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| 288 | T he prehistoric site of El Mirón Cave is located in Ramales de la Victoria (southeastern Cantabria) and had been known archaeologically since the beginning of the twentieth century, although its importance had not been determined until recently (e.g., González Morales and Straus 1997, 2000). It strategically dominates valleys that connect eastern Cantabria with Vizcaya in the Basque Country to the east and with the Castilian Meseta of Burgos to the south. The faunal remains of large mammals that are studied here derive from excavations of Holocene deposits conducted in the front (western) part of the El Mirón Cave vestibule by M. González Morales and L. G. Straus between 1996 and 2002. Specifically, they come from a culturally poor Mesolithic stratum and a series of much richer Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Bronze Age levels, mainly in the outer vestibule Cabin block excavation area but also from the western end of a 1 m wide × 14 m long trench that connects that area with the Corral block excavation area at the rear of the vestibule. (The Pleistocene faunal assemblages from both the front and rear of the vestibule will be published later.) The levels analyzed here are the following (González Morales and Straus 2000): 10.1: Mesolithic, with three uncalibrated14 C dates ranging between 9550 and 8380 BP 10: Early Neolithic, with dates of 5690 and 5570 BP 9: Neolithic, with dates of 5250 and 5280 BP 9.6, 9.7, and 9.8: Neolithic lenses, with a date of 5250 BP from 9.6 303, 303.1, 303.2, 303.3: Neolithic levels in the Mid-Vestibule Trench, equivalent to Level 10, with three coherent dates ranging between 5500 and 5790 BP 8, 8.1: Late Neolithic, with a date of 4680 BP from 8.1 5, 5.1, 6, and 7: Chalcolithic, with dates of 3740, 4120, 3820 BP from 7, 5.1, and 5 3, 4: Final Chalcolithic and early Bronze Age, with a date of 3700 BP from 3 (Level 3 also has several lenses) ChAPter siXteen macromammalian remains from the holocene levels of el mirón Cave Jesús Altuna and Koro Mariezkurrena Translated by lawrence guy straus Macromammalian Remains from the Holocene Levels | 289 | 302: Mixture of late Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Bronze Age, with a date of 4910 BP from the base of an associated pit 301: Mixed deposit containing possible Bronze Age and more recent materials The eastward continuation of the Mesolithic-age deposit (Mid-Vestibule Trench Stratum 304 and Corral Strata 101–102) is essentially devoid of identifiable macrofaunal remains. materials and methods The total macromammalian assemblage is large, with identifiable remains alone totaling 6,008 items. The remains are highly fragmented, however, thus significantlylimitingbothbiometricanalysisandspecies -level determinations of many of the bones, in particular the differentiation between Ovis aries and Capra hircus on the one hand and between Sus domesticus and Sus scrofa on the other. To illustrate all one has to do is to indicate that the total weight of identifiable remains from all these levels is no more than 30,448 grams, which works out to an average weight of 5 g per fragment. And this is true despite the fact that 1,139 of the identifiable remains pertain to a large animal, the domesticated cow. The compositional distribution of the assemblages by species and levels is displayed as absolute numbers in tables 16.1–16.3. Tables 16.4–16.6 present the percentages of remains by species and levels for the same data included in the previous tables. Tables 16.7–16.9 display the raw weights of the remains by levels, while tables 16.10–16.12 give the percentages for weights. Figures 16.1–16.6 graphically represent the same results as are given in the tables. These tables and figures clearly illustrate the following conclusions concerning the development of the roles of both domestic livestock and wild-game hunting in the subsistence of the prehistoric inhabitants of El Mirón during the early and middle Holocene. First of all and as is usual in the Vasco-Cantabrian region, Mesolithic Level 10.1 (whose assemblage of identifiable remains is very small) yielded only wild animal bones and teeth: red deer, roe deer, and boar. These three species constitute the trilogy of the most Fig. 16.1. ungulate faunal spectra (percentages) for the Mesolithic and neolithic levels in the outer vestibule (Cabin) area. “nr” = number of remains (nisP); “ongulados salvajes” = wild ungulates...

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