Long-term dog consumption during the Holocene at the Sierra de Atapuerca (Spain): case study of the El Portalón de Cueva Mayor site

Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-022-01522-5 (2022) 14:84 ORIGINAL PAPER Long‑term dog consumption during the Holocene at the Sierra de Atapuerca (Spain): case study of the El Portalón de Cueva Mayor site M.Ángeles Galindo‑Pellicena1,2,3 · Nohemi Sala1,4 · Ignacio De Gaspar5,6 · Eneko Iriarte7 · Raquel Blázquez‑Orta6 · Juan Luis Arsuaga1,8 · José Miguel Carretero1,7,9 · Nuria García1,6 Received: 9 April 2021 / Accepted: 11 February 2022 © The Author(s) 2022 Abstract Evidence of dog consumption at the El Portalón de Cueva Mayor site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain) from the Holocene is revealed for the first time. The taxonomical and taphonomical studies of the animal bones from the El Portalón site have been carried out. The morphological and metrical analyses indicate that 130 dog bone remains have been identified from the El Portalón site, including from the Neolithic (NISP = 23), Chalcolithic (Pre-Bell Beaker Chalcolithic and Bell Beaker Chalcolithic) (26), Early Bronze Age, Middle Bronze Age and Late Bronze Age (81). The anthropic evidence encompasses cut marks, fresh bone fractures, human tooth marks and fire modifications, thus constituting clear evidence of cynophagy, at least in the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age levels in different contexts (habitat and funerary) from the El Portalón site (Atapuerca, Burgos). Furthermore, the fire alterations on two bone remains from the Neolithic suggest likely dog consumption due to the domestic character of the stratigraphical units where these bone remains were found. The taphonomic evidence suggests that domestic dogs were, at least occasionally, part of the diet of the humans who inhabited the El Portalón site, a fact that might be caused either by food shortages and hunger or as dog meat was considered as a delicacy. Keywords Cynophagy · Neolithic · Chalcolithic · Bronze Age · Northern Plateau · Diet 3 Fundación General de La Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, C/Imagen 3, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain M.Ángeles Galindo‑Pellicena 4 Centro Nacional de Investigación Sobre La Evolución Humana, Paseo Sierra Atapuerca, 3, Burgos, Spain Nohemi Sala 5 Sección Departamental de Anatomía y Embriología, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Avda. Puerta del Hierro S/N. Ciudad Universitaria, 28040 Madrid, Spain 6 Departamento de Geodinámica, Estratigrafía y Paleontología, Grupo UCM Ecosistemas Cuaternarios, Facultad de Ciencias Geológicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Jose Antonio Novais, 12, 28040 Madrid, Spain 7 Laboratorio de Evolución Humana, Departamento de Historia, Geografía y Comunicación, Universidad de Burgos, Edificio I+D+i, Plaza de Misael Bañuelos s/n, 09001 Burgos, Spain 8 Departamento de Geodinámica, Estratigrafía y Paleontología Facultad de Ciencias Geológicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Calle José Antonio Novais, 12, 28040 Madrid, Spain 9 Unidad Asociada de I+D+I Al CSIC “VIMPAC” (Vidrio y Materiales de Patrimonio Cultural), Burgos, Spain * Nuria García Ignacio De Gaspar Eneko Iriarte Raquel Blázquez‑Orta Juan Luis Arsuaga José Miguel Carretero 1 Centro Mixto, UCM-ISCIII de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, Madrid, Spain 2 Museo Arqueológico Regional, Pz de Las Bernardas s/n, Alcalá de Henares, 28801 Madrid, Spain 13 Vol.:(0123456789) 84 Page 2 of 21 Introduction Nowadays, eating dog meat is considered taboo in many cultures, while it is perfectly acceptable, even considered a delicacy, in other cultures. Cynophagy is a common practice in different regions of the world: Southeast Asia (in the Philippines, there is a typical dish made of dog meat called Asocena), North and South America, the Pacific and in Northern Africa (the Amazigh are known for their custom of eating dogs: Simoons 1991, 1994). On the other hand, some societies (Hindus, Buddhists, Westerners and Muslims) are anti-dog eating for different reasons and Islamic law forbids dog consumption (The Encyclopaedia of Islam 1999) because it is considered an impure animal. In Europe, there is evidence of cynophagy from the Mesolithic to the Iron Age (Böyönki 1975). Historical evidence for dog eating has been documented in both Rome and Greece (Simoons 1994), but only for medicinal purposes. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in Munich (Germany), dog consumption was related to industrialization and population growth. Dogs were mainly consumed by poor and working-class people due to its lower cost compared with other kinds of meats (Geppert 1992). However, authors like Gautier (1990) believe that dogs are not an important source of protein due to their small size; however, according to Simoons (1994), dog meat contains as much protein and less fat than pork and is very tasty. Regarding the zooarchaeological evidence, dog consumption in the Iberian Peninsula is documented during the Early Neolithic at the nearby El Mirador archaeological site in the Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain) located 1 km from the El Portalón de Cueva Mayor site. It constitutes one of the oldest evidences found in the Iberian Peninsula (5230–4920 cal BC) and the first case where human tooth marks have been used to show dog consumption (Martín et al. 2014). In addition, evidence of cynophagy has been observed in another Iberian Neolithic site, the La Sarsa site (Mediterranean Iberia) (López and Molero 1984); however, this site does not provide a precise chronology. There are more dog remains with evidence of anthropic consumption (cut marks on the surface of the dog bones and fractures in fresh bones) from the Bronze Age period, such as the Lloma de Betxí; Pic del Corbs; the Cabezo Redondo sites in Comunidad Valenciana (Sanchis and Sarrión 2004); Castellón Alto; Terrera del Reloj (Milz 1986); the Cerro de la Encina sites (Friesch 1987) in Granada; the Palacios and Azuer sites in Ciudad Real (Driesch Von Den and Boessneck, 1980); the Gatas site in Almería; and La Bastida in Murcia (Andúgar Martínez 2016) (see Table 1). Here, we present the taxonomic study of the canids and the taphonomic analysis in terms of the specific aspects 13 Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences (2022) 14:84 of consumption found in the domestic canid remains from Neolithic to Bronze Age archaeostratigraphical sequence of the El Portalón de Cueva Mayor site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos). The objective of the taphonomic study is to characterise the presence of human-induced modifications, carnivore activities and post-depositional signs on dog bones to trace the consumption of these canids from the Neolithic to Bronze Age periods at this site. The El Portalón de Cueva Mayor archaeological site The El Portalón de Cueva Mayor site is located in a cave in the Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos) on the Northern Plateau of Spain (Fig. 1A). It is the current entrance to the Cueva Mayor-Cueva del Silo karstic system. Prolonged human occupation has been documented, ranging from the Late Pleistocen (...truncated)