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Modelled Clay Animals in Aitzbitarte IV Cave a Unique Palaeolithic

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Modelled Clay Animals in Aitzbitarte IV Cave a Unique Palaeolithic Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 31 (2020) 102270 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jasrep Modelled clay animals in Aitzbitarte IV Cave: A unique Palaeolithic rock art site in the Cantabrian Region T ⁎ Diego Garatea, , Olivia Riverob, Joseba Rios-Garaizarc, Iñaki Intxaurbed, Sergio Salazarb a Instituto Internacional de Investigaciones Prehistóricas de Cantabria (IIIPC), Universidad de Cantabria, 39005 Santander, Spain b Dpto. Prehistoria, Historia Antigua y Arqueología, Universidad de Salamanca, 37008 Salamanca, Spain c Archaeology Program, Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Paseo Sierra de Atapuerca 3, 09002 Burgos, Spain d Dpto. Mineralogía y Petrología, Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea/Universidad del País Vasco, 48940 Leioa, Spain ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Keywords: Aitzbitarte hill is a classic archaeological site for the Upper Palaeolithic in the Cantabrian Region. Excavations in Rock-art caves III and IV were started at the end of the 19th century and continued during the next, revealing broad Engraving sequences of human occupations. The first very modest evidence of parietal art was located in 2012 in Aitzbitarte Magdalenian IV, and shortly after in 2015, more clear evidence of Gravettian and Magdalenian rock-art manifestations were Accessibility reported for caves III, V and IX. In 2017, Felix Ugarte Elkartea speleologists located a new decorated gallery in a Symbolic network chimney inside the main gallery of Aitzbitarte IV. The preliminary study, presented in this paper, reveals a unique rock art composition where the natural clay from the walls was engraved and modelled in some cases to create low-relief bison, horses, reindeer and vulvas. This uncommon technique, totally unknown in the ar- chaeological record of the Iberian Peninsula, the formal conventions (horns and legs in perspective, closed eyes in bison, scapular quarterings in the horses, etc.) and the presence of vulvas engraved in clay (as in Bédeilhac, Montespan or Oxocelhaya), relate this cave to Middle Magdalenian rock-art sites in the French Pyrenees region. The new data from Aitzbitarte IV, together with data recently obtained from the surrounding caves, provide insights into symbolic networks at the end of the Upper Palaeolithic in Western Europe. 1. Introduction Gravettian and Aitzbitarte V to the Magdalenian) (Garate et al., 2016). In 2017, J. Busselo and S. Laburu of the Felix Ugarte Elkartea spe- The caves of Aitzbitarte constitute a landmark in the study of pre- leological group visited the cave of Aitzbitarte IV to explore a series of history in the Cantabrian region (Northern Spain). They were initially vertical chimneys in the middle section of the cave. After climbing a explored at the end of the 19th century, and two of them were later vertical section about 10 m high and crawling through two 8 m-long excavated in the mid- and late 20th century by J. M. Barandiarán semi-vertical tubes, they reached a narrow space where they observed (Barandiarán et al., 1965) -Aitzbitarte IV- and by J. Altuna (Altuna et al. several Palaeolithic engravings. 2011, 2017) -Aitzbitarte III-. This find must be understood within a general framework developed Despite the rich archaeological sequences in Aitzbitarte III and IV, in recent years regarding the reactivation of research on cave art in the which cover the whole Upper Palaeolithic record (from the Aurignacian north of Spain, especially in the eastern part of the region. In this area to the Magdalenian), including also a few portable art objects the density of decorated caves has long been thought to be significantly (Barandiarán Maestu, 1972; Garate and Rios-Garaizar, 2011), it was not lower than in the bordering regions (Cantabrian Spain, Pyrenees and until recently that rock art was discovered in the Aitzbitarte caves. In Périgord), despite its geostrategic position in the central point of con- 2012, a series of poorly preserved red stains, probably pertaining to an nection between them. animal figure, were discovered deep inside the cave of Aitzbitarte IV The number of survey projects has increased thanks to the in- (Garate et al., 2013). More recently, in 2015, several engraved figures corporation of local speleological groups to the explorations. As a result were found in several other caves in Aitzbitarte hill. Those figures have of this collaboration, the number of known parietal assemblages has been attributed to different Upper Palaeolithic cultural traditions ac- tripled (Fig. 1), from ten to more than thirty, including such important cording to their stylistic features (Aitzbitarte III, V and IX to the Magdalenian sanctuaries as Aitzbitarte IV, Armintxe and Atxurra ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (D. Garate). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102270 Received 5 July 2019; Received in revised form 27 December 2019; Accepted 7 February 2020 2352-409X/ © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. D. Garate, et al. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 31 (2020) 102270 Fig. 1. Decorated caves around Aitzbitarte hill (base: https://maps-for-free.com): in black those located during the 20th century in red the ones found in the 21st century. Map: Iñaki Intxaurbe. (Garate, 2018). 17,950 ± 100 uncal BP (22030–21435 cal BP) (GrN- 5993) (Altuna, The discovery of engraved animals, some of them also modelled in 1972). This level is especially interesting because it is one of main re- clay (forming low reliefs) in a place with very difficult access in ference for the characterisation of the upper Solutrean in the Basque Aitzbitarte IV Cave is unique in Cantabrian Spain. It is therefore able to Country (Straus, 1974). contribute insights into symbolic networks at the end of the Upper The first evidence of Palaeolithic parietal art in Aitzbitarte Hill was Palaeolithic in Western Europe. found in Cave IV in 2012 (Garate et al., 2013). It consisted of a series of shapeless stains of red pigment, possibly remains of some figurative 2. Materials representations, now lost. In 2017, speleologists from the Felix Ugarte Elkartea group discovered a series of animal figures engraved and Aitzbitarte Hill has undergone significant karst processes, resulting modelled in clay on the walls and ceilings (Garate et al., 2018). These in the formation of about thirty caves and sink-holes (Manteca et al., form the subject of the present paper. 1997). The caves with archaeological deposits are all located on the The new decorated sector is in a high-level series of narrow passages western side of the hill, at about 40 m above the watercourse that flows at the top of an aven or chimney part way along the passage in at its foot, a tributary of the River Urumea that at present reaches the Aitzbitarte IV cave, 90 m from the entrance. A window in the left-hand ffi sea about six kilometres away, in the city of San Sebastián. This river wall, 6 m above the main passage, can be reached after a very di cult fl basin is at the eastern limit of the northern coast of the Iberian Pe- climb, although the oor level has been lowered about 1.5 m in recent fi ninsula near the foothills of the Pyrenees and a short distance from the times (Garate et al., 2013). From the base of the window a rst low border between Spain and France, i.e. on a narrow passage between the passage 3 m long ascends to a small chamber with a second window. Iberian Peninsula and the rest of Europe. This leads to a vertical tube 8 m high which reaches a small ledge only The archaeological exploration of Aitzbitarte Hill was initiated in large enough for a single person. A 1.5 m step across the tube reaches 1892 by the local erudite Count of Lerchundi in Cave IV, which was also two sub-vertical branches on the left and right, the locations of the visited by important prehistorians at that time, like H. Breuil, É. Harlé, Palaeolithic parietal representations (Fig. 2). The original limestone H. Obermaier and J. Bouyssonie. The first scientific excavations were surface is covered here by a soft clay (also walls and ceilings), with a carried out from 1960 to 1964 (Barandiarán et al., 1965) and in the thickness about 0.1 m in some parts. These natural alcoves are ex- same period some archaeological evidence was found in Cave V. tremely vulnerable spaces because of their small size and soft clay fi Sometime later, from 1985 to 2002, J. Altuna undertook the excavation surfaces; therefore, a speci c methodology was carried out during the fi of the deposit in Cave III (Altuna et al., 2011, 2017). eldwork. The archaeological sequence revealed in Aitzbitarte IV provided post-Palaeolithic evidence in the superficial layers, an Azilian level (Ia), and levels attributed to the Azilian-late upper Magdalenian (Ib), late 3. Methods upper Magdalenian (II), middle-upper Magdalenian (III), Upper fi Solutrean (IV) and an indeterminate Upper Palaeolithic level, possibly The objectives set in the eldwork in Aitzbitarte IV concentrated on fi Aurignacian (V) (Barandiarán Maestu, 1988). However, the inter- the precise identi cation of any sign of Palaeolithic graphic activity and pretation of the sequence is complex and is affected by problems de- its exhaustive documentation with 3D digital recording methods. All rived from the excavation process and the admixture of archaeological the surfaces in the new sector were examined in case they contained remains (Utrilla, 1986). Level IV is the only one with a conventional other archaeological remains connected with the production of the art radiocarbon date for a sample from its base, with a result of or the frequentation of the inner part of the cave. 2 D. Garate, et al. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 31 (2020) 102270 Fig. 2. Location of the parietal motifs in Aitzbitarte IV on a plan and elevation of the cave (Gim-Geomatics).
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