Human response to Holocene warming on the Cantabrian Coast (northern Spain): an unexpected outcome

• Mesolithic subsistence on the Cantabrian Coast (northern Spain).
• Intensification in the exploitation of coastal environments during the Mesolithic.
• Notable decrease in ungulate consumption.
• Demographic pressure versus environmental change as alternative explanations.

Subsistence was characterized during the Pleistocene to Holocene transition on the Cantabrian Coast (northern Spain) by a progressive diet widening, with a greater exploitation of marine environments and a more intense consumption of low-ranked species. This trend was also accompanied by a general and noticeable decrease in the amount of ungulates that were recovered from a set of archaeological sites clearly dominated by shells. The causes behind this change in the economic practice of the last hunter–gatherer groups are still being debated. There are currently two opposing views on the matter, with some scholars defending the role of demographic pressure as the main driving force, while other researchers invoke the importance of the environment in the food procurement preferences that were adopted. Due to their overwhelming abundance, the debate has been mainly focused on marine resources, whereas the comparatively less-represented macromammal assemblages have been poorly interpreted. However, it is precisely this scarcity that makes them so remarkable. Here, a new interpretation of the available data is presented, with a special focus on the identification of overhunting evidence and on the comparative productivity of each type of resource. Altogether, the demographic hypothesis seems to be more coherent with the existing facts.