Sleeping Activity Area within the Site Structure of Archaic Human Groups

TLDR

The Abric Romaní site, a well‑preserved Mousterian shelter, offers a rare opportunity to identify prehistoric activity areas and Neanderthal behavior, yet descriptions of archaic human sleeping activity areas remain scarce. The authors used the spatial arrangement of combustion activity areas as a proxy to estimate the number of Mousterian individuals present at Abric Romaní around 55 kyr BP. The excavated inner‑zone combustion activity areas, five in number and spaced about 1 m apart, align with modern forager sleeping‑resting patterns and are supported by a travertine wood imprint, indicating a diachronic occupation and a prehistoric dwelling at Abric Romaní.

Abstract

The identification of different prehistoric activity areas and Neanderthal behavior is one of the main research goals at the Abric Romaní site, which is a well‐preserved and microstratified Mousterian archaeological site. A conspicuous occupation surface excavated in level N yielded a remarkably preserved set of aligned combustion activity areas in the inner zone of the living surface. This set of combustion activity areas suggests analogy with sleeping‐and‐resting activity areas of modern foragers. Multidisciplinary analyses suggest (1) diachronic occupation and (2) similar use of the inner zone of the living floor. The sleeping area comprises five combustion activity areas, spaced at approximately 1 m distance from each other. A large wood imprint of travertine was found near the inner zone, suggesting an architectural remain of a prehistoric dwelling. Descriptions of archaic human sleeping activity areas are very few in Paleolithic archaeology. This identification is a proxy for estimating the number of individuals of Mousterian groups that occupied the Abric Romaní rock shelter around 55 kyr BP.