Aitor Calvo

To palliate the current scarcity of information about lithic raw materials in the Western Pyrenees during the Gravettian, the study of ten assemblages has explored the flint procurement patterns and economic organisation of the territory. The study was based on the macro-and microscopic analysis of the different lithic remains. A wide range of flint varieties were used, including some excellent rocks for knapping and others of poorer quality. This diversified catchment pattern was defined by the criteria of quality and suitability for reduction. Although procurement took place mostly at the primary outcrops, there is some evidence of limited acquisition in secondary deposits. Within the economic territory of the Western Pyrenees, divergences in the connections between the outcrops on one side of the mountains and the archaeological sites on the other may indicate different territorial or economic roles for each side. In general terms, the northern side may have been more residential with more stable habitation, while the southern side was linked with logistic tasks and more seasonal occupation. The economic connections between this territory and surrounding areas revealed by the lithic resources are the reflection of inter-group contacts and an economic mosaic imbricated with a cultural or symbolic one.

This paper presents the results achieved in the technological, typometric, morphotypological and, mainly, use-wear analysis (supported by an experimental programme) of the collection of Noailles burins from level IV of Isturitz cave. The data obtained revealed that this type of burin was a highly standardised tool; thus, it is a small morphotype, generally made from a very narrow bladelet, usually on an oblique and concave truncation. This created a sharp active zone (the dihedral) where the use-wear traces are normally located. Their distribution shows that these burins were used mainly for piercing, while the faintness of the traces suggest that they were employed with quite soft materials, such as dry hide. Experimentation demonstrated the effectiveness of these implements for piercing dry hide, and the use wear on the experimental burins correspond to the traces observed on archaeological burins. It also showed that the Noailles burins of Isturitz Cave are incompatible with harder materials or tasks of longer duration or intensity.

Tradicionalmente, viene considerándose que el paso de los grupos humanos por los Pirineos resulta dificultoso durante el Paleolítico y exis-ten, efectivamente, datos que contradicen este planteamiento. Incluso podemos valorar como verosímil la existencia de una región paleolítica pirenaica, con rasgos culturales específicos y una serie de yacimientos implicados, especialmente durante el Magdaleniense. La existencia de rutas de tránsito a través de los tramos centrales de los Pirineos no es incompatible, sin embargo, con una mayor preferencia por los pasos occidental y oriental entre la Península Ibérica y el resto del continente europeo. Partiendo de esta hipótesis, nos proponemos explorar la ruta occidental del poblamiento peninsular, la que cruza el País Vasco, a partir de diferentes tipos de registro: la propia dispersión de los yaci-mientos arqueológicos, la distribución de materias primas líticas, los tecnocomplejos y las similitudes o diferencias en los comportamientos culturales y económicos de los grupos humanos. Para ello, partimos de la reflexión teórica efectuada en el Coloquio de Tarascon (2004), para comprobar la validez de aquella propuesta, desde la perspectiva de doce años. LABURPENA Sarritan aipatu da Pirinioetako pasatzea zaila izan dela gizakientzako, Paleolitoan zehar, eta ba dira datuak hipotesi hau ezeztatzeko. Batzuk aipatu dute Pirinioetako eremu kultural bat, adierazle kultural oso espezifikoekin, bereziki Magdalen aldian. Pirinioak zeharkatzen dituzten zenbait pasabideen izatea, aldi berean, bateragarria da beste planteamenduarekin, hain zuzen ere, gizataldeek nahiago izaten dituztela Pirinioetako mendebaldeko eta ekialdeko ertzak Iberiar Penintsula eta kontinentearen arteko pasabideak bezala, erosoagoak dire-lako. Hipotesi hau abiapuntutzat hartuta, mendebaldeko pasabidea (Euskal Herria zeharkatzen duena) zenbait erregistro materialen arabera aztertuko dugu: aztarnategi arkeologikoen sakabanaketa, harrizko lehengaien hornidura eta gizataldeen portaera kultural eta ekonomikoen arteko aldeak eta desberdintasunak. Aspaldian, 2004ko Tarascon-sur-Ariègen izandako kongresuan egin genuen hausnarketa teoretikoa izan da gure oinarria, hamabi urte beranduago hipotesi horren baliokidetza aztertzeko. ABSTRACT It has traditionally been thought that movement of human groups across the Pyrenees would have been difficult in the Palaeolithic, although there are data contradicting this view. It may even be proposed that a Pyrenean region existed in the Palaeolithic with specific cultural traits and a series of sites, especially in the Magdalenian. The existence of routes across the central parts of the Pyrenees is not incompatible, however, with a preference for the western and eastern routes between the Iberian Peninsula and the rest of Europe. With this hypothesis, we propose to explore the western route for the movement of populations, the one that crosses the Basque Country, through different kinds of record: the location of the archaeological sites themselves, the distribution of lithic raw materials, the technocomplexes, and the similarities and differences in the cultural and subsistence behaviour of the human groups. We will retake the theoretical approach proposed at the International Meeting on Prehistorical Pyrenees (Tarascon, 2004), to check its validity, twelve years later.

Los estudios referentes a la gestión de los recursos líticos-especialmente el sílex-por parte de los grupos prehistóricos en las dos vertien-tes del Pirineo occidental han aumentado de manera considerable en las últimas décadas. En este trabajo, pretendemos realizar una aproxi-mación a la movilidad de los grupos superopaleolíticos, mediante los Sistemas de Información Geográfica (SIG). Estos nos permiten relacionar espacialmente los afloramientos de sílex y los restos líticos encontrados en los yacimientos arqueológicos. Para ello, hemos construido, a través de los Cost Distance Analysis, una serie de mapas que permiten detectar las dinámicas de expansión de cada uno de afloramientos, así como los patrones de aprovisionamiento de cada yacimiento. Adicionalmente, hemos relacionado los valores numéricos obtenidos del análisis espacial con la cantidad de sílex encontrado en cada nivel arqueológico a partir de estadística descriptiva y la aplicación de la lógica difusa. De esta forma hemos podido revisar los conceptos de autoctonía y aloctonía, así como plantear modelos generales de aprovisionamiento y distribución de sílex en la región. LABURPENA Mendebaldeko Pirinioen bi isurialdeetan historiaurreko taldeek baliabide litikoen –batez ere silexa– inguruan eginiko kudeaketari buruzko azterlanak asko ugaritu dira azken hamarkadetan. Lan honetan, hurbiltze bat egin nahi diogu talde superopaleolitikoen mugikortasunari, In-formazio Geografikoko Sistemen (GIS) bidez. Hala, espazioa kontuan hartuta lotu ditzakegu aztarnategi arkeologikoetan aurkitutako silexaren eta hondakin litikoen azaleratzeak. Horretarako, Cost Distance Analysis direlakoen bidez, zenbait mapa eraiki ditugu eta horiei esker, aza-leratze bakoitzaren hedatze-dinamikak detektatu ditugu. Aztarnategi bakoitzaren hornitze-ereduak ere eraiki ditugu. Horrez gain, azterketa espazialaren emaitza gisa eskuratu ditugun zenbakizko balioak maila arkeologiko bakoitzean aurkitutako silex kantitatearekin lotu ditugu deskribapenezko estatistikatik abiatuta eta logika lausoa aplikatuta. Hala, autoktonia eta aloktonia kontzeptuak berraztertu ahal izan ditugu eta aipatutako eremuko hornitze-eredu orokorrak eta silexaren banaketa planteatu ditugu.

The field and laboratory work carried out in recent decades have substantially changed our vision of various aspects of the Gravettian in the Cantabrian Region and the western Pyrenees. The objective of this work is to carry out a critical synthesis of the available data for the lithic industry of the Gravettian in this region, according to raw material procurement, exploitation strategies and typological markers. Thereby several aspects are of importance: (1) the alternating availability of high quality raw material, where two territories can be divided: one to the West, where raw material acquisition is showing a wide range of raw materials (notably flint, quartzite, quartz), and one to the East, where assemblages are completely dominated by a single raw material: flint; (2) the great similarity between different reduction strategies, mainly in relation to flint; and (3) an existing polymorphism throughout the territory in case of the tool types, within which protrude two typological groups: back elements and burins, notably the Noailles burins. The latter are massively present in the eastern part of the Cantabrian Region and the western Pyrenees. This variability does not seem to correspond to chronological phases, but has to be probably understood in functional terms.

As a result of different research foci, e.g. the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition, information about the Gravettian technocomplex was for a long time relatively scarce in the Cantabrian region. While our understanding of this specific time period had undergone perpetual shifts and changes since the definitions first of Breuil and later of Peyrony and Garrod, the last two decades have seen a fundamental expansion of our knowledge. This is mainly due to new fieldwork and artifact studies, directly tackling missing key information. From the altered significance of an important fossil directeur and expanding radiocarbon chronology, to new models for cultural transition and enhanced data for environmental living conditions, all subject areas have thereby been affected. Following a recent international conference bringing together this new data and the publications of the proceedings, it may be a good time for a brief overview about the state of the art of Gravettian research in northern Spain.

The archaeological site of Ametzagaina was discovered by chance in 2005. Since then,
two archaeological interventions have been conducted at this open air deposit, located in the
urban area of San Sebastian; in the first one (2006-2007), some collections of lithics were practiced
on the site, as well as several sondages, whose results converged in a preliminary publication,
both of the lithic assemblage recovered, like of the pollen sequence documented (Tapia
et al., 2009). In the second, new sondages were made, as well as new surface collections.
Following consideration of all evidence recovered, everything points toward a Gravettian campsite,
with a very bad preservation of organic materials and the stratigraphic sequence, only saved
in a minimum area (because of very special circumstances).

Durante 2005, el yacimiento arqueológico de Ametzagaina fue descubierto casualmente. A lo largo de 2006 se efectuaron diversas recogidas de material en este depósito al aire libre, situado en el entorno urbano de Donostia y en 2007, fueron practicados varios sondeos. Todo apunta hacia un establecimiento gravetiense, con una muy deficiente conservación de los materiales orgánicos y de la secuencia estratigráfica, sólo respetada en un mínimo relicto debido a excepcionales circunstancias.

Two have been mainly the circumstances that have change in recent decades our knowledge about the Gravettian in the Basque Country: the development of the analysis of lithic raw materials (Tarriño et al. 2015) and the discovery of an important set of open-air sites (Arrizabalaga e Iriarte 2011). These developments have opened new perspectives in the research, allowing us to explore in more detail the “economic territories” -beyond the classic "cultural territories"- and their exploitation strategies, as well as the raw materials management patterns (Calvo et al. 2015).
These new studies have also revealed a new vision of this territory, traditionally seen as a mere appendage of the great sets of the Pyrenean and/or Cantabrian Gravettian (Foucher et al. 2008). Thus, today this territory stands out as an important crossroads that connects these two major economic and cultural areas. In this sense, the data provided by the raw materials reveal an enormous economic territory, vertebrated through the natural passage of Txingudi’s corridor, whose boundaries extend at least from the flint outcrops of Flysch Kurtzia to west, the Pyrenean Flysch to east, those of Chalosse to north and Treviño outcrops to south.
The exploitation of this territory is more complex than previously expected (e.g. Barandiaran y Cava 2008). On the one hand, the constant transit of raw materials follows a SW-NE axis, in so far as the sites of the southern slope of the Pyrenees are feed on large amounts of flint types from the north and vice versa. On the other, the new sites reveal the existence of a consistent network of open-air settlements, especially relevant in times of climatic bonanza (Iriarte-Chiapusso et al. 2016). Finally, the differential management observed between some flint types draws a really vast and complex "economic picture" in relation to the organization and exploitation of the territory and its resources (Arrizabalaga et al. 2014).

References
Arrizabalaga, A., Calvo, A., Elorrieta, I., Tapia, J., Tarriño, A. 2014. Where to and What for? Mobility patterns and the management of lithic resources by Gravettian hunter-gatherers in the Western Pyrenees. Journal of Anthropologial Research 70, 233-261.
Arrizabalaga, A., Iriarte-Chipausso, M. J. 2011. Les gisements archéologiques gravettiens de plein air dans le Pays Basque péninsulaire: un phénomène émergent. In: Goutas, N., Klaric, L., Guillermin, P. and Pessese, D. (Eds.), À la recherche des identités gravettiens: actualités, questionnements et perspectives, Mémoire LII de la Société Préhistorique Française, Paris, pp. 197-206.
Barandiaran, I., Cava, A. 2008. Identificaciones del Gravetiense en las estribaciones occidentales del Pirineo: modelos de ocupación y uso. Trabajos de Prehistoria 65(1), 13-28.
Calvo, A., Bradtmöller, M., Martínez, L., Arrizabalaga, A. 2015. Lithic cultural variability during the Gravettian in the Cantabrian Region and the western Pyrenees: State of the art. Quaternary International (2015).
Foucher, P., San Juan-Foucher, C., Sacchi, D., Arrizabalaga, A. 2008. Le Gravettien des Pyrénées. PALEO 20, 331-356.
Iriarte-Chipausso, M. J., García-Ibaibarriaga, N., Arrizabalaga, A. 2016. The contribution of open-air sites to the environmental reconstruction of the Gravettian at the “Basque Crossroads” (North Iberia). Quaternary International (2016).
Tarriño, A., Elorrieta, I., García-Rojas, M. 2015. Flint as raw material in prehistoric times: Cantabrian Mountain and Western Pyrenees data. Quaternary International 364, 94-108.

Coímbre cave is located in Besnes (Peñamellera Alta, Asturias), in the center of northern Iberia, a few kilometers from the modern shoreline. Although the cave is found in a mountain and slope area -at the edge of the Cuera hillsides, in the northern foothills of the Picos de Europa massif-, there is a large succession of short valleys nearby, with irregular relief and some open spaces about 7-8 km from the confluence of Cares and Deva rivers in the Panes area.
This site has been known since 1971, when a series of parietal engravings attributed to the initial and recent Magdalenian were discovered, as well as a large archaeological deposit, although this was not excavated (Moure and Gil, 1974; Álvarez-Alonso et al., 2014). However, from 2008 to 2012 the present team has excavated a total surface area of 4m2 in the innermost part of the main chamber -called Zone B-, which has yielded an interesting full Magdalenian sequence in addition to a Gravettian level, which is presented here (Álvarez Alonso et al., 2009, 2013, 2015; Yravedra et al., 2016). The Co.B.6 level of Coímbre has been dated between 29.660 and 28.560 Cal BP, coinciding with the warm event of the Greenland Interstadial 4, in one of the warm phases of the MIS3a.
Coímbre’s Gravettian and Magdalenian occupations differ widely, mainly concerning the space occupation and management and the resources catchment patterns. Thus, during the Gravettian can be appreciated a dominant local procurement with an important dependence on the closest lithic raw materials -mainly quartzites-, as well as a low technical requirements and a great immediacy in the management of the different chaînes opératoires. In contrast, related to the hunted faunas the Gravettian groups were not limited to the most abundant species in the immediate environment -considering the mountainous area- as happened during the Magdalenian, where Coímbre highlighted as an ibex’s kill-site. In this way, in the Co.B.6 level, the identified fauna includes large species like Bos/Bison, Equus ferus and Cervus elaphus, but also Capra pyrenaica.
Considering these features and the results of the spatial analysis (GIS) of the economic territory and the subsistential mobility, we can interpret this such as a sporadic occupation, which responds to a high degree of immediacy, probably within an east-west high mobility context. The palaeobotanical data and the use of bone as fuel (Yravedra et al., 2016), underpin this hypothesis.
Due to its large and varied archaeological record, Coímbre is one of the most outstanding sites to study the characteristics of Gravettian human occupations in one of the most western ends of the expansion of this technocomplex on the European continent.

References
Álvarez Alonso, D., Yravedra, J., Arrizabalaga, A., Jordá Pardo, J., Heredia, N., 2009. La cueva de Coímbre (Peñamellera Alta, Asturias, España): su yacimiento arqueológico y su santuario rupestre. Un estado de la cuestión en 2008. Munibe 60, 139-155
Álvarez Alonso, D., Yravedra, J., Arrizabalaga, A., Jordá, J. F., 2013. Excavaciones arqueológicas en la cueva de Coímbre (Besnes, Peñamellera Alta). Cam¬pañas 2008-2012, In: Excavaciones Arqueológicas en Asturias 2007-2012, Asturias, pp. 109-120.
Álvarez Alonso, D., Yravedra, J., Andrés Herrero, M. de., Arrizabalaga, A., García Díez, M., Garrido, D., Jordá Pardo, J. F., 2014. La cueva de Coímbre (Asturias, España): artistas y cazadores durante el Magdaleniense en la región cantábrica. In: Corchón, Mª S. and Menéndez Fernández, M. (Eds.), Cien Años de arte rupestre paleolítico. Centenario del descubrimiento de la cueva de la Peña de Candamo (1914-2014). Acta salmanticensia. Estudios históricos y geográficos 106, pp. 101-108.

Transformations of behavioral patterns in past hunter-gatherer societies constitute major historical events. Environmental deterministic explanations of those changes underestimate different capacities of hunter-gatherer societies to deal with alterations of environmental conditions. By using an agent based model of ideal-typical hunter-gatherers, the here proposed paper illustrates first how the concept of adaptive cycles can be beneficial for understanding of behavioral transformations among hunter-gatherers. Based on a theoretical model emphasizing interdependences between behavioral strategies like mobility and cooperation, the specifics of adaptation processes among hunter-gatherers and resilience of behavioral ‘systems’ are analyzed. Especially relevant for the degree of resilience are adaptation processes directing towards an increasing specialization. Specialization may in some cases support system’s resilience. Usually, however, specialization is assumed to reduce the behavioral flexibility that is believed to have a positive effect on resilience. In such cases a trend of specialization can actually increase the vulnerability and therefore the probability of a behavioral system’s collapse and the subsequent need to reorganize into a new effective one.
To demonstrate the practicability of the described model for archaeological research, the model is tested furthermore for the case of Pleistocene hunter-gatherers in Northern Spain who show a number of considerable changes in behavioral patterns. With limited success, it has been attempted to explain these processes of changes by models like the Repeated Replacement Model (see Bradtmoeller et al. 2012 and Schmidt et al.2012). Turning to the resilience of the observable behavioral systems provides here a promising alternative.

Authors:D. Álvarez-Alonso, J. Yravedra, A. Arrizabalaga, J. F. Jordá, E. Álvarez-Fernández, M. de Andrés-Herrero, M. Elorza, S. Gabriel, García-Díez, D. Garrido, M. M. J. Iriarte, J. Rojo, C. Sesé, P. Uzquiano, T. Aparicio, M. Arriolabengoa, A. Calvo, P. Carral, R. Domingo, I. Elorrieta, V. Estaca, O. Fuente, M. García, E. García, E. Iriarte Avilés, P. López, M. Meléndez, J. Tapia, A. Tarriño, G. J. Trancho, A. M. Valles, M de Andrés-Chain, D. Ballesteros, D. Cabanes, A. Moreno, D. Rodrigo & R. Obeso

Coímbre cave (142 meters asl) is located on the southwestern slope of Mount Pendendo (529 m), in the small valley of Besnes river, tributary of Cares river, in a medium-higher mountain are in the central-western Cantabria –northern Iberian Peninsula- (Álvarez-Alonso et al., 2009; 2013b). The landscape in the surroundings of the cave –situated in an interior valley but near to the current coast in a low altitude- can be described as a mountainous environment where valleys, small hills and steep mountains with high slopes are integrated, which confer a relative variety of ecosystems to this area. Coímbre contains an important archaeological site divided in two different areas. B Area, is the farthest from the entrance, and is the place where took place the excavations carried out to date, between 2008 and 2012 (Álvarez-Alonso et al., 2009, 2011, 2013a, 2013b).
Coímbre B shows a complete and very interesting Magdalenian sequence (with Lower, Middle and Upper Magdalenian levels), and a gravettian level, that converts this cave in one of the biggest habitat areas in western Cantabria. Its rich set of bone industries, mobiliar art and ornaments, provide key information that shows the connections between this area, the Pyrenees and the south-west of Aquitaine.
Moreover, Coímbre cave presents an interesting set of Magdalenian engravings, locatedin different places of the cavity, both in open and accessible areas, and in narrower and inaccessible places, which clearly define two different symbolic spaces. All this artistic expressions belong to the Magdalenian, and it is possible to establish a division between a set of engravings framed in the first stages of this period (the most abundant and remote); and a more limited set of engravings, in which stand out a block with a engraving of a bison with a deep trace of more than one meter long, that belongs to the recent Magdalenian.
This work presents the preliminary results of the analysis of Magdalenian occupations in Coímbre, after the end of the excavations in B Area, and the study of its rock art, shaping this site as one of the most important places of Magdalenian human activities in western Cantabria.

This text explains briefly the historiographical reasons for the territorial models applied since the mid-twentieth century to the Palaeolithic in Iberia oecumene still continue to distort our vision. The classic paradigm of living during the Upper Palaeolithic in a cavity located at low altitude has been replicated, although evidence proving their failure accumulate. The last fifteen years have provided a more plausible view of this scenario, but the authors miss a deep reflection on the employed concept of territoriality. We consider the lack of archaeological visibility is sometimes less related to the absence of database information, but with the epistemological filters under which we examined the record.

Este breve texto explica, en clave historiográfica, los motivos por los cuales los modelos territoriales aplicados desde mediados del siglo XX a la ecúmene paleolítica en la Península Ibérica continúan aún distorsionando nuestra visión. El paradigma del hábitat durante el Paleolítico superior en una cavidad situada a baja altitud se ha ido replicando, aunque se acumulan pruebas que acreditan su insuficiencia. Los últimos quince años han proporcionado una visión más verosímil de este escenario, pero los autores echan en falta una reflexión profunda acerca del concepto de territorialidad empleado. Consideran que la falta de visibilidad arqueológica no está a veces relacionada con la ausencia de información de partida, sino con los filtros epistemológicos bajo los que examinamos el registro.