Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jasrep The Upper Paleolithic sequence in el Mirón Cave (Ramales de la Victoria, Cantabria, Spain): An overview Lawrence Guy Straus a, ⁎ , Manuel R. González Morales b a Department of Anthropology MSC01 1040, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001, USA b Instituto Internacional de Investigaciones Prehistóricas, Universidad de Cantabria, 39005 Santander, Spain ARTICLE INFO Keywords: El Mirón Cave Cantabrian Spain Upper Paleolithic Last Glacial Gravettian Solutrean Magdalenian Azilian Subsistence Lithic and osseous technologies ABSTRACT El Mirón Cave, located on the northern edge of the Cantabrian Cordillera and 20 km from the present Atlantic shoref, contains a sequence of Upper Paleolithic (Gravettian, Solutrean, Magdalenian and Azilian) levels (ran- ging in radiocarbon age from 28,000–10,500 BP) atop a minor Middle Paleolithic layer (> 46,000 BP) and beneath a long, rich series of Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Bronze Age deposits (5700–3200 BP). The Upper Paleolithic levels, spanning early MIS3, LGM, Oldest Dryas, and Late Glacial environmental conditions, display alternation between short-term, ephemeral, limited-function human occupations (Gravettian, Solutrean, Upper Magdalenian and Azilian) and repeated, long-term, multi-functional ones (Initial, Lower and Middle Magdalenian). The rich ungulate faunas are co-dominated by ibex and red deer, which is logical since the cave is on a high, steep, rocky cliff-side (ibex habitat), but dominates a broad, low-lying inter-montane valley (red deer habitat). Salmon fishing was also important at times. The lithic artifact assemblages, with abundant evidence of in situ knapping, include mixes of debris and tools made on local non-flint materials and others (including abundant projectile points and backed bladelets) made on high-quality, non-local flints from coastal flysch outcrops and other exotic sources. Domestic tools (scrapers, denticulates, etc.) can be made of either type of lithic material. Osseous artifacts, especially in the early-mid Magdalenian levels, include large numbers of antler points, bone needles and awls, as well as a few distinctive works of portable art. The cave also includes rupestral art of probable Magdalenian age. The Lower Magdalenian levels are particularly rich in hearths and other human-made structures (a wall, pits, pavements) and the first human burial from this period ever to be found on the Iberian Peninsula. The individual was a healthy, robust female of 35–40 years old, buried in ritual fashion with a special ochre from an outcrop located on the modern shore and “marked” by engravings and the same ochre on a large block that had fallen from the cave ceiling soon before the grave was made in a narrow space between it and the rear vestibule wall. Numerous technical studies (e.g., paleoenvironments, DNA, stable iso- topes) are summarized in this article. 1. Introduction For nearly a century and a half, since the excavations of Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola in Altamira and other caves near Santander, the Cantabrian region of northern (Atlantic) Spain has been yielding one of the longest and richest sequences of Middle and Upper Paleolithic human occupations in Europe, rivalling that of the adjacent region of Aquitaine in SW France. A century ago, immediately before and during World War I, excavations in Asturias in the west, the Old Castile pro- vince of Santander (today's Cantabria) in the center, and the Basque Country's coastal provinces of Vizcaya and Guipúzcoa in the east by such pioneering archeologists as H. Alcalde del Rio, L. Sierra, H. Obermaier, E. Hernández Pacheco, Conde de la Vega del Sella, J. Bouyssonie, and J.M. Barandiarán uncovered abundant evidence of every major phase of the Upper Paleolithic as had been established by G. de Mortillet and revised by H. Breuil in France. Key sites for the original systematization of the Cantabrian Upper Paleolithic included El Castillo, El Valle, Altamira, Cueto de la Mina, La Riera, La Paloma, Santimamiñe, and (only 16 km inside the French Basque Country) Isturitz. The last half-century has seen an explosion of research and thus refinement and chronometric dating of Upper Paleolithic subdivisions with (re-)excavations of such sites as Altamira, El Pendo, La Riera, El Castillo, and Santimamiñe, Las Caldas, La Viña, Llonín, Tito Bustillo, La Guëlga, El Juyo, El Rascaño, Morín, La Garma, Aitzbitarte III and IV, Ekain, Erralla, Amalda, among others (see Straus, 1992, 2018). The excavation of El Mirón Cave by the authors between 1996 and 2013 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2019.101998 Received 23 March 2019; Received in revised form 17 August 2019; Accepted 19 August 2019 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: lstraus@unm.edu (L.G. Straus), moralesm@unican.es (M.R. González Morales). Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 27 (2019) 101998 2352-409X/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T