Debitage by fracturing in the osseous industry of Cova del Parpalló (Gandía-Valencia, Spain): A preliminary study

Abstract

The excavations carried out by L. Pericot from 1929 to 1931 in the Cova del Parpalló documented the Gravettian in the base, a Solutrean layer, and a Magdalenian. This sequences comprise an exceptional assemblage of portable art because of the number of plaquets/objects and the great chronological amplitude. With all this information, Parpalló was included in the reduced list of reference sites to organize the European Upper Paleolithic sequence in the first half of the 20th century. The Magdalenian layers were organized in four phases, following H. Breuil's classical proposal. Changes in bases morphology and decorative topics on osseous points permitted this correlation, identifying for the first time the oldest Magdalenian in the south of Europe.With this precedent, we show in this work a preliminary technological and typological study of the Ancient Magdalenian or Badegoulian Parpalló's type osseous industry. The main objective is to identify the operational schemes that characterize the osseous material transformation working. We analyse the different artefact categories which belong to the production operational sequence (wastes, blanks, preforms, and finished objects). We compare these data with a sample of finished objects. They belong to the production of an assemblage composed by spear points, half-round rods and awls.The first approach reveals that in Parpalló, debitage by fracturing is predominant. The use of Double Grooving Procedure is documented as well. Both were used to obtain flat blanks to make objects like simple bevel points, double points or simple based points. We make a valuation between techno-typological transformations in lithic industries and radiocarbon dating. This is put in relation to the transformations produced in SW Europe in the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM).