Nivel IX (Chatelperroniense) de Labeko Koba (Arrasate-Gipuzkoa): gestión de la industria lítica y función del sitio.

Se presentan los resultados del análisis funcional del nivel IX (Chatelperroniense) de Labeko Koba. Los resultados obtenidos se combinan con los ya disponibles acerca de las materias primas, los sistemas de fabricación y la composición de la fauna (ARRIZABALAGA y ALTUNA, 2000 dirs.) para ofrecer una interpretación de la gestión de la industria lítica y de la función de la ocupación

An updated inventory of the Isturitz type bone points of the cantabrian region

Nous présentons dans ce travail une révision du corpus des pointes de type Isturitz du Gravettien cantabrique, concernant les exemplaires déjà connus de Bolinkoba, Usategi et Aitzbitarte III, ainsi que celui provenant de la récente découverte du site d’Askondo. L’analyse inclut une approche technologique et fonctionnelle de ces pointes grâce à laquelle nous pouvons conclure que deux types primaires sont représentés : les pointes fusiformes légères (Aitzbitarte III et Askondo) et les pointes triangulaires massives (Bolinkoba, Usategi). De plus, la distribution des sites possédant des pointes de type Isturitz dans la région cantabrique nous permet d’associer ces armatures avec celles des sites attribués au Gravettien riche en burins de Noailles. Ceci, avec d’autres éléments tels que la mobilité des matières premières, la technologie lithique ou les manifestations artistiques, nous permet d’y repérer une articulation territoriale particulière pendant le Gravettien dans cette région.In this work we present a review of the Isturitz type bone point assemblage of the cantabrian Gravettian, which includes the already known pieces from Bolinkoba, Usategi and Aitzbitarte III, and also the point recently discovered in Askondo site. This review includes technological and use-wear analyses which helped to identify two major types: light fusiform points (Aitzbitarte III and Askondo) and massive triangular points (Bolinkoba and Usategi). Also, we noted that the spatial distribution of the Isturitz type points in the cantabrian region is similar to the distribution of the sites defined as Gravettian rich in Noailles burins. This evidence, combined with the available information about raw material mobility, the technological organization and the artistic manifestations, suggest a particular territorial articulation of this region during the Gravettian

Early Middle Palaeolithic occupations at Ventalaperra cave (Cantabrian Region, Northern Iberian Peninsula)

The Middle Paleolithic assemblage from Ventalaperra level III, excavated in 1931 by Aranzadi and Barandiarán, was initially interpreted as being Aurignacian, and then as a Late Middle Paleolithic assemblage. Recent excavations at the site undertaken by Ruiz Idarraga and d'Errico have confirmed the Middle Paleolithic attribution, and have additionally produced data on subsistence strategies and environmental conditions. The results obtained from the technological analysis made on level III’s assemblage suggest that its characteristics fit with an Early Middle Paleolithic attribution. The extensive use of local raw materials, the absence of ramified productions, and the use of centripetal (Levallois and Discoid) and SSDA flaking systems, link this assemblage with sites like Arlanpe and Lezetxiki VI which have been dated to the end of the Middle Pleistocene, or nearby sites such as Abrigo Rojo, still under study. This reveals a behavioral pattern for Early Middle Paleolithic populations in the eastern Cantabrian Region characterized by an extensive use of the landscape, high mobility, short occupations and a high dependence on local resources to assure subsistence and technological provisioning

Uribe Kosta-Butroe aldeko natura eta ondare baliabideak

Resumen: Uribe Kosta is one of the regions of Biscay with the highest density of prehistoric archaeological sites, due in large part to the first-order abiotic resources provided by the flint from the flysch. However, the intensity of research and degree of knowledge of the archaeological heritage have not been commensurate with its importance. Only in recent years specific projects to address this deficit have been established.Abstract: Uribe Kosta is one of the regions of Biscay with the highest density of prehistoric archaeological sites, due in large part to the first-order abiotic resources provided by the flint from the flysch. However, the intensity of research and degree of knowledge of the archaeological heritage have not been commensurate with its importance. Only in recent years specific projects to address this deficit have been established

Insertion of objects in the walls of Pasiega b cave (Puente Viesgo, Cantabria)

Resumen: La inserción o depósito de objetos en las grietas, repisas y orificios de las cuevas decoradas durante el Paleolítico Superior es un fenómeno que solo ha sido objeto de investigación en los últimos años, especialmente en yacimientos situados en la vertiente norte de los Pirineos. Una prospección exhaustiva en la cueva de La Pasiega b, Puente Viesgo, Cantabria, nos ha permitido documentar evidencias similares que suman un total de 31 objetos ?29 huesos y 2 sílex? en el sector más cercano a la antigua boca colmatada. El muestreo y datación de uno de los huesos nos ha permitido obtener una fecha de radiocarbono ultrafiltrada que se sitúa en el Magdaleniense Medio, en consonancia con una de las fases de decoración de la cavidad. La presencia de objetos hincados, preferentemente huesos, en áreas de hábitat de los yacimientos y compartiendo espacio con paredes decoradas es una constante que se repite en otros yacimientos como Isturitz o Gargas. No existe en la actualidad una explicación de carácter funcional para dichas evidencias, por lo que se propone una finalidad simbólica para las mismas.Abstract: The interest for documenting the insertion or deposit of objects in the crevices, shelves and orifices of the decorated caves throughout the Upper Palaeolithic is quite recent and this phenomenon has al¬most only been documented in the Northern Pyrenean sites. During an exhaustive survey, we have identified similar evidence in the cave of La Pasiega b, Puente Viesgo, Cantabria with 31 objects ?29 bones and 2 flints? in the closest sector to the old blocked entrance. The sampling and dating of one of the bones has allowed us to obtain an ultrafiltered radiocarbon date corresponding to the Middle Magdalenian, in accordance with one of the decoration phases in this sector. The presence of hinked objects, preferably bones, in areas of habitat, sharing space with decorated walls, is a constant that is repeated in other sites such as Isturitz or Gargas. There is currently no functional explanation for such evidence, so a symbolic purpose for them is proposed

Importance and assessment of the Microlevallois production in levels II and III of Abrigo de la Quebrada (Chelva, Valencia)

The Levallois products –blanks and cores– from levels II and III of Abrigo de la Quebrada are analyzed. Among the ensemble of blanks, those of small size reach significant percentages. We focus on their characteristics, including the extent to which they were modified by retouch, and on their use wear, at both the micro and macro levels of observation. Where size is concerned, explanations such as tool biography –gradual reduction by successive retouch until discard–, differential export of the larger blanks, or raw-material scarcity are considered and rejected. The alternatives remaining are the task-specific deliberate production of such small blanks and the relationship between raw-material reduction and site function.Se estudian los productos Levallois –soportes y núcleos– de los niveles II y III del Abrigo de la Quebrada. La atención se centra en establecer sus características, grado de transformación por el retoque y evaluación de las macroy microhuellas de uso asociadas. Así mismo se establece la importancia de la producción Levallois de pequeño tamaño. Desechadas las explicaciones que recurren a la reducción de soportes por reavivado intenso, la exportación de los productos del lascado de mayor tamaño o la necesidad de aprovechar la materia prima como consecuencia de su escasez, se valoran otras alternativas para explicar el tamaño de la industria, como la voluntariedad de su producción en una estrategia de obtención de soportes aptos para determinadas tareas y la adecuación del sistema de talla en relación con la naturaleza de las ocupaciones

Redefining shared symbolic networks during the Gravettian in Western Europe: New data from the rock art findings in Aitzbitarte caves (Northern Spain)

Abstract: The renewal of the archaeological record, mainly through the discovery of unpublished sites, provides information that sometimes qualifies or even reformulates previous approaches. One of the latter cases is represented by the three new decorated caves found in 2015 in Aitzbitarte Hill. Their exhaustive study shows the presence of engraved animals, mainly bison, with formal characteristics unknown so far in the Palaeolithic art of the northern Iberian Peninsula. However, parallels are located in caves in southern France such as Gargas, Cussac, Roucadour or Cosquer. All of them share very specific graphic conventions that correspond to human occupations assigned basically to the Gravettian cultural complex. The new discovery implies the need to reformulate the iconographic Exchange networks currently accepted, as well as their correspondence with other elements of the material culture at the same sites. Thus, we have carried out a multiproxy approach based in statistical analysis. The updated data reveals a greater complexity in artistic expression during the Gravettian that had not been considered so far, and also challenges the traditional isolation that had been granted to Cantabrian symbolic expressions during pre-Magdalenian times.The project "Before art: social investment in symbolic expressions during the Upper Palaeolithic in the Iberian Peninsula” (PID2019-107262GB-I00) was funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (Spain), PI: Diego Garate. I. Intxaurbe’s PhD research is funded by a grant for the training of research personnel PIF 2019) at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

To be or not to be: reassessing the origins of portable art in the Cantabrian Region (Northern Spain)

[EN] The characterization of the first portable artistic depictions in Cantabrian Spain is crucial for comprehension of the symbolic development of Neandertals and Homo sapiens in the context of the passage from the Middle to the Upper Paleolithic. However, despite the importance of these first graphic representations, their study has tended to lack the application of suitable methodologies to be able to discriminate between graphic activity and other kind of alterations (use-wear, taphonomic, or post-depositional). The present study has examined a significant sample of Middle and Upper Paleolithic lithic and osseous objects from Cantabrian Spain that have been cited as evidence of graphic activity in the literature. The contexts in which the objects were found have been considered, and the objects have been analyzed through the microscopic observation of the marks to distinguish between incisions, pecking, and engraving made for a non-functional purpose (graphic activity) and those generated by diverse functional actions or taphonomic processes (cutmarks, trampling, root marks, percussion scars, and use-wear). The results show that some regional Middle Paleolithic osseous objects display incisions that are neither functional nor taphonomic and whose characteristics are similar to graphic evidence attributed to Neandertals in Europe and the Near East. In turn, the first portable art produced by Homo sapiens in the Cantabrian Spain seems to be limited mostly to linear signs, and no figurative representation can be recognized until the Gravettian. This appears to indicate a particular idiosyncrasy of the region in the Early Upper Paleolithic, which, in comparison with other regions such as south-west France and the Swabian Jura, shows a later and less abundant production of portable art.Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. The study presented in this paper was funded by the research project of the Spanish Science Ministry “Learning and developing artistic skills in anatomically modern humans: a multidisciplinary approach”Publicación en abierto financiada por el Consorcio de Bibliotecas Universitarias de Castilla y León (BUCLE), con cargo al Programa Operativo 2014ES16RFOP009 FEDER 2014-2020 DE CASTILLA Y LEÓN, Actuación:20007-CL - Apoyo Consorcio BUCL

Identifying the signs: The Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in northern Iberia from the perspective of the lithic record

The lithic record, together with archaeozoological remains, makes up the most abundant assemblages at European Palaeolithic sites. During many decades in the twentieth century, the classical typological analysis (the Bordesian paradigm) has been used to articulate the sequencing of the different cultural and chronostratigraphic units. At the same time, since the 1960s an alternative methodology known as Analytical Typology, proposed by Georges Laplace, has been available. The sophistication of the statistical procedures used by Analytical Typology is the reason given by many prehistorians for avoiding this approach, in the same way that the limitations in the quantification of the results ended up discrediting Bordes and Sonneville-Bordes’ method. As a first paradox, the same reasoning (in the opposite direction) rules out both methodologies. In addition, by ignoring the typological approach, we give new life to technological analysis, where qualitative information is provisionally prioritised over quantitative data. If we aim to describe the process of transition or change, then, as we have said on various occasions, the reading of the lithic record should be holistic, and cover typometrical features, the raw materials, technology, function and certainly typological traits. The alleged difficulties about the description of the different variables, their quantification and statistical analysis have been solved for some time in Laplace’s methodological proposal. Ignorance of this methodology cannot be given as an excuse, fifty years after it was first formulated.

Functional analysis of Acheleuan lithic industry of Thiongo Korongo (Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania): the case study for flakes and bifaces

In this paper we will present an ongoing research about the function of Acheulean flakes and LTC´s recovered at Thiongo Korongo (TK) (Upper section of Olduvai’s Bed II, ca. 1.353 ± 0.035 Ma.). Our hypothesis is that these assemblages could reflect actual evidence of various activities developed at the site other than knapping. The presence of faunal remains, including different species of large mammals, suggest that butchery and carcass processing activities could potentially have been realized there. The variability of formats and tools present support the idea that other activities (e.g. wood working, digging, tuber / vegetable processing, etc.) could also have been performed at the site. These hypotheses are relevant to our understanding of the extent of activities that took place during the Acheulean and the function, technological variability and the settlement dynamics of the site