The nature and chronology of human occupation at the Galerías Bajas, from Cueva de Ardales, Malaga, Spain

Abstract

The Cueva de Ardales is a hugely important Palaeolithic site in the south of the Iberian Peninsula owing to its rich inventory of rock art. From 2011–2018, excavations were carried out in the cave for the first time ever by a Spanish-German research team. The excavation focused on the entrance area of the cave, where the largest assemblage of non-figurative red paintings in the cave is found. A series of 50 AMS dates from the excavations prove a long, albeit discontinuous, occupation history spanning from the Middle Palaeolithic to the Neolithic. The dating of the Middle Palaeolithic layers agrees with the U/Th dating of some red non-figurative paintings in the entrance area. In addition, a large assemblage of ochre lumps was discovered in the Middle Palaeolithic layers. Human visits of the cave in the Gravettian and Solutrean can be recognized, but evidence from the Aurignacian and Magdalenian cannot be confirmed with certainty. The quantity and nature of materials found during the excavations indicate that Cueva de Ardales was not a campsite, but was mainly visited to carry out non-domestic tasks, such as the production of rock art or the burial of the dead.

35,000 years of recurrent visits inside Nerja cave (Andalusia, Spain) based on charcoals and soot micro-layers analyses

“…This is a period that has already been detected in the east of the Iberian Peninsula with occupations that include the characteristic industry and personal ornamentation [33][34][35][36][37][38][39] . This second dating would be one of the few evidences of recent Aurignacian in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, coeval with the recently published dates obtained in a sector near the prehistoric entrance of the Ardales cave 40 (Supplementary information S8).…”

Hanging over the Void. Uses of Long Ropes and Climbing Rope Ladders in Prehistory as Illustrated in Levantine Rock Art

“…Another large calcified piece of rope recovered in ‘Sala de las Estrellas’ at Ardales cave was believed to have been used in prehistoric times to access a group of black hand stencils located in a 4 m drop (Cantalejo et al 2014, 133; Gutiérrez & Martín Lerma 2014–15). However, recent direct dating of the rope has revealed that it was placed there in the sixteenth–seventeenth century, demonstrating how important it is to date this sort of evidence to confirm the age (Ramos-Muñoz et al 2022). At Ohalo II (Israel) some remains have been dated to 19,000 years bp (Nadel et al 1994).…”