Estrategias de caza en el Paleolítico superior de la Región Cantábrica. El caso de Aitzbitarte II (zna profunda de la cueva)

Abstract

This paper describes a peculiar example of a specialist hunting strategy employed in the Cantabrian Region that presents two novel characteristics. Firstly, it was used during the Gravettian cultural stage, a very early stage for this strategy in comparison with that recorded in the region to date; and secondly, it focused on large bovids, for which no previous records of specialist hunting exist. Earlier findings provided evidence of this strategy only from the Solutrean phase onwards, continuing through to the Magdalenian, and in relation only to deer or mountain goats, depending on the biotype in which the cave is located. The paper also presents an important series of radiocarbon datings for this Gravettian period, with the aim of distinguishing between the specific hunting strategies used by the occupants of the inner sector of the cave and those living nearer the entrance.