigraphic description, interpretation, and review (original draft)

Marina Mosquera: investigation, formal analysis, review and funding acquisition

Andreu Ollé: investigation, formal analysis, review original draft and funding acquisition

Rosa Huguet: investigation, formal analysis, and review original draft

Isabel Cáceres: investigation, formal analysis, and review original draft

Juan Luis Arsuaga: investigation and funding acquisition

José Maria Bermúdez de Castro: investigation and funding acquisition

Eudald Carbonell: conceptualization, investigation, review original draft and funding acquisition

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Palmira Saladié or Antonio Rodríguez-Hidalgo.

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Saladié, P., Rodríguez-Hidalgo, A., Domínguez-Rodrigo, M. et al. Dragged, lagged, or undisturbed: reassessing the autochthony of the hominin-bearing assemblages at Gran Dolina (Atapuerca, Spain). Archaeol Anthropol Sci 13, 65 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-021-01303-6

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