INTER-SITE and INTER-REGIONAL LINKS DURING the UPPER PALAEOLITHIC: the PYRENEAN EVIDENCE

Summary: In the first of this paper's two sections, Pyrenean evidence for contact between sites and with other regions is presented for each period of the Upper Palaeolithic. the examples include lithic, marine and artistic evidence. the results, presented in schematic maps, demonstrate the basic patterns of contact, and underline the role of the two 'supersites', Isturitz and the Mas d'Azil, as regional foci and cultural epicentres.
The second section is an attempt to account for the patterning of sites and contacts in terms of seasonal aggregation, social bonds and craft specialisation. the evidence reviewed in the first section is interpreted as the material traces of increasing and institutionalised social contact tied to an economic pattern of seasonal dispersal and assembly.