Abstract
This paper is divided into three sections. The first section describes the historiographic evolution of the study of prehistoric lithic raw materials in the Basque Crossroads (in the north of the Iberian Peninsula) during the last three decades. The second section explains the currently available information about geological outcrops of flint in the eastern end of the Cantabrian Mountain range (the Basque-Cantabrian Basin), the upper Ebro valley and both sides of the western Pyrenees, in the central part of the northern Iberian Peninsula, as that was the main raw material used by hunter-gatherer groups in the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic. Finally, the last section describes the way in which progress in both aspects of research have enabled the introduction of new concepts and perspectives in the reconstruction of the social and economic dynamics of Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers. This has given rise to an innovative methodology that is able to address and solve important issues, particularly regarding mobility and territoriality patterns of those human groups, allowing the proposal of mobility and territoriality models that, while they will not match exactly the systems used by Upper Palaeolithic communities, represent significant progress in understanding the social and economic dynamics of hunter-gatherer groups.
Highlights
The study of the raw materials used by Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers is an important aspect of Basque prehistoric archaeology
After the intense research of the last three decades, the outcrops of the main flint varieties used in the Palaeolithic have been identified and characterised petrologically
Great progress has been made in the correlation of these resources with Palaeolithic archaeological assemblages and, most important of all, the protocol for the determination of lithic raw materials has become integrated into the methodology employed in the reconstruction of the lithic chaîne opératoire, from procurement to discard
Summary
The study of the raw materials used by Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers is an important aspect of Basque prehistoric archaeology. Contain a number of siliceous outcrops that supplied Palaeolithic societies owing to the quality and abundance of their materials This is an exceptional region to develop a methodology enabling more precise definitions of the flint varieties found in the archaeological deposits and to consider the possible management of lithic resources in such a complex area as the Basque crossroads. We are still far from possessing a full overview of this matter, the avenues of research currently with greatest potential will be suggested In this way, the development of lithic raw material studies on the Basque crossroads will be described and hypotheses will be put forward about the mobility of the human groups and the management of the territory by Palaeolithic communities. Methodological tools allowing these aspects to be explored in other geographic areas will be outlined
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