Comptes Rendus Palevol
Published November 8, 2021 | Version v1
Journal article Open

Between two worlds: Cova Eirós and the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic transition in NW Iberia

Creators

  • 1. Grupo de Estudos para a Prehistoria do Noroeste Ibérico-Arqueoloxía, Antigüidade e Territorio (GEPN-AAT), Dpto. Historia, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (Spain)
  • 2. Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Departament d'Història i Història de l'Art, Tarragona (Spain) and Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES-CERCA), Tarragona (Spain)
  • 3. HNHP UMR 7194, CNRS / Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle / UPVD / Sorbonne Universités, Paris (France) and Sezione di Scienze Preistoriche e Antropologiche, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Università degli Studi di Ferrara (Italy)
  • 4. Grupo de Estudos para a Prehistoria do Noroeste Ibérico-Arqueoloxía, Antigüidade e Territorio (GEPN-AAT), Dpto. Historia, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (Spain) and Sezione di Scienze Preistoriche e Antropologiche, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Università degli Studi di Ferrara (Italy)
  • 5. Cross-Research in Environmental Technologies (CRETUS) - Universidade de Santiago Compostela (Spain)
  • 6. University of Coimbra, Department of Earth Sciences, MARE - Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre (Portugal)
  • 7. Grupo de Estudos para a Prehistoria do Noroeste Ibérico-Arqueoloxía, Antigüidade e Territorio (GEPN-AAT), Dpto. Historia, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (Spain) and Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES-CERCA), Tarragona (Spain) and Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Departament d'Història i Història de l'Art, Tarragona (Spain)

Description

Iberia, a natural cul-de-sac peninsula, plays a major role in the study of the Neanderthals demise and its eventual relationship with the spread of Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH) in Europe. The site of Cova Eirós (Galicia, Spain), located in NW Iberia, contains Middle and Upper Palaeolithic levels, based on the cultural remains recovered at the site. No human remains directly associated with those levels were discovered yet. The available radiocarbon dates from the levels 2 (c. 35 ka cal BP, Early Upper Paleolithic) and 3 (c. 41 ka cal BP, Late Middle Paleolithic), point to a late survival of Neanderthal groups in North Iberia and to a relative quick arrival of the AMH, c. 35-36 ka cal BP, with respect to other territories of the Iberian Peninsula. The archaeological record shows clear differences between the Middle and the Upper Palaeolithic occupations, regarding raw-material acquisition, lithic technology and subsistence strategies. The location of Cova Eirós in the westernmost margin of the Cantabrian Rim and in the Atlantic Façade, makes this site a key place to understand the spread of the first AMH and the progressive demise of Neanderthal populations.

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