Where to and what for? Mobility patterns and the management of lithic resources by gravettian hunter-gatherers in the Western Pyrenees

Abstract

Although it may seem paradoxical, the mobility patterns of nomadic Paleolithic hunter-gatherer groups are usually discerned based on the study of a single, static site. By statistically analysing patterns of lithic procurement at the Gravettian camp of Ametzagaina (Basque Country), we attempt to interpret how different raw material types influenced mobility and technological preferences. In order to overcome the static view created by analyzing a single site, this study provides new methodological keys with which to approach this question. Because this site is located very near a critical corridor between France and the Iberian Peninsula at the western end of the Pyrenees, it contains lithic materials from both sides of the mountain chain. It is argued that these materials were used differently according to their original source location and their physical characteristics (e.g., quality, size, shape). This information is compared with data from other Gravettian sites across the same region and on both sides of the Western Pyrenees.