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Title:	Earliest known use of marine resources by neanderthals
Author:	Cortés Sánchez, Miguel; Morales Muñiz, Arturo; Simón Vallejo, María D.; Lozano Francisco, María C.; Vera Peláez, José L.; Finlayson, Clive; Rodríguez Vidal, Joaquín; Delgado Huertas, Antonio; Jiménez Espejo, Francisco J.; Martínez Ruiz, Francisca; Martínez Aguirre, Aranzazu M.; Pascual Granged, Arturo J.; Bergadà i Zapata, M. Mercè; Gibaja, Juan F. (Juan Francisco); Riquelme Cantal, José Antonio; López Sáez, Antonio; Rodrigo Gámiz, Marta; Sakai, Saburo; Finlayson, Geraldine; Bicho, Nuno F.
Other authors:	Universitat de Barcelona
Abstract:	Numerous studies along the northern Mediterranean borderland have documented the use of shellfish by Neanderthals but none of these finds are prior to Marine Isotopic Stage 3 (MIS 3). In this paper we present evidence that gathering and consumption of mollusks can now be traced back to the lowest level of the archaeological sequence at Bajondillo Cave (Málaga, Spain), dated during the MIS 6. The paper describes the taxonomical and taphonomical features of the mollusk assemblages from this level Bj19 and briefly touches upon those retrieved in levels Bj18 (MIS 5) and Bj17 (MIS 4), evidencing a continuity of the shellfishing activity that reaches to MIS 3. This evidence is substantiated on 29 datings through radiocarbon, thermoluminescence and U series methods. Obtained dates and paleoenvironmental records from the cave include isotopic, pollen, lithostratigraphic and sedimentological analyses and they are fully coherent with paleoclimate conditions expected for the different stages. We conclude that described use of shellfish resources by Neanderthals (H. neanderthalensis) in Southern Spain started ~150 ka and were almost contemporaneous to Pinnacle Point (South Africa), when shellfishing is first documented in archaic modern humans.
Subject(s):	-Home de Neandertal -Península Ibèrica -Recursos marins -Neanderthals -Iberian Peninsula -Marine resources
Rights:	cc-by (c) Cortés Sánchez, Miguel et al., 2011 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es
Document type:	Article Article - Published version
Published by:	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
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