Lower Magdalenian lithic raw material provisioning: A diachronic view from El Mirón cave (Ramales de la Victoria, Cantabria, Spain)

Paleolithic archaeologists have a longstanding interest in temporal change in prehistoric human behavior, and have often identified changes between archaeological periods based on sampling limitations. This analysis focuses on the Cantabrian Lower Magdalenian period in El Mirón cave, where archaeologists have been able to subdivide the ~ 33 cm thick Level 17 palimpsest into 13 comparable units that provide insight into human behavioral change within an archaeological period. The authors focus on lithic raw material provisioning as a window into changing human-landscape relationships. The Level 17 sublevel lithic assemblages testify that hunter-gatherers decreased their use of presumably local (based on El Mirón project surveys) mudstones and quartzites in favor of regional flint resources. Additionally, portions of exotic flints from southern France and the Ebro Basin increase over the course of the Lower Magdalenian, possibly indicating gradually intensifying social contacts. Microstratigraphic units provide insight into dynamic “Magdalenian” landscapes and how lithic provisioning related to hunter-gatherers' territories, site catchments, regional mobility, and social relationships.