Federico Bernaldo de Quirós

Universidad de León | UNILEON · Prehistory Department

Three deciduous tooth crowns were found in Unit 18B in El Castillo Cave (Spain), considered a transitional Middle-Upper Paleolithic Unit with numerous 14 C dates with means earlier than > 42-44 ka cal. BP. Our goal was to describe these teeth, compare them to Neanderthal, Mousterian Modern Humans, and Early-Mid Upper Paleolithic fossils (through sc...

In Spain, the site of El Castillo is part of the emblematic cave system of Cantabria, famous for its cave art. They are registered as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO since 2008. This archaeological site is also important due its stratigraphic sequence, which spans several prehistoric occupation units and in particular the techno-complexes of the Mi...

Objectives: This article documents an incomplete child's mandible found in H. Obermaier's excavation campaign (in 1912) in El Castillo Cave, Spain. This fossil was assigned to what was then considered a phase of the "Aurignacian-delta". Materials and methods: We exhaustively analyzed the original Obermaier documents, with particular attention to...

The Cantabrian region of Northern Spain was an important area of human occupation during the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic as the rich archaeological record demonstrates. The environmental conditions experienced by late Neanderthals and Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH) in the region during MIS3 are still poorly known, but are crucial to understand...

The majority of archaeological remains found at El Castillo in northern Iberia were excavated between 1910 and 1914 by Hugo Obermaier. Since the 1980s El Castillo has been studied through a detailed analysis of Obermaier's original excavation notes, the cleaning and study of the extant section, and the excavation of material in the shelter entrance...

The long sequence of El Castillo cave contains Units 12 and 14, attributed to the Gravettian. This paper presents a revision of the lithic industry and the fauna recovered during H. Obermaier's 1910–1914 excavations of the site, as well as a number of new datings that enable us to chronologically place the above Gravettian occupations as one of the...

Discovery of the cave of Altamira in 1879 introduced a new aspect to ideas on human evolution, requiring a fresh approach to previous notions of life and customs among prehistoric groups. In the final years of the 19th century the prevailing view of prehistoric life was still coloured by the prejudice and concepts which had marked early discussion...

Nine faunal teeth from layer 20 of El Castillo cave in Cantabrian Spain were dated using electron spin resonance (ESR). Two teeth were rejected due to inconsistent subsample ages, while the remaining teeth yielded a mean age that is consistent with the stratigraphic expectations: 42.7±3.5. Uncertainty in the external dose rate results in a potentia...

In this paper, we present the techno-typological study of level 16 of El Castillo cave (Archaic Aurignacian). In this level, we can identify an important bladelet production from schémas opératoires of unipolar prismatic cores, carinated endscraper and carinated burins types. Besides, we find a specific production of Discoid conception. The retouch...

En los años en torno a la I Guerra Mundial una pequeña pero importante colección de objetos de diferentes yacimientos cántabros llegó al AMNH de Nueva York de la mano del arqueólogo norteamericano N. C. Nelson. En un trabajo anterior uno de los firmantes (RW) expuso en detalle las circunstancias historiográficas del traslado de los materiales españ...

El fin que nos proponemos en este artículo, no es establecer una exposición profunda de los méto-dos de análisis matemático en Prehistoria, ya que consideramos existe una amplia bibliografía al respecto l . Nuestra idea principal parte de la concep-ción del análisis matemático en su contexto, es de-cir, como apoyo metodológico del trabajo del pre-h...

After reviewing the evidence from the past 25 years of excavation at Cueva El Castillo and re-examining sites such as Cueva Morín in Cantabrian Spain, we conclude that the long-held model of invasion by outsiders, specifically, anatomically modern humans, proposed for the introduction of the Upper Palaeolithic in Europe is no longer viable. Charact...

In their excavations at the cave of Hornos de la Peña (Cantabria) at the beginning of the 20th century, H. Breuil, H. Obermaier and H. Alcalde del Río discovered the frontal bone of a horse engraved with a representation of that same animal. The excavators attributed the piece to the Aurignacian, but later studies have doubted whether it in fact be...

Advances in radiocarbon dating by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) have made it possible to date prehistoric cave paintings by sampling the pigment itself instead of relying on dates derived from miscellaneous prehistoric remains recovered in the vicinity of the paintings. The work at the Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement...

Los niveles auriñacienses de la Cueva del Castillo han arrojado en los últimos años un conjunto de elementos sobre materias duras animales que presentamos en este trabajo. Entre los efectivos recuperados destaca la presencia de utensilios de diversas tipologías así como elementos de arte mueble. La industria ósea de la Cueva del Castillo tiene el i...

We present here evidence for blade/bladelet production in Mousterian levels of Cueva del Castillo and Cueva Morin. This presence reinforces our hypothesis of a cultural continuity between the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic in Cantabrian Spain. It also provides us with new data on the role of Neanderthals in Early Upper Palaeolithic cultures and more...

RESUMEN En este trabajo se presenta el estudio tecno-tipológico del nivel 16 de la cueva de El Castillo, correspondiente al Auriñaciense arcaico. En él se puede identificar una importante producción de hojitas a partir de esquemas operativos de tipo núcleo prismático, raspador carenado y buril carenado. Además, encontramos una producción específica...

The Transition to the Upper Palaeolithic in the Castillo Cave (Cantabria, Spain): Level 18. The cave site El Castillo delivered a series of elements which propose a new paradigm on the transition phenomenon between Middle and Upper Palaeolithic. The simultaneous presence of archaïc technical and typological Mousterian and Aurignacian elements toget...

The cave site E1 Castillo delivered a series of elements which propose a new paradigm on the transition phenomenon between Middle and Upper Palaeolithic. The simultaneous presence of archaic technical and typological Mousterian and Aurignacian elements together with a bone industry and some mobile art objects leeds us to consider that the transitio...

Se presentan dos nuevas dataciones C14 realizadas en Cueva Morin de ios niveles 11 (Musteriense) y 8 (Auri?aciense arcaico). Tambi?n se efect?a la contextualizaci?n de ?stas en el marco de la Transici?n entre el Paleol?tico medio y el superior en la regi?n cant?brica.We present the new C14 dates come from Cueva Morin sampies of ttie 11 (Mousterian)...

Se presentan una serie de evidencias de la presencia de esquemas operativos laminares y microlaminares en los niveles musterienses de la Cueva del Castillo. Su presencia confirma nuestras hip?tesis relativas a la transici?n del Paleol?tico Medio al Superior en la Regi?n Cant?brica y refuerza la idea del papel de los Neandertales en las transformaci...

With debate escalating in regard to the prolonged contemporaneity of neandertal and modern human groups in the Franco-Cantabrian region on the one hand, and the late persistence of neandertals (until ca. 28–30,000 B.P.) and Mousterian industries in southern Iberia on the other; sites with Mousterian–Upper Paleolithic sequences from northern Spain p...

Sediments filling the cave of El Castillo, in Cantabrian Spain, contain Acheulian, Mousterian, and Upper Palaeolithic industries. Bischoffet al. (1992) obtained a U-series isochron date of 89±10ka on a travertine layer separating Acheulian layers from the lowest Mousterian bed; layer 23. We have obtained electron spin resonance (ESR) ages on tooth...

Este artículo tiene como objetivo observar el desarrollo de los estudios del Paleolítico en el Norte de la Península Ibérica durante las últimas décadas. El trabajo consiste en una rápida visión de los años setenta a noventa de los estudios de arte rupestre y trabajos y excavaciones arqueológicas relacionados con los cazadoresrecolectores pleistoce...

At El Castillo, in Cantabrian Spain, uncalibrated AMS14C dating has shown the transition from Mousterian to Aurignacian to occur at 39·3±1·6 kaBP. We found ESR tooth enamel ages from the basal Aurignacian level at El Castillo to be 36·2±4·1 ka (early and linear uptake). The enamel and dentine had very low U contents, but ESR ages are strongly depen...

The aim of this paper is to survey the economic approach in relation to animal use during Upper Palaeolithic times in Northern Spain. The animals present in the archaeological record can be separated into main groups, like those present by natural reasons and those introduced by human groups. Also in the anthropic aported animals, some of them are...

El yacimiento de la Cueva del Castillo, en las campañas de excavación que se vienen realizando desde 1980 ha proporcionado materiales líticos realizados en diversas materias primas para el nivel 18, considerado como Auriñaciense desde las primeras excavaciones organizadas por el I.P.H. El estudio que aquí presentamos está basado en la serie de útil...

Las bases sobre las que se asienta el estudio del arte rupestre deben ser revisadas a la luz de los nuevos presupuestos y técnicas de análisis. La cronología, los datos de las excavaciones, la consideración del artista individual y el análisis estilístico pueden ofrecer puntos de vista renovadores sobre este tema.

AMONG things that most strikingly distinguish modern humans from other hominids and the rest of the animal kingdom is the ability to represent things and events pictorially. Complex paintings of the type discovered in the Altamira, El Castillo, Niaux and Lascaux caves represent an important stepping stone in the cultural evolution of humankind. Unt...

Une serie de grattoirs provenents de la «Cueva de la Cantera» (León) fait l'objet d'une étude à travers des techniques statistiques multivariants. Dans cette étude nous avons établi six variables morphométriques en vue d'une meilleure identification du «concept» de grattoir. Les résultats indiquent que le support lithique est un élément discriminan...

RESEÑA 1 de : Goudineau, Christian; Guilaine, Jean. De Lascaux au Grand Louvre. Archéologie et histoire en Franca. Prefacio de Frangois Mitterrand. París : Editions Errance, 1989. RESEÑA 2 de : Guilaine, Jean. La Préhistoire d'un continent á l'autre. París : Editorial Larousse, 1986. RESEÑA 3 de : Ripoll López, Segio. La Cueva de Ambrosio (Almería,...

En este artículo se presentan los primeros resultados de las investigaciones llevadas a cabo en el Noreste de la provincia de León. En esta zona se han localizado varios yacimientos del Paleolítico Superior final (Magdaleniense y Aziliense) que nos aportan valiosas informaciones sobre la ocupación de las zonas de alta montaña de la cordillera cantá...

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