Miscelánea en homenaje a Victoria Cabrera. Zona Arqueológica
Number:
Volume:
1
Year:
2006
Pages:
372-395
Keywords:
Aurignacian, Iberian Peninsula, Modern Humans, Neandertals, Ebro frontier
ISBN:
ISSN:
URL:
Abstract:
In Portugal, the Aurignacian is represented at open air sites by lithic assemblages that comfortably fit the definition of the Aurignacian II (in the case of Gato Preto) or III/IV (in the case of Vale de Porcos) of the classical region of southwestern France. Three small cave sites (Pego do Diabo, Salemas and Escoural) yielded inventories of Dufour bladelets of the Dufour subtype which (a) are identical to those recovered in uppermost level 6 of the major Aurignacian sequence of the Abri Pataud and (b) correspond to a functional pose of the assemblage-type represented at Vale de Porcos. The stratigraphic and chronometric dating evidence (TL and radiocarbon) is fully consistent with the technological and typological features of these lithic assemblages. The emergence of the Aurignacian in the archeological record of Portugal is likely to be related to a dispersal of modern humans into Iberian regions south of the Ebro divide taking place some time during the thirty-fifth millennium cal BP (before ca.29 ka 14C BP), after which time no reliable dates for the very late Mousterian of the region (and, hence, for Neandertals) are available.
