Methodological advances in dating the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition provide a better understanding of the replacement of local Neanderthal populations by Anatomically Modern Humans. Today we know that this replacement was not a single, pan-European event, but rather it took place at different times in different regions. Thus, local conditions could have played a role. Iberia represents a significant macro-region to study this process. Northern Atlantic Spain contains evidence of both Mousterian and Early Upper Paleolithic occupations, although most of them are not properly dated, thus hindering the chances of an adequate interpretation. Here we present 46 new radiocarbon dates conducted using ultrafiltration pre-treatment method of anthropogenically manipulated bones from 13 sites in the Cantabrian region containing Mousterian, Aurignacian and Gravettian levels, of which 30 are considered relevant. These dates, alongside previously reported ones, were integrated into a Bayesian age model to reconstruct an absolute timescale for the transitional period. According to it, the Mousterian disappeared in the region by 47.9–45.1ka cal BP, while the Châtelperronian lasted between 42.6k and 41.5ka cal BP. The Mousterian and Châtelperronian did not overlap, indicating that the latter might be either intrusive or an offshoot of the Mousterian. The new chronology also suggests that the Aurignacian appears between 43.3–40.5ka cal BP overlapping with the Châtelperronian, and ended around 34.6–33.1ka cal BP, after the Gravettian had already been established in the region. This evidence indicates that Neanderthals and AMH co-existed <1,000 years, with the caveat that no diagnostic human remains have been found with the latest Mousterian, Châtelperronian or earliest Aurignacian in Cantabrian Spain.

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the Level Vii of Amalda i cave (Gipuzkoa, Spain) represents one of the latest Middle palaeolithic occupations in the cantabrian Region. it is characterized by the presence of Middle palaeolithic lithic industry and animal remains, with clear evidences of anthropic and carnivore manipulation. At this site, the neanderthal presence has been questioned in relation to the role of carnivores in the accumulation of large, medium-sized and small mammals. it has also been proposed that the neanderthal occupation could have consisted of short-term occupations, where different activities took place in a structured space within the cave. However, all hypotheses lacked any integrative analysis of the site formation processes. With the aim of understanding these processes, a combination of spatial techniques, based on GiS and inferential statistics (density analysis, hotspots tools and palaeotopographic reconstruction), along with the taphonomic study of identifiable and non-identifiable macromammals remains, were employed. this study has revealed distinct use of the cave space by neanderthals and carnivores. the major concentrations of lithics and medium-size mammal remains were clearly accumulated by humans at the cave entrance, while the small-size mammals were gathered by carnivores in an inner zone. the activities of the neanderthals seem to be distinctly structured, suggesting a parallel exploitation of resources.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 In this study, new examples of the presence of reindeer in the Cantabrian fringe of the Iberian peninsula are presented, all from the province of Biscay. The aim of this paper is to describe these new fossils, provide direct dates, and update current information on the presence and The new fossil material was measured using standard osteometric techniques. Measurements follow von den Driesch (1976), except for those of the teeth which follow van der Made (1989Made ( , 1996) (see Supplementary Information: part 2). These measurements are compared to other remains 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 Iberian reindeer compared to that of the rest of Europe will be the subject of a separate study (Álvarez-Lao, unpublished data).Age-at-death based on dental attrition of the most complete mandibular remains was calculated using Bouchud (1966). A taphonomic analysis of all the new remains was performed using visual osteoscopic observations of the non-dental remains with a binocular lens (TVM) in order to look for anthropogenic modification, following Cáceres (2002) and San Pedro & Cáceres (2011). The Iberian reindeer record New and revised fossil remainsWe provide new evidence of reindeer from five sites in the province of Biscay (Basque Country, northern Spain) (Table 1 and Supplementary Information: Table S1). These new fossils come from both the excavation of new sites (e.g. Arlanpe) as well as from the revision of faunal material from sites in which the presence of the reindeer was previously both unknown (e.g. Bolinkoba) or known (Axlor, Lumentxa, Atxuri) (Figure 1). We also discuss some sites listed in Table 1 for which vague references to reindeer remains can be found in the literature. The description of material proceeds geographically based on the distance from the Pyrenees. From the taphonomic analysis of the remains found at these sites (see below) we can certify that there was human processing of reindeer carcasses at Lumentxa, Atxuri, Axlor and likely also at Arlanpe. From 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 At the beginning of this study, we revised the reindeer remains from this site curated at the Arkeologi Museoa (Bilbao) and were only able to find one complete metacarpal, two distal metacarpals and five antler fragments, two of which could be refitted together (in fact they had the same label). The revision of faunal remains from the J.M. Barandiarán collection has yielded 19 new fossils: mostly dental...