Late Neandertal occupations in a Galician mountain valley during MIS 3: Cova Eirós (Triacastela, Lugo, NW Iberia)
In this paper we analyze the last Neanderthal occupations in Cova Eirós (level 3, 41.7-39 ka cal. BP). This site is located in the northwestern Iberian Peninsula, at a prominent and strategic place in the small valley of Cancelo (Tricastela, Lugo, Spain), just at the intersection of the Cantabrian and western Atlantic basins. The occupations of level 3 of Cova Eirós show the survival of small, isolated Mousterian communities in mountainous and marginal areas at a time when Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH) are found elsewhere in Iberia. The paleoclimatic reconstruction, based on the macrofaunal and small vertebrates assemblages from level 3, reflects a balanced ecosystem with high specific biodiversity. Both the palaeoenvironmental reconstruction and the faunal assemblage are indicative of a typical glacial-period refuge area, characterized by a predominantly wooded habitat interspersed with open spaces. The richness and chrono-stratigraphic definition of the archeological record from Cova Eirós provide a good glimpse into the technology and subsistence strategies of the last Neanderthal groups that occupied the Iberian northwest. The technological and zooarcheological analyses of level 3 point to recurrent short-term Neanderthal occupations at the site alternating with the use of the site as a cave bear hibernation den and the sporadic presence of other predators. The non-residential nature of those occupations, the low density of artifacts and the spatial fragmentation of the chaînes operatoires are indicative of the high logistic mobility of these communities, which are consistent with other Neanderthal occupations of the late Middle Paleolithic throughout the Cantabrian region.
