Zooarqueología y tafonomía del yacimiento de Hornos de la Peña (San Felices de Buelna, Cantabria)

Abstract

New zooarchaological and taphonomical data from the Palaeolithic site of Hornos de la Peña (Cantabria) are presented. A bone assemblage from the Institut de Paléontologie Humaine of Paris which is now kept in the National Archaeological Museum of Madrid has been analyzed. The paper discusses some of the problems of dealing with archaeological excavations from the beginning of the 20th century when, as in other early archaeological interventions, only the easily identified remains were selected. The faunal collection analysed opens new questions about the hunting behaviour from the Mousterian to the Magdalenian periods in Northern Spain, namely the different strategies used for small animals (Capra and Rupicapra) versus larger animals (Equus, Cervus and Bos-Bison) in the Middle Palaeolithic, and the high presence of horse in the Solutrean and Magdalenian levels of Hornos de la Peña that differs from the prevalence of red deer and goat in other sites from those periods.