THE PALEOLITHIC CAVE ART OF VASCO-CANTABRIAN SPAIN

Summary. This article explores the relationship between cave art and Upper Paleolithic archeology in northern Spain (and extreme southwestern France). Among the 83 known art sanctuaries, only three can probably be terminus ante quem dated to the early Upper Paleolithic (c. 35,000-20,000 BP). Other types of evidence (virtual absence of ornaments and mobile art objects before the Solutrean, stylistic similarities between works of late Upper Paleolithic mobile art and parietal art, overwhelming association of Solutrean and/or Magdalenian cultural deposits with art sanctuaries) clearly suggest that most of the cave art was done in the period between c. 20,000-10,000 BP. Cave art sanctuaries are distributed in non-random fashion. The clusters of sanctuaries usually correspond with dense clusters of habitation sites. The clusters are separated by substantial geographical gaps. These chronological and geographical facts coincide with contemporaneous subsistence intensification, all of which tends to support the hypothesis of increased territorialism in the late Last Glacial.     

Glacial Stratigraphy of the Upper Mersey Valley,Tasmania

The upper Mersey Valley was glaciated on three occasions during the Pleistocene. The youngest, Rowallan Claciation, probably commenced after 28000 years B.P. The maximum ice limit was attained before 13500 years B.P., and retreat occurred before 10000years B.P. Deposits associated with Rowallan Glaciation are weakly weathered chemically. They overlie moderately weathered deposits that were formed during the Arm Glaciation, which is inferred from relative dating data to have occurred before the Last Interglacial Stage. North of the deposits and ice limits of the Arm Glaciation extremely weathered tills and rhythmites occur. They were formed by ice of the Croesus Glaciation which is inferred to be of Early Pleistocene age or older.     

The logic of the herd: A computer simulation of archaeological herd structure

The advent of new techniques of dental ageing has permitted inferences about the age-structures of ancient animal populations on the basis of faunal remains. Unfortunately, inference from archaeological populations of faunal elements to the age-structure of ancient herds is fraught with both sampling problems and logical difficulties. The relationship between a living herd—a dynamic system characterized by growth—and a static archaeological population is more complex than that assumed by current models based on kill-off patterns and survivorship curves. Using a computer simulation, these logical relationships are explored, and the effects of herd growth on the composition of live and death populations are evaluated. By employing the simulation within a deductive framework, constrained by ethnographically derived criteria for reproduction, mortality, and economic viability in the Near East, it is possible to determine whether certain archaeological kill-off patterns could represent viable herding systems. Examples were found to vary widely in terms of both demographic plausibility and economic viability. Some implications for the possible course of ova-caprine domestication in the Near East are discussed.