First Case of Aurignacian in Central Iberia: The Assemblage of La Malia LU-V (Spain)

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Variability within the Aurignacian: New Research Outlooks" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Aurignacian shows an uneven distribution in the Iberian Peninsula. Protoaurignacian and Early Aurignacian industries are only clearly recorded in the northern regions, while south of the Ebro basin only late Aurignacian sites have been unquestionably documented, besides controversial cases. Yet, all these sites are located close to the coasts, while the large Iberian hinterland in the center of the peninsula has traditionally shown a remarkable gap of Aurignacian occupations. La Malia is a rock shelter located at 1100 m.a.s.l. in Central Iberia and it shows the first-ever published Aurignacian level (LU-V) in this region. Although the assemblage is still scarce, its stratigraphic position and chronometric dating (36.2-31.8 ka cal BP), together with its technological features, support an Evolved Aurignacian attribution. As no clear index fossils of such technocomplex have been recorded yet, La Malia LU-V opens new questions concerning the internal variability of the Aurignacian in Southwest Europe. Furthermore, it paves the way for a new picture on the population dynamics of the first modern humans entering Iberia, as it falsifies the traditional hypothesis that the Iberian interior was avoided by these populations. Ongoing research suggests that La Malia was not an isolated Aurignacian spot in Central Iberia.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Variability within the Aurignacian: New Research Outlooks

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 51069