Sources of variability in Late Middle Paleolithic lithic technology in Eastern Cantabrian region

Abstract

In the last decades the Late Middle Paleolithic (LMP) of Cantabrian Region has been thoroughly investigated from a technological perspective, resulting in a significant increase of the information available for synthetic approaches (among others: Carrión et al 2008, Maillo 2005, Sánchez-Fernández and Bernaldo de Quirós 2008, Rios-Garaizar 2008). One of the major features of this period is this region is the high degree of variability than can be observed in settlement strategies, raw material provisioning, lithic tool production and use. Precisely, in Eastern Cantabrian Region, the information available from sites like Axlor, Amalda, Arrillor or Lezetxiki evidences this variability. Different technological strategies can be observed through time, for example in Axlor Levallois based technologies are substituted by Quina, but also the use of different technological strategies can be observed inside the same assemblage, as happens in Amalda level VII (Rios-Garaizar 2010). We can see also subtle differences in the way the same technological strategy is applied, as has been observed between Quina technology levels in Axlor (Rios-Garaizar 2005). In this scenario the environmental transformations played an important role creating the conditions which neandertal populations adapted to, but the process of choosing and applying different technological solutions seems to rely more on cultural traditions and socio-economic organization. For example the process of ramified Levallois production is not a simple response to raw material scarcity, but a solution for new productive necessities (Rios-Garaizar et al. submitted). We are going to explore the possibilities of inferring changes in social organization as the source of this variability between Lithic Techno-Complexes form LMP in the Eastern Cantabrian Region.