Spatial analyses of the distribution of taphonomic marks on long animal bones of Lagar Velho Rock-shelter (Early Gravettian), in Lapedo Valley (Leiria, Portugal) Karstic - Archive ouverte HAL Accéder directement au contenu
Poster De Conférence Année : 2022

Spatial analyses of the distribution of taphonomic marks on long animal bones of Lagar Velho Rock-shelter (Early Gravettian), in Lapedo Valley (Leiria, Portugal) Karstic

Résumé

Archaeological excavations at Lagar Velho rock-shelter in the Lapedo Valley (Leiria,Portugal) were resumed in 2018, with in the framework of new scientific challenges provided by the development of Early Upper Palaeolithic Archaeology in SW Europe. This site is world renowned for the discovery in 1998 of a Gravettian infant burial. However,in addition to this major discovery, the site also preserves remains of other Upper Palaeolithic occupations that occurred before, during and after its use for funerary purposes.In this work, we share the results of our investigations on the bone remains recovered from Early Gravettian Layer 143 excavated since 2018 at the site. This unit is extremely rich in fragmented and thermoaltered animal bones, which allowed us to test a new methodology based on the spatial analysis of the taphonomic marks identified on long bones using the ArcMap software, a challenges carcely applied in contexts dated to the Upper Palaeolithic. We compare our results with experimental benchmark in order to identify the agent that produced this type of marks. The objective of this investigation is to describe bone fragmentation patterns and associated marks.For this study, we selected a sample of206 long bone fragments belonging mostly to medium-sized ungulates, probably Cervids, and the results of spatial analyses focused on Cervid metapodials. It is important to note that bone surfaces are generally well-preserved,except in six cases where taphonomic processes have prevented the marks observation. Our results show that the ratio of epiphysis/diaphysis is relatively high, with16 non-epiphyseal fragments recorded. The marks identified in our sample belong mostly to modifications produced by carnivores such as pits, punctures, scores, or chewing portions. We also identified nine striations that could correspond to anthropogenic marks. Additionally, 55% (N=114) of the bones present burnt modifications, with some fragments refitting in situ. The observation carried out on the type of fractures observed in the bones shows that besides the fractures caused by thermos-alterations, fresh fractures are the most numerous due to marrow extraction of long bones by biological agents.Layer 143 is located immediately below the GFU EE15, where previous works proposed human activities related to skinning and processing of ungulate skin, such as red deer (Almeida et al., 2009). Despite of the reduced sample analysed here, our preliminary results suggest a more complex taphonomic processes and agents involved in the accumulation and modification of the bone assemblage, highlighting new taphonomic perspectives for the interpretation of this Gravettian unit
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Dates et versions

hal-03938470 , version 1 (13-01-2023)

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  • HAL Id : hal-03938470 , version 1

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Delphine Vettese, Montserrat Sanz-Borràs, Joan Daura, Ana Cristina Araújo, Ana Maria Costa. Spatial analyses of the distribution of taphonomic marks on long animal bones of Lagar Velho Rock-shelter (Early Gravettian), in Lapedo Valley (Leiria, Portugal) Karstic. 9th TAPHOS, Jun 2022, Madrid, Spain. ⟨hal-03938470⟩
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