San Quirce (Palencia, Spain). A Neanderthal open air campsite with short term-occupation patterns Marcos Terradillos-Bernal a, * , J. Carlos Díez Fern  andez-Lomana b , Jesús-Francisco Jord  a Pardo c , Alfonso Benito-Calvo d , Ignacio Clemente e , F. Javier Marcos-S  aiz b a Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Internacional Isabel I de Castilla (UI1), C/Fern an Gonz alez, n  76, 09003 Burgos, Spain b  Area de Prehistoria, Universidad de Burgos (UBU), Spain c Departamento de Prehistoria y Arqueología, Universidad Nacional de Educaci on a Distancia (UNED), Spain d Centro Nacional de Investigaci on sobre la Evoluci on Humana (CENIEH), Paseo Sierra de Atapuerca 3, 09002, Burgos, Spain e CSIC-Instituci o Mil a i Fontanals (IMF), Departamento de Arqueología y Antropología þ Grupo AGREST, Spain article info Article history: Available online xxx Keywords: Open air campsite Neanderthals Expeditious lithic technology Refitting Diversified activities abstract San Quirce is an MIS 4 open-air site with a Neanderthal occupation in primary position. Expeditious technology was used here, aimed at producing very simple tools. Meat consumption has been detected along with, more notably, work on hides, wood and plant fibres which could be processed for string. Only a small part of the San Quirce Neanderthals campsite has been dug to date. Nevertheless, it is a reference site in the search for evidence of Neanderthal patterns, cultural exchanges (learning, shared space) and resource administration (food, deferred consumption, differential object deposition, etc). San Quirce is defined as a site with a high degree of variability in the context of the Middle Palaeolithic cultural record. This assemblage provides valuable information for the reinterpretation of Neanderthal technological, economic, cultural and social capacities in an open air campsite. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction This paper presents an analysis of technology and use wear at San Quirce, a newly excavated Neanderthal open air campsite. The site is in the Alar del Rey municipality (Palencia, Spain, Fig. 1), in the middle reach of the Pisuerga River valley, close to the mouth of the Horadada canyon, one of the main routes between the Cantabrian Range and the northern Iberian Plateau. Surveys were conducted in the 1980s and 1990s to identify prehistoric occupations in the middle reaches of the Pisuerga River between Alar del Rey and Astudillo (Palencia), which resulted in the recovery of many Paleolithic series. The site was discovered during aggregate quarrying which cut through a river terrace to expose three main profiles measuring 34.5 m (east), 40 m (north) and 38.5 m (south), with several archaeological levels attributed to the Middle Pleistocene (Arn aiz Alonso, 1990). The current research team resumed excavation in 2009e2011 as part of a new survey and research project in the Pisuerga River valley. San Quirce is the only Middle Palaeolithic site in the Douro River basin that has been preserved in primary position. In the analysed assemblage, we identified brief occupations and a wide range of activities from the early Upper Pleistocene. Although bone remains have not been preserved due to the acidic soil and the slow burial process (Carlos Rad, in prep.), the evidence provides valuable in- formation about the technological and economic behaviour of the Neanderthals, the functions of their open air sites and their man- agement of a variety of resources (minerals, meat and plants). Technologically, the tool repertoire at San Quirce varies signifi- cantly from the major Middle Palaeolithic sites. The lithic assem- blage lacks complexity, is highly specialized in light denticulates characterized by fast production and poor cutting ability. This assemblage contributes to the current interpretation of Neanderthal cultural and economic behaviour at open air campsites with short term-occupation patterns. Until recently, Neanderthals were considered to be basically erratic hominids with minimal long-term planning, a carnivore diet and essentially producers of lithic technology. However, new proof is emerging of a broader * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: marcos.terradillos@ui1.es (M. Terradillos-Bernal), clomana@ ubu.es (J.C. Díez Fern andez-Lomana). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Quaternary International journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quaint http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2015.09.082 1040-6182/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. Quaternary International xxx (2015) 1e14 Please cite this article in press as: Terradillos-Bernal, M., et al., San Quirce (Palencia, Spain). A Neanderthal open air campsite with short term- occupation patterns, Quaternary International (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2015.09.082