[EN] In recent decades, research on the subsistence strategies of Neanderthal groups in the Spanish Cantabrian
region has advanced our knowledge of the ways in which these hunter-gatherer groups organised
subsistence-related tasks during MIS 3. This paper offers new insights on this issue through El Cierro
cave (Asturias), a site with one of the most complete archaeological sequences in Cantabrian Spain,
with chronologies ranging from the late Pleistocene to the early Holocene. Here we present the results
of the archaeozoological and taphonomic analysis of the Mousterian level (Cierro N), whose faunal
remains come from the archaeological campaigns carried out in the cave in 2016. In this research
we present a new radiocarbon dating for Cierro N, which places the archaeological deposit between
c. 57 and 45 ky cal BP. The results obtained from the archaeozoological study indicate the presence
of macromammals and birds at Cierro N, the first being the most abundant. Taphonomic analysis
has revealed the anthropic manipulation of the remains of red deer, Iberian ibex and large bovids by
Neanderthal groups. Carnivores are present at the site and have generated modifications on some
elements of the archaeozoological record. In addition, a series of natural taphonomic alterations has
been documented, which have allowed us to determine the processes of transformation of the stratigraphic
level. These aspects have allowed us to compare the subsistence patterns of the Mousterian
groups from El Cierro with other sites of similar chronology in Cantabrian Spain.
