To be or not to be: reassessing the origins of portable art in the Cantabrian Region (Northern Spain)

The characterization of the first portable artistic depictions in Cantabrian Spain is crucial for comprehension of the symbolic development of Neandertals and Homo sapiens in the context of the passage from the Middle to the Upper Paleolithic. However, despite the importance of these first graphic representations, their study has tended to lack the application of suitable methodologies to be able to discriminate between graphic activity and other kind of alterations (use-wear, taphonomic, or post-depositional). The present study has examined a significant sample of Middle and Upper Paleolithic lithic and osseous objects from Cantabrian Spain that have been cited as evidence of graphic activity in the literature. The contexts in which the objects were found have been considered, and the objects have been analyzed through the microscopic observation of the marks to distinguish between incisions, pecking, and engraving made for a non-functional purpose (graphic activity) and those generated by diverse functional actions or taphonomic processes (cutmarks, trampling, root marks, percussion scars, and use-wear). The results show that some regional Middle Paleolithic osseous objects display incisions that are neither functional nor taphonomic and whose characteristics are similar to graphic evidence attributed to Neandertals in Europe and the Near East. In turn, the first portable art produced by Homo sapiens in the Cantabrian Spain seems to be limited mostly to linear signs, and no figurative representation can be recognized until the Gravettian. This appears to indicate a particular idiosyncrasy of the region in the Early Upper Paleolithic, which, in comparison with other regions such as south-west France and the Swabian Jura, shows a later and less abundant production of portable art.

Child burials in domestic contexts at an Iron Age hillfort: The Oppidum of Monte Bernorio (Villarén, Palencia)

The practice of child burials underneath house floors in the Late Prehistory has been considered a characteristic trait of the Iberian religion. However, this custom has also been documented in different archaeological sites both in the Mediterranean and Central Europe as well as Celtic areas of the Iberian Peninsula, so we can explain this funerary practice by an Indo-European origin. We report the archeotanatological and osteoarcheological study of 10 subadults found in the Iron Age site of Monte Bernorio oppidum, the first archeological site in the western and central Cantabrian region with this funerary rite documented. It is the confirmation of both, the survival of an ancient funerary ritual, widely extended in all Europe, and its presence in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. We also review all the archeological sites in the Iberian Peninsula with similar archeological contexts and analyse the rite from the bioarcheology of the care.

The unevenness of the north Iberian crustal root, a snapshot of an elusive stage in margin reactivation

Crustal roots are identified in collision chains worldwide. Frequently mirroring the summits of mountain systems, they elegantly encapsulate the concept of isostasy. The rugged topography of northern Iberia results from convergence with the European plate during the Alpine orogeny that formed the Pyrenean-Cantabrian mountain range. From east to west, the range comprises three distinct parts: the Pyrenees, the Basque Cantabrian region, and the Cantabrian Mountains. The identification of the Pyrenean root in the 1980s and the observation of a similar geometry beneath the Cantabrian range in the 1990s gave place to the current view of crustal thickening as a continuous feature, resulting from the northward subduction of Iberian crust. Recent developments in rift architecture have delivered a complex rifting template for the area prior to convergence, and contrasting views based on two-dimensional restorations have led to a debate over its evolution. A crucial geophysical constraint is Moho topography. Using two different data sets and techniques, we present the most accurate Moho surface to date, evidencing abrupt changes throughout the orogen. The complexity of hyperextended margins underlies the current Moho topography, and this is ultimately transferred to the nonuniform orogenic pattern found in northern Iberia.

A chrono-cultural reassessment of levels III-V from El Cuco rock-shelter: a new sequence for the late Middle Palaeolithic – early Upper Palaeolithic boundary in the Cantabrian region (northern Iberia)

The Iberian Peninsula is one of the key areas for studying the last populations of Neanderthals and the arrival in Europe of the first anatomically modern humans. In the Cantabrian region, this process can be traced in just a few sites with levels dating to the final stages of the Middle Palaeolithic and the earliest phases of the Upper Palaeolithic. One of these singular enclaves is El Cuco rock-shelter, where the sequence was initially dated by 14C only to the early Upper Palaeolithic sensu lato. However, new studies and datings now place this archaeological sequence in the late Mousterian and the Aurignacian. In this article we present a chrono-cultural reassessment of the upper levels of El Cuco (III-V), including a study of the large mammals. Levels Vc and Vb (>43.5-40.5 ky uncal BP) date from the late Mousterian, whereas levels Va, IV and III (c. 36.5-30 ky uncal BP) cover an interval extending at least from the Early Aurignacian to the Evolved Aurignacian. Particularly noteworthy is the discovery in level Va of a set of decorative beads made from marine shells in a context of possible symbolic behaviour.

The diffusion of maize in the Cantabrian region and its economic and demographic consequences during the Ancient Regime

The cultivation of maize for human consumption started to spread through the Cantabrian region around the end of the sixteenth century. The adoption of the new crop was encouraged by the advent of the Little Ice Age, and the resulting crisis of subsistence, which forced Cantabrian peasants and farmers to search for alternatives to wheat. The importance of maize increased steadily and by the nineteenth century it had become the most important crop grown in the region. This had a number of economic and demographic consequences. In particular, it allowed peasants to produce a surplus that enabled them to become more involved in local and regional markets, providing an essential profit for otherwise precarious farm economies; and it encouraged such markets to become more integrated and more flexible in character. This article explores these issues by focusing on the case of Gipuzkoa, an area with a large amount of previously unused documentary sources.

Lithic Raw Material in the Cantabrian Region: Dialectical relationship between flint and quartzite in the Palaeolithic record

The increase, in quantitative and qualitative terms, of research attending to the geological nature of rocks found in archaeological contexts is changing our perspectives about social and economic territories articulated by Palaeolithic societies in the Cantabrian Region. Practically the only raw material researched in a solid geoarchaeological approach in this area is flint. This paper addresses how the near absence of in-depth geoarchaeological research into raw materials other than flint is modifying our perception of the procurement and management mechanism of raw material in the Cantabrian Region during the Palaeolithic. To consider this matter in depth, we present the bibliographic and quantitative analysis of 30 representative archaeological sites from the Cantabrian Region whose assemblages were described lithologically using basic and primary categories. The state of play depicts a geographic distribution of raw material in the Cantabrian Region where quartzite is associated with the western sector and flint with the east. Interconnected with this axis, there is a chronological tendency that promotes standardisation in the use of flint by Palaeolithic societies following a chronological order, from the older to the more recent periods. This information, and its contextualisation with the new perspectives resulting from the application of the geoarchaeological proposal used to understand flint procurement, allows us to understand the general tendencies of raw material distribution of the region. Especially, we can detect how the absence of geoarchaeological methodologies of other raw materials than flint has modified the perception of the economic and social dynamics articulated around raw material by Palaeolithic people. This bias does not only affect the geographical and chronological axes, emphasising information from the regions and periods where flint is represented, but also promotes the over-interpretation of long-distance procurement, therefore, building up narratives exclusively based on human mobility. This situation has generated an incomplete and unbalanced picture of the procurement and management strategies followed by Palaeolithic societies because quartzite, the second most-often used lithic raw material, and other raw materials have only been studied using geoarchaeological methods within the last few years. This research finally points to the continuation of in-depth research of quartzite and other raw materials as the next steps to re-interpret the current paradigms about procurement and management of raw material by Palaeolithic societies, and, therefore, modify our perspectives of social and economic territories. The research presented here addresses this situation and proposes the in-depth research of quartzite as the next step to re-interpret the current paradigms about procurement and management of raw material by Palaeolithic societies, and, therefore, modify our perspectives of social and economic territories. To do so, we have proposed a general raw material framework in the Cantabrian Region based on the 30 most representative sites whose assemblages were described lithologically using basic and primary categories. The state of the art depicted a geographic distribution of raw material in the Cantabrian Region where quartzite is associated with the western sector and flint with the east. Interconnected with this axis, there is a chronological tendency that promotes standardisation in the use of flint by Palaeolithic societies following a chronological order, from the older to the more recent periods. This information, and its contextualisation with the new perspectives resulting from the application of the geoarchaeological proposal used to understand flint procurement, allows us to understand the bias derived by the absence of geoarchaeological methodologies of other raw materials than flint. These biases are not only related with the geographical and chronological axes, emphasising information from the regions and periods where flint is represented, but also with the overinterpretation of long-distance procurement, therefore, promoting narratives exclusively based on human mobility.

Scientific modelling can be accessible, interoperable and user friendly: An example for pasture and livestock modelling

This article describes the adaptation of a non-spatial model of pastureland dynamics, including vegetation life cycle, livestock management and nitrogen cycle, for use in a spatially explicit and modular modelling platform (k.LAB) dedicated to make data and models more interoperable. The aim is to deliver an existing, locally successful monolithic model, into a more modular, transparent and accessible approach to potential end users, regional managers, farmers and other stakeholders. This allows better usability and adaptability of the model beyond its originally intended geographical scope (the Cantabrian Region in the North of Spain). The original model, named Puerto, is developed in the R language and includes 1,491 lines of code divided into 13 script files and linked to 19 input tables. The spatiotemporal rewrite is structured around a set of 10 namespaces called PaL (Pasture and Livestock), which includes 198 interoperable but independent models. The end user chooses the spatial and temporal context of the analysis through an intuitive web-based user interface called k.Explorer. Each model can be called individually or in conjunction with the others, by querying any PaL-related concepts in a search bar. A scientific workflow is built as a response, which is run to produce result datasets and a report with information on the data sources and modelling processes used, delivering results with full transparency. We argue that this work demonstrates key steps needed to create more Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR) models. This is particularly essential in environments as complex as agricultural systems, where multidisciplinary knowledge needs to be integrated across diverse spatial and temporal scales in order to understand complex and changing problems.