Passage through a Palimpsest: Lower Magdalenian Lithic Manufacture and Maintenance Patterns in El Mirón Cave, Cantabria, Spain

Summary

El Mirón cave, a major Upper Paleolithic residential site in Cantabria, Spain, has been the subject of long-term excavations led in part by Lawrence Straus. This presentation focuses on Level 17, a significant Lower Magdalenian deposit excavated in the cave’s outer vestibule. Level 17, which is a total of 33cm thick, was divided into 13 sublevels that were created using correlations made between depth measurements taken during the excavation in each square meter of the 9.5 square meter area. Each sublevel is ~3cm thick, and allows for heuristic comparisons of spatial changes in activities in the cave. This presentation uses lithic microdebitage to evaluate temporal shifts in Lower Magdalenian lithic manufacture and maintenance areas. These microdebitage, all <1cm trimming flakes and shatter, were likely compressed in situ during occupations, signaling areas where flintknappers maintained and manufactured lithic artifacts, respectively. Results indicate that during some occupations, manufacture and maintenance were tightly clustered within a single area in the outer vestibule, while during others they were located in distinct zones. These trends may relate to the site being abandoned, reused, and modified as new hunter-gatherer groups entered the site and adjusted its features over the c. 2000 year Lower Magdalenian period.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Papers in Honor of Lawrence Guy Straus

Keywords

Spatial Coverage