Movement, space and time: bone refits to reconstruct Neanderthal's occupational models in Abric Romaní (Barcelona, Spain) and Riparo Tagliente (Verona, Italy)

Abstract

Neanderthal's material remains have been studied from a variety of perspectives with the aim of reconstructing different life-aspects of these human groups. The arrangements of artefacts and features within archaeological sites have often been employed to isolate activity areas and draw inferences about site function. This assumes that objects found in close proximity, were used for the same task, and that artefacts were usually discarded where they were used. In this regard, refitting studies provide useful data in order to achieve some topics like: assemblage formation processes, post-depositional dynamics, settlement patterns, definition and integrity of stratigraphic units. The distribution of the remains and the connection lines documented by refitting, allow understanding the modalities of space-organization, how human groups divided themselves, how they relate to each other and the relationships between the site areas. The aim of this paper is to present the application of this methodology in the Middle Palaeolithic levels I and Ja of Abric Romaní (Barcelona, Spain) and level 37 of Riparo Tagliente (Verona, Italy). This approach is correlated with neighborhood analysis and spatial distributions, allowing to reconstruct both natural and cultural processes involved in this record, in order to explore the anthropogenic use of the site, the differences between occupational patterns, subsistence activities, domestic areas, level of groups sophistication and the length of the occupation. Summarizing the collected data, different situations can be noted. Abric Romaní site shows two different occupational models: short-time occupations around small hearths, representing domestic activities in level I, and a mixture of short and large occupations in sublevel Ja, with synchronic relationships between activity areas and toss zones. A different situation has been highlighted at Riparo Tagliente, where the particular formation-site processes, led to the identification of more palimpsests, that consequently have reduced the amount of refits. The resulting data could be used as a reference to investigate the patterns of occupation and subsistence of Neanderthals in Europe. The interaction of multidisciplinary approaches will improve our understanding of the Neanderthals daily life in a more detailed level.