Magdalenian-age graphic activity associated with the El Mirón Cave human burial

Abstract

The human burial of Lower Magdalenian age in El Mirón Cave was found in the narrow space between the outward (westward) sloping bedrock wall of the vestibule rear and a very large limestone block. The corpse had been deposited in contact with both engraved lines on the cave wall and red ochre staining on the eastern face of the block. In addition, the burial was made at approximately the same time (ca. 18,700 calendar years ago, per multiple radiocarbon dates) that the western (daylight-facing) face was engraved with numerous lines, some of which (although not provable) could be seen as suggestive of a schematic, partial representation of a human female, which in turn could speculatively be interpreted, on chronological and physical associational grounds, as marking the presence of the human female interment behind the block. Furthermore, masses of engravings on the rear vestibule wall (including images of a horse and a possible bison) can potentially be attributed to the Lower Magdalenian, and thus roughly contemporaneous with the burial.