Le comportement symbolique des derniers chasseurs cueilleurs paléolithiques : regard sur l'art rupestre du Magdalénien cantabrique

Between 2010 and 2014, an assemblage of Cantabrian Recent Magdalenian rock art sites was studied. The sample, representative of Palaeolithic art of this period in the region, included a total of 9 parietal ensembles and almost 500 graphic units. The results of this research led to the discovery of a several unpublished figures and reinterpretations of an even larger number of graphic units. Most importantly they formed a body of data large enough to produce statistically significant information. This can be used to define guidelines about the symbolic behavior of the populations that inhabited the Cantabrian Region at that period. In this paper, the main results are summarized, and a brief discussion about the implications of these data in the social and cultural context of Late Pleistocene populations in Southwestern Europe is presented. The conclusions reveal the existence of a rich graphic activity, reflection of complex societies, with large exchange and social networks, including cultural elements within a common realm of ideas, which covered many hundreds and even thousands of kilometers at the end of the Pleistocene.