Geographical conditions
When studying the history of the Iberian Peninsula, one should take into account the orographic and climatic features that influenced the historical development of the region.
The relative isolation of the peninsula from the north of Europe, caused by the natural border – the Pyrenees Mountains – contributed to the fact that the relationship between cultural phenomena on the Iberian Peninsula and in Europe was not so strong. On the other hand, due to its geographic location, the peninsula has become a link connecting Europe and northern Africa.
Also played the role of complex terrain and a very changeable climate. Rivers, more affluent than they are now, have created river terraces favorable for human habitation. In addition, it was proved that volcanic activity existed, especially in two zones: in the modern provinces of Ciudad Real and Girona.
Four glacial periods and three interglacial periods are recorded in climate history. Although glaciations differed among themselves, the overall climate of the peninsula at that time was more rainy than it is today, and reminded of the modern climate of Poland or European Russia. The climate of the coast of Cantabria was much colder and more humid, similar to the climate of the modern north of Scotland. During the interglacial periods this was the climate of the Cantabrian coast, and Andalusia was a semi-desert.
Most of the inhabitants of Iberia engaged in hunting. During the ice ages, mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses and reindeer from central and northern Europe were common on its territory. During the interglacial periods, the southern elephant, the ancient elephant, and the Merck rhinoceros lived. In addition, in different climatic periods other animals lived: bear, wolf, horse, bison, wild boar, dog, deer and goat.
Lower Paleolithic
Until recently, archaeologists dated the appearance of man in Europe about 600 – 500 thousand years ago. They believed that these were small groups of hunter-gatherers of the species Homo erectus. The remains of the period of the Lower Paleolithic on the Iberian Peninsula were very scarce and dated about 500 thousand years ago.
However, the prevailing view has completely changed the recent finds in the Sierra de Atapuerca near Burgos. The oldest authentic human remains in Europe are the first phalanx of the left hand little finger, the tooth (premolar) and jaw of the species Homo antecessor (or Homo erectus ) from the Spanish cave Sima del Elefante en Atapuerca, dating from 1.2-1.3 million years ago.
In 1994, during a survey of the cave at the top of the Gran Valley (Atapuerca Range), the most ancient hominid remains in Spain, dating back about 780 thousand years ago, were discovered.
The members of the research group in the Atapuerca Ridge, after analyzing the found remains, concluded that it was a type of hominid, other than erectus, more developed and with a capacity of the cranium about a thousand cubic centimeters. Thanks to them, a new hypothesis of human evolution was proposed. The ancient inhabitants of Atapuerca were descended from the named Homo antecessor (or predecessor) – an intermediate link between upright man and two species such as that spread throughout Asia and Europe since the Middle Pleistocene Homo neandertalensis and Homo sapiens.
In their culture, the lower Paleolithic hominids were hunters and gatherers, lived in small groups, without a permanent habitat, in temporary open-air camps, usually near rivers. Bilateral rubil of these hominids are found throughout Spain and Portugal, often together with the bones of large mammals. According to experts, the hominids either ate the corpses of large animals, or hunted them in groups, driving them into traps. Judging by some of the bone remains found in Atapuerca, these hominids could practice cannibalism.
In the Spanish cave Sima de los Huesos found the remains of a Heidelberg man of age approx. 400 thousand years, whose DNA analysis showed that he is on the Neanderthal line.
Middle Paleolithic
This period , also called in Europe Mustrier , is associated with Homo neanderthalensis or simply Neanderthals. These are hominids, whose culture, according to traditional dating, existed in the interval 100 000 – 43 000 years ago, which mostly coincided with the Wurm glaciation. Despite this, the appearance of Neanderthals is not in itself a boundary between the lower and middle Paleolithic, since Neanderthals originated in Europe as a result of autochthonous development from another species. On the territory of Spain, several places have been found with Neanderthals-specific Mousterian tools, which date back to the Ris Glaciation, that is, about 200,000 years ago.
Although until recently the Neanderthal was considered a descendant of the species Homo erectus, according to the hypothesis of anthropologists from Atapuerca, it could be a further development of the later species Homo heidelbergensis. This may indicate, in particular, the remains of 32 representatives of the last species found in the Pit of Bones in the Sierra de Atapuerca (dated about 430 thousand years ago), which already have some features characteristic of Neanderthals.
There are numerous indications of the presence of Neanderthals on the Iberian Peninsula. In particular, in the vicinity of Gibraltar ( Gorama cave, Bennet, Ibex, Vanguard, Haina, Forbes, Devil’s Tower 2 skulls were found, in the cave of El Sidron – the remains of 12 Neanderthals, and in numerous other places throughout the Iberian Peninsula, there are bone remains and several teeth. Neanderthals discovered in Safarraya (Zafarraya) did not live 31–33, but 46 thousand years ago and also practiced cannibalism. In the petrified feces of Neanderthals from the location of El Salte (Spain) in the coprolites traces of plant food were found.
Yellow and red painted sea shells with holes drilled in them, found in the cave of Cueva de los Aviones in southeastern Spain, date back to 120-115 thousand years ago.
Neanderthals were engaged in hunting and gathering. They were very strong, and in terms of brain volume they differed little from modern man. Unlike their ancestors, Neanderthals showed marked cultural diversity, which was due, in particular, to more noticeable climatic and temperature fluctuations that forced them to seek refuge in caves. Neanderthals improved some previously used hominid technologies, such as hunting large animals (horses, reindeers, bison), used their fur. The tools of the so-called Mousterry type were quite diverse and specialized. Neanderthals’ interest in bright objects and the practice of their burials in the Maureen Cave ( es: Cueva Morín ) indicate that they had primitive spiritual ideas.
On the Iberian Peninsula, Neanderthals died out no later than 43 thousand years ago. The Mousterian layers in the Pyrenean caves of L’Arbreda, Labeko Koba and La Viña, dating back to the age of 29 thousand years, according to a new methodology, were estimated at 44 thousand years.
On the Ebro River, on the border of the middle and upper Paleolithic, a situation developed called the Ebro border: the Cro-Magnon lived on the north bank of the Ebro river, and the last Neanderthals lived on the southern bank in arid conditions of the edaphic steppes.
Upper Paleolithic
This stage of the Paleolithic continued throughout most of Europe from 35,000 to 8,000 BC. e. It is connected with the fact that in Europe, Homo sapiens (Cro-Magnon) finally crowded out Neanderthals, which died out at the turn of the Middle and Upper Paleolithic (although, according to the latest data, some Neanderthal communities could persist in Spain until around 20,000 BC) . Cro-Magnon culture was more developed than Neanderthal. Cro-Magnon lived in huts in the open air or in caves (in the latter – especially in cold regions). Apparently, there were nomadic groups that alternately occupied certain areas of hunting. The large abundance of finds related to that time indicates, on the other hand, an exponential increase in population combined with a more varied and nutritious diet, including fruits, fish and other seafood.
Products of this period are stone, with a markedly improved degree of processing and variety, as well as products made of bone, horn and ivory, decorated and rather complex, for example, harpoons. Progress in cultural products (objects of art, decorations, paintings on the walls of caves, etc.) and spiritual practice (burials, funeral gifts, small sculptures, etc.) is noticeable.
Monuments of the Upper Paleolithic are concentrated in two large regions of the Iberian Peninsula. In the zone of the Spanish Levant there were settlements, the characteristics of which differed markedly from other European regions. Among the objects found there are original arrowheads with notches and a rod for insertion, as well as strange painted plates.
Artifacts of the Orinyak culture in the Bajondillo Cave (Malaga, Andalusia) indicate that a modern-type human lived in southern Spain 44 thousand years ago.
The most ancient finds of the Upper Paleolithic (about 35,000 years old) are found on the territory of Cantabria, although the most abundant of them date back to the end of the period – in particular, the rock art monuments in the region’s large caves, which existed at the same time in the extreme south of France (in connection with which the concept of the Franco-Cantabrian cultural region was introduced). Among the monuments of this period are especially interesting caves El Castillo, Altamira and Tito Bustillo. As a rule, these wall paintings were in hard-to-reach places; they depict animals in characteristic postures, and the number of species represented is quite diverse (bison, deer and horse prevail). Often images are superimposed on each other, they show signs of blows. Perhaps these traces allow us to interpret the pictures as playing a magical ritual role, when hunters hit the images of animals to ensure good luck during the hunt. Images of people are quite rare. The differences in the rock art of Levant and Franco-Cantabria are due to the climate and lifestyle in each of the two regions.