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Explaining links from the past: material distribution in Charco Hondo 2 Acheulian archeological site (Madrid, Spain)

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Abstract

The study of the lithic assemblage from Charco Hondo 2 (Madrid, Spain) indicates the existence of intense activities related to the quarrying of Miocene flint outcrops, within a drainage context inside the interfluvial plateau of the Manzanares and Jarama rivers (Madrid region). This lithic production was oriented to produce the first stages of large flake bifacial shaping, with an important collection of refitted materials of the Lower/Middle Paleolithic. The sedimentological circumstances and the presence of refitted items initially suggest the existence of good preservation conditions for an open-air site. In this contribution, we present a brief analysis of the geoarchaeological sequence with special attention to depositional and post-depositional processes, in order to determine the extent to which tool distribution and the lithic refitting connections were the consequence of human activity or, on the contrary, the combination of different human and natural agents. This site provides us with a good example to discuss the relevance and significance of particular refitted distributions in open-air quarrying contexts.

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Acknowledgments

We want to thank Dra. Francesca Romagnoli and Dr. Manuel Vaquero for their kind invitation to the workshop “The Big Puzzle 30 Years After: a Multidisciplinary, Shared, Paleolithic Perspective,” kindly supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation Ref: Gr CONF-737. This work was also carried out as part of the research project HAR2016-76760-C3-2-P “¿COMO, QUIEN Y DONDE?: VARIABILIDAD DE COMPORTAMIENTOS EN LA CAPTACION Y TRANSFORMACION DE LOS RECURSOS LITICOS DENTRO DE GRUPOS NEANDERTALES 2” financed by Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER). We would also like to thank the help and support of Miguel Fernández from Virtua Nostrum Company and the Dirección General de Patrimonio of the Community of Madrid, Los Ahijones archeological team, the Compensation Board of Los Ahijones (Vicálvaro-Madrid), and ARGEA SL Company. We should like to extend our special thanks to Jorge Vega and Sergio Bárez for their helpful contribution in the fieldworks.

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  1. Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, University Autónoma of Madrid, Cantoblanco, 28049, Madrid, Spain

    Javier Baena Preysler & Concepción Torres Navas

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Preysler, J.B., Navas, C.T. Explaining links from the past: material distribution in Charco Hondo 2 Acheulian archeological site (Madrid, Spain). Archaeol Anthropol Sci 11, 4397–4421 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-019-00816-5

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