Quaternary Science Reviews xxx (xxxx) xxx Please cite this article as: A.C. Pinto-Llona et al., Quaternary Science Reviews, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2023.108468 0277-3791/© 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Alternation between humans and carnivores in the occupations of the Mousterian site of Sope˜ na rock-shelter (Asturias, Spain) A.C. Pinto-Llona a, b , V. Estaca c , A. Grandal-d’Anglade d , A.J. Romero e, c , J. Yravedra c, f, g, h, 1, 2, 3, * a Museo Arqueol´ ogico y Paleontol´ ogico (MARPA), Alcal´ a de Henares, Madrid, Spain b Gabinete de Prehistoria de la Conciencia Humana (GAPRECON2), El Espinar, Segovia, Spain c Universidad Complutense (UCM), Facultad de Geografía e Historia, Dpto. Prehistoria, Historia Antigua y Arqueología, C/Profesor Aranguren, 2, 28040, Madrid, Spain d Universidade da Coru˜ na, Instituto Universitario de Xeoloxía, ESCI, A Coru˜ na, Spain e Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (UPV/EHU), Dpto. Geografía, Prehistoria y Arqueología, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain f Unidad del CAI de Arqueometría y An´ alisis Arqueol´ ogico, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), Spain g Research Group Ecosistemas Cuaternarios, Spain h Research Group Arqueología Prehist´ orica, Spain A R T I C L E INFO Handling Editor: Danielle Schreve Keywords: Mousterian Neanderthals Carnivores Taphonomy Tooth marks Cut marks Sope˜ na ABSTRACT The Sope˜ na rock-shelter is a Palaeolithic site located in the northern slopes of the Cantabrian mountain range of northern Spain, facing the Bay of Biscay, in the Principality of Asturias. The shelter overlooks the Güe˜ na River, which is a tributary to the Sella River. Excavations there yielded a long stratigraphic and archaeological sequence of episodes of human occupation, ranging from the later millennia of the Middle Palaeolithic -until the local disappearance of Neanderthals c. 42,630 ± 600 years ago, to the initial stages of the Upper Palaeolithic, which marks the local arrival of modern Homo sapiens sapiens, and an important Gravettian sequence. All the Sope˜ na levels yielded important accumulations of both lithic and faunal remains. The Mousterian appears, from top to bottom, in Sope˜ na levels XII, XIII, XIV, XV and XVI. Our study of the animal remains shows that at Level XV Neanderthal activity is very intense and responsible for the accumulation and modifcation of most of the bone remains (Yravedra et al., under review), while, as described below, this is not the case for levels XII, XIII and XIV, where carnivores were more involved in the accumulation and modifcation of animal remains. In this paper, we analyze the alternation between human and carnivore activity in the formation of the bone assemblages in the later Mousterian levels of Sope˜ na, on the eve of the arrival of anatomically modern humans in the Cantabrian region c. 40.000 years ago. 1. Introduction The interaction between humans and carnivores is pervading throughout the Palaeolithic. Often, both agents alternate their use of the same spaces but at different times, and this has been recorded in the Lower Pleistocene (e.g. Parkinson, 2018; Coil et al., 2020; Yravedra et al., 2021, 2022), in the Middle Pleistocene (e.g. Yravedra et al., 2019; Blasco et al., 2019; Linares Matas et al., 2021), during Neanderthal times (e.g. Blasco, 1995; Geraads, 1997; Costamagno et al., 2006; Rosell et al., 2010; Daujeard et al., 2012; Mic´ o et al., 2020; Zilio et al., 2021) and in the Upper Palaeolithic (e.g. Lindly, 1988; Altuna and Mariezkurrena, 2000; Yravedra, 2006a,b; 2007, 2010a, b; Milosevic, 2020). Humans and carnivores may use the same spaces of the same site at different times (eg. Blasco, 1995; Coil et al., 2020; Mic´ o et al., 2020; Linares Matas et al., 2021; Zilio et al., 2021). Occasionally, humans and carnivores may act on the same prey species, and even on the same specifc faunal remains from the same prey individual, as recorded in ´ Aridos (Yravedra et al., 2010a,b), Fuente Nueva 3 (Yravedra et al., 2021), some of the Sierra de Atapuerca sites (Díez et al., 1999; Huguet et al., 1999), or other sites with Neanderthal occupations (Rabinovich * Corresponding author. Universidad Complutense (UCM), Facultad de Geografía e Historia, Dpto. Prehistoria, Historia Antigua y Arqueología, C/Profesor Ara- nguren, 2, 28040, Madrid, Spain. E-mail address: jyravedr@ucm.es (J. Yravedra). 1 https://www.ucm.es/grupos/grupo/827 2 https://www.ucm.es/preharq-prehistoria/giap-grupo-de-investigacion-en-arqueologia-prehistorica-970949. 3 https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/quaternary-science-reviews/publish/guide-for-authors. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Quaternary Science Reviews journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quascirev https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2023.108468 Received 16 July 2023; Received in revised form 15 November 2023; Accepted 9 December 2023