Research supports rock structure likely used for bone tool work at El Mirón
April 17, 2023 - Mary Beth King
As far back as 45,000 years ago, groups of hunter-gatherers lived in what is now called El Mirón Cave near the northern coast of Spain. First discovered for science in 1903 by local archaeologists and surveyed by University of New Mexico Professor of Anthropology Lawrence Straus in 1973, systematic excavation of the cave began in 1996 when Straus and Manuel González Morales of the University of Cantabria began their major, ongoing research in the cave, leading to the discovery of prehistoric remains ranging from the time of the last Neanderthals through the Bronze Age.
In an article titled Structuring domestic space in the Lower Magdalenian: an analysis of the fauna from Level 115 of El Mirón Cave, Cantabria in the most recent edition of Antiquity, lead author and UNM Archaeology Associate Professor Emily Lena Jones tests Straus’ hypothesis that prehistoric people who lived in the cave 20,000 years ago created a partition or workbench where they crafted their bone tools, a rarity among examples of Paleolithic hunter-gatherer structures in caves.
Read more at UNM Newsroom.
