Bone diagenesis and stratigraphic implications from Pleistocene karst systems.

Bone diagenesis is a complex process that modifies bone components in response to burial conditions. These modifications help to understand deposit formation and classify fossils by stratigraphy. The combined techniques of X-ray diffraction with Rietveld refinement and infrared spectroscopy were used to study the bone diagenetic processes along the complete stratigraphic sequence of Galería site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain).

A symbolic Neanderthal accumulation of large herbivore crania.

This work examines the possible behaviour of Neanderthal groups at the Cueva Des-Cubierta (central Spain) via the analysis of the latter's archaeological assemblage. Alongside evidence of Mousterian lithic industry, Level 3 of the cave infill was found to contain an assemblage of mammalian bone remains dominated by the crania of large ungulates, some associated with small hearths. The scarcity of post-cranial elements, teeth, mandibles and maxillae, along with evidence of anthropogenic modification of the crania (cut and percussion marks), indicates that the carcasses of the corresponding animals were initially processed outside the cave, and the crania were later brought inside.