The Elusive Vasco-Cantabrian Middle Magdalenian: Reflections from Urtiaga Cave, Guipúzcoa, Spain

Summary

The Vasco-Cantabrian Middle Magdalenian (14.3-13.2 ka uncal. BP) remains intangible—known in the region from relatively few archaeological sites and principally defined on the basis of portable art items with Pyrenean origin. Recent research undertaken with collections from Urtiaga cave (Guipúzcoa, Spain) has included two radiocarbon assays of Level E that date to the Middle Magdalenian interval. This level lacks diagnostic portable art items, however, lithic and faunal analyses (conducted by Altuna 1972) have been made, which permit analyses of Middle Magdalenian economic behaviors. This paper will convey how human behaviors shifted between the well-defined Lower and Upper Magdalenian periods in the Vasco-Cantabrian region, and identify economic patterns that archaeologists can use to explore and compare Magdalenian groups’ adaptations at sites with and without temporally diagnostic artifacts.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Upper Paleolithic Transitional "Moments" on the Iberian Peninsula

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 14385