Manuel Pérez Ripoll has just left us. He now begins a new path towards Eternity, leaving an indelible mark on all of us who are dedicated to the investigation of the past with the tools of Archaeology, Palaeontology and Prehistory. Innovative archaeozoologist, professor linked to the Department of Prehistory, Archaeology and Ancient History, since the completion of his doctoral thesis in 1987, Butchery marks, intentional fractures and bites by carnivores on prehistoric bones from the Spanish Mediterraneanpublished in 1992 by the Instituto de Cultura Juan Gil-Albert of the Diputación de Alicante, was my teacher, but also that of many others. If anything defines teachers, apart from the intuitive knowledge they have long accumulated, it is the unhurried and unusual simplicity in the transmission of concepts, in the instructed didactics of their words, in the effective communication of the teaching they transmit to their pupils. On all these levels, the teacher Manuel Pérez Ripoll transcends. His extensive legacy includes studies that have laid the foundations of current prehistoric archaeozoology, being an international reference. All of them linked to the study of the fauna of Valencian Prehistory from sites as emblematic as Cova Negra, Cova de l'Or, Cocina, El Lagrimal, Tossal de la Roca, Santa Maira, Cova de les Cendres, Ereta del Pedregal, or the Cueva de Nerja in Malaga, opening a path that others have followed. For all this, our eternal gratitude and that of all those who have benefited from his human and professional stature. May he rest in peace.
MIGUEL BENITO IBORRA
Archaeozoologist
MARQ Archaeological Museum of Alicante
