Solutrean in Cantabria

Scientists now think the great ice ages of the past were caused by regular modifications in the location of the Earth’s elliptical orbit and one resulted in less summer solar radiation in the northern latitudes around 23,000 years ago. That in turn lead to progressively less ice being melted each year, which in turn nurtured the expansion of ice sheets.

The northern ice sheets began shrinking about 19,000 years ago when changes in the sun’s angles led to more heat in the summer. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet was affected between 14,000 and 15,000 years ago. Both led to increases in sea levels. The middle and late Solutrean fell between these two events.

Ironically, the first warming in France and Iberia led to worse conditions. If you think back to the changes in the Nebraska prairies in the 1930s, mentioned in the post for 28 January 2016, you realize that when the rains returned in 1938, bluestem could reclaim land on its western frontier lost to western wheatgrass. Wheatgrass, however, could not compensate for its lost range by returning farther west because that area had been devastated.

Similarly, the ranges of grasses that fed reindeer, horses and red deer would have changed, and likely shrunk. The humans dependent on them would have had to adapt to fewer or smaller animals.

Bands apparently moved south along the coastal plain of the Bay of Biscay bypassing the Pyrenees to the east. The lightest area in the map below would have been exposed. The large estuary up the French coast is the mouth of the Garonne river. Many of the early Solutrean sites are in its upstream valleys.

In Cantabria, the earliest evidence from El Mirón has been dated 19,230 years ago. It was located on the Río Asón between Balboa and Santander, in the second indentation from the east on the map. The earliest Solutrean date for La Riera was 19,820 years ago. It sat on the limestone La Llera ridge between Santander and Oviedo, somewhere in the shallow indentation, about 70 miles west of El Mirón.

Steven Mithen said La Riera was a treeless landscape where bands hunted red deer and ibex. Lawrence Straus was told the only tree growing at El Mirón was Scots pine. The most common herbaceous plants were in the wild lettuce group of the composite family. He argued, that with the increasing population in the area, bands began foraging for mollusks along the shore in winter.

The climate improved at bit by 18,890 years ago, when birch trees and members of the heath family appeared at El Mirón. The newer Solutrean tool forms were found for the first time: an antler sagaie and two unifacial points with possible shoulders. The next layer higher had a bifacial willow leaf. The antler throwing spear was "‘decorated’ with parallel, oblique engraved lines."

Some semblance of social life returned by 17,420 years ago. La Cueva de Chufín saw its cave art revived. Earlier artists had made red outlines of figures and dots. Now, they left engravings of deer, bison, aurochs, and horses with more abstract patterns.

Although portable art like the incised spear was more common in the Solutrean period than cave art, someone engraved a deer on a wall at Altamira around 18,000 years ago. Later, people left hand prints and simple outlines of horses and goats. Francisco Jordá Cerdá documented Cueva de La Pasiega where he saw outlines and figures painted in red. Archaeologists found 25 painted figures at El Castillo.

Straus believed bands spent most of their time in coastal sites that were close to sources for shellfish and fish. The caves were all in sheltered locations, with their entrances alee to the winds.

From their coastal locations, Straus argued, groups moved up adjacent river valleys to hunting areas that often overlooked "gorges, passes, box canyons" used by animals moving between high and low pastures. These high hunting locations were often so windy and uncomfortable they wouldn’t have been used for long time periods.

Straus thought pairs of coastal and montane sites represented group territories, and that each was associated with a ritual center. Near the coast, La Cueva de Chufín was east of La Riera. Altamira and El Castillo were both about 30 miles west of Santander on neighboring rivers. Cueva de La Pasiega was upriver from El Castillo.

Notes: The wild lettuce group is the liguliflora section of Composite family. Paleobotanists often can’t distinguish pollens and other plant remains below groups levels.

Bahn, Paul G. and Jean Vertut. Journey Through the Ice Age, 1997; on Altamira paintings and El Castillo.

Clark, Peter U., et alia. "The Last Glacial Maximum," Science 325:710-714:2009.

Gálvez Lavín, Nerea. "Chufín (Riclones, Rionansa)," Universidad de Cantabria Arte en Cantabria web site

Hays J.D., J. Imbrie, and N. J. Shackleton. "Variations in the Earth's Orbit: Pacemaker of the Ice Ages," Science 194:1121-1132:1976.

Jordá Cerdá, Francisco. "Los Estilos en el Arte Parietal Magdaleniense Cantábrico," in Universidad de Zaragoza, Curso de Arte Rupestre Paleolítico, 1978; cited by Wikipedia.

Mithen, Steven. After the Ice: A Global Human History, 20,000-5000 BC, 2006.

Straus, Lawrence Guy. "Cantabria and Vascongadas, 21,000-17,000 B.P.: Toward a Solutrean Settlement Pattern," Munibe 31:195-202:1979.

_____. "On Maritime Hunter-Gatherers: A View from Cantabrian Spain," Munibe 33:171-173:1981.

_____, F. Bernaldo de Quirós, V. Cabrera, and G. Clark. "New Radiocarbon Dates for the Spanish Solutrean," Antiquity 51:243:1977.

_____, _____, _____, _____. "Solutrean Chronology & Lithic Variability in Vasco-Cantabrian Spain," Zephyrvs 28-29:109-112:1978.

_____, Manuel R. González Morales, Igor Gutiérrez Zugasti and María Jose Iriarte Chiapusso. "Further Solutrean Evidence in El Mirón Cave (Ramales de la Victoria, Cantabria)," Munibe 31:195-202:1979

Turner, Kernan. "Altamira Cave Art in Spain Is Being 'Cloned' for Visitors," Associated Prees, published 13 August 2000 by Los Angeles Times; on Altamira engraving.

Graphics: Eric Gaba, English translation of "Carte Bathymétrique de la Mer Celtique et du Golfe de Gascogne," uploaded to Wikimedia Commons 1 July 2014.