Une révision de la séquence de la Riera (Asturies) et la question du Badegoulien cantabrique

Abstract

Abstract A new interpretation of the sequence of La Riera (Asturias) is proposed, based on a multidisciplinary analysis including the palaeoenvironment, the patterns of lithic raw material procurement, the knapping process and the lithic and bone industries. After a short summary of the model established by L.G. Straus, the review of the palaeoclimatological framework underlines a very cold context — with some more humid episodes —for the whole stratigraphy, except for the top of the sequence corresponding to the end of the Wiirmian ice age interstadial warming (" Boiling/ Allerod "). Analysis of the raw materials and the knapping process shows a mainly local subsistence economy for the end of the Solutrean and the Badegoulian, coinciding with the Last Glacial Maximum, in contrast with the beginning of the Solutrean and the Magdalenian where circulation along the Cantabrian coast as far as the south of the Aquitanian basin is conceivable. The results of the statistical processing of the stone industries reveal the presence of several industrial fades in stratigraphie sequence, including a new entity : the Cantabrian Badegoulian. Typological analyses demonstrate the existence of continuities and discontinuities between these différents fades. The bone industries underline strong convergences between the Solutrean and the Badegoulian. This structuration is then compared with other data available for the period between 22 000 BP and 16 000 BP in Cantabria. In spite of the age of most research, the sequence of industries fits well with that of La Riera, which allows us to confirm the validity of this new model recognizing the existence of the Cantabrian Badegoulian, in the same cold and damp climatic environment (" Lascaux "). Finally, the authors discuss the problem of the Solutrean/ Badegoulian and Badegoulian/Magdalenian transitions in Cantabria and of the internal structure of the Cantabrian Badegoulian.