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This article presents the taphonomic history of the human remains recovered in El Miron Cave (Cantabria, Spain) and an interpretation of their burial. At the back of the vestibule and within the occupation area of the cave, an interment was made during the Lower Magdalenian, nearly 19 cal. kyr BP. Biostratinomic and diagenetic modifications found on the bones of an individual woman have provided essential information with which to understand the origin of the burial and related formation processes. The skeletal representation, bone modifications, spatial distribution and signs of disturbance within the burial area jointly suggest that the skeletal remains recovered in El Miron are possibly the result of a primary burial deposition which, after soft tissue decomposition, was disturbed to extract the cranium and most of the long bones. Those bones may have been deposited elsewhere, either inside or outside the cave, perhaps in a partial secondary burial that remains undiscovered. The rest of the skeleton was ritually covered over again with red ochre, sediment and stones. Other than the ochre, no unequivocal grave goods were associated with the human remains.

In 2001 and between 2010 and 2013 El Miron cave in northern Spain yielded a partial human skeleton in a Cantabrian Lower Magdalenian deposit. The skeleton has been directly radiocarbon dated to 15,460 ± 40 BP. The archaeological context suggests that the human remains were deposited at the site as a result of a deliberate burial. Here we present a complete inventory and anthropological study of this individual. The remains belong to a single, middle-aged, robust female individual of ca. 160 cm in height and weighing ca. 60 kg, with good health status. The individual is represented by the mandible, numerous teeth and many postcranial bones, including significant portions of the vertebral column, costal skeleton, hands and feet. The Magdalenian context of El Miron cave provides additional data on the otherwise poorly known Upper Paleolithic populations of Southwestern Europe.

Dietary habits are inferred from dental microwear and isotope analyses of the Magdalenian human individual from the site of El Miron, dated to 15,460 ± 40 BP. The pattern of dental microwear was established on the buccal surface of the lower fourth premolar and on the bottom of facet 9 on the occlusal surface of the lower third molar. The results obtained through analysis of different surfaces are consistent and indicate a mixed diet for this Lower Magdalenian individual, including meat, aquatic resources and vegetables. These results are in agreement with those obtained through isotope analysis. This implies a generalized exploitation of the environment as has been previously established in other Late Upper Palaeolithic specimens.

The human burial of Lower Magdalenian age in El Miron Cave was found in the narrow space between the outward (westward) sloping bedrock wall of the vestibule rear and a very large limestone block. The corpse had been deposited in contact with both engraved lines on the cave wall and red ochre staining on the eastern face of the block. In addition, the burial was made at approximately the same time (ca. 18,700 calendar years ago, per multiple radiocarbon dates) that the western (daylight-facing) face was engraved with numerous lines, some of which (although not provable) could be seen as suggestive of a schematic, partial representation of a human female, which in turn could speculatively be interpreted, on chronological and physical associational grounds, as marking the presence of the human female interment behind the block. Furthermore, masses of engravings on the rear vestibule wall (including images of a horse and a possible bison) can potentially be attributed to the Lower Magdalenian, and thus roughly contemporaneous with the burial.

This paper presents and discusses the results of the studies of pollen and micro-mammal remains associated with the human burial in El Miron Cave, dated in the Lower Magdalenian. The sedimentological integrity of the deposit has been confirmed through its comparison with the penecontemporaneous level in other parts of the cave. From the environmental point of view, this unit, like others of the same age in northern Spain, attests a very cold and arid climate. However, the pollen study reveals that it can be differentiated by the large quantity of Chenopodiaceae pollen (occasionally in the form of aggregates of grains), exclusively in the funerary context. In the discussion, various hypotheses are considered (funerary offering, food, to hygienize the grave or medicinal use) to interpret this over-representation. Although all the possibilities remain open, the most likely is thought to be the direct deposit of flowers at the time of the burial, either as a ritual element or for a more practical and hygienic purpose.

This article analyzes the ochre associated with the human burial of Magdalenian age in El Mirón Cave that, with its unique features (deep red color, brightness and particle size distribution), is clearly differentiated from ochres in other strata of the site. The most common techniques in archaeological pigment characterization studies were used: binocular microscope inspection, thin sections, granulometry, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDX), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), Raman spectroscopy and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The results obtained permit the characterization of special ochre in burial layer (hematite with idiomorphic crystallinity). Its origin is completely different from the samples from outcrops inside El Mirón Cave or obtained by prospecting in Carranza Valley. This type of hematite has been identified on the coast, in Santoña, about 26 km from the burial. Given its uniqueness, can be associated with some kind of ritual of the time whose roots lay in the Middle Palaeolithic and continued throughout the rest of Prehistory. The project was financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (HAR2010-22115-C02-02).

By using Geographical Information System software this study presents the spatial distribution of the human remains and features within the burial found in a Lower Magdalenian level of El Miron cave (Cantabria, Spain). The aim is to identify how the interment was created and discern its primary or secondary origin. Three-dimensional analyses have been applied to recognize the physical location of the burial and its structural elements in relation with the grave assemblage and the significance of the red ochre and specular hematite in the burial context. In addition, a comparison of the vertical and horizontal dispersal of human skeletal elements was carried out according to their representation and evidence of taphonomic modifications. The association of human bones with other archaeological finds was also taken into account. The results show that the human body was placed at the edge of the living area of the site, at the rear of the cave vestibule, but in a separate place behind an engraved block and covered with limestone rocks. The position of the anatomical elements and the spatial distribution of the taphonomic bone modifications prove that it was a primary burial, minimally disturbed by carnivores, after body decomposition. The absence of the cranium and most of the long bones seems to be the result of a deliberate anthropogenic extraction from the burial pit, possibly for redeposition at another, unknown location perhaps a secondary burial. This fact disturbed the initial primary body deposition. Therefore, the results show that the El Miron Lower Magdalenian burial was a disturbed primary interment, rather than a secondary deposit.

The presence of abundant macromammal remains in the level in which the first Magdalenian human burial ever found in the Iberian Peninsula affords an outstanding opportunity to reconstruct aspects of the subsistence strategy of the hunter–gatherer group to which the deceased woman may have belonged. The analyses reported here, in addition to rejecting the hypothesis of deliberate faunal grave goods or funerary offerings, give us a better understanding of how Lower Magdalenian societies exploited available food resources, providing a first glimpse of how the El Miron site fitted within the overall paleoeconomic framework of the Oldest Dryas phase of the Late Glacial in Cantabrian Spain. Furthermore, the particular location of the site at the ecotone between the Cantabrian Mountains and the valley of the Ason River, not far from the coastal lowlands, provides evidence of a highly efficient, productive system for exploiting the available ungulate game of the region.

This paper presents a preliminary summary of lithic and osseous artifacts recovered from El Miron Level 504, whose ochre-stained sediments were associated with a Lower Magdalenian human burial. The lithic artifacts were concentrated to the south of the human remains. Debris indicate that manufacture was focused on late-stage bladelet reduction, which followed preparatory flake or blade removals. The lithic industry is rich in bladelet tools and other Lower Magdalenian diagnostic artifacts that were made on very high-quality flints. Osseous artifacts—principally antler sagaies—are highly fragmented, but their attributes are consistent with others known from El Miron. Lithic and osseous artifacts are typical of the Lower Magdalenian of Cantabria. These artifacts were recovered from a level with significant microstratigraphic variation associated with cultural and natural formation processes, leaving unknown how extensively these materials were spatially and/or temporally displaced from their primary discard locations as part of Level 504 deposition. Interpreted as a single unit and compared with those from the underlying Level 505, these burial area materials testify to spatial continuity with the similarly rich Lower Magdalenian occupations identified in the El Miron mid- and outer-vestibule into the vestibule rear. The artifacts found in Level 504 provide additional evidence that confirm the site's importance as a major Lower Magdalenian residential site in the montane zone of the Cantabrian region.

In this paper, we focused on shell bead production during the Upper Paleolithic at the site of Vale Boi in Southwestern Portugal as a means of understanding social visual transmission. Vale Boi has a long sequence dated to between c. 32 and 7 ka cal BP with well-preserved bone and shell assemblages from early Gravettian to Neolithic times. The archaeological shell bead collection includes over 100 specimens from the Gravettian, Proto-Solutrean, Solutrean and Magdalenian layers from Vale Boi, including at least 5 species: Littorina obtusata or Littorina fabalis , Trivia sp., Antalis sp., Mitrella scripta and Theodoxus fluviatilis . Experimental replication techniques included scratching, sawing, and hammering using lithic and bone implements on both internal and external sides of the shells. Experimental results indicate that there are a series of potential fabrication techniques for bead production, but there is a clear tendency in the archaeological record to use a single technique for each shell species. There also seems to be a focus on using a fast technique rather than a slower one, which seems to produce higher quality results. Finally, we also address the topic of the impact of bead production techniques on the evolution of bead design technology through all Upper Paleolithic record in SW Portugal.

The appearance of portable artistic objects during the Upper Palaeolithic is characterised by a combination of a wide choice of techniques, use of different materials and a diversity of iconographic expression, with many objects made of bone and antler decorated with animal representations. Taphonomic and experimental approaches have been systematically applied in an effort to understand the technical and artistic procedures followed. In this study, we applied a new combination of 3-dimensional microscopy (focus variation optical microscope) and micro-CT scanning to the analysis of two Magdalenian engraved specimens: a reindeer antler from the site of Neschers (France), engraved with the partial image of a horse in left profile, and a horse metatarsal from Courbet Cave, Penne (France), engraved with a horse head also in left profile. Results of the analysis suggest that both the Neschers and Courbet Cave engravings had been prepared before being carved. The overall contours of the horse body/head were incised first, while anatomical features were added afterwards. In the Neschers case, the incision resulted from the repeated scratching of a previously made incision in order to enlarge the engraving, possibly reflecting the engraver's aesthetic sense. The combination of the techniques used in this study is applicable to fragile or unique archaeological specimens. Micro-CT scanning, in particular, provides non-invasive means for identifying engravings that are obscured by encrusted sediment. The application of these techniques can potentially open new avenues for the authentication, technical and gestural recognition and interpretation of incised forms and artistic creativity.

Trou de Chaleux and Goyet are caves situated less than 30 km apart in Belgium that contain stratified Magdalenian artefacts and butchered faunal remains. Published radiocarbon dates suggest that both sites were contemporaneously occupied during to the Late-glacial interstadial. It has previously been suggested that the Trou de Chaleux Late-glacial faunal remains might be slightly older than those at Goyet Cave, and that Trou de Chaleux has two phases of occupation during the Late-glacial interstadial. However, the limited number of radiocarbon dates currently available makes it impossible to determine whether the sites are truly contemporaneous, and the assessment of their absolute chronologies is complicated by a plateau in the calibration curve. In this paper, bone collagen δ 13 C and δ 15 N signatures of horse bones from the two sites are used to reconstruct local palaeoenvironments. We hypothesise that if occupations at the two sites were contemporaneous, the horse collagen δ 13 C and δ 15 N isotope signatures from both sites will be similar, since comparable carbon and nitrogen isotopic values would reflect similar diets, ecologies and environments. To provide clear dating parameters, new AMS radiocarbon determinations are also presented. Results show that horse collagen δ 13 C and δ 15 N isotope signatures at the two sites are different, indicating that the populations were not subject to similar diets, ecologies and environments. The new radiocarbon dates confirm that the horse bones from Trou de Chaleux date to the Late-glacial interstadial, but they also show that in Goyet Cave Horizons 1 and 2, older horse remains dating to ca. 32 000–27 000 14 C yr BP are mixed with Late-glacial horse remains. The δ 15 N values of the Goyet Cave horse bones radiocarbon dated to the Pleniglacial are substantially higher than those that have Late-glacial radiocarbon dates. Therefore, we now hypothesise that the majority of the horse bones isotopically analysed from Goyet Cave Horizon 1 are Pleniglacial in age. Statistical analysis of the radiocarbon dates indicates that the Late-glacial occupation at the two sites was contemporaneous, and that while there may appear to be two phases of occupation at Trou de Chaleux, this may be an artefact of the radiocarbon calibration curve.

International audience; The identification of projectile impact traces on archaeological faunal remains is an important issue for understanding prehistoric hunting behavior, especially in the Paleolithic and Mesolithic. From the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic in Europe, and earlier in Africa, projectiles tipped with osseous points were of great importance for subsistence; but thus far, no specific experimental reference has been developed to help identify the traces left by these points. In 2003 and 2004 two series of projectile experiments with antler points of Magdalenian design were organized, involving two ox calves and two female fallow deer as targets for bow and spearthrower shooting. The subsequent study demonstrates that positive identifications of impact traces left by osseous points can be made. The observation of 127 impact traces allowed us to distinguish three main types of traces: notches, punctures and perforations. The relationships between the nature of the impact traces and the (i) target species, (ii) characteristics of the impacted bones, and (iii) type of weapon are presented. Synthesized results are then discussed within the context of the European Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic.

Grotte XVI (Dordogne, France) contains a rich archaeological sequence that begins during the Mousterian and continues through the Magdalenian and includes Châtelperronian and early Aurignacian assemblages. Analyses of the ungulates from this site show no significant change in skeletal part representation, butchering intensity (as measured by cut mark numbers and placement), degree of bone fragmentation, and intensity of carnivore damage across the Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic transition. Relative taxonomic abundances of ungulates change significantly from the Mousterian to the early Aurignacian, but these changes are consistent with climatic forcing and continue throughout the sequence. Only the Magdalenian ungulate assemblage is clearly distinct from all others when examined in terms of these variables, perhaps because of altered predator/prey ratios on the local landscape. Cave bear relative abundances decline precipitously across the Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic transition; this decline may reflect increased human residence times and/or group sizes during this interval, just as Kurten observed many years ago.

This paper is a first attempt to investigate the variability in reindeer-procurement strategies in Upper Palaeolithic sites by means of sex ratios, as reflected by osteometrical data. For this purpose the “Variability Size Index” method is employed. The idea behind the analysis is that sex ratios in reindeer (but also in red deer and in bovids) were mainly determined—as they are in modern populations—by the reproductive biology of the animals and not by environmental conditions. Thus, any deviations from these ratios must be explained in terms of behavioural/cultural variables. The faunal material for the study comes from sites in southwest France, Switzerland and southern Germany. During the Upper Palaeolithic females dominate in all assemblages, but a clear variability can be seen: some sites show sex ratios similar to those found in Palaeolithic carnivore dens, whereas other sites show somewhat higher frequencies of bulls. The variation in the sex ratios of reindeer among Upper Palaeolithic sites cannot be explained by either their chronological position or topographical location, but it is more probably a result from seasonal differences in reindeer-procurement. Thus generalizations about the exploitation of reindeer or other prey species based on results of a single site or layer of a site will mask the variability in the subsistence strategies which existed either during the Upper Palaeolithic or, at a finer scale, even during the Magdalenian.

The Magdalenian of southwestern France has long been renowned for the frequency with which associated faunal assemblages are dominated by reindeer (Rangifer tarandus). The site of Grotte XVI (Dordogne, southwestern France) is no exception: 94% of the Magdalenian ungulate assemblage at this site is provided by reindeer. However, this figure represents the endpoint in a steadily increasing progression of reindeer dominance, and steadily decreasing progression of ungulate assemblage evenness, at this site during the Upper Paleolithic (c. 36,000–12,00014C years bp ). These changes are not correlated with faunal assemblage size, degree of bone fragmentation, or skeletal element representation, but are correlated with declines in reconstructed summer temperatures for southern France. While it is quite possible that human predators responded behaviourally to this situation through the innovation of more efficient means of prey capture, the faunal patterns that characterize the Grotte XVI Upper Palaeolithic ungulate assemblages can be accounted for by climate change alone.

After 40 kyr bp , the distribution of archaeological sites shows that the occupation of the western-European peninsula, at the north of the Alpine arc, has the appearance of nodes of concentration, separated by vast zones which are either empty or with a negligible population density. The populational kinetics of the hunter–gatherers in this vast area is characterized by the permanence of a refuge zone located in northern Aquitaine. The leptokurtic aspect of the density distributions of sites observed from the Aurignacian to the Glacial Maximum but not at the Magdalenian suggest occasional long distance movement such as raids or opportunistic expeditions. During the Glacial Maximum, the response to the cold is marked by the complete abandonment of the northern peripheral zone, a contraction of the population mainly on the first peripheral zone surrounding the refuge zone, but without geographical change of position of the refuge zone. An optimistic estimate of the meta-population size of hunter–gatherers, which takes into account the change of area size due to the sea level variation, goes from the Aurignacian, 4000, to the Glacial Maximum 8000. During the Magdalenian a demographic explosion occurred with 40,000 individuals.

While researchers have long analysed the artistic and typological aspects of Magdalenian antler implements, relatively little effort has been expended upon learning their functional aspects. In order to understand better the applications of antler as a raw material as well as the durability and potential use life of projectile points made from it, the author hafted and threw 20 replicated Cantabrian Lower Magdalenian spearpoints at a dead animal target until breakage was induced. The results indicate the high durability of antler projectile points and their long use life, far beyond what can be expected from a stone point used in similar contexts. The choice of antler over stone in Cantabrian Lower Magdalenian hunting contexts fits within the overall hunting strategy of reliably engineered technology used to acquire large game herds in mass harvests.

A final Magdalenian or Epipalaeolithic bone object, engraved with parallel lines, was found at Tossal de la Roca (Alicante, Spain). On both sides, four sets of short engraved incisions were superimposed on these lines. This design is the subject of a technological analysis based on experimentally established criteria. Nineteen series of incisions similar to the archaeological incisions on the Tossal bone (made using different techniques and different tools) were analysed and measured. The analytical criteria resulting from this experimentation, as well as other criteria known in the literature, were applied to the archaeological piece. It appears that each set of incisions was made by a different tool and probably, in one case, by two different tools. Changes in the techniques employed (single movement, to-and-fro, pressure) and in the direction of the movement of the tool also occurred between sets. The hypothesis that this engraving might be a system of notation is discussed.

By permitting the taking of minute samples, technical advances in paint analysis have now made possible the application of a well-defined and statistically more rigorous research strategy. Over 100 planned samples could be taken from several Magdalenian painted caves in the Ariege region of the French Pyrenees. The ensuing analyses have revealed several distinct and sophisticated paint recipes as well as significant details about pictorial techniques. The purpose of this paper is to comment on the research approach underlying this work, as well as on the methods used and their limits, and to discuss what the results of these analyses bring to our knowledge of Magdalenian artists in a given area.