Ressources complémentaires et mobilité dans le Magdalénien cantabrique. Nouvelles données sur les mammifères marins, les crustacés, les mollusques et les roches organogènes de la Grotte de Las Caldas (Asturies, Espagne)

Abstract

Some animal and mineral resources, rarely identified in the levels of the Cantabrian Magdalenian, were exploited by the Paleolithic populations of the Nalón Valley (western Asturias) at the end of the Pleistocene. In this research, we present some of them, preserved in the Las Caldas Cave: dental remains and representations of marine mammals, marine crustaceans and molluscs, and diverse remains of amber and jet. These were selected, collected in ecosystems far away from the cave and, finally, transformed by the groups. These remains seem to complement the common resources exploited in Magdalenian paleoeconomy (e.g., ungulates, birds, fish, small carnivores, vegetables, flint, quartzite, quartz) recovered and exploited biotopes closest to the site. Our aim is thus to confirm a certain mobility of these communities towards the specific sources of raw material in search of subsistence resources potentially used in the activities of these communities (e.g., food, technology, social and symbolic expression, exchange).