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Excavations at Buendia Rockshelter, Spain

The aim of this research project is to evaluate the characteristics of the human settlement in the Spanish Southern Plateau during the last Ice Age. The density of Palaeolithic sites in central Iberia is significantly scarce. The climatic environment, considered as a dry and very cold episode during the last Ice Age, has been put forward to explain this apparently low occupation of the Spanish Plateau during the Upper Pleistocene.

In this context, the excavations in Buendia are contributing to the understanding of the Palaeolithic settlement of inland Spain, poorly known so far. Buendia rockshelter is located in Cuenca, and excavations were conducted between 2005 and 2010. More than 20 Upper Palaeolithic levels have been documented, all of them ascribed to the Magdalenian period, and which have provided very relevant data for the understanding of Magdalenian hunting-gathering activities in Central Iberia.

Related outputs

  • Benito-Calvo, A., de la Torre, I., (2009). Interim report on a geoarchaeological project in the karstic region of the Serranía de Cuenca (central Spain). Cave and Karst Science 36(3): 81-84
  • Torre, I. de la; López-Romero, E.; Morán, N.; Benito, A.; Martínez-Moreno, J.; Gowlett, J. & Vicent, J. M. (2007). Primeras intervenciones arqueológicas en el yacimiento paleolítico del abrigo de Buendía (Castejón, Cuenca). In Juan Manuel Millán & Concepción Rodríguez (eds.): Arqueología de Castilla la Mancha. Actas de las I Jornadas (Cuenca 13-17 de diciembre de 2005). Cuenca, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 531-546.
  • Torre, I. de la (2007): La ocupación paleolítica de la Meseta Sur. In (J. Pereira, coord.) Prehistoria y Protohistoria de la Meseta sur (Castilla-La Mancha). Ciudad Real, Ed. Almud, pp. 17-39.

Funding

  • Junta de Castilla La Mancha, Spain
  • Society of Antiquaries, London