Sporadic occupation in Armiña cave during the Upper Magdalenian: what for?

Abstract

The cave of Armiña is part of the same karstic system than Atxurra cave, which has an occupation site in the entrance, covering from Gravettian to Late Magdalenian, and numerous evidences of Paleolithic rock-art in the inner part of the cave. The current entrance of Armiña was discovered at the end of XIX century when the road between Markina and Lekeitio was opened, but there is no previous indication that the cave was open before the limestone hillside was excavated. Since its discovery, Armiña has been explored by A. Galvez Cañero, J. M. Barandiaran and J. Altuna, finding only scattered evidence of human and animal occupation (Garate, 2012). In 2014 a new archaeological project started in the Atxurra-Armiña system. The site of Atxurra was re-excavated between 2014 and 2015 revealing a long and well-preserved sequence comprising the Early Gravettian, Lower and Late Magdalenian. In 2015 the rich rock-art of Atxurra was discovered in the deepest part of the cave (Garate et al. 2016). Most of this art can be confidently attributed to the Magdalenian.

In 2016, several test pits were made in Armiña cave, founding archeological evidence in one of them. In 2017 the excavation of this latter pit was extended to 6 m2. The stratigraphic sequence was sealed by a succession of sterile units (Ia-Ic) with no archaeological or faunal remains. At the bottom of this sterile unit a continuous flowstone separate it from level III, an almost sterile unit containing few transported bones and charcoal fragments. Immediately under this unit, the first archaeological remains were found. They are few bone fragments and lithic tools associated to a small fireplace and an ocher stain. Interestingly, many of the lithic remains are retouched tools, some of them made on exotic raw materials (≈80 km). In the units under this archaeological layer only faunal remains were recovered.

The available archaeological evidence, and the first results of the ongoing multiproxy analyses suggest that the studied site is the result of a very short occupation event or even shorter visits to this spot inside the cave. These visits were more or less contemporaneous the occupation levels from Atxurra and probably corresponding chronologically to the artistic activity. However, although Armiña cave is very suitable for human occupation, only a limited occupation has been recognized. This could partially be related to the morpho-topographic conditions of the cave which would imply that the external access was closed during this occupation. Thus, it would be possible to define the occupation site as an inner archaeological context (I.A.C.). Therefore, our main hypothesis is that this short term occupations were activities spots of Magdalenian explorers inside the cave, in where the developed activities were not exclusively related to technological and subsistence practices given the particular nature of the findings (ocher stain and exotic materials).

Full text

Sporadic occupation in Armi˜na cave during the
Upper Magdalenian: what for?
Joseba R´ıos-Garaizar∗1, Diego Garate-Maidagan2, Rivero Olivia3, Ana B.
Mar´ın-Arroyo4, Martin Arriolabengoa5, Josu Aranbarri , I˜naki Libano6, Juan Rofes7,
and Amaia Arranz-Otaegui8
1Centro Nacional de Investigaciones de la Evoluci´on Humana (CENIEH) – CENIEH (Centro Nacional
de Investigaci´on de la Evoluci´on Humana), Paseo de Atapuerca s/n, 09004 Burgos, Spain., Espagne
2Universidad de Cantabria – Espagne
3Universidad de Salamanca – Espagne
4Instituto Internacional de Investigaciones Prehist´oricas de Cantabria, Universidad de Cantabria,
Gobierno de Cantabria, Santander (IIIPC) – Edificio Interfacultativo, Avda. de los Castros s/n, 39005
Santander, Cantabria, Espagne
5Departamento de Mineralog´ıa y Petrolog´ıa. Universidad del Pa´ıs Vasco – Espagne
6Edestiaurre Arkeologi Elkartea – Barrika (Spain), Espagne
7Laboratoire ”Arch´eozoologie et Arch´eobotanique: Soci´et´es, Pratiques et Environnements” (UMR
7209) – CNRS – France
8Department of Cross-Cultural studies and Regional studies, University of Copenhagen – Danemark
R´esum´e
The cave of Armi˜na is part of the same karstic system than Atxurra cave, which has
an occupation site in the entrance, covering from Gravettian to Late Magdalenian, and nu-
merous evidences of Paleolithic rock-art in the inner part of the cave. The current entrance
of Armi˜na was discovered at the end of XIX century when the road between Markina and
Lekeitio was opened, but there is no previous indication that the cave was open before
the limestone hillside was excavated. Since its discovery, Armi˜na has been explored by A.
Galvez Ca˜nero, J. M. Barandiaran and J. Altuna, finding only scattered evidence of human
and animal occupation (Garate, 2012). In 2014 a new archaeological project started in the
Atxurra-Armi˜na system. The site of Atxurra was re-excavated between 2014 and 2015 re-
vealing a long and well-preserved sequence comprising the Early Gravettian, Lower and Late
Magdalenian. In 2015 the rich rock-art of Atxurra was discovered in the deepest part of the
cave (Garate et al. 2016). Most of this art can be confidently attributed to the Magdalenian.
In 2016, several test pits were made in Armi˜na cave, founding archeological evidence in one
of them. In 2017 the excavation of this latter pit was extended to 6 m2. The stratigraphic
sequence was sealed by a succession of sterile units (Ia-Ic) with no archaeological or faunal
remains. At the bottom of this sterile unit a continuous flowstone separate it from level
III, an almost sterile unit containing few transported bones and charcoal fragments. Im-
mediately under this unit, the first archaeological remains were found. They are few bone
fragments and lithic tools associated to a small fireplace and an ocher stain. Interestingly,
many of the lithic remains are retouched tools, some of them made on exotic raw materi-
als (≈80 km). In the units under this archaeological layer only faunal remains were recovered.
∗Intervenant
sciencesconf.org:uispp2018:182762

The available archaeological evidence, and the first results of the ongoing multiproxy analy-
ses suggest that the studied site is the result of a very short occupation event or even shorter
visits to this spot inside the cave. These visits were more or less contemporaneous the occupa-
tion levels from Atxurra and probably corresponding chronologically to the artistic activity.
However, although Armi˜na cave is very suitable for human occupation, only a limited oc-
cupation has been recognized. This could partially be related to the morpho-topographic
conditions of the cave which would imply that the external access was closed during this oc-
cupation. Thus, it would be possible to define the occupation site as an inner archaeological
context (I.A.C.). Therefore, our main hypothesis is that this short term occupations were
activities spots of Magdalenian explorers inside the cave, in where the developed activities
were not exclusively related to technological and subsistence practices given the particular
nature of the findings (ocher stain and exotic materials).
References:
Garate, D. (2012): Neandertales y Croma˜nones. Los primeros pobladores de Bizkaia. Gu´ıas
del Arkeologi Museoa. 2, Diputaci´on Foral de Bizkaia, Bilbao.
Garate, D.; Rivero, O.; Rios-Garaizar, J.; Intxaurbe, I. (2016): La grotte d’Atxurra : un
nouveau sanctuaire majeur du magdal´enien au Pays Basque. International Newsletter of
Rock Art. 1 - 4.
Mots-Cl´es: Magdalenian, Cave Site, Inner Archaeological Context, Rock, Art, Short Occupation