San Quirce (Palencia, Spain). A Neanderthal open air campsite with short term-occupation patterns

Abstract

San Quirce is an MIS 4 open-air site with a Neanderthal occupation in primary position. Expeditious technology was used here, aimed at producing very simple tools. Meat consumption has been detected along with, more notably, work on hides, wood and plant fibres which could be processed for string.

Only a small part of the San Quirce Neanderthals campsite has been dug to date. Nevertheless, it is a reference site in the search for evidence of Neanderthal patterns, cultural exchanges (learning, shared space) and resource administration (food, deferred consumption, differential object deposition, etc). San Quirce is defined as a site with a high degree of variability in the context of the Middle Palaeolithic cultural record. This assemblage provides valuable information for the reinterpretation of Neanderthal technological, economic, cultural and social capacities in an open air campsite.