Refuting Creationism - Evidence Of Species Selection In The Pyrenees - Untouched By The Legendary Global Flood

The location of Coro Trasito is indicated by the orange dot.

Map created using USGS ArcGIS Online Map Viewer.

The location of Coro Trasito is indicated by the orange dot.

Map created using USGS ArcGIS Online Map Viewer.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306448.g001

Early Pyrenean Neolithic groups applied species selection strategies to produce bone artefacts - Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona - UAB Barcelona

Because the Bronze Age mythmakers made up a tale about it, creationists believe their all-loving god committed a global genocide against all living species by flooding the world to a depth sufficient to cover the highest mountain (i.e. at least 29,000 feet, the height of Everest) about 4,000 years ago or less. Such a flood would have obliterated all signs of human civilisation on the planet and covered it with a thick layer of sediment containing the fossils of all the animals and plants jumbled together, from disconnected land-masses.

The problem with that belief is that there is evidence of human activity from long before that time, even in places like the Pyrenees between Spain and France, where archaeologists are uncovering evidence of human habitation and domestication of animals 7,000 years ago, in caves such as the Coro Trasito, located 1,548 metres above sea level, in Huesca, Spain.

What can you tell me about the Cueva de Coro Trasito, Huesca, Spain? Cueva de Coro Trasito is a significant archaeological and historical site located in the province of Huesca, Spain. This cave is notable for its prehistoric cave paintings and its contribution to our understanding of early human life and art.

Key Points about Cueva de Coro Trasito:

1. Location:
   • The cave is situated in the Sierra de Guara, a mountain range in the province of Huesca, in northeastern Spain.
   • The exact location within the Sierra de Guara provides a picturesque and rugged natural setting, characteristic of many prehistoric sites in the region.
2. Archaeological Significance:
   • Cueva de Coro Trasito is renowned for its well-preserved prehistoric cave paintings, which offer a glimpse into the lives and artistic expressions of early humans.
   • The artworks primarily consist of schematic and stylized representations of human figures, animals, and various abstract symbols.
3. Dating and Cultural Context:
   • The cave paintings are believed to date back to the Neolithic period, although some may be older, reflecting different phases of prehistoric art.
   • These artworks are significant for understanding the cultural and spiritual lives of early inhabitants of the region.
4. Discovery and Research:
   • The cave has been studied by archaeologists and researchers who have documented and analyzed the paintings to understand their meaning and significance.
   • Research at Cueva de Coro Trasito contributes to broader studies of prehistoric art in the Iberian Peninsula and the evolution of human artistic expression.
5. Preservation and Access:
   • Efforts have been made to preserve the delicate artworks within the cave, balancing the need for protection with the desire to allow public access and appreciation.
   • Access to the cave may be regulated to ensure the preservation of the site, with guided tours or limited entry to protect the paintings from damage.
6. Cultural Heritage:
   • Cueva de Coro Trasito is part of the rich cultural heritage of the Huesca region and is recognized as an important site for both local and international visitors.
   • The cave is included in various cultural and historical tours of the area, highlighting its importance alongside other significant archaeological sites in the region.

Overall, Cueva de Coro Trasito is a key archaeological site that provides valuable insights into prehistoric human life and artistic endeavors in the Huesca region of Spain.

How and when did the Pyrenean Mountains form?

The Pyrenean Mountains, or the Pyrenees, formed primarily during the Cretaceous to the Eocene epochs, approximately between 100 and 25 million years ago, through a process called orogeny, which involves the structural deformation of the Earth's lithosphere due to tectonic plate interactions.

Key Points in the Formation of the Pyrenean Mountains:

1. Tectonic Setting:
   • The formation of the Pyrenees is primarily due to the collision between the Iberian Plate (which includes modern-day Spain and Portugal) and the Eurasian Plate.
   • This collision led to the compression and uplift of sedimentary rocks that had been deposited in the ancient Tethys Ocean, a large oceanic area that existed between the ancient continents of Gondwana and Laurasia.
2. Stages of Formation:
   • Initial Rifting (Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous, around 150 to 100 million years ago): The region experienced rifting, which created basins and led to the deposition of sediments in shallow seas.
   • Subduction and Collision (Cretaceous to Eocene, around 100 to 25 million years ago): The tectonic plates began to converge, causing subduction (one plate being forced under another) and subsequent collision. This process led to the uplift and folding of the sedimentary rocks.
   • Mountain Building (Orogeny): The intense pressure and heat from the collision caused the rocks to deform and metamorphose, leading to the creation of the mountainous terrain we see today.
3. Geological Features:
   • The Pyrenees are characterized by their sharp peaks, deep valleys, and a variety of rock types, including limestones, sandstones, and shales from the sedimentary layers, as well as metamorphic and igneous rocks.
   • The highest peaks, such as Aneto (3,404 meters) and Monte Perdido (3,355 meters), are primarily composed of resistant rock types like granite and limestone.
4. Erosional Processes:
   • Over millions of years, erosional processes, including weathering, glaciation, and river erosion, have shaped the Pyrenean landscape, carving out valleys, gorges, and other distinctive landforms.
   • During the last Ice Age, glaciers played a significant role in sculpting the mountains, leaving behind glacial features like cirques and moraines.
5. Current Geodynamic Context:
   • Today, the Pyrenees are still slowly rising due to ongoing tectonic processes, although at a much slower rate than during their initial formation.
   • Seismic activity in the region is relatively low but indicates that the tectonic forces are still active.

The Pyrenean Mountains are a classic example of a mountain range formed by plate tectonics, illustrating the dynamic nature of the Earth's crust and the long-term processes that shape our planet's surface.

They have now recovered evidence that the Neolithic inhabitants of this cave were selective in the species they chose for making their bone and antler tools, which shows a level of technological sophistication in their knowledge of which parts of wild animals were best suited for which purposes. The study shows that they used wild deer bones and antlers for projectile tips in preference to the more readily available bones of domesticated sheep and goats, indicating that they thought the effort of hunting deer was worthwhile.

The study is published, open access, in PLOS ONE and explained in a news release from the Universitat Autònome de Barcelona (UAB):

Pyrenean Neolithic groups applied species selection strategies to produce bone artefacts

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A study led by researchers from the UAB and the CSIC has revealed that the earliest Neolithic groups to settle some 7,000 years ago in the Pyrenean site of Coro Trasito (Tella, Huesca) used species selection strategies to manufacture their tools made out of bone and chose deer for the projectile tips. The study, published in the journal PLoS ONE, applied for the first time in a Neolithic site an innovative combination of methods to obtain these results.

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The study was coordinated by the research group EarlyFoods from the Department of Prehistory of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and ICTA-UAB, under the framework of the European project ChemArch. Also involved in the study were researchers from the High Mountain Archaeology Research Group (GAAM, UAB and IMF-CSIC), the General Council of Aragón, and the University of Copenhagen.

The research delved deeper into the relationship between the species selected for the manufacturing of artefacts and their function by applying archaezoological, use-wear and palaeoproteomic analyses to some twenty ancient Neolithic bone artefacts found at Coro Trasito, a site in the Central Pyrenees located 1,548 metres above sea level.

The study is one of the few so far to combine use-wear, archaeozoology and palaeoproteomics in archaeological material and the first to do so in bone artefacts from the ancient Neolithic. "This combination has made it possible to discover nuances that would otherwise go unnoticed and to add new layers of knowledge by evaluating the same data from multiple perspectives", explains Maria Saña, UAB researcher and coordinator of the study.

The analyses showed that the groups that inhabited the site 7,000 years ago chose sheep and goat bones for the production of bone tips to handle vegetables, but also used cervid bones (deer and roe deer) for a wider variety of artefacts. For the projectile tips identified, they chose deer bones.

In contrast to other studies based on the morphological study of artefacts, which suggest that sheep and goats were the species most commonly used in the production of bone tools, the study found that deer as well as sheep and goats were more equally selected for tool manufacturing. This greater species balance observed at Coro Trasito and the use of only deer bones for projectile tips leads the researchers to consider that this animal may have played a prominent role in ancient Neolithic society.

Obtaining long bones from deer, probably through hunting, requires more effort than using long bones from domesticated animals. This is particularly interesting because of the large number of cervid bone tools identified compared to the number of cervid observed in the untouched bone deposits. This selection could be due, in part, to the properties of the bone, but also to the beliefs and values associated with this animal species. In any case, further research at other sites with the same combination of methods that we have applied here is required to explore this hypothesis.

Dr. Jakob Hansen, first author
Departament de Prehistòria
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain
And Globe Institute
University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Methodological strength

The researchers highlight the methodological strength of the study. Previously, based on the study of morphological characteristics, deer bone artefacts had been detected in other Neolithic sites of the Iberian Peninsula, but this is the first time that the species were taxonomically identified and a strategy in the selection of the animals was directly evidenced.

In addition to the classical approach of archaeozoology, use-wear analysis was added to identify the specific uses of the tools and the materials with which they were produced by high-resolution microscopy, and taxonomic identification, carried out by mass spectrometry (ZooMS) through the evaluation of peptide biomarkers.

Future research could benefit from the integration of these three approaches for a better understanding of the relationship between artefact types and the species selected for their production. This study is only the tip of the iceberg.

Ignacio Clemente, corresponding author
Departamento de Arqueología y Antropología,
Institución Milá y Fontanals de Estudios en Humanidades (IMF),
del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.

Illustration of the mass spectrometry analysis graph that has allowed the taxonomic identification of the species (cervids or goats) of the tools analysed.

Original article:

Jakob Hansen, Alejandro Sierra, Sergi Mata, Ermengol Gassiot Ballbè, Javier Rey Lanaspa, Frido Welker, Maria Saña Seguí, Ignacio Clemente Conte. Combining traceological analysis and Zooms on Early Neolithic bone artefacts from the Cavi of Cor Trasito, NE Iberian Peninsula: Cervidae used equally to Caprinae. PLoS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306448

Abstract
Few studies have combined the analysis of use-wear traces, traceology, and the proteomic taxonomic identification method Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS). Traceology provides information on the usage, in this case, of bone artefacts, while ZooMS allows for taxonomic identifications where diagnostic features are otherwise gone. The approaches therefore offer complementary information on bone artefacts, allowing for insights into species selection strategies in bone tool manufacture and their subsequent use. Here we present a case study of 20 bone artefacts, mainly bone points, from the Early Neolithic cave site of Coro Trasito located on the southern slope of the Central Pyrenees. Hitherto, studies on Early Neolithic bone artefacts from the Iberian Peninsula have suggested based on morphological assessments that Ovis aries/Capra hircus constituted the majority of the bone material selected for bone tool production. However, the taxonomic identification in this study suggests that, at this site, Cervidae was selected equally to that of O. aries/C. hircus. Furthermore, bone artefacts made from Cervidae specimens seem to be utilised in a wider range of artefact types compared to O. aries/C. hircus.. Coro Trasito’s bone artefact species composition is probably site-specific to some degree, however, morphological assessments of bone artefacts might not be representative and could be biased towards certain species. Therefore, research on bone artefacts’ usage could possibly gain new insights by implementing ZooMS in combination with traceology.

Introduction
Numerous disciplines in archaeological research have been emerging, growing, and evolving in at least the past 250 years [1]. These applications on both ancient organic and inorganic materials have been manifested through, among others, the earliest chemical analysis of archaeological bronze artefacts in 1777 [2], the incredibly impactful development of radiocarbon dating in the late 1940s [3, 4], the study of animal remains termed zooarchaeology around 1970, though having its roots in the nineteenth century [5], and later stable isotope and aDNA analyses in the late twentieth century [6, 7]. Archaeological research is thus a multitude of specialised disciplines. However, cross-disciplinary thinking, reaching beyond combining the term archaeology with one specialised method, has the potential to extract additional information from the archaeological record.

In this study, we explore the interface between the two disciplines of traceology and palaeoproteomics on bone artefacts uncovered from the Early Neolithic site of Coro Trasito, located in the Central Pyrenees. Traceology, or use-wear analysis, can be traced back to around 1900, though being more widely employed after the 1950s [8, 9]. Such analyses interpret the functionality of archaeological objects [9–11] and, in extension, technology and resource exploitation as well as transport and taphonomic alterations [12, 13]. Traceological analyses are mostly based on experimental and ethnographic data of micro and macro use-wear traces and residue remains of various materials, e.g. ceramics, bones, and lithics [9]. The study of ancient proteins, or palaeoproteomics, has its origins in the 1950s with the detection of amino acids in fossils [14]. The approach experienced a major leap in the early 2000s with the implementation of soft-ionization methods in protein mass spectrometry, allowing for the retrieval of partial, and sometimes indirect, protein sequence data [15, 16]. Palaeoproteomics thus has the potential to, e.g., study dietary practices [17], evolutionary and phylogenetic relations exceeding deep time barriers not possible with aDNA [18, 19], and retrieve taxonomic identifications of various organic materials where morphological diagnostic features are not available [20–23].

Both traceological and palaeoproteomic approaches have been applied to bone artefacts from a range of time periods. Since they provide complementary information on the use of artefacts, the existing, and limited, amount of studies conducted on single sets of bone artefacts [24–27] is in need of being expanded. The convergence between these two areas of application has already shown great scientific promise. Therefore, the 20 Early Neolithic bone artefacts from the Cave of Coro Trasito were taxonomically identified through Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) [28] which is a peptide mass fingerprinting (PMF) method based on the presence of type I collagen (COL1). Furthermore, the traceological analyses conducted specified the functions of artefacts and which materials the artefacts were utilised in relation to. It was therefore possible to assess the species chosen for the production of certain types of bone tools at the site of Coro Trasito on a more explicit level.

Here, we found that based on the artefacts successfully taxonomically identified, Caprinae and Cervidae were evenly identified among those. Regarding selection strategies involved in the bone tool manufacture, Caprinae was selected for the production of artefacts related to the processing of vegetation. Hereof Capra sp. bone points tended towards being used in relation to bark, while Caprinae (not Capra sp.), most like Ovis aries, was possibly used in weaving plant fibres. Cervidae was however used in a comparably broader range of artefact categories entailing projectile points, points used in relation to plant fibres, and one indeterminate usage.

Fig 2. The cave of Coro Trasito.
The arrow points to the location of the close up of Coro Trasito seen in the lower left corner.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306448.g002

Fig 5. Different high-resolution images of bone object surfaces.
(1) (CT_0001) and (2) (CT_0010) show a specific polish on the entire surface as a result of the technique used in their manufacture. (3) (CT_0024) Deep striations and shiny elevated areas due to abrasion with a mineral matrix to obtain a pointed morphology. (4) (CT_0019) Striations produced by scraping with a lithic instrument. (5) (CT_0005) Traces of use due to contact with plant fibres at the distal extremity. (6) (CT_0005) Reference material showing traces attributed to hand grasping in the medial/proximal area.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306448.g005

Fig 4. Fragments and complete bone objects from the Early Neolithic site of Coro Trasito.
The ZooMS ID numbers are indicated for each specimen are as follows: (1) CT_0013. (2) CT_0021. (3) CT_0007. (4) CT_0020. (5) CT_0012. (6) CT_0006. (7) CT_0017. (8) CT_0001. (9) CT_0019. (10) CT_0024. (11) CT_0003. (12) CT_0004. (13) CT_0005. (14) CT_0002. (15) CT_0010. (16) CT_0015. (17) CT_0016. (18) CT_0011. (19) CT_0009. The pendant with ZooMS ID CT_0014 is not included in the figure. Further information is available in S2 Table.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306448.g004

Fig 6. Three artefacts with multiple high-resolution images, displaying various surface modifications.
(A) Needle used to pierce skin or leather (CT_0006). (B) Bone point with traces related to the work of plant fibres (weaving, basket weaving, or cordage) (CT_0004). (C) Artefact with 1; traces related to penetration, located at the apex of the tip, 2; an indication of twisting, possibly caused by friction between tool and vegetation, likely bark, and 3; traces related to gripping during utilisation of the tool (CT_0009).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306448.g006

Hansen J, Sierra A, Mata S, Gassiot Ballbè E, Rey Lanaspa J, Welker F, et al. (2024)
Combining traceological analysis and ZooMS on Early Neolithic bone artefacts from the cave of Coro Trasito, NE Iberian Peninsula: Cervidae used equally to Caprinae. PLoS ONE 19(7): e0306448. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306448

Copyright: © 2024 The authors.
Published by PLoS. Open access.
Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)

Not only is there no evidence whatsoever of a global genocidal flood; there is abundant and accumulating evidence such as this that there never was such a flood. Nowhere do we see the predicted global layer of silt with its jumble of plant and animal fossils that such a flood would have produced, and sites such as this one show no signs of ever being inundated within the last few thousand years.

To put it bluntly, the Bible is absolutely wrong; it describes magical events that science has proved never happened and extrapolates local events to global significance because to the authors, a local event was a world-wide event - on their small, flat fragment of the world, the history of which they were as ignorant of as they were of the rest of the world. They weren't writing allegories or metaphors with some deeper meaning or significance; they were making up tales to fill the gaps in their knowledge and understanding and demonstrably got it hopelessly wrong.

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