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| 319 | T he objective of this chapter is to present the basic descriptions of man-made features encountered in the Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Bronze Age deposits in El Mirón Cave. The sources of information vary (field notes on excavation square “spit forms,” the general excavation journal, drawings, photos, special rock fill count lists for pits, and general artifact inventories coded by level, spit, square, and subsquare). Together they constitute a significant corpus of data on a relatively under-studied aspect of the archaeological record for post-Mesolithic/pre-Roman Cantabria, namely non-burial structures in residential contexts for early food-producing societies. Almost all the Holocene-age features (or structures) were found in the Cabin excavation area, and coincidentally, most of these (including almost all the largest, most spectacular pits) were uncovered in the first days of the initial (1996) campaign of test excavations, whose goal was to ascertain whether El Mirón Cave contained intact Paleolithic deposits. Thus, although excavated carefully by trowel, the (at first unexpected ) Bronze Age, Chalcolithic, and late Neolithic features were relatively quickly dug and documented. Because parts of some features were dug in one year and other parts in later campaigns (mainly in 1997 and 1998), drawings and photos were done piecemeal and sometimes at different depths, leading to discordances in the documentary record. The figures provided here are thus often composites whose different parts do not always seamlessly fit together. In 1996 only six meter-squares were dug (two of which are partial squares), a fact that caused some large pits to be only partially excavated in that year. Sometimes a feature was not initially recognized as such, if only a slight amount of it entered into a particular excavation square, so the composite drawings may have missing areas. The speed with which some of the features had to be cleared in order to attain underlying deposits sometimes precluded full documentation. Nonetheless, these structures are among the better documented ones in the current record for the pre–Iron Age ceramic periods of Cantabrian prehistory, since many of the known sites (particularly of the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age) in this region are funerary (ossuary) caves, not living sites. ChAPter seVenteen descriptions of the Post-Paleolithic Pit and hearth Features of el mirón Cave Lawrence Guy Straus and Manuel R. González Morales | 320 | Chapter Seventeen observed in situ, we can suggest whether a structure was a primary fire feature (hearth) or simply a pit that may have become backfilled with materials including ash, charcoal, and burned items presumably derived from nearby, (pene-)contemporaneous hearths. A few other phenomena classified in the field as “feature” may have been simply accumulations of stones or masses of burned sediments lying on surfaces (i.e., not dug-out structures), while a few others (mostly not in postPaleolithic deposits but rather in late Magdalenian ones in the vestibule rear, or Corral, area) turned out upon excavation most likely to be rodent burrows, not manmade pits. The post-Paleolithic features are described here in approximate stratigraphic order, from oldest to youngest (lowest to highest). As described in the chapters on taphonomy and lithic artifacts (chaps. 15 and 18, this volume), it is apparent that small quantities of Upper Paleolithic faunal remains and artifacts (including fragments of rather classic antler sagaies) were introduced into postPaleolithic deposits (especially pits), probably as a consequence of erosion from a wedge of Magdalenian- and Azilian-age materials that had originally continued far up the ramp leading east toward the inner cave and that later was moved downslope by a combination of water flow and the activity of humans and livestock in the cave during the mid-Holocene. neolithic Features Feature L This is a semicircular pit located in square I2b and much of I2d, extending very slightly into I1b at the edge of the cave wall. It measured about 90 cm long × 80 cm wide × 20 cm deep. However it may have also extended into J2a+c, although this area was not included in the drawing (figure 17.1). Feature L was dug from Stratum 9 into Stratum 10. It contained charcoal overlain by ash. There were some fire-cracked rocks. A total of 69 stones measuring >3 cm each were recovered from the pit fill in I2; 14 of these measure >10 cm; 4 are waterworn cobbles (2 of which have use wear). Only three artifacts—all debitage items—were recovered from this feature. Feature L was probably an in situ hearth...

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