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The comparative assessment of dietary choices as part of landscape use strategies deployed by Neanderthal and Anatomically Modern Human populations in Eurasia constitutes a fundamental avenue of Palaeolithic research. The increasing number of taphonomic assessments enables a better understanding of what remains were brought to sites by human hunters versus mammalian carnivores or raptors. A zooarchaeological approach can further elucidate the spatio-temporal dynamics of interaction between carnivores and human populations in terms of landscape use and prey choice during this transitional period. To achieve this objective, we conducted an examination of zooarchaeological and taphonomic data, carnivore indices, and other relevant variables across 36 Middle and Early Upper Palaeolithic sites in northern Iberia. These sites encompass 126 archaeological layers dating from 50,000 to 30,000 years ago. Our comprehensive bibliographic meta-analysis reveals that human occupations by both groups at sites across the region were punctuated by episodes influenced by carnivores. This observation implies that human occupations in northern Iberia during Marine Isotope Stage 3 were generally characterised by instability and limited to short periods, often seasonal in nature. From a zooarchaeological perspective, the combined assessment of taxonomic data, species richness and assemblage diversity highlights that the range and proportion of species acquired by these different human groups are similar, although Anatomically Modern Humans engaged in a sustained trend towards increasing dietary diversification even at sites with assemblages heavily dominated by one taxon. • Debating Diets: Assessing the dietary ecology of Neanderthals and AMHs in ecologically analogous environments. • Holistic Approach: Relevant insights into the temporality of site occupation patterns during the MP-UP transition. • Human-Carnivore Interaction Dynamics in northern Iberia during MIS 3 were impacted by dynamic interaction with different carnivore species in the landscape. • Our methodology encompasses quantitative palaeoecological, taphonomic and statistical assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents new archaeological material and first dates on Upper Pleistocene layers at the site of La Crouzade cave (Gruissan, Aude, France). The site was first excavated by T. and P. Héléna at the beginning of the twentieth century, and the excavations were recently completed during three years (2016–2018) of systematic campaigns. We obtained dates from Middle Palaeolithic layers using two methods: AMS 14C dates were obtained from bone and charcoal, and combined ESR-U series dating was undertaken on horse teeth. Together, these methods allowed us to date this Mousterian sequence to 49,776–44805 cal BP for the deepest level (layer C8) and from 42,000 ± 3000 years BP for the top (layer C6). The Upper Palaeolithic layers are preserved only as patches in the actual excavation area, but a date was obtained from a piece of charcoal collected from a small hearth preserved in the first layer (C5) above Middle Palaeolithic deposits, which indicates an age similar to that of a modern human maxillary previously analysed and re-dated here from 36,014 to 34402 cal BP, confirming its stratigraphic attribution. The Middle Palaeolithic lithics at the site were first described as para-Charentian cultural facies following typological analyses. The revision of the earlier collection supplemented with the new material, using a technological approach, allow to identify two layers dominated by Levallois production followed by discoid production (Layers C8 and C6) surrounding an original assemblage (layer C7), characterised by a dominant Levallois production completed by three secondary production systems of equal importance, including discoid, SSDA and a Quina-like production. The faunal spectrum predominantly comprises an assemblage of Pleistocene large mammals, and biochronological studies corroborate the dates obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic (M/UP) transition in Western Europe, hominins depended mostly on terrestrial mammals for subsistence, being pointed out that reliance on reindeer ( Rangifer tarandus ) would have promoted declines in human population densities during that period. Food-composition tables have been compiled for hominins at the M/UP transition, listing protein, fat, energy, different omega-3 fatty acids and ascorbic acid concentrations. These data were used to compute the regular relations between fatty and lean tissues of the main hunted food-animals to meet hominin energy needs. Then, with daily protein intake considered critical, the optimal contribution of the different omega-3 fatty acids from different hunted species to hominin diets were computed. Several faunal assemblages from different human sites at different M/UP periods were used to assess the overall daily intake of the various omega-3 fatty acid classes. The results of the calculations made in this work are quite clear; hominins at the M/UP transition had a deficit of both omega-3 fatty acids and ascorbic acid. Data on human organs summarized here are also conclusive: these contain such nutrients in amounts much higher than reached in the corresponding mammal organs consumed, and thus could have been alternative sources of those nutrients for Palaeolithic hominins. Therefore, nutritional cannibalism detected at such times could have had the function of alleviating these deficits. The evolutionary advantages gained by the consumption of the various omega-3 fatty acids of human origin are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is increasing evidence that humans have exploited intertidal and shallow-water species for much longer than has been previously considered, and certainly not restricted to Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH). One of the principal reasons for the lack of evidence up till recently has been a lack of consideration for the temporal and spatial backdrop to such activities throughout human evolution, in particular related to changes in sea-level during the Pleistocene (Bailey et al., 2008). This study reports on the marine molluscs excavated from Gorham's Cave between 1998 and 2005, focussing in particular between levels III and IV, corresponding to the Upper (AMH) and Middle Palaeolithic (Neanderthals), respectively. Given that Gorham's Cave was never more than approximately 2 km away from the coastline, it still preserves evidence of exploitation of marine molluscs for food by Neanderthals and in this article the data obtained are compared across the Middle–Upper Palaeolithic transition. The results obtained suggest a high degree of consistency in the mode of marine mollusc exploitation between levels, and comparisons with extant communities supports the contention that marine molluscs were exploited in direct proportion to their relative abundance and accessibility. Patterns in shell size distributions for some of the main species exploited are discussed, as are possible anthropic valve selection and the marine climatic signals that can be extracted from such data. The main difference that emerges between Upper and Middle Palaeolithic levels was a lack of evidence of collection for decoration in Middle Palaeolithic levels, but even here the relatively small size of the Level IV sample precluded totally excluding this possibility based only on absence of evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]