Subsistence Patterns of the Mesolithic Groups from Cueva del Mazo (Asturias)

The subsistence of hunter-gatherer-fisher groups during the Mesolithic in the Cantabrian coast is characterized by a wide diversity of exploited resources, including mammals (marine and terrestrial), birds, fishes, marine molluscs, crustaceans and echinoderms, but above all it is remarkable the intensification in the exploitation of some of these resources, such as the marine molluscs, in parallel to particular changes in the exploitation of terrestrial mammals, specifically ungulates. Recent excavations in the shell midden of El Mazo cave (Asturias), with a continuous stratigraphic sequence that covers most of the the regional Mesolithic (8.9 to 7.6 cal ka), have provided a significant amount of biological remains. Here, the archeozoological and taphonomic study of the macromammal remains from the stratigraphic units 100 to 107 is presented. The results show the palaeoconomic decisions adopted by those human groups, their diet and exploitation of different ecological environments, seasonality of the occupations and, also, reveal the different biostratinomic and diagenetic alterations that took part during the formation of the shell midden.Las investigaciones en El Mazo han sido financiadas con fondos procedentes de los proyectos TRACECHANGE (HAR2013-46802-P) “Identificación de eventos de cambio climático abrupto y su impacto social durante el Pleistoceno final y el Holoceno inicial (15.000-7000 cal BP)” y PALEOCHANGES (HAR2016-75605-R) “Cambio global, respuestas locales: impacto del cambio climático en las sociedades terminales de cazadores recolectores y el inicio de las economías productivas”, financiados por el Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, así como con el Fondo de Ayuda a la Investigación (PRIN) de la Universidad de Cantabria