Quaternary International 242 (2011) 328e335

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Quaternary International
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quaint

Were there human responses to Younger Dryas in Cantabrian Spain?

Lawrence Guy Straus*
Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, MSC01 1040, Albuquerque, NM 87131-001, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history: Available online 21 March 2011

a b s t r a c t
A review of the record of Azilian sites or occupation layers dated to the time of Younger Dryas in Cantabrian Spain is presented. In this North Atlantic coastal region at 43 N, one would expect signicant consequences for human populations during the YD cold episode. However it is very difcult to actually detect any changes in site distributions, technologies or subsistence strategies that would correlate with YD. This is a somewhat unexpected, albeit preliminary conclusion in need of further testing with more and better dated sites and more rened analyses of depositional contexts and subsistence evidence, for example. Nonetheless, the overall impression is one of great cultural continuity from the terminal Magdalenian to the early and then late Azilian, with a somewhat sharper series of breaks occurring in some domains (notably settlement and technology) at the transition to the regional Mesolithic cultures some 10,000 calendar years ago. The role of Cantabrian Spain as a relatively stable and favorable region for continuous human habitation throughout the course of the Upper Pleistocene is once again emphasized. 2011 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.

1. Environmental, chronological and cultural frameworks The Younger Dryas Event (Greenland Stadial 1) is now known to date between about 12,650 and 11,500 calibrated years before present (Walker et al., 1999). Thus it lasted nearly one calendar millennium, although there is a radiocarbon plateau with nearconstant ages around the beginning of YD that complicates such estimation. YD onset was relatively rapid and put a temporary end to the marked (albeit uneven) climatic amelioration of Greenland (or Late Glacial) Interstadial 1 (i.e., the combination of the Meiendorf, Blling, Allerd warm phases and the intervening cooling episodes, including the so-called Older Dryas). Younger Dryas came to a sudden end, an event which is conventionally taken to be the upper limit of the Last Glacial (Marine Isotope Stage 2) and indeed of the Pleistocene itself. Despite the reoccurrence of cooling phases during the Holocene (i.e., the 8.2 ka event and the Little Ice Age), these were relatively minor in magnitude compared with Younger Dryas. In terms of at least its proximate cause, today YD is generally understood as the consequence of a massive inux of Canadian glacial meltwater into the Arctic and/or North Atlantic Ocean that disrupted both oceanic and atmospheric circulation of interglacial character that had been becoming reestablished during the Late Glacial Interstadial (Broecker, 2006; Murton et al., 2010; but see

* Fax: 1 505 277 0874. E-mail address: lstraus@unm.edu. 1040-6182/$ e see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2011.02.041

Broecker et al., 2010). Thus one would naturally assume a rapid, direct and signicant impact on the environment of northern Atlantic Spain, situated as it is along the southern margin of the Bay of Biscay or Cantabrian Sea, at 43 10e300 N. The purpose of this paper is to succinctly review the evidence for Younger Dryas environmental change and human response in one of the most classic regions of the European Upper Paleolithic, Cantabrian Spain. In particular, the paper focuses on the Azilian, an Epi-Magdalenian cultural phenomenon, rst dened at le Mas dAzil Cave in the French Pyrenees and later in Cantabria at El Valle Cave, that straddles the PleistoceneeHolocene boundary. Recent research has shown that the changes (i.e., simplication) in lithic and osseous artifacts and in artistic manifestations that dene the transition from the classic Upper Magdalenian to the Azilian took place toward the end of the Last Glacial Interstadial (a.k.a. Allerd pollen zone) and were variable from site to site and region to region in character and timing. Furthermore, it is now apparent that the Azilian can be subdivided into 2e3 phases in the Cantabrian region, with the middle part of its chronological span corresponding to Younger Dryas and its last manifestations surviving throughout Preboreal, after which its technologies and settlement pattern were replaced by diverse Mesolithic cultural manifestations. Overall, the Azilian in north Atlantic Spain spanned the period between about 11.5 and 9 ka (uncal; ca. 13.6e9.8 cal ka). For the whole region (including areas of the Basque and Navarra autonomous regions just south of the Cantabrian Cordillera and hence technically in the Mediterranean drainage of the Ebro River basin) there are no more

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than about 17 Middle Azilian sites that can be more or less reliably dated to YD. Among the undated Azilan sites or levels, however, there may be more. It is noteworthy that the MagdalenianeAzilian transition took place under temperate conditions and the Azilian culture spanned both temperate and cold phases. The Cantabrian region (sensu lato), administratively divided from east to west among the provinces of Guipzcoa, Vizcaya (which, together with the inland province of Alava, make up the Basque Autonomous Region), Cantabria and Asturias, is a distinctive, physically delimited geographical entity, bounded to the north by the Atlantic, to the east by the end of the French Pyrenees, to the south by the Cantabrian Cordillera (with maximum range elevations mainly between ca. 1500 and 2000 m above present sea level) and Picos de Europe (maximum elevation ca. 2700 m) (Straus, 1992). About 350 km long from the French border at the Ro Bidasoa to the Ro Naln in central Asturias and only about 25e50 km wide between the Holocene shore and the Cordilleran crestline (add ca. 2e7 km for the distance to the YD coastline at ca. 65 m below present sea level [Gutierrez Zugasti, 2008]), it is a region of very high-relief, with short, deep river valleys that mostly run south to north, steep montane slopes, a narrow (and in some sectors, nonexistent), rolling coastal plain, and bedrock mainly consisting of karstic limestone. To the south of the mountain chains lies the broad Ebro Valley in the eastern (Basque) sector and the ca. 1000 m-high Northern Meseta of Old Castile and Len in the western (Cantabro-Asturian) sector. Beyond the Ro Naln is the shield-rock region of western Asturias and Galicia, where there are very few caves and (so far) only slight hints of Upper Paleolithic human occupation. The region today enjoys a relatively equable, temperate and extremely humid Atlantic climate, with major differences between the mild coastal plain and the upper elevations where there can be signicant winter snowfall. The natural late Holocene vegetation would be dense, mixed deciduous forest dominated by various oak species, hazels, chestnuts, lindens and maples, with poplars and willows lining watercourses and beeches favoring higher altitudes, the most montane of which have alpine meadows. Heaths line the shore and marshes border the estuaries that, however, would not yet have developed signicantly during YD. The large bays or estuaries of Bermeo, Bilbao, Santoa, Santander, San Vicente and Villaviciosa did not form until the Holocene. Unlike the rest of Iberia, north Atlantic Spain is in the Eurosiberian biozone. The Cantabrian Magdalenian cultural complex is well-dated by radiocarbon between about 20,500 and 14,000 calendar years BP, although both its transitions from the Solutrean and into the Azilian are fuzzy. The latter transition is dealt with in this paper. The Magdalenian clearly constituted the adaptations of humans to the uctuating, but generally ameliorating conditions of the Late (i.e., post-LGM) Last Glacial, namely Oldest Dryas and the BllingeAllerd complex. These adaptations are characterized by northward recolonization (i.e., into Northern France, Western Switzerland, the Low Countries, England, Germany and even Poland and the Czech Republic) and, in the old southerly refugium areas (Southern France and Iberia), by increased subsistence intensication. This period represents the apogee in Western Europe of specialized Upper Paleolithic hunting of such herd ungulates as reindeer, horse, red deer, ibex and saiga antelope, rich lithic and osseous technologies made up of many specialized gadgets, portable (often representational) art, long-range social networks, and (mostly in the Franco-Cantabrian region) cave art, but with outliers as far north as Creswell Crags in England. It is important to note that Magdalenian-like artifact assemblages continued to develop after the marked end of Oldest Dryas conditions, through the warming phases of Blling and up to Allerd; in short, the Magdalenian pattern survived the end of

stadial environments in a kind of time-lag (the so-called Final Magdalenian) that lasted for about a millennium and a half. During the Allerd (GI 1c2e1a) temperate phase, a shift to simpler technologies, virtual disappearance of representational art on permanent media, and even further subsistence resource diversication occurred, culminating in the culture-historical unit known as the Azilian. Abundant radiocarbon dates for this cultural complex show it as having lasted between about 13,750 and 10,750 cal BP, spanning traditional Allerd (when Azilian assemblages at some sites seem to overlap with Final Magdalenianones at other sites e both in Cantabria and in SW France), all of Younger Dryas and Preboreal (Fernndez-Tresguerres, 2007; Gonzlez Sainz and Gonzlez Urquijo, 2007). In short, neither the Magdalenian nor the Azilian (as normatively dened by archeologists for more than a century) is correlated with only one kind of climatic regimen; both (even if one includes only the Upper/Final Magdalenian, as dened by the presence of true harpoons) occurred under both stadial and interstadial (or early interglacial) conditions. This fact obviates any simple, direct, immediate environmental determinism in trying to account for the cultural change involved in the MagdalenianeAzilian transition. 2. Younger Dryas in the Cantabrian region: environment and subsistence 2.1. Vegetation There are few pollen spectra and even fewer macrobotanical studies for YD deposits in Cantabrian Spain. The palynological analyses that have been published (summarized by Dupr, 1988; Iriarte, 2008) point to considerable reforestation during the Late Glacial Interstadial, with pines, but also junipers, rs, birches, oaks, hazels, alders, chestnuts, elms, willows, depending on the specic moment in time, elevation, soil, exposure and water availability. Temperate, humid conditions predominated, as also signaled by high counts of fern spores in some sites. Classic Allerd and Blling were at most only very subtly interrupted by hints (i.e., expansion of open vegetation) of cooling during Older Dryas in some areas of north Atlantic Spain. The YD witnessed sharp declines in the percentages of arboreal pollen (AP < 20% in both coastal and montane areas) and a return to more open prairies with shrubs, indicating colder climate. There was never any extensive Artemisia steppe biotope in this highly oceanic region and YD is not characterized by dry-indicative vegetation; Compositae (owers and shrubs) outnumbered Poaceae (grasses). As shown by the pollen sequence within the Azilian layer in Portugain Cave at 925 m above present sea level in the Sierra de Urbasa (NW Navarra), trees (pine, birch, juniper) did increase again at the end of YD and the area was always relatively humid, despite the (barely) trans-Cordilleran location (Iriarte, 2008). Archeological sites with pollen spectra radiocarbon-dated to YD or argued to pertain to YD on stratigraphic and (albeit somewhat circular) botanical bases include Ekain, Urtiaga, Arenaza, Santa Catalina, Berroberra (all in the Basque region), possibly Salitre (in Cantabria) and La Riera (in Asturias). There are virtually no non-archeological loci with YD pollen in the Vasco-Cantabrian region (except the Riofro bog high in the Picos de Europa in Cantabria, where, despite the presence of steppe plants, there were still pines and traces of mixed oak and birch stands). West of the region, in Galicia and northernmost Portugal (the NW corner of the Iberian Peninsula), a number of recently cored bog sites display great inter-locus variability in pollen spectra, dependent on elevation, exposure/solar orientation, bedrock and soils (Muoz et al., 2007). Like the Last Glacial Maxium and Oldest Dryas (but unlike Older Dryas), YD did represent a sharp climatic

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downturn in this highly oceanic region. Nonetheless, because of the extremely complex orography, there were local montane refugia for numerous temperate taxa. Nonetheless, while the Last Glacial Interstadial has witnessed notable expansions of Quercus, Betula and Pinus, depending on the sampled loci, YD-dated deposits saw increases in open vegetation (Gramineae in some coastal areas, Artemisia in some localized montane ones), with a notable lowering of the tree line and spread of pines and birch at the expense of oaks. Woodlands (notably oaks) recovered rapidly (from their refugia in favored microhabitats of interior valleys) at the close of YD. There are no archeological sites with pollen in this region and only the beginnings of hints of Azilian-age human occupation in the coastal zone. Wood charcoal analyses by P. Uzquiano (cited in GonzlezSampriz et al., 2010: 444) conrm major expansion of open vegetation and reduction of trees during YD throughout the region, but with the interior montane valleys continuing to serve as arboreal refugia. Steppe vegetation seems to have been more prominent in the west (Galicia, northern Portugal) than in VascoCantabria. The extent of reforestation that had occurred during the Late Glacial Interstadial (and that was momentarily interrupted by YD) on and near the Cantabrian coast is attested by wood charcoal analyses from Azilian deposits in the caves of La Pila (Cantabria) and Los Azules (Asturias), with diverse deciduous tree taxa (even including Castanea [chestnut] at the former site) (Uzquiano, 1992). To the northeast of the Spanish Basque Country and on the northern edge of the French Basque region, there are possible hints of the YD cold snap in the pollen record of Dufaure Rockshelter at the southern edge of the broad valley of the Gaves Runis, between the hills of Chalosse (southern Les Landes) and the Pyrenean foothills of Basse-Navarre (Marguerie and Paquereau, 1995). After a marked increase in arboreal pollen reecting the development of light forest (parkland) of mixed oaks, with alder, willow, walnut, and ash corresponding to Allerd (culturally corresponding to the nal Magdalenian), there is a sharp, brief decline in all arboreal taxa (except maritime pine) and a spike in Gramineae and Compositae. This episode of re-expansion of open grasslands (heliophile plants), which occurs at the base of the Azilian layer, could correspond to YD, as suggested by a date of 10,310 270 BP (uncal.). Similarly, in the adjacent site of Duruthy, after a very wooded (AP up to 52%) Allerd phase with taxa indicative of temperate, humid conditions coinciding with the nal Magdalenian occupations, there was a brief, but marked episode of overall arboreal decline (AP ca. 25%) and increase in grasses and composites (Paquereau, 1978). Specically, while pine and birch momentarily increased, the deciduous trees (hazel, alder, willow, oak, elm) crashed, only to rise again rapidly in Preboreal. This region at the southern edge of the vast plain of Les Landes in extreme SW France and north of the Basque Pyrenees is, of course, a very different landscape from the narrow, high-relief, north Atlantic coast of Spain, even though the two regions are contiguous. 2.2. Microfauna There is a hint of drier conditions (relative to the Late Glacial Interstadial) in the YD-age levels at El Mirn Cave (montane interior eastern Cantabria) in the microfaunal record (Cuenca-Bescs et al., 2008). The Nordic vole (Microtus oeconomus), which prefers wet and cold habitats, disappears during the Final Magdalenian and Azilian levels, though it reappears in several post-Paleolithic ones. This seems counter-intuitive, as M. oeconomus is generally seen as a cold indicator in this region (see Altuna, 1996) and indeed is found in trace quantity in Level 27 of the coastal zone site of La Riera in Asturias, for which there is sedimentological evidence of cold, but humid conditions dated to YD times (Altuna, 1986; Laville, 1986). However, during YD there were a variety of other open-vegetation

rodents, somewhat fewer than in the Upper Magdalenian levels, but the variations vis vis the Magdalenian assemblages are subtle. Other Azilian deposits in the region have yielded few analyzed microfaunal assemblages and these seem to pertain to more temperate (presumably initial Holocene) times in the later phase of this cultural complex (Pokines, 1998). 2.3. Ungulates-plus Leporids, Molluscs and Fish Lacking purely non-anthropic paleontological sites, the macrofaunal assemblages from Vasco-Cantabrian Azilian archeological sites have to provide information on both the environment and hunting activities, with the inevitable biases in terms of game species relative frequencies as being determined by human choices. The regions Azilian ungulate macrofaunal assemblages have been studied and synthesized mostly by J. Altuna with K. Mariezkurrena (e.g., Altuna and Mariezkurrena, 1996). Altuna (most recently 1996) has also summarized the evidence for coldclimate fauna in Cantabrian Spain. The differences in fauna during the Last Glacial between Cantabrian Spain and adjacent SW France (and even between the Spanish and French Basque provinces, separated only by the relatively low mountains of the westernmost Pyrenees) are dramatic: Magdalenian sites in Aquitaine (and elsewhere) are usually overwhelmingly dominated by reindeer, while those of Vasco-Cantabria are often heavily dominated by red deer. The only signicant commonality is that both regions also have montane sites whose faunal assemblages are almost entirely composed of ibex (and/or sometimes chamois) remains (see Straus, 1987). Red deer is the dominant game species throughout the entire Upper Paleolithic of Vasco-Cantabria e except in specialized cliff-side sites where caprines were repeatedly hunted, especially from Solutrean times, throughout the Magdalenian and in the Azilian, under a variety of climatic regimens. Long misrepresented as a strictly woodland creature indicative of temperate conditions, red deer is now understood as being extremely versatile and exible in its habitats, diets and movements, living (and grazing) as it does in open heaths and grasslands, as well as in parklands and forests where it browses. Its latitudinal range in the modern world (like that of its North American conspecic, the elk or wapiti) is enormous (see Straus, 1981; see Drucker et al., 2009 for isotopic conrmation of red deer dietary versatility). Reindeer (in contrast to its overwhelming domination of Late Magdalenian assemblages in Aquitaine e as close to the Spanish border as Duruthy and Dufaure on the edge of the French Basque Country [70e60% of the ungulate remains]) was never signicant as game in Cantabrian Spain. Most of its nds are in Magdalenian levels (especially in Upper/Final ones and especially in the Basque Provinces closest to France), but no assemblage except one (Urtiaga Level D) has more than a dozen remains of Rangifer tarandus; most assemblages have 1e7 remains (Altuna, 1996). In the Azilian of Vasco-Cantabria, there are no reindeer remains in any site, though this species did persist at nearby Duruthy and Dufaure in this period (Altuna and Mariezkurrena, 1995; but see Costamagno et al., 2009 for a direct dating of a reindeer bone from Dufaure Level 3 e Azilian e to 12,260 BP [14,100 cal BP], which if conrmed would suggest some mixture with the underlying Upper Magdalenian level and possibly cast doubt on the late reindeer survival hypothesis for the northern Pyrenees) . There is no YD cold-climate ungulate signal in northern Spain. Virtually no difference exists between Late Magdalenian and Azilian faunal assemblages in Vasco-Cantabria: many dominated by red deer and others by ibex, with very small percentages of horse, bovines and chamois found in some, but not all assemblages in both periods (Altuna, 1999). While boar and roe deer (both genuine woodland species) are occasionally present in small numbers in Late

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Magdalenian levels, they occur more frequently and in higher percentages in Azilian ones, though it cannot always be specied as to whether these levels correspond to Allerd, YD or Preboreal due to the scarcity of associated radiocarbon dates (especially high-precision AMS ones). Setting aside the question of a possible small, relict reindeer population in the northern Basque Pyrenees, the ungulate faunas from Duruthy and Dufaure in southern Les Landes display a major switch from reindeer dominance in the Upper Magdalenian to red deer dominance in the Azilian (Delpech, 1978; Altuna and Mariezkurrena, 1995). Bovines and horse virtually disappear in the latter period. Unfortunately there is no break-down of faunal counts that could isolate the spectra possibly attributable to YD within the thin, nearly surcial Azilian deposit (Level 2) at Duruthy, although the lower part of Azilian Level 3 at Dufaure, which might pertain to YD (with a radiocarbon date of 10,310 270 BP), displays no real differences vis vis the upper (Preboreal) part (except for having more reindeer remains [n 15 versus 9 for the upper part]); both lower and upper parts of Level 3 are overwhelmingly dominated by red deer and have small numbers of roe deer and traces of boar, both woodland species. No other excavated and analyzed sites in the western French Basque Pyrenees adjacent to Vasco-Cantabria cover the Allerd-YDePreboreal transitions, although the Upper Magdalenian Level B2 of Arancou in the French Basque Country displays absolute red deer dominance in Blling, albeit with traces of reindeer (Fosse, 2000). The undated overlying Level B1, also attributed to the Upper Magdalenian, continues to have traces of reindeer, but is also dominated by red deer. The overall impression, thus, is that there was probably no signicant return to Ice Age faunas (which in mid-Magdalenian times in SW France had even included saiga antelope) along the northern ank of the western Pyrenees. The only sites with both studied faunal assemblages AND associated radiocarbon determinations of YD age in Vasco-Cantabria are La Riera (Level 27 upper), Rascao (Levels 1.2e1.3), Pilago (Levels 1 and 4), El Mirn (Level 305), and Arenaza (Level III). The La Riera assemblage is dominated by red deer, followed by ibex, and traces of horse, bovines, chamois, and even roe deer and boar (Altuna, 1986). The faunas from Rascao and Pilago, nearby cliff-side sites on the edge of the Cordillera in Cantabria, are overwhelmingly dominated by ibex (as is true of all the Rascao Magdalenian levels), though the latter site (at a lower elevation) also has many chamois and the former has a trace quantity of boar (Altuna, 1981; Lpez-Berges and Valle, 1985). The small Mirn 305 assemblage is almost completely composed of red deer (Marn, 2007). Arenaza, in western Vizcaya, has very large quantities of red deer, followed rather closely by ibex, but also signicant amounts of roe deer and small quantities of boar and chamois (Altuna, 1999). Juvenile animals (especially red deer, but all the other main game as well) are very well represented (up to about 50%) in the La Riera Level 27 Azilian assemblage, but this is also true of late Magdalenian assemblages formed under interstadial conditions at this and other sites, clearly suggesting that the slaughter of young, low-yield ungulates was caused by food stress related to regional human population pressure (Altuna, 1986; Straus and Clark, 1986; Gonzlez Sainz and Gonzlez Urquijo, 2007). Thus YD left no obvious mark in the faunas or hunting patterns of the Cantabrian region. Rabbits and hares were never signicant in the diet of Cantabrian foragers, in sharp contrast to Mediterranean Spain and Portugal. Traces of arctic hare are present in the Late Magdalenian, but not in the Azilian. Marine mollusc collection and shing (especially of anadromous salmon and trout, as well as coastal and estuarine sh) continued to grow in importance throughout the Azilian, continuing a trend that had started in the Solutrean and Magdalenian under both stadial and interstadial conditions (Straus and Clark, 1986; Straus, 1992; Gutierrez Zugasti, 2008).

3. Azilian site distribution Again, the scarcity of dated Azilian sites specically attributable by C14 to YD (n 15, Table 1) makes it rather difcult to generalize about site numbers and geographic distribution. It is clear that human settlement had been expanding upward into the mountains and even onto the Meseta of Old Castile during late Magdalenian times, no doubt in response to ameliorating climatic conditions and population pressure (Straus et al., 2000a,b). Was this trend arrested by YD? There are montane Azilian sites, some at quite high elevations, and these include a few with dates corresponding to YD: Portugain in the Urbasa Massif of Navarra near the border with Guipzcoa (930 m.a.s.l.), Urratxa in the Gorbea Massif of Vizcaya (1015 m.a.s.l.), and possibly the open-air site of Berniollo in Alava (550 m.a.s.l.) (Barandiarn et al., 2006) (Fig. 1). Other YD-dated Azilian cave sites in mountainsides, but not very high in absolute terms, include Rascao and El Mirn, both in Cantabria (275 and 260 m.a.s.l. respectively). Both these sites have long, and far-richer Magdalenian sequences. Perhaps anecdotally, in the case of the Upper Ro Asn Valley of eastern Cantabria, the Late Magdalenian and Azilian levels in El Mirn Cave, located high on a cliff, are far poorer in terms of all cultural evidence (in sharp contrast to the Early Magdalenian ones) than are the contemporaneous ones in nearby El Horno and El Valle caves, which are located on the valley oor. However, this local phenomenon of decreased mountainside human occupation apparently took place during both interstadial and stadial times (Straus et al., 2002). In any event, there are several Azilian and terminal Magdalenian sites on steep mountain slopes (e.g., Bolinkoba, Silibranka); the lack of dates for most of them prevents saying whether any such places were specically occupied during YD, although it seems likely. Some (e.g., Antn Koba in Guipzcoa) had Allerd occupations (Barandiarn et al., 2006). Other undated Azilian sites (Abrigo de la Mina and La Calavera situated at 1000 and 1180 m.a.s.l. respectively) on the edge of the

Table 1 Azilian occupations radiocarbon-dated to Younger Dryas in Vasco-Cantabria, Navarra & Alava (compiled by Fernndez-Tresguerres, 2007, supplemented by Mariezkurrena, 1990). Site Berniollo Aizkoltxo Valle Perro Arenaza Berroberria Mirn Urratxa Lluera Pilago Dufaureb Portugain Arenaza Laminak Azules Azules Rascao Rascao Riera Pilago Azules Azules Valle Valle Valle
a b

Level II 15 G1, surface 2a/b D D upper 305 III II I 3 lower mid 1 III I2-3 3d base 3e 1 1.2 1.3 27 upper 4 3e 2 3f GDSS I GDSS I G1C2 II.2

Date (uncal BP) 9940 9980 10,120 10,160 10,160 10,160 10,270 10,240 10,280 10,280 10,310 10,370 10,300 10,380 10,400 10,480 10,490 10,560 10,630 10,710 10,880 10,910 11,040 11,050 11,130

1d 490 65 280 110 400 410 50 100 230 120 270 90 180 140 90 210 90 240 120 100 210 290 150 150 170

Cal.BP @ 2d (CALIB 5.0.1)a 12,890e10,150 11,610e11,350 12,760e11,070 12,180e11,310 12,460e10,660 12,870e10,670 12,100e11,710 12,390e11,600 12,720e11,280 12,420e11,600 12,630e11,650 12,600e11,900 12,700e11,390 12,770e11,750 12,660e11,990 12,870e11,690 12,750e12,110 12,960e12,340 12,860e12,340 12,890e12,560 13,250e12,350 13,390e12,050 13,230e12,810 13,230e12,820 13,310e12,830

Values rounded. Southern Landes (edge of Basse-Navarre, France).

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Fig. 1. Distribution of Azilian sites radiocarbon or palynologically (p) dated to Younger Dryas in Vasco-Cantabria and adjacent regions: 1. Los Azules; 2. La Riera; 3. La Lluera; 4. El Valle; 5. El Mirn; 6. El Pilago, El Rascao, El Salitre(p); 7. El Perro; 8. Arenaza; 9. Laminak, Aizkoltxo; 10. Urratxa; 11. Portugain (Navarra); 12. Berniollo (Alava); 13. Berroberria (Navarra); 14. Santa Catalina (p). Other sites (Azilian, unless otherwise noted) mentioned in the text: A. Monte Jaizkibel J3 (Mesolithic burial, 8 ka uncal); B. Ekain; C. Antn Koba; D. Bolinkoba; E. El Horno, Cullalvera (cave art); F. Abrigo de la Mina, La Calavera; G. El Pendo; H. La Ua; I. Los Canes (Mesolithic burials, 6.2e6.9 ka); J. Llonn (cave art); K. Cueva Oscura de Ania; L. La Pila; M. Duruthy, Dufaure (with YD radiocarbon dates and/or pollen); N. Arancou. Drafted by R.Stauber.

Picos de Europa above Libana Valley in western Cantabria (Dez, 1996) and sites in Len (notably La Ua, at over 1200 m) and Burgos attest to human settlement of the mountains and meseta, but, as noted above, this already had been going on in the Late Magdalenian (Corchn, 1989; Neira and Mallo, 1990; Cacho and Prez, 1997; Cacho et al., 2006; Neira et al., 2006). Because there are multiple Azilian levels in La Ua, the uppermost of which is thought to date to the Holocene due to the presence of woodlanddwelling roe deer (Neira et al., 2006), it is possible that the early Azilian at this very high site on the southern edge of the Cordillera may have pertained to YD, despite the lack (at present) of radiocarbon dates. On the other hand, a somewhat similar argument (long sequence of Azilian levels, the oldest of which is dated to Allerd times and the youngest of which may be dated to Preboreal [Adn et al., 2005]) could be made for YD human presence in Cueva Oscura de Ania on the relatively broad, rolling coastal plain of central Asturias. In any event, the numbers of Late (Upper Final) Magdalenian and Azilian sites in Vasco-Cantabria (plus Navarra) are identical (50 each), suggestive of more or less stable human populations during the PleistoceneeHolocene transition, particularly since the two periods are of almost the same duration (ca. 2800 vs. ca. 3200 calendar years [Gonzlez Sainz and Gonzlez Urquijo, 2007: 280). Half (26) the sites that have Late Magdalenian levels also have Azilian ones, but 24 Late Magdalenian sites have no Azilian and 24 Azilian ones have no Late Magdalenian. (By way of comparison, of the 58 known Solutrean sites in Vasco-Cantabria, 29 ehalf e have overlying early(i.e., pre-harpoon) Magdalenian materials (total n 57), but in many cases there are occupational hiati, with no true Initial or even Lower Magdalenian levels e only Middle Magdalenian ones.) The YD episode does not seem to have had a signicant impact on human settlement or (presumably) density in the Vasco-Cantabrian region e unlike the LGM which witnessed a tremendous boom in Solutrean sites relative to the earlier Gravettian (with only about 20 sites) (Straus et al., 2000a,b; Rasilla and Straus, 2007). A combination of radiocarbon-dated sites and those for which reasonable palynological arguments for YD human presence can be made, yields at least 17 locations in coastal lowlands, inner valleys, and uplands (Table 1). There are 9 sites with Azilian levels radiocarbon-dated to Allerd and 6 dated to Preboreal. However some sites (e.g., Los Azules, El Mirn, El Valle) have Azilian levels that correspond to two or even three of these pollen zones straddling the PleistoceneeHolocene transition (FernndezTresguerres, 2007). At rst glance, however, Late Azilian sites do seem to be the least numerous, as if this cultural complex were waning under early Post-Glacial conditions. Indeed, a case has been made recently for a YD-caused hiatus in human occupation of the

Cantabrian region between 10.3 and 9.6 ka (uncal) based on a supposed gap in radiocarbon dates (Estvez, 2005: 261e278). This requires a good deal of special pleading, as the gap is not apparent, at least to me, and the argument fails to show why people who had survived the LGM in Vasco-Cantabria could not deal with the far milder and shorter climatic shock of YD. New discoveries such as that of Aizkoltzo Cave (at 10 ka uncal.) suggest that the supposed radiocarbon gap is simply an artifact of archeological sampling vagaries and dating (Castaos et al., 2009). The problem however is that there are still many undated Azilian sites, a problem that also plagues the Magdalenian record in this region, especially for sites lacking temporally diagnostic antler harpoons. 4. Azilian lithic and osseous technologies The uneven, mosaic transition from Magdalenian to Azilian technologies began well before YD, in the Allerd. During that time (roughly 13,550e12,750 cal BP) it is frankly impossible to determine whether individual assemblages are Final Magdalenian or Early Azilian unless diagnostic harpoons (circular or at section, respectively) are present (see Fernndez-Tresguerres, 2007: 312; pace Gonzlez Sainz and Gonzlez Urquijo, 2007: 280). This is the case in all the excavation areas of El Mirn Cave, where there are several dates in this time range, small lithic assemblages with backed bladelets and points, thumbnail endscrapers, but no harpoons. An interesting element of regionally in situ development between the two cultural complexes is the existence of geometrically decorated harpoons in early Azilian levels at Los Azules, La Lluera and Oscura de Ania caves in Asturias, as well as the presence of basal protuberances or circular holes in a few other harpoons from Los Azules and other sites in Asturias and Cantabria. Both the (rare) decorations and the above-described possible lanyard attachment features are characteristic of some Final Magdalenian harpoons in the region. They seem to disappear from Azilian harpoons by YD times. Antler points (sagaies) are rare in the Azilian, and, with very few exceptions, undecorated, in stark contrast to the Magdalenian, but this change apparently occurred before YD. The lithic transition (involving gradual increases in small endscrapers on akes and backed (Azilian)) micropoints and other backed bladelet types and decreases in burins and other specialized Magdalenian tool types is well documented at La Pila Cave in Cantabria, but the full-blown Azilian industry is already present by Allerd times (Level IIIeca. 13,450 cal BP), before YD (Lagera, 1991, cited in Fernndez-Tresguerres, 2007: 317). There are changes in lithic raw material procurement and exploitation across the Final MagdalenianeEarly AzilianeLate Azilian transition, but not all are temporally directional and they

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vary in nature from site to site and among lithological areas. In the case of Los Azules, with a long Final Magdalenian and Azilian sequence, it is with the Allerd Azilian that local quartzite becomes almost as important as good-quality non-local int, again before YD (Fernndez-Tresguerres, 2007). In general, local stones become increasingly important, but this was a long-term trend across the Final Magdalenian and Azilian (Gonzlez Sainz and Gonzlez Urquijo, 2007). 5. The end of cave art and Azilian portable art and ornamentation The last cave paintings in Cantabrian Spain for which there are credible AMS radiocarbon dates on charcoal come from Las Monedas in Monte Castillo (Cantabria): one on a horse image and two on a single ibex image, all centered on about 14,000 cal BP (Gonzlez Sainz, 2005), which corresponds to early traditional Blling. Thus these cave paintings were done during the Final Magdalenian and well before YD. There are indirect suggestions for paintings of (almost) such recent age in Pea de Candamo (Asturias). This of course does not exclude the possibility that there were later (but not dated or datable) rupestral paintings in Magdalenian style or any Azilian-age rock engravings (not datable by 14C), but there is currently no evidence thereof in the region except for charcoal black lines or dotted lines in Llonn (Asturias) and Cullalvera (Cantabria) that have dates in the 13,000e12,500 cal BP range (Gonzlez Sainz, 2007). Other more recent dates for representational images of animals are convincingly argued to be the result of contamination, with especially signicant (and unexplained) internal contradictions in the case of Ekain (Guipzcoa) (Gonzlez Sainz, 2007), where, nonetheless, the best case is for a Late Magdalenian age for the spectacular images, in line with the associated archeology (Older Dryas). Presumably this means that the ideological crisis of a worldview (which one can presume was expressed in the cave art) that revolved around large herd game hunted in open, glacial landscapes, occurred (albeit with perhaps a few centuries of time-lag) in the context of massive reforestation early in Greenland Interstadial 1, when that world was literally changing from generation to generation. Keep in mind that, absent any representational art of clearly Aurignacian age in this region, the development of cave art in Cantabrian Spain really came with the onset of the Last Glacial Maximum in the Gravettian and Solutrean, reaching its height of sophistication and quantitative prominence during the Magdalenian in Oldest Dryas. Although many of the same animals continued to be hunted in the period of Final MagdalenianeAzilian transition (Allerd) or during the Azilian (Allerd, YD and Preboreal), during much of this time, they were living (perhaps in some cases in smaller, less migratory groups) in woodlands where they would have to be hunted with different methods (e.g., stalking, solitary amubush vs. drive or surround in glacial times). Humans were not so heavily dependent upon them as before, since the availability of plant foods (notably a variety of nuts, especially in the temperate periods) would have now been far greater e and coastal resources would have begun to become more accessible (closer) with sea-level rise. Game animals no longer meant the absolute difference between a guaranteed, well-fed human survival and a serious threat of near-starvation as they had during LGM and Oldest Dryas times. There is no indication that the old beliefs (presumably expressed or reected in cave art) returned to favor during YD. Peoples perception of the nature of their interaction with the world had changed for good with the major environmental alteration of the Late Glacial Interstadial. Likewise, the wealth of engraved bones, antler and stones of the Upper Magdalenian (often with elaborate images of animals and

occasionally human gures, as on the fantastic albatross bone tube of probably Final Magdalenian age in Torre Cave, Guipzcoa [Barandiarn, 1971], similar to another engraved bird bone from El Valle [Obermaier, 1924: 158]) came to a rather abrupt end early in GI 1. Such extraordinary Final Magdalenian objects as the ornately decorated perforated antlers (btons de commandement) from El Pendo and El Valle (Cantabria), the engraved at bone plaque from La Riera (Asturias), or the engraved stone slabs from Urtiaga and Ekain (Guipzcoa)eall showing a variety of game animals in exquisite detailare the end of the line for representational portable art in Vasco-Cantabria (see Corchn,1986). Azilian portable art, from the very beginning, is quantitatively scarce and purely geometric in nature. In addition to the geometrically engraved at harpoon from three sites in Asturias mentioned earlier, the Azilian corpus mainly consists of a perforated bone spatula with lines of dots from Los Azules (Asturias), bone pendants with tick-marked lines from Pilago and Morn (almost identical to a perforated bone spatula from the Final Magdalenian of nearby Rascao, plus three fragments of such items from similarly dated La Chora)(all in Cantabria), and one other pendant with identical rows of ticked lines from San Juan Cave (Asturias) (Corchn,1986; Gonzlez Sainz,1988). There are several pebbles with painted dots from Los Azules and Urratxa (Vizcaya) and a few others from other sites (including an ochre-stained, phalliform cobble from the El Mirn Azilian) (Fernndez-Tresguerres, 2007). (In contrast to the abrupt and essentially total disappearance of representational art, the continuity between the Final Magdalenian and Azilian in terms of geometric motifs is also surprisingly manifested at long distances and cutting across the time of YD on very distinctive engraved oval cobbles from the Final Magdalenian site of Estebanvela on the Segovian Meseta of Old Castile [Ripoll, 2006], on the one hand, and from Azilian levels in Dufaure [Landes, SW France] [DErrico, 1995] and Rochedane [eastern France], on the other [Thvenin, 1983].) Azilian Level III in La Ua Cave (northern Len) has several bones with geometric engravings (Neira et al., 2006). Ironically, the Azilian and Epipaleolithic in Cantabrian Spain have several denite human burials (Los Azules, Los Canes, and various Asturian and Basque Mesolithic shell middens (Arias et al., 2009), including the recently dug Monte Jaizkibel J3 site near San Sebastian [Iriarte et al., 2010]), while the abundant Magdalenian of the region has only one (in El Mirn Cave). Even beads such as perforated animal teeth (notably red deer vestigial upper canines) and shells are scarce in Azilian contexts. It is as if this new world was not one in which post-Magdalenian people needed to dress up, whether in the woodlands of late Allerd or Preboreal or in the more open parklands of Younger Dryas. The nature of social relations or at least the means of or need for expressing individual and/or group identity must have changed profoundly with the end of the Magdalenian system. But that system did not return with the Younger Dryas cold snap. Whatever the Azilian material culture represented, it was a new means of life that, using most of the same resources as during the Magdalenian but in subtly different ways, was exible enough to continue little changed throughout the 40e50 generations of YD. 6. Conclusions Younger Dryas was manifested along the coast of north Atlantic Spain in terms of colder temperatures, but with continued high humidity in most areas, albeit with local development of steppetype plants especially in the interior of Galicia. The incipient mixed deciduous forests of the Late Glacial Interstadial were broken up and many temperate species once again survived only in small relict stands within the complex relief of the Cantabrian Cordillera. Open parkland with localized stands of pine, birch and juniper and

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L.G. Straus / Quaternary International 242 (2011) 328e335 Altuna, J., 1981. Restos seos del yacimiento prehistrico del Rascao. In: Gonzlez Echegaray, J., Barandiarn, I. (Eds.), El Paleoltico Superior de la Cueva del Rascao, Monografa, vol. 3. Centro de Investigacin y Museo de Altamira, Santander, pp. 221e269. Altuna, J., 1986. The mammalian faunas from the prehistoric site of La Riera. In: Straus, L.G., Clark, G.A. (Eds.), La Riera Cave, Anthropological Research Papers, vol. 36, pp. 237e274. 421e479, Tempe. Altuna, J., 1996. Faunas de clima frio en la Pennsula Ibrica durante el Pleistoceno superior. In: Ramil-Rego, P., Fernndez, C., Rodrguez, M. (Eds.), Biogeografa PleistocenaeHolocena de la Pennsula Ibrica. Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago, pp. 13e42. Altuna, J., 1999. Mammal changes between the Dryas and the Holocene in Northern Spain. In: Benecke, N. (Ed.), The Holocene History of the European Vertebrate Fauna: Modern Aspects of Research. Archaeologie in Eurasien, vol. 6. Deutsches Archologisches Intstitut, Berlin, pp. 1e8. Altuna, J., Mariezkurrena, K., 1995. Les restes osseux de macromammifres. In: Straus, L.G. (Ed.), Les Derniers Chasseurs de Rennes du Monde Pyrnen, LAbri Dufaure, Mmoire 22. Socit Prhistorique Franaise, Paris, pp. 181e211. Altuna, J., Mariezkurrena, K., 1996. Faunes de mammifres des gisements magdalniens du Pays Basque et zones limitrophes. In: Delporte, H., Clottes, J. (Eds.), Pyrnes Prhistoriques. Editions du CTHS, Paris, pp. 149e162. Arias, P., Fernndez, P., Marcos, C., Rodrguez, I., 2009. Burials in the cave: new evidence on mortuary practices during the Mesolithic of Cantabrian Spain. In: McCartan, S., Schulting, R., Warren, G., Woodman, P. (Eds.), Mesolithic Horizons, vol. 2. Oxbow Books, Oxford, pp. 650e656. Barandiarn, I., 1971. Hueso con grabados paleolticos en Torre. Munibe 23, 37e67. Barandiarn, I., Cava, A., Alday, A., 2006. Ocupaciones de altura e interior durante el Tardiglaciar: la Llanada alavesa y sus estribuciones montaosas. In: Maillo, J.M., Baquedano, E. (Eds.), Miscelnea en Homenaje a Victoria Cabrera, no. 7, Zona Arqueologica, Alcal de Henares, vol. 1, pp. 534e551. Broecker, W., 2006. Was the Younger Dryas triggered by a ood? Science 312, 1146e1148. Broecker, W., Denton, G., Edwards, L., Cheng, H., Alley, R., Putnam, A., 2010. Putting the Younger Dryas cold event into context. Quaternary Science Reviews 29, 1078e1081. Cacho, C., Prez, S., 1997. El Magdaleniense de la Meseta y sus relaciones con el Mediterrneo espaol: el Abrigo de Buenda. In: Fullola, J.M., Soler, N. (Eds.), El Mn Mediterrani desprs del Pleniglacial. Museu dArqueologia de Cataluyna, Girona, pp. 263e274. Cacho, C., Ripoll, S., Muoz, F., 2006. La Pea de Estebanvela, Arqueologa en Castilla y Len 17, Valladolid. Castaos, P., Hedeos, J.M., Mujika, J.A., Murelaga, X., 2009. Cueva Aizkoltxo. Arkeoikuska 2008, Vitoria/Gasteiz, pp. 399e402. Corchn, M.S., 1986. El Arte Mueble Paleoltico Cantbrico, Mongrafa 16. Centro de Investigacin y Museo de Altamira, Madrid. Corchn, M.S., 1989. Datos sobre el Epipaleoltico en la Meseta Norte: la Cueva de Nispero. Zephyrus 41e42, 83e100. Costamagno, S., Laroulandie, V., Langlais, M., Cochard, D., 2009. Exploitation du monde animal sur le versant nord des Pyrenees au Tardiglaciaire. In: Fullola, J.M., Valdeyron, N., Langlais, M. (Eds.), Les Pyrenees et leurs marges durant le Tardiglaciaire. Institut d'Estudis Ceretans, Puigcerda, pp. 185e209. Cuenca-Bescs, G., Straus, L.G., Gonzlez Morales, M., Garca, J., 2008. Paleoclima y paisaje del nal del Cuaternario en Cantabria: los pequeos mamferos de la Cueva del Mirn. Revista Espaola de Paleontologa 23, 91e126. Delpech, F., 1978. Les faunes magdalnienne et azilienne du gisement de Duruthy. In: Aramburou, R. (Ed.), Le Gisement Prhistorique de Duruthy Sorde lAbbaye. Mmoires de la Socit Prhistorique Franaise, vol. 13, pp. 110e116. DErrico, F., 1995. Lart grav trouv par la fouille Breuil-Dubalen. In: Straus, L.G. (Ed.), Les Derniers Chasseurs de Rennes du Monde Pyrnen. Mmoires de la Socit Prhistorique Franaise, vol. 22, pp. 253e260. Paris. Dez, A., 1996. Utilizacin de los Recursos en la Marina y Montaa Cantbricas: Una Prehistoria Ecolgica de los Valles del Deva y Nansa, vol. 3. Illunzar, Gernika. Drucker, D., Bridault, A., Iacumin, P., Bocherens, H., 2009. Bone stable isotopic signatures as tracers of temperature variation during the Late-Glacial and early Holocene: case study on red deer Cervus elaphus from Rochedane. Geological Journal 44, 593e604. Dupr, M., 1988. Palinologa y Paleoambiente: Nuevos Datos Espaoles. In: Trabajos Varios, vol. 84. Servicio de Investigacin Prehistrica, Valencia. Estvez, J., 2005. Catstrofes en la Prehistoria. Bellaterra Arqueologa, Barcelona. Fernndez-Tresguerres, J., 2007. El nal del Paleoltico en los espacios cantbricos: el Aziliense. In: Fano, M. (Ed.), Las Sociedades del Paleoltico en la Regin Cantbrica, vol. 8. Kobie Anejo, Bilbao, pp. 309e336. 2004. Fosse, P., 2000. La grande fauna mammalienne: remarques prliminaire. In: Chauchat, C. (Ed.), LHabitat Magdalnien de la Grotte du Bourrouilla Arancou (Pyrnes-Atlantiques). Gallia Prhistoire, vol. 4, pp. 98e113. Paris. Gonzlez Sainz, C., 1988. Le fait artistique la n du Palolithique: quelques rexions. Bulletin de la Socit Prhistorique Arige-Pyrnes 43, 35e62. Gonzlez Sainz, C., 2005. Actividad grca Magdaleniense en la Regin Cantbrica: datacin y modicaciones iconogrcas. In: Bicho, N. (Ed.), O Paleoltico. Actas do IV Congresso de Arqueologia Peninsular, vol. 2. Promontoria Monograca, Faro, pp. 157e181. Gonzlez Sainz, C., 2007. Dating Magdalenian art in North Spain: the current situation. In: Pettitt, P., Bahn, P., Ripoll, S. (Eds.), Palaeolithic Cave Art at Creswell Crags in European Context. 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substantial areas of humid meadows (albeit with patches of sagebrush and steppe grasses) dominated much of the YD landscape. There may have been subtle changes in microfaunal assemblages, but large ungulate game species remained the same as before e dominated by red deer and ibex. If there was any survival of local bands of reindeer at the western end of the adjacent French Pyrenees, these would have been insignicant in the face of the dramatic northward expansion of red deer in the last millennia of the Pleistocene. The temporally uneven transition from the classic Upper Magdalenian to a stripped down Epi-Magdalenian (a.k.a. Azilian) had already taken place under the temperate conditions of Allerd (late Late Glacial Interstadial). This had included simplication of stone and bone tools, a continuation of the longstanding trend toward subsistence diversication, and the cessation of representational cave art and most portable art (and a new, singleminded emphasis on geometric decorations on pebbles and certain bone artifacts, especially in the early [pre-YD] Azilian). Azilian occupations continued in many of the same caves that had been used during the Upper Magdalenian. With the onset of YD, people in Cantabrian Spain certainly noticed the cold and the thinning of the woods, but their cultural adaptations e modied only slightly from those of the Allerd e took them seemingly smoothly through the YD event, a crisis that may not have been such a big deal after all at this southerly end of the Eurosiberian biotic zone. More modern excavations of Azilian sites with ne stratigraphic resolution and extensive, high-precision radiocarbon dating will be needed to rene the understanding of potential changes in Azilian settlement (if any), subsistence and demography. In the present state of knowledge, it seems that the effects of YD on humans in this region e despite its North Atlantic location e were minimal, or at least archeologically invisible. The Azilian complex, born out of the Late Glacial Magdalenian, thrived in this region throughout the vicissitudes of Allerd, YD and Preboreal. It was only with the even warmer conditions of early Boreal that it was replaced by a variety of macrolithic and microlithic Mesolithic industrial traditions in different sectors of north Atlantic Spain, nally representing a radical technological break with the old Magdalenian tradition. Acknowledgements Our detailed understanding of the end of the Pleistocene in Cantabrian Spain is the result of the long, patient, careful work of many Spanish colleagues and friends, to name just a few: Jess Altuna, Pablo Arias, Juan Fernndez-Tresguerrres, Cesar Gonzlez Sainz, Manolo Gonzlez Morales, and my Cantabrian mentor, Joaqun Gonzlez Echegarary. Mara Jose Iriarte kindly supplied me with recent palynological publications. Going back some 40 years now, I also owe a great deal to Les Freeman and Geof Clark. Ted Goebel made many constructive suggestions for improving the paper. My world view on the nature of human responses to Younger Dryas along the coast of the Bay of Biscay has been heavily inuenced by the excavations I conducted in La Riera Cave, Asturias (with Clark and Gonzlez Morales, 1976e79), in Dufaure Rockshelter, Les Landes (1981e85), and in El Mirn Cave, Cantabria (with Gonzlez Morales, 1996epresent), as well as by participating in the excavation of El Rascao Cave, Cantabria (with Gonzlez Echegaray and I. Barandiarn, 1974). However none of these specialists are responsible for whatever errors of commission, omission or speculation I may have perpetrated above. References
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