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Multi-purpose fossils? The reappraisal of an Elephas antiquus molar from El Pirulejo (Magdalenian; Córdoba, Spain)

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Abstract

Fossil gathering by humans has been rarely documented in the Iberian Peninsula. In the present paper, a multidisciplinary approach has been taken to analyze a straight-tusked elephant (Elephas antiquus) molar retrieved in a Magdalenian deposit at the rock shelter of El Pirulejo in southern Spain. The taphonomical analyses revealed a multifarious use of a tooth that had not only been worked into an anvil-sort-of-tool but also used as a core and partly tainted with a composite pigment. The dating and geochemical analyses further evidenced that the molar derived from an animal that had lived in a rather arid landscape with a temperature range between 12.3 and 14.3 °C coincident with a cold episode within marine isotope stage (MIS) 6.6 and probably fed on herbaceous plants. These analyses evidence the potential fossils from archaeological sites bear for addressing a wide range of issues that include both the cultural and paleoenvironmental realms.

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Notes

  1. It is in this same context that one should frame the collection of cetacean remains, presumably from stranded animals rather than fossils proper, that include a carved sperm whale tooth retrieved from the Middle Magdalenian site of Las Caldas (Spain; Corchón et al. 2008) and others from the Magdalenian site of Mas d’Azil (France; Poplin 1974).

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Acknowledgments

This study has been sponsored by Projects HAR2013-44269-P, HAR 2014-55722-P, and HAR2012-34620 of the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competividad, by Grant 19438/PI/14 of the Programa Seneca 2014 and by Special Action (2014) of the V- Plan Propio de Investigación from the University of Seville. Isotopic and elemental analyses were processed at the Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra. The paper constitutes a contribution of Research Group HUM-949 (Tellus. Prehistoria y Arqueología en el sur de Iberia) and the Interdisciplinary Center for Archeology and the Evolution of Human Behavior. A.G.-A. was also supported by a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship within the 7th Framework Program for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration (European Commission: ref. PIEF-GA-2013- 623027). Sergio Ros Montoya (University of Granada) originally identified the elephant molar from El Pirulejo, and Dick Mol (Natuurhistorisch Museum, Rotterdam) is gratefully acknowledged from providing data on E. antiquus.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Prehistoria y Arqueología. Facultad de Geografía e Historia, Universidad de Sevilla, c/ María de Padilla s/n, 41004, Sevilla, Spain

    Miguel Cortés-Sánchez & Carlos P. Odriozola

  2. Laboratorio de Zooarqueología, Departamento de Biología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049, Madrid, Spain

    Arturo Morales-Muñiz

  3. Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), Natsushimacho, 2-15, Yokosuka, 237-0061, Japan

    Francisco Jiménez-Espejo

  4. ICArEHB - Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and Evolution of Human Behaviour, FCHS da Universidade do Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, 8005-139, Faro, Portugal

    Marina Évora

  5. Museo Arqueológico de Frigiliana, c/. Cuesta del Apero, 10, 29788, Frigiliana, Málaga, Spain

    María Dolores Simón-Vallejo

  6. HUM949. Tellus. Prehistoria y Arqueología en el sur de Iberia Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain

    María Dolores Simón-Vallejo & Rubén Parrilla Giráldez

  7. University of Glasgow Geographical and Earth Sciences, Gregory Building, Glasgow, G12 8QQ, UK

    Antonio García-Alix

  8. Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Agrónoma, Universidad de Sevilla, Ctra. Utrera, km 1, 41013, Sevilla, Spain

    Aránzazu Martínez Aguirre

  9. Departamento de Geografía y Ciencias del Territorio, Universidad de Córdoba, Plaza Cardenal Salazar s/n, 14071, Córdoba, Spain

    José Antonio Riquelme-Cantal

  10. Departamento de Geología, Universidad de Oviedo, Arias de Velasco s/n, 33005, Oviedo, Spain

    Diego J. Álvarez-Lao

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  1. Miguel Cortés-Sánchez
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  2. Arturo Morales-Muñiz
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  3. Francisco Jiménez-Espejo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Carlos P. Odriozola.

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Cortés-Sánchez, M., Morales-Muñiz, A., Jiménez-Espejo, F. et al. Multi-purpose fossils? The reappraisal of an Elephas antiquus molar from El Pirulejo (Magdalenian; Córdoba, Spain). Archaeol Anthropol Sci 9, 1287–1303 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-016-0324-1

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