Programmes > Par auteur > Iriarte-Avilés Eneko

Coímbre cave is located in the small valley of Besnes river, tributary of Cares river, in a medium-higher mountain are in the central-western Cantabria (Northern Iberian Península). The landscape in the surroundings of the cave, situated in an interior valley but near to the current coast in a low altitude, can be described as a mountainous environment where valleys, small hills and steep mountains with high slopes are integrated, which confer a relative variety of ecosystems to this area. Coímbre contains an important archaeological site divided in two different areas. B Area, is the farthest from the entrance, and is the place where took place the excavations carried out to date, between 2008 and 2012.

Coímbre B shows a complete and very interesting Magdalenian sequence (with Lower, Middle and Upper Magdalenian levels), and a gravettian level, that converts this cave in one of the biggest habitat areas in Western Cantabria. Its rich set of bone industries, mobiliar art and ornaments, provide key information that shows the connections between this area, and the Pyrenees and the southwestern of Aquitaine.

Moreover, Coímbre cave presents an interesting set of Magdalenian engravings, located in different places of the cavity, both in open and accessible areas, and in narrower and inaccessible places, which clearly define two different symbolic spaces

This work presents the results of the study of Magdalenian occupations in Coímbre, after the end of the excavations in B Area, and its chronostratigraphic sequence for the Cantabrian Magdalenian, which has the interest of being one of the most recently excavated and most complete sequence in terms of its variety of levels and chronology, ranging from the Archaic to the Upper Magdalenian.