On the tracks of Neandertals on the Iberian Coast. Palaeobiological analyses of the footprints from Matalascañas (Almonte, SW Spain)

DUVEAU, JÉREMY; MAYORAL, EDUARDO; IGNACIO DÍAZ MARTÍNEZ; SANTOS, ANA; RAMÍREZ, ANTONIO RODRÍGUEZ; MORALES, JUAN A.; DÍAZ-DELGADO, RICARDO

European Society for the study of Human Evolution Meeting

Otro; European Society for the study of Human Evolution Meeting.; 2021

Hominin footprints represent a unique vestige giving access to brief moments of life, an unusual time scale in archaeology or palaeoanthropology. They provide information not only on the locomotor behaviour of individuals (locomotor anatomy including soft tissue, motion capture) but also on the size and composition of the groups that made them, parameters that have an important impact on the adaptive success of these groups but are unknown within the fossil record. Although footprints have great potential, their study remains a challenging task. Indeed, their morphology does not only result from the biological and biomechanical characteristics of the individuals but also from the nature of the substrate (moisture, granulometry…) in which they are made as well as from the action of taphonomic agents. Furthermore, despite the discovery of important sites in the last decade, footprints represent a relatively rare material compared to the more common skeletal remains or archaeological artifacts. This is particularly the case for footprints attributed to Neandertals known until recently from only 5 sites.It is in this context that we report here the discovery and the study of footprints attributed to Neandertals at the Spanish site of Matalascañas.This site is located in southwestern Spain in a coastal environment marked by strong aeolian dynamics. According to the ephemeral condition of the deposit, we conducted a fast UAV flight mission over the whole emerged layer in order to map and locate every track and footprint in the generated orthomosaic. Such aerial view has been proven as an essential document since the surface faded out just 2 weeks later. Following a field analysis, 87 footprints, mostly isolated, were identified within a surface composed of fine sand in a silty matrix, having been covered by an aeolian deposit nearly 106,000 years ago. These footprints are mostly oriented towards an adjacent surface where several animal tracks were discovered.Particular attention was paid to the 31 longitudinally complete footprints of this ichnological assemblage in order to estimate the number of individuals that left them and their biological characteristics (stature and age class) from the footprint lengths. For this purpose, experimental data from a study carried out under the same substrate conditions as in Matalascañas were used. Statures were estimated for each footprint from linear relationships linking stature to footprint length. The stature estimates were then used to estimate an age class thanks to a model quantifying the variation of stature with age in Neandertals. Finally, a minimum number of individuals has been estimated based on the experimental knowledge of the intra-individual morphometric dispersion of footprints.The 31 complete footprints were left by a minimum of 3 individuals representing the different age classes: a child (6-8 years old between 104-115 cm tall), an adolescent or a small adult (126-149 cm) and a tall adult (154-188 cm), probably a male based on the sexual dimorphism in the stature of Neandertals.The discovery of the Matalascañas footprints thus completes the Neandertal ichnological record, which was relatively poor. Moreover, these footprints provide a direct view of the behaviour of a Neandertal group in a coastal plain environment; the orientation of Neandertal footprints towards animal tracks can for example be explained by a hunting or even fishing behaviour in which very young individuals took part.