• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
Journal
of
World
Prehistory,
Vol.
12, No. 2,
1998
The
Upper Paleolithic
in
Mediterranean Spain:
A
Review
of
Current Evidence
Valentin
Villaverde,
1
J.Emili Aura,
2
and C.Michael Barton
3
In
spite
of an
active
and
sophisticated archaeological research program,
the
Paleolithic of the Iberian
peninsula
remains comparatively little
known
toEnglish-speaking prehistorians, with
the
exception
of
Cantabrian Spain.
Therich data set
compiled
by
Spanish prehistorians
and
their colleagues over
the
past
several decades stands to
make
a valuable and unique contribution to
our
understanding
of the
Pleistocene prehistory
of
Europe.
We
present
adetailed
overview
of
Upper
Paleolithic chronology, sites,
and
assemblages
forMediterranean
Spain,anareaofover 1,600,000km
2
that extendsfrom the
French
border
to the
Straits
of
Gibraltar.
To
interpret
these data,
we
employ
a
regional perspective that emphasizes studies
of
paleoeconomy
(especially
zooarchaeology)
andsettlement.TheMiddle-Upper Paleolithic transitionand
Upper
Paleolithic
art
also receive detailed treatment,
and the
Upper
Paleolithic
of
Mediterranean Spain
is
discussed
in the
broader context
of the
late
Upper
Pleistocene
of
western Europe
and the
Mediterranean Basin.
INTRODUCTION
To
the
extent
that
most prehistorians
are
familiar
with
the Paleolithic
of
Spain,
it is with the
sites
of
Cantabria,
with
their
rich
parietal
art and
1
Departament
de
Prehistoria
i
Arqueologia, Ava. Blasco Ibanez
28,
Universitat
de
Valencia,46010 Valencia, Spain. Fax: 34(6) 386 42 49. e-mail: valentin.villaverde@uv.es
2
Departament de Prehistoria i Arqueologia, Ava. Blasco Ibanez 28, Universitat de Valencia,46010 Valencia, Spain; and Museu Arqueologic d'Alcoi, Plageta del
Carbo
s/n.
03800
Alcoi,Spain. Fax: 34 (6) 386 42 49. e-mail: jeaura@uv.es
3
Department
of Anthropology and Archaeological Research Institute, P.O. Box 872402,Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287-2402, USA. Fax: 1 (602) 965-7671; e-mail:michael.barton@asu.edu
KEY
WORDS:
Spain; Upper Paleolithic; Mediterranean; art; paleoeconomy.
121
0892-7537/98/0600-0121S15.00/0
©
1998
Plenum
Publishing
Corporation
 
Upper Paleolithic sequences,
and
more recently with
the
spectacular LowerPaleolithic discoveries near Atapuerca (also
in
northern Spain).
As
impor-tantasthis regionis, it is notuniquein thepeninsula. However,for a
variety
of historical and other reasons, the prehistory of the rest of theIberian peninsula is considerably less
well
known. The objective of this pa-
per is to
present
an
overview
of
current evidence
for the
Upper
Paleolithic
in
the Mediterranean zone of the Iberian peninsula, the focus of consid-erable recent research. Becauseofthis objective, muchof thediscussion
is
descriptiveinnatureand anextensive References sectionisprovided.Interpretive syntheses are not lacking for
this
region, however. A few aresummarized here,
and
citations
to
numerous others
are
provided.
In
broad syntheses
of the
European Upper Paleolithic,
the
Mediter-ranean provinces of the Iberian peninsula, or the Spanish Levant as theyare sometimes called, are commonly treated as
culturally
distinct
from
the
better
known Franco-Cantabrian zone. Instead, they
are
more oftengrouped
with
the Upper Paleolithic of the western Mediterranean and, es-
pecially,
with the Italian peninsula (e.g., Broglio and Kozlowski, 1986; Des-
brosse
and
Kozlowski, 1988; Gamble, 1986;
Otte,
1989).
There
are
indeedbroad environmental similarities that characterize the Mediterranean litto-ral ofwestern
Europe
anddifferentiateit
from
more northerly areas. How-ever,
classifying
the whole of the Upper Paleolithic,
from
the entire extent
of
Mediterranean Spain,inthiswayobscuresthespatialandtemporal cul-
tural
dynamics of the region and presumes an overly simplistic environ-
mental
determinism for human adaptation in the late
Upper
Pleistocene.
We
aim to provide a more realistic overview of the Upper Paleolithic inthe Mediterranean littoral of Spain. While the focus here is on the Medi-terranean area,
we
also endeavor
to
show
how the
regional Paleolithic
se-
quence articulates
with
the
cultural
context of the surrounding regions,especially southern France, northern (i.e., Cantabrian) Spain,
and the
Ital-
ian
peninsula.
HISTORYOF
UPPER
PALEOLITHIC RESEARCH
IN
SPAIN
Beginning in the
last century, Upper Paleolithic research
in the
Iberian
peninsula
focused on the now famous parietal art localities (Altamira, forexample) and a number of other well-known sites in Cantabria and thePyrenees (Gonzalez Sainz
and
Gonzalez Morales, 1986; Straus, 1992;Moure, 1996). This led many workers at the beginning of the twentiethcenturyto differentiate this Franco-Cantabrian region from the rest of theIberian peninsula. Many early synthesesof theSpanish Upper Paleolithic
followed
Obermaier (e.g., 1925) in using the term "Capsian" to refer to
122
Villaverde,
Aura,
and
Barton
 
those industries
from
the
southern
half
of the
peninsula, emphasizing sup-posed linkages between southern Spain and North Africa [but see Siret(1893, 1931)
for an
early alternative view]. This dichotomy between Cant-abria
and the
rest
of
Spain
carried
over into
the
domain
of
parietal art.Both Breuil and Obermaier considered
what
they termed
Arte Levantino
to be a distinctive Mediterranean version of Cantabrian parietal art (Ober-
maier
and Wernert, 1919, 1929; Breuil, 1920; Porcar
et al.,
1935). Until
almost
midcentury, knowledge
of the
Upper Paleolithic
of the
Mediterra-nean region
was
limited
to
studies
by
Siret
in the
southeast, descriptions
of
a few
other assemblages
from
the
southeast (Breuil
and
Obermaier,
1914a,
b) and Andalucia (Such, 1920), and work at Sant
Julia
de Ramis
in
Cataluna (Wernert, 1920).
Only with
the
publication
of
work
at
Parpallo (Pericot, 1942),
in Va-
lencia,
did a
clearer picture
of the
Mediterranean Upper Paleolithic
in
Spain begin to emerge. Beginning in the 1930s, excavations at this site pro-duced
a
rich assemblage
of
lithic
artifacts
and
mobile
art
and,
finally,
es-
tablished a reference sequence for the Upper Paleolithic in theMediterranean zone. Following
the
disruptions
of the
civil
war,
the
late1940s
and
early 1950s marked
the
beginning
of
coordinated work
by
Corominas, Fletcher, Jorda, Pericot, and Pla and saw excavations at siteslike Cova
de les
Malladetes
and
Barranc Blanc
in
Valencia
and at
Reclau-
Viver
in
Cataluna.Subsequently, knowledge
of the
regional Upper Paleolithic
has
devel-
oped
steadily. The Iberic Solutrean (see below) was defined by Jorda(1955),
and
frameworks
for the
terminal Pleistocene
and
early Holocene
industries
were establishedbyJorda (1954)andPericot (1952, 1954).Ex-cavations were undertaken at an increasing number of Upper Paleolithicsites, including
the
Valencian site Volcan
del
Faro (Aparicio
and
Fletcher,1969), Cueva Ambrosio in Almeria (Ripoll, 1962), a series of caves inMalaga (Gimenez Reyna, 1946),
and
additional sites
in
Cataluna excavated
by
Corominas
and
Pericot.
Building
on this research, the late 1970s began a period of even moreintensive and extensive studies that continue today. This work has re-
sulted
in the reanalysis of collections excavated during the
1950s-1970s,
the
excavation
of
numerous
new
sites,
and the
discovery
of
many
new
parietalartlocalities. Figure1shows manyof theUpper Paleolithic sites
known
in
Mediterranean Spain, including those discussed
in the
text
be-
low.
Regional
chronostratigraphic and
paleoenvironmental
sequences
have been considerably refined, there
is a
much better framework
forunderstanding
spatial
and
temporal variation
in
lithic industries,
andstudies
of Upper Paleolithic economy and settlement at regional scaleshave been initiated.
The Upper
Paleolithic
in Mediterranean
Spain
123
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...