MUNIBE Recibido 15-III-81 Sociedad de Ciencias ARANZADI San Sebastián Año 33 - Número 3-4 - 1981. Páginas 171-173

On Maritime Hunter - Gatherers: A View From Cantabrian

LAWRENCE G. STRAUS*

A recent Current Anthropology article by the exploitation of certain high yield resour- Yesner (1980), while not without weaknesses ces (e. g. red deer, ibex). Clear evidence of and contradictions as noted by the commen- intensification, which included the initial ap- tators, constitutes another important contri- pearance of significant amounts of mollusc bution to ongoing discussions of maritime shells in the , the Cantabrian trends adaptations, huntergatherer subsistence and developed against a background of apparent population pressures in . It is my increases in regional population density. purpose to briefly supply added evidence sug- Slightly updating the figures I gave earlier gestive of subsistence intensification resulting (Straus 1977) in light of subsequent published from population increase and including utili- discoveries, the indications of greatly increa- zation of shellfish and fish during the Upper sed site density in the late Upper Paleolithic and in Vasco-Cantabrian and Mesolithic can be cast in tabular form: Spain. Although factors such as environmen- Appx. No. of tal and sea level change, population control Culture/ No. of Temporal Sites per and decimation are important to any general Stratigraphic Unit Sites Duration Millennium consideration of hunter-gatherer subsistence behavior and change, the Cantabrian data 3 100,000 0.03 provide a useful example of the stress-related 13 65,000 0.20 role marine resources can play in a specific, Aurignaco- geographically circumscribed region, as allu- Perigordian 18 15,000 1.20 ded to by my colleague González Morales in Solutrean 33 3,000 11.00 his CA* comment and by Yesner in his reply. Lower/Middle 35 3,000 11.67 Writing in early 1975, I suggested major Upper Magdalenian 36 3,000 12.00 changes in subsistence strategies among Can- Azilian 33 3,000 11.00 tabrian hunter-gatherers beginning with the Asturian 28 2,000 14.00 Solutrean period around 20,000 years ago (Straus 1977). These changes consisted of These figures refer to a region of some trends toward both the diversification of wild 10,000 km2, sharply bounded by the Cantabrian food resources utilized and the development Cordillera and Sea. Naturally they represent of specialized techniques and for only the roughest sort of estimate of human population densities and are biased by such factors as differential site preservation and vi- * Department of Anthropology. University of New Me- xico. Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131. U.S.A. sibility, archaeological definition and resolu- 172 STRAUS, L. tion, changes in prehistoric settlement-subsis- crease in limpet size) (Straus et al. 1980; 1981). tence systems, etc. Nonetheless they are the Nonetheless, sea mammals never seem to best evidence available at present and do have played a significant role in Cantabrian seem to suggest a sharp increase in regional subsistence; only isolated bones and teeth population density in the late Upper Paleoli- of (scavenged?) seals have been found in So- thic. Visual evidence for the increasingly den- lutrean or Magdalenian deposits at Altamira, se packing of sites (almost all of which are La Riera and Tito Bustillo. In general, at La in ) can be found in two maps presented Riera, neither overall environmental shifts nor in our recent Scientific American article moderate changes in distance from site to (Straus et al. 1980). Similar indications of a shore (due to sea level fluctuation) seem to major increase in site density, particularly in have been correlated with evidence of subsis- the Magdalenian period, are to be found in tence change - including marine resource ex- the adjacent regions of the French ploitation. This leaves population pressure as (Clottes 1976) and Aquitaine - including the a potential ultimate cause for the observed in- Périgord (Laville et al. 1980). In addition to the- tensification. re being large numbers of late Upper Paleo- lithic and Mesolithic sites in Cantabria, many The intensification trend at La Riera (and, generally, along the coast of eastern Asturias of these contain evidence of repeated occupa- tions in the form of long stratigraphic sequen- and western Santander) culminated in the for- ces of Solutrean, Magdalenian and/or Azilian mation of Asturian shell , which tem- porally overlap with at least the later Azilian levels. Modern excavation at such sites as Los Azules, Las Caldas, El Juyo, Rascaño, (and, perhaps, the early ) (Straus, et al. 1978; Straus 1979). As demonstrated by Ekain and La Riera (where we have defined 20 Clark (1976), Asturian diet was still based on Solutrean levels and lenses alone) confirm the the hunting of red deer and other ungulates, frequency and intensity with which many Late with limpets, topshells, other shellfish and Würm sites, were reutilized, a fact long sus- fish providing important (critical?) supple- pected from such classic Solutrean, Magda. ments. Preliminary oxygen isotope data from lenian and Azilian sites as Aitzbitarte, El Cas- the La Riera Asturian conchero (Deith, perso- tillo, Cueto de la Mina, El Valle and La Palo- ma. In contrast, multi-occupation early Upper nal communication) suggest that mollusc col- Paleolithic and Mousterian sites are rare (e.g. lection may have been a winter «tiding-over» El Castillo, Cueva Morin, El Pendo, Cueto de strategy. Rather than viewing the Asturian as la Mina). a «coastal culture» —archaeologically identi- fied by its cobble pics and shell middens— Recent excavations at La Riera have I suggest that it may represent a functional confirmed the trends in subsistence intensifi- and/or depositional pose, constituting one cation, revealing the existence, for example, aspect of complex early Holocene settlement- of an early Solutrean shell consisting subsistence systems, which also included a of large-size limpets (Patella vulgata). During hunting pose (the Azilian) and perhaps even the last 10,000 years of the Pleistocene and a later agricultural one (the early Neolithic). first 1,500 years of the Holocene along the This argument is pursued at greater length in eastern shore of Asturias, hunter-gatherers a recent review of the Cantabrian Mesolithic increasingly supplemented their diet of large (Straus 1979). and medium-sized ungulates with molluscs and anadromous salmonids, and, eventually, crabs, The Cantabrian example serves to illumi- sea urchins and ocean fish. Once marine food nate several of the points Yesner and his re- resources began to be exploited, the La Riera viewers discuss. record shows a long-term trend toward fur- ther intensification and even over-exploitation 1. Regional human population density in- (e.g. utilization of the open littoral as as crease can be an important long-term reality, the estuarine zone, dramatic increase in the ra- affecting hunter-gatherer subsistence strate- tio of shell weight to bone weight, sharp de- gies. In northern Spain, Quaternary environ- ON MARITIME HUNTER-GATHERERS: A VIEW FROM CANTABRIAN SPAIN 173

mental changes seem to have played only a BIBLIOGRAPHY secondary causal role - if any. 2. When needed, marine food resources CLARK. G. A. 1976. —El Asturiense cantábrico. Madrid: can become at least critical supplements to C.S.I.C. hunter-gatherer diet, presumably once some threshold population density has been CLOTTES. J. 1976.—«Les civilisations du Paléolithique superieur dans les Pyrénées», in La Préhistoire fran- crossed. çaise. Edited by H. de Lumley, Vol. 1, pp. 1.214-1.231. 3. The increasing utilization of these re- Paris: C.N.R.S. sources is but one of several options which LAVILLE. H., J-P. Rigaud and J. Sackett. 1980.— Rock may be taken in the intensification of the food Shelters of the Perigord. New York: Academic Press. search; another is obviously the eventual con- trol of food resources through . STRAUS, L. G. 1977.—«Of deerslayers and mountain men: Paleolithic faunal exploitation in Cantabrian It is my belief that attempts to explain the Spain». For Theory Building in . Edited evidence for changing subsistence strategies by L. R. Binford, pp. 41-76. New York: Academic can constitute an organizing theme for future Press. paleoanthropological research in northern STRAUS, L. G. 1979.—«Mesolithic adaptations along the Spain. Critical data requirements for such an coast of northern Spain. Quaternaria 21:305-327. enterprise include detailed, accurate regional STRAUS, L. G., G. A. CLARK and M. R. GONZALEZ MO- environmental reconstructions, complete fau- RALES. 1978.—«Cronología de las industrias del nal collection and analysis, intensive archaeo- Würm tardío y del Holoceno temprano en Cantabria: logical reconnaissance to locate additional si- Contribuciones del Proyecto Paleoecológico de la tes (especially open air stations), a detailed Riera», in C-14 y Prehistoria de la Península Ibérica. chronology based on criteria independent of Edited by Almagro Gorbea and M. Fernández-Mi- artifact assemblage classifications, informa- randa, pp. 37-43. Madrid: Fundación Juan March. tion on the seasonality of site occupations, etc. STRAUS, L. G., G. A. CLARK, J. ALTUNA and J. A. OR- Also needed are general temporal models of TEA. 1980.—Ice-Age subsistence in northern Spain. settlement-subsistence systems from which Scientific American 242 (6): 142-152. testable hypotheses might be derived. Pursuit STRAUS, L. G., J. ALTUNA, G. A. CLARK, M. R. GON- of such goals will require the organization of ZALEZ MORALES, H. LAVILLE, A. LEROI-GOURHAN, increasingly elaborate, long-range, interdisci- M. M. DE LA HOZ and J. A. ORTEA. 1981.—Paleo- plinary research programs and the develop- ecology at La Riera (Asturias, Spain). Current An- ment of true paleoanthropological infrastruc- thropology 22, 655-682. tures in the region, such as that of the YESNER. D. R. 1980.—Maritime hunter-gatherers: eco- Sociedad de Ciencias Aranzadi in San Sebas- logy and prehistory (with CA* comment). Current tián. Anthropology 21:727-750.