European Large Flake Acheulean on Flint: The Transfesa Site in the Manzanares Valley (Madrid, Spain)

Abstract

The Acheulean of the Iberian Peninsula and southern France share some of the technological characteristics that defne the African Acheulean, such as the confguration of handaxes, cleavers and picks, mainly using fakes as supports. The existence of large fake Acheulean lithic assemblages in the middle terraces of all the fuvial valleys of the Atlantic watershed of the Iberian Peninsula allows dating the early expansion of this technocomplex c. MIS 13–11. This paper presents the frst technomorphological and typological analysis of the lithic series of the Transfesa site. The purpose of this study is to confrm the description of the collection and its morphological characteristics to the Acheulean. Flint is the predominant raw material, whereas the presence of quartzite is anecdotic. Most pieces are associated to the production phase (fakes and cores). Among the cores, poorly manufactured, occasional and bifacial schemes stand out, followed by organised peripheral monopolar, centripetal and discoid schemes. The high amount of large fakes (>10 cm) is also outstanding, as this is a characteristic element of the Large Flake Acheulean. As for retouched tools, scraper and retouched fake morphotypes are frequent and in similar percentages. There is a signifcant amount of façonnage products, especially handaxes, followed by trihedrals and cleavers, among which the main supports are large fakes, the main purpose in the elaboration of the frst two types being the confguration of pointed elements. Transfesa is one of the rare lithic series that allows characterising the use of large fint fakes as support for large cutting tools. From a chronological point of view, the expansion of the Acheulean into the Iberian Peninsula can be dated sometime in the Middle Pleistocene (MIS 11–9). The study of this technocomplex contributes to the knowledge of its dispersion throughout southwestern Europe and deepens the debate on the connection with the Acheulean of African roots.