Las ocupaciones paleolíticas de la Cueva Negra del estrecho del río Quípar

Laburpena

In this Doctoral Thesis, an archaeological study has been carried out on the Cueva Negra site in the Strait of the Río Quípar (Caravaca de la Cruz, Murcia), with an age of ~0.85 Ma. The objective of the study has focused on the evaluation of the integrity of the archaeological deposit and analyze the dynamics of occupation and formation of the archaeological levels with the individualized study of the content of each episode or phase of occupation. Likewise, evidence is sought about the domestic behavior of the first hominins that populated the European continent, based on the evidence left in the activities of tool manufacturing, food consumption, use of fire and distribution within the site. Finally, we have attempted to culturally characterize the Cueva Negra within the context of the lower and middle Pleistocene. To achieve these objectives, a compilation of all taphonomic, sedimentary, technological or topographic data has been carried out. The core of the work is based on the techniques of so-called "spatial archaeology", through the use of positional registration data of each artifact and fossil excavated at the site, as well as those obtained from the study of metric, morphological, typological, taphonomic, taxonomic, technological and petrological, with categorical and quantitative assessments at a macroscopic and also microscopic level, from which the spatial analyzes themselves begin. Parametric and non-parametric statistical techniques are applied to identify patterns in residue distributions. The results of the study indicate that the archaeo-sedimentary deposit is in a good state of conservation, without having undergone reworking in any of its layers. In the strata, no displacement can be seen in the remains, with a fresh appearance of the edges of the tools and the fractures present in the fossils, and an equitable volumetric distribution in different areas of the site area. It can be related to alluvial-type sedimentation processes with rapid accumulation at low transport energy. Different discrete occupation horizons have been identified, whose individual study has shown a complex, planned and structured pattern of behavior of the hominins that inhabited the site, practicing selective hunting, as well as the making of tools of various types, with evidence of standardization. and with a selection of local and allochthonous materials, and also the recurrent use of fire, implying that this element was part of the habits of these first settlers at the end of the Early Pleistocene in this area of the Iberian Peninsula. The characteristics of the lithic assemblage and the organization of the activities carried out allow us to infer an advanced behavioral stage for the Cueva Negra hominins comparable to those observed in paleolithic sites of the so-called Mode 2. The great age of the Cueva Negra site makes this study be relevant to the knowledge of Human Evolution and the first settlement of Europe.