Arqueologia

N. Garcia & J. L. Arsuaga
Departamento de Paleontologia, Facultad de Ciencias Geologicas, U.A. de Paleoantropologia & Instituto de Geologia Economica, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria, 28040 Madrid, Spain

The carnivore remains f r o m the Sima de los Huesos M i d d l e Pleistocene site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain)
Remains of carnivores from the Sima de los Huesos siterepresenting at least 158 adult individuals of a primitive (i.e., not very speleoid) form of Ursus deningeri Von Reichenau 1906, have been recovered through the 1995 field season. These new finds extend our knowledge of this group in the Sierra de Atapuerca Middle Pleistocene. Material previously classified as Cuoninae indet. is now assigned to Canis lupus and a third metatarsal assigned in 1987 toPanthera cf. gombaszoegensis, is in our opinion only attributable to Panthera sp. The family Mustelidae is added to the faunal list and includes Maites sp. and a smaller species. The presence of Panthera leo cf. fossilis, Lynxpardina spelaea and Fells silvestris, is confirmed. The presence of a not very speloid Ursus deningeri, together with the rest of the carnivore assemblage, points to a notvery late Middle Pleistocene age, i.e., oxygen isotope stage 7 or older. Relative frequencies of skeletal elements for the bear and fox samples are without major biases. The age structure of the bear sample, based on dental wear stages, does not follow the typical hibernation mortality profile and resembles a cata­ strophic profile. The site was not a natal or refuge den. The hypothesis that thesite was a natural trap is the most plausible. If the Sima de los Huesos functioned as a natural trap (without an egress out), the human accumulation cannot be attributed to carnivore activities and must be explained differently.

T. Torres
Departamento de Ingenieria Geoldgica, Escuela Tecnica Superior de Ingenieros de Minas, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Rios Rosas 21, 28003 Madrid, SpainIntroduction The first study of the Ursus deningeri remains from the Sima de los Huesos site (in the Cueva Mayor cave, Sierra de Atapuerca), was carried out by Torres (1977), who recovered numerous bear fossils in his 1976 field season. Ceballos (1986), continued the study of the fossil bears, adding new material from the 1984 campaign. A comprehensive study of all the carnivore remains, excludingthe ursids, from the Atapuerca sites Gran Dolina, Galeria and Sima de los Huesos, up to and including the 1982 field campaign, was published by Morales etaJ. (1987), including a first faunal list and description of the several taxa: Cuoninae indet., Vulpes wipes sp., Felis silvestris, Panthero leo cf. fossilis, and Panthera cf. gombaszoegensis. Finally, Cervera (1992) reported on new findings ofcarnivore fossils, through the 1991 campaign, from the Sierra de Atapuerca site complex (excluding the Gran Dolina site), adding Lynx pardina spelaea to the SH list published by Morales et al (1987). The aim of this paper is update the carnivore fossil inventory through the 1995 field season, and to determine the biochronology of the site. A taphonomic study of skeletal part represen­ tationusing bear and fox remains is performed, as well as a study of the bear sex distribution and mortality profile, in order to investigate the origin of the carnivore accumulation. Since the Sima de los Huesos contains the most complete sample of Middle Pleistocene humans yet discovered from one site, the origin of the carnivore accumulation reveals information also relevant as to human remainsaccumulated in the Sima de los Huesos site. M a t e r i a l and m e t h o d s There are abundant Ursus deningeri remains of unequivocal taxonomic identification (Ceballos, 1986; Torres, 1988a,b,c,d,e,f). Before 1991 only carnivores from disturbed sediments were

Figure 1. Preservation rate of cranial and postcranial fox bones from Sima de los Huesos. Percentages are calculated based on an M N I of 23...