Piecing together a new mosaic: Gravettian lithic resources and economic territories in the Western Pyrenees

Abstract

To palliate the current scarcity of information about lithic raw materials in the Western Pyrenees during the Gravettian, the study of ten assemblages has explored the flint procurement patterns and economic organisation of the territory. The study was based on the macro- and microscopic analysis of the different lithic remains. A wide range of flint varieties were used, including some excellent rocks for knapping and others of poorer quality. This diversified catchment pattern was defined by the criteria of quality and suitability for reduction. Although procurement took place mostly at the primary outcrops, there is some evidence of limited acquisition in secondary deposits. Within the economic territory of the Western Pyrenees, divergences in the connections between the outcrops on one side of the mountains and the archaeological sites on the other may indicate different territorial or economic roles for each side. In general terms, the northern side may have been more residential with more stable habitation, while the southern side was linked with logistic tasks and more seasonal occupation. The economic connections between this territory and surrounding areas revealed by the lithic resources are the reflection of inter-group contacts and an economic mosaic imbricated with a cultural or symbolic one.

Energy regimes help tackle limitations with the prehistoric cultural‐phases approach to learn about sustainable transitions: Archaeological evidence from northern Spain

“…These changes probably enhanced the progressive transition from residential to logistical mobility, leading to a better understanding of resource predictability by hunter‐gatherers. Interestingly, logistic features were possibly identified for Gravettian groups in the Northern Meseta (south of the study area), while residential features were identified for Gravettian groups in the Western Pyrenees (Calvo & Arrizabalaga, 2020), in an ecological and climatic context closer to our study area. Even though the Gravettian and the Northern Meseta are outside the scope of this work, the LGM and related perturbations of human ecological niches could have forced these populations to reorganise their subsistence strategies leading to important behavioural changes in the Solutrean onwards (Solich & Bradtmöller, 2017).…”

“…These changes probably enhanced the progressive transition from residential to logistical mobility, leading to a better understanding of resource predictability by hunter-gatherers. Interestingly, logistic features were possibly identified for Gravettian groups in the Northern Meseta (south of the study area), while residential features were identified for Gravettian groups in the Western Pyrenees (Calvo & Arrizabalaga, 2020), in an ecological and climatic context closer to our study area.…”

Paleolithic eyed needles and the evolution of dress

“…( 127 , 128 ) and Aitzbitarte III between 28,000 and 22,000 cal B.P. ( 129 ). Eyed needles make an early appearance in the archaeological record of North America, dated to ~14,000 cal B.P.…”

Upper Palaeolithic hunter–gatherer societies in the Basque Country (Iberian Peninsula) in the light of palaeoenvironmental dynamics in the last Glacial Period: cultural adaptations and the use of biotic resources

“…The case of open-air occupations, especially in the Gravettian, has been described above. Six camps, hunting posts or flint workshops are now known, which permits a fuller image of the use of the territory (Calvo, 2019; Arrizabalaga and Iriarte-Chiapusso, 2020; Calvo and Arrizabalaga, 2020). Indeed, although it is still difficult to conciliate the archaeological scale expressed in millennia with the historical scale of the groups or individuals who created the record, knowledge gained in the last decade has allowed us to consider the territorialisation of collectives.…”