Management of lithic raw materials in the “Mesolithic with geometrics” (Northern of Iberian Peninsula): chaînes opératoires and territory

Abstract

This paper presents an update of the known data on the lithic industries of the “Mesolithic with geometrics”. From the information available in two caves, La Uña and El Espertín (León, Spain), located south of the Picos de Europa (in the central sector of the Cantabrian Mountains), the results of the different methodological approaches are presented: the raw materials used and the sources of supply of chert and flint, the main chaînes operatoires and their relationship with the raw materials and the relationship of the latter with the retouched industry. Finally, using local and regional outcrops, we propose the possible routes travelled by the human groups that occupied these caves between the north and the south of the Cantabrian Mountains.Proximate local raw materials (less than 15 km) were exploited most, but some distant local types (15–30 km) were also directly acquired. Non local raw materials are significantly more frequent in La Uña than in El Espertín. Nevertheless, in both caves there are regional (30–120 km) and tracer (>120 km) chert and flint varieties that prove the connection between the south of the Cantabrian Mountains and the north (northwest and northeast), involving the coastal area in these relationships. The technological management of theses raw materials suggests some sort of planning in their territory wide procurement.Apart from more flexible modalities for the production of blade and bladelets, good quality laminar blanks were obtained by pyramidal and prismatic unipolar modalities in chert and flint raw materials from local and regional lithologies. More diverse chains were applied to produce flakes, especially in local raw materials (and with a greater variability in El Espertín).