A Quarter-Century of Research on the Solutrean of Vasco-Cantabria, Iberia and beyond

Abstract

Twenty-five years ago, my initial approach to the Solutrean archaeological phenomenon was to use it as a conveniently bounded case study for the explanation of interassemblage variability in the Upper Paleolithic. Although my main conclusions supported an essentially functionalist basis for explaining Solutrean variability, subsequent discoveries do also point to a process of technological change, or "desolutreanization," toward the end of the period between c. 20,500 and 16,500 radiocarbon years ago. My view of the Solutrean has considerably expanded to see it as a historical response to the climatic crisis of the Last Glacial Maximum and to interpret its restricted geographical distribution with high regional site numbers as evidence of a human refugium in southwestern Europe. Many of the characteristically Solutrean developments in technology (especially weaponry), intensified subsistence practices, and even art styles and other evidence of territories and social networks make sense in this context at the level of regional bands, here explored with particular reference to the Iberian Peninsula.