KOBIE (Serie Paleoantropologia). Bilbao Bizkaiko Foru Aldundia- Diputación Foral de Bizkaia N.ºXIX,año 1990/91

AN ESSAY AT SYNTHESIS: TARDIGLACIAL ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS IN THE VASCO-CANTABRIAN AND PYRENEAN REGIONS OF S.W. EUROPE

Lawrence Guy Straus ( 1)

RESUMEN

Este artículo pretende realizar una sístesis amplia de las evidencias cronoestratigráficas, paleoambientales y culturales disponi­ bles en la actualidad para el periodo Tardiglaciar (ca. 16-10.000 B.P) en las regiones vasco-cantábrica y pirenaica del S-0 de Europa. Su propósito es de comparar y contrastar los sistemas adaptativos humanos en las dos regiones y de trazar su desatTollo a través del curso de los cambios ambientales de los últimos milenios del Würm. El artículo toma en consideración los resultados de los proyectos de investigación multi-disciplinaria más recientes llevados a cabo en Asturias. Cantabria, Euskal-Herría, Gascoña y Ariege. Se emplea una aproximación no tipológica a los conjuntos magdalenienses y azilienses tradicionales.

ABSTRACT

This paper attempts to broadly synthesize the chronostratigraphic, paleoenvironmental and cultural evidence available to date for the Tardiglacial period (ca.16-10 Kya) in the Vasco-Cantabrian and Pyrenean i:egions of SW Europe. lts aim is to compare and contrast contemporaneous human adptive systems in the two contiguous regions and to trace their development during the final millennia of the Last Glacial. The paper takes into consideration the resuÍts of the latest multidisciplinary research projects conducted in Asturias, Cantabria, the Basque Country, Gascony and Ariege. A non-typological approach is taken to the tradítío• nal Magdalenian and Azilian assemblage groups.

RESUME

Cet article essaie de faire une synthese large des témoignages chronostratígraphíques, paléoenvironnementaux et culturels dis­ ponibles a l'heure actuelle pour la période tardiglaciaire (ca. 16-10.000 B.P) dans les regions basco-cantabrique et pyrénéenne du S.O de l'Europe. Son but est de comparer et de tracer le développement a travers du cours des derniers millenaires du Wilrm. L'article prend en consideration les résultats des projets de recherche pluridísciplinaires les plus récents menés a bien aux Asturies, en Cantabrie, Pays Basque, Gascogne et Ariege. On prend une approche non-typo!ogique aux ensembles magdaléniens et aziliens traditíonnels.

LABURPENA

Idazlan honen bítartez Europako hego-Sartaldeko euskal eta kantabbriar eta pirenaiko lurraldeetan gaur egun doguzan Tardiglaziar aroko (ca. 16-10.000 B.P.) azarna kronoestatigrafiko, paleoanbiental eta kulturalen bilketa zabala egin gura da. Bere helburua lurralde bietako gizakien egokitzen-bideak bata besteagaz alderatu eta aztertzea eta "Wüerm" delakoaren azken milurte­ etako ingurugiro-aldakuntzen zehar izan daben hazkundea azaltzea da. Idazlanak, oraintsu Asturiasen, Cantabrian, Euskal­ Herrian, Gascuñan eta Ariegen egin diran askotariko azterkuntza-egitasmoen ondorioak hartzen dauz kontuan. Aspaldiko magda­ leníense eta azilíense taldeekiko tipologiazkoez besteko kidetasunaz baliatzen da.

(1) Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, N.M 87131, USA 10 LAWRENCE GUY STRAUS

THEPROBLEM Last Glacial, now dated by abundant radiocarbon determina­ tions. Thus the Cantabrian and Pyrenean regions make an ide­ The Magdalenian and Epipaleolithic cultures of Périgord, al case far controlled comparisons of human adaptive strate­ lle de France and Germany have been sometimes overgenera­ gies, differing among specific habitats and changing through Iized to serve as models of Tardiglacial and early Postglacial time. adaptations throughout Western Europe, yet they were the products of particular environmental settings and resource structures that lent themselves to extensive mobility on the THEREGIONS part of human bands. Regions with broad plains or plateaux and often limited relief, they were inhabited by large herds of Like Languedoc and Provence, the Vasco-Cantabrian and highly migratory ungulates such as reindeer, bisan, horses Pyrenean regions lay between the northerly and southerly and saiga antelopes, which thrived on various rich mixtures provinces of Last Glacial Europe and shared elements of the of herbaceous vegetation. The annual ranges of human flora and fauna of both provinces. The co-existence of red groups that preyed on these garue are suggested, on the bases deer and reindeer is a most graphic example of this phenome­ of distribution maps of non-local lithics, molluscs and fassils, non. The complex, mountainous relief of the regions provided to have been quite large (probably on the arder of many hun­ diverse microhabitats and both faod and lithic resources far dreds of kilometers). Under many circumstances, the optima! hunter-gatherers. Limited stands of thermophile arboreal spe­ strategy for exploiting the migratory big garue resources cies survived on southfacing slopes that were sheltered from would have been to emphasize residential mobility (sensu winds and provided with local water sources. However, open L.R. Binford), whereby entire human bands (multiple fami­ plateaux and coastal plains were still particularly cold and Iies) moved to the locations of faod resources (which, under stormy, with open grassland or heathland vegetation, at least glacial conditions, were essentially terrestrial mammals). This in Dryas I, a period when mountain glaciers were still in exis­ pattern of specialized, highly mobile big garue hunting (pro­ tence in the high peaks of the cordilleran crest. b ably a more-or-Iess accurate characterization of the Vasco-Cantabrian Spain (the modern provinces of "Magdalenian" adaptations of norherly regions of Western Guipúzcoa, Vizcaya, Cantabria and Asturias) is bordered to Europe) was terminated abruptly at the end of the Pleistocene the north by the Atlantic, which, though particularly cold and replaced by a pattern of adptations to the newly refares­ befare the retreat of polar waters and the readvance of the ted habitats, with their abundant plant, aquatic and now gene­ Gulf Strean, was fairly rich in marine molluscs and fish and, rally smaller, less aggregated land mammal resources. especially, in anadromous salmonids. To the south, however, Perhaps less widely known, but sharply contrasting with Iies the high (ca. 1000 m.) northern Meseta of Castile, a the northerly pattern of adaptations, is the Mediterranean pat­ region cold, resource-poor and inhospitable even today and tern documented by a limited number of late Glacial sites in undoubtedly far worse from a hunter-gatherer's point of view Portugal, southern and eastern Spain, Italy and Greece. The during the late Glacial, especially when compared with the southern penínsulas of Europe were less dastically affected resource-rich (albeit narrow and stormy) north coastal strip. by the climatic fluctuations of the Last Glacial and served as The continental shelf is narrow and steep, so even during the refugia far plant and animal species which spread throughout Last Glacial Maximun (ca. 18,000 BP), the shore was no much of temperate Europe under Interglacial conditions. Red, more than 8-12 Km. north of its present position and increa­ roe and fallow deer, ibex, boar and lagomorphs were the main singly closer to it during the Tardiglacial and early terrestrial faod resources exploited by human groups in these Postglacial, The region's backbone, the Cordillera is fairly regions, but, in coastal areas (many now inundated as a result low in the eastern (Basque) sector but rises toward the west in of Holocene marine transgression) fish and shellfish were Cantabria and eastern Asturias, befare descending again in important supplementary resources in the late Upper the direction of the Galician shield. The highest mountains, Paleolithic and there were many more edible plant foods the Picos de Europa (max. elev. = 2600m.), are actually a (e.g., acorn and hazel nuts, berries, roots, seeds) than in late separate chain north of the Cordillera and very clase to the Glacial France or Germany. However it is not yet clear how shore in eastern Asturias and western Cantabria. Low but ste­ abundant the faod resources (particularly the larger ungula­ ep mountain ranges run parallel to the coast and Cordillera in tes) were in Mediterranean lands during this period, and few Asturias and Cantabria, where there are, nonetheless, stret­ models exist far the Magdalenian/Epigravettian subsistence ches of narrow, rolling, karstic coastal plains and sorne fairly strategies in these regions. ample intermontane river valleys. In the Basque Country, the The purpose of this presentation is to explore the nature of much less regularly structured mountains plunge directly into human adaptations across time through the period from about the sea and broad valleys are few, as are east-west avenues of 16,000 to about 9000 BP in two adjacent regions situated at communication. the intermediate latitude of 43 degress north: Vasco­ Pyrenean France is a somewhat less easily defined region Cantabrian Spain and the French Pyrenees. These two regions running along the northem flanks of the Pyreness and inclu­ share the same mountain cordillera, but differ in their posi­ ding (far the purposes of this presentation) the upper draina­ tions relative to the Atlantic coast. Prehistoric archeological, ges of the Garonne and Adour rivers, from the Ariege paleontological and paleoenvironmental investigations over through the Haute-Garonne, Hautes-Pyrénées and Pyrénées­ more than a century have produced a dense data base for the Atlantiques departments. (Pyrénées-Orientales is not specifi- AN ESSAY AT SYNTHESIS: TARDIGLACIAL ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS IN THE VASCO-CANTABRIAN ANO PYRENEAN REGJONS OF S.W. EUROPE 11

cally dealt with here, as it is clearly within the Mediterranean Aurensan, Diogene, Tuc d' Audoubert, Enlene, Fontanet). geographic sphere, although there are artifactual, artistic and There would seem to be a significant hiatus in dated sites and fauna! indicators that suggest its cultural/adaptive alignment no evidence for an "early Magdalenian" in this region. (The with the central and western Pyrenees in Magdalenian times.) "early Magdalenian" site of Lassac, dated to 16,750 ± 250 BP The highest mountains are in the central sector; not much hig­ amd the "middle Magdalenian" site of Gazel, dated to 15,070 her than the Picos de Europe, they too were glaciated in the ± 270 BP, are both well outside the region, north of Last Glacial, but, unlike them, still bear small remnant gla­ Carcassonne.) Cylindrical section harpoons appear in the ciers. Like the Cantabrian Cordillera and Picos, the Pyrenees Pyrenees around 12,500 BP and are replaced by flat-sectio­ drop much more steeply and deeply on the northern side than ned ("Azilian") ones around 11,000 BP (or perhaps at least on the southern (meseta) site, and although the upper moun­ 500 years earlier at sorne sites and a bit more recently at tain valleys basically provide south-north axes of communi­ others). cation, east-west movement is quite easy directly to the north Similarly, the existence of a Périgord-style "early of the chain. Most of the rivers soon trend westward toward Magdalenian" in Cantabrian Spain is problematical, although the Bay of Biscay. (Only the Aude and a few shorter streams there are chronologically old deposits without Solutrean drain eastward into the Mediterranean. The Aude-Garonne points at La Riera (Leve! 19, 3 dates: 16,420 ± 430-15,230 ± watershed is a narrow, low one.) The central Pyrenees are 300 BP; Leve! 20: 17,160 ± 440BP), El Rascaño (Leve! 5: flanked to the north by a parallel chain of low hills, whereas 16,430 ± 130 BP), Ekain (Leve! e: 15,800 ± 350), Erralla the orography of the French Basque Country is once again (Leve! V, 3 dates 16,270 ± 240-15,740 ± 240 BP), and more confused, with many small, meandering valleys and few Urtiaga (Leve! F: 17, 190 ± 190). Previously called direct routes through the foothills. However, even in that "Magdalenian III", the earliest post-Solutrean cultural mani­ westernmost sector, the northern edge of the Pyrenean region festations in the region are now generally referred to as consists of vast, low or moderately low plains (the Aquitaine "Lower Cantabrian Magdalenian", spanning the period from Basin and the Lannemezan Plateau). The continental shelf off 16 or 17 kyr to about 14 or 15 kyr, when the first cylindrical Les Landes is broad and shallow, so the late Glacial shore section harpoons appear in the record at Tito Bustillo (hence, was relatively far to the west of the present coast. A natural the beginning of the "Upper Cantabrian Magdalenian"), division beween this region and the rest of Southwest France Sorne authors identify a "Middle Magdalenian" phase: at La is difficult to define, especially since the marshlands of Les Viña, with dates at l 3,3kyr, this is associated with "contours Landes are probably a postglacial phenomenon. However, a découpés" similar to those of the Pyrenean "Magdalenian distinct linear pattern of Magdalenian sites exists along the IV". Other such finds dating to about the same period have Pyrenees, separated from the sites of Gironde, Dordogne and been found in the "Lower" and "early Upper" Magdalenian Lot by a relatively empty strip, suggesting the reality of a of El Juyo and Tito Bustillo, respectively. The Azilian tech­ Pyrenean culture-area in Tardiglacial times, an impression nology seems to have appeared by about 11,000 B.P. As in supported by distinctive mobile and cave art. the Pyrenees, it and the Final Magdalenian seem to have overlapped within the Allerod, at least within the limits of resolution of the existing radiocarbon dates (with typical sin­ CHRONOLOGY gle standard deviations ranging from about 100 to about 300 years). However, the Azilian seems in general to have begun The Solutrean of the northern flanks of the Pyrenees is somewhat earlier in France than in Spain. essentially undated; most of the majar sites of the period in this region were excavated befare the discovery of radiocar­ bon. With the significant exception of Embulla (situated at PALEOENVIRONMENTS 470 m. above present sea leve! in Pyrénées-Orientales) the French Pyrenean Solutrean sites are in lowlands or at most in The so-called Solutrean-Magdalenian transition in foothills. Cantabrian Spain occurred during the relatively temperate In contrast, the Solutrean of Vasco-Cantabria is well dated. Lascaux oscillation inmediately following the Last Glacial The most recent, coherent determinations from the region are Maximun, well documented palynologically and/or sedimen­ two dates of ca. 17 kyr from Leve! 17 at La Riera (Asturias) tologically at La Riera, Cueva Chufin, El Rascaño, Ekain and and three dates ranging from 17 ,5 80 ± 440 to 16,090 ± 240 Amalda. Following this brief pulse in which arboreal vegeta­ BP from Leve! IV at Amalda (Guipúzcoa). The Solutrean tion (especially Pinus, accompanied by limited quantites of sites are mostly concentrated in the coastal zone and in the various decidous taxa including the Quercetum mixtum Jower river valleys, although a few are found on steep moun­ group) increased (AP ~ 20%, there was a sharp decline in tainsides at moderate elevations. temperatures and humidity. Vegetation in the Dryas I was Leaving aside the question of the normative definition of characterized by relatively dry steppe grasslands, with very such archeological constructs as the "Solutrean" and small stands of pines. The rather intense cold of Dryas I was "Magdalenian", the earliest dated Tardiglacial deposits with­ interrupted by a short oscillation probably corresponding to out Solutrean points in the Pyrenean region are ali in the Pre-Bolling, during which cryoclastic activity decreased. The 14,000 year range and assigned to the "Magdalenian III" later part of Dryas I saw a return to very cold conditions with (Duruthy Leve! 5) or "IV" (Duruthy Leve! 4, Labastide, very few trees. The glacial conditions begin their ultimate 12 LAWRENCE GUY STRAUS

decline in the Bolling, which is represented by levels in seve­ Arboreal pollen percentages went as high as 50% and inclu­ ra! sites (e.g., El Rascaño, El Pendo, Tito Bustillo) and depo­ ded severa! thermophile taxa. The period was marked by high sitional hiati in severa! others. A number of thermophile spe­ humidity. Visible in the deep sea cores, Dryas III, although cies of trees appear, in addition to the ubiquitous pines, in short (ca. 600 yr.) was a fairly brutal return to cold condi­ what must have been a nascent parkland at least in interior tions, with a marked decrease in arboreal vegetation. areas sheltered from the cold sea winds. The extent of clima­ Humidity nevertheless remained fairly high. Reindeer, which tic worsening in the Dryas II is presently in question. had thrived in the Pyrenean region in Dryas 1, survived and However this was a period in which reindeer, never truly were hunted in large numbers throughout Allerod (as shown abundant in Vasco-Cantabria, make their appearance in the by the radiocarbon-dated Final Magdalenian deposits of both archeofaunas of many sites stretching from Guipúzcoa as far Duruthy and Dufaure) Taxed by the effects of that temperate west as eastern Asturias. Although there is controversy period, by competition from red deer (whose abundance stea­ surrounding this issue, it seems that the Upper Magdalenian dily increased throughout Allerod) and perhaps by efficient, began in this time. Localized woodlands (with a variety of specialized hunting by humans, reindeer numbers dwindled thermophile tree taxa, notably hazel) and fems abounded in dramatically in Dryas III, which is ironic since the environ­ the particularly humid Allerod phase. Dryas III is not well mental conditions would seem to have been more suitable to known in Vasco-Cantabria, but at Berroberria and Ekain, tree this arctic species at the time. Because of its ability to seek pollens did decrease sharply and an open grassland briefly cool summer pasture in the Pyrenees, Rangifer managed to reappeared as the dominant vegetation type, albeit with scat­ even survive into Preboreal, when at least the lowlands were tered stands of pines and hazels. The Preboreal, beginning reforested with a wide variety of trees including thermophi­ shortly before 10,000 BP, witnessed rapid reforestation of the les. The consistent presence of small numbers of reindeer region, first with pines and hazels, accompanied by smaller remains throughout the Azilian deposits at Duruthy and numbers of more warmth-loving decidous taxa including Dufaure, which date to Dryas III and Preboreal, confirms ear­ oaks, elms and alders, as well as abundant fems, attesting to lier finds of reindeer in the Azilian of Le Mas d' Azil, Le Trou high humidity. The regional Azilian technologically develo­ Violet and possibly La Tourasse, Massat and Montfort. ped out of the Magdalenian in the late Allerod and Dryas III, Reindeer, extirpated in Périgord since Allerod times, also and continued into the Preboreal. Specialized coastal shell seems to have hung on relatively late in the regions adjoining midden sites (the "Asturian") appear in the Preboreal and the Alps and Jura, with their high summer pastures. Boreal, and possibly also overlap in the early Atlantic period Both in Vasco-Cantabria and especially in the Pyrenean with the appearance of ceramics and domesticated animals. lowlands (better suited for the grazing of large herds), bison The basic Tardiglacial paleoclimatic record of the western and horses were major game animals in the Magdalenian, but and central Pyrenees is, not surprisingly, similar to that of declined sharply in importance in the last centuries of the Vasco-Cantabria. Data are lacking for the period right after Glacial and first centuries of the postglacial. The changing the Last Glacial Maximun (i.e., "Lascaux"), but the regional relative proportions in the natural faunas of Bisan priscus and Dryas 1 was characterized by cold, dry conditions, with rich, Bos primigenius, both of which were present in the open grasslands favorin vast herds of grazing ungulates inclu­ Tardiglacial of both regions, are impossible to accurately ding even saiga antelope recently found in the basal cultural determine due to the great morphological similarity of most leve! at Abri Dufaure (Stratum 6, 2 dates: 14,600 BP). of the skeletal parts of both bovines. Thus the time of extinc­ Coastal areas had vegetation with sorne tundra elements, as tion of bison in these regions is not accurately known. Nor is well as steppe taxa. The Pre-Bolling, noted at Duruthy, saw a the nature and timing of the decline of Equus caballus ade­ modest increase in arboreal pollen, mainly consisting of pine quately documented; it clearly did continue into Postglacial and birch, with sorne thermophiles. After a brief return to times, but probablyin much reduced numbers and herd sizes. very cold conditions (Dryas 1b ), the Bolling, beginning In both regions the Pyrenean ibex thrived in steep, rocky around 13 kyr, was marked by significant increases in trees, habitats, although certainly at lower elevations under the gla­ especially pine and birch, but also hazel, under conditions of ciated conditions of the late Glacial. lt was hunted from spe­ great humidity and relatively mild temperatures particularly cialized upland sites since Solutrean times, a pattern also well in summer. Dryas 11 does not appear in high-resolution deep documented at a number of Magdalenian and Azillan loci in sea cores recently drilled in the Gulf of Gascony/Bay of the Picos de Europa, Cantabrian Cordillera and Pyrenees. Biscay. The oxygen isotope records simply indicate a major, Chamois were probably found in woodlands and thickets, protracted period of warming from around 13 kyr to around especially in rugged (but not necessarily mountainous) 11 kyr, corresponding to the pollen zones of Bolling + terrain. Allerod. There are sorne indications, however, in the sedi­ Red deer was the mainstay of ali Paleolithic human subsis­ mentology and palynology of Duruthy and Dufaure and in the tence in Vasco-Cantabria under ali environmental conditions, pollen of the Lourdes bog cores in the Pyrenean region for a as it is an extremely flexible species in terms of acceptable brief, subtle peiod of cooling before the marked Allerod osci­ climate, habitat and diet. lt was probably an ecological vicar llation. Vegetation, particularly in lowland areas like those of reindeer, slightly outcompeting and thus virtually exclu­ around Duruthy and Dufaure, consisted of rather dense park­ ding it from Vasco-Cantabria (which actually lies to the west land during the Allerüd (itself subdivided into two warmer and not to the south of the reindeer's domain in Gascony). As phases separated by a somewhat cooler, drier episode). the environmental conditions in Gascony became increa- AN ESSA Y AT SYNTHESIS: TARDIGLACIAL ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS IN THE VASCO-CANTABRIAN ANO PYRENEAN REGIONS OF S.W. EUROPE 13

singly unfavorable to reindeer, red deer began replacing it in Magdalenian corresponds basically to the DryasI, but it had Allerod times. Much more strictly indicative of forested con­ begun in Lascaux and it also included Pre- Bolling and ditions, however, are the roe deer and boar, both of which Bolling. Thus this was fundamentally a period characterized become significant elements in the archeofaunas of both by cold climate and open environments, but with episodes of regions only at the close of the Glacial and beginning of the more moderate climate and somewhat expanded thickets, Postglacial. especially in sheltered interior valleys. Since the disappearan­ Other major elements of the Tardiglacial faunas of both ce of Solutrean points and their apparent replacement by regions were members of the Carnívora. Their numbers and antier sagaies, so common in the Lower Cantabrian diversity were thinned through the course of the climatic Magdalenian, seems to have taken place during the course of oscillations of the period from Bolling to Preboreal. Lascaux, it would be hard to ascribe a direct climatic cause to Extirpated or extinguished in these regions in this time period the technological change. However the backed bladelet tech­ (or slightly earlier) were the dhole, arctic fox, cave !ion, leo­ nology, al so very prevalent in the Lower Cantabrian pard, cave bear and hyena. This phenomenon was undoub­ Magdalenian, was already well developed in Solutrean times. tedly in large part related to the decline of large, herding Another aspect of continuity was the nucleiform endscraper, ungulates. abundant in sorne assemblages of both culture-stratigraphic units. The geographic distribution of Cantabrian Solutrean and SETTLEMENT PATTERNS Lower Magdalenian sites is identical; indeed most Lower Magdalenian deposits are underlain by Solutrean ones (i.e., Magdalenian sites have been excavated in Vasco­ the sites of the two entities are usually one and the same). In Cantabria since the 1870's notably beginning with the work general terms, most of the sites are located within 10 km. of Sanz de Sautuola, who also discovered the rupestral art of (Usually less) of the present coast. Most would have been Altamira. Many major sites were first systematically dug in aproximately in the middle of the Tardiglacial coastal plain, the first two decades of this century and many were remar­ Particularly in Cantabria and eastern Asturias. Caves and kably well published owing to the scientific rigor of such rockshelters chosen for habitation in this zone were usually early prehistorians as Alcalde del Rio, Sierra, Vega del Sella low, sheltered from ocean winds by ridges, and facing south and Obermaier. Luckily, however, Tardiglacial archeological to west for optima! solar exposure. These include such major deposits remained in many of the classic sites (e.g., residential sites as Altamira, Cueto de la Mina, La Riera, El Lumentxa, La Riera, Cueva Morín, El Rascaño, Altamira) Juyo, La Lloseta, Lumentxa, et al. (Virtually no open air sites and many more sites have been discovered from the 1950's are known from this period). In the Basque Country (espe­ through the present (e.g., Ekain, Erralla, Amalda, Arenaza, El cially Guipúzcoa) and in the mountainous interior of Perro, La Pila, La Viña, Las Caldas, Cova Rosa, El Cierro, La Cantabria and Asturias, there are major sites along the main Lluera, Entrefoces, et al.) permitting the carryung out of (re-) river valleys (e.g., El Castillo, La Viña, Ermittia) and severa! excavations, many of which have been the subjects of exten­ sites (often smaller e.g., Las Caldas, Hornos de la Peña, sive, multidisciplinary monographs. Severai doctoral theses Ekain, Erralla) on tributary side valleys, which are usually (most of which have been published) have provided extensive steep-sided cuis -de-sac. syntheses and analyses of particular Paleolithic periods Overlapping with the latter two categories are sites which (including the Magdalenian and Aziian) and of individual are located on particularly steep cliffsides on main or side sites (e.g. El Castillo, La Paloma) faunas, pollens and sedi­ valleys in the northern flanks of the Cordillera or Picos de ments. Europa; such specialized ibex hunting camps include Much work has been done to establish a regional chronos­ Collubil, El Rascaño, El Salitre and Bolinkoba. Although the tratigraphy independent of "dating-by-artifacts", however nor elevations of these sites are not very impressive (usually 250- enough Magdalenian sites are as yet radiocarbon dated or stu­ 350 m. above present sea leve!), they lie within only 20-35 died palynologically or sedimentologically to meaningfully km. of walking distance of the present coast, which gives an analyze the settlement pattems of Vasco-Cantabria by indivi­ indication of the abruptness of the terrain. These sites are dual climatic phases. In terms of fossil directors, which when usually adjacent to mountains of about 1000 m. or more in presdent do have sorne temporal value, the Magdalenian height and represent the evidence of the deepest significant deposits can be divided between those without and those with penetration of the interior of north-central Spain (save for a harpoons. Further normative temporal subdivisions have yet Lower Magdalenian specialized chamois hunting site, to be convincingly shwn to have general validity. Neither of Abautz, at about 700 m. above sea leve! on a side gorge of a the two major subdivisions of the Magdalenian (Lower and northern Ebro tributary on the southern flank of the Upper) seems to be represented by many more sites than is Cordillera in Navarra). This penetration of the mountainous the Solutrean; each of the three periods is about 3000 years interior seems to have continued a trend begun in the long and has about 35 known sites. In Vasco-Cantabria, the Solutrean. big increase in site numbers ocurred in the Solutrean (Las Severa! (but by no means ali) major sites (e.g., Altamira, Glacial Maximun), Whereas in the Pyrenees it carne only in El Juyo, Las Caldas, La Viña) were abandoned at the end of the Magdalenian (Tardiglacial). the Lower/Middle Cantabrian Magdalenian. And sorne major In chronostratigraphic terms, the Lower Cantabrian Upper Magdalenian sites seem to have been entirely new, 14 LA WRENCE GUY STRAUS

never before occupied, although located close to other sites d' Azil, Enlene, Espalungue, Brassempouy), has much reme­ with Lower Magdalenian deposits (e.g., Tito Bustillo, El died this situation, but many major sites can still only be Valle). Sorne other sites had been earlier occupied in chronologically placed in a general sense and many publica­ Solutrean times and were then reoccupied in the Upper tions are pending. Sorne eforts have begun to restudy collec­ Magdalenian. However, many of the most important tions from excavations which were competantly conducted, Magdalenian sites (e.g., La Paloma, Cueto de la Mina, La but unfortunately just a little "too early" in this century (e.g., Riera, El Castillo, El Rascaño, Erralla, Ekain, et al.) contain at La Vache, Isturitz) Severa! modern large-scale excavations both Lower and Upper Mgdalenian deposits and usually have been recently complated or are still underway (e.g., at Azilian ones as well. In the case of undated deposits, sorne Les Eglises, Rhodes II, Malarode, Poeymau, Duruthy, assemblages lacking harpoons of either round or flat section Dufaure) and are adding much detail to our knowlege of could actually pertain to late time periods as a result of the Magdalenian chronology, environments, subsistence, seaso­ sites not having had a role in human fishing activities. nality and technology. (Difficulty in distinguishing the three basic culture-stratigra­ As noted above, there seems to be a !acuna in the Pyrenean phic units is particularly great in Asturias, where quartzite record between the Solutrean (none of whose sites are radiocar­ and consequently large, often "crude" flake -and chunk­ bon dated) and the well- dated "explosion" of Middle based artifacts domínate the lithic assemblages.) In sum, there Magdalenian sites at right around 14,000 BP. There are a few seems to be no notable difference in settlement pattems bet­ assemblages attributed on rather vague typological grounds to ween the Lower and Upper Magdalenian divisions. the so-called "Magdalenian III", but only one is from a modern The settlement patterns of the Magdalenian in the excavation (Duruthy, Leve! 5) and it dates to 14, 180 ± 200 Pyrenean region are based on an explosive increase in site BP, which is in the "Magdalenian IV" time range. At adjacent numbers (>70) compared with ali earlier time periods inclu­ Dufaure, the basal leve!, with a small, banal lithic assemblage ding ones of much greater length. Not only are there far dates to 14,600-14,000 BP on the basis of 3 determinations. more Magdalenian sites, but it was in this period that humans The Middle Magdalenian of the Pyrenees is a rather extra­ made the first really substantial use of the mountains themsel­ ordinary phenomenon. Flrst, it is tightly dated at 11 sites by ves. There are open-air sites attributed to the Magdalenian, 24 radiocarbon and 1 thermoluminescence determinations but most of the useful information comes from caves and between about 14,5 and 13 kyr (although there is a certain rockshelters. The overall pattern is a linear distribution of amount of circular reasoning involved in the stage attribution sites along the northern flanks of the mountain chain (in the of dated materials from old collections). Second, it is defined lowlands, in foothill ranges and at the very edge of the chain by a remarkably rich inventory of mobile art works (sorne where rivers break through the mountains to the lowlands) probably purely decorative/symbolic, others practica! arti­ combined with sites in high mountain valleys (notably in the facts), notably contours découpés, spiral motif wands, fawn­ upper valleys of the Ariege and Salat, but also in the Tet, bird motif atl-atls, and rondelles décorées et perforées. Sorne Saison, Bidouze and Nivelle). of these objects are found exclusively or almost exclusively One of the most serious problems that affects the study of in the Pyrenean region and only in this time slice. The main Tardiglacial settlement in the Pyrenees is unevenness of chro­ sites of this well-defined period include Duruthy (together nological precision. The region had the fortune (or misfortu­ with the other sites of the Pastou cluster: Dufaure and le ne) of being heavily researched and looted very early, from Grand Pastou), Isturitz, Espalungue (and severa! of the other the mid- l 9th century through the first half of the 20th cen­ sites at Arudy), Espélugues (and other sites at Lourdes), Le tury. While severa! of the more scientific excavators were Mas d' Azil, Enlene, et al. These and most of the many other titans in the development of prehistory (e.g., Piette, Lartet, sites with deposits attributed to this period are located either Breuil, Saint-Périer, Péquart), their methods-particularly stra­ in the lowland valleys of majar rivers leading toward the tigraphic -were often crude at best by today's- standards. mountains (the Garonne and the Iower Gaves de Pau and Other "antiquarians" conducted monumental diggings in Oloron), in the Pyrenean foreranges (Petits-Pyrénées, many caves and left behind an even more meagre trail of data Plantaurel or Basque hills) or in valleys right below the first and the organized, commerical extraction of cave deposits for majar Pyrenean range where majar rivers break through to fertilizer was conducted on a much larger scale than in the lowlands (the Ariége, Salat, Garonne, Neste, Adour, Pau, Vasco-Cantabria, which of course also suffered its share of Ossau, Oloron and other rivers). There are a few possible early, poorly documented excavation. The upshot of this his­ Middle Magdalenian sites in the higher reaches of the Salat tory is that many major sites yielded great masses of and Ariege drainages (notably Bédeilhac and Fontanet, nei­ Magdalenian (and other) materials that cannot be given more ther of which has been studied in any detail). Obviously these precise chronological attribution (except when the presence categories of site Jocations overlap somewhat, but the main of harpoons lets us know that part or ali of the assemblage point is that, as in Vasco-Cantabria, the settlement pattern pertained to the Upper Magdalenian or certain diagnostic includes both Iowland and upland sites linked by major river works of mobile art indicating the existence of a Middle valleys descending from the cordillera. The largest, richest, Magdalenian). Recent efforts at studying what remains of old probably residential sites are in low, sheltered Iocations, not collections from these sites and dating bones or charcoal from surprising given the cold conditions still reigning in Dryas I. them (e.g., at Labastide, Aurensan, Espélugues, Espéche), As in Vasco-Cantabria, sorne Middle Magdalenian sites sometimes associated with new excavations (e.g., at Le Mas Iack Upper Magdalenian deposits (e.g., Brassempouy), but AN ESSAY AT SYNTHESIS: TARDIGLACIAL ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS IN THE VASCO-CANTABRIAN ANO PYRENEAN REGJONS OF S.W. EUROPE 15

most do and there are also sites that saw their first occupation hunted ibex, which is to say that they were now far the first in the Upper Magdalenian notably in the higher elevations of time exploiting steep, rocky habitats, sometimes in the flanks central Pyrenean valleys. Thus the Upper Magdalenian settle­ of the Cordillera and sometimes on cliff-like slopes of coastal ment pattem, referring to a period of more temperate climate ranges. Chamois were also systematically exploited generally and more wooded vegetation at least at the lower elevations, to a greater extent than they had been befare this time. With is basically similar to that of the Middle Magdalenian. Most increasing farestation, boar and roe deer became more signi­ of the biggest Upper Magdalenian sites are the same as the ficant elements of the regional mamalian fauna and, unlike in middle Magdalenian "super-sites" of the lowland and faothill earlier periods of relatively wooded environments, they too areas (e.g., Isturitz, Duruthy/Dufaure, Le Mas d' Azil). But, were hunted. Of course, horses and bovines continued to be perhaps related to the warming temperatures and retreating important elements of the diet, if only due to their large body glaciers, there are more "mountain" sites, particularly in the size, since large numbers never seem to have been killed at upper valleys of the Ariege and Salat and their tributarles any one time. The first systematic exploitation of ibex and (e.g., Les Eglises, Niaux, La Vache, Rhodes 11 and other sites boars suggest that. Late Upper Paleolithic humans had deve­ around Tarascan-sur-!' Ariege; Bedeilhac and Massat in the loped ways and means for hunting swift and wary animals on upper Salat drainage may or may not have been first occupied the one hand and swift and dangerous ones on the other. The in the Upper Magdalenian). Upper Magdalenian deposits also effective, efficient hunting of these animals, and the mass exist in the mountains of both the western and eastern hunting of red deer imply that the human groups had good Pyrenees (e.g., Berroberria and other sites around Sare and Le sources of infarmation, planning and organizational ability, at Trou Souffleur on the upper Tet). The "conquest of the Jeast situational Jeadership, and projectile weapons. Fairly Pyrenees" continued apace in the Azilian (e.g., La Balma elaborate strategies may have been required to succesfully Margineda, at ca. 970 m. in Andorra.) hunt ibex, far example, utilizing beaters driving a herd (who­ se location had been carefully scouted out the night befare the hunt) toward hidden hunters or toward cliffs too precipitous SUBSISTENCE even for ibex. The large numbers of ibex remains at such Magdalenian sites as Collubil, El Rascaño, El Salitre, Beginning in Solutrean times and accelerating in the Bolinkoba, Erralla, Ermittia, and Ekain are testaments to this Magdalenian, hunter-gatherers in Vasco-Cantabria greatly kind of activity. Solutrean and Magdalenian hunters were intensified the faod quest vis a vis that of their Middle and also for the first time systematically engaged in procuring early Upper Paleolithic ancestors. That intensification had small, burrowing fur-bearers (mostly mustelids and faxes), two aspects: specialization and diversification. Specialization probably through the use of traps. particulary effected the hunting of red deer, a key faod source First documented in the Solutrean of La Riera, and conti­ since Mousterian times in this region. In many Magdalenian nuing in the Lower and Upper Magdalenian of that site and levels (e.g., at La Paloma, Tito Bustillo, la Riera, El Cierro, others, especially in eastern Asturias (e.g., Tito Bustillo, Altamira, El Juyo, El Castillo, Urtiaga, Ekain) Cervus is the Cueto de Ja Mina, Balmori, La Lloseta, Cova Rosa, etc.) and overwhelmingly dominant species, with MNI's of 15-30 per Cantabria (Altamira, El Juyo, La Pila, El Otero, La Chora, leve! typical. Sorne mortality data indicate that mass hunting etc.), marine molluscs became a significant supplementary was involved. Limited sex infarmation far adult deer, coupled faod resource, even when people had to carry them 1-2 hours with the frequent presence of fawns, suggests that sorne of to the sites from the Tardiglacial shore. The main shellfish the hunting in volved the slaughter of herds of hinds with their taxa collected were various species of Patella (mostly P. vul­ young and yearlings. Since most of the deer-dominated sites gata) and Littorina littorea, inhabitants of estuaries and the are on the coastal plains or in broad lower walleys, this makes upper littoral. But, as dramatically shown at La Riera, sense because the female herds are generally faund at lower through the course of the Magdalenian crustaceans and more elevations than the adult males, which are either solitary or molluscan species were added to the diet, including ones grouped into small, fluid herds separate from the females inhabiting the more open, less easily accesible lower tidal except during rut in fa!!. By Solutrean and Magdalenian reaches of the shore. And, as also demonstrated at La Riera as times, humans had developed tactics and weapons far effi­ well as at a number of other sites, the size of the limpets ciently driving, surrounding, and killing large numbers of red decreased fairly steadily through time, at least in part due to deer, probably utilizing cul-de-sac valleys, gorges, rivers, overfishing by the humans. Anadromous fish also seriously deep snow, and other natural features, as well as decoys, dri­ enter the archeological record in this region in the Solutrean ve lines and beaters to their advantage in such slaughters. and increase in their representation in the Magdalenian (albeit Earlier hunters had apparently tended to take red deer in always in small numbers, dueto fragility, as well as poor pre­ much smaller numbers or just one-by-one. servation conditions and/or inadequate recovery methods). Subsistence diversification involved: l.) the more frequent, These include salman and sea trout, as well as trout which systematic hunting of a variety of other medium-small size remain in the freshwater streams. (Vasco-Cantabria remains a ungulates that had been either totally or largely ignored in region with severa! rich trout and salman rivers, despite the earlier periods and 2.) the utilization of aquatic resources and decimation caused by 20th century pollution.) In late perhaps birds. Beginning in the Solutrean and continuing in Magdalenian times these fish, which could have been caught the Magdalenian, Vasco-Cantabrian hunters systematically in streams and estuaries, are joined by a few marine fish 16 LAWRENCE GUY STRAUS

which must have been caught from rocks off the open littoral migration routes between the Pyrenean high pastures and the (or from boats, for which we have no evidence). lowlands and coast of the southem Aquitaine Basin. Bird bones are quite frequent among the finds from modem, The other type of specialized hunting was, as in Vasco­ screened excavations of Magdalenian deposits, and were even Cantabria, that of ibex. The best studied of the hunting camps noted in old excavations. They include both aquatic and terres­ involved in large-scale slaughter of ibex is Les Eglises, high trial taxa. The bones often bear definite cut marks and were on a cliffside on the upper Ariege valley near Niaux, clearly butchered by people, but it is impossible to say whether Fontanet, La Vache and other sites. Almost ali the ungulate they were used for both food and feathers or only for the latter. remains are of Capra pyrenaica. Other specialized ibex-hun­ Ali these data clearly suggest that humans were under pressure ting sites dating certainly or probably to the Upper to maximize their utilization of the food resources availables to Magdalenian include the Monique Hall of La Vache, the them in ali the habitats of Tardiglacial Vasco-Cantabria. In inner chamber site of Bédeilhac and the site of Belvis in the tum, they seem to have placed considerable pressure on sorne eastem Pyrenees. of the animals they exploited by killing many young deer and Another interesting (and somehat controversia!) aspect of limpets. Note that while we have no direct evidence for the Upper Magdalenian subsistence in the Pyrenees is fishing, exploitation of plant foods, which would have been increa­ obviously suggested by the often abundant harpoons at sites singly available particularly in Bolling and Allerüd, there are in the region. Salman are present Upper (and sorne Middle) heavy-duty choppers and bifaces and grinding stones in many Magdalenian levels both in the lowlands and in the moun­ Magdalenian sites; these may have been used to procure and/or tains, along rivers that today or at least until recently were process such foods (roots, nuts, berries ). noted for their runs. Salman bones were consistently noted in Relatively little is known of human subsistence in the the early excavations throughout the region and have been Pyrenean region befare the Magdalenian. Isturitz is essen­ found in substantial quantities in recent work at Duruthy, tially the only site in the region with fauna! information for Arancou and Les Eglises (interestingly, although mammalian the Solutrean, and it is imprecise; horses, reindeer and bovi­ and avian bone is well preserved at Dufaure and one pike nes were hunted, along with sorne saiga. With the Middle bone was found, salman is absent and harpoons are very Magdalenian data become relatively abundant, however few rare.) The Duruthy and Les Eglises remains, because they are are in quantified form. Reindeer was often the most fre­ well documented, are indicative of the fact that in the Upper quently hunted game, followed by horse and then bovines Magdalenian salman fishing was conducted both in the lower (mostly bisan), with trace quantities of saiga (an antelope and upper courses of their spawning runs. However, the much more common on the Dryas 1 steppes of Guyenne to importance of fish in the overall diet is difficult to assess. If the north). Red deer is usually represented in the lowland dried or smoked, salman could have been an especially sites; traces of roe deer and boar in sorne levels are indicative important tiding-over resource for lean seasons such as late of the existence of thickets, perhaps mostly in Prebolling and winter. How fish procurement and processing were scheduled Bolling. Horse is actually the numerically superior species around such crucial activities as reindeer or ibex hunting, sometimes (e.g., at Duruthy), but even when it is outnumbe­ remains to be determined for any individual site. red by reindeer in terms of identified remains and/or indivi­ As in Vasco-Cantabria, bird remains are fairly frequently duals (as at Dufaure and lsturitz), it (and sometimes the bovi­ found in Magdalenian deposits in the Pyrenean region, but nes) may have provided more meat than Rangifer. However, their purpose as food or feather source (for fletching darts or at Enlene (and apparently at Le Porte! also in the central arrows, for decoration, or for clothing) is unknown. At Les Pyrenean foothill range), reindeer is extremely abundant and Eglises, along with the abundant ibex bones and salman is almost the only ungulate present. In sorne respects the remains, there are many ptarmigan bones, suggesting syste­ overall fauna! inventory of the Pyrenean Middle Magdalenian matic driving and netting of these ground-dwelling birds, pro­ is rather diversified, with three (or four) large-medium size bably on their low winter pastures. At Dufaure a substantial ungulates (reindeer, horse and bovines) ali being important to number of owl claws (with definite cut marks) have been the diet (and with red deer having non-negligible significance found. lsturitz records birds throughout its long Upper at sorne sites, such as Le Mas d' Azil, lsturitz and Dufaure). Paleolithic sequence (and even a few in the Mousterian), The situation seems to change somewhat in the Upper though sorne may have roosted and died naturally in this vast Pyrenean Magdalenian, with more sites seeming to become cave. The numbers of bird remains does increase in the more highly specialized in the hunting of one or the other of Magdalenian levels. two medium-size ungulates: reindeer and ibex. At Duruthy Finally, there are sea shells in Magdalenian sites along the and Dufaure, as well as in the collections of older excavations entire mountain chain, those in the central area being as much of Upper Magdalenian deposits at such sites as Gourdan, La as 220 km. from either the Atlantic or Mediterranean coast. Vache (Garrigou Hall), reindeer is overwhelmingly dominant. Shells from both seas are present in many sites. Depending The Pastou sites (probably like many others in this region as on the distance of each particular site from each coast, this in the Périgord) are located in front of a ford and there is evi­ evidence suggests the existence both of contacts and exchan­ dence (in the form of a l 9th century find of reindeer bones ges with groups that included one distant coast in their annual associated with Magdalenian artifacts in a bog on the opposi­ round, and of actual migrations to the other coast on the part te side of the Gave d'Oloron river) that mass reindeer kills of the group directly acquiring sorne of the shells. These were conducted at water-crossings, perhaps on traditional shells (as well as fossils and other "curiosities" such as shark AN ESSA Y A T SYNTHESJS: TARDIGLACJAL ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS IN THE V ASCO-CANTABRIAN ANO PYRENEAN REGJONS OF S.W. EUROPE 17

and cetacean teeth collected by Magdalenian people) were the hypothesis of site use at ali seasons of the year; spring is used for decoration. However, in at least the case of lsturitz, definitely represented by teeth of neonates among Cervus. where there are relatively abundant littorinas in the In Guipúzcoa, where the mountains plunge directly into Magdalenian deposits and where the Tardiglacial shore lay at the sea in most sectors, we have much more seasonality data. a long day's walk from the site, they many have served as At Urtiaga, near the present shore, red deer and ibex were supplementary food. As in Vasco-Cantabria, choppers and hunted at ali seasons during the Magdalenian and at nearby grinding stones have been found in Pyrenean Magdalenian Ermittia they were killed in summer and in early and late deposits and may be evidence of the utilization of sorne plant winter. At ·Aitzbitarte, also not far from the coast near San foods, but this is not yet proven. Sebastián, there is limited evidence of summer reindeer hun­ By and large, Upper Magdalenian subsistence in the ting. In the interior (but still nor far from the present shore: 7- Pyrenean region was fairly specialized, depending heavily on 9 air km. further by foot), the Magdalenian levels of Ekain reindeer and ibex, of course with significant exploitation of show red deer and ibex killing in early summer and fall, and horse, bovines, red deer (particularly toward the end of the those of Erralla show ibex killing in spring, summer, fall, and period) and salman. posibly winter. At Abauntz, on the south side of the Cordillera but within a long day's walk of Aitzbitarte, cha­ mois were killed in summer and fall, which is not surprising SEASONALITY given the site's interior location and high elevation. Ekain, Erralla and Abauntz have ali yielded non-local flints, as well Unfortunately the crucial element of seasonality is still as seashells, as testimony to the movements of people to the­ relati vely poorly documented, particularly in Vasco­ se interior sites from the coast. Shells are present in upland Cantabria. However we do possess enough data to suggest sites in Santander and Asturias as well, sometimes in substan­ that a significant difference may have existed between the tial quantities indicative of a possible subsistence function. two regions in the late Glacial with respect to how To summarize the seasonality information from Vasco­ Magdalenian hunter-gatherers seasonally utilized lowland Cantabria, both coastal and upland sites seems to have been and upland habitats. Naturally one would expect hunter-ga­ used by people at ali seasons of the year. The distances bet­ therer use of the lowlands of the Cantabrian region to be in ween most interior sites (including the specialized ibex-hun­ winter and uplands in summer, particularly as the chief game ting stations) and the majar sites of the coastal zone rarely animal, red deer, is known in areas with hills or mountains at exceeded 30 km. and movements of people between the two present to move to high pastures in summer and to seek shel­ majar habitats must have been very frequent. ter at lower elevations in winter. While Cervus undoubtedly The quantity, nature and results of seaonality studies and did move short distances altitudinally in the late Glacial, the the scale of the exploited landscapes in the Pyrenees were limited seasonality data from mandibular dental eruption and quite different from those of the Cantabrian region. The study wear sequences, long bone fusion evidence, salman vertebrae of long-distance seasonal movements of Magdalenian groups sizes, etc.) from La Riera suggest a tendency for the site to be in the Pyrenees has been an object of study since the begin­ occupied by people mainly in spring and summer during the ning of this century because of the abundance of remains of Lower and Upper Magdalenian periods, despite its lowland, and obviously great reliance on reindeer. As will ali seasona­ coastal plain location. There is only slight indication of fall lity studies based on the biology and ethology of animals, and winter use in two contiguous Lower Magdalenian levels. numerous uniformitarian assumptions have had to be made Red deer bones and teeth and limpet shell rings from the concerning the biology and behavior of Rangifer in the Upper Magdalenian deposit at nearby Tito Bustillo, also loca­ Tardiglacial environments of the middle latitude location of ted on the coastal plain of eastern Asturias, adjacent to the the Pyrenees based on modern observations at high latitudes. estuary of a river leading up to the Picos de Europa, indicate One critica! consideration that is often ignored is the fact that human occupation of the cave at ali seasons of the year (alt­ the nature and scale of reindeer migrations can be very diffe­ hough, of course, not likely continuously). Old fauna! collec­ rent in mountainous regions than in the "classic", usually flat, tions from the Magdalenian levels at Cueto de la Mina, loca­ barren gounds of Canada. lt was noted above that there is ted next to La Riera, confirm the evidence of multi-season ample evidence in the Pyrenees for long-distance contacts or use of the coastal plain. We as yet lack anything other than movements in the form of seashells, shark teeth, fossils, etc., anecdotal information on seasonality form sites located in the and, less specifically, in the form of distinctive art styles mountainous interior of Asturias, but nothing yet suggests a found in Magdalenian sites and in presumed Magdalenian single-season use. cave art sanctuaries from one end of the region to the other. On the contrary, in Santander we lack salid evidence of To prove that human groups actually moved long distances seasonality from the many major Magdalenian sites on the across at least parts of this region in extensive annual subsis­ relatively broad coastal plain, but have good evidence from tence rounds, one has to show their presence at particular ibex remains of use of the upland site of El Rascaño at ali sites in certain types of habitats at sorne season (s) and -more seasons of the year. At El Juyo, a site where majar slaughters difficult to demostrate- their absence from those sites at other of red deer took place in the middle of the coastal plain at seasons. times contemporary with the Lower Magdalenian of El Seasonality studies using modern methods (analyses of Rascaño, the dental evidence does not permit elimination of ungulate mandibular dental eruption and wear, dental cernen- 18 LA WRENCE GUY STRAUS

tum annuli, and long bone fusion status, and studies of chabers of the caves. This hypothesis and the hypotheses of growth rings in fish vertebrae, as well as less reliable studies summer occupations of the mountain sites of Belvis, Massat of cervid antlers) have been carried out on remains from three and Fontanet, remain to be tested, however. modern excavations of Magdalenian deposits in the region: In sum, lowland locations seem mostly to have been used Duruthy and Dufaure in the western lowands and Les Eglises for cold season occupations, whereas mountain locations in the central mountains. Analyses of teeth have also been could be used either for summer residence or for specialized done on a much larger sample of Magdalenian collections hunting and fishing in late fall and winter. Sites right along from older excavations, sorne of which lack all but the most the edge of the mountains, but not at high elevations, are general chronological control. more ambiguous, since they could have used at either cold or At the Pastou sites of Duruthy and Dufaure there is no evi­ warm times of the year, easily exploiting both upland and dence of summer ocupation in Upper Magdalenian times (or, lowland resources and ambushing game during the transitio­ although the data are scantier, in Middle Magdalenian). At nal migration seasons of fall and spring at valley chokepoints Dufaure this is based not only on cementum annuli from rein­ along the routes between mountain and low pastures. deer, but also from red deer, bovine, and horse. At Duruthy, Paleontological measurements from a number of salmon fishing was done in early fall, whereas the absence of Magdalenian sites in the Pyrenean region and in Guyenne salmon remains at Dufaure suggests a human pattern of arri­ show that the reindeer in the former region were larger than val at that site in late fall, after the salmon had already passed those of the latter and were thus probably separate popula­ through the lower course of the Gave d'Oloron en route to ti.ons. The Pyrenean herds probably conducted their full spawning areas in its upper course in the mountains. The annual migratory pattern within that region and did not go Dufaure Upper Magdalenian avifauna contains severa! winter north to Guyenne, as others have argued from time to time. visitor species, but no summer residents. Humans seem to have used the Pastou sites until spring, although there is no way to prove that they were at the sites continuously during MOBILITY STRATEGIES any one year from fall through spring. Reindeer from old Middle Magdalenian collections of Brassempouy (also in the It is proposed on the bases of the information developed lowlands of Les Landes) indicate only spring occupation, above, that the Magdalenian settlement-subsistence systems whereas the reindeer from undifferentiated Middle and Upper operative in Cantabrian Spain and in Pyrenean France sys­ Magdalenian deposits at Isturitz, in the foothills of the tems made differing uses of residential and logistical mobi­ Basque Pyrenees about 30 km. south of Pastou, indicate lity. In the former region most of the large residential sites occupations in late winter, spring and summer. Middle (based on the richness and diversity of their assemblages of Magdalenian reindeer form Espalungue at Arudy, about 70 bone and stone tools and manufacturíng debrís, the abundan­ km. upstream of Pastou on the edge of the Pyrenees, were ce of fauna! remains of many types and species, the thickness killed in spring and summer, while those from the undifferen­ of their deposits, the presence of many features such as pits, tiated Magdalenian of Espélugues at Lourdes, in a similar pavements and hearths) are located on the coastal plain or location at the edge of the mountains about 100 km. upstream along the broad, lower valleys of rivers in the foothills. Bands from Pastou, were killed in summer and fall. may have moved their residential loci among such sites as Further east, in Hautes-Pyrénées and Haute-Garonne, the local foraged supplies of food and fue! were temporarilly mountain-edge, Magdalenian IV-VI sites of Gourdan and depleted or as trash and vermin built up. They generally Lortet have indications of spring, simmer, fall and, at the for­ moved among sites with smilarly attractive features in terms mer, sorne winter utilization, whereas the old excavations at of shelter, insolation, water availability and central location Lespugue in the Save gorge of the Lannemezan Plateau north vis a vis the coast and the mountain edge. Because of the of the mountains yield evidence suggestive of only cold sea­ short distances to the upper river courses and Cordilleran slo­ son occupations. In the foothills of the Ariege, the Middle pes, those habitats could be exploited at ali seasons of the Magdalenian of Enlene and Le Porte! and the undifferentiated year by parties. ~end on short expeditions from the lowland Magdalenian of Le Mas d' Azil give results indicationg sites. There is no evidence of strictly seasonal altitudinal mostly winter and spring reindeer hunting. As expected, rein­ transhumance, probably because ali the resorces of the region deer in the high mountain site of La Vache in the upper were so close at hand even from sites in the middle of the Ariege drainage were killed in spring and summer. However, Tardiglacial coastal zone and because the main game species, ibex teeth and salmon vertebrae form Les Eglises, near La red deer, is not usually a long-distance migrator. It does move Vache, show it to have been occupied repeatedly and exclusi­ altitudinally, but its migrations pale in comparíson to those of vely in late fall/winter. Ibex (and ptarmigan) were killed on its distant cousin the reindeer. The interior of vasco-Cantabria their low winter pastures (driven downslope by snow) and could of course be used residentially by bands as well as salmon were fished in their spawning waters in the upper logistically by parties, perhaps mostly in summer , but this Ariege. lt has been proposed that La Vache and the nearby remains to be shown. site of Beédeilhac may have been used both in summer as Something closer to a transhumant system seems to have base camps for hunting reindeer on their high pastures and operated in the Pyrenean region. Sites like Duruthy, Dufaure, and as specialized ibex hunting stations in winter, since both Enlene and Le Porte! were coldseason residences. The species are present, but mostly in different (outer and inner) amount of construction, especially at the Pastou sites which AN ESSAY AT SYNTHESIS: TARDIGLACIAL ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS IN THE VASCO-CANTABRIAN ANO PYRENEAN REGIONS OF S.W. EUROPE 19

have good shelter, insolation and strategic values, is evidence ted to demographically rebound) and even into Preboreal at that people repeatedly carne back to these lowland locations. Duruthy and Dufaure (and possibly elsewhere in the When at the Pastou, the humans exploited flint sources in the Pyrenean regían), probably because they could seek cool vicinity of the sites. While it is unlikely that whole human summer pasture in the mountains. However, red deer, which groups moved the entire length of the Pyrenees during an had been steadily increasing from Allerod times, rapidly took annual round, individual bands may have followed or at least their place, causing majar changes in settlement-subsistence intercepted reindeer herds in different parts of their move­ systems. Red deer live in smaller herds and migrate less than ments between upland and lowland pastures, travelling per­ reindeer. The implications far human group and territory size, haps hundreds (but not thousands) of kilometers in a year. mobility and hunting strategies would have been dramatic. Summer residential base loci were thus in or at the edge of First defined in the Pyrenees at Le Mas d' Azil, at most sites the mountains. However, groups based in the lowlands in (except the type site) the Azilian occupations are rather small. winter also dispatched hunting/ fishing parties into the moun­ This is the case, far example at Duruthy, Dufaure and Isturitz, tains. Lithic raw material evidence from Les Eglises shows where the occupied areas are far smaller than in the Upper or that the hunters carne there equipped with artifacts and blanks Middle Magdalenian. Most Azilian levels líe atop Upper of flint from the eastern lowlands. Other lithic evidence Magdalenian ones-in short, the same places were chosen far seems to link sites of the Ariege mountains with lowland are­ occupation. But those places were probably used rather diffe­ as around Mas d' Azil- Enlene. There are flints at Isturitz rently, in the context of much smaller annual rounds, possibly from known sources near the Pastou. In short, the Pyrenean by much smaller co-resident family bands. The increase in evidence suggests substantial residential mobility on a seaso­ true woodland species (boar and roe deer), more solitary and nal schedule and on an altitudinal axis, combined with logís• sedentary than the gregarious, mobile open country game tica! mobility to explotit particular resouces (e.g., ibex, sal­ species of the Glacial, would have contributed to decreasing man, ptarmigan) in a seasonal direction opposite to the funda­ territory size and mobility on the part of the humans. mental regional rhythm of the reindeer migrations. It was in Nonetheless the specialized ibex-hunting site phenomenon the course of the residential moves, tied to the reindeer continued in the Azilian, with such sites as La Balma migrations, that Pyrenean human bands may have exchanged Margineda in Andorra. In the Pyrenean Azilian people were members, objects, information about resource location and finally forced to descend the food chain and eat land snails, condition, and ideas. In the context of the wider "Magdale­ creating huge middens in sorne caves. Nuts and other plant nian" world or community, and despite contacts to Vasco­ foods also probably became crucial. The conditions of the Cantabria, Catalonia, Languedoc and Guyenne, the intensity Postglacial carne as an abrupt shock to the hunters of sou­ of social contacts within the shared ecosystem of the thern France, so highly dependent on reindeer, bisan and hor­ Tardiglacial Pyrenees must explain the distinctive art styles ses right up to the end in the Allerod. Thus it is not surprising of this regían. to see sorne evidence of an early shift to the Azilian techno­ logy in sorne areas and a desperate hanging on to Magdale­ nian ways in other areas in Allerod. When the latter strategy POST-PLEISTOCENE ADAPTATIONS: became totally impossible, it is understandable taht the entire CHANGE VERSUS CONTINUITY system of widespread residential mobility, seasonally large co-resident groups, and a rich intra-regional social, symbolic The Azilian of Cantabrian Spain and Southwest France is and cybernetic existence carne to a rather sudden end. Here technologically an offshoot of the Magdalenian, usually with the Azilian really represented a period of sharp readjustment fewer formal too! types, simpler manufacturing techniques using the technolgical and topographical knowledge of the often emphasizing flake blanks, fewer burins, more (espe­ past in arder to survive in a radically new world. cially short) endscrapers, little mobile art (save sorne engra­ In contrast. In Cantabrian Spain, where reindeer had never ved bones and cobbles and, exceptionally, cobbles painted been dietarily important and where horse and bisan had had with geometric designs or dots) and simple, undecorated, flat­ only limited importance, the end of the Glacial carne as much section harpoons in place of the often elegant, sometimes less of a shock. The same key food resources (red deer and decorated round-section Magdalenian ones. As noted above, ibex) remained. Indeed, the shift toward a diversified, there is evidence that the development of the Azilian techno­ "Mesolithic-type" subsistence had been gradually occurring, logy occurred earlier in sorne parts of France than in probably because of regional population pressure, since Cantabrian Spain. Here we are concerned with the nature of Solutrean times. Shellfish, crustaceans, fish, birds and pro­ the change in adaptations that happened at the end of the Last bably nuts, roots, berries and seeds were not new. Azilian Glacial, a period of great climatic and environmental instabi­ levels almost always lie above Upper Magdalenian ones. But lity. by Preboreal times the coastal cave sites often became Humans in the Pyrenean regían seem to have increasingly "Asturian" dumps far shells and other bulk grabage, while heavily exploited reindeer even after optima! conditions far Azilian-type sites with their lithic armatures continued to this species had ended in Allerod. Whether humans contribu­ exist in the interior hills and mountains, sometimes in asso­ ted to Rangifer's eventual local extinction would be worth ciation with specialized ibex hunting. Exploitation of red and investigating. A few reindeer survived through the better con­ roe deer, boar, birds and fish went on much as befare in simi­ ditions of Dryas III (but were apparently already too decima- lar!y small, only now more wooded, territories. Gane was the 20 LA WRENCE GUY STRAUS

cave art, but little else seems to have changed; a longstanding same mountain chain and the same technological and artistic trend in human adaptations simply continued. By the time of traditions continued to go their separate ways. Their people, the tardy arrival in Vasco-Cantabria of domesticated animals members of what archeologists have called the Magdalenian and ceramics, the preexisting societies simply seem to have and Azilian traditions, were part of a broader community of grafted the new food sources and artifacts onto their already interactions, but practica! circumstances led them to seek highly diversified system. Perhaps majar change carne only somewhat different Iifeways. So too in the modern European with the Bronze Age? Community may the Pyrenees, Gascony, Euskadi, Cantabria So two adjacent regions, at the same latitude, sharing the and Asturias enjoy their different solutions!. AN ESSA Y AT SYNTHESIS: TARDIGLACIAL ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS IN THE VASCO-CANTABRIAN ANO PYRENEAN REGIONS OF S.W. EUROPE 21

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LPM: Le Pe11pfe111ent Magadalé11ie11 (J. P. Rigaud, H. Laville & B. Vandermeersch, eds.), CTHS, Parí~. Labastide. Munibe 40:21-44 SPA: Sodéré Préhistorique de I' Ariege. CLOT, A. & J. OMNES. 1979. Premiers datages radiocarbo­ SPE Sodété Préhistorique Fram;ube, ne du Magdalénien des Hautes-Pyrénées. Bull. SPF 76:324-339. ALTUNA, J. 1972. Fauna de los yacimientos prehistóricos de CLOTTES, J. 1976. Les civilisations du Paléolithique supé­ Guipúzcoa. Munibe 24: 1-464. rieur dans les Pyrénées. In LPF, pp. 1214-1231. ALTUNA, J., A.BALDEON & K. MARIEZKURRENA. CLOTTES, J. 1989 Le Magdalénien des Pyrénées. In MEE. 1985. Cazadores Magdalenienses en la Cueva de Erralla. pp. 281-357. Munibe 37:1-206. CLOTTES, J., Arl. LEROI-GOURHAN, E.BAZILE­ AL TUNA J. & J. MERINO. El yacimiento Prehistórico de la ROBERT, F. DELPECH & O. LEGALL 1983. La caverne Cueva de Ekain. Sociedad de Estudios Vascos, San des Eglises a Ussat. Bull. SPA 38:23-118. Sebastián. CLOTTES, J. & R.SIMONNET 1979. Le paléolithique final ALTUNA, J., A. EASTHAM, K. MARIEXKURRENA, A. dans le Bassin de Tarascon-sur-Ariege. In LFTGE, pp. SPIESS & L. STRAUS 1991. Magdalenian and Azilian 647-659. hunting at the Abri Dufaure. Archaeozoologia 4: 87-108. DELPECH, F. 1983. Les Faunes du Paléolithique Supérieur ARAMBOUROU, R. 1976. Les civilisations du Paléolithique dans le Sud-Ouest de la France. CNRS, París. supérieur dans le Sud-Ouest (Pyrénées-Atlantiques, DELPORTE, H. 1985, Fouilles de Brassempouy en 1982, Landes). In LPF, pp. 1237-51. 1983, et 1984. Bulletin de la Société de Borda 110:175- ARAMBOUROU, R. 1978. Le Gisement Préhistorique de 489 Duruthy. SPF, Mémoires 13. DUPLESSY, J., G.DELIBRIAS, J.TURON, C.PUJOL & ARIAS, P. & C. PEREZ. 1991. Las excavaciones arqueológi• J.DUPRAT 1981. Deglacial warming of the northeastern cas de la Cueva de Los Canes. Excavaciones Atlantic Ocean. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Arqueológicas en Asturias 1987-90, pp. 95-101. Palaeoecology 35:121-144. BAHN, P. 1977. Seasonal migration in South-west France DUPRE, M. 1988. Palinología y Paleoambiente: Nuevos during the Late Glacial peiod. Journal of Archaeological Datos Espaíioles. Servicio de Investigación Prehistórica, Science 4: 245-257. Valencia. BAHN, P. 1982. Intersite and inter-regional links during the FERNANDEZ-TRESGUERRES, J. 1980 El Aziliense en las Upper Paleothic: the Pyrenean evidence. O:iford Journal of Provincias de Asturias y Santander. CIMA, Monografías 2. Archaeology 1: 247-288. FORTEA, J. 1989. El Magdaleniense medio en Asturias, BAHN, P. 1984. Pyrenean Prehistory. Aris & Phillips, Cantabria y País Vasco. In MEE, pp. 419-440. Warminster. FORTEA, J. M. CORCHON, M. GONZALEZ, A. ROGRI­ BARANDIARAN, l. 1988. Datation C 14 de l'art mobilier GUEZ, M. HOYOS, H. LAVILLE, M. DUPRE & J. FER­ magdalénien cantabrique. Bull. SPA 43: 63-84. NANDEZ. 1990. Travaux Récents dans lés vallées du BARANDIARAN, l., L.FREEMAN, J.GONZALEZ ECHE­ Nalón et du Sella. In L'Art des Objets au Paléolithique (J. GARA Y & R.KLEIN. 1985. Excavaciones en la Cueva del Clottes, ed. ), vol. 1, pp. 219-244. Ministere de la Culture, luyo. CIMA, Monografias 14. Paris. BARANDIARAN, l. & A. CAVA 1989. El Yacimiento FREEMAN, L. 1973. The significance of mammalian faunas Prehistórico de Zatoya. Trabajos de Arqueología Navarra from Paleolithic occupations in Cantabrian Spain. 8. American Antiquity 38:3-44. BEGOUEN, R., J. CLOTTES, Arl. LEROI-GOURHAN, FREEMAN, L. 1981. The fat of the land: notes on Paleolithic C.THIBAULT, F.DELPECH & H.DUDAY. 1981. diet in Iberia. In Omnivorous Primates. (R. Harding & G. Nouvelles fouilles dans la Salle des Morts de la caverne Teleki eds.), pp. 104-165. Columbia University, New d'Enlene XXI Congres Préhistorique de France, vol. I, pp. York. 33-70. GEDDES, D., M. BARBAZA, J. VAQUER & J. GUILAINE BERNALDO DE QUIROS, F., et al, 1992, Nouvelles don­ 1986. Tardiglacial and Postglacial in the eastern Pyrenees nées sur la transition Magdalénien supérieur-azilien. La and western Languedoc. In The End of the Paleolithic in grotte de La Pila. In LPM. pp. 259-269. the Old World (L. Straus, ed), pp. 63-80. BAR S-284. 22 LA WRENCE GUY STRAUS

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