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Ams Dating of Human Bone from Cova De La Pastora: New Evidence of Ritual Continuity in the Prehistory of Eastern Spain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Sarah B McClure ,
Oreto García Puchol  and
Brendan J Culleton
Sarah B McClure*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology and Museum of Natural and Cultural History, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403 USA
Oreto García Puchol
Affiliation:
Departament de Prehistoria I Arqueología, Universitat de Valencia, Spain
Brendan J Culleton
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403, USA
*
Corresponding author. Email: sbm@uoregon.edu.
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Abstract

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We present the results of 10 AMS radiocarbon dates for Cova de la Pastora (Alcoi, Alicante), a burial cave attributed to the Late Neolithic/Chalcolithic in eastern Spain. The direct dating of 10 human mandibles from Cova de la Pastora indicates that the cave was used as a burial place from the Late Neolithic/Chalcolithic to the Bronze Age. These dates reveal a continuity of ritual use not previously identified at the site. This case also serves to highlight the utility of revisiting historic excavations and museum collections with modern techniques to shed new light on the prehistoric human record.

Type
Archaeology
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 52 , Issue 1 , 2010 , pp. 25 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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