Manuel Vaquero

MANEUL VAQUERO, IPHES, Tarragona, Spain, was awarded a grant in April 2016 to aid research on ‘Upper Paleolithic Cultural and Environmental Changes in North-eastern Iberia: Archeological Excavations at the Consagracion Rock-Shelter.’ The objective of this project was to study the cultural changes and their correlation with environmental changes during the Upper Paleolithic in the Northeast of the Iberian Peninsula. This research was based on the excavation of the Consagraci’n rock-shelter, a site that, according to previous data, had a thick sequence dated between 9 and 52 ka BP. The work carried out during this grant (from July 2016 to July 2017) consisted of removing disturbed sediments and the excavation of a pit test that allowed the entire stratigraphic sequence to be documented. In this sequence, a level with evidence of human presence (Level 4) has been found, although only one of the units differentiated in this level (sublevel 4.6) has provided a significant number of archeological remains. Subunit 4.6 has yielded rabbit and red deer bone remains, as well as a lithic industry on flint, quartz and limestone. The technical characteristics of the lithic assemblage suggest that it corresponds to the Middle Paleolithic. This attribution has been confirmed by the first 14C dating, which indicates for sublevel 4.6 a chronology between 41 and 45 ka cal BP. Therefore, the results have not confirmed the hypotheses and expectations addressed at the beginning of the project.