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The Mediterranean basin constitutes one of the best areas to analyse Neanderthal populations and lifestyles in South-Western Europe. In this context, new excavations conducted in the Middle Palaeolithic site of Cova del Puntal del Gat expand the information available regarding this rich region. In this study, new results are reported, including detailed studies on stratigraphy, lithic technology, anthracology, carpology, and zooarchaeology and taphonomy of macro and micromammals, with the final objective of characterizing the Neanderthals’ subsistence strategies and occupational patterns. These results are framed within a broader regional study perspective that includes MIS 5 and 4 sites. Chronostratigraphic review has enabled us to reorganize many sites that were originally included in MIS 3, towards older stages belonging to the end of MIS 4 and throughout MIS 5., Le bassin méditerranéen constitue l’une des meilleures zones pour analyser les populations et les modes de vie néandertaliens dans le sud-ouest de l’Europe. Dans ce contexte, les nouvelles fouilles menées dans le site paléolithique moyen du Cova del Puntal del Gat élargissent les informations disponibles pour cette riche région. Nous rapportons ici les nouveaux résultats, y compris des études détaillées sur la stratigraphie, la technologie lithique, l’anthracologie, la carpologie, ainsi que la taphonomie et la zooarchéologie de macro- et micro-restes de mammifères, dans le but de caractériser les stratégies de subsistance des Néandertaliens et leurs modes d’occupation. Ces résultats s’inscrivent dans une perspective d’étude régionale plus large qui inclut des sites MIS 5 et 4. La révision chronostratigraphique nous a permis de réorganiser de nombreux sites qui étaient initialement inclus dans le MIS 3, vers des stades plus anciens appartenant à la fin du MIS 4 et tout au long du MIS 5.

The sites of La Viña and Llonin have an important archaeological sequence corresponding to Marine Isotope Stage 3: Mousterian, Aurignacian and Gravettian periods. La Viña is a complex rock shelter with continuous occupations, being some (basically the Mousterian and the Aurignacian in contact levels) altered by post-depositional processes as a consequence of the irregular bedrock morphology and the type of processes involved. The cave of Llonin mainly consists of occasional human/carnivores occupations during the Mousterian and the Gravettian. The current multidisciplinary research has allowed us to obtain and match several preliminary data: site formation processes, fauna and stable isotopes, vegetation, radiocarbon dating, shell ornaments, lithic raw materials and technology, offering an interesting field of study of two relatively distant ecological niches: open river valley (La Viña) and mountainous (Llonin). During the Mousterian, the faunal composition of La Viña is scarce but dominated by red deer and followed by chamois, while large mammals are absent. At the Aurignacian, red deer and chamois are also represented within a larger assemblage, together with a low representation of other taxa such as horse, bovines, Spanish ibex and roe deer. Conversely, in Llonin chamois and Spanish ibex dominate during the Mousterian, followed by red deer. Carnivores are few in La Viña they are represented by bear, fox and wolf; while in Llonin they are larger and other species are included, mainly leopard and hyena with a main role in the formation of the faunal assemblages and alternating their occupation of the cave with the Neandertals. On the other hand, the ungulates from La Viña are anthropogenically modified not only during the Mousterian but also the Aurignacian and Gravettian in contrast to Llonin, were these modifications are lower than those generated by the carnivores. Firewood and micromammals analysis show an open landscape, dominated by heliophilous, pioneering

The destroyed site(s) of Koskobilo (Olazti, Navarre, Northern Iberian Peninsula) have yielded unique archaeo-paleontological evidence in the Western Pyrenees region. The quarry uncovered a karstic site with faunal remains in 1940, and fossils were recovered both in situ and from the quarry dump. Ten years later, while the quarry was still working, a new visit to the dump yielded a large lithic assemblage and additional fossil remains with a different taphonomic pattern, which has been interpreted as the remains coming from a different site or zone within the same karst system. Here we re-study the paleontological evidence and provide new dating on a speleothem covering a Stephanorhinus hemitoechus tooth, which has yielded a minimum date of c. 220 ka for part of the assemblage. In total, the fossil assemblage comprises 38 mammal and six avian taxa and three fish remains. The faunal evidence indicates that in 1940 a mix of taxa from both the Middle and Upper Pleistocene were recovered, and it is difficult to assign most of them to a concrete period. However, based on biochronological criteria some of the identified taxa (e.g., Ursus thibetanus, Ursus cf. deningeri, Cuon cf. priscus, Macaca sylvanus, cf. Megaceroides) could be roughly contemporaneous with the dated rhino tooth, which would provide a new window to the Middle Pleistocene of the region, with deposits from MIS 7d and/or older. Despite the difficulties in studying this collection, recovered without stratigraphic context and in a salvage operation, Koskobilo has yielded an important paleontological assemblage which helps to understand the paleoecology of the Middle Pleistocene human occupations in the Western Pyrenees.

The sites of La Viña and Llonin have an important archaeological sequence corresponding to Marine Isotope Stage 3: Mousterian, Aurignacian and Gravettian periods. La Viña is a complex rock shelter with continuous occupations, being some (basically the Mousterian and the Aurignacian in contact levels) altered by post-depositional processes as a consequence of the irregular bedrock morphology and the type of processes involved. The cave of Llonin mainly consists of occasional human/carnivores occupations during the Mousterian and the Gravettian. The current multidisciplinary research has allowed us to obtain and match several preliminary data: site formation processes, fauna and stable isotopes, vegetation, radiocarbon dating, shell ornaments, lithic raw materials and technology, offering an interesting field of study of two relatively distant ecological niches: open river valley (La Viña) and mountainous (Llonin). During the Mousterian, the faunal composition of La Viña is scarce but dominated by red deer and followed by chamois, while large mammals are absent. At the Aurignacian, red deer and chamois are also represented within a larger assemblage, together with a low representation of other taxa such as horse, bovines, Spanish ibex and roe deer. Conversely, in Llonin chamois and Spanish ibex dominate during the Mousterian, followed by red deer. Carnivores are few in La Viña they are represented by bear, fox and wolf; while in Llonin they are larger and other species are included, mainly leopard and hyena with a main role in the formation of the faunal assemblages and alternating their occupation of the cave with the Neandertals. On the other hand, the ungulates from La Viña are anthropogenically modified not only during the Mousterian but also the Aurignacian and Gravettian in contrast to Llonin, were these modifications are lower than those generated by the carnivores. Firewood and micromammals analysis show an open landscape, dominated by heliophilous, pioneering

Overlying a palustrine deposit of unknown age (complex FP), and protected from weathering and erosion inside a large cave/rock-shelter cavity, the sedimentary fill of Cueva Antón, a Middle Paleolithic site in SE Spain, corresponds in most part (sub-complexes AS2-to-AS5) to a ca.3 m-thick Upper Pleistocene terrace of the River Mula. Coupled with the constraints derived from the deposit’s paleoclimatic proxies, OSL dating places the accumulation of this terrace in MIS 5a, and radiocarbon dates from the overlying breccia cum alluvium (sub-complex AS1) fall in the middle part of MIS 3; the intervening hiatus relates to valley incision and attendant erosion. The two intervals represented remain largely unknown in Iberia, where the archeology of the early-to-middle Upper Pleistocene is almost entirely derived from karst sites; Cueva Antón shows that this dearth of data, often interpreted in demographic terms, has depositional underpinnings ultimately determined by past climate variation. In early MIS 5a, the paleobotanical evidence indicates climate conditions similar to present, albeit wetter, followed by progressive cooling, reflected in the replacement of Aleppo pine by black pine and, at the very end, juniper-dominated landscapes — the latter characterizing also mid-MIS 3 times. The variation in sedimentary facies and composition of the mollusk assemblages reflects the changing position of the river channel relative to the back wall of the cave. Such changes represented the major constraint for the occupation of the site — most of the time inaccessible to terrestrial mammals, it was used throughout by the eagle-owl, explaining the abundance of rabbit bones. Human occupation occurred during a few, short windows of availability, and is reflected in well-preserved living floors defined by hearths, artefact scatters, and the remains of hunted herbivores. The stone tool assemblages are Middle Paleolithic, which, in Europe, implies a Neandertal identity for their makers and