Rafael Domingo Martínez

The archaeological investigations carried out in the last twenty years in the Lower Valley of the River Güena ˜
(Asturias, central part of northern Spain) have documented different prehistoric sites, particularly with Middle
and Upper Palaeolithic occupations. This paper presents the first results of the archaeological excavation carried
out in the cave of La Cuevona de Avín. From the systematic study of the biotic and abiotic remains, a total of
three occupation phases (Phases 1 to 3) have been determined, dated in the Late Pleistocene. The lithic studies
indicate the use of local raw materials (mainly quartzite), but also regional ones (different types of flint) in the
whole sequence. Retouched implements are typologically representative only during the Upper Magdalenian
(Phase II) and use-wear analysis indicates the manufacture and use of artefacts in situ during this phase.
Archaeozoological studies reveal continuity in subsistence strategies throughout the sequence, noting specialization in red deer hunting during the Azilian (Phase I), and more diversified prey in the older phases of the
sequence

In this article, we present the Mesolithic and Neolithic sequences of El Esplugón shelter (Billobas-Sabiñánigo, Huesca), as well as the main results of the various studies carried out after several archaeological fieldwork seasons in recent years: anthracology, lithic typology, use-wear
analysis, pottery, fauna and art. This site, with good preservation, offers new data on the occupation in the Spanish Pre-Pyrenees, highlighting the geostrategic position of the Guarga river corridor. The rich archaeological sequence indicates a repeated occupation between the
middle of the 8th millennium cal BC and the beginning of the 5th millennium cal BC, from the Microlaminar Mesolithic till the Early Neolithic. In short, it is one of the best reference settlements for this chrono-cultural framework in the analysis of Neolithic processes in the Ebro basin.

Los inicios de un nuevo territorio cultural The beginnings of a new cultural territory Resumen: En el cuadrante NW de la cuenca del Ebro, la primera ocupación prehistórica que presenta caracteres específicos de inten-sidad, estructuración territorial y continuidad temporal no se documenta hasta las fases finales del Magdaleniense. En ese momento se ocupan lugares al aire libre, cuevas y abrigos rocosos en un entorno de media montaña con abundantes recursos naturales cuya riqueza aumenta a medida que entramos en tiempos holocenos. Debido a la escasez y discontinuidad de los registros humanos previos se pro-pone que esta ocupación podría explicarse por un fenómeno colonizador, que parece generalizado en el occidente europeo. La mejoría climática del GI-1 supuso para los cazadores-recolectores magdalenienses la oportunidad de desarrollar una explotación integral de sus territorios habituales, pero también de nuevas áreas hasta entonces visitadas sólo esporádicamente por su mayor altura y/o condiciones climáticas más rigurosas. En la etapa que nos ocupa, las poblaciones de los vecinos territorios cantábrico, norpirenaico y frente medi-terráneo encontraron en la cuenca del Ebro un nuevo destino, en unos movimientos quizás también relacionados con el crecimiento demográfico y la pérdida de territorios litorales por la modificación de la línea de costa. Ofrecemos en este texto una revisión crítica de la información disponible (estrategias de ocupación, caracteres paleoambientales, registro material) de un grupo de sitios localizados y excavados en las últimas décadas en su zona occidental: Legunova, Abauntz, Atxoste, Martinarri, Socuevas… Palabras clave: Magdaleniense superior-final, Tardiglacial, cuenca del Ebro, demografía, movilidad, nuevos territorios, recursos económicos Résumé : La première occupation humaine significative du quart NW de la vallée de l'Èbre (péninsule Ibérique)-marquée par des éléments spécifiques, une structuration territoriale et une continuité temporelle-, a eu lieu pendant le Magdalénien récent. Jusque-là, les groupes du Paléolithique supérieur avaient fréquenté certains espaces de manière ponctuelle, peut-être à cause des conditions cli-matiques difficiles de la zone intérieure de la péninsule Ibérique, loin des vallées protégées proches des zones côtières dont le climat tempéré bénéficiait de l'influence marine. Les occupations du Magdalénien récent, prenant la forme de différents types de sites (cam-pements de plein air, abris-sous-roche, grottes), ont mis à profit ces territoires de moyenne montagne, permettant aux groupes humains d'exploiter les abondantes ressources naturelles et d'établir les bases d'un réseau culturel qui sera en vigueur, avec certaines variations, jusqu'au Néolithique ancien. À une échelle plus large, si l'on considère la pauvreté et la discontinuité des enregistrements archéolo-giques antérieurs dans plusieurs régions d'Europe, les occupations magdaléniennes pourraient être expliquées comme un phénomène expansionniste. L'amélioration climatique du GI-1 a permis le développement d'un système d'exploitation intégrale de leurs territoires habituels, mais aussi leur implantation dans des zones qui avaient été dédaignées auparavant à cause de l'altitude ou des conditions climatiques. La vallée de l'Èbre est entourée par des territoires densément et systématiquement occupés pendant le Paléolithique supérieur : le nord des Pyrénées et les zones côtières cantabrique et méditerranéenne. La combinaison de plusieurs facteurs (amélioration climatique, croissance démographique, augmentation du niveau de la mer) pourrait avoir favorisé ce processus d'anthropisation. Le secteur NW de la vallée de l'Èbre est un territoire riche en ressources biotiques et abiotiques. Un réseau fluvial dense rejoignant l'Èbre depuis les hautes vallées pyrénéennes du nord et les Monts ibériques par le sud, fonctionne comme un couloir de communication. L'abondance

We present a very intriguing set of finds coming from Tragaluz Norte, one of the most inaccessible rock shelters in the Vero canyon, which runs north to south through the Sierra de Guara, in the Huesca province (north-east Spain). There, a skeleton from a 9-years-old child with his toy wooden bow as well as other elements (pieces of wood, fabric and pottery, and a stone wall) were found. The whole ensemble belongs to a single moment in the second half of the 4th century CE. We hypothesize that this child was part of a group of rural laborers who died accidentally and was buried there. As an explanation for their presence in such an inaccessible place we think that they could be gathering honey from man-made cane and mud honeycombs -locally called arnas-, a task documented in the area until recent times.

A B S T R A C T This paper summarises our knowledge of Mesolithic space management — which concerns the choice of the living place itself and the recognisable dwelling structures — in the Middle Ebro Basin, where more than fifteen accurately dated Mesolithic sites have been found and excavated in the last several decades. In the last forty years, the Ebro Basin has emerged as the most important area for the study of the Mesolithic and Early Neolithic period in the Iberian Peninsula. Dozens of recently excavated sites with hundreds of accurate radiocarbon dates offer a good panorama of the transition from traditional hunting-gathering strategies to the gradual incorporation of Neolithic innovations. Nevertheless, much remains unknown in wide areas across the basin due to poor conservation or mere research defaults, so there is still much work to do. For brevity and research tradition, this paper will be restricted to the Middle Ebro Basin. The vast majority of documented Mesolithic sites throughout the basin occupy the frequent limestone, sandstone or conglomeratic rockshelters that proliferate in the ranges flanking the north and the lower flat areas in the south. There, natural " roofed " refuges are scarce, and prehistoric groups inhabited open-air campsites. Archaeological surveys are difficult to conduct in these flat terrains due to high-scale Holocene erosive processes, which hamper our knowledge of the actual dwelling strategies in Mesolithic times. Across the basin, only one open-air site is known about compared to more than forty rockshelters. Of these, most share common elements: they are small, open to the rising sun and appear next to rivers or ravines, guaranteeing access to fresh water and control of potential game. Some show evidence of human presence from the Magdalenian times; others were in use in the Neolithic period and beyond. A common feature is the final prehistoric usage of funerary sites during the Chalcolithic period. Many sites are in close vicinity to one another, but due to the imprecision of our data, it is impossible to know with certainty whether different groups occupied them at the same time. Most habitual structures found in them are hearths, usually circled (or even paved) with local cobbles or slabs, but some space arrangements (rudimentary walls, postholes…) have been occasionally documented.

El Cierro Cave (Ribadesella, Asturias, Spain), located near the mouth of the River Sella ,has yielded one of the most important Upper Palaeolithic sequences in northern Spain.Todate, three major occupation periods at the cave have been identified anddated.The first was at the beginning of the Holocene (ca.8500BP;ca.9000calBP); the second at the end of the Upper Palaeolithic, in the Younger Dryas (YD) or Greenland Stadial 1(GS1)(ca.11.200BP;12.700calBP) and the third during Greenland Stadial 2 (GS2) (ca.16.300–15.500 BP;ca.19.200–18.700 calBP). This paper describes the stratigraphy documented in the excavations performed by F. Jordá Cerdá and A. Gómez-Fuentes between 1977 and 1979 and presents the first radiocarbon determinations for the first two occupation periods, together with the study of the archaeological materials found in Level F. This level, dated to 15.500 BP (ca.18.700calBP) is characterised by specialised red deer hunting and the gathering of marine resources (winkles). Various artefacts made from animal raw materials have been documented; both finished products and items in the process of being manufactured, as well as portable art objects. The lithic assemblage, consisting mainly of local raw materials with a small proportion of allochthonous flint, is characterised by an abundance of small bladelet cores and backedbladelets.These archaeological remains and the radiocarbon date mean Level F can be attributed to the so-called ‘Cantabrian Lower Magdalenian’’. This period has been documented archaeologically and dated to a similar time at othe rsites in the River Sella valley and in the rest of northern Spain.

Se revisan los trabajos arqueológicos realizados en la cueva de la Fuente del Trucho entre 2005 y 2015. Éstos afectan por un lado a la excavación de los niveles arqueológicos al pie de los grabados y las pinturas, con materiales líticos y dataciones que permiten comprobar una presencia cierta de gentes del Gravetiense y del Solutrense y, muy probable, también del Auriñaciense y del Magdaleniense, además de los conocidos niveles musterienses excavados por A. Mir en los años ochenta. Por otra parte, las actuaciones han afectado también al estudio de las pinturas parietales, publicándose en colaboración con V. Baldellou algunos paneles principales: el friso y su continuación (paneles VI, VII y VIII) y la parte central del techo (panel XV). Además, se han tomado muestras de las costras calcáreas que recubren parcialmente algunas pinturas, lo que ha permitido obtener dataciones de U/Th muy antiguas (al menos gravetienses) para las manos, puntuaciones, trilobulados y uno de los caballos. Por último se ha escaneado en 3D toda la superficie decorada de la cueva.

The upper Arba de Biel Basin hosts an interesting archaeological ensemble composed by five sites that were repeatedly occupied by human groups from the Upper Magdalenian until the Chalcolithic (between ca. 15,000 and 4,500 years calBP). Our research group has worked at the area since 1999, revealing one of the most coherent prehistoric ensembles of the Ebro Basin. Accurately framed thanks to thirty-five radiocarbon dates, it offers great study possibilities that are the basis for several PhDs: anthracology, faunal remains or lithic raw materials are already offering copious data that help to reconstruct the prehistoric life in that secluded area. This work presents the first results of the petrographic study of the local chert (Las Lezas), which was the main lithic raw material exploited by the human groups that frequented the area. This paper is also the first one that characterizes in petrological terms this chert outcrop. The different contribution along time of this local variety and other exogenous cherts like Monegros and Evaporitic of Ebro to the lithic assemblages from the five analysed sites are exposed in the final section of our work. There is a notable shift in lithic raw materials management from Magdalenian to Neolithic times: at first, local chert is predominant, with special tools knapped in good-quality Monegros chert. In Neolithic times, Las Lezas chert is barely employed and exogenous Evaporitic white chert is especially chosen to knap blades that eventually are used to obtain double-bevel retouched geometric microliths.

In recent years, allusions to exploitation of a so-called " Monegros-type " chert have been a commonplace in archaeological literature, mostly in Iberia but also in southern France. It has been also a routine that these references did not include a true petrographic characterization, being mere de visu descriptions of those products. This work presents, for the first time, macro and microscopic characterizations of some of the most outstanding chert outcrops located in the Middle Ebro Basin. There, tertiary limestone sediments that form the top part of the flat plateau reliefs hold great quantities of chert nodules. The noteworthy erosive processes that have affected this area have facilitated the gathering of those cherts: they are easy to find either in their original location, still embedded in the limestone layers, or in secondary position along the enormous glacis that connect those flat reliefs to the river terraces. Two main flint varieties have been defined: Monegros and Evaporitic of Ebro. Both were originated in continental lacustrine environments. They are fine-grained and offer excellent knapping possibilities; hence its common use since prehistoric times to recent semi-industrial exploitations related to 18 th century gunflint productions. This paper offers a preliminary study that will be developed in a forthcoming PhD dissertation, but we also include examples of its prehistoric exploitation in the Ebro Basin and abroad.

e presenta un nuevo yacimiento mesolítico, Espantalobos, en una zona llana lejos de los entornos habituales de localización de estos sitios en la Cuenca del Ebro, áreas de media montaña con roquedos de caliza o arenisca. Localizado en las proximidades de la ciudad de Huesca, se trata de un abrigo de arenisca que conserva restos de dos ocupaciones humanas de las que la más reciente se relaciona claramente con el Mesolítico Geométrico. Los escasos materiales del nivel más antiguo, sin embargo, no permiten de momento decidir su adscripción a esta fase o a su predecesora de Muescas y Denticulados, y tampoco su datación, bisagra entre ambas etapas. Pese al pobre estado de conservación del sitio, fuertemente afectado por tareas de cantería y por la erosión, se han recuperado, además de los habituales materiales líticos de base laminar, con frecuentes trapecios de retoque abrupto y microburiles, algunos restos de fauna y un interesante lote de carbones cuyo análisis antracológico permite paliar en parte la ausencia de datos de polen, que no se ha conservado.

El yacimiento al aire libre de Roca San Miguel se localiza en una ladera bien orientada que domina un estrechamiento del río Noguera Ribagorzana. La abundancia de materiales arqueológicos en super cie nos impulsó a realizar trabajos de campo sistemáticos en 2013 y 2014, que han dado a conocer un rico asentamiento musteriense, cuya cronología precisa aún no puede ser determinada a la espera de inminentes fechas OSL. La capa arqueológicamente fértil, de limos, aparece bajo los restos de un depósito de clastos, cuya formación dataría de un momento glacial, y localmente una costra calcárea casi desaparecida en el área del yacimiento. Hasta el momento se han abierto tres catas en distintos puntos de la ladera, para intentar averiguar el potencial y la distribución de los restos prehistóricos.
Los grupos musterienses que ocuparon el sitio aprovecharon un sílex de buena calidad que puede obtenerse a escasa distancia aguas arriba, así como rocas no silíceas procedentes tanto del cauce  uvial como de las terrazas antiguas que se sitúan al pie del yacimiento. Tallaron la habitual panoplia musteriense compuesta de denticulados, raederas y puntas, a partir de núcleos principalmente discoides. Consumieron grandes mamíferos como caballos y ciervos, cuyos huesos fueron además aprovechados como combustible.

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.

The geographical name of Monegros has traditionally been used to describe a high‐quality, dark‐coloured chert originating in a carbonate lacustrine environment, being one of the most important long‐distance tracers in south‐west Europe during prehistory. This chert type outcrops in the Monegros region, situated in the Ebro Basin (north‐eastern Iberia), but not only there, as cherts with the same descriptions are found in other regions, some far from the homonymous area. Nevertheless, prehistorians working on the characterization of lithic sources have frequently used the term ‘Monegros’ to define this chert, basing their attributions solely on macroscopic descriptions. These are not sufficient as they do not allow cherts from the Monegros region to be distinguished from cherts from other regions. In this study, the area where Monegros cherts outcrop was delimited and fieldwork was carried out to identify the origin of the geological formations and the preserved outcrops. The classic approach has proved to be insufficient for this purpose, so geochemical fingerprinting using energy‐dispersive X‐ray fluorescence (ED‐XRF) spectroscopy was performed. The results obtained after this first geochemical approach show that some differences can be found between the different formations in the Monegros region in terms of their major and minor components.

The Roca San Miguel (RSM) archaeological site was occupied during Mousterian times. Here we present a geoarchaeological and paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the site. Five stratigraphic units (A to E) formed by different archaeological levels are identified. Three optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) ages show that Unit A dates to between 169.6 ± 9.1 and 151.9 ± 11.1 ka, during the penultimate glacial period (PGP), and contains numerous signs of recurring hearths. Unit B is unexcavated. Unit C dates to between 118.9 ± 11.5 and 103.4 ± 6.9 ka (late Eemian-marine isotope stage (MIS) 5d) and shows an abundance of lithic remains as well as some faunal elements. Unit C is covered by Unit D, which incorporates materials moved downslope, and is dated at 81.2 ± 4.7 ka. These OSL ages concur with U/Th ages (129.3 ± 1.5 and 123.6 ± 0.6 ka) derived from a flowstone covered by both-C and Dpost-flowstone units. Finally, Unit E covers the archaeological site, which was partially eroded during MIS2. The robust and well-constrained chronology of the RSM site and surroundings enables the establishment of its evolutionary model from the PGP to the last glacial cycle. The RSM site is the oldest Neanderthal occupation accurately dated in the Pre-Pyrenean region.