Neanderthal Resilience in Two Hotspot Zones of Iberia (Cantabrian and Betic Regions) provides ground-breaking research on Neanderthal lithic technical and subsistence practices. It examines bioclimatic settlement behavioural patterns of two regions of the Iberian Peninsula during the late Pleistocene Period: the northern Cantabrian region and the southern Betic region. The principal aim is to test whether hominid groups of the same species (Homo neanderthalensis) behaved, exploited and occupied their territory in similar or different ways under varying environmental conditions. Three approaches were undertaken: a technological study of eight lithic assemblages, a construction of a database of faunal remains and an analysis of settlement patterns related to bioclimatic mapping. Results of these analyses suggest that Neanderthals in both regions reacted to changes in local ecology and climate in similar ways, highlighting their great adaptive ability and commonality in their behavioural responses.

AUTHOR
Marco Antonio Bernal Gómez has a PhD in archaeology from the University of Oxford, and a master’s in quaternary archaeology and human evolution from the University Rovira i Virgili (Tarragona, Spain) and the Institute of Human Palaeontology (Paris, France). He has conducted archaeological research in several of Iberia’s Palaeolithic cave sites since 2005. He currently directs PALEOMÁGINA (Prehistoric Research Center of Sierra Mágina, Bedmar, Jaén).

REVIEW
‘This book is truly original. It is the first to compare two different regions of Iberia, and it does so with in-depth analysis and detail.’ Dr José-Manuel Maíllo-Fernández, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED)

‘The integration of different data and sources provides an exciting opportunity to analyse neanderthal technological behaviour in the Iberian peninsula from a completely new perspective.’ Professor Javier Baena Preysler, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid