Numerical chronology is one of the main sources of information by which one may contextualize prehistoric human activity more precisely. It is able to discriminate between different times of visits to caves and determine the period with which each form of evidence should be associated and the relationships between them. The application of conventional 14C and 14C-AMS has dated visits to the Palaeolithic cave art site of Las Monedas during historical times.The results underscore the caution that is needed when dating a cave art ensemble based on an undated archaeological context or attributing all the graphic activity to a single time.

En los últimos treinta años se ha documentado un notable incremento de manifestaciones artísticas paleolíticas en el interior de la península ibérica. Esto ha permitido llenar el vacío generado más allá de las tradicionales áreas de estudio del arte paleolítico peninsular. Si bien en los años 90 la atención se centró en el fenómeno parietal al aire libre, las excavaciones realizadas han aportado nuevos datos sobre el arte mobiliar. En este trabajo se presenta una síntesis de las evidencias mobiliares paleolíticas del interior peninsular con el objetivo de reconocer dinámicas culturales de los últimos cazadores-recolectores de la península. A partir de esta síntesis se propone una interpretación en clave diacrónica de su secuencia cronológica y se plantea como hipótesis la coexistencia de dos tradiciones gráficas diferenciadas en el interior peninsular, basada en la distribución geográfica de su simbolismo y en los ritmos de interacción gráfica identificables en su arte mobiliar. El resultado muestra una tendencia a la intensificación en las relaciones culturales a medida que el Paleolítico superior alcanza sus fases terminales.

Se presenta el estudio integral de un soporte decorado con una forma lineal simple recuperado en el abrigo de Buendía, en un contexto magdaleniense datado en ±18000 cal BP. Se estudia el soporte y la forma decorada recurriendo al análisis microscópico a fin de comprender la cadena operativa, concretada en la captación del soporte en el ámbito cercano, la preparación de la superficie antes de la ejecución gráfica, la realización de una decoración lineal simple y la modificación posterior de la superficie tras el dibujo, lo que plantea la pérdida del valor simbólico original. Considerando las evidencias arqueológicas asociadas a la pieza decorada, se concluye que la acción simbólica se llevó a cabo en un contexto multifuncional. La búsqueda de referentes similares en el arte mueble del sudoeste europeo pone de manifiesto la existencia de motivos similares magdalenienses. La comprensión de las cadenas operativas y

Palaeolithic representations can be approached from different perspectives. Studying the creative processes, we can glimpse the decisions that the Palaeolithic artists made and the actions they carried out to materialize an idea. Additionally, the combined study of both graphic and functional actions performed on an object provides a comprehensive approach and understanding of the evidence: in the first place, it allows us to hypothesize about the presence or absence of symbolic purpose of the representations; secondly, it makes the potential choice of eliminating such symbolism discernible for us. The monographic study of a Magdalenian pebble from Coímbre Cave (Asturias, Spain) engraved between 15,680 and 14,230 cal. bp shows that a mistake was made during the engraving process; subsequently an attempt was made to eliminate the representations, and finally the pebble was used as a hammerstone. This paper provides argumentation to reconstruct a complex biography of an object of Palaeolithic portable art, discussing intentional loss of symbolic value of both the decoration and the object and the latter's reuse (as raw material) for an economic or domestic purpose.

AMS radiocarbon dating has been widely applied in Palaeolithic art research and its value has been proven over the past three decades. Yet it still suffers from issues that need to be discussed and analysed to improve future sampling strategies and strengthen the interpretation of the results. This study presents new AMS dates for the parietal art in Cueva de Las Chimeneas in northern Spain, describes the quality of the samples, and discusses their reliability. The joint assessment of the dates and its comparison with previously obtained dates as well as stratified and dated portable art makes it possible to put forward a hypothesis about the time of creation of the cave's parietal art and the degree of synchrony or diachrony in its production. Consequently, it is proposed that the cave art at Las Chimeneas was created in the lower Magdalenian, between 19,000 and 17,500 cal bp.