The Mesolithic “Asturian” culture (North Iberia), one century on

Abstract

A century ago, in the excavation of El Penicial Cave in Asturias (North Spain), Count Vega del Sella documented the first materials known to belong to the Asturian culture. That was the name for the new culture proposed by H. Obermaier in his book El Hombre Fósil (1916). Due to this German prehistorian's publications and those of authors like M. C. Burkitt, the Asturian soon became well-known internationally. This situation was especially noticeable after the 1970s, and has continued until the present time. After a hundred years of studies from different theoretical viewpoints and debates in different forums, this paper presents a critical reflection on what is known and not known about this classic European Mesolithic culture, characterised by the massive presence of shell-middens. Cultural-history and processual approaches have guided research on the Asturian. This determines the nature of our knowledge about this culture, localised in the central part of the southern coast of the Bay of Biscay. After a long debate on the Asturian chronology, doubts do not exist now regarding its post-Azilian age. However, the question of the relationship between the Asturian and Neolithic remains unresolved. The hypothesis of the continuity of the Asturian shell-middens after the sixth millennium cal BC is, for the moment, the best way to fill the information gap covering the period of 5000-4300 cal BC. Research in recent years has provided more information about the economy of these hunter-gatherer societies. However, key aspects, such as the use of wild plants are still little understood. The latest finds of lithic hunting weapons and shells used as tools open new perspectives for the study of Asturian technology. The role played by the shell-middens in their cultural context is still one of the key issues in Asturian research. Recent excavations have confirmed that there were occupations inside the middens, which at other times were mere accumulations of waste. Open-air settlements outside the caves also existed. Further research is required to understand how both realities, the middens and the nearby open-air sites, interacted. Although archaeological evidence linked to symbolic behaviour is scarce, the symbolic thought of the Asturian groups is seen in their mortuary sites, whose noticeable increase is probably related to the stable/recurrent use of the sites. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA