Iberian Peninsula : The Prehistory Before Our Area
This article is devoted to the prehistory of the Iberian Peninsula. This period begins with the arrival of the first hominins, 900,000 years BP, and culminating in the Punic wars when the country enters the field of written history.
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Iberian Peninsula : The Prehistory Before Our Area
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This article is devoted to the prehistory of the Iberian Peninsula. This period begins with the arrival of the first hominins, 900,000 years BP, and culminating in the Punic wars when the country enters the field of written history.
The most significant elements of this long period are the remains of a share related to the latest manifestations of the culture of the Neanderthal and certain other forms of Paleolithic cave art of the most impressive with those known in the south of France. The territory of the Iberian Peninsula may be regarded as one of the cradles of civilization to Western Europe and became a major colonial objectives of its strategic location and its many mineral riches.
The Iberian Peninsula is home to many world-renowned prehistoric sites. The findings demonstrate a human settlement from the Palaeolithic (sites of Orce, Pinedo, Aridos, Torralba, Ambrona, Atapuerca).
780,000 years before our era: site (in) Gran Dolina at Atapuerca.
The first traces of settlements dating from the Paleolithic hominins. Significant evidence of a broad distribution of the Neanderthals in the area have also been unearthed. LHomo sapiens began to settle in the Iberian Peninsula in the early Upper Paleolithic. The modern man and Neanderthals coexisted until they disappear. Homo sapiens continued to live in the region during the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods.
The Iberian peninsula is rich in prehistoric sites. The best preserved sites are located in the Sierra de Atapuerca, which has many limestone caves that registered nearly a million years of history of human evolution.
Among these sites, the cave of Gran Dolina delivered in 1994, six skeletons of hominins dated to 780,000 to one million years. Scholars have debated the membership of the skeletons of the species Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis, or a third and new species called Homo antecessor. Archaeologists also discovered at Gran Dolina evidence of tool use to butcher animals and other hominins, which is an indication of cannibalism or possible burial practices in this species. Traces of fire were also found.
Also in the Sierra de Atapuerca is the site of the Sima de los Huesos (or “cave of bones”). Archaeologists have discovered the remains of 30 hominins dating from about 400,000 years. These remains have been tentatively attributed to Homo heidelbergensis and could be the ancestors of the Neanderthal. No evidence of habitat was found on the site with the exception of a biface.
All the bones belonged to young adults or adolescents. The similarity in age suggests that human remains found are not the result of accidents. The deliberate placement of bodies in the pit and the lack of housing could suggest that this is one of the oldest examples of funerary behavior.
Around 200,000 years BP, during the Middle Paleolithic Neanderthal man is present in the Iberian Peninsula. Around 70,000 years BP begins Mousterian. Around 35,000 years BP, the Chatelperronienluis succeeds. Mousterian industries related to persist in the south of the peninsula (present territory of Gibraltar) to about 28,000 years BP, when the extinction of the Neanderthal.
The remains of Neanderthal Man were found in many sites in the Iberian Peninsula. A Neanderthal skull was discovered in 1848 on the site’s Forbes Quarry in Gibraltar. Men Neanderthal were not recognized as a separate species before the discovery of the remains uncovered in the eponymous site of the Neander Valley in Germany in 1856. Other discoveries, including the skull of a 4 year old child, were subsequently carried out in Gibraltar.
At Zafarraya, a mandible and Neanderthal Mousterian tools were unearthed in 1995. The mandible was dated to 28,000 years BP and tools about 25,000 years BP. These dates Zafarraya make the site more recent Neanderthal culture and have an opportunity to reassess the date whereby further prosecution of this case. This is also the sign dune long period of cohabitation between Neanderthal and Lhomme lHomo sapiens.
The cave houses in Catalonia lArbreda cave paintings of the Aurignacian and the oldest traces of Neanderthal men. Some authors have suggested that the presence of remnants of relatively late Neanderthal men in the Iberian area indicated that they had been repulsed from Central Europe by Homo sapiens to the peninsula where they had sought refuge.
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