RT Journal Article
T1 Insights on the Early Pleistocene Hominin Population of the Guadix-Baza Depression (SE Spain) and a Review on the Ecology of the First Peopling of Europe
A1 Palmqvist, Paul
A1 Rodríguez Gomez, Guillermo
A1 Bermúdez de Castro, José María
A1 García Aguilar, J.M.
A1 Espigares, M. Patrocinio
A1 Figueirido, Borja
A1 Ros Montoya, Sergio
A1 Granados, Alejandro
A1 Serrano, Francisco J.
A1 Martínez Navarro, Bienvenido
A1 Guerra-Merchán, A.
AB The chronology and environmental context of the first hominin dispersal in Europe have been subject to debate and controversy. The oldest settlements in Eurasia (e.g., Dmanisi, ∼1.8 Ma) suggest a scenario in which the Caucasus and southern Asia were occupied ∼0.4 Ma before the first peopling of Europe. Barranco León (BL) and Fuente Nueva 3 (FN3), two Early Pleistocene archeological localities dated to ∼1.4 Ma in Orce (Guadix-Baza Depression, SE Spain), provide the oldest evidence of hominin presence in Western Europe. At these sites, huge assemblages of large mammals with evidence of butchery and marrow processing have been unearthed associated to abundant Oldowan tools and a deciduous tooth of Homo sp. in the case of BL. Here, we: (i) review the Early Pleistocene archeological sites of Europe; (ii) discuss on the subsistence strategies of these hominins, including new estimates of resource abundance for the populations of Atapuerca and Orce; (iii) use cartographic data of the sedimentary deposits for reconstructing the landscape habitable in Guadix-Baza; and (iv) calculate the size of the hominin population using an estimate of population density based on resource abundance. Our results indicate that Guadix-Baza could be home for a small hominin population of 350–280 individuals. This basin is surrounded by the highest mountainous reliefs of the Alpine-Betic orogen and shows a limited number of connecting corridors with the surrounding areas, which could have limited gene flow with other hominin populations. Isolation would eventually lead to bottlenecks, genetic drift and inbreeding depression, conditions documented in the wild dog population of the basin, which probably compromised the viability of the hominin population in the medium to long term. This explains the discontinuous nature of the archeological record in Guadix-Baza, a situation that can also be extrapolated to the scarcity of hominin settlements for these ancient chronologies in Europe.
PB Frontiers Media
SN ESSN: 2296-701X
YR 2022
FD 2022-04-21
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/71504
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/71504
LA eng
NO Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN)
NO ANR (Agence Nationale de la Recherche)
NO Universidad Complutense de Madrid/Comunidad de Madrid
DS Docta Complutense
RD 27 abr 2024