The Pleistocene-Holocene Transition in Cantabrian Spain: current reflections on culture change

This contribution reviews the evidence for technological continuity and change (both gradual and abrupt) among the classic Magdalenian, Azilian, Asturian and non-coastal Mesolithic culture-adaptive traditions against the backdrop of environmental change across the Pleistocene–Holocene (i.e. Bolling–Boreal) transition in Cantabrian Spain. It explores the interacting, non-exclusive roles of environment, demography, subsistence and ‘tradition’ or historical contingency in explaining both inertia and change in the cultural records (including settlement, mobility, artistic activity and even world-view or ideology) observed by archeologists in this long-occupied, southerly wing of the classic Franco-Cantabrian culture area.