Were there human responses to Younger Dryas in Cantabrian Spain?

Abstract

A review of the record of Azilian sites or occupation layers dated to the time of Younger Dryas in Cantabrian Spain is presented. In this North Atlantic coastal region at 43° N, one would expect significant consequences for human populations during the YD cold episode. However it is very difficult to actually detect any changes in site distributions, technologies or subsistence strategies that would correlate with YD. This is a somewhat unexpected, albeit preliminary conclusion in need of further testing with more and better dated sites and more refined analyses of depositional contexts and subsistence evidence, for example. Nonetheless, the overall impression is one of great cultural continuity from the terminal Magdalenian to the early and then late Azilian, with a somewhat sharper series of breaks occurring in some domains (notably settlement and technology) at the transition to the regional Mesolithic cultures some 10,000 calendar years ago. The role of Cantabrian Spain as a relatively stable and favorable region for continuous human habitation throughout the course of the Upper Pleistocene is once again emphasized.