TY - JOUR
T1 - The Koskobilo (Olazti, Navarre, Northern Iberian Peninsula) paleontological collection: New insights for the Middle and Late Pleistocene in Western Pyrenees
AU - Gómez-Olivencia, Asier
AU - Arlegi, Mikel
AU - Arceredillo, Diego
AU - Delson, Eric
AU - Sanchis, Alfred
AU - Núñez-Lahuerta, Carmen
AU - Fernández-García, Mónica
AU - de Alvarado, Mónica Villalba
AU - Galán, Julia
AU - Pablos, Adrián
AU - Rodríguez-Hidalgo, Antonio
AU - López-Horgue, Mikel A.
AU - Rodríguez-Almagro, Manuel
AU - Martínez-Pillado, Virginia
AU - Rios-Garaizar, Joseba
AU - van der Made, Jan
N1 - We thank Jesus Sesma and Jesus Garcia Gazolaz for the permission to study these materials and their help to access them. We also thank F. Etxebarria, J. Tapia, and M. Cubas for access to the Koskobilo materials housed at the S.C. Aranzadi Z.E. Thanks also to J. Altuna for information provided on this collection and to CENIEH-ICTS for the access to the comparative collections. We acknowledge the work done by Maximo Ruiz de Gaona who, in difficult circumstances, recovered a large part of the paleontological (and archaeological) collection and published it, which made Koskobilo one of the classic references of the prehistory of the Western Pyrenees. We also appreciate the work done by Federico Gomez Llueca, identifying for the first time the fossil mammals from Koskobilo and also the work done by other scholars who recovered additional evidence and published additional works about Koskobilo. We thank all the people and institutions that have allowed us to study the collections under their care and kindly provided assistance: F. Alferez, F.X. Amprimoz, J. A. Anacleto, S. Anibarro, H. Astibia, E. Baquedano, J.M. Bermudez de Castro, P.J.H. van Bree, C. Cacho Quesada, E. Carbonell, B. Castillo, E. Cioppi, M. Comas, R. Cornette, L. Costeur, E. Cregut-Bonnoure, A. Currant, C. de Giuli, T. Engel, C. Ferrandez-Canadell, T. Engel, B. Engesser, J.L. Franzen, E. Frey, I. Garcia Camino, A. L. Garvia, L. Gibert, J. Gibert Clols, U. Gohlich, M. Gross, J.H. Grunberg, C. Guerin, O. Hampe, W.D. Heinrich, C. Heunisch, E. Huerta, K.A. Hunermann, N. Ibanez, J.W.M. Jagt, R.D. Kahlke, J.A. Keiler, T. King, H. de Lumley, H. Lutz, S. Madelaine, D. Mania, M. Martinez Andreu, H. Meller, A.M. Moigne, W. Munk, M. Negro, C. Olaetxea, M.R. Palombo, T. Rathgeber, K. Rauscher, D. Reeder, E. Robert, J. Rodriguez, A. Rol, L. Rook, G. Rossner, S. San Jose, B. Sanchez Chillon, J.M. Segura, C. Smeenk, P.Y. Sondaar, M. Sotnikova, C. Strang, E. Tchernov, Tong Haowen, T.J. de Torres PerezHidalgo E. Tsoukala, A. van Heteren, E. Vangengejm, N. Vanishvili, G. Veron, V. Vicedo, J. de Vos, J. Wagner, V.I. Zeghallo, R. Ziegler, and R. van Zelst. Thanks also to E. Trinkaus and C. Lorenzo for kindly providing some comparative data and to N. Sala, A. Eixea, E. Santos, and R. Mella for fruitful discussion. This work was supported by the Research Group IT1418-19 (Eusko Jaurlaritza-Gobierno Vasco) and the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (projects PGC2018-093925-B-C31 and PGC2018-093925-B-C33; MCI/AEI/FEDER, UE) and benefitted from a Synthesys grant (AT-TAF-3663). A.G.-O. is funded by a Ramon y Cajal fellowship (RYC-2017-22558). A. R.-H. is funded by a Juan de la Cierva-I. fellowship (IJC-037447-I). M. Fernandez-Garcia is beneficiary of a PEJ grant (PEJ2018-005222-P) funded by the Spanish National System of Garantia Juvenil and the European Social Fund. M. Villalba de Alvarado is funded by a FPU fellowship (Fpu 15/06882; Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades). We thank the AE and the reviewers for useful comments that have improved this work.
PY - 2020/11/20
Y1 - 2020/11/20
N2 - The destroyed site(s) of Koskobilo (Olazti, Navarre, Northern Iberian Peninsula) have yielded unique archaeo-paleontological evidence in the Western Pyrenees region. The quarry uncovered a karstic site with faunal remains in 1940, and fossils were recovered both in situ and from the quarry dump. Ten years later, while the quarry was still working, a new visit to the dump yielded a large lithic assemblage and additional fossil remains with a different taphonomic pattern, which has been interpreted as the remains coming from a different site or zone within the same karst system. Here we re-study the paleontological evidence and provide new dating on a speleothem covering a Stephanorhinus hemitoechus tooth, which has yielded a minimum date of c. 220 ka for part of the assemblage. In total, the fossil assemblage comprises 38 mammal and six avian taxa and three fish remains. The faunal evidence indicates that in 1940 a mix of taxa from both the Middle and Upper Pleistocene were recovered, and it is difficult to assign most of them to a concrete period. However, based on biochronological criteria some of the identified taxa (e.g., Ursus thibetanus, Ursus cf. deningeri, Cuon cf. priscus, Macaca sylvanus, cf. Megaceroides) could be roughly contemporaneous with the dated rhino tooth, which would provide a new window to the Middle Pleistocene of the region, with deposits from MIS 7d and/or older. Despite the difficulties in studying this collection, recovered without stratigraphic context and in a salvage operation, Koskobilo has yielded an important paleontological assemblage which helps to understand the paleoecology of the Middle Pleistocene human occupations in the Western Pyrenees.
AB - The destroyed site(s) of Koskobilo (Olazti, Navarre, Northern Iberian Peninsula) have yielded unique archaeo-paleontological evidence in the Western Pyrenees region. The quarry uncovered a karstic site with faunal remains in 1940, and fossils were recovered both in situ and from the quarry dump. Ten years later, while the quarry was still working, a new visit to the dump yielded a large lithic assemblage and additional fossil remains with a different taphonomic pattern, which has been interpreted as the remains coming from a different site or zone within the same karst system. Here we re-study the paleontological evidence and provide new dating on a speleothem covering a Stephanorhinus hemitoechus tooth, which has yielded a minimum date of c. 220 ka for part of the assemblage. In total, the fossil assemblage comprises 38 mammal and six avian taxa and three fish remains. The faunal evidence indicates that in 1940 a mix of taxa from both the Middle and Upper Pleistocene were recovered, and it is difficult to assign most of them to a concrete period. However, based on biochronological criteria some of the identified taxa (e.g., Ursus thibetanus, Ursus cf. deningeri, Cuon cf. priscus, Macaca sylvanus, cf. Megaceroides) could be roughly contemporaneous with the dated rhino tooth, which would provide a new window to the Middle Pleistocene of the region, with deposits from MIS 7d and/or older. Despite the difficulties in studying this collection, recovered without stratigraphic context and in a salvage operation, Koskobilo has yielded an important paleontological assemblage which helps to understand the paleoecology of the Middle Pleistocene human occupations in the Western Pyrenees.
KW - Asian black bear
KW - Deninger's bear
KW - Dhole
KW - Late pleistocene
KW - Macaque
KW - Middle pleistocene
KW - Western pyrenees
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85090222379&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.quaint.2020.06.005
DO - 10.1016/j.quaint.2020.06.005
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85090222379
SN - 1040-6182
VL - 566-567
SP - 113
EP - 140
JO - Quaternary International
JF - Quaternary International
ER -