3
ebro valley, pyrenees and pre-pyrenees
North-western Atlantic basins.
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Site
Map numbering
Abauntz
25
Arrillor
26
Atxoste
27
Cova del Parco
28
Roca dels Bous
29
Cova Gran de Santa Linya
30
Cova de l’Estret de Tragó
31
Fuente del Trucho
32
Fuentes de San Cristóbal
33
Gabasa
34
Kanpanoste Goikoa
35
Forcas
36
Nerets y Cova de les Llenes
37
Martinarri
38
Mendandia
39
Conjunto del valle del Montsant
40
Pleistocene and Holocene hunter-gatherers in Iberia and the Gibraltar Strait: the current archaeological record
188
area of the site; the selected nodules were tested in situ and then brought into the site. Production of supports was mainly done using simple albeit very economical and fast (discoid) knapping methods and techniques. The supports obtained (cortical products, flakes “à dos débordant”, ordinary flakes and centripetal ones) were mainly transformed into scrapers and, to a lesser extent, denticulated and notched tools, and used, along with unretouched flakes, to process prey (fawn and foals). The low incidence of retouched flakes in the assemblage suggests that some of the tools were brought into the site. The typological differences of level a+c are related to changes in the transformation of supports into tools, characterised by a significant decrease in the group of scrapers and different treatment of the flakes “à dos débordant”, which are not so much transformed into scrapers but are used in a raw state. To summarise, it is a magnificent site that, considering the type of fauna found (ibex, horse and deer dominating over other herbivores and a variety of carnivores, including cave hyena) and the lithic industry recovered, is interpreted as a hunting camp specialising in fawn and foals, which contradicts the cliché of
Alfonso Alday*
Kanpanoste and Kanpanoste Goikoa sites (Vírgala, Álava, Basque Country)
Two shelters are presented together due to their geographic proximity –roughly 200m apart– and their shared stratigraphic sequences resulting from the same activities by Meso-Neolithic communities, parallel to the neighbouring Atxoste site. The shelters are in the southern foothills of Azáceta Pass. Kanpanoste faces west and Kanpanoste Goikoa west-northwest. The first, next to Berrón River, retains a visor measuring almost 12 m long and 2 m wide. The second, more difficult to reach, provides better shelter with a 13m long x 3 m wide roof, although originally it was larger. As usual at sites from this period and zone, their features include a good strategic location, *
peremptory and indiscriminate hunting with a lack of specialisation of the Neanderthals. Subsequent processing of the prey (cutting, deboning and preparation of the skins)would be done using the unvaried but abundant lithic material recovered, which would explain the extraction of flakes from cores in situ and the minimum transformation of these supports into specific tools, points and scrapers, which would be brought along already finished. Some big tools knapped on pebbles (hammers, choppers and chopping-tools) could have been used in butchery tasks. Humans would alternate occupation of the cave with other predators, from season to season, particularly the cave hyena and wolf, which would use it as a den and whose prey would have been mainly ibex. Seasonal occupation of the site would explain the minimum preparation of the site (there are barely any stable hearths, although there is a lot of charcoal in the sediment; the failure to remove the angular clasts, some of which were very big and would have made the settlement very uncomfortable) and the conservation of the fauna, truly extraordinary, given that a minimum amount of the prey hunted was consumed in the cave.
which facilitated surveillance and access to the open spaces of the Arraia Valley and the mountain landscape in the immediate hinterland. Kanpanoste: Archaeological work by A. Saenz de Buruaga in 1990 distinguished three sedimentary units in a 1 m deep sequence, one of which contains two distinct sections (Fig. 1). Lanh Level: 45cm deep, dipping south-north, consisting of a fine, compact silt-clay matrix, blackish in colour, with fewer larger fraction ele-
Área de Prehistoria Universidad del País Vasco (EHU/UPV). Tomás y Valiente s/n 01006 Vitoria-Gasteiz
[email protected]
ebro valley, pyrenees and pre-pyrenees
Figure 1. Top: Stratigraphic section and ecological features of Kanpanoste. Bottom: Stratigraphic section of Kanpanoste Goika.
ments and a major component of Helix nemoralis. It is divided into two units for sedimentological and archaeological reasons. The upper unit (Lanhs) includes blocks, while the lower level (Lanhi) does not. The lithic industry in both units is predominated by campiñoide-style notches and denticulates on flakes, followed by denticulates, sidescrapers denticulates, endscrapers and awls. The lack of microliths on the lower horizon and their presence on the level indicate a differential nuance in a changing industry. This unit also contains an interesting collection of perforated
nasaridas and an atrophied deer canine which were probably part of a personal adornment. The inventory is completed with a set of stone macrotools for use as hammers/retouchers, scraping or processing plants. The scarce fauna includes wild boar, the predominant species, followed by roe deer red deer and chamois. Culturally, the material can be identified with Mesolithic notches and denticulates. Clag Level: The defining feature of this 18 cm deep level is the considerable volume of edged
189
190
Pleistocene and Holocene hunter-gatherers in Iberia and the Gibraltar Strait: the current archaeological record
clasts, associated with a greyish, ash-like silt-clay fraction with a loose structure. It is in erosive contact with the other two strata at both the wall and the ceiling. It is poor in archaeological material, with visits during the Chalcolithic, Neolithic and the late Mesolithic identified from a few denticulates, two geometrics, a speartip with flat retouch and a few flat ceramic fragments. Clam Level: With an average depth of 20 cm, this level contains many angular clasts in a fine brown silt-clay matrix, loose but rough to touch, with a major input of present-day organic matter. This level lack archaeological interest. Carbon 14 dating (Table 1) Level Lanhi Lanhs
Code
BP Date
GrN-22441
8200±70
GrN-22442
7920±100
GrN-22440
7620±70
Table 1. Radio carbon references of Kanpanoste.
Three other analyses have yielded rejuvenated dates due to sample mineralization Kanpanoste Goikoa Archaeological work by A. Alday in 1992 and 1993 detected four sedimentary units, some of which contain several cultural episodes in a one meter thick sequence. Level III-bottom: This level rests on the rocky base of the shelter, limestone with weathering processes which enriched the section with smallsized gravel. Average depth of 20cm, lying on a south-north dip, and also more gently east-west. Fine, silty, compact matrix with no large components except for the base. Dark brown colour. The retouched lithic industry is not large but significant. Half are notches and campiñoide-style denticulates on flake, accompanied by endscrapers and sidescrapers in the same style. Red deer, auroch and wild boar clearly predominated the identified game. Culturally ascribed to Mesolithic notches and denticulates. Level III– top: A more gradual process than the previous level, with a 20cm potential, a lighter brown soil with a homogeneous silty matrix and an increased proportion of angular clasts,
detached from the wall and ceiling of the shelter. Colonies of gastropods, mainly Helix cepaea, are mixed with the sediment, and similarly, numerous charcoal remains resulting of different fires. In fact, a hearth consisting of two rings of limestone blocks organises most of the space. The sedimentation is interrupted by one large and several small blocks which became detached from the roof. Although the notches and campiñoide-style denticulates are the most numerous typological group in the retouched lithic industry, by this stage these items had lost much of their role, replaced by geometric reinforcement (triangles and trapezoids, accompanied by microburins) and backs. Flakes with minimal retouch also made a major contribution. The same fauna spectrum remains, with a slight increase in deer and chamois. This level is culturally ascribed to the geometric Mesolithic. Level II: A steep dip makes its potential (20cm average) vary from one point to another, although it is homogeneous, with very silty soils in a loose, ash coloured structure, with not an excessive amount of angular clasts and limestone slabs. Colonies of terrestrial gastropods were isolated in some sectors, and there is evidence of lit fires in the associations of charcoal and slabs. The worked stone industry has a greater influence than flakes, with a tendency to use simple flakes with marginal retouch and backs as the predominant tools, although geometric items are also present (13 % of triangles, trapezoids and double bevel segments, accompanied by microburins) as are endscrapers (10%). Small pottery shards, a few pebbles and slabs, and a grinder for plant processing complete the record. Wild animals combine with ovicaprids, cattle and domestic pigs. Although the homogeneous sediment hinders an internal breakdown of this level, a detailed vertical analysis of the materials has revealed three cultural horizons: geometric Mesolithic at the base (with an industry that has evolved from the top of Level III); Early Neolithic in the middle (with some ceramics, double bevelled segments, a sickle for cutting vegetable and mill); and initial Chalcolithic at the top (indicated by small tips with flat retouch). Level I: The current floor level, 20 cm deep, has a wedge layout, with a dry, dusty silty matrix in the first few centimetres, light brown tending to yellow, and a quite uneven component of blocks and clasts in its 20 cm depth. There are few lithic items (10 retouched tools), ceramics (19 frag-
ebro valley, pyrenees and pre-pyrenees
Figure 2. Selection of prehistoric materials of Kanpanoste (de A. Cava).
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Pleistocene and Holocene hunter-gatherers in Iberia and the Gibraltar Strait: the current archaeological record
192
ments, one with Boquique decoration), or faunal remains (10 fragments). Carbon 14 dating (Table 2) Level
Code
BP Date
III-inferior*
GrN-20215 GrN-20455
7620±80 7860±330
III-superior*
GrN-20214 GrN-20289
6360±70 6550±260
II*
GrN-20213 GrN-20267
3430±60 4350±60
II (domestic cereal)
GrA-9790
4550±40
II (domestic ovi-caprid)
GrN-202738
4190±100
Table 2. Radiocarbon references for the Kanpanoste Goika site
* The laboratory divided the sample into two (carbonaceous and collagen). Due to the small amount of collagen available and hence the breadth of the standard deviation, the dating for the upper Level III should be accepted with some reservations, given the regional context.
Carlos Mazo & Pilar Utrilla*
The discrete amount of the material inventories for Kanpanoste Goikoa and Kanpanoste (Fig. 2) would rank these sites in a modest position if they were analysed individually. However, their strength lies in their complementarity. They are part of a system of territorial occupation which also involved the Atxoste, Mendandia and Fuente Hoz shelters, as well as several open air sites in Entzia, Urbasa and a few valleys in today’s Alava province. In fact, the Kanpanoste assemblage was used as a basis to describe the Mesolithic notch and denticulate techno-typological unit. The roots of this territory date back to 8600 BP, and remained in place for a millennium. The presence of seashells from both the Cantabrian and the Mediterranean and the circulation of siliceous materials suggest a thoughtful articulation of the space. The features of the lithic industry, flake blanks tending to be carenated and in pieces, denticulate fronts often resulting from recycled material, loss of microlithics, apparent roughness in items which actually follow preset patterns (in which there is a notable lack of hunting equipment) are shared by many sites in the Ebro River basin and the Mediterranean fringe, which shaped a break in the evolution from the early Holocene microflake assemblages to those which characterize the geometric Mesolithic.
Forcas I and Forcas II sites
The Sierra de Castillo de Laguarres and the Sierra de Torón form a pre-Pyrenean structural unit split by the river Ésera where it passes through the Alto Aragon village of Graus. At this point rise Peña del Morrón (599 m) and Peña de lasForcas (635 m), on either side of the river and up to 300 m above the current riverbed. The latter, located on the left bank of the Ésera and of its tributary the Isábena, represents the most western point of the Sierra del Castillo de Laguarres. The place, which stands on the Aquitanian *
Cultural material
Área de Prehistoria. Universidad de Zaragoza.
Miocene conglomerates, records the presence of two prehistoric sites, Forcas I and Forcas II, whose stratigraphic deposits show prolonged occupation, almost continuous, from the Lower Magdalenian up to the Late Neolithic, with two subsequent occupations in the Chalcolithic and early Roman Empire (Fig. 1). In both cases, occupation took place under the protection of narrow, very shallow rock-shelters, generated at the base of the conglomerate by the action of the river. The coordinates of Forcas I are x: 280.125; y:
