Lower Magdalenian secondary human burial in El Mir´on Cave, Cantabria, Spain
bladelets. Both the osseous and lithic artefact sets coincide with the Lower Magdalenian assemblages of the Corral and Cabin excavation areas of El Mir´on.
Dating The burial of the human remains obviously post-dated the fall of the engraved block, since Level 504 was banked up against it and the eastern face of the block was stained red like Level 504. The engraved block, resting at its eastern edge on a bedrock shelf jutting westward from the rear cave wall of the vestibule, served as a wall demarcating the western end of Level 504 and of the burial (Figure 5). The human remains are to be the subject of a programme of detailed scientific analysis (see below). Pending direct dating of one or more of the human bones, we selected a group of unidentifiable large mammal bone splinters from X7, subsquare D, Level 504, spit 7—an ashy, grey-yellowish, beige silt at the base of the level. This spit and subsquare did also yield a human fibula, vertebrae, ribs, foot and hand bones and possible pelvis fragments. The result of the AMS dating by Dr Cherkinsky is 15 740+ −40 BP or 18 940–18 770 cal BP (UG-7217). This date is in stratigraphic order with the one from overlying Level 503.1 in the same subsquare (D). It clearly falls within the range of the classic Lower Cantabrian Magdalenian, represented elsewhere in the El Mir´on vestibule by Level 17 in the front (‘Cabin’) excavation area (with five 14 C dates ranging between 15 700 and 15 370 uncal BP) and Levels 110–116 in the rear (‘Corral’) area (with eight far less coherent dates ranging between 16 460 and 14 760 uncal BP, excluding one younger date with a huge standard deviation). The engraved block itself had fallen, landing with its old, weathered cave ceiling face atop Level 110, as far as can be seen in the V–W/8 and W/8–9 stratigraphic sections along the western and northern sides of the block. Level 110 has three 14 C dates (14 760+ −70, + + 14 795+ 75 and 16 130 250 BP), Level 111 also has a pair of divergent dates (15 530 − − −230 + and 16 370+ 190) and Level 112 has a single date of 15 430 75 BP. In the cases of both − − Levels 110 and 111, however, the older dates are from a square closer to the block and might, therefore, more accurately date its fall. A plausible sequence of events could be thus: 1. Deposition of Level 111: 16 370 BP; 2. Deposition of Level 110: 16 130 BP; 3. Fall of the block and at least the start of engraving of its western face: c. 16 000–15 750 BP; 4. Deposition of human bones, painting of the block’s eastern face and Level 504 formation: 15 740 BP; 5. Formation of hearth in Level 503.1: 15 120 BP; 6. Covering of the engraved face of the block during the period between c. 14 850 and 11 950 BP. In short, it is possible that the deposition of the burial followed soon after the fall of the block. Furthermore, as noted above, it is likely that the western face of the block was engraved soon after it had fallen, since the engravings were covered relatively quickly by later Magdalenian levels. These facts all suggest that the burial was placed behind the block, 1160