Alfonso Benito-Calvo

Biographic Data

ID101142
NAMEAlfonso Benito-Calvo
GIVEN NAMESAlfonso
FAMILY NAMEBenito-Calvo
SIGNATUREBENITO-CALVO A
AFFILIATIONSCentro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana
ORCID0000-0002-6363-1753
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS61
TOTAL CITATIONS646
AUTHOR COUNT61
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2001
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX15

  • Inferring the role of hominids at Torralba

    Open AccessLaura Sánchez-Romero, Alfonso Benito-CalvoARTICLEArchaeological and Anthropological…2026

    Torralba has been a key locality for Middle Pleistocene paleoanthropology since its discovery by the Marqués de Cerralbo in the early 1900s. It yielded numerous elephant bones and lithic artifacts, leading to its first interpretation as an elephant kill site, and provoking subsequent studies and debates about that interpretation. After Cerralbo, Torralba was excavated by a multidisciplinary team led by the American paleoanthropologist F. Clark Ho…

  • Variations in human ecodynamics in the southern Pyrenees

    Open AccessJavier Sánchez‐martínez, Eulàlia Rafart-Vidal et al.ARTICLEQuaternary International2026

    The southern slope of the Pyrenees is rich in siliceous resources, particularly chert. This material, widely distributed across the region, was the primary raw material exploited by anatomically modern humans (AMH) during the Upper Paleolithic. However, it remains unclear whether the procurement strategies employed during this period—marked by multiple climatic fluctuations and chrono-cultural phases remained consistent or changed over time. To a…

  • A face from the pre-Columbian Caribbean

    Open AccessGizéh Rangel‐de Lázaro, Gizeh Rangel-de Lazaro et al.ARTICLEVirtual Archaeology Review2025

    Forensic facial approximation methods are implemented in bioarchaeology to visualise the appearances of individuals from the past. This study introduces the first three-dimensional (3D) facial approximation of a pre-Columbian individual from the Caribbean, and specifically from Cuba, with intentional cranial modification (ICM). The research team designed a pipeline based on verified methods and documented the steps followed to produce the facial …

  • A face from the pre-Columbian Caribbean

    Open AccessGizéh Rangel‐de Lázaro, Gizeh Rangel-de Lazaro et al.ARTICLEVirtual Archaeology Review2025

    Forensic facial approximation methods are implemented in bioarchaeology to visualise the appearances of individuals from the past. This study introduces the first three-dimensional (3D) facial approximation of a pre-Columbian individual from the Caribbean, and specifically from Cuba, with intentional cranial modification (ICM). The research team designed a pipeline based on verified methods and documented the steps followed to produce the facial …

  • Hyperspectral Image Assessment of Archaeo-Paleoanthropological Stratigraphic Deposits from Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain)

    Open AccessBerta García-Fernández, Alfonso Benito-Calvo et al.ARTICLEHeritage2025References: 14

    This paper proposes an experimental procedure based on hyperspectral imaging (HSI) combined with statistical classification for assessing archaeo-paleoanthropological stratigraphic deposits at the Gran Dolina site (TD10 unit), located in the Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain). Representative spectral reflectance signatures were determined and analyzed using HSI measurements and statistical classification methods in natural light conditions acros…

  • Forests and fields in the pre-pyreneean neolithic and early Bronze Age based on fumier archaeobotanical records

    Open AccessI Expósito Barea, Ethel Allué et al.ARTICLEQuaternary International2024

  • Living on the edge

    Open AccessSofia C Samper Carro, Susana Vega Bolivar et al.ARTICLEJournal of Archaeological Science2024References: 56

    Extensive research carried out during the last 30 years in the lowermost foothills of the Southern Pyrenees has revealed the significance of this area for studying Neanderthal lifestyle and settlement histories in the Iberian Peninsula. With a large number of cave and rock shelter sites, broad-ranging chronologies, and relatively well-known sedimentation rates and environmental conditions, this enclave continues to improve our knowledge about Nea…

  • Were Neanderthals the First Collectors? First Evidence Recovered in Level 4 of the Prado Vargas Cave, Cornejo, Burgos and Spain

    Open AccessMarta Navazo, Alfonso Benito-Calvo et al.ARTICLEQuaternary2024Cited by: 4References: 17

    Collecting is a form of leisure, and even a passion, consisting of collecting, preserving and displaying objects. When we look for its origin in the literature, we are taken back to “the appearance of writing and the fixing of knowledge”, specifically with the Assyrian King Ashurbanipal (7th century BC, Mesopotamia), and his fondness for collecting books, which in his case were in the form of clay tablets. This is not, however, a true reflection,…

  • Valdeprovedo open-air site

    Open AccessMarta Santamaría, Marta Navazo et al.ARTICLEArchaeological and Anthropological…2024Cited by: 1References: 64

    In this paper, we present the site of Valdeprovedo (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos), an open-air Paleolithic site. This site is attractive for study and research for three main reasons. First, it is an open-air site with an extraordinarily well-preserved lithic assemblage that corresponds to a very short-lived event. Second, in this small area, refits have been achieved with a high refitting rate, which allows us to reconstruct the action carried ou…

  • Landscape evolution and the karst development in the Ojo Guareña multilevel cave system (Merindad de Sotoscueva, Burgos, Spain)

    Open AccessTheodoros Karampaglidis, Alfonso Benito-Calvo et al.ARTICLEJournal of Maps2023

    The Ojo Guareña karst system (OG) is located in the SE Cantabrian Range in northern Spain (Burgos, Spain). It is a multilevel cave system composed of 6 levels and is one of the longest cavities in the Iberian Peninsula (110 km). The spatial patterns and geomorphological characteristics of OG constitute a first-order record for studying the principal mechanisms of how the karst evolved by reconstruction and analysis of the external landscape. This…

  • Too good to go? Neanderthal subsistence strategies at Prado Vargas Cave (Burgos, Spain)

    Open AccessH De La Fuente Juez, Marta Navazo et al.ARTICLEArchaeological and Anthropological…2023Cited by: 4References: 117

    Understanding the relationship between Neanderthal groups and their environment and they it is essential to comprehending their ways of life. In this article, we use both zooarchaeology and taphonomy to study the fauna assemblages found in Level 4 of Prado Vargas Cave (Cornejo, Burgos, Spain). The results point to a site in which the main accumulating agent was Neanderthal groups, who transported small- and medium-sized animal carcasses-with deer…

  • Spatial analysis and site formation processes associated with the Middle Pleistocene hominid teeth from Q1/B waterhole, Boxgrove (West Sussex, UK)

    Open AccessLaura Sánchez-Romero, Alfonso Benito-Calvo et al.ARTICLEArchaeological and Anthropological…2023Cited by: 7References: 73

    Boxgrove is a key locale for our understanding of Middle Pleistocene human behaviour in Northwestern Europe. It provides high-resolution evidence for behaviour at scale in fine-grained sediments, dating from the end of the MIS13 interglacial at around 480,000 years ago. Excavations at this site in the last quarter of the twentieth century have provided a large body of interdisciplinary data, comprising stone artefact assemblages, well-preserved f…

  • Defining and Characterising Clusters in Palaeolithic Sites

    Open AccessLaura Sánchez-Romero, Alfonso Benito-Calvo et al.ARTICLEJournal of Archaeological Method…2022

    Spatial analysis studies in Palaeolithic archaeology arise as indispensable research tools for understanding archaeopalaeontological sites. In general terms, spatial studies have been specialised in the description of the distribution of materials and in the definition of accumulation areas, with the aim of distinguishing intentional activities or studying postdepositional processes. In recent decades, the development of GIS tools has enabled hug…

  • Beyond Shapes

    Open AccessJavier Sánchez‐martínez, Xavier Roda Gilabert et al.ARTICLEJournal of Paleolithic Archaeology2022Cited by: 4References: 32

    Core reduction provides insight into the technical actions involved in knapping sequences, one of the central elements in technological analysis. By examining reduction phases, cognitive and operational aspects of the management of lithic resources can be explored, and the technical behaviours of human groups reconstructed. This paper presents a technological and morphometric analysis of cores from the Magdalenian sequence of the Cova Gran de San…

  • Direct cosmogenic nuclide isochron burial dating of early Acheulian stone tools at the T69 Complex (FLK West, Olduvai Bed II, Tanzania)

    Open AccessToshiyuki Fujioka, Alfonso Benito-Calvo et al.ARTICLEJournal of Human Evolution2022Cited by: 6References: 65

  • Unraveling Châtelperronian high-density accumulations

    Open AccessLaura Sánchez-Romero, Alfonso Benito-Calvo et al.ARTICLEArchaeological and Anthropological…2022Cited by: 8References: 49

    The Châtelperronian open-air site of Aranbaltza II presents a set of very particular characteristics, such as the large number of well-preserved lithic materials in a small area and the presence of lobular accumulations that represents the 33% of different size and shape of lithic materials of the whole assemblage. Through the application of density, hotspots, and 3D-fabric analysis, in combination with sedimentological data, we discuss the facto…

  • Atapuerca Neanderthal landscape at Fuente Mudarra site in Burgos, Spain, during Marine Isotope Stages 5–3

    Open AccessMarta Santamaría, Marta Navazo et al.ARTICLEQuaternary Research2021

    Fuente Mudarra is on a gentle slope on the left bank of the Pico River, near Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain. A 12−m 2 test pit was dug at this large open-air site between 2012 and 2017. Several upper Pleistocene archaeological levels were documented. Results from Fuente Mudarra confirm that Neanderthal groups, little represented at cave sites, occupied Sierra de Atapuerca from the end of the middle Pleistocene and during the upper Pleistocene…

  • Prehistoric Human Tracks in Ojo Guareña Cave System (Burgos, Spain)

    Open AccessAna Isabel Ortega-Martínez, Ana I Ortega et al.CHAPTERReading Prehistoric Human Tracks2021

    In 1969, members of Grupo Espeleológico Edelweiss discovered the Sala and Galerías de las Huellas in Ojo Guareña Cave system (Burgos, Spain). These contained hundreds of ancient human footprints, preserved in the soft sediment on the floor. These footprints represent the tracks of a small group of people who walked barefoot through these complex passages in the cave. Owing to the difficult compatibility of the documentation and preservation of th…

  • Shedding light on pre-Columbian crania collections through state-of-the-art 3D scanning techniques

    Open AccessGizéh Rangel‐de Lázaro, Adrián Martínez‐fernández et al.ARTICLEVirtual Archaeology Review2021

    During the 19 th and 20 th centuries, numerous museums, scientific societies, and royal academies were founded in Europe and America. In this scenario, the Anthropological Museum Montané was founded in Havana, Cuba. Its collection has grown over the years, thanks to researchers, antiquarians, and amateurs. Since its foundation, the Museum Montané has become an essential institution for anthropological and archaeological research in the region. No…

  • Functional analysis of Middle Palaeolithic flint tools through experimental use wear analysis

    Open AccessClaudia Santamaría Cabornero, Marta Navazo et al.ARTICLEMunibe Antropologia-Arkeologia2021

    There are functional differences related to the peculiarities of each settlement. The material used to manufacture tools is one of the key factors in the analysis of use-wear traces in traceological studies. An experiment was conducted to test the development of these functional traces in two types of flints found at two Middle Palaeolithic settlements: Neogene flint, from the Fuente Mudarra open-air site Sierra de Atapuerca, and Cretaceous flint…

  • New excavations in the MNK Skull site, and the last appearance of the Oldowan and Homo habilis at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania

    Open AccessIgnacio De La Torre, Alfonso Benito-Calvo et al.ARTICLEJournal of Anthropological…2021Cited by: 16References: 76

  • Reconstructing Mousterian landscapes in the southeastern Pyrenees (Roca dels Bous site, Pre-Pyrenees ranges, Spain)

    Open AccessAlfonso Benito-Calvo, Lee J Arnold et al.ARTICLEQuaternary Research2020

    Landscape evolution studies enable us to understand site formation processes affecting past hunter-gatherer settlements. This work presents a landscape reconstruction of Roca dels Bous site (RB), which is a reference site for the Late Mousterian occupation of the incised valleys of the southeastern Pyrenees. For this purpose, we combined geomorphological studies, stratigraphic descriptions, new single-grain optically stimulated luminescence datas…

  • Inside the Palimpsest

    Open AccessRafael Mora Torcal, Miquel Roy Sunyer et al.CHAPTERShort-Term Occupations in…2020

  • Geomorphological analysis using small unmanned aerial vehicles and submeter GNSS (Gara Soultana butte, High Plateaus Basin, Eastern Morocco)

    Open AccessAlfonso Benito-Calvo, Hamid Haddoumi et al.ARTICLEJournal of Maps2020

    The High Plateaus Basin is an important region to understand landscape evolution and human occupation in North Africa during the Quaternary. We focused on the Gara Soultana area, applying Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, photogrammetry and a submeter Global Navigation Satellite System, for large scale geomorphological mapping. This work in the upper Moulouya catchment has allowed us to define the landform sequence. Conglomerate platforms previously cons…

  • Pen management and livestock activities based on phytoliths, dung spherulites, and minerals from Cova Gran de Santa Linya (Southeastern pre-Pyrenees)

    Open AccessAitor Burguet-Coca, Ana Polo-Díaz et al.ARTICLEArchaeological and Anthropological…2020Cited by: 11References: 89