Iberia Before the Iberians: The Stone Age Prehistory of Cantabrian Spain.

Iberia Before the Iberians: The Stone Age Prehistory of Cantabrian Spain. In Iberia before the Iberians Lawrence Straus has written a syntheticaccount of the nature of human occupation from the last interglacial in��ter��gla��cial?adj.Occurring between glacial epochs.n.A comparatively short period of warmth during an overall period of glaciation. tothe beginnings of farming in Cantabrian Spain. It is the first synthesisof this important area since the work of Obermaier in the mid 1920s.Much has changed since then, and Straus makes use of the most recentwork.Straus' intention in writing this book is once again to putCantabrian Spain on the Palaeolithic prehistorian's map, and put anend to the domination of the record of southwest France as the typicalregion for this period by providing an area of similar complexity withwhich it can be compared. It is no surprise, therefore, that this workresembles the synthesis of the southwestern French Palaeolithic,Rockshelters of the Perigord by Laville, Rigaud & Sackett (1980).The book follows a chronological as opposed to a thematic structure Thematic structure is a term in linguistics. When people talk, there are purposes in three separable parts of utterances—Speech Act, Propositional Content and Thematic Structure. .After a brief introduction, and a chapter on the research history of thearea, a series of six chapters cover the archaeological record The archaeological record is a term used in archaeology to denote all archaeological evidence, including the physical remains of past human activities which archaeologists seek out and record in an attempt to analyze and reconstruct the past. andprovide interpretations for distinct chronologically defined periods. Ashort chapter of reflections concludes the book. The one exception tothis pattern is a single chapter devoted to Cantabrian cave art cave art:see Paleolithic art; rock carvings and paintings. , asubject often treated separately by Palaeolithic scholars. Thechronological chapters cover the last interglacial and early lastglacial (the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic), the Early UpperPalaeolithic, adaptations to the last glacial maximum The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) refers to the time of maximum extent of the ice sheets during the last glaciation (the W��rm or Wisconsin glaciation), approximately 20,000 years ago. This extreme persisted for several thousand years. (the Solutrean),the Magdalenian of the late glacial,the Pleistocene-Holocene transitionand finally the arrival of food production at the end of the stone age.Within each chapter there are thematic discussions of chronology,contemporary palaeoenvironments, lithic technology In archeology, Lithic Technology refers to a broad array of techniques and styles to produce usable tools from various types of stone. The earliest stone tools were recovered from modern Ethiopia and were dated to between two-million and three-million years old. and raw materialexploitation, subsistence and seasonality, settlement patterns andmobility strategies, artistic activity and human remains. This leads tointeresting anomalies. Solutrean points, the most obviously'artistic' example of lithic technology, are considered asfunctional tools and not artistic.Apart from the earliest and most recent, Straus has made personalcontributions to the research of all the other periods and the bookbenefits from his personal familiarity with the archaeological materialsand especially the local topographic setting in which Cantabrianhunter-gatherer life occurred. The meat of the book, therefore, is fromthe transition from the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic to the beginningsof the Holocene. The influence of the ideas of Lewis Binford Lewis Roberts Binford, Ph.D. (born 21 November 1930[1] in Norfolk, Virginia), is an American archaeologist, known as the leader of the "New Archaeology" movement of the 1950s/60s. He is University Distinguished Professor emeritus at Southern Methodist University. is great.Straus notes that there are similarities between the character of theMiddle Palaeolithic and that of the Early Upper Palaeolithic, butwonders whether Neanderthals scavenged their food as opposed to huntingit. He also sees a marked difference between the Early UpperPalaeolithic and the Later Upper Palaeolithic. This he interprets as atrend towards both greater specialization and diversification in thesubsistence economy A subsistence economy is an economy in which a group generally obtains the necessities of life, but do not attempt to accumulate wealth. In such a system, a concept of wealth does not exist, and only minimal surpluses generally are created, therefore there is a reliance on renewal and a change from a 'forager' to a'logistic-collector' settlement pattern. Whilst noting some ofthe art-historical approaches to the study of cave art (the definitionof styles, the identification of individual artists and schools ofartists), Straus argues for the utilitarian interpretation that cave artis a survival tool containing information for effective hunting indifficult circumstances. Throughout, Straus relies most heavily on theresults from faunal analyses in his interpretations of Cantabrianhunter-gatherer life, especially those of Altuna. He also continues hislong-running discussion of the problems caused by the culture-historicalapproaches relying on the analysis of lithic lith��ic?1?adj.Consisting of or relating to stone or rock.Adj. 1. lithic - of or containing lithium2. lithic - relating to or composed of stone; "lithic sandstone" type fossils. It is perhapsunfortunate, therefore, that he still uses the old culture-historicalperiod names, even though arguing that they are merely for convenienceand clear communication. The problems associated with old descriptiveculture terms will only die when new ones are used.There are aspects of the format of the book which would benefit frombeing changed in the inevitable second edition. (This is the firstarchaeological book I have come across that makes clear it is the firstedition.) At present the data is contained within tables compiled inchapter order in the appendices. Whilst the text may be less visuallyinterrupted, it is annoying always to have to refer to the back of thebook. Moreover, if the appendices are to be used as a research tool theywould be better arranged thematically with the data on radiocarbondates, faunal tables and lithic materials together rather than separate.Of the two, I would prefer the data to be integrated into the text.Straus also does not include all of the data he has publishedpreviously, some of which would benefit from being included. Forexample, the faunal data of body part lists from the ibex-hunting sitesof the Later Upper Palaeolithic provide good evidence for theirinterpretation as specialized sites, and support Straus'interpretation of the existence of a logistic-collector pattern ofsettlement at this time. Another example would be tool type lists.Although Straus provides tables of the tool group indices, actual tooltype counts would be useful as well. The book could also benefit frommore illustrations, particularly of site locations and pictures of thelocal topography. For those who are familiar with Straus' manypublished papers much of the tone and the content of this book will bealready familiar, although the present volume does contain the mostrecent results of excavations from such sites as Amalda and radiocarbondates such as those for the earliest Aurignacian levels at El Castilloand L'Abreda caves. Having all this work in one volume, even thoughabbreviated in places, will prove very useful.Although there are a number of instances where I think Straus arguesfor an overly utilitarian approach to the study of Palaeolithichunter-gatherers, he is one of few archaeologists systematicallyapplying the ideas generated by recent developments in archaeologicalthinking to the record of a specific area. Through previous papers andthis book he is significantly' improving our understanding of thiskey area, and offers what might perhaps be the mostcoherent synthesis of any region of Europe during the Palaeolithic,southwest France included.ANTHONY SINCLAIR Daiwa Anglo-Japanese FoundationReferenceLAVILLE, H., J.P. RIGAUD & J. SACKETT. 1980. Rockshelters of thePerigord. New York New York, state, United StatesNew York,Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of (NY): Academic Press.