Lithic technology of the final Mousterian on both sides of the Pyrenees

Abstract

The Mousterian of the North side of the Pyrenees has been the subject of several synthesis including relatively recent ones dealing with all the aspects of the Neanderthal groups subsistence. The Tarragona–Capellades workshop provided an interesting opportunity for developing a new synthetic balance regarding the final (MIS 3) Mousterian of the Pyrenees, with an emphasis on data regarding lithic industries and resulting from the recent research on the North side with a few incursions on the South side. Some comparisons are taking shape, opening new research trails which still largely remain to explore, but which reveal the Pyrenees as a much less impermeable natural boundary than might be thought a priori. In the region, a technical diversity is perceptible. It is characterized by the use of very varied raw materials, the display of different flaking methods and the production of tools with diversified technical and morpho-functional characteristics. Despite this important diversity, several series share some characteristics that allow sketching a “technical geography” whose interpretation remains to be discussed case by case. Some areas thus defined coincide with entities traditionally interpreted as cultural, as in the case of the Vasconian.