Abstract: El Mirón Cave, located on the northern edge of the Cantabrian Cordillera and 20 km from the present Atlantic shoref, contains a sequence of Upper Paleolithic (Gravettian, Solutrean, Magdalenian and Azilian) levels (ranging in radiocarbon age from 28,000?10,500 BP) atop a minor Middle Paleolithic layer (> 46,000 BP) and beneath a long, rich series of Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Bronze Age deposits (5700?3200 BP). The Upper Paleolithic levels, spanning early MIS3, LGM, Oldest Dryas, and Late Glacial environmental conditions, display alternation between short-term, ephemeral, limited-function human occupations (Gravettian, Solutrean, Upper Magdalenian and Azilian) and repeated, long-term, multi-functional ones (Initial, Lower and Middle Magdalenian). The rich ungulate faunas are co-dominated by ibex and red deer, which is logical since the cave is on a high, steep, rocky cliff-side (ibex habitat), but dominates a broad, low-lying inter-montane valley (red deer habitat). Salmon fishing was also important at times. The lithic artifact assemblages, with abundant evidence of in situ knapping, include mixes of debris and tools made on local non-flint materials and others (including abundant projectile points and backed bladelets) made on high-quality, non-local flints from coastal flysch outcrops and other exotic sources. Domestic tools (scrapers, denticulates, etc.) can be made of either type of lithic material. Osseous artifacts, especially in the early-mid Magdalenian levels, include large numbers of antler points, bone needles and awls, as well as a few distinctive works of portable art. The cave also includes rupestral art of probable Magdalenian age. The Lower Magdalenian levels are particularly rich in hearths and other human-made structures (a wall, pits, pavements) and the first human burial from this period ever to be found on the Iberian Peninsula. The individual was a healthy, robust female of 35?40 years old, buried in ritual fashion with a special ochre from an outcrop located on the modern shore and ?marked? by engravings and the same ochre on a large block that had fallen from the cave ceiling soon before the grave was made in a narrow space between it and the rear vestibule wall. Numerous technical studies (e.g., paleoenvironments, DNA, stable isotopes) are summarized in this article.
Otras publicaciones de la misma revista o congreso con autores/as de la Universidad de Cantabria
-
Interpreting the Schöningen 13II-4 butchery sequence using the Harris Matrix - Artículo de Revista
-
Highlighting the role of carnivores as a multifunctional resource among the Middle Magdalenian: The case of the Lower Galley of La Garma (Cantabria, Spain) - Artículo de Revista
-
Los Canes Mesolithic burials: archaeothanatology - Artículo de Revista
-
Shell tools and productive strategies of hunter-gatherer groups: Some reflections from a use-wear analysis at the Balma del Gai site (Barcelona, Spain) - Artículo de Revista
-
Sources of the ochres associated with the Lower Magdalenian “Red Lady” human burial and rock art in El Mirón Cave (Cantabria, Spain) - Artículo de Revista
-
Lower Magdalenian lithic raw material provisioning: A diachronic view from El Mirón cave (Ramales de la Victoria, Cantabria, Spain) - Artículo de Revista
-
Ephemeral materiality arising from the darkness: Medieval wooden crafts from Hoyo de los Herreros cave (Cantabria, Spain) - Artículo de Revista
-
From mud to wood: Addressing the study of wood resources through the analysis of earth building fragments - Artículo de Revista
-
Crops on the edge of a cliff: Storage at Castro S. João das Arribas (Northwest Iberia) in the Late Antiquity - Artículo de Revista
-
Virtual reconstruction of the Palaeolithic landscape in Santimamiñe cave (Bizkaia, Spain) - Artículo de Revista
-
The monks of San Mill´an: Investigating the transition between pre-monastic and monastic diet using carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios in incremental dentine - Artículo de Revista
-
Mesolithic dwelling structures: from methodological approaches to archaeological interpretation - Artículo de Revista
-
Gold-bearing Plio-Quaternary deposits: insights from airborne LiDAR technology into the landscape evolution during the early Roman mining works in north-west Spain - Artículo de Revista
-
Multi-Isotope investigations of ungulate bones and teeth from El Castillo and Covalejos caves (Cantabria, Spain): Implications for paleoenvironment reconstructions across the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic transition - Artículo de Revista
-
Isotopic and zooarchaeological approaches towards understanding aquatic resource use in human economies and animal management in the prehistoric Scottish North Atlantic Islands - Artículo de Revista
-
Multi-scale, integrated approaches to understanding the nature and impact of past environmental and climatic change in the archaeological record, and the role of isotope zooarchaeology - Artículo de Revista
-
Woodworking sites from the Late Paleolithic of South Arabia: Functional
and technological analysis of burins from Dhofar, Oman - Artículo de Revista
-
Birds of prey and humans in prehistoric Europe: A view from El Mirón Cave, Cantabria (Spain) - Artículo de Revista
-
An unknown "classic cave": Re-evaluation of El Salitre (Ajanedo, Cantabria, Spain) rock art with 3D digital recording methodologies - Artículo de Revista
-
The cave of Atxurra: A new major Magdalenian rock art sanctuary in Northern Spain - Artículo de Revista
-
New insights into the European Palaeolithic Art: Symbolic interactions in the Bay of Biscay - Artículo de Revista
-
Landscape dynamics and human impact on high-mountain woodlands in the western Spanish Central System during the last three millennia - Artículo de Revista
-
Palaeoenvironmental and chronological context of human occupations at El Cierro Cave (Northern Spain) during the transition from the late Upper Pleistocene to the early Holocene - Artículo de Revista
-
New data for the late Upper Palaeolithic in the Cantabrian region: Arangas Cave (Cabrales, Asturias, Spain) - Artículo de Revista
-
Early farmers, megalithic builders and the shaping of the cultural landscapes during the Holocene in Northern Iberian mountains. A palaeoenvironmental perspective - Artículo de Revista
-
Mid-late Holocene environmental and cultural dynamics at the south-west tip of Europe (Doñana National Park, SW Iberia, Spain) - Artículo de Revista
-
Revisiting Hornos de la Peña 100 years after - Artículo de Revista
-
Sporadic occupation in Armiña cave during the Upper Magdalenian: What for? - Artículo de Revista
-
Environment and subsistence strategies at La Viña rock shelter and Llonin cave Asturias, Spain) during MIS3 - Artículo de Revista
-
Diet, mobility and death of Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic groups of the Cantabrian Region (northern Spain). A multidisciplinary approach towards studying the Los Avellanos I and II burial caves - Artículo de Revista
-
Modelled clay animals in Aitzbitarte IV Cave: A unique Palaeolithic rock art site in the Cantabrian Region - Artículo de Revista
-
The Incidence of Potential Insolation on Settlement Dynamics and Site Location Preferences: A Case Study From the Cantabrian Late Palaeolithic - Artículo de Revista
-
Evaluating the incidence of hydrological processes during site formation through orientation analysis. A case study of the middle Palaeolithic Lakeland site of Neumark-Nord 2 (Germany) - Artículo de Revista