New Contributions on Subsistence Practices during the Middle-Upper Paleolithic in Northern Spain

Abstract

Since the 1980s, research on subsistence practices across the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition in northern Spain has focused on a few sites, namely the caves of Castillo, Morín, Pendo and Lezetxiki. However, new studies carried out at these sites have raised some problems in relation to the traditional interpretation of their contexts. When compared to similar data from other sites, these new data may further improve our knowledge of human subsistence for this time period and region. The taphonomic and zooarchaeological analyses presented here, based on material from the caves of Esquilleu, Hornos de la Peña, Morín, Covalejos, Ruso, Cuco, Cofresnedo and Otero, contribute to current debates about subsistence practices across the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition. They also suggest similarities in the meat acquisition strategies of the last Neanderthals and first Homo sapiens.