New insights into Paleolithic subsistence at the Cova Eirós site through the application of a novel collagen-based identification method

Cova Eirós (Cancelo, Triacastela, Lugo), one of the key sites for the study of the Paleolithic in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula, continues to provide new data on the ways of life of prehistoric human groups. A study led by Hugo Bal García, from the Grupo de Estudos para a Prehistoria do Noroeste – Arqueoloxía, Antigüidade e Territorio (GEPN-AAT) at the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela and the Centro de Investigación Interuniversitario das Paisaxes Atlánticas e Culturais (CISPAC), with the collaboration of Xosé Pedro Rodríguez Álvarez (URV, IPHES-CERCA), has identified new animal species consumed by both Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans.

The research, published in open access in International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, is based on the application of ZooMS (Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry), an innovative method that enables the identification of faunal remains through the analysis of peptide sequences preserved in bone collagen. This approach is particularly useful in cases where the high degree of fragmentation prevents identification using traditional zooarchaeological or paleontological methods.

A new perspective on faunal remains

The study analyzed a total of 114 bone remains that had previously remained unidentified, integrating these results with a dataset of more than 8,000 faunal remains already studied through morphological analysis. This combined approach has significantly expanded knowledge of the animal species present at the site and, consequently, of the subsistence strategies of the human groups that inhabited it.

The results reveal a greater diversity in meat consumption than previously recognized, suggesting that patterns of animal consumption and processing may have introduced biases in the archaeological representation of different species. In particular, the more intensive processing of large herbivores likely led to higher bone fragmentation, explaining the abundance of indeterminate fragments compared to other animals such as cave bears.

The potential of ZooMS in archaeological research

ZooMS relies on identifying peptide sequences from collagen preserved in bones and comparing them with reference databases. This system makes it possible to assign taxonomic categories to remains that cannot be identified through comparative anatomy, which underpins traditional zooarchaeological studies.

The large-scale application of this technique at Cova Eirós represents a significant step forward in interpreting faunal assemblages and opens new perspectives for studying diet and animal resource exploitation dynamics during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic.

A collaborative research effort

The study involved researchers from multiple institutions, including Samantha Brown (CENIEH), Iván Rey Rodríguez (UVIGO-IPHES), Mikel Díaz Rodríguez (UVIGO-CISPAC), Carlos Fernández Rodríguez (ULE), Álvaro Ibáñez Encinas (USC-IPHES), Arturo de Lombera Hermida (UNIOVI-CISPAC), Tania Mosquera Castro (USC-CISPAC), Xosé Pedro Rodríguez Álvarez (URV-IPHES), and Ramón Fábregas Valcarce (USC-CISPAC).

This research is part of the project Population and technological dynamics during the Final Pleistocene–Holocene in the Eastern Ranges of Northwest Iberia 2 (PID2022-142337NB-I00), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities and the FEDER program “A way of making Europe.” Archaeological excavations at Cova Eirós are supported by the Consellería de Cultura, Lingua e Xuventude of the Xunta de Galicia.

Bibliographic reference

Bal‐García, H., Brown, S., Rey‐Rodríguez, I., Díaz‐Rodríguez, M., Fernández‐Rodríguez, C., Ibáñez‐Encinas, Á., de Lombera‐Hermida, A., Mosquera‐Castro, T., Rodríguez‐Álvarez, X., & Fábregas‐Valcarce, R. (2026). Expanding the Faunal Interpretation of the Cova Eirós (NW Iberia) Middle Paleolithic–Early Upper Paleolithic Record With ZooMS. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. https://doi.org/10.1002/oa.70107