Neanderthal highlanders: Las Callejuelas (Monteagudo del Castillo, Teruel, Spain), a high-altitude site occupied during MIS 5.

 

Domingo, R., Peña-Monné., J.L., de Torres, T., Ortiz, J.E., Utrilla, P., 2017. Neanderthal highlanders: Las Callejuelas (Monteagudo del Castillo, Teruel, Spain), a high-altitude site occupied during MIS 5. Quaternary International, 435, 129-143

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2015.09.088

 

 

 

ABSTRACT.

This paper summarizes the current data about the site of Las Callejuelas (Teruel, Spain) and, for the first time, offers an accurate chronological proposal for its human occupations. The AAR dates confirm the chronology deduced after the lithic industry features and link it to some other uncommon Mousterian sites such as Bolomor or Estret de Tragó, which like Las Callejuelas are characterised by the profusion of small-sized tools, resharpened pieces and exhausted cores. Besides the lithic toolkit, a copious assemblage of faunal remains was found: most were large mammals (horses and bovids) that could have been hunted and/or scavenged by the human groups that frequented the site. Its striking high altitude (1400 m asl) is discussed in the final part of the paper, which also proposes a comprehensive review of similar high-altitude Neanderthal occupations in Iberia.