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Abstract: In this paper we present an experimental study of bone modifications caused by human chewing during consumption. Traditionally, tooth marks have been attributed to non-human actors. However, ethnoarchaeological as well as previous experimental work has shown that humans can make many modifications during chewing. Our results suggest that the range of damage is as extensive as that most likely to be produced by carnivores. This damage includes furrowing, scooping-out, crenulated and saw-toothed edges, longitudinal cracking, crushing, peeling and tooth marks. In this paper we present a description of the types of damage observed in the experimental sample. Some of this damage shows parallels between the experimental modifications and archaeological assemblages from Pleistocene and Holocene deposits at the Sierra de Atapuerca sites (Burgos, Spain). The repetition of morphologies allowed us to attribute some of the damage to tooth marks made by human chewing. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper, we compare cannibalism in chimpanzees, modern humans, and in archaeological cases with cannibalism inferred from evidence from the Early Pleistocene assemblage of level TD6 of Gran Dolina (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain). The cannibalism documented in level TD6 mainly involves the consumption of infants and other immature individuals. The human induced modifications on Homo antecessor and deer remains suggest that butchering processes were similar for both taxa, and the remains were discarded on the living floor in the same way. This finding implies that a group of hominins that used the Gran Dolina cave periodically hunted and consumed individuals from another group. However, the age distribution of the cannibalized hominins in the TD6 assemblage is not consistent with that from other cases of exo-cannibalism by human/hominin groups. Instead, it is similar to the age profiles seen in cannibalism associated with intergroup aggression in chimpanzees. For this reason, we use an analogy with chimpanzees to propose that the TD6 hominins mounted low-risk attacks on members of other groups to defend access to resources within their own territories and to try and expand their territories at the expense of neighboring groups. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The first lithic refit studies were carried out at the end of 19th century, but the method was not considered an area of real interest to archaeology until quite recently. Today, lithic refitting is applied in a multitude of areas of enquiry including lithic technology, intra-site and inter-site spatial distribution, archaeostratigraphy and formation processes. In this paper, we present a refit study of the lithic materials recovered in the base of the NW sector of level TD10 at the site of Gran Dolina (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain). We aim to provide information about spatial distribution through identifying activity areas and the internal connections between those areas. Our work resulted in various refits whose connections reveal the movements of the pieces and/or knappers that once occupied the site. Our results also show the importance of studying the set of materials as a whole and the bias involved in analyzing only a small sample. The refits, connections and directions of movement allow us to infer areas in which an activity took place, but these results must be confirmed in future works covering the entire lithic assemblage of TD10. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Many Pleistocene caves and rock shelters contain evidence of carnivore and human activities. For this reason, it is common to recover at these sites faunal remains left by both biological agents. In order to explain the role that carnivores play at the archaeological sites it is necessary to analyse several elements, such as the taxonomical and skeletal representation, the age profiles, the ratio of NISP to MNI, the anthropogenic processing marks on the carcasses (location and purpose of cutmarks and burning and bone breakage patterns), carnivore damage (digested bones, location and frequencies of toothmarks and bone breakage), length of the long bones, frequencies of coprolites and vertical distribution of the faunal remains, inter alia. From this, the documentation of carnivores in a faunal assemblage with a clear anthropogenic component can be understood from three main phenomena: (1) the carnivores as accumulators and the use of the site as a den; (2) carnivores as scavengers of hominid refuse and; (3) carnivores as hominids’ prey. Of these three phenomena, the last one is the least documented at the Middle Pleistocene sites. From this perspective, here we present the case of the anthropogenic use of a lion (Panthera leo fossilis) from level TD10-1 of Gran Dolina (MIS 9, Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain). The lion bone remains show signs of direct interaction between this big cat and human groups that occupied Gran Dolina in these chronologies. From this perspective, the aim of this paper is to contribute to the knowledge of the role developed by large carnivores in the anthropogenic contexts and to provide data on human use of these predators at the European Middle Pleistocene sites. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]