Unravelling Subsistence and Territorial Management Strategies in the Upper Solutrean at El Cierro Cave (Ribadesella, Asturias, Spain)

Abstract

[EN]The Solutrean period in Cantabrian Spain runs from between ca. 24 and 19.5 ky cal BP, that is from the Heinrich Event 2 to the early part of Greenland Stadial-2b. El Cierro cave (Ribadesella, Asturias, Spain) presents one of the most complete Upper Palaeolithic stratigraphical sequences in northern Spain; it has two levels (Cierro H2 and H1) dated by radiocarbon ca. 22 ky cal BP that contain abundant biotic and abiotic remains. In this paper we present the results of the zooarchaeological and taphonomic analysis of the Upper Solutrean levels of El Cierro. These remains correspond entirely to vertebrates, mainly large mammals, and to a much lesser extent fish and birds. Through the taphonomic analysis of the bones we determine the role that the different animal resources played in the diet of the Upper Solutrean hunter-gatherers at El Cierro by analysing the ways in which prey were acquired, processed and consumed. This allows us to understand the ways in which human groups made use of the surrounding environment for their survival and the type of exploitation they carried out of the faunal resources, and to compare the results obtained in the subsistence strategies of El Cierro with other sites in Cantabrian Spain.